Battle systems terrain…………….

Last year I back the Battle Systems sci-fi terrain kick starter which turned up back in August. Now due to the fact that I was in hospital for most of July and most of August, it was put to one side (and forgotten) until last night.

I was thinking about terrain for After Life kick starter, and remembered the Battle Systems terrain. Thinking that it would be useful I found the boxes this morning,and began removing the card components from a few of the sheets.

Now first off the print quality is great and 99% of the graphics line up. The card feels nice and solid, But and their is always a but.

Some of the slots in the “ramps” need to be made bigger by a few millimetres.

Also the floor tiles have a 1mm gap when you join 2 together.

And trying to get the Door surround to fit properly is a little bit of a nightmare.

Now I have only attacked 4 sheets (2 floor and 2 wall) but I have to say, I am not looking forward to the other 40 odd sheets. If I need to trim each bit only once that’s a lot of cutting to do. Don’t get me wrong its a good set and will look good on the table top, but if I had know the amount of work needed I would have,

(A) Given it a miss.

Or

(B) Just have gone for the one Stronghold set  (rather than 2 strongholds).

I know that all wargames terrain, that comes in kit form needs some form of work. After all I have put together most of GW’s plastic terrain kits and the Dead Zone terrain. But when it comes down to shaving a mold line from a model or cutting 1mm slivers from card, I will take the mold line any day.

Oh well looks like I will be trimming these up a few at a time!

The Little Guys………………..

No I am not talking about tiny 6mm (or 15mm) infantry figures, I am on about the smaller miniature company’s out their. The ones with only a few people working for them, the likes of Anvil Industry’s, Grind House Games, etc.

Over the years their have been many small games company’s that have fallen through the cracks and disappeared (Target Games and The Figure Trader).

Some have survived and have gotten a bad reputation (Mongoose and Mantic I am looking at you! both started out as small time operations).

Even though the “little guys” have no chances of denting the the bigger company’s profits (GW, Privateer Press), they still have an impact on the market. In fact now I prefer to buy my models from the “little Guys” that’s why I backed the Anvils: Afterlife and Some of the other KS that I have Backed, Grind  House Games: Incursion, Comfy Chair Games: SpineSpur.

Now Kickstarters are great for the “little guys” they can help fund the development process of the game and production costs of getting the models made.

But unfortunately some of the “big guys” liked to use the Kickstarter Platform as a “pre order” system (Mantic and CMON). Mantic being the prime case with finishing the Deadzone KS, then moving on to Mars Attack, then Dreadball Extreme, and finally Dungeon Saga, all within the space of 12 months. As I have said in previous posts the chances of me backing another KS buy Mantic are slim (an expansion to DZ may tempt me but that’s about it).

But getting back to the “little guys”, Jim Bailey at Grind House Games has had a rough time with Incursion 2nd editon. The project was meant to ship back in March 2014 but a number of problems hit Jim and forced him to find another supplier. Unfortunately this company (Panda Games Manufacturing) seems to have been giving poor Jim the run around, and he has only just got the pre-production proofs of the card board counters and boards and the plastic miniatures (which look great). Jim has put allot on the line for Incursion, to get the 1st edition published Jim sold his comic collection (a lot of which were “golden age” comics) to fund the boxed game and the metal models of the APE`s and zombies.

With the funds for the Kick starter,

The base game has been updated with plastic models.

The SNAFU supplement has been turned into a boxed set complete with plastic models.

And the German Drop Troopers have been made in both plastic and metal.

I have to say that I am glad I backed Incursion and have no regrets, I have had great fun playing the game over the years and am looking forward to a new edition!

Afterlife………….

Its been a funny old week, and I have not really spent much time on my hobby. Mainly due to the fact my replacement light has not arrived yet (and I have not been feeling well).

I did however back Anvil Industries, Afterlife: The shards of Liberty kickstarter

Which finished last night raising £41.901 with 393 backers. Now I had to miss out on Anvils first KS project due to work issues, and have been gutted to see some of the models that were produced. This time I decided to go all out and went for “THE CATACLYSM” pledge which nets me nearly all of the the stuff from this KS plus all the current models that are available 100+ models and 1 APC.

Now I am not sure why I am drawn to the Afterlife range, but I am. It may well go back to a war-game that I got nearly 10 years ago called Sabotage: in to the dark, which I managed to get my (then) gaming group to play. The game it self was a mix of an RPG and a Wargame and revolved around a small group of infiltrators sneaking around a enemy base trying to locate or destroy certain objectives. We had great fun playing the game but alas it was short lived. The company that made the game disappeared  and as far as I know their were only ever 50 copies of the rules published (it has limited 50 on the cover). Their is however another game that bears the background of Sabotage: in to the dark, it is called Overkill (and its 2 supplements) by AB One Games and are available on Wargames Vault. Unfortunately their is very little about AB One Games on the internet.

How ever Afterlife seems to be along the same lines, and from what I have read of the play-test rules looks good. I think the reason that I am draw to the Afterlife and to a certain extent Overkill (Sabotage) is the fact that the setting is different, the only enemy of mankind is itself. Their are no alien races (yet) and super humans clad in powered armour are not the norm. I can see me using the terrain from Deadzone as well as the Battle systems strongholds in my games and maybe adding in some of the stuff from Mars Attacks (if it turns up!)

Speaking of Mars Attacks, Mantic sent out an update yesterday telling everyone that shipping would begin today as the stompy robot issue has been resolved. But it also turns out that Mantic did not let on until mid last week, that their had been problems with the Hardback book which may or may not turn up until the end of November.

Unfortunately this is just another nail in the coffin lid for me with Mantic, After the cock up that was DZ wave 1, the delays in getting Wave 2, the delays with Mars Attacks, add to that being able to buy stuff at retail before my stuff has even shipped (for both DZ and MA). Makes the chances of me buying any Mantic stuff very slim, if this is how I am treated as a backer what would it be like if I was a normal customer?

Don’t get me wrong I like both DZ and MA but will find it hard to justify pumping any more money into either of them. Manly because I got all the stuff from the KS, and by the way I as a Backer has been treated!

Kickstarters………………….

Its been nearly two weeks since my last post, and due to me going back into hospital for a few days last week not much has happened.

Kickstarter wise things seem to be going very slowly.

All quite On The Martian Front, has been very quite with shipping beginning last Friday the 17th of October, with international shipments going out first this time, not going to hold my breath with get this before mid to late November.

TableScapes, Updates have been coming pretty fast over the past few weeks , with the Uk shipment being handled (the container arrived at mantic on the 16th of october). We will have to see how this pans out as Mantic have 2 Ks projects shipping now (more of that later).

Incursion, updates have been few and far between with the guys not having much to share apart from the problems they are having with panda games manufacturing I am still looking forward to this but don`t expect it before April next year (my guess ).

Deadzone, having received my missing items from wave 2 last week, it now falls for the 3rd and final wave containing the plastic enforcers and forge guard. due end of October, likely mid November.

Mars Attacks!, once again Mantic have failed. The main boxed set has been on sale now for 4 to 6 weeks, do I have any thing from my pledge, No. Why not? well for some strange reason no one at mantic noticed that the Martian big stompy robot, had 2 of the same leg. So Mantic decided to hold all the orders that had the BSR in it until replacements turned up. Shipping was meant to be done by the 31st of October, but is now stated as early to mid November. I am going for late November to mid December after the fiasco that was Deadzone wave 1. Its also worth noting that I went through the email that I received from Mantic telling me what I had pledged for, and to my surprise their were a few items missing from it that I knew I had ordered. I contacted Sarah at Mantic and she emailed me my order details (and a handy pledge graphic) the details she had and I had both had items missing. But i will have to wait and see if this has been rectified when it arrives!

Shadows of Brimstone, so after waiting nearly a year for the pledge manger (yes a year) the 1st wave has started to arrive to backers well some in the states and a to the lucky people who have picked up their copies at conventions. A few have even started showing up on eBay (no surprises their) their is how ever no news of what is going on with EU shipments, who is shipping them, when are they going to start shipping. Overall very disappointed with FFP over this, and at this rate wave 1 will turn up early next year.

Alien vs Predator, the guys at Prodos have been doing their best to keep backers up to date with news (they have been quite the past few weeks) shipping is stated for December, but I can see it dragging on until early next year, which is a shame as many people are getting itchy feet now!

Zombicide  S3, no real news on this nothing is due until February 2015.

My order from Prodos turned up last week, taking nearly 20 days from ordering to arriving. Unfortunately my painting light has died in spectacular fashion, with part of the plastic casing falling off exposing the wires inside right below the switch. It has served me well for nearly 3 years looks like its time to get a new one!

A my wife’s cousin has asked me to paint some lego figures in to various batman villains namely killer Croc, Clayface, Solomon Grundy, and Bane, I have picked up some figures from eBay and will have to see how this turns out.

The Dark Legion Arrives…………………………..

Using some funds from the sale of some more models on eBay, I decided to add some reinforcements to my Dark Legion starter set that I purchased a few weeks ago. I was going to pick up either the Imperial or Bauhaus starter sets but changed my mind at the last moment and went for the  Dark Legion.

In the end I went for,

Valpurgius,

Golgotha,

Alakhai The Cunning, No picture as I forgot to take any pictures!

Necromutants x 2, 

Praetorian Stalkers (ranged),

Praetorian Behemoth, 

I also picked up, Praetorian Stalkers (close combat), Necrobeast Riders x 2, and a Razide.

As you can see they are quite a mixed bunch some have next to no “flash” while others have quite a bit. Their are also very few “mold” lines, in fact the worst was on the Praetorian Behemoth left foot (a quick file and it had gone). Overall again top quality from Prodos, my only complaint would be with the cards that are used with the game. They are Place in the Plastic “clam” shell packaging with the model, which leads to the the cards getting scuffed. A very minor thing but worth bearing in mind.

I also picked up the main Rule book (which I am reading my way through now). On the same day that I ordered the Dark Legion stuff I also place an order direct with Prodos for the Nephrite Of Algeroth model, and the templates and counters for the game. All the Dark Legion stuff turned up 2 days later, the stuff from Prodos has only just gone to the “preparation” stage of picking and packing.