Friday 29 October 2010

Destroyed Vehicle Flickering Fire Markers For Sale


Now up on ebay get them before they run out!



Wednesday 27 October 2010

Smoggycon 2010 27th November

Only a month until Smoggycon 2010 now!

There are to be lots of trade stalls, a number of demonstration and participation games, a bring & buy, competitions and tournaments and importantly a licensed bar plus hot and cold refreshments!

I asked some of the traders to send me a little blurb and I'd post a link here on The Glorious Works for them. See below:

Old Glory
"Old Glory UK has over 4500 items for wargamers on its website in scales including 10mm 15mm 28mm and 40mm and in periods from Pharoh's Egypt to modern Afghanistan and including Pulp and Horror ranges. Chariots, Elephants, Cannon, Warriors and Soldiers as well as buckets of tanks and about 50 different aircraft."

Caliver Books

Stafford Games
"Bringing the full range of Flames of War, Wings of War and Army Painter together with other wargaming goodies."

Irregular Miniatures
"We produce What i believe is the largest range of figures in the world/universe, in 9 scales (2,6,10,15,20,28,42,54,& 75mm) . Our prices are reasonable and we sell figures singly, so you can buy exactly the amount you want.
We have a fast and efficient mail order service, are very approachable and really like our customers!"

Lesley's Bits Box
"Lesley's Bits Box is an Independent Games Workshop trader carrying a range of New and Secondhand models. Our New Games Workshop products remain at 10% off RRP. To avoid disappointment email us at lesleysbitsbox@hotmail.co.uk with your pre-orders.
"

There are many more besides, for all the details please visit the Smoggycon site here.

Hope to see you there!

Monday 25 October 2010

HAMFAH Appeal Christmas 2010

Please read the small print!

In pieces. Cramped into a confined space with no air. Left in the cold, with thousands of others in the same situation. Imagine this was your life. Imagine the only thing you had to look forward to was being put on the shelf. The constant pain of rejection as people walk by and don't even spare you a glance. This is 'life' for thousands of miniatures.


Many sit on shelves in vast warehouses, the lucky ones make it to the warmth of a hobby shop and those chosen few find a home where they will be loved.


At HAMFAH we want to give these miniatures a home. To love them, to play with them and to put them back together. Now especially, in this busy build-up to Christmas when companies are packing more and more miniatures into warehouse and stockrooms we need you to Help A Miniature Find A Home.


At HAMFAH we promise that all money raised will be spent buying the freedom of miniatures from the boxes they find themselves enclosed in. We will rebuild their 'lives.' We will make them feel wanted and give them a purpose. Please give generously...






HAMFA is not a real charity. This is not a real charity appeal. You shouldn't really have had to read this small print to work that bit out... All money donated will be spent on miniatures as promised and is non-refundable!

Sunday 24 October 2010

The Glorious Consumer - "Das Book" Review

Das Book is a compilation of special rules, missions & gaming ideas as well as a one-stop reference during play for Flames of War. This 128 page, full-colour book is set for release 30th October 2010.


Image Property of Battlefront Miniatures

It is the perfect expansion upon the "Open Fire!" box set reviewed yesterday as it contains the rules for Street Fighting, Fortifications etc. from the hardback rulebook but on top of that it also includes rules and missions taken from a selection of the Intelligence Briefings, Battle Books and Campaign Books; such as Amphibious Assaults and Airborne Assaults. These rules allow you to play your battles in very different ways and recreate the D-Day landings and the airborne assaults of Operation Market Garden for example. Alongside these rules are missions to use them in. There are also a couple of missions in the book that use the more standard Flames of War rules. Das Book also includes the rules for Total war, so that you can play larger games with multiple players.


Image Property of Battlefront Miniatures


Image Property of Battlefront Miniatures

One of the biggest strengths of Das Book is the reference section at the rear containing complete arsenals for German, British, US, Soviet, Finnish, Hungarian and Romanian forces and also the Special Rules for these forces. This makes Das Book a great utility allowing you to get a broad feel for your opponents force as well as having a single reference point to refer to when checking the rules for your own army and equipment.


Image Property of Battlefront Miniatures

All in all this is a brilliant supporting book for Flames of War players. I'd say its a must for tournament players and casual players alike. At £6 it's also incredibly good value. In my opinion the reference section alone would be worth that to most players. Throw in the varied missions and rules for playing totally different games of Flames of War and it'll easily be the most productive use of £6 to expand the hobby for yourself! I think there is only one score I can give this...

Score: 10/10

_____________________________________________

As I mentioned yesterday, Flames of War will be getting a lot of attention on The Glorious Works and I have an in depth review of the rules themselves and the answers to the question "Why Should I Play Flames of War?" coming up soon!

Saturday 23 October 2010

The Glorious Consumer - "Open Fire!" Review

Open Fire! is the introduction or starter set for new players to Flames of War - The World War II Miniatures Game. The set contains a rulebook, introduction booklet, 5 tank miniatures and 5 dice.


Image Property of Battlefront Miniatures

Rulebook - The mini-rulebook is 164 pages long, all of which have full colour layouts and numerous diagrams and pictures. The rules inside the book are all of the rules you need to play the game. It is essentially a more convenient version of the main hardback rulebook with some bits stripped out for ease of picking up the game and for the sake of size and layout. For example rules for Fortifications and City Fighting aren't present in this rulebook but they're more specialised rules not used in any of the 7 standard missions. They are however available in the forthcoming release "Das Book" (a review of which will be up on The Glorious Works tomorrow!)
The book contains all of the rules for each phase of the game as well as some of the more unique aspects of battles such as Artillery Bombardments, Aircraft and Reconnaissance. It also contains the Special Rules for the US, German, Soviet & British forces such as the key doctrines that make them very different forces to play with such as Komissars, Storm Trooper moves and the British Bulldog rules amongst others.
The rulebook contains 7 missions to play, each presenting a slightly different challenge to the players and includes the rules relating to the differing missions such as Reserves, Ambuscades and Strategic Withdrawals. It certainly has everything yo need to get started playing Flames of War!


Image Property of Battlefront Miniatures

Open Fire Introduction Booklet - This is a 16 page full colour booklet that breaks the Flames of War rules down into smaller chunks and allows you to pick them up whilst playing some compact learning games with the minis included in the set. There are also details on how to go about expanding your force and some introductory hobby guidelines on how to paint the minis included.


Image Property of Battlefront Miniatures

Minis - The minis that come in the set are great. You get 3 American Sherman tanks and 2 German Stug G assault guns. That's a combined total of £37.50 worth of miniatures if you were to buy them separately. If you and a mate are both getting into the hobby its certainly worth you each getting a set and swapping the tanks around as you'll both have a really good start towards your army. With a Sherman Platoon for one player and a Stug G platoon for the other.

Overall its hard to find a fault with this starter set. £37.50 worth of minis, a rulebook and some dice for the small cost of £23 is an absolutely amazing deal. It's a brilliant introduction to the game and the hobby and gives you a head start when building a German & American (or British) army. This quite easily earns itself 10/10!

Score: 10/10

_____________________________________________

I've purposely steered clear of reviewing the rules and the game itself in this post. I have a lot more Flames of War related posts to come. Next up is a review of "Das Book" and after that an article called "Why Should I Play Flames of War?" in which I'll go into a lot more detail about the brilliance of the rules and the hobby as a whole. So stay tuned!

Sunday 17 October 2010

A List To Collect To - FoW SS Totenkopf

I often like to collect an army to an army list. It gives me a clear goal and keeps my purchases vaguely productive otherwise I'd just go into an endless spiral of buying characters or units I can't actually get into an army. Whilst those things are great they aren't helpful when it comes to time to play a game. The great thing about collecting to a list is there's usually so much time between getting each entry on the list bought, built and painted that I can change the list plenty and there's never the feeling of being trapped. So I've written a 2500pt list for my new Flames of War army: 3. 'Totenkopf' SS-Panzerdivision. It'll probably take me a while to collect up the minis for this and even longer to paint them I'm sure but I'm going to Smoggycon 2010 next month (there'll be more on this in another post in the not too distant future) and I'm sure to part with some money there so having this army list might make at least half of my purchases useful to me! Here it is for those that have an interest in such things!

Panzergrenadier HQ
2 Command Panzerfaust SMG Teams
2 Panzerschreck Teams
2 Snipers



SS Panzer Platoon
Biermeyer's Panzer IV Platoon
5 Panzers

SS Panzergrenadier Platoon
2 Panzergrenadier Squads
Command Panzerfaust SMG Team
Panzerfaust SMG Team

SS Panzergrenadier Platoon
2 Panzergrenadier Squads
Command Panzerfaust SMG Team
Panzerfaust SMG Team

SS Heavy Platoon
1 Machine Gun Section

SS Scout Platoon
3 Squads
Schwimmwagens



SS Armoured Anti-Aircraft Gun Platoon
3 Sd Kfz 7/1 (Quad 2cm)

SS Tank Hunter Platoon
3 Marder III M



SS Aufklärungs Platoon
3 Aufklärungs Squads
Command Panzerfaust SMG Team
3 Additional Sd Kfz 250

Heavy Assault Howitzer Platoon
2 Sturmtiger



SS Armoured Car Patrol
Sd Kfz 223 (radio)
2 Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad)

Sporadic Air Support
Hs 129B




I quite like the idea of the list (although in practice only time will tell!) it's an Infantry Company so will quite often be on the defensive but with the Aufklärungs and Biermeyer's Panzers I've got a strong counter-attacking element to strike at the enemy whilst the two squads of Panzergrenadiers bunker down on home objectives and protect my Sturmtigers and Anti-aircraft guns from enemy infantry. The Sturmtigers will provide a suitable distraction and whilst they're far from reliable with their shooting they'll force my opponent to make tactical decisions with them in mind and when they do hit they can cause a lot of damage. The air support is much the same, when it works it'll go after enemy artillery and anti-tank guns etc. The Marders will support the counter-attack by helping to neutralise any armoured threat. The scout platoon will pretty much always be used as Tank Hunters, they'll bunker down somewhere in the way of an armoured advance ready to set to work with their Panzerfaust tin openers! The Machine Gun teams will make Combat Attachments to the two Panzergrenadier Platoons and the armoured cars will help keep enemy teams from going to ground to give my Sturmtigers a chance to hit something and harrass as neccessary. The Anti-aircraft guns will do exactly what it says on the tin and will most likely be deployed near the Sturmtigers as that's where I'd personally send any of my attack aircraft as their top armour is their only real weakness!
Sounds easy in theory! Can't wait to get to work painting these! I already have the Panzergrenadier platoons and their quite high on my to-do list once The Gorewing are all done and dusted (hope to finish them in the next couple of days!)


All Images Property of Battlefront Miniatures

Tuesday 12 October 2010

More WIP Gorewing Pictures

Not gotten much further on than last time but I wanted to post some more pictures just so it looks like there is some progress on here at the minute! So, some WIP pictures of some of the members of Murder-Squad Nuthor.



Brother-Slaughterers Markard, Randar and Dakburn


Brother-Slaughterer Markard


Brother-Slaughterer Dakburn


Brother-Slaughterer Randar

Hoping to get a lot more done on these later today and this evening so the next pictures will be a lot further on in the process.... hopefully!

Thursday 7 October 2010

Brother-Slaughterer Vilan Progress


A quick WIP picture update to try and keep myself motivated. Got the weapons, flexi-armour, skulls and chains etc to paint on these guys and they'll be done. Brother-Slaughterer Vilan is an example of where they all are...



Monday 4 October 2010

NAG September Conversion/Painting Competition

Last weekend I was lucky enough to get to help out judging a Conversion/Painting competition at my gaming club. I've got a few pictures (taken by Chris Snowdon). There were three categories: Under 18s, Over 18s & Pros. Entries were judged on the conversion work that had gone into them in terms of effectiveness, creativity and them and then also on painting. Click the pictures for a larger view.

Pro Category Winner - Steve - Justaerin Terminators




Under 18 Category Winner - Paul - Adolescent Mawloc




Over 18s Category Winner - Darren - Grey Seer




Over 18 Category - Chris - Eldar Farseer




You can see more of Steve's Lunar Wolves here on Warseer