Warmaster Fantasy Battle

For the last year or so Lewis has been tirelessley running an online Mighty Empires campaign. Mighty Empires was a great board game that Games Workshop released about 15 years ago. It could be played as a stand alone game or it could be used to generate table top battles to be played out using Warhammer or Warmaster Fantasy Battle rules.

The first campaign year saw rising nations enjoying an uneasy peace as they seized unpopulated lands to form there lands. As most of the unpopulated lands had been claimed the second year opened with a Tomb King invasion into the Dwarven Republic.

On Monday Josh and Lewis came over to transfer this action on to the table top. My Dwarven banner in the campaign was worth 1100 points and Josh's invading Undead ammased 1500 points worth of troops. We selected troops, determined that the game would last for 8 turns and deployed on to the table.

As my thin line of Dwarves were defending they positioned themselves in a line across a significant hill side. The centre was strengthened by a couple of cannons and a flame cannon while a unit of troll slayers was positioned on each flank behind the main line to reinforce where needed.

The Tomb Kings army must have outnumbered the Dwarves four to one, including a huge block of chariots, bone giants and the mighty Spinx.

The Tomb King archers cross the river as the skull chuckers are set up on top of the cliff.

A pesky unit of Carrion attack the flank of the flame cannon, luckily it manages to hold off the birds for the first turn. It then turns to face and incinerates most of the birds.

During the first couple of turns the Tomb King is very unlucky with command rolls so the army does not make the progress needed to sweep the Dwarves off the hill.

In places the Dwarves make localised counter attacks. Here a unit of Dwarf Warriors seizes the opportunity to charge into the flank of a unit of Tomb King chariots.

The Bone Giant models were actually representing Sphinx. These huge monsters charged the centre of the Dwarf lines and created a huge dent, but not huge enough to sweep the dwarves off the hill. At the end of turn eight we counted up our losses. The Dwarves lost 80 points of troops, the Tomb Kings 120points. The difference was so small that it was judged to be a draw so in campaign terms both armies had to withdraw from the campaign hex.

On Tuesday Lewis tried his High Elf army out against Josh's Tomb Kings.

After the previous inability to activate a lot of the army in early turns, Josh took far more Liche Priests as leaders and consequently got to activate far more of the army each turn.

A mighty river divided the battlefield, crossable by a ruined bridge in the centre of the table. Armies were deployed on both sides of the river.

After some initial localised successes by the High Elves the Tomb Kings rallied and scored a significant victory. Although the elves caused a lot of casualties, the tomb kings units were very cheap compared to the high elves troops so when the losses were totalled up Josh had scored a significant victory.

The game was fought over terrain tiles built using Sally 4th Terra-Former kits. If you've not seen them before, you can check them out @ Terra-Former Tiles.

Saturday 4th August 2018 - Claymore Wargames Show Edinburgh

Lucid Eye - Red Book of the Elf King Participation Game

Last weekend we were at Claymore Wargames Show in Edinburgh putting on a participation game for Lucid Eye's Red Book of the Elf Ling miniatures game.

Red Book of the Elf King is a fantasy skirmish set of rules, written by prolific rules writer Rick Priestly (Warthammer / Warhammer 40K / Warmaster / Bolt Action / Hail Caesar / Beyond the Gates of Antares etc).

Red book of the Elf King is set during an Elven Civil War, brought about by the dissapearance of the Elf King (presumably together with his red book?). Factions are Led by Thanes. The rest of the faction are aleed Companions. Companions are organised into units of 3 miniatures.

A faction normally consists of a Thane plus six groups of four companions (19 miniatures). To keep our participation gmae moving along quickly we played with four factions, each containing a thane and three groups of three companions (10 miniatures per side).

Each faction started in the center of one of the sides. Victory would go to the last Thane standing. In the case of more than one Thane standing at the end of turn four, the amount of companions remaining would be used to decide a tie-breaker.

The activation system in Red Book of the Elf King really suits multi-player participation games. Each player rolls a D6, an additional 'Common Die' is rolled and the common and player rolls ara added together. This determines how many activations each player has available. This varies between 2-12. For each activation a token is placed in the bag and drawn at random.

The token is allocated to a unit which can then either move, charge, fire or move and fire or cast a glamour (spell).

This mechanism ensures that all the players are continually involved in the game.

On top of the rocky bluff, Salian Trollblood surveys the carnage below. A wise player has to balance when and where to risk there thane in hand to hand combat. Although they are the most powerful units in the game, if you lose them you lose the game.

Salian wisely lets his companions weaken his enemies, while he contributes long ranged magic attacks until the time is right to get stuck in and make a difference.

Early on in the game, Vashel and Alloysian get involved in the melee and both end up dead.

Meksant is the most powerful magick user in the game, he is kept out of the battle for as long as possible, contributing powerful glamour attacks to his force.

... but eventually the activations go against him and Salian Trollblood manages to manouver his forces to force a combat with him. Once wounded Salian moves in to finish him off.

This was a really exciting game. The four gamers who took part had noy played previously, but very quickly picked up the way that the rule mechanisms worked.

The next time that we are running a participation game is 'The Other Partizan' at Newark Showgrond on Sunday 19th August, where we will be joined on the day by the Author, Rick Priestly.

We are Lucid Eye show stockists so will have the complete range of Red Book of the Elf King, Savage Core, Age of Ice, Plot Device etc with us. We are taking pre-orders now through our web site (just check out as normal and select 'collect at partizan' as the delivery option). If you can not get to the show, we also supply any where in the worl via the website.

Click here to take a look at the complete lucid eye range.

Click here to take a look at Red Book of the Elf King.

All of the terrain is constructed using Sally 4th Terra-Former kits. Click here for details.

We also provide a custom terrain making service, so if you would like a battle board like the one shown, click here for details.

Sloppy Jalopy 28mm scale Interwar / VBCW Miners

This week I have been painting this lovely pack of Very British Civil War Miners from Sloppy Jalopy. I don't know why it has taken me so long to get around to painting them, as they are a lovely set of miniatures. Richard gave me a set to paint up to go in our display cabinet a couple of years ago when we became Sloppy Jalopys show stockists. I'd painted the cricket team and the canal folk, so I was determined to get them painted before I saw Richard and Laurence in a couple of weeks at 'The Other Partizan'.

The miners have been base coated in a variety of greys and browns and then dipped in Army Painter Quick Tone which has brought the detail out nicely.

The figures came on the usual plinths, which I snipped off with side-cutters and remounted onSally 4th clear perspex bases so that when I use them in a game they will match the terrain they are standing on.

I decide that my miners would be from a Durham colliery as Ann's Grandad worked in a colliery in County Durham.

Feel free to download this banner image to use on your miniatures! (Right click on image - Save as)

The miners have now joined the canal folk and cricket team in our display cabinet. We are just packing up to head to Claymore in Edinburgh on Saturday and on 19th August we will be at The Other Partizan at Newark showgrond, so you can see them there, or click here to take a look at the Sloppy Jalopy range in our webstore!

Sally 4th are the show stockists for Lucid Eye, so when we heard about there collaboration with rules writting legend Rick Priestley to publish 'The Red Book of the Elf King', we were keen to get a demo table together. The 'Red Book of the Elf King' (RBEK) is a set of skirmish rules set in an Elven civil war. Each side has a leader and between 9 and 18 followers

The landscape that I had imagined for RBEK is mystical / fairie in nature with a waterfall cascading over a high cliff face into a pool that feeds into a mountain stream that winds it's way across the valley floor, with plenty of rocky outcrops, caves and forest.

We built the terrain using Sally 4th Terra-Former tiles. We will not go into the detail of the build here as we have promised Wargames Illustrated an article on our techniques. However, we can say that as well as Terraformers we used the excellent range of landscaping products designed by Lukes Apps. These are foam based rather than static grass or the traditional sawdust meaning that the glue is absorbed into the product, sets solid and does not shake off all over your car or house. Click here for full details of Terraformers or here to find out about Lukes Apps landscaping products.

If you would like a gaming table of this standard, give us a shout. We offer a full custom terrain making service at great rates. Click here for details

Alloysian of The Marshes is one of the warband leaders. I decided to mount all of my miniatures on Sally 4th 30mm round clear perspex bases because I like the way the miniature blends in with the terrain it is standing on. The RBEK miniatures are supplied with 30mm diameter black plastic bases.

Here we see the Thane Meksant Farseer and some of the elven companions. All of the Elven companions are armed with long spears. They may also make ranged attacks, but they favour magic rather than anything as mundane as an Elvish longbow,

I have my first game scheduled for this Thursday evening, so will add a full games report at the end of the week.

You can check out the full range of RBEK miniatures, rules and accesories by clicking here.

Thursday 19th July - First game of Red Book of the Elf King

Last night, Doug and I got together to have a first play through of Red Book of the Elf King (RBEK). We have played many fantasy skirmish games between us including Lord of the Rings, Frostgrave, Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish so was very interested to see how RBEK compared. Games are played with a Thane (Leader) and 18 Companions, which is quiet a mangable number to paint, even if you have to paint both sides. The introductory scenario is even easier to get on the gaming table with a Thane and three groups of three companions per side.

I have painted four Thanes up so far, so we decided sides by drawing a Thane stat card at random. Doug drew Alloysian, Lord of the Marshes meaning that his companions were particularly skilled at ranged combat, getting to roll one extra dice per unit firing. I drew Saylian Trollblood, meaning that my companions were adept at moving and shooting, so they did not take the normal down one modifier for moving and shooting. The fact that the companions skills are associated with the Thane that leads there warband is a great feature. I was a little concerned that armies would be to similar, as they are mainly elves and all the elven miniatures are armed with shield and spear. As well as different special abilities each Thanes companions stats are slightly different, for example Saylians troops are more accurate at shooting while Alloysians companions are better armoured.

We both thought that the activation system was particularly good. In a similar way to Bolt Action, tokens are placed in a bag and drawn to determine activation sequence, however here the similarity ended. Rather than having one token per unit, both sides roll a D6 and someone rolls a common D6. Your roll plus the common roll determines how many activations you get. The minimum you can get is two, the maximum is 12. Activation chits, once drawn are allocated to a unit. Each unit must have one token before a unit can be given a second token. The clever bit is how this interacts with the morale system. If a unit takes casulaties it needs to take a courage test. If it fails, it picks up a penalty token meaning that it can not activate until all the other units on your side have been activated once. At the end of the turn, units with penalties take a courage test. If they pass the tokens come off, if they fail they are exhausted and one token is left on, meaning in the next turn they also can not activate until all units on there side have been activated once.

We deployed our 'armies', on opposite sides of the stream and advanced to contact. The engagement started with some ranged combat. In RBEK elves spurn the traditional elven longbow in favour of an 8" range magic missile, called 'Rud Magic'.

Ranged Combat and missile combat is carried out using D10's. If your attack value is 5 for example you need to roll 5 or under to hit and if you charge your stat get a +2, so you would hit on a 7+. When we discovered this, melees broke out across the table as we were both keen to charge, rather than being charged.

The first scenario lasted for four turns, Saylians troops had destroyed a unit of Companions and his troops had taken casualties also. Doug concentrated on keeping a unit of companions in front of his Thane to protect him, as losing him lost you the game. In the final turn I managed to concentrate the attacks of my companions of Alloysians body guard and eventually pushed them back away from there leader. At that point (the last activation of the last turn), Saylian charged Alloysian hoping to deliver a killer blow. He did, but unluckily for him Alloysian managed to mortally wound him as well. We both lost our Thanes, so I took a minor victory as I had eliminated more companions.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening. We have already arranged for a second game using the complete 19 figure armies on Monday evening, so I will update my blog next week with details of how that game went.

If you have not seen the game or miniatures yet, click here to take a look!

Wednesday 25th July - Second Red Book of the Elf King Game

Following on from last weeks game, Doug and I decided to play a scenario using the full warband of 19 models, a Thane or Leader and six groups of three companions.

As both sides are Elves and are made up from the same 6 packs of Elven Companions armed with Long Spears I had taken the practical step of painting 18 companions with blue shields and the other 18 with red shields. These would then serve which ever thane we decided to play with on the day. We decides for the sake of fairness and variety to select Thanes as random from the ones that we had not played with before.

Doug drew Meksant Farseer. He is the most powerful magic user in the game. Magic or 'Glamours' as it is called in the game world are a key feature of the game. Thanes have access to a wide variety of Glamours that they can cast as an action. Each Glamour has a casting number which the Thane has to roll equal to or under on a D10, so Glamours with higher numbers are easier to cast. Numbers range from 1-9, so a 10 is always a failure. The Thane gets to add there Glamour rating and Merksant's is 4 so he is pretty much assured to be able to cast most Glamours.

I drew Vachel Goldenhand. He is the worst magic user in the game with a Glamour rating of 0. However he is pretty good at hand to hand combat . Surprisingly although Vachel is depicted as being heavily armoured and Meksant not wearing any armour, they both have a good defence rating of 8. Meaning that on 1-8 on a D10 they save hits. I guess Meksant must have some sort of bubble of magical protection!

We played scenario 2, The Red March. This is a very basic scenario, both sides deploy on to the table. Killing the opposing Thane is the primary objective, if this is not achieved the winner is the side who has killed the most companions.

Both sides advanced to contact. Meksants Companions favoured a single line across the width of the table, with Meksant lurking at the rear. Goldenhand deployed on a lesser frontage hoping to be able to get into melee quickly and with some local advantage of numbers.

As Goldenhands companions are very poor at ranged combat (needing 1 or 2 to score a hit compared to Meksants companions who hit on 1-7), it was important to close quickly and get into hand to hand combat. One of the unique features of the game is that these are the only elves that I have ever come across that do not own a longbow! Instead of firing arrows they fire short range 'magic missiles'. This is called Rud magic. I think the reason for this is that Rick did not want it to be a game of long range sniping, which an elf on elf game could easily be, so invented this background and set the range of missile fire as 8".

The 8" missile range is less than the 10" charge range which creates an interesting game dynamic. If you use 'Rud Magic' you do not risk yourself in a melee, but if you are charged your opponent gets a hefty +2 charge bonus, so it is better to be the one initiating a melee.

The first five turns saw both sides advancing, manouvering for position and charging where it seemed there was an advantage. Goldenhand was keen to get stuck into the up close and personal action, right up to the point that he suffered his third wound (out of four), at which point his companions closed ranks around him as protection.

Meksant on the other hand spent most of the game at the rear using long range magic attacks. In the closing turns I managed to get a couple of groups of valiant companions in range to charge him. Which they did and even managed to score a couple of wounds. Charging a Thane with companions is always a dangerous option as they are all armed with mighty magic weapons. Companions have a defence value of 5 or 6 meaning that if they are hit they have to roll under that number to 'save' however the strength of the opponents weapon is subtracted from there defence, so my Defence 6 became Defence 3.

At the end of the game, neither of us had managed to kill the opposing Thane, although they were both seriously wounded but my side had caused one more casualty (on the last melee of the last turn!), which gave us the narrowest of marginal victories!

This was a fantastic game, exciting down to the last die roll. The mechanisms arer as well!) very straight forward, sensible and easy to remember.

We will have a demo game with us at Claymore next weekend, so if you are around do come and have a look!

For further information, click links below.

Red Book of the Elf King Miniatures & Rules

Terra-Block Terrain Making Kits (All of the terrain shown is built using them)

Custom Terrain Making Service (We build boards like this to order as well)

A year and a half ago I backed Mantic Games Kickstarter for Terrain Crates... loads of lovely bits and pieces for D&D style Fantasy style gaming.

The models did come in some nice carboard boxes, but in my opinion you would need to do a lot of rumaging to find the bits that you needed during a game, and as I am planning to paint the models I wanted to be able to store them so that the paint work would not get damaged and the pieces would be easy to find.

Firstly we have a selection of fences, walls and hedges. The stand up perfectly in a 35mm high Really Useful Box Tray.

There are quiet a few large pieces including tents, horse & cart, bookcases and big piles of treasure. I decided to use a 70mm deep Really Useful Box and put a 'Vehicle Insert' into it. Although the insert was designed for dividing trays up to hold WW2 model tanks in 20mm and 28mm scale, it is useful for all sorts off other purposes where you want to be able to change the size of compartments around or just divide the tray in to different sized areas. The insert has a set of teeth that you glue onto the long sides of the tray. You then slot the dividers into the teeth to divide the tray up.

Most of the small & medium pieces are stored in two 35mm high compartment trays. The one pictured above is a 10 compartment tray, having one large area and nine smaller areas. THe large area was perfect for holding all the pieces of mine railway track.

The last tray used was a 15 compartment tray. This was perfect for sorting out all the small pieces like chairs, tables, rats, skulls, maps, camping equipment etc.

You can use the Really Useful Box trays by themselves, as they stack up nicely on a shelf, but I like to use mine inside a 9 Litre Really Useful Box as it provides a good waterproof / dust proof enviroment for my models and makes it easy to grab a box of stuff to take down the club or to a friends house or a convention game.

Sally 4th has a huge range of games / miniatures storage soloutions including inserts for pretty much any base size ever invented plus complete storage soloutions for games such as zombicide, Conan, Wings of Glory, Sails of Glory, Star Saga, X-Wing and many more.

Click here for further details.

Last weekend Lewis and I got together to play a platoon level WW2 set in the Pacific campaign. The Japanese had dug in around a small farming settlement. The USMC Platoon was tasked to launch a deliberate attack with the aim of dislodging them from the position around the farm so that there Company could continue their advance inland. We played the game using Combat Patrol. These are our favourite rules for platoon level 'skirmish' actions. The rules deliver realistic results, are fun to play and very easy to use. What makes the rules unique is that all of the detail that often slows a game down with referencing tables and data in rulebooks are incorporated into a multi-use action deck. These cards are used for resolving small arms, anti-vehicle and HE fire, melee and morale.

We based our game on the excellent scenarios that feature in the 'Disposable Heroes' set of rules. I find that the right scenario is as important as a good set of rules. I like to either play a historical scenario or one of the two scenarios from Disposable Heroes. The premise for their scenarios is that for a Platoon Commander there are really only two different types of battle that you would be involved in, attack/defence or meeting engagement. We played the attack/defence scenario. A platoon in defence would typically have a frontage of 100-200 metres, while an attacking platoon would assault on a frontage of 50-100 metres. In both cases the platoon would typically deploy two sections forward with one in reserve. This means that the defending platoon has two section plus platoon HQ available but one section must be held in reserve. The attacking platoon has a full platoon but one section is held in reserve. Defenders deploy up to 12" in, attackers up to 6" in. Both attackers and defenders place 5 potential deployment zone markers on the table ensuring that they at least 12" apart. A note is made of which deployment zone each unit is to be deployed to. When the unit is actually deployed on to the table it is placed within 6" of the marker.

The USMC plan to attack the position by encirclement going left and right flanking. Here we see No 2 section deploying onto the table at deployment zone '5' and making best use of available cover.

No 1 section has sprinted in an attempt to make it to the relative safety of the tree line. Combat Patrol allows a unit to make a double 'sprint move'. Instead of drawing one card for movement, two are drawn but a 'stun' marker is placed on the unit, signifying that the next time they activate they need to recover from there exertions before they do anything else. Unfortunately they do not quiet make cover!

No 2 section came under effective mortar fire as they advance down the sunken road from a weapon sighted around the farm. Platoon HQ move forward to try to neutralise it.

Unfortunately for No 1 section, a Japanese section was deployed facing them and managed to move forward through the jungle before they could reach it. A fierce close range fire-fight developed with the Japanese taking casualties and a lot of 'morale markers'

When a unit is activated that has taken 'morale markers' because it has come under fire, the first thing it has to do is to resolve the morale tests. This is done by turning an action card for each morale marker and applying the morale statements from the card. The morale statements are often dependent on the training/morale level of the troops and if they are in cover or not. Because the Japanese behave so differently to western troops they have a unique action deck which represents there distinct approach to life, death and honour. With the amount of morale cards they needed to apply, I expected them to withdraw to cover or become pinned, but being Japanese they responded by launching a 'Banzi Charge'.

Winning the melee, the Japanese Infanty fall back to regroup in cover.

On the USMC right flank, No 2 section take casualties from mortar fire, but continue to push forward, reaching one of the Japanese deployment zones. This triggers the release of reserve assets for both sides.

On the left flank the marines occupy one of the Japanese trenches, but the Japanese soon make an aggresive counter-attack to reclaim it.

The Marines reserve No 3 section deploy on the left flank and move forward to clear the jungle.

The Japanese wipe out the Marines who occupied there trench and retake the associated deployment zone.

However, the Marines clear the farm house and nearby plantation and by turn 6 have occupied three of the defenders deployment zones which were the criteria for an attacker win.

This was another very enjoyable Combat Patrol game and has encouraged Lewis and I to paint up a few more units for our next game.

Links for further information

Rules - Combat Patrol

Scenario - Disposable Heroes

Terrain - Terra-Former Terrain Tiles

Additional Combat Patrol battle reports

Sunday was Fathers Day. Lewis came over and we chose to play an exciting game of Pulp Alley, one of our all time favourite games.

For the last 6 months David has been publishing a fantastic series of 'Scenario of the Month' scenarios. The game that we played was the second in the series, titled 'The Four Faces of Dr Fang', set in Vice Alley somewhere in North Africa.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on some bits and pieces to help keep all my Pulp Alley bits and pieces together in a single 'Really Useful Box' for storage and taking to shows. The Pulp Alley dice tray is part of the set. Designed with compartments for holding different dice types and a felt lined compartment for dice rolling. When not in use the token tidy sits inside of it for storage. If you're interested in further details, you can take a look by clicking here.

We set our game in a quayside area with arab markets, narrow alley ways, roof top bridges and a tramp steamer alongside.

The Tramp Steamer is the latest addition to our Pulp terrain range. Click here for further details, and loads more photos!

Instead of playing our normal leagues, we decided to use some of the lovely official Pulp Alley Miniatures manufactured by Statuesque Miniatures. Lewis' leage was the Raven Squadron. My league was made up of Mak O'Reilly, Gauge, Bosun and Ramjeet Singh. I took the company of heroes league perk so fielded them as four sidekicks with Mak nominally the leader.

My league deployed in the bottom left corner and the Raven Squadron deployed in the top left corner. The plot points were all clues leading to discovery of a murderer and included a blood trail, and ancient altar, a drunk, a beggar and a musican. Each of these plot points yielded a clue, when a league had collected all four clues they could reveal the murderer!

Bosun and Mak deployed by the quayside and waited for an opportune moment when the local police were not to close to start there investigation.

The local police were also investigating the murder. Each officer was a moving extremely perilous area. Here we find the Raven Squadron have retreated to a rooftop to wait until the police have stopped talking to the 'drunk' who is the witness they want to interogate.

The coast is clear and No 1 has a chat with the old beggar but he takes a dislike to her and she goes away empty handed.

As the police move off, No 2 moves in and talks to the drunk but fails to make sence of his ramblings.

Lewis, feels that the answer must be on the cards, and has a good look at his Fortune hand. Mak and his chums have solved all four clues and move in to confront the suspect, the old musican.

Bosun confronts him in an alley way beside the quayside.

Imagine her surprise (and horror) when the kindly looking entertainer transforms into a be-tentacled, slavering fiend from the nether worlds.

The rest of the crew rush to her assistance.

However, Raven Squadron No 1 has taken up a vantage point on a roof top and with calm determination brings the beast to the ground in a hail storm of hot lead.

An interesting and exciting game. Mak O'Reilly and his crew painstakingly follow the trail and solve every clue and then the Raven Squadron muscle in right on the last die roll and steal the glory by felling the hideous creature!

Links for further information:

Pulp Alley Rules

Statuesque Miniatures

Arab Buildings

Arched Bridges

Tramp Steamer

Terrain Tiles

Partizan 2018 - Sunday 20th May

This years participation game at Partizan was 'Dice another Day', Spy-Fi action set in a port somewhere in North Africa.

The game had a number of different locations (mini boards) where different scenarios could be played. These included The Marina, The Commercial Port, The Souk, Rick's Cafe, The Embassy, The Dig Site & Professor Evils Underground Bunker.

The game was played using Pulp Alley, which is a hugely flexible set of rules that can be used for plot-point driven, skirmish action in any time period from cavemen through to science fiction.

Apart from the 3D printed harbour walls and the die-cast cars, pretty much all of the terrain used is from various Sally 4th ranges. The base boards are built using Terra-Former terrain tile kits and the Arab buildings are from the Outremer Middle Eastern range.

Here we get an overview of the commercial port to the left and the marina to the right. Behind the port is the souk area. The flat roofed Middle Eastern buildings are linked at the roof top level using some of our lattice sided arched bridges.

The first scenario was set in the Souk Area. The objective of this scenario was to talk to Mohammad Ghazi, the local underworld boss who knows the location of Professor Evils bunker. Unfortunately he is a very secretive character, so two other contacts need to be interrogated to uncover his location. This was basically a train of clues scenario, the contacts were minor plot points, Ghazi was the major plot point. Major plot point could not be attempted unless your league has solved two of the minor plot points. Easy enough, apart from the guard dogs. Guard dogs were mobile, extremely hazardous areas. Each turn they get to move D6" in a random direction.

... and as is often the case, the terrain proved to be one of the major hazards, with the pesky dogs thwarting plans on a number of occasions.

Here we see Spectre agents in action. Blofield has a discrete chat with the contact while Jaws charges, the minions start a fire-fight and No 2, looks on knowingly.

Links for further details:

Rules : Pulp Alley 

Terrain : Terra-Former Terrain Tiles

Arab Buildings : Outremer Range

Ships & Boats : Tramp Steamer Kit

                      Yacht Kit

Marina / Harbour: Large Quayside Platform

                          Jetty / Pier

                          Arched Lattice Bridge

Miniatures : Copplestone Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang 

                 Artizan Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang range

                 Pulp Figures

Next time we run this game, we are planning to use some of the excellent Brigade Games 'Spies and Patriots' miniatures as well.

Sally 4th are going to be carrying these at shows and on our web site. At the moment they are on pre-order at big discounts until 21st June, click here for details

Having just about recovered from Hammerheads huge participation game, on Sunday the table was cleared to start putting together the games table for our Pulp Alley participation game for Partizan 2018 - 'Dice another Day'

I'll use this blog to keep you all updated with characters, leagues, scenarios and terrain as it develops.

The plan is to have the equivilant of 6 Pulp Alley table set up on a single big table with different scenarios for each. These will include The Marina, The Commercial Port, The Souk, Dr Evil's Lair, The Embassy & Ricks Cafe (because every body knows Rick, and Rick knows everything!)

A view of the marina. Blofields luxury yacht is alongside on his private jetty

To the left of the marina is the gritty commercial port.

Another view of the marina

The narrow, winding streets of the Medina.

Update 8th May Play Test

Last night Doug, Paul & I got together to have a playtest of one of the Pulp Alley 'Dice another Day' Scenarios for our Partizan participation game. We had three leagues MI6, SMERSH and SPECTRE.

Runors have it that Professor Evil has perfected a 'Death Ray' and is threatening the world that he will take out the main relay satalite that is beaming the 'World Cup Football' around the world. The worlds intelligence agencies have sent there finest to try to foil this dastardly plot and Blofield has also heard about it and fancies a bit of the action for himself.

In the dockside medina, it is rumoured a fellow called Big Ghazi can be found and that he knows a man, who knows a man who put the airconditioning in for Professor Evil. This is a lost keys scenario, with 4 potential witnesses that can reveal the location of Big Ghazi. We also used 4 dogs that moved D6" at the start of each turn in a random direction, dragging a 3" radius extremely perilous area around with them.

'No2', Blofelds best lacky has a chat with the guy by the coke machine, but is distracted by the dog that has jumped up and is worrying him.

At the far side of the Medina, 004 moves into position after already getting the low down from a local. In the foreground Rosa Klebb crosses under the arch, she looks very cool considering that she has just used her steel tipped shoes to pick to death a Spectre associate who was already down and on the ground.

Blofeld succesfully gets a lead from a local, right under the nose of a MI6 agent. Unfortunately at that point pretty much any MI6 or Smersh agent in the Medina takes a dislike to him and he goes down in a hail of crossfire.

Meanwhile in the market place Spectre's minions are whittled down by the angry gogs. It is not good being a minion, activating in a perilous area!

A great time was had by all, and we eagerly await next weeks test game and the big event at Partizan.

Upate 15th May - Tramp Steamer & Professor Evils Lair

Over the last week terrain making has gone into overdrive and I have completed a Tramp Steamer for the commercial port and built three boards to go around Professor Evils Lair. Professor Evil's Lair is built using one of the Sally Terra-Former Bunker tiles. These are standard Terra-Former spec tiles that fit together with all of the other terrain tiles in the range with there embedded rare earth magnets. The tile has a 250mm square interior that is designed to take Terra-Block 50mm square interior blocks (or 50mm square blocks from other manufacturers such as Dwarven Forge).

The first wave of US Marines head for the jetty in assault boats.

Blofields Yacht alongside on its private mooring. What's that in the big crate on the fore deck? The carge manifest states 'humanitarian relief supplies', but I'm not convinced!

Sally IV, alongside the commercial quay begins to take on supplies. This is the first build of Sally 4th'sTramp Steamer kit. 600mm long, 100mm wide with access to all parts of the interior. I've added standing rigging to the fore and aft masts and derricks. This is an optional step, the model works with out it and it requires some round nose pliers and side cutters to bend and cut some wire staples, however I think it finishes the model of nicely.

The Jetty's are also made at Sally 4th and come in two varieties. Blofields private mooring is the 'Platform kit' and the jetties that the smaller yaucht's are alongside are the 'Harbour Walkways'

Behind the bustle of the busy port and city is a dig site. The 'excavation tile' is just made from a standard Terra-Former Plain Tile.. As the tile's are filled with 50mm deep polystyrene it is easy to create features below ground as well as above ground. I printed some top sections of Egyptian statues to appear half buried in the workings.

The cliffs hide a secret entrance to the disused and supposedly abandoned cold war bunker. However it appears that the new tenants are hard at work inside.

Here we see the concrete retaining walls of the main entrance to the disused bunker, and inside Professor Evil and chums put the finishing touches to their shiny new 'Death Ray'. I painted this up last week as well. It is the ''Dr Prometheus & his Death Ray' and 'Dr Promethius Electro Laboratory' sets from Pulp Figures

Links for further details:

Rules : Pulp Alley 

Terrain : Terra-Former Terrain Tiles

Arab Buildings : Outremer Range

Ships & Boats : Tramp Steamer Kit

                      Yacht Kit

Marina / Harbour: Large Quayside Platform

                          Jetty / Pier

                          Arched Lattice Bridge

Miniatures : Copplestone Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang 

                 Artizan Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang range

                 Pulp Figures

Sloppy Jalopy have recently released a very detailed kit for the workhorse of the Israelie Defence Force (IDF), The MUTT.

The kit contains a crisply cast resin body and white metal pieces as shown.

I started off by washing the resin body to get rid of any mold release residue and cleaned up all the castings with a small file.

I assembled everything using Industrial Strength Super Glue (which I pick up from my local builders merchant). Glue wheels to axels and glue axels in to position and then leave to dry.

I then glued all of the accesories to the body of the MUTT apart from the Machine Gun, TOW Launcer and TOW rounds that are best added after painting. The bar that sticks up from the bumber is an anti-wire device, and the curved pipe is part of the deep wading kit. 

the

After priming black, I gave everything a base coat spray with British Green to give a good base to work from.

Israeli vehicles are painted in a color refered to as Sinai Green. The best match I found was Vallejo Green Grey, after painting the whole of the MUTTS body with that I applied a drybrushed highlight of Stone Grey.

Seat covers, radio, RPG & Hel.met were then picked out with Brown Violet

Webbing, Weapon bags and other canvas items were painted in either Stone Grey or Buff.

Tyres and bumper were painted black, machine gun, spade and any other bare metal was painted in gunmetal and wooden items such as butts and handles were painted with Brown Beige.

Painting the crew

Sloppy Jalopy also have a nice pack of IDF crew to go with the MUTT so I painted them at the same time.

After cleaning up and sticking to temporary painting bases the figures were primed black and base coated British Green.

Staring at the top, helmets were painted with either Brown Violet or Green Grey (when you look at photos of IDF soldiers there uniform is often 'mix and match'). Hands and faces were painted next with Sunny Skintone.

Continuing with the 'mix and match' theme, jackets and trousers were painted either Yellow Green or Green Brown.

Lastly chin straps, webbing and putees were picked out with either Stone Grey or Buff.

To finish off the miniatures and TOW launcher was dipped in Army Painter Quick Tone, and Quick Tone was brushed over the whole vehicle. This is an excellent product as it both shades, outlines and protects with a strong varnish.

After leaving the Quick Tone to dry for 24 hours, the crew, MMG, TOW Launcher and TOW rounds were glued in place and everything was sprayed with Army Painter Anti-Shine Matt Varnish.

Click here for:

MUTT with HMG

MUTT with TOW

MUTT Crew