Salute 2016

Returned from Salute 2016, which was exhausting but rewarding - Oscar and I did demo and participation games of Firestorm for 6 hours straight, and saw a lot of people...all of whom were very pleasant and had great things to say, so if you're one of them - thanks for stopping by!

Anyway, pictures speak a thousand words, so let's start off with the Spartan Games area during set up.

Spartan had double the area they had in 2015 at Salute this year, which was great

Not one but TWO Firestorm tables, one with the new reinforcement box ships, the other with the new Xelocians (we'll come back to them, don't worry!)

The Halo Fleet Battles table was showing off the new resin models, as well as the huge Covenant ship first shown at Gencon last year.

Dystopian Wars was not forgotten, demoed by Neil Parry and Andy.

The Planetfall table was actually put together not by Spartan, but by Ian Duff, who did an amazing job - the scenery was just gorgeous - I wish I'd not been too tired at the end of the day to remember to take a picture of the rooftop garden Ian had made - it was simply beautiful!

Of course Spartan were showcasing their Summer release of Halo Ground Combat, with some great 15mm renditions of the iconic Halo designs;

Warthogs stand off against the Covenant

Though I'm not sure this tank is really doing a good job of hiding behind terrain!

The infantry will be immediately recognisable by anyone who's played the Halo games.

Master Chief hiding? Or trying to operate that big gun?

Rooftop sniper and spotter teams

There were also a couple of pre-order show giveaways - 54mm versions of either a Spartan or an Elite with preorders of HGC.

This one will be a bit of a surprise to many (if not all) - Spartan were showing another new game in the pipes...Project Gotterdamurang, a WWII 1946 1/300th tank action game.

Anyway, back to Firestorm....I promised you Xelocians, didn't I?

Dreadnought (probably my favourite ship int he release) with its gun escorts - these can also be taken as Corvettes, making them super-useful.

Battleship - I love the tri-hull design here

The Cruisers, taken from the rear flank, which shows their simple, clean lines. This could be a very dull ship, but it's not, it looks sleek and elegant, but also deadly. Deeply impressive.

Finally the Frigates, which are not a squadron to be ignored (trust me!)

Here's Oscar poring over hardpoints for the Xelocians...decisions, decisions...

Here he is towards the end of the day, helping the next generation of players (we hope), even without having had a break for 6 hours. Made me immensely proud as a father to see him interacting with adults, teens and children throughout the day in a pleasant, confident and helpful manner. Not a single grumble, and a smile to the end - tremendous!

Just over a couple of tables and Ian's conducting several Planetfall converts in the art of killing lizards with spiders - well done that man!

loads of interest throughout the day kept everyone busy at the Spartan stand, Staff and volunteers alike often outnumbered 4:1 or more!

Martin, Spartan's production manager, on the Halo Fleet Battles table..wait, who's that dodgy bloke behind him? You know who I mean Chris!!!

Oscar and I got little time to have a run around the rest of the hall, but did swing by Hawk to see the progress on Dropfleet Commander, where's Dave has been busy making more larger-scale spaceships it seems - this did look rather nice, even if I'm not that sold on the big turret cannon things

So in a whirlwind Salute came and went, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and great to see people so interested in throwing dice and moving plastic spaceships around. Exhausting, but very rewarding - go next year if you can, otherwise see you at Reading Warfare in November!

Of new houses, new jobs and not enough time!

Yes, it's been a month since my last post, and similarly long for the podcast too - entirely my fault (we've two episodes recorded which I've been unable to finish editing as yet). Why is this? Well, I handed in my notice at work, and after a week was put on garden leave - you'd have thought that would mean plenty of time for model and game related activity, but it hasn't!

When we moved into our new house, we knew there were several elements that needed doing to it - the house was built sometime around 1750, and the prior owners had started renovations to the house such as damp-proofing and insulation of outer walls, plasterboarding ceilings, double-glazing windows etc. Unfortunately for them, things didn't work out for them, which meant we bought it as something of a work in progress.

In addition to the big stuff (mainly the kitchen which was about 30 years old), there's wall the usual stuff like decorating to our (and our children's) tastes. As always when you start these things, there's more work to do than you think, and it all takes time. Garden leave is ideal for this and a real bonus, but it doesn't leave much time for modelling, and that that there is, you're often too tired to start. For example - this mural my youngest daughter wanted on her wall took me a whole day!

That doesn't mean the gaming aspect has been completely neglected, but blog stuff takes time and a bit of forethought - taking pictures, editing, finding time to sit down and put it all together...which in the current environment is a less common convergence than you might expect!

So what have we done in this sphere? Well, we've managed a couple of games of Zombicide Prison Break, Oscar and I managed to convince my wife to play Cthulhu Wars (which she enjoyed - a major boon :-) ). I've been putting together and magnetising Taskforce ships, and also magnetising Planetfall bases for storage (which I will blog about separately).

The other big project I've been managing to fit in is the games room...this is a roughly 5m by 3m space at the top of the house (you can see it's little window at the front of the house above). This is now all insulated and partly kitted out - still a WiP with much to do, but it's a usable space now at least - here's a shot of it at the moment....that's a full 6' x 4' games table by the window, and the beams are the half-way split of the room

On the other side....

32" TV with DVD player and PS4, plus a large number of containers containing modelling and WWII reference books - once these are on a bookcase then a little sofa in front of the TV and it's a proper man-cave! Opposite all the gaming stuff there's still a bunch of boxes and storage things to be sorted for the house, so the space should get less cluttered over time (I hope!) - there are something like 5 containers of cuddly toys, for example!!!

So that's what the state of play is currently - sorry it's been a while but we'll be getting back into a regular rhythm soon, and there's plenty to blog about!

Works Raptor

Ah yes, even the words themselves seem sharp and bladed...the unscrupulous Works Raptor have always been a favourite of mine, and now we have the completion of the outstanding forces from the Zenian League Fleet Book in the form of the Battlecruisers and Destroyers. First up are the Battlecruisers, in the standard smaller box and sleeve format;

I like the studio models paint job, which is still menacing but feels more in keeping with the recent releases.

Rear of the sleeve has a bit of fluff and box contents as normal - all standard stuff so far

Opening the box you get what you might expect - some bubble-wrap bagged items and accessories in a press-close bag.

On unpacking, once again all is as expected - two of the battlecruisers, cast as a single piece with flight stand inserts, flight stands, SRS tokens/dice and four of the much discussed metal shield pieces we all love/hate so well.

Looking at the hull in more detail, shae has some typically Works Raptor design pieces, but she's a lot less "sleek" than the Attrition or Interdictor - she looks like a bruiser! You can also clearly see the attachment points for the metal shields here.

The only piece of the model I'm not in love with are the two remora sucker pads on the rear, which look rather Corsairesque, and don't really seem to fit the prior design cues of the WR models. Still, It's a small piece, and if I really find them that objectionable I can always remove them!

One of my ships had a small defect on the nose - nothing I'm very concerned about, it'll either be a green stuff repair or battle damage.

So, moving on to the Destroyers, we have the same small box and sleeve format featuring the pretty pictures...

...and the fluff/contents on the back.

Contents look very familiar...

Now we're onto the good stuff! Unbagging everything you get two full squadrons of the Nullifier Destroyer, plus flight stands, inserts and bases.

Now let's talk about the Nullifier....this is possibly my number 1 favourite model straight out of the box - she's gorgeous! Sleek, pretty and deadly - very Works Raptor!

Basically she looks good from any angle, including the slightly occluded engine ports which is what I expected on the Battlecruiser too (the more I think about it the more I think they have to go!).  Can't wait to get them painted and try them out!

Now several people have complained about the rather monodirectional function the WR ships provide - the Nullifiers do essentially the same job as the Interdictors, the battlecruisers do nothing the Attrition doesn't etc...but that's kind of the point, isn't it? WR doesn't have to stand buy themselves, they produce these types of ships for others to buy and to protect their holdings...they're not supposed to be a rounded fleet, they're meant to be like they are!

Anyway, getting slightly off-topic! The long and short of the WR releases is that if you like WR, you'll like these models, they're both very much in keeping with the WR  trope (apart from the remora suckers!), and I can see people wanting them - I did!