Sunday, June 30, 2013

Two Beauties from Zvezda 1/100 scale KV-II and Infantry Tank Matilda MK I photo reviews of kits

     These have been sitting around the workshop for a bit so I apologize for this "late breaking" news. Zvezda has once again produced a pair of excellent models, both have the fine detail that has come to be the standard associated with this company. Both models capture the look of the originals very well, one massive the other tiny.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

A Look at R.U.P.'s Dystopian Wars Kingdom of Britannia minis



   These appeared briefly in an earlier post and I promised to get a better look at them so here we go; Rich Uncle Pat tends to go "all-in" on anything that catches his fancy so when he decided to get into the Dystopian Wars game from Spartan Games he picked up a very large collection of minis and had them professionally painted by Cornish Mikey's Painting Service. He also purchased the specially made case for the minis to put them in. All in all a very well put together arrangement. The painting work is excellent (see the photos) and R.U.P. reports that the turnaround time was very good (particularly as it was going from Cornwall to Michigan). Enough of all that, on to the eye-candy!

the Avenger class fleet carrier, a vast and powerful ship

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Star Wars X-Wing minis game

    

  Justice&Rule came by a while back with a ton of these beautifully painted models of the Classic Star Wars ships (not those horrid things associated with the Part I/II/III tragedy, the REAL Star Wars stuff) and a set of rules. I have always had mixed feeling about playing 3D games on a flat table but have been able to work past it if the rules were fast and fun (Wings of War/Wings of Glory, Battlefleet Gothic and the Check Your 6 series). The tiny size of the rulebook meant that the rules would likely be easy enough to understand, even for a wargaming dinosaur like me.

Monday, June 3, 2013

A Fight in Lebanon, Part III the Denouement; Killdozer Rules All!

WARNING, THERE ARE OVER FORTY PHOTOS IN THIS SECTION, 
IT MAY TAKE A WHILE TO LOAD

     You will remember the situation thus far; The IDF is making a major road-clearing incursion into a PLO held area, the PLO has been tasked with delaying the intruders long enough for reinforcements to arrive and counterattack. Both sides are sure that they don't have enough combat capability for the job, this means the GM had designed a near-perfect scenario.

from the PLO end of the street the damaged Merkava was a heart-warming sight

A Fight in Lebanon, Part II Opening Moves

     We re-join the game as the IDF blinds come onto the table (for those not familiar with Two Fat Lardies rules; units are represented on the game table by "blinds" -a sort of generic marker- until an enemy unit identifies them by use of the spotting rules, this helps avoid the "thousand-meter tall general " situation that plagues many rules). For the PLO players this is often the worst part, not knowing if it is a Jeep or a Merkava until you force the blind to reveal, often with disastrous results for the unit forcing the reveal . For the IDF it is worse, you know you are a sitting duck but can doing nothing about it but move forward, scanning every window, hoping to spot enemy activity.........


IDF and PLO blinds play hide-and-seek around the Hospital complex