22Feb10
If you missed Wargames Illustrated Issue 266 you are in luck. WI has now posted all of the Vietnam material from that issue on its site. So if you can manage to get your hands on the miniatures you will have all you need to fight Vietnam battles with Flames of War.
They also posted a Vietnam Color Guide and the scenario re-creating the Battle of Ia Drang itself.
12Feb10
Spartan Games announced they will be releasing some new Firestorm Armada ships soon. First up are escorts for the four main fleets as well as some civilian ships.
Our first upgrade releases for Firestorm Armada will be announced shortly. The first Wave will see Escorts arrive for each of the first four races, along with three generic Civilian Vessels: Gas Mining Vessel, Cargo Freighter and Liner. The Escorts will be sold in a blister with 6 Models and 6 Flight Stands. Following these models will be Heavy Cruisers and then the Directorate will enter the war! More images and launch information to follow.
Beta stats are available for all the new ships.
[Updated: 2MAR10]
12Feb10
As indicated a year ago, Battlefront has a new 15mm European Village set in the works for its Gale Force 9 Battlefield in a Box series. The recent issue of Wargames Illustrated (issue 268 – February 2010) gives a nice description on page 54,
These buildings come in a multitude of different styles and textures, including a corner store building…Included in these samples were various village wall sections…The buildings and walls come out of the box pre-painted and each level of the building is removable.
The article has a number of pictures of the buildings and walls and they do indeed look great. This will be an excellent set and a must get for 15mm European front gamers.
20Jan10
Another new year, another new set of games and miniatures to lust after! It is time for our annual look at the games and miniatures we are most anxiously awaiting in 2010. Our 2009 prognostications did pretty well so here we go again. As always, there is no guarantee any of these titles will be published in 2010, nor that they will be any good if they are, but we are optimistic.
(more…)
20Jan10
Phantom Leader
Dan Verssen Games (DVG) has a couple of interesting new titles coming out soon. Phantom Leader is the latest in the Hornet Leader series started almost twenty years ago with Hornet Leader from GMT Games published in 1991. This was followed by Thunderbolt/Apache Leader (A-10s and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters). They all began as solitaire board games but have only been available as VASSAL games for a long time. Phantom Leader brings the series back into print. Phantom Leader puts you in the role of a squadron commander and you have to manage your pilots and aircraft and then plan and fly combat missions including target selection, weapons loadouts and more. The game is card driven and both U.S. Navy and Air Force options are included with a variety of aircraft besides the F-4. Phantom Leader also adds a political element to your strikes that seems quite fitting for a Vietnam era game. The rules are available online as well as some after action reports. If you have an interest in aerial warfare, or were a fan of the old games, you should give Phantom Leader a look.
Frontline - D-Day
Also coming soon from DVG is Frontline – D-Day. It is a WW2 tactical card game for 1-4 players. You can play as the Americans, British, or Germans in the D-Day 1944 battles and follow-on Normandy battles. What is interesting is that there is also a solitaire mechanic included in the game. The rules are available online as well as AARs and some play sheets.
19Jan10
Tauros Venator
Forge World has a new Warhammer 40,000 Elysian vehicle on pre-order (will release on January 25th), the Tauros Venator. It is a very cool looking ten-wheeled off-road buggy similar to the present-day DPV’s used by SEALS and Delta Force that operated in Iraq. Rules for it will appear in Imperial Armour Volume Eight. Guard players will need to warm up their wallets.
27Dec09
Firestorm Armada
Well the fellows over at the D6 Generation wasted no time and have done an outstanding review of the new Firestorm Armada sci-fi ship combat miniatures game by Spartan Games. Forward to 2hr 24min into the podcast to get right to the review.
We agree with the D6G overall that Firestorm Armada has the potential to be an outstanding game. The only real negative we have seen so far in the game is that there seems to be no allowance for disparate fleets. To keep a solid balance the six fleets currently in the game all have a similar balance of support ships, capital ships, and carriers. None of the fleets focus heavily in one area such as smaller ships, wings, or large capital ships. We have not tried playing a disparate scenario yet so it is possible the system can handle it, but we suspect such a game would be considerably unbalanced. A race would probably need to be designed from the ground up to make such a unique composition balanced with the existing fleets.
If you have even the slightest interest in sci-fi ship combat give Firestorm Armada a look.
Also see Firestorm Armada — First Impressions.
11Dec09
We finally got around to grabbing a copy of Steel Dreadnought Games‘ new World War Two naval miniature rules Naval Thunder: Battleship Row along with the first expansion Bitter Rivals. Battleship Row is based on their naval system debuted in their World War One ruleset Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts. While Clash of Dreadnoughts fell just shy of beating out Mongoose Publishing’s Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnoughts as our favorite quick-play naval rules, Battleship Row may very well be the set that sends Victory at Sea to the bottom. (more…)
05Dec09
Firestorm Armada
We got a copy of the Firestorm Armada rulebook along with some of the miniatures and the cards. We hope to have more details up soon but our initial impressions, after a first look through the rules, are very positive. It is a mix of previous games and the influence of Battlefleet Gothic and Babylon 5: ACTA is very evident, but it is still a new and unique system of its own. It places emphasis on ship-to-ship combat but also integrates fighters and attack aircraft in a seamless and logical way. The cards are an optional component, and must be purchased separately, but we highly recommended them. They add a lot of flavor to the game.
Sorylian Fleet
The miniatures are very well done. They are crisply cast resin (some of the smaller ships and bits are metal) and are a bit larger than the BFG minis but are also beefier overall and in some cases, especially the battleships, much larger. There are four races available now: the Aquan Prime, Terran Alliance, Sorylian Collective, Dindrenzi Federation and the rules detail two more that will be released in the future. Our favorites are the Sorylian Collective and the Dindrenzi Federation. The Fleet Boxes also include a sheet of fighter counters and generic play counters that are printed in full color on glossy card stock and have to be cut out.
The Firestorm Armada site has lots of goodies for download including assembly guides, tactics tips, fleet rosters, and wallpaper. There are even full color fleets you can print out to get playing right away without need for the miniatures. Spartan now has both errata and clarification sheets for the game.
We look forward to getting in a game, painting up some ships, and seeing how the system progresses. If you have any interest in sci-fi ship combat games Firestorm Armada deserves a serious look.
Russ Wakelin, of DakkaDakka fame and the D6 Generation podcast, has started a wiki page on DakkaDakka on Firestorm Armada with useful comments. Also see their Firestorm Armada review.
[Updated: 17DEC09]
02Dec09
Bell of Lost Souls has some, blurry, images of some of the upcoming Warhammer 40,000 Tyranid releases. The Toxatrope is sort of a wild looking version of a Malanthrope. The new Ravenors and Gargoyles are now in plastic but look rather similar to current designs. The new Hive Guard is a unique sculpt that is sort of Carnifex-esque.
New clear pics are now available and the models are available for pre-order from GW.
[Updated: 17DEC09]
