Mongoose Publishing Dropping Babylon 5: A Call to Arms’ Miniatures
Mongoose Publishing announced today they will be ceasing all miniatures production. Considering that there are no other sources for Babylon 5 miniatures this cannot be a good sign for the game (Note: The new Hyperion models will be available until March 31st). Players who do not mind proxies may wish to check out Ground Zero Games’ Full Thrust line of miniatures (their free rules are good as well). There are also Games Workshops’ Battlefleet Gothic ships but that line is also almost dead. Lastly are ADB’s Starline 2400 Star Trek ships but that line has no fighters.
Babylon 5: A Call to Arms has been a truly successful game over the years, especially for a space combat game (which never enjoy the same limelight as 28mm skirmish-based games). There are thousands of players all over the world, and if you gathered all the ships sold into one place and laid them out flat, they would cover an area the size of Belgium to a depth of four inches (maybe).
We started with roleplaying games but, having a passion for miniatures games, we soon branched out. This is why we do the games we do. However, we also have to run a business – otherwise, there will be no more games, ever.
The reality of A Call to Arms, despite its popularity, is that a miniatures production facility cannot be run on B5 alone these days. We had hoped to bolster the capacity of the facility with Starship Troopers (it needs 2, maybe 3 miniatures games to run for the long term), but rising production costs mean we simply cannot continue to subsidise it. That is the hard nature of business – something can sell well, and still not be selling enough. If the hole is not plugged in good order, we risk losing the whole ship.
To be brutally fair about things, the A Call to Arms miniatures range has had a good run. There are thirteen different fleets, and few games can boast that many forces. There are around 200 different ships, not including variants. There is a good community for the game.
I want to emphasise that we have not dropped the game itself. We’ll continue to support it in S&P, sure, but if there is sufficient demand, we will continue with book releases as well, covering different campaigns, variants and scenarios. We will also keep running events for as long as there is interest. In addition, we will be using the rules for future games.
Note: IronWind Metals now has the Babylon 5 miniature line back in production.
[Updated: 22NOV08]
Federation Commander: Line of Battle — Review
Amarillo Design Bureau just released Line of Battle a new expansion for Federation Commander. It is a follow-up to their Battleships Attack product and contains nine extra 8 1/2″ x 11″ battleship cards for all the races, an additional map panel (open space), three new scenarios that feature battleships, and lastly, a short bit on tactics. The included cards are for the: Federation Battleship, Klingon B10 Battleship, Romulan King Condor Battleship, Kzinti Battleship, Gorn ‘Godzilla’ Battleship, Neo-Tholian Battleship, Seltorian Battlewagon, Hydran Monarch Battleship, and the Lyran Cave Lion Battleship.
This is a nice expansion for anyone interested in using battleships in Federation Commander. The scenarios are also interesting but we wish they had come up with something a bit more novel to include than just another map panel.
A related product is their Border Box #6 that contains nine battleship miniatures and one starbase miniature. Of course the miniatures are all available individually as well.
World at War: Gamer’s Guide on Pre-order
Lock ‘n Load Publishing has a Gamer’s Guide for their excellent World at War game system available for pre-publication orders.
You asked for it (didn’t you?), and now it’s here (well, almost). Packing with forty professionally printed, and glaringly-glossy pages (including cover) and filled with World at War wisdom, the World at War: Gamer’s Guide is on pre-order. You’ll find a preview of the upcoming World at War boxed game, World at War: Blood and Bridges. Two new scenarios, Clearing Hell’s Highway, and Poor Bloody Infantry. Two battle reports with semi-fictionized accounts recounts of WaW scenarios (Some of you call these after action reports). A ten page article examining strategy in the World at War series and the specific tactics needed to win all six Eisenbach Gap scenarios. Even variants for night fighting, and a design your own scenarios “how to” article. And much more… including a unit-by-unit analysis of the platoons of Eisenbach Gap… even better, you’ll find it before the end of February.
[Update 22FEB08: This is now shipping.]
[Update 2MAR08: See our review.]
World at War: Death of the 1st Panzer — Review
World at War: Death of the 1st Panzer is the first expansion to Lock ‘n Load’s Cold War era World at War: Eisenbach Gap wargame. The expansion ships in a ziplock and introduces new forces, scenarios, and a map to the game.
Death of the 1st Panzer is a straightforward expansion and provides the units for West German panzer units. In this case the 1st Panzer is essentially two mechanized infantry companies and two panzer companies with some attachments. Other new units included are the Soviet T-12 ATG and the ASU-85. The counters are of the same design as WaW:EG but are printed on thicker stock. They are still on the thin side but not unusually so. Read the rest of this entry »
World at War: Eisenbach Gap — Review
World at War: Eisenbach Gap is Lock ‘n Load Publishing’s latest game. It is a Cold War era platoon-level board wargame. The unit scale is platoon and each hex represents 150m. While the game depicts fictional scenarios, Eisenbach Germany was a real point of possible contention during the Cold War. In addition, Eisenbach Gap is the first game in the World at War series so we will see additional titles using the same system in the future. The game ships in a full-size game box with 128 die-cut 5/8″ counters, mounted 17″ x 22″ map, two players’ aid cards, 4 dice, and a 16-page rulebook. Probably the first thing you will notice is the counters. They are very attractive and have an almost bewildering array of numbers on them. Unfortunately they are also some of the thinest cardboard counters you will find in any wargame. They are essentially the thickness of two pieces of card stock. The biggest issue with the thinness is that it makes the counters rather difficult to pick up even with tweezers. Hopefully Lock ‘n Load will produce thicker counters for future WaW titles. [Note: Oddly, an extra set of counters I ordered direct from LnL were on thicker stock.] The map is nice and similar in thickness to the ASL Starter Kit maps or roughly the thickness of your average wargame counter. The map is very attractive in an antiseptic sort of way — Like the time period being portrayed, it has a sort of retro feel to it. The rulebook is well laid out and a fairly useful reference during play. The player aid cards are handy but leave a lot of information out. You will need to make your own notes to ease play. Read the rest of this entry »
Victory at Sea: Order of Battle — Review
Order of Battle is the latest expansion for Mongoose Publishing’s Victory at Sea WW2 naval miniatures game. Order of Battle is a 111-page hardcover book. It also includes ten pages of black and white ship counters that can be photocopied and cut out for use instead of miniatures. [Note: You can also order OoB as a downloadable PDF.] Unfortunately, Mongoose continues to have quality issues. I have seen three copies of the book including one ordered direct from Mongoose. Two had significant warping of the cover and crinkled pages at the binding when opened. The one direct from Mongoose is much better but still has a ‘wave’ to the cover when viewed end on. If Mongoose cannot get these issues under control they should simple use soft covers.
Order of Battle provides one page of new rules that mostly makes official what many users had been doing as house rules — Most significantly, observation aircraft are no longer used except for ASW operations. Read the rest of this entry »
AT-43 — News
Rackham has been busy. They have announced a number of new items for AT-43. First off the Karmans get fleshed out pretty quickly this year with a large number of new units including the King Buggy and King Mammoth. The UNA get Shock Troopers and previously unseen Shock TacArms and hero Lieutenant G Epstone in open Death Dealer TacArm armor. Rackham is also releasing a new Firetoad unit. What makes this one unique is not only its new ‘winter’ camouflage paint scheme but it will now come with all weapon options in the box (but no cargo container).
Perhaps the most interesting news of all comes from Rackham’s version of Forgeworld, Fire Industries. They announced the new UNA Fire Wasp buggy. As with all FI products, the Fire Wasp will be an unpainted resin model. Interestingly, the previously announced Therian Golems are now absent from the FI pages.
Rackham released an image of a prototype model of the ‘Steel Giant‘ type three strider. Also seen are army dice in tins similar to what Battlefront has done for Flames of War. On the forums, Jean Bay announced a new campaign box set for AT-43 to be released in the next few months. “This Campaign will be a product boxed set, including scenery, few special miniatures, new gaming tiles, additional rulesbook which cover new tactics options, rules for playing these new miniatures in AT-43, rules for scenery, an optimization for using the existing attachment boxes in the game, rules campaign system, huge set of scenarios and lots more. ”
2008 is looking to be a good year for AT-43! Considering the release schedule for the Karmans, we will almost certainly see a new faction for AT-43 before year’s end.
[Updated: 14FEB08]
[Update 7MAY08: Fire Industries has closed.]
Stars and Stripes Forever — Review
The folks over at Test of Battle Games have released a new expansion for their WW2 miniature rules Test of Battle (aka Command Decision 4). Stars and Stripes Forever covers U.S. forces in the Mediterranean and European theaters from the Torch landings until the fall of Germany. SaSF is a 52 page, soft cover, black and white book. Unlike a lot of game expansion products that feature new rules and units and other game items, SaSF has a very focused purpose. It simply provides the historical TO&E (Tables of Organization and Equipment) for all U.S. forces. This includes great details such as a listing of all infantry and armor divisions and where they served along with detailed ToB-formatted force organizations. Also included are great notes on doctrine as well as a full equipment table with all game information. It also does have one page of additional rules for U.S. reconnaissance troops, armored infantry, and artillery battalion FDCs. Moreover, the book is sprinkled with historical posters from the period often seen on the home front such as “Buy War Bonds” and “Your metal is their might”.
While Stars and Stripes Forever is intended for use with Test of Battle it is an excellent resource for any company/battalion level game and is also a great reference for anyone interested in the U.S. Army during World War Two. Recommended.
Band of Heroes — Review
Lock ‘n Load’s Band of Heroes is a board wargame on World War Two squad-level combat. It has been out over a year now but with new expansions on the way I thought this would be a good time to look back at the original game. The Wargamer has an excellent review of Band of Heroes. I agree with the reviewer’s comments especially those on the rulebook. It works OK for reading through but is terrible as a resource for looking up rules during the game. Also the terrain identification issue has been solved with the Terrain Chart Supplement. The map boards are very well done but they have a very garish hex grid superimposed on them that is very distracting and also makes determining the hex, especially hexside, terrain type tough at times. This hex treatment came under considerable fire after the game’s initial release and LnL released a pack of ‘haloless maps‘ with a much toned down pattern. The maps in the Not One Step Back expansion are of this same haloless design and Swift and Bold does not have any maps. Boardgame Geek has an excellent BoH reference sheet. Version three of the LnL rules are currently in playtest.
The new Line of Fire magazine includes BoH information. LnL also has an excellent 32-page demo of BoH. It includes printable map, counters, reference cards, a scenario, and most of the rulebook so you can try the game out for yourself.
Overall Band of Heroes is an excellent WW2 tactical wargame and with its ongoing expansion is more complete and much easier to digest than even the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits and unlike Combat Commander includes vehicles. Recommended.
The Best Games Not Yet Published, 2008
With the New Year upon us we thought it might be interesting to present the games we are most anxiously awaiting in 2008. Our 2007 prognostications did pretty well so we thought we would try it again for 2008. There is no guarantee any of these will be published in 2008, nor that they will be any good if they are, but we are always hopeful.
Read the rest of this entry »
The View from the Turret 
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