spartan games

A Weekend of Gaming!

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Over the weekend I managed to get in a fair amount of hobby related awesomeness. The annual show here in Edinburgh, Claymore, was on and whilst there was a fairly good amount of games on show, there was two in particular that caught my interest…

Mars Attacks

Mantic games came along to the show and were showing off their latest offering, Mars Attacks. The models on show were fantastic, with some truly exceptional paint jobs and really make me regret not getting anything else from the kickstarter other than the Dreadball team.

Being a backer did net me a digital copy of the rulebook however and I’ve been slowly digesting it. I’ve found the easiest way to describe it is as Deadzones weird little brother. It’s much simpler than Deadzone but shares a lot of the same mechanics. It’s the character of the game itself that set’s it apart, taking a much more light hearted approach than most wargames. It’s not uncommon for a herd of flaming cattle to rampage randomly around the board for instance :D. The models were great to get a look at as they are cast in PVC, something Mantic have said they will be using much more often in the future(both Xtreme and Dungeon Saga will be using this material). They look really well detailed and dynamic considering they come as one piece, and I think the painted figures really show that this material does the job.

Firestorm: Planetfall

The second game to catch my eye was the upcoming Firestorm: Planetfall from Spartan Games which see’s massive ground forces fighting it out in the Firestorm universe.

This really caught my eye due to the scale of the fights and the scale of the miniatures. I’ve missed massive battles since dropping 40k and this looks like it would be a perfect replacement for many reasons. The scale is much better suited for the size of the battles, the models are great (especially the leviathans) and the cost seems to be about the same as the rest of Spartans range so not silly money. Now to keep an eye on news about when this bad boy will be released 🙂Axis & Allies 1941 is Setup and Ready to Play

Axis & Allies

To follow up one the fun had at Claymore I headed round to a mates for my first ever game of Axis & Allies. Wow. I really enjoyed the game as it’s basically Risk Advanced and really look forward to getting more games of this on the go. It’s fun just because of the alternate history aspect that comes into play. For instance playing as Japan I managed to invade much of the USA, where as the Russians nearly wiped the Germans of the map.

Deadzone

To finish of a great weekend I got a game of Deadzone on the go. I’ve not played in a couple of months so my opponent and I were a little rusty but a good time was had. Inevitably my Rebs lost yet another battle to the plague(I really hate mortars), but it et me try out the Kraaw and weapons team that I had yet to field and chat to a couple of new players who I’ll be playing soon. It also inspired me to get to work on my own Plague, which so far have had a few trial schemes but nothing solid. Now I’ve got a scheme down I’ll be getting stuck into them good and proper 😀

Dystopian Wars – New Ships Started

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Got started on the Plutarch Destroyers and the Pytheus Bombers over the weekend and managed to get the main armour colours finished off today, so with out further ado here they are;

Plutarch Class Destroyers WIP

Plutarch Class Destroyers WIP

Plutarch Class Destroyers WIP

Plutarch Class Destroyers WIP

Pytheus Bombers WIP

Pytheus Bombers WIP

I tried to make the cream colour a wee bit brighter on this lot of ships, and I think it makes a big difference over the Galens. I love how the Plutarchs have come out but do believe that the Pytheus’s stripes could have been done a lot better. They just look a wee bit too messy and haphazard for my liking, although with a huge blue glowing rotor in the middle to draw the eye I’m not too fussed 😀

Gonna be focussing on my commissions over the next few days, so these guys will be on the shelf for a wee bit. As I now have the robots to complete, a basalisk in the works and also a Sameal on jetbike to be made into a White Scar 😀

Dystopian Wars – Galen Class Escorts Finished!

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Finished the first members of my fleet this afternoon and I’m extremely happy with how they turned out :D:

Galen Class Escorts

Galen Class Escorts

Galen Class Escorts

Galen Class Escorts

Very pleased with how the glow on the weapons looks, but for next time I’m gonna try and make it look brightest in the inner, rather than the outer, sections. Next up for the Victorian seas I’m only moving up to something a little bigger in the form of 5 Plutarch class Destroyers and 5 Ptolemy bombers. In the meantime some Dreadball robots are needing some love. some work has begun on getting the armour up to its finished stage, and I’ll give you a peek at them soon…

Dystopian Wars – Galen Class Escort Progress

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The Galen class escorts are coming along nicely. This afternoon I have added the decking and most of the metals;

Galen class escorts WIP

Galen class escorts WIP

Galen class escorts WIP

Galen class escorts WIP

I’ve still to add some highlights to the metals, as this is them just after a wash. Following that there’s not too much to add, I am wanting to add a glowy effect on the weapons but instead of the green seen in the Spartan scheme I’m thinking blue instead(still wanting to stick to cold colours). Once thats done I will have my first very tiny members of my fleet 😀

Dystopian Wars – Painting has begun!

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Began painting the first of my Dystopian Wars fleet this afternoon, and thought I’d start of small with the few Galen class escorts I have. I knew straight off the bat that I wanted to stick to fairly cold colours across the models (they do hail from Antarctica after all), and that I wanted the main hull to be dark blue with a whity/creamy camo stripe effect. So set about getting some paint on these to see how it looked (I’ve had a few colour schemes in the past that looked great in my head, but in reality sucked big time), and was so pleased with the first one I got the others up to the same stage…

Galen class escorts WIP

Galen class escorts WIP

I really am chuffed to bits with how they turned out, and am glad I’ve got the main colours down so early as it usually takes a whole load of mmmm’ing and aaah’ing before I settle on a colour scheme.

Not quite as exciting due to yesterdays update, but I have got all the robots up to the same stage now:

Chromium Chargers WIP

Chromium Chargers WIP

These guys have been fairly simple so far with just the metals that where there when I got them, which I believe to be leadbelcher, with a nuln oil wash. Then a coat of fortress grey (leaving the recesses dark). Simple 😀

New Toys! Part 2 – Dystopian Wars

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dystopian-wars

Next up in the way of new toy’s is naval battles in Spartans Dystopian Wars.

I’ve had my eye on this one for a wee while now, as it steadily grew in popularity. With a mate recently starting his own Empire of the Blazing Sun force I thought it was the perfect time to jump on board(sorry, couldn’t resist the pun :D). I set out over the last couple of weeks to settle on a force I wanted to play and was suitably impressed with the range on offer. All of the forces have an excellent range of models and stick to a particular theme, but the one that really popped out for me was the Antarticans. They have a really alien and advanced look which I fell in love with immediately, but its the airforce for them that solidified that this was the force for me….

Antarctican Aerial Battle Group

Antarctican Aerial Battle Group

The flying ships are just too damn cool, and I cant wait to get stuck into the painting, and then set about blowing up the Japanese with lasers (that’s right Dave, all of your ships are going to die!).

I knew I needed something other than the above though, it is primarily a naval battle game after all, so also invested in the following box…

Antarctican Battle Flotilla

Antarctican Battle Flotilla

I’m really impressed with the product you receive out the box as altogether it must have taken less than half an hour to get all those models ready for undercoating. Mold lines are to a complete minimum, or missing entirely from everything but the metal models, and the detail present is fantastic. It’s going to be weird doing a force with absolutely no basing required though, until we start getting into ground forces that is.

Having had a wee read through the rulebook I think this may take me a while to get my head around but there does seem to be a good presence of players at the local gaming shop (including some Spartan play-testers), so hopefully I can get some help from the guys in the know. I’ll let you know how I get on…