The Bellows class airship for the Iron Dwarves brings air power to their faction in the Uncharted Seas game. Although a large class ship, it is only as tough as a Hammer cruiser but a little faster. It has decent broadsides but its bomb is what is dangerous, with everything within 4" of its flight peg taking a ten dice attack once per game. It has a higher critical rating from attacks made by non-flying models at short and medium range, although is easier to be hit by non-flying models by one. It will also explode if reduced to zero hull and has one or more fire markers on it plus if it loses all of its crew it will drift with the wind until it leaves the table. It is the cheapest large model in the Iron Dwarf arsenal, costing the same points as a heavy cruiser.
Tabletop miniatures, role-playing games, boardgames, military history and gaming in Victoria B.C. Canada
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Iron Dwarves - Bellows Class Airship
Friday, July 30, 2021
Iron Dwarves - Guardian Class Floating Citadel
The Guardian is a tough Iron Dwarf lumbering floating fortress for the Uncharted Seas game. I comes with battleship quality bulwark guns (firing from any two of the four points) and effective fortress guns (firing from between the points). To repel boarders it uses four dice against assaulting crew before they roll to attack. It also has sharpshooters that can take a pot shot each turn in short range in order to take out a crew point. Event though its slow it can move in any direction each turn.
Sunday, July 25, 2021
Iron Dwarves - Piston Ram Cruiser
The Piston Cruisers are a force to be reckoned with for the Iron Dwarf faction in the Uncharted Seas game. It is a little tougher and faster than other cruisers, has a dedicated ram (of course), can bulldoze rammed targets to push them along its path, and reduces the attack dice against it during a ram by half. It also has less damaging broadsides than the Hammer cruiser but does have fore guns.
Saturday, July 24, 2021
Iron Dwarves - Chisel Destroyer
The Iron Dwarf Chisel Destroyer, for Uncharted Seas, is quite nasty for its points. With extreme long range rockets that can take out extra crew, deadly short range fore guns, and weak broadside, this is a ship for going in straight to the enemy and following it up with a boarding action. They are fragile so do not go in alone.
They were painted the way I painted the other Iron Dwarves.
Friday, July 23, 2021
Gaia Project
Gaia Project is a successor to Terra Mystica. In Gaia Project you are one of fourteen factions (races), each with special abilities, that are attempting to colonize planets and expand your race's potential. Each faction has a particular type of planet that is easily colonized with others that require more resources to colonize. There is no conflict in this game beyond which faction claims actions in the shared action pool first and who colonizes/terraforms the planets first. It is a very different game than I have played before with lots that you can do. The strategy is in which pathways to success you will take, which are affected by what other players do.
This game plays well in solo or automa mode and up to four players. Here is how it looks after a game ended, which I lost by just a few points. Each colour can be one of two separate races. I was red or the Hadsch Hallas, a race of traders. From left to right and clockwise is the research board, space sectors, scoring board, round boosters, and faction board.
With 14 factions and random space sectors/advanced tech tiles/round boosters/scoring tiles/final scoring tiles this game can be played again and again with no duplications. I like the different paths you can take to try to achieve victory. Its also nice to have a space game about expanding factions without conflict. I'd like to play this more and with other people. There is also a version on Steam that I will pick up when it is on sale.
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Armorcast Fuel Containers
I picked up these classic Armorcast fuel containers almost a couple of decades ago. I got it for GW 40k games but since I do not play that at this time I can use it for a variety of games. The kit had the resin base and tops for the cans, you just had to provide the cans themselves. I used tall cans.
I painted the base and tops of the cans with various dollarstore paints. The cans themselves were primed black and sprayed silver.Saturday, July 17, 2021
Hardwar
The miniature rules for Hardwar were made from the Horizon Wars rules by Robey Jenkins and added/changed by Strato Minis personages Rafal Zerych and Krzysztof Raczynski by license. Although Robey Jenkins will eventually be coming out with a 2.0 version of his Horizon Wars rules, the Hardwar ruleset is an incredible successor. Especially for under $20 Canadian funds!
The rules have been tweeked/added to with:
1. First initiative being bid upon with action tokens and by lowest action tokens available after the first turn;
2. Electronic Warfare turn which creates an interesting game within a game that can disable special actions for the turn, as well as calling in reserves and strategic assets;
3. Deployment and deep deployment changes;
4. Additional actions including aimed shoot, guard (for later reaction), duck & move for walkers, area bombardment, suppressive fire and special actions (combat drop, relay coordinates, reload, and embarking/disembarking);
5. More robust Close combat including nearby walker/vehicle charge interception;
6. Aircraft rule changes/additions;
7. Lots more terrain and environment options and rules;
8. Decision based tree based mission paths or use missions randomly;
9. Incredibly robust infantry/vehicle/walker/aircraft creation rules and can incorporate pretty much anything you can think of for future combat units. For organic models, the "Over the Horizon" Horizon Wars expansion can fit the bill for kaiju and gribblies with slight modifications.
The models that Strato minis makes are quite nice if you do not have any small scale models. They do terrain too.
I am amazingly happy with this Hardwar next generation ruleset based on the Horizon Wars ruleset. The options will make the United, Insurgency, and Sovereignty factions play differently beyond the basic units. It will also enable me to use other models for different eras and flavors of future combat so I can use my Monsterpocalypse, Robotech, Dropzone Commander, etc models using this ruleset. Even 15-32 mm models could use this ruleset with some creative design creation. Time to finish painting my basic factions, play some games with this ruleset, and start on other models for different themes/genres.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Enlightened - Diogenes Torpedo Sub
For my new Dystopian Wars faction, the Enlightened, I chose the Diogenes Torpedo Sub. The rights are now owned by Warcradle but in the previous edition, owned by Spartan Games, the faction was called the Covenant of Antarctica and the model was called the Diogenes Frigate. I wanted to use this model to try a paint scheme on for size.
It was painted with a black primer, rough drybrushed with dollarstore Craftsmart gunmetal, drybrushed with dollarstore Silver, and lightly drybrushed with Privateer Press Radiant Platinum. For the WW1 dazzle camouflage I used Craftsmart Teal Sea and Craftsmart Sailing Sky. The bronze parts were painted PP Rhulic Gold, model washed with GW Nuln Oil, and yellow on dome and turret energy projectors painted PP Cygnar Yellow.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
GW Craters
These out of print craters from Games Workshop have been calling to me to finish. Painted with dollarstore paints: primed black, dark brown rough drybrush, brown drybrush, light brown/white drybrush. They are useful for a variety of scales.
Saturday, July 3, 2021
Gaslands Car Barriers
I had some spare crunched cars from my car barrier project three years ago. I wanted to make long and thin barriers so made these ten ones. They are the length of a long straight template and should make good lanes for vehicles to drive down in a race or demolition.
I cut the bases out of plasticard, as I already had the bashed cars. I did rough them up for painting ith a scrubby pad.
Terraforming Mars Big Box
I received my Terraforming Mars big box kickstarter! It ended July of 2020 so it only took a year to be designed, made, and shipped which is quite good. Below you see the base game and all the expansions that will fit inside.
Friday, July 2, 2021
Armorcast Japanese Wooden Bridge
I bought this over ten years ago and felt it could use some paint. It is an old Armorcast design when they used to do all kinds of terrain for different eras and generes. Its a Japanese wooden bridge and was painted with dollarstore paints (dark brown rough drybrush, brown drybrush, brown with yellow light drybrush, brown with more yellow lighter drybrush). Its made for 25-28mm scale but good for smaller scales.
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