NOT SURE IF POSTING THIS RANT BLOG

WHY O WHY O WHY ETC ETC

can't rules writers ,when writing a rulebook place everything relevant to each other together. Its bad enough struggling with a new rule set, or a newer version of one you know ,with out looking in 15 places to peice together a paragraph of writing to tell you what to do.

This blog is being written because of not one rulebook but many, its just the Dystopian wars rulebook, is the straw that broke the camels back. Why the rant? You ask. Let me explain.

  I want to know if a flight of tiny flyers; Dive bombers, to be exact. Can split its fire, between to targets. In a well laid out rulebook, this would be easy. But in the Dystopian Wars book ooooooo no, let me talk you through this , to show you why I am raged.

  If you have the rulebook, I will drop page numbers in so you can follow my rantings, I am using the ver1.1, the rules for tiny flyers are on page 48, it talks about them being set up, landing taking off etc. But nothing about how they attack or defend, even though they attack and defend different to other things. Tiny flyers are able to combine attack rather than link, this is on page 62; it states and I quote, "tiny flyer CAN - COMBINE FIRE with ORDANANCE with stands in their wing". This to me says they can , but don't have to, my problem with this is, does this mean if they don't COMBINE they can hit a different target to the others in base contact ?

Next is SPLIT FIRE on page 49, again I quote "ORDANANCE and AUX weapons can SPLIT FIRE to allocate any available attack dice (AD) amongst VALID TARGETS". Now to see what is VALID for a TINY FLYER, we have to look to page 64. Again here I will quote, " a tiny flyer dive bomber wing uses BOMB ORDANANCE.it does NOT use RANGE BANDS, it has a RANGE of 0inch, the wing MUST be in contact with the MODEL, BASE or STAND of the target". Now this is a problem if I have a wing making contact with 2 vessels technically they are both VALID, technically then I can COMBINE and/or SPLIT my ATTACK DICE (AD) between 1 or both of these 2 vessels

OR CAN I, I don't frigging know do you? 

So I return to my first point why is this not all in one section why do I need to search for 30 minutes to piece together a paragraph or sentences that allow me to work out if I can or can't attack something. Worse still because I am having to piece together this its open to interpretation of the reader or readers, see I think I can split fire as you can see by my musing, I concur with my thoughts during the last game I had with ASH. he was unsure either wat and said, err on side of caution till we knew, hence why I tried to suss it out.

So can I or can't I.

The adventures/misadventures of Chezhinka

Where O where to begin, I have decided to go a bit curve ball, ok a lot 'curve ball', with my Russian Confederate fleet carriers. As in I am going for slabs of ice fitted together for runway rather than wood, Crazy huh, lol.

Let me explain in very cold places they clear snow, to smooth ice, so planes can land. The carriers make icebergs. Wooden runways on ships, in real world, need replacing loads. So the carrier can resupply its runway whenever it wants using its generators.
  Ash likes the scheme, but as we like to pull each others pigtails, he called my mighty carrier, SNOWFLAKE. This translated into Russian is..........

Chezhinka

I like it, it's catchy, so I am taking ownership of the insult. It's staying as the carrier's name, Now what to call the other one, hmmmmmmmmm.

Iceberg = Aysberg, not sure

Trial paint scheme for Dystopian Wars, Covenant of the Antarctic

So I said to ash, if I do your CoA black,like you wanted it will be to much like your Dropzone forces. I said as a 'off the cuff' idea, military use camouflage & your guys are surrounded by ICE, it make sense to paint them like icebergs / ice flows or whatever the proper term is. So here goes a trial scheme. The first photo is of my Russian carriers icebergs, they are deliberately over blued, otherwise if I did them realistic they would be WHIIIIITE, so artistic licence was used, my hope is his ships will look similar to this, in photo 1, you can see the carrier's icebergs.

Well as you can see the blue/white is done now, in photos 2 & 3. The guns and engine/moving parts are yet to be done, I'm thinking I will go copper for archimedes' screw. Guns I thinking leave alone on smaller vessels.

The forth photo is of the vessel with metal parts done, only thing left outstanding is the archimedes' screw device.

Beards first look at the new Warhammer 40,000 6th edition rules

EDIT:  IT SEEMS THE PERSON WHO TALKED ME THROUGH IT WAS STILL NEW TO THE RULES

As the title suggested, after delaying the inevitable first game of 40k, it has happened, so here are my thoughts.

First off let's start with the book itself; it looks amazing and for the first time in ages it seems to be put together in the right order, I know, I know, but it does on first glance seem to be the case.

Secondly, let's get to, for me what I think was going to be, the "elephant in the room", the main thing to scare me was the psychic phase. At first glance it appears that there isn't one, but it's carried out during the other phases of the game. Is it over powered? I have no idea, at all. Time will, as they say, tell.

Thirdly, and and this is after only 2 games of it being played, mind you, it seems the "beer and pretzels" tag is GW way to do away with loop holes and streamlining the game. ie, vehicles just have to be behind cover, and not 50% covered, and yes its silly that a "supermodel" can give cover to a "lemon fresh" Russ. But how many times have you or a player kicked off about the precise amount of the%. If - "that's 40.5% so u ain't in cover" or "my tank is 50.1% in cover" sounds like you, well done, you are why Kate Moss gives cover to my Tank, so "tank you". While on the subject of cover, it appears that some/most levels of cover have been reduced by one, on the surface, this appears bad, but, now instead of taking the best of 2 or 3 covers you could use, you add +1 to your base cover save, for every extra piece it goes through. Ie, you hide behind a wall, that's a 5+ cover but another wall is between you and the firers. Old rules would make you choose a 5+ or a 5+, under new rules, you get a 4+ cover save.

EDIT: OK HAVING NOW GOT MY HANDS ON A BOOK THEY MODELS HAVE TO BE 25% COVERED NOT JUST BEHIND IT. SECOND, IT APPEARS THE COVER SAVES DONT STACK,UST THROUGH MY FIRST READ THROUGH OF RULES, I MAY BE BACK TO RE-EDIT THIS.

Forth there will be always rules we hate, like or think are stooooopid, I am the same so I can't moan about peeps who do, I think we all do. It's human nature I think or at least a British one, lol. But the new rules I have seen don't fill me with dread, the one about your main guy getting a super perk is cool, its random, so no cheese festing, the replacement psychic powers are random and there fore maybe not over powered (maybe we will see), wounds taken of front I like, not from clappers at the back. Whether I like the rule of rolling on front person till a wound is taken, I am unsure of, as said it's only 2 games. But, I didn't come across anything rules wise, that made me want to invade a small country. That's gotta be a good thing, right?

EDIT: THE FRONT MAIN ON MULTIPLE SAVES TYPE IS WORRYING ME, A CHARACTER WITH A 2+ BASIC 3+ INV WITH 4 WOUNDS CUD SWALLOW 10 20 30 HITS ON A UNIT THAT WOULD OTHER WISE WIPE OUT A UNIT, HMMM OVER BOARD MUCH I THINK.

So I can only say as my fifth point I am not done with the the new 40k, as I have had said, it's only been 2 games, I think the game deserves a few more play throughs for me to fully absorb it all
Hopefully I haven't bored you with my ramblings, drop a comment. Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts or have something to add,

EDIT: AGAIN PLEASE COMMENT ON MY EDIT MUSINGS, AM I MISSING SOMETHING????

Of Wargaming and Music.

Dropzone Commander unboxing blog has yet to materialise, but until I get that done, I've been thinking about music one can wargame to - the Beard has a CD player in the same room as his gaming table, and the Outpost often had music playing in the background. The Beards CD player had as yet gone unused, but the Outpost often plays discs I assume are brought in by members of staff, who fortunately have a better taste in music than the drivel usually played on local radio stations.

It doesn't really set much of an atmosphere though, so I've been wondering what sort of music would? Would classical music be suitable for the epic naval battles of Dystopian Wars or the titanic clashes of Warmachine? Would the Halo soundtrack add that little extra something to a game of Dropzone Commander? I don't know, but I'm going to find out!

http://www.realmwargames.com/

Our friend Peter has started his own online wargaming shop at http://www.realmwargames.com/. As of this post he only has the Mantic range in stock, but he's going to expand into Magic: the Gathering, Anima Tactics, Dystopian Wars and more very soon!

As much as we've only been blogging a couple of days ourselves and probably don't have any regular readers yet, we wanted to do our bit to help!

Dropzone Commander Get!

Dropzone Commander from Hawk Wargames has just landed at our local gaming shop The Outpost and has literally flown off the shelves in a matter of days, and I am, fortunately, now out of terrible puns! Dropzone Commander is a 10mm science fiction tabletop wargame featuring ground infantry, mechanised armour and futuristic aircraft, which is enough to make it relevant to my interests!

I picked up a rulebook and the Premium United Colonies of Mankind Starter Army. The UCM are similar in design to the USMC of the Halo series of videogames (no seven-foot soldiers in powered armour though) which is why I chose them - I like the idea that even though some of the technology in use on these vehicles does not and may not ever exist, it wouldn't be a great leap of the imagination to believe that the vehicles of the USMC Halo or the UCM of Dropzone Commander is the shape they would take if it did!

The premium packages are a winning touch as far as the Beard and I are concerned. We're already fans of KR Multicase, but to get a case already filled with custom cut foam trays specifically for the package you buy is pure excellence!

During the next week I'm going to put together a post going through the contents of the UCM premium starter set with lots of pictures provided my camera is up for it. That's all I wanted to say really, I'm just not very good at doing short, to the point blogs.

THIS... IS... STUDIO SPARTA!!!

Spartan Games has recently revealed Studio Sparta!

The best way I can see of describing it using as few words as possible is this: If Spartan Games was Games Workshop, Studio Sparta would be Forge World, but without the incredibly expensive prices.

Having had a look on the website, it seems like it may be a selling point for stuff that hasn't made it into one of Spartan Games other systems, but that people may be interested in having - it could even be a testing ground of sorts to see how well stuff sells before it gets put into or sold along side Spartan Games other systems, checking how much interest there is before making it available for retailers to stock.

Fortunately, Spartan Games is not Games Workshop, so prices are good, matching those of Spartan Games own retail products. The most expensive is the Goliath Giant at £30, but it does look to be a huge model, and does come with an alternate pair of arms. They also link back to the Spartan Games website where rules for using the Goliath in games of Uncharted Seas are available. The Invaders look like they could have come straight from War of the Worlds and look like they would go great in Dystopian Wars, so hopefully we'll see some naval and aerial themed models soon - it seems they don't come with any stat cards but I'm sure the Spartan Games forum will quickly create stats for them! Lastly is the Firestorm Armarda inspired Firestorm Invasion, a 10mm mechanised ground warfare game. I don't know anything about Firestorm Armarda other than it's a science fiction based space combat game, but what I do find interesting about Firestorm Invasion is that you can only get the rules by buying a kickstart pack. Given its current popularity, I can't help but wonder if Spartan Games are trying to emulate Kickstarter and just weren't very imaginative with the name!

Spartan Games announces Dystopian Legions!

Spartan Games have announced Dystopian Legions, a 28mm tabletop wargame based on Dystopian Wars!

Since pretty much all my previous wargaming experience has taken place at this sort of scale I'm quite excited about it, especially considering how much I like the Dystopian Wars setting - I like, and consider myself a bit of a Steampunk, so I like stuff like Dystopian Wars and Warmachine, wargames that employ a new take on what these days would be considered a more antique technology.

From what images Spartan Games have teased us with so far and from what I know of the Dystopian Wars rules I've had a few thoughts on what we could get:

Infantry: I can see these working like small and medium squadrons, with models having a single health point, with dice being rolled to overcome an armour value/damage rating to inflict death upon a model, in a similar way to how combat works in Dystopian Wars. Likewise, I imagine models will have the same sort of firing options available to them as models in Dystopian Wars do, such as being able to link fire to take down larger, heavier infantry targets, or being able to use something similar to the indirect fire option to represent firing while hiding in cover and not aiming properly. Likewise I could see cover either increasing the armour rating/damage rating, or making it harder for the opponent to hit, such as going from 4's to 5's perhaps. Squads would have a couple of models that carry more specialist weaponry such as flame throwers and rocket launchers and sniper rifles.

Heavy Infantry: I see these being similar to infantry but tougher, capable of taking multiple hits, and carrying much bigger guns. Things like the Teutonic Knights of the Prussian Empire. I imagine they'd have a firing option equivalent of split fire, allowing them to use their big guns' high rate of fire to attack multiple models.

Tanks: I've not really played Dystopian Wars from a land perspective so can't really draw any comparison to them there, but I imagine they would be like the equivelant of a Dreadnought or a Battleship at sea - big, tough, scary and nasty. Like the Landships perhaps?

Tiny Fliers: Except they wouldn't be so tiny. They'd be fast, strong, and cost a fair chunk of points out of your list. They'd probably also be quite fragile, but would be a real terror to tanks and infantry alike while on the table.

Commanders/Generals: I imagine these would act in a similar manner as a fleet commodore, being able to buff allied squads and such while on the table, while also being able to take part in battle itself as well! When I first saw the image of Oberleutnant Lily Reitsch in the Dystopian Wars 1.1 rulebook, my first thought was that at some point Character Commodores were going to be introduced that would have individual Command Abilities and/or would allow players to use themed lists similar to those found in Warmachine, allowing for new and different fleets to be played by doing things such as increasing the maximum size of a squad or decreasing the points cost of a model, or that some sort of larger-scale wargame was in the works.

Dystopian Legions wont be released until October, but if the prices of things are anywhere near as cheap as what those for Dystopian Wars are, I can see it becoming quite popular rather quickly!

So the table is assembled finally

As stated after much deliberation of how to make the table a fold away, we have a mission complete status.

Originally we were gonna go for a 2 sided board one side green and the other blue, obviously for land and sea.  We were going to achieve this by having 2 panels of 6'x2' and counter sinking the hinges so the 2 panels would make a 6x4' board but fold nicely away, easy I hear you say.

Well very early on we decided, well tbh, I decided sod it, we will use cloth mats. But the idea of counter sinking the hinges never got altered.

Any ways to cut a long boring story down into a short boring one, some idiot went and bought hinges without fully checking they open through basically 360°, (that'll be me. So that when we looked to fix them onto said wood they wouldn't close / open as planned.

This caused much debate on whether to try and alter hinges to work or to buy more. This is promise is very near the end now.
At about 11.30pm tonight, well yesterday now.  I had a "MOMENT OF CLARITY" realising that A) we didn't need to counter sinking hinges and 2) (yes A&2, done deliberately, all you grammar nazi types out there) if we used only 2 hinges separated just far enough apart the dining table would slot between them. Just not having a 3rd in the middle of the panels, creating a ramp effect with a gap in it. Seeing as they are door hinges, there should be enough strength to carry the weight, while its opened up and placed down.

Hoorah table is now sorted, next for me to sort is hills,trees, buildings, rivers and roads etc.

Atm my painting station is more a painting table, on the go i have

i) 2 of my khador jacks, Widows that are all under way
ii) my Russian Dystopian wars naval fleet
iii) Ashs British naval fleet of 1000pts

I have waiting to be under coated my assassin sqd for my khador, Sorcha, and 1 more jack. My FoW Russian horde is never ending be it infantry or tanks, boy do I love tanks,  my 40K imperial guard army has 21 Leman Russes, but I digress, lol. Ash is waiting to chuck me his Antarctic naval fleet, his Khador, Cygnar and Mercs.  It's a gd job I have a hobby room, the other half, bless her, calls it a "dining room" to fit it all in. Will I ever clear my paint station, NO. Will anyone painter ever have an empty station, I DOUBT IT. Notice Ash is said painters not hobbyist, so no need to cherp in with what you think is a clever comment. 

A Post by the Other Guy!

As the Beard so eloquently put it in his introduction post, I am Atomic Ash, and I will also be posting to this blog.  The Beard claims his moniker comes from him having a bushy beard and is not because he's a beardy player. Some people would say that is a lie.

He is right when he says that our opinions do not reflect those of the owners of blogger. We'd probably be a horrible PR team for google to hire!

The games systems I'm playing at the minute are Warmachine, in which I'm playing Khador, Cygnar and Mercenaries, and Dystopian Wars, in which I'm playing the Covenant of Antarctica and Kingdom of Britannia. I do have a some Royal Marines for Flames of War, but the game has yet to really grab me. I enjoy World War II from an aviation perspective, but the infantry side of it does nothing for me. The Beard tends to lean towards any Russian themed faction going, so you can most likely guess who he plays in Warmachine/Dystopian Wars/Flames of War.

I can't paint for toffee (or coconut macaroons, a culinary speciality of the Beard) so I probably won't make many hobby based posts, those will be the responsibility of the Beard. Instead, my posts will lean more towards game mechanics, list building, tactics and battle reports. As for the 'why' of doing a blog in the first place? It gives me something to do on the long night shifts at work. As for the Beard, I suspects he just wants to bombard one of our wargaming friends with spam tweets about it whenever a new post goes up to see how he likes it, I just hope he'll wait while we've got some actual content up!

The first post of WHO ROLLS WINS

this will b the ramblings of 2 table top gamers, me "The Beard" and "Atomic Ash". I would like to point out my nickname comes from my bushy beard,  not coz i am a beardy/beardie!?! player, just so u know the opinions expressed here by us 2, may not be the opinions of the owners of this blog.......
Oops wait Erm
So we both play warmachine, both of us are just starting out with dystopian wars. I myself dabble heavily with FoW, I am trying to get Ash excited about it but hmmmmm.

I am just building my first gaming table, as I have just recently moved into a place big enough to house one. Expect photos of scenery etc to follow. As well as painted stuff from WM and DW. Also expect rants about victories, boasting about losses and all sorts. Some maybe about wargaming who knows lol.