Wargame news from Victrix, Wargames Factory, ...

Hi, here's another newsflash about the newest releases of the wargame industry! First of all we have Victrix which is proud to announce that the four napoleonic Austrian army sets are due to be released! Each of these sets will include 48 Infantry, 2 officers, 2 drummers, 2 flagbearers and 2 mounted colonels. Giving you a total of 56 miniatures for only £20! This also allows players to make two full 24 men-battalions.

The four sets are

• Austrian infantry (helmet)
• Austrian infantry (shako)
• Austrian grenadiers (of which you can see a picture below)
• Austrian landwehr

But if that wasn't enough Victrix is also releasing their metal British Light Dragoons for the Peninsular War 1808-1812 uniform both command and troopers. These figures have been sculpted by Paul Hicks. He has put some great character and movement into these models and they are packed with fine, crisp detail making them a joy to paint.

Yes! And finally there are pictures of the Perry Miniature plastic Ansar! The box contains 40 28mm multi-part, hard-plastic miniatures, including command. These can be assembled to represent the Beja (Fuzzy Wuzzies) (early or late war), Kordofan rebels, or Nile Arabs that fought the British and Egyptian forces between 1881-85 during the Mahdist Uprising. There are two command sprues and three infantry on which are 40 Beja heads, and 40 bare-headed and capped ones as well. All arms are separate with a mixture of spears, swords, throwing sticks, and eight rifles. The 36 shields are intended for the Beja.

The full content of the box, 40 miniatures for only £18! Perry quality at a more than reasonable price!

And Warlord Games is also releasing lots of new miniatures! First of all we have the Puma armoured car! The Puma is one of the best-looking armoured cars of WWII. A variant of the Sdkfz 234 it boasted a fully enclosed turret with a 5cm gun and thicker armour than other variants. Despite this additional armour the Puma was still capable of speeds greater than 50 miles per hour (that's 85km to you metrically obstinate Europeans) and saw use as a scout vehicle as even the thickened armour didn't offer much in the way of protection.

The second new kit is the Russian anti-tank team! With a lack of their own anti-tank weapons the Soviet forces had to be resourceful when fighting German armour. Our Anti Tank team consists of three men, one with a Soviet anti-tank rifle, one with a captured Panzerfaust and finally a dog handler armed with a PPsh. The dog is an anti-tank dog and has been trained to search for food under tanks. When carrying an explosive pack this makes for an effective, certainly controversial, anti-armour weapon.

There's also some news from Northstar Military Figures, no new miniatures but finally they have added some more photo's of the great DeeZee Miniatures prehistoric animals! Just look at this massive beast!

And at last we have a preview of the Wargames Factory artwork for their Shocktroopers heavy weapons set! Not sure what you are thinking but I think it's a massive improvement especially when compared with their British firing line artwork!

I hope you enjoyed this newsflash!

Greets,

African native fort

Hi, here are some photo's of a new terrain piece I've been making for my Mbuij Mayi/ Darkest Africa setting. This time I decided to make a Boma or a fortified place where civilians could hide during a raid of slavers. I was inspired when I read some interesting things on Wikipedia. I also did some further research on Congolese fortifications in books of the colonization of the Congo by Leopold II.

"Fortifications. Angolan armies at times made extensive use of fortifications. In a 1585 campaign against the Portuguese, the Ndongo for example constructed palisaded camps, each a day's journey apart. Use of strong defensive positions on hilltops or in forests was also common, as was the use of fortifications in offensive maneuvers. The Imbangala for example usually built a strong fort in enemy territory to bait opponents into exhausting their strength against it. Some of these positions could be quite formidable, with trenches, parapets, hidden roads, sharpened stake traps, mutually supporting bulwarks, and covered trenches to protect against artillery." from wikipedia

After some research I decided to built a generic round fort with parapets and palissades, here are some photo's. I started the built with the search of some old terrain I had lying around that was never finished.

Then I added the huts, the outer and inner pallisade. afterwards I filled the gaps between the pallissade with plaster to from the parapets.

Then I textured the piece with PVA glue and white sand and give it two basecoats of scorced earth.

Hopefully it will be finished soon!

Greets,

Orc regiment by Gamesworkshop!

Hi, here are some pictures of my Lord of The Rings Orc regiment in the making! This entire bunch of miniatures was painted in less than three hours by using a block paint and wash approach! First of all I basecoated the miniatures with Chaos black, afterwards I painted the clothing in all sorts of browns and the armor in Boltgun metal followed by a black wash. Then I painted the flesh in all sorts of colors and decided to wash the entire model with Devlan mud. This was the best thing I could possibly do, the miniatures looked stunning and I decided to paint all my orcs this way!

The result:

• 3 Orc archers
• 1 Orc captain
• 1 Orc banner
• 1 Orc character Gorbag with shield
• 4 Orcs with spear
• 5 Orc with double handed weapons
• 4 Orcs with swords and shield

Overall result, 19 orcs painted to a great wargame standard in less than three hours!

Greets,

Revisiting a project!

Hi, As some may know I've recently finished the main companies of my first napoleonic battalion. I decided to make 24 men battalions each with a skirmish screen of 4 voltiguers. I already finished 13 soldiers for my next battalion and has enough men to make a third and fourth! Enough for a Brigade!

I've already started to paint a unit of cuirrasiers which will exist out of 12 men including the command figures. I've also decided that I will probably base the entire army on bases of warbases.co.uk as I quit like the look of slightly thicker bases and they are very well priced!

Greets,

Supplying Fort Henry

Hi, Today I've managed to play another small solo skirmish game in an attempt to finetune my homemade statistics for my Mbuij Mayi units. The game was played on a 1,50 m x 1,50 m with in the upper right corner, Fort Henry. The rules used were a modified version of the Lord of The Rings strategy game ruleset.

British

• 6 Porters
• 4 Ironclad troopers
• 1 Ironclad officer (2 heroic points)
• Garrison (six soldiers)

Natives

• 15 Native warriors

Special rules

• Endless hordes of natives, every killed native warrior will respawn in one of the two respawning points.

• Limited ammunition, Fort Henry is short on supplies, the six soldiers stationned at the Fort can only fire volleys for six turns.

Set up

The native force is divided in two groups each starting from fixed spawning points. The British start in the down left corner of the table.

Battle report

During the first turn, both native warbands advanced quickly towards the supply column ignoring difficult terrain. In the meanwhile the supply column carrying vital ammunition supplies for Fort Henry slowly advanced through the dense undergrowth. Aware of the dangerous situation of the supply column, the Fort commander ordered his men to fire a volley killing four natives.

A picture of the supply column guarded by the feared Ironclad troopers. These Ironclad troopers have a bad reputation with the natives as their stabbing and throwing spears are often not able to pierce the thick body armor (defence 6). To express this in the game, the natives who want to attack an Ironclad trooper must succeed in a moral test!

During turn two, the natives advanced as quickly as they could, unaware that they were now in range of the Ironclad troopers pistols, they endured two casualties. In turn three, the natives closed in but just weren't able to throw their throwing spears. The Ironclad troopers fired several shots killing one native warrior. A volley from the Fort killed another four savage Mbuij Mayians!

During turn three, a fierce melee started which lasted for two turns. A bloody clash of spears and swords as Ironclad troopers fought a desperate battle in an attempt to protect the vulnerable porters. The result one dead native, one dead porter and his precious load! Another volley of the Fort killed another three natives.

During the sixth turn, the garrison of the Fort managed to kill four native warriors as they attempted to attack the helpless porters. In the seventh turn, the unthinkable happened the natives retreated from the everlasting melee and threw their spears towards the supply column. The result three dead portes, decimating the small supply column! In the meanwhile the garrison of Fort Henry had used up all their ammunition and wasn't able to help the column with more accurate volleys.

During the eight turn, the desperate Ironclad officer used a heroic point as the natives won the initiative again! This move enabled the supply column to reach the proximity of the Fort. In the ninth and tenth turn, the remaining Ironclad troopers fought for their lives but weren't able to repel the endless native hordes and two Ironclad troopers lost their lives in an desperate attempt to protect the remaining porter.

In the eleventh turn, the last porter and the Ironclad officer entered the safety of the Fort while the last remaining Ironclad troopers was still fighting for his life! Luckily for the last Ironclad trooper, the ammunition of the porter enabled the garrison to unleash several deadly volleys which killed six natives.

The result of the game, 23 dead native warriors, four Ironclad troopers and five porters. Luckily for the garrison, one porter was able to carry a box of much needed ammunition to Fort Henry. For each box which reached the Fort, one dice was thrown. The result was the number of turns the garrison could fire volleys in the following games in this case five!

I hope you liked this small battle report!

Greets,

Raid on Farm Mckinly

Hi, here's a small battle report of little solo skirmish battle I fought this afternoon. The game was played on a 1,50 m x 1,50 m table with in the middle of the table the farm. The rules used were a modified version of the Lord of The Rings strategy game ruleset.

British

• 1 British officer armed with pistol
• 7 British soldiers armed with Henry-Martin
• 1 Female settler unarmed
• 1 Settler boy unarmed
• 1 Settler armed with musket

Natives

• 15 Native warriors

Special rules

• The British soldiers and their officer will only enter the board on 5+ during the first turn and on 4+ during the second and so on! Reinforcement arrive on the southern side.
• The British family with the exception of the man can only move when the reinforcements arrive.

Set up

The natives start in the northern corners of the table in two groups. The settler family starts in the center of the farmstead while the man is returning from an unsuccesful hunt and starts on the southern side.

Battle report

During the first two turns the British failed to throw enough eyes to let the reinforcements arrive. In the meanwhile the natives were quickly advancing towards the helpless settlers. The hunter ran towards his family as quickly as possible!

The third turn, natives are crossing the fences which form a rather modest protection against raiders and dangerous wildlife. Still no sign of the reinforcements!

In the fourth turn the natives close in as the hunter has finally reached his family and starts to move towards the southern edge of the table (slow, only 10cm)! Yes, the reinforcements have arrived from Fort Henry!

During the fifth turn, the reinforcements started to form a firing line and unleashed a modest volley against the natives causing two casulaties! The settlers moved towards their rescue.

The sixth turn, the settlers were now in relative safety as the firing line blocked the native advance. Another volley was fired causing only one dead native, enraged by the death of one of their tribe members, the remaining warriors threw their throwing spears causing two casulaties among the British!

During the seventh turn, the natives won the initiative and charged the firing line, what followed was a brutal melee as bayonets and spears clashed! The battle quickly turned in the favor of the native hordes as they outnumbered the remaining British soldiers, two to one!

During the eight turn, the natives won the initiative again! Again they charged the British with all of their warriors! The result, two dead soldiers!

The ninth turn, again the natives won the initiative, charging and killing the last remains of the relief column. Luckily the loss of these brave souls wasn't fruitless, the settler family safely reached Fort Henry!

The result of the raid on farm Mckinly, eight dead british and three dead native warriors! The natives set the farm alight and retreated towards their jungle villages! Learning from this disaster, the British High Command ordered a regiment of Ironclad troopers to reinforce the Fort. Other settlers in the area were evacuated to the main colony of Victoriana as more news of similar raids reached the High Command.

I hope you enjoyed this small battle report!

Greets,

Improvised British colonial rocket unit

Hi, here's another picture of one of my finished British units for Mbuij Mayi. This time a homemade rocket and three Foundry crew members. These rockets will not be very effective but they will certainly scare off native hordes!

I hope you like this small unit!

Greets,

On the paintingtable! Lord of the Rings miniatures

Hi, It has been a busy wargame period as I managed to paint up 19 Lord of The Rings Orcs, 6 Cardinals' musketeers, 15 french napoleonics! With these napoleonics painted up I finally finished one 24-men battalion withour their voltiguers (4) and started a new battalion which is already painted up for 1/3!

The orcs I've painted up were really fast to paint as I blockpainted them and gave them a Devlan Mud Wash afterwards which gives them a dirty and ragged look! Here you can see a picture of a part of the orc horde waiting for their wash to dry.

So stay tuned as more painted miniatures will appear on the blog!

Greets,

Warbases: Wooden bases

Hi, today I'm reviewing the bases of Warbases.co.uk! Searching on the internet on how to base miniatures, I always found people are using all sorts of commercial or homemade bases. I've been making bases at home but could not reach the level of perfection I wanted! There for I contacted the people at Warbases for some samples for a review, the people were really helpful and sent me out a package of all sorts of bases. So here's a review for people who are doubting on how to base their armies in a cheap and nice way!

In general

The wooden bases made by the people of Warbases can be bought in two kinds of thickness namely two and three milimeters. This to fulfill the needs of wargamers who prefer thin bases so the bases blend in with the tabletop or wargamers who prefer to have thicker bases so they can move their armies around without the need of touching the miniatures themselves.

The second choice you need to make is to go for laser cut bases or just sawn bases. To make this choice much easier, I have included a photo of a laser cut base (the base on the right) and a sawn one. Personnaly I prefer the laser cut bases above the sawn bases as they seem to fit better when you rank them up. These bases cost about a third more but are still relativly cheap when mass-basing your army!

Bases!

At Warbases you can bought bases in all sorts of forms such as square, rectangle, polygonic, circular! Well about everything you can imagine as they also offer custom bases adapted to your needs! To give you an idea of the square bases I added some pictures of the different thicknesses, lasered and sawn ones!

First of the lasered 3mm square bases (my prefered bases)!

Secondly the sawn 3mm square bases.

Thirdly the lasered 2mm square bases.

Fourtly the sawn 2mm square bases.

The prices of these bases are really cheap as can see the following list!

20mm x 20mm square bases (in packs of 30) £1.00*

40mm x 20mm square bases (in packs of 20) £1.00*

40mm x 40mm square bases (in packs of 16) £1.00*

50mm x 50mm square bases (in packs of 12) £1.00*

* for lasered bases + £0.50

For more information about the available range and prices go the well-designed website.

Movement trays

Warbases also offers an extensive range of movement trays for most of the available gaming systems such as War of The Rings, Flames of War, ... But if you want custom movement trays just sent them an email and probably they will be able to make these for you. An example of a custom movement tray suited for five Eurocents can be seen under this text. As a guide this custom base will cost you £0.80, ideal!

The movement tray with some miniatures based on five Eurocent pieces!

Conclusion!

Your basing problems are solved, just go to Warbases.co.uk and place your order as soon as possible! You will be impressed by the quality you receive and the price! You also don't need to worry but what if I need some custom base for my artillery or limbers?

Greets,

15th Ironclad regiment

Hi, here's a photo of one of my units for my British colonial expedition force! This time, the 15th Ironclad regiment of which two companies are stationned at Fort Henry in Mbuij Mayi. The miniatures are made by Ironclad Miniatures and were again fully painted with GW paints.

The background story of the 15th Ironclad regiment can be found here in the Mbuij Mayi Journal!

Greets,

Tales of conquest and exploration Mbuij Mayi!

Hi, finally I found a way to share a PDF on the world wide web! So here's the first volume of the journal.

Volume 1, Tales of conquest and exploration Mbuij Mayi

• A cultural study of the Turi
• Plans for a Mungo-Victoriana railway!
• British fortifications in Mbuij Mayi
• In search of Miss Alison
• Battle of Bakangou, the first bloody encounter with the Piayle pirates
• The 15th Ironclad regiment
• News from the Mbuij Mayian Colonies!

Greets,

Wargame news from Renedra, Avatars of War, ...

Hi, here's a lot of wargame news! Starting with the release of the awesome Avatars of War Dwarf Berserkers! These multipose plastic Dwarf set will enable you to build up to 17 troopers and 3 command figures. As most of the plastic kits avaible , this kit is also tooled and produced by Renedra! So quality of the plastic used will not cause any problems! This kit is available for pre order at Wayland Games for the fair price of £20!

The second new item is the game called "Bushido" which is a skirmish game set in Japan during the Samurai era but with a fantasy touch in the form of demons and magic! This new game is created by inventive team of GCT Studios. The first releases of the game will exist out of four factions each with their own number of faction members, strengths and weaknesses. Each of these starterkits will contain dices and the free quick rules for the game along with the stat cards for your faction members. These factions cost £27.95 and contain five to seven pewter extremly detailled miniatures! These miniatures are also directly available at Wayland Games.

The most exciting news for me is the release of the free science fiction rules at Mantic Games! Finally there will be another large wargame company with their own range of miniatures, backgrounds and rulesets! I'm really looking forward to see the miniatures for these ruleset! These free beta rules are downloadable from the Mantic Games website.

Another release of Mantic Games their second boardgame! This time the boardgame is called "Dwarf King's Hold Green Menace" and will contain a ruleset, dices, dungeon tiles, elves and orcs! This boardgame is avaible at the Mantic Games shop for the price of £34.99!

Another new rulebook is due to be released by Warlord Games! Actually it isn't an new ruleset but a supplement for their amazing Black powder ruleset. This new supplement will cover specific rules for the 18th century of warfare such as rules for raids and invasions, the French and Indian wars and so on! for more information go to the Warlord Games Website!

There is also the release of the Wargames Factory multi pose skeleton warriors! These miniatures must be the best set they every released, just check out these painted examples! The miniatures are scaled 28mm and are made in hard plastic. These skeletons just shout out to be faced against Jason and his Argonauts! The set contains 30 of these miniatures at the retail price of $ 19.95! For more information and the possibility to buy them go to Wargames Factory Shop! But there is more wargames factory is now also showing some previews of their Stormtrooper heavy weapons set and their long awaited WSS cavalry!

At last there are the Bengali and Mysorean command and sepoy figures from Golconda Rising! This awesome private range is now available from Eureka miniatures, they aren't mentionned on the online shop so sending them an email is probably the best option if you want to buy these figures!

A photo of the Mysorean infantry! Four different poses available.

Photo of the Mysorean command set, I especially like the standard bearer!

I hope you liked this rather large newsflash!

Greets,

Kapiti warriors

Hi, here are some pictures of my Kapiti warriors for my Mbuij Mayi setting! The miniatures are wargame Factory zulu's but can be used for a whole array of native warriors as they are so generic as possible. The miniatures were painted with GW paint and based on 5 Eurocent pieces as it gives them some weight. They will probably get another coat of paint on the bases and will be varnished somewhere in the near future.

First of all my native gladiator and two spearmen.

Another bunch of natives armed with knobkerries and spears.

Second batch of native warriors again armed with spear and knobkerrie.

And the last batch!

Greets,