Pharaoh's gate..... Battlefield in a Box Review.

A slow week, on the painting front, I am still staring at the same 16 Hittites from 2 weeks ago.... I put it down to yet another lockdown and that lack of in person gaming. Keen to ensure I move forward gradually I figured I would give this a bit of make over, an unexpected Christmas gift and one of the latest offering from Battlefield in a Box - Forgotten City Range.

Gamers can be picky about ready made and painted terrain but having spent hours hunched over a table painting miniature warriors who then has the patience to then create the terrain as well? Hence in recent years the rise of straight to table terrain pieces... 

The forgotten city range is loosely based on Egyptian/Babylonian/Assyrian style. The gate has some clean angles which feels largely historical. The walls have a grainy and sand blasted feel to them, which feels in keeping with the period.

The gate is a good size  coming in at 145mm height by 240mm in diameter which feels right for a large scale centre piece and it won't budge once put on the table.

I can see it being used in some forthcoming scenario's for Kings of Bronze or perhaps some of the Atlantis type games should they resurface in the future.

The colouring was not at sandy as on the box cover more grey to my eye, so won't be a perfect mix with my existing terrain and I needed to dry brush the base to fit with my other basing.

I am not sure about the skulls adorning the top of the model and would have perhaps preferred warrior sculpts. Still I suppose it will fit with the Ghost Archipelago games.

On the downside it's weight with two solid resin columns is almost to have for the base, so much so that the base of mine had fractured and cracked across the width of the model, this looks like it is caused by the to columns leaning out and putting stress on the base. It was solved by cementing the roof piece in place to reinforce the base.  I would have perhaps explored hollow columns to reduce the weight?

The edge of the piece is a little fragile and elements could start to chip away over time with numerous game play. 

I disguised the fracture with the occasion tuft, good job that was a style of base I was aiming for.  

An imposing terrain piece you can see with the 25mm Warlord figures on the roof.

Coming in at £25 it's not cheap but will give you a number of gaming choices across a number of periods although you may find yourself rebasing it long term.

How back to the brushes and these flaming Hittites.

2019 - A Year in Review

Well another year draws to a close.

I lost track of the painting tally but it felt like a good year on the brushes, I'll put this down to the launch of the Haitian campaign which drives the painting queue as the games started to creep up in size, it's now been ongoing for a little under 12 months, which is most definitely a record. Based on previous campaigns which seem to fade away after a couple of months.

I did not get as many games in as I would have liked but I suspect that is true of every gamer. But I did make progress on a number of projects and started to clear out some of the lesser collections that not seen game time in many a year or were simply to few in number to put on a reasonable game.

As is customary in the blogosphere I have taken a look back over the past 12 months broken down by the four seasons. Frankie Valli and Vivaldi would be impressed :-)

January - March

The quarter started well with the kick off of the Haitian Campaign, I had press ganged a number of club members and others to play the part of the various factions and players set about hatching their evil schemes. 

Fuelled by players demands for extra troops a number of new units entered the table.

Ghost Archipelago continued to generate some fun games, with Atlantians, Pirates and Marines all fighting for the treasure hidden amongst the jungle ruins.

Marched finished with a Haitian outing at Hammerhead which generated plenty of interest amongst fellow gamers and gave me a target to finish more regulars and artillery.

April - June

A new project which rather surprisingly was finished in year for once, a trip down memory lane taking me back to the 1980's with Crooked Dice's not 'V' the mini-series.

Originally available through their kickstarter when they released 2 blister packs which honestly was not enough, but with a number of head swaps the Visitors are up to 20 strong. Enough for most games although I do need to tweak the flying lead rules a little more.

Although Diana is perhaps the most unluckiest leader being killed or wounded in every game played. Lets hope 2020 brings her a little more luck.

Meanwhile the Haitian Campaign hots up with multiple clashes in the North of the Island with both French and Spanish forces clashing with the Slave armies. 

July - September

The summer and back to another old project with the start of Red Pheonix the North Korean invasion of the South Korea driven largely by the launch of the Seven Days on the Rhine rules, I have yet to get a game on the table. But it was good to get the Infantry rebased in readiness for the first outing hopefully January.

The Wyvern Club were lucky enough to be invited to Keith Flint's Cotswold Wargaming day a fantastic event with plenty of games on offer and a bunch of friendly gamers to share ideas and inspiration with. I had the pleasure of meeting Stuart Asquith and was fortunate enough to win the game of the day.

Sadly Stuart passed away a few weeks ago, a real loss to the hobby but it was great to meet one of the stalwarts of the hobby before his passing.

October - December

Winter is coming..... More Haitians leave the painting queue, this time in the shape of the latest releases from Trent Miniatures, lets hope that 2020 brings some extra reinforcements to this excellent range of figures.

Meanwhile as the year draws to a close. Something evil begins to infect the land, the Witches are back and the Darkness is rising. Thanks to Rick Priestly's new Warlords of Erewhon Fantasy rules. 

The Elizabethan Zombie project is back on..... with extra's for all sides in the forthcoming conflict.

Game of the Year.

Well what a choice.... could it be the Haitian Sieges, the Death of Diana (again) or the Russian WW1 outing?

It has to be the Zombiefest set in the Worcestershire countryside. Fought over 2 nights it saw Britain over run with Zombies and the local constabulary fighting over scraps with the Birmingham Bikers.... 

 

What to expect of 2020

Having had some fun games with the Warlords of Erewhon rules you can definately expect an expansion of the Elizabethan Project, with both Spanish, English and the Army of Darkness lined up.

I have started to clear out some of the lesser projects which have never got off the ground, its amazing what you find in various boxes which were tucked away as the wargames butterfly came calling. I have enough Foundry bare metal to complete 2-3 extra Tudor units, but with a January sale on and paypal funds burning a hole in my pocket the London trained bands might finally enter the table along with more Spanish cavalry...

The forces of Darkness are likely to be bolstered by the Kickstarter from Fireforge Games which finally came through a year after my initial pledge and some random purchases on e-bay. I was bored one night and set myself a goal of winning stuff for under a tenner.....

I quite fancy a sword and sandal outing... The Infamy Infamy rules from the Two Fat Lardies sound good but I want to make use of my desert terrain rather than their setting of Northern Europe, so am tempted by New Kingdom Egyptians. With a release date around Salute it will give me time to draw up some forces and their opponents likely to be Hittie's rather than the Sea People.

Keeping with the Egypt theme the box of shame has thrown up a number of spare figures from the Perry twins which will complete the French Infantry for Egypt and if the e-bay auctions are a success perhaps some camelry is on the cards to bolster Napoleon's command.

That should be enough to keep me going, but time permitting there is always, more for the South Koreans, Water Margin, Russo Japanese War..... etc, etc will it every end :-)

Have a great New Year and may you always roll high.....

Ghost Archipelago - #7 The Gateway.

According to locals the Chappata live in a mountain city high where the only why in is through a large gate in the bottom of the mountain, all the parties have to do is push open the gate and enter the city, where a bounty of treasure awaits.

The Chappata are peaceful people and not known for their warrior skills so they should be easy to push aside.

The winner in today's outing is the first player to push open the gate.

The Gateway is defended by three warriors of the Chappata people, however a further warrior will join the defenders for every 18 rolled on the initiative table. They won't engage the parties until anyone gets within 10" of the gate or they are fired upon.

Littered along the road to the temple is various piles of treasure, the players will gain rewards for collecting them, but this is a race to the gate..... Remember guys a race.....

Turn one and it would appear blood feuds run deep, as the freebooters open fire on the Atlantians who are sandwiched on the main highway between to the two opposing forces.

Whilst the Marines look to skirt the fighting the Guardians blaze away at anyone in sight.

Heritor Rasco is taken out of the fight by a blunderbuss blast from the nasty pirates... this brings a lull in the fighting with both sides content that a small amount of recompense had been done.

A few turns tick by and the Marines and the Pirates make it to within sight of the gateway, the native numbers had been growing slightly but they continue to observe the invaders. The Freebooters make a break for one of the piles of gold, only for the Marines to break from cover and let loose a volley.

Captain Masters let's his releases his war hound who tears into the burly pirate, his large axe is no match for gnashing teeth,

Meanwhile at the gate the native numbers continue to swell.

Having regrouped the Atlantians now led by Atmir move up the road, the Warden throwing up clouds of mist to cover their advance.

The Marines having triggered the Chappata fall back into the hinterland in the hope that they will take out the other gangs leaving the way clear for them to reach the gate.

Atmir takes the opportunity to grab a a pile of treasure before another bloody exchange between them and the Marines.

The clock ran down and all players agreed to fall back each party having lost a number of comrades, with their numbers reduced and the natives growing numbers. They would have to try another day to breach the gate,

Another fun outing but perhaps next time we all should save our powder for the natives.....

Ghost Archipelago - Atlantian Heritor

Having won my ill gotten gains in the last game, it gave me an excuse to paint up this recent purchase from Antimatter Games and their ShadowSea offering, I have been on the look out for a while for a Heritor type to bolster the Atlantian Faction and he seemed to fit the bill.

The Antediluvian Miniatures are wonderful sculpts but they could do with one or to additional mini's to bolster the range.... (Guy's if you are reading this :-)...

He comes with a hooded cape but a little work with the craft knife and you have yourself another bullet head to add to the mix. Armed with a large sword and hand held crossbow he should fit right in. He comes with separate arms so you can position them to your own liking and they fitted together very cleanly.

He is a reasonable fit when compared to the Antediluvian Miniatures - Guardian range his limbs and features are slightly thinner but based up looks a good match.
He should help protect me from the avenging pirates after last weeks slight accident with a firing line of muskets.

Perfect timing as the next outing which see's our valiant band scaling a large tower taking on a big monkey - Black Powder King-Kong anyone?

Ghost Archipelago - #5 The Rescue.

The first game of the new year and another outing in the Ghost Archipelago.

This is rapidly becoming one of the go to games during mid-week, slowly our little mini-heroes are growing a character of there own and you do feel a little bit worried about putting some of the more experienced characters in the line of fire, for fear of being sent back to the start if they get killed.

This game was a little different I wanted to grow the forces slowly so why not offer a Warden or Heritor up for grabs if you could rescue your man.

Our three hostages are shackled in the centre of the temple guarded by those nasty turtle fellas who are surprisingly hard to dispatch.

Guarded on all corners the poor man's ninja turtles won't move until anyone comes within 10"s of them. So my plan was simple sit back and wait for the others to thin the herd and perhaps killed each other in the process.

The Marines did their usual thing and rushed towards danger drawing a number of the guards away.

Whilst lead proved to be rather ineffective, steel was a far better choice as they went to work on those harden shells.

Meanwhile the Free Company moved forwards grabbing their treasure and pushing forward on the opposite side of the table drawing more of the guards into combat.

Now the Atlantians are devious. They are the sort of people who would stand back and let others do the work. They are the sort of people who would shoot you in the back when you are fighting the locals and steal all your treasure when all the hard work is done. So it is claimed.

I might have by accident shot a Pirate in the back when he was fighting his way through the temple entrance, but I am afraid that photo never made it on to the blog :-)

Meanwhile other bullet heads as they have been rudely nicknamed made hard work of killing two guards.... It took almost all night to finish the little buggers off.

With the Free Comany a number of men down, due to people carry off treasure, a couple of injured due to the heavy fighting in the temple entrance and one of their biggest fighters accidently killed by the bulletheads, they were forced to fall back as their leader fell under heavy blows from the remaining defenders.

The Marines seized their chance having cleared their guards they grabbed two of the prisoners and headed off table.

The sneaky Atlantians with the temple to themselves grabbed the last prisoner, but not before their Warden was taken down by the last remaining defender.... Cheats never prosper....

Whilst the Atlantians may have gained a new character to aid them in their battles I fear I my have burnt my bridges with the Pirates and Marines.....

Let's hope everyone has forgotten the accident by the next game..... I suspect not.

Ghost Archipelago - #4 Swampland

Blimey has it really been over 6 months since the last outing of Ghost Archipelago?

No wonder it took longer than usual to get to grips with the rules, good news by the end of turn 2 we were well under way.

A couple of quick texts around the group and we were able to amass enough boats and bridges for the Swampland Scenario, three islands with treasure aplenty, but don't roll low on your initiative as this will cause a swamp zombie to appear. Unsurprisingly it was a night of low rolls :-(

The adventures had been busy over the past 6 months and everyone had a couple of sail boats to bring to the party, Marines, Privateers and Atlantians all prepared their landing parties.

The Crew of the Sun Chaser got off to their usual start, set upon by Zombies. OK we the other players kept placing our undead foe in their path. The Marines marched about confidently shooting anything that moved and the bullet heads hung about doing very little.

Bonus points could be gained by stepping on each island, but being a sporting bunch we of course were happy to let that happen - Not. So Zombies were soon appearing on the bridges to block the path of the adventurers.

Whilst the Privateers made a lightening grab for the central treasure, the Marines rushed the central island however tonight for once the Atlantians had decided to bring some powder for the muskets and could actually hit a target, the Marines came under concentrated fire and several of their section were killed caught in the open, left isolated even Captain Masters was shot and put out of the game.

Even without a leader the Marines continued their bold moves snatching treasure and loading up their sail boats, however if you can block a bridge why not fill have a zombie climb aboard your vessel. Yes we the other players might be going last, but we get to mess you up with Swamp Zombies.

As the game drew to a close the Privateers had snatched the bulk of the loot, the Marines limped off with a bunch of treasure and the Atlantians were left holding the table with nothing but one pile of gold and a bunch of undead.

A cracking evenings entertainment which makes me wonder why it took so long to make it on the table. The wandering monster rule and low initiative placement keeps the game flowing and serves as a great tactic to keep players tied up. As you push for that extra treasure.

Despite their high casualties on the night the Marines managed to recover most of their troops and everyone is spoiling for a fight to get their revenge. Roll on round 5.