My Collection of "Games in a Box"

There seems to be a definite trend of companies producing "games in a box" that can be expanded on, as adverse to producing a line of figures you have to then "go get" a set of rules for. Warlord Games are very adept at this. To be fair it means you do "get a basic game" that at least can be played if you bother learn the rules .. with expansion sets galore that tempt you to burn the cheque book (and that phrase certainly dates me). I recently reviewed my collection of "untouched" and "partially touched" box sets and I had more than I thought (see below, my lit of crimes of passion .. a sucker for classy "box art" and the concept of a "period covered" tick-in-the-box - well at least I have not fallen [yet] for the kick-starter trip, but it is  only a matter of time!):

Black Seas "Master and Commander": again a curious scale choice not fitting in with other manufacturers figure ranges but I thought for "small squadron" actions of frigates and the like, it therefore had a place of its own in the market - although I am not a big "Squadron Man" for these rules, set seeing the price of the squadron and also the temptation I have to detail sailing ships [not that you have to - but I know what I am like] put me off. Better still, the rumour is that the rules "hold their own" which is "double plus good" in 1984 speak" something that does not seem to be true sadly for another Warlord naval offering .. Cruel Seas which comes later (see below, anyone for a bit of Hornblower? I am waiting for a small but beautiful ship painting phase in my life to germinate this set):

Judge Dredd "I Am The Law": This was a must for me - just for painting the figures themselves, and yes I was one of the many happy suckers who had more money than sense and could not resist the Judge Dredd expansion box, despite its price [£15] (see below, memories come flooding back from that classic 2000AD Comic look of my childhood, bring on "Block War" and "Judge Death"):

Test of Honour: I was so determined to get this and so I did; no matter how long it stays under the bed gathering dust I am still happy. I know at a point in time in the future I will have a - "Samurai Phase" all wargamers do! I think it is triggered in the genes or by the environment - perhaps a change of diet will "trigger it" and I get a katakana urge (see below, the original box set, and I have several packs of the basic plastic troop types by Warlord too, though none of the expensive metal sets):

Cruel Seas: A beautiful model range, a great areans [The English Channel] with apparently brilliant extension capability through the likes of 3D printing and large scale plastic merchant ships and 1/350 Destroyers [Tamiya etc] - sadly I fear the rules are letting it down as it craves for a simple, elegant but effective "hidden movement" or "spotting" system, maybe a 'solo' gaming extension of house rules might come to the rescue? (see below, and I am sure somebody [as mad wargaming friend] is actually thinking of getting a cruiser on table):

SPQR: Which I must confess I bought because of the start-up bundle being so full of figures on that cost alone made it worth while. The game system has seemingly fallen by the wayside but I cannot make a personal comment as although I have broken the seal I have as yet not played it (see below, a Warlord Games special, full of Gauls and 28mm Caesarian Romans - note small, war band sized!):

Mortal Gods: I pretend to be a committed 15mm large battles ancients man [large DBM sized Greeks and Persians army in the loft, with the intention of going up to Alexander the Great and his Macedonians in DBM (note size - I don't play those rules anymore); then to Roman in DBA through its many Republican to Imperial Phases]. Other people have tempted me to move to 28mm wholesale for Greeks/Persians for Imperus I/II [but apart from a small (ahem) Imperial Roman Army of Warlord in 28mm that was a bargain and the various Warlord Roman sprue sale packs I invest in] but I am totally resisting the "army switch in focus" [who am I kidding here, I am collecting Britons and Gauls?] but I do like the idea of painting 28mm figures. Therefore I could happily raise a warband or two of various miscellaneous Ancients. So this is my "sound reasoning (?) in getting Mortal Gods" .. an excuse to buy a sub-army size 28mm selection of figures of various historical themes that I will simply enjoy painting (see below, it may even have the scope for a bit of RPG work too - if your head hurts after reading that paragraph don't worry and just move on):

Terminator: Science Fiction fun based on "The Terminator" series of films - say no more. Generic killer robots and resistance fighters of the future - what is not to like (see below, I think I will get the kids to paint these up one day!):

40K Aeronautic Imperialis: I see it as "Korea War" jets with a "Space Theme" and forget about teh link to 40K. I have no plans to but anything other than the basic box, enjoy painting stuff u in a wacky fashion. Play the rules and see if there is any borrow-able mechanisms for historical air combat rules and "let-it-be" at that (see below, a classic GW throwaway game in a box - hit and miss but generally worth it with teh amount of kit if bought separately, especially when you get it discounted from your local hobby shop):

And I am sure is there will be more temptation yet to come in 2020 .. so far I have resisted the Blood Red Skies(BRS)  - partly as the figure range was 1/200 instead of 1/144 but that might be a serious "miss" on my part (although I do have a copy of the FREE Warlord Games rules and have played several good games with my wargaming friends collections) and "The Gangs of Rome" (interior city politics in ancient times which ends up in brutality and stabbings) - which did not (yet) appeal to me?

Cruel Seas - US PT Boat

I almost dipped into "What to do Projects Bag" today, I was literally on the verge of "random number" for inspiration .. then I spied a sprue of US PT Boats donated to me by a friend (Renko). So out with the glue and a member the "Ghost Fleet" (aka models still on the sprue) became "one ready for painting" (see below, armed to the teeth and ready to have a go at a Japanese Transport, Submarine Chaser, Destroyer or Battleship):

Intend to actively play "Cruel Seas" (or at the very least use the models) but may have to pay a trip to David Manly's blog to crib up on some torpedo and spotting ammendments.

My First Cruel Seas: Italians versus Royal Navy & Russians?

Introducing the Italian fleet:

Italian E-Boat lookalikes (see below, very nice paint jobs with the diagonal red and white stripes):

Italian (very light) MAAS Boats: Strikingly fast because they have a mega Italian engine inside but little around it protecting it (see below, think Molotov Cocktail on the water waiting to be lit):

Italians enter bottom-right in two flotillas, while the Allies appear top-left (RN) and top-middle (Ruskies). I had relinquished my naval command in favour of trying to get a more holistic grasp of the rules, which meant I became "bottle top puller outer of a bag" to determine who goes next - a very important job and for "a suitable inducement I may be able to help you sir" (see below, please note the aesthetic placement of islands cunningly blocking line-of-sight):

Speed boats seemingly scattering about to the four corners of the board. Apparently there is a plan somewhere (see below, one rule that seemed strange to me was that there was little concealment - maybe we were just going in "Gung Ho" for a quick game (see below, the "wake markers" create a very nice atmospheric feel to the watery table-top - the Russian forces have divided into two to cover both sides of the right hand island which means they are outnumbered 2:1 against the Italian E-Boats, with blue splash markers denoting that short-range "gunnery" has started):

The Italians fearlessly sallied forth against the combined Allied fleets in this "What-If" scenario, sending the pseudo E-Boats against the Russians and the "bonny wee fast things" against the heavily armed RN contingent - which turned the "fast things" into match sticks in pretty short order (see below, disturbingly everything is "visible" as long as you can trace LOS - no "dummy markers" here or fear of friendly forces being in the area! One Italian E-Boat was lost in exchange for a Russian "flak-boat" [my made-up word not really historical]):

The Russian stuff blazed away and then started to burn, then something exploded and sank. The Italians definitely had the upper hand here, but the RN are coming to help out (see below, a bow pointing skyward denoted the resting place of one of Stalin's finest gunboats with a tank turret on it):

An embarrassingly "run aground and burning Italian E-Boat" is surrounded by Russian and RN "men-o-war". The crew have disembarked on dry land and have been spared the fate of a watery grave (see below, the other two Italian E-Boats seeing nothing to torpedo but lots of shiny RN MGBs to lose a stand-up fight against decided that discretion was in fact the better part of valour and "bugged out" 0 nobody blamed them):

The remaining "little fast things" of the Italian Fleet spotted a design flaw in the scenario in that their main armament was primarily a torpedo and there was nothing to torpedo. The signal flags to "bug out" were duly hoisted. And so end'eth my initial exposure to Cruel Seas, "First Thoughts"? ... it really was meant to be an exposure to activation chit and basic LOS combat, so in that sense it worked, but I would like to see a scenario that required guile, suspense and "hidden movement".

More Warlord Games - US PT Boats

Now I have a Squadron of four courtesy of Miniature Wargames giveaway (see below, that coupled with the Wargames Illustrated giveaway have enabled the US to field a squadron in the Channel or Pacific - the latter would require some 1/350 Japanese Destroyer targets though):

Assembled is one thing .. painting is another. Do I go for the crazy stripe camouflage I remember from the Revel catalogue of my youth? Whereas I was impressed with the models, I cannot say in all honesty without them I would have purchased the magazine (although I did spot some interesting new products I otherwise would not be aware of). However it did carry an insane of £10 for a year's in print subscription! Has anybody taken this up?

David Manley's House Rules for Cruel Seas

Notes to self :-

House Rule, Comments on Torpedoes and Submarines:

http://dtbsam.blogspot.com/2018/12/house-rules-for-cruel-seas.html
http://dtbsam.blogspot.com/2019/01/torpedoes-in-cruel-seas.html
http://dtbsam.blogspot.com/2018/12/submarine-rules-for-cruel-seas.html

General Review of Cruel Seas:

http://dtbsam.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-review-of-cruel-seas.html
http://dtbsam.blogspot.com/2018/12/cruel-seas-qlr.html

Warlord Games: Cruel Seas Errata Sheet
https://www.warlordgames.com/announcement-cruel-seas-errata-v1/

David Manley's Coastal Forces Postings: Cruel Seas and more!
http://dtbsam.blogspot.com/search/label/Coastal%20Forces

"E-Boat bearing Green 20!"

The sharped eye lookout spotted a sinister shape lurking in the (displaying no wake as I had forgot to put one in the picture) and cried out in alarm (see below, my first factory fresh German S-Boat):

Just the basic colours (not even a highlight). I will slip a coat of matte varnish on her ready for the first Cruel Seas scenario. All I have to do is paint up a couple of Vospers! I started with my Airfix Acrylic primer followed by a Vallejo Black Wash.

Painting Notes: 
I had a hard time acquiring the correct '50 shades of grey' as per the Cruel Seas painting guides but I did get the legendary Vallejo Model Colour London Grey to which I painted the S-Boat deck. The light (Vallejo Sky Grey) grey was subbed by Vallejo by the Vallejo Game Colour Stonewall Grey. Oak was in turned replaced by Beasty Brown (decking) and Panzer Periscope was replaced by Imperial Blue (windows). That just left gun metal for the torpedoes, with the top quarter of the fish (or "eels") painted black. I did not bother with the fleck of gold at the rear of the torpedo as suggested in the painting guide. Still to do is a little "grey highlighting" but I can get away without this in the first instance. 

Wish Me Well on Cruel Seas (the Warlord Games Version)

A "Merry Little Xmas" present to myself indeed (See below, and more successful than the "air blown" Happy Snowman shown in the background):

Warlord Games had a little problem with the shipping as they are sending on the "wake markers" as soon as they get them, which all-in-all as there is plenty of reading and assembling to be done in the meantime.

Myself a veteran 1/600 Skytrex range I am looking forward to see how it plays and hope for a game or two over the Christmas period and early New Year. I think it is a "Game in a Box"  to my mind. I cannot see myself running after the "bigger items" as they would be almost too big to get on table (admittedly there are some "big" 1/200 - 1/350 - 1/400 model ships about). I cannot see myself travelling far outside of the North Sea as the other theaters have "lesser appeal" (famous last words). I think January's WI may carry some more Cruel Seas ships which is good news even if they are repeats!