Warhammer Building Set Mini Review

I recently picked up Games Workshop's Warhammer Building Set. I hadn't planned on getting the big box, but I had store credit to burn and, as they say, I couldn't afford not to take advantage of the savings!

The full set (which may not be available anymore; I believe it was a limited release) contains one Watchtower, one Chapel, two Walls and Fences sets, and a Fortified Manor (which is really a Watchtower, Chapel, and Walls/Fences with some extra pieces to combine the tower and chapel and some extra walls for the manor's court).

I've been very slowly assembling the buildings and have primed all the walls and fences; a few of the latter have been painted. Once painted, they look pretty good, though I highly recommend following the picture on the box and covering the bases with static grass. The bases have little definition and look crappy otherwise.

The towers and chapels glue together fairly well. I was surprised, as I expected more flimsiness, but they fit nicely with few gaps. The gaps can be filled in with "green stuff" or some other filler. The instructions from GW are a little ambitious; they instruct you to glue together multiple parts of walls at the same time. I found it easier to do sections at a time (i.e.; the four bottom parts of the tower walls), let the glue dry sufficiently, and then do the next section (i.e.; the four upper parts of the tower walls, glued to the lower parts and each other).

There are tons of little extras to add: hanging ornaments, rifles for the tower battlements, statues, flagpoles, wooden supports, alternate windows, etc. They transform the buildings from simple affairs to the baroque structures you see in Warhammer pictures. There's also enough extras that you can apply them to other buildings you might make or buy.

I won't be painting the buildings until spring, but I plan on having the fences and walls done by the end of winter. Overall, I'm pleased with the set and recommend it if you're comfortable with assembling and painting the components yourself. Note (for whatever it's worth) that I'm going to be using mine for D&D since I don't play WFB.

Eagle Games Closes Down

Unfortuantely, Eagle Games has had to cease operations.

It's always sad to hear that another game company has had to close down. I only had one game from these guys (Attack!, and its expansion), but I liked their stuff. If I had more time and more willing players I'd probably have bought a few more of their games.

Best of luck to the people involved.

Painting Miniatures...for Victory!

OK, I'm a total geek (but I think that's pretty clear from the site):


(Source for the original posters)

I was proud of myself for finishing seven Flames of War miniatures this weekend so I got all geeky by Photoshopping (actually, "PaintShopProing") some old WW2 posters. Not the best editting job, but I don't have all day...

In case I didn't mention it before, I've recently started playing Flames of War, the World War II miniatures game. I haven't gotten too deep into it yet but it's pretty entertaining. Only one of my other friends is currently playing but we've got some other folks showing some interest. This weekend I finally started painting my army (American tank company). I was surprised at how quickly it went compared to the time it takes to paint my fantasy miniatures. Of course, my fantasy mini's are quick a bit more detailed, being 25-28mm, while FoW figs are 15mm (and I would never prime a 25mm figure all in black unless it was dressed head-to-toe in armor!). And I'm not going to win any awards with my paint jobs, but they look decent enough - certainly better than bare metal and resin or primer. I've actually done some basing too (which I've never done, though I plan on doing that with my fantasy miniatures in the future as well). So far I've finished a platoon of five M4A1 Shermans and a couple bazooka teams.

Still a lot to go (rifle teams, M3 half-tracks, M10 tank killers, 105mm howitzers, etc.). But for as quickly as they paint up, I expect to have my tank company done relatively quickly. Wish I could say the same for my Reaper figures...

Axis & Allies Minis Sizes

From an ENWorld post:

"The stores in my area are having the same problem with the Axis and Allies minis game. I know at least one store that has given away an entire case of starters and boosters because no one wants it. Wizards made a huge mistake in not making it to the same scale as the DDM and SWM lines. A lot of people would have loved to use the figs for a modern game."

and

"I second the Axis and Allies. I don't know who may be using it in this area, but the fact that it's not built for 28mm scale has totally mixed any desire for me to buy them."

I'm not sure how you could use WW2 minis for a modern game, unless by "modern" you mean "1940's". Also, the vehicles, tanks in particular, would be huge and cost-prohibitive for most people. And let's face it - the people that would play A&A mini's want tanks. Not infantry, not jeeps - tanks. Tanks are badass.

If Avalon Hill* made a mistake with the A&A minis it was not making them proper 15mm scale and to scale with one another. That way they would have appealled to the Flames of War crowd as well. The sculpting isn't nearly as good, but being pre-painted is a very attractive quality to a lot of people. Plus, looking at the preview of the next A&A set, you could get some interesting figures that FoW doesn't have available (Chinese, Polish, and Romanian units aren't available for FoW, and the selection of Japanese units is pretty sparse...).


*: Technically these minis are AH-branded, though it seems a little surreal to consider that AH is a subsidary brand of WotC...

Cool Site of the Week: Dwarfstar Games

Dwarfstar Games

This site features a collection of 2-player wargames (and one solo fantasy game) with fantasy and sci-fi themes. They're all in PDF and JPG format and best of all - they're free. The rights to the games are owned by Reaper Miniatures, but they have permitted the games to be posted. The games available include: Barbarian Prince (solo), Demonlord (fantasy), Goblin (fantasy), Grav Armor (SF), Outpost Gamma (SF), and Star Viking (SF).

I'll post an update in the future once I've had a chance to play any of them.

Saturday Gaming Goodness

Finished another Palm util last night - the "Character Manager". Well, sort of. I'll be expanding it more over time, but for now I needed a nexus-point of sorts to get characters into the Palm for use with the other apps (like the XP Tracker). I'll probably be posting it tomorrow some time; I'm hoping to get the mods to XP Tracker done in the next hour and a half, before my regular Saturday game begins. The modifications would allow XP Tracker to apply XP directly to a character record rather than just telling you what the division of XP will be.

Finally finished cutting the pieces from the sprues for Attack!, the A&A-like sort-of-WW2 game from Eagle Games. Not sure when we're going to play, but I'm looking forward to it - looks like a fun game. Of course, I still have to cut the naval units from the sprues for the expansion...

Picked up Complete Divine this afternoon. I'll be looking at the prestige classes first so I can finish the page that describes how they fit into Mythosa (for those that do fit). I've only glanced over CD so far, but it does look pretty good, and maybe better then Complete Warrior.