Creating a Historical Battlefield on a Budget part 1

Since getting into Bolt Action recently, I noticed the terrain collection and boards at Iron Forest where not quite cutting the grade. Until now we only had to cater for mainly Sci-fi and the odd bit of fantasy here and there. But that feel of the French country side, with fields and hedgerows and cobblestone towns - we literally had nothing to capture this!

So a new terrain collection was in order, My biggest hurdles would be time and money. Time as in I had a few new people coming down the club, all planning on playing Bolt Action so only had a one week window to make the initial gaming surface and money due to have two birthdays and valentines day to consider.

After soaking up as much as I could on the internet of other peoples budget endeavours - I came to conclusion I wanted to have my first attempt at a "fur" gaming matt. Had always been impressed with the Carnage and Glory demo games I had seen in Wargames Illustrated and plucked up the will to give it a go myself.

After a trip to my local fabric shop (which is thankfully only a thirty minute walk) I came back with more than enough fur for my 8ft by 4xt gaming table for well under £40, I wanted a bit more so I could create hills and such for elevation by chucking things under the fur. 

Now I read a lot of tutorials about clipping the fur but the stuff I bought, when back combed only stood up at 10mm, perfect - time saved! 

So with a tin of Fieldgrey War Spray from plastic soldier company (only thing I had to hand) I began giving the fur a very liberal coat of spray paint.

I sprayed the fur in roughly two foot squared sections, so that before the spray could dry I could back comb it (brushing against the grain of the fur) with a normal DIY brush, this made the fur stand on end and clump in bush kind of fashion.

I continued in this fashion till all the mat was well greened up. You could leave patches the normal colour to represent meadows but I wanted some uniform for modular sake. 

Once covered I gave the fur a very heavy coat of Hairspray to stop the paint wearing off on gamers hands and models, this is the same brand I use for sealing my models, have had nothing but good results and is very cheap and can be found in most bargain stores.

And there you have it, a 8x4 feet game-able matt for under £50, made in under 30 minutes. I am by no means finished with this as I believe I still have a lot more techniques to learn to improve it but the beauty of it as it stands at the moment is that I can go back to it and improve at any time.

Here are some shots of it with some scenery...

In the flesh the mats blend together really well - think the lighting of the spray booth behind me had something to do with this.

The roads where made from £2 worth of adhesive floor tiles I managed to pick up from a pound shop. Just cut them into shape and used sticky tape on the underside to hold them together. 

If anyone who has also undertaken in making a fur mat, please feel free to share any tips and techniques to help me improve this - I am very VERY much a novice in this :)

Thanks for your time, cya soon ;)

Iron Forest Club Day 22/02/15 - Ow comes them umies are green!?

After a the club being closed last week (Son's birthday), have been chomping at the bit to get my game on - sunday did not come round quick enough. Sadly Johnno was away in the Netherlands and Jason was tied up too which meant club had to be opened late due to me catching minimal sleep from the night shift prior.

But Sunday did come and late Iron Forest Games did open. Luckily we all had pre arranged what we was all doing and got stuck in straight away.

Me and Phil sat down to a game of 40k, for the clubs Armageddon Campaign - I was playing Ork led by Orkimedes and Phil was playing Imperial Guard (Not Astra Cappalatte) Ork Hunters led by Colonel Peritnax.

We was playing standard Maelstrom of war - but on a 4ftx4ft so objectives 5 and 6 was removed. I had deployed first - My plan was to soften up the squishy humans before my combat units got stuck in as Phil's Ork Hunters had ALOT of flamers and I didn't fancy my chances  charging these units when they were at full strength!

Phil went first and but I managed to come out the first turn pretty much unscathed, thinking luck was with me I moved my looted wagon and fired its killkannon at the unit occupying the ruin on the right hand side of his deployment zone, I scoured a direct hit but lucky cover saves on saw inflict minimal casualties.

Mean while my Killa Kans, Orkimedes and Mega Nobz retinue and Cyborks moved ahead, hoping to claim objectives 4 and 1. By the end of my turn I luckily scored 2 VPs for holding objective 4, a early lead for me :).

Phil returned fire - reducing my Trukk to swiss cheese, not a major loss but was hoping it was of thinned down its opposing unit a bit and shake some fire off my Cyborks and Orkimedes. More fire came my way, my looted wagon lost 2 hull points and one of my killa kans loss a hull point - not terrible but could spell disaster in turns to come.

My Dakajet soured down from reserve, managing to immobilise the Chimera - was hoping at least knocking it down 2 hull points! Meanwhile my Cyborks and Orkimedes climbed to the top floor of the ruin, ready to charge the Ork Hunters on the next rooftop on the next turn. While my Killa Kans moved forward but failed there charge on the unit on the right hand ruins.

And now this is where it all went wrong. Phil called in his Vendetta with Veterans oboard. Joint cross fire from a infantry unit and the ork hunters whittled the Cyborks down to one single ork while more Orkimedes was reduced to molten slag by the Vendetta strafing the rooftops with its 3 twin linked lascannon! Meanwhile some good shooting from the two infantry units in the ruins on his deployment zone destroyed 2 of the 3 Kans! DISASTER!!!

I managed to keep some face, with my Dakajet putting in some casualties on the Ork Hunters, My looted wagon pretty much vaporising a conscript platoon and killa kan wiping out a infantry team but Phil had his counter attack already planned...

His vendetta zeroed in on my Looted Wagon which with only 1 hull point remaining didnt stand a chance against that amount of lascannon fire! My remaining Cybork got into combat with the Ork Hunters, killing his sergeant but the rest of the unit sure enough brought him down.

And my favourite moment of the battle. His Veterans disembarked from the Vendetta and poised ready to throw demolition charges into my Boyz that occupied the ruins in my deployment zone. Luckily for me they scattered back onto the Veterans - inflicting major casualties - what a stroke of luck!!!

The last turn of the game was rather a disapointing (but by no means any less fun) affair for the Orks... me. My remaining Killa Kan finally got brought down while me Dakajet was strafed out the sky by some pretty amazing shooting from the Ork Hunters. The game ended at turn 5. which the Score 7-4 to Phil - a bloody good game!

Meanwhile on the next board, Brad and Tony where well stuck into a game of Bolt Action. Brad was using US Army vs Tony's Russians in a very lethal "training exercise".

While as usual I didnt follow it closely enough to make a report, I did manage to take a few snaps here and there!

I was told the pic below captured there favourite moment of the game, when Brad's US infantry overrun Tony's HMG team - and with a bit of house ruling, turned the gun back onto the Russians!

Lastly I had a game of Infinity with Faction Ray - a very fast and very brutal game...

The game used alot of the new scenery (yet unpainted) which I will show in more in depth in a later post. The Scenario was to capture Nodes by hacking them. We both was playing Pan Oceania and was a 200pt game.

The game lasted three turns. The main action of the game was a duel between Ray's Tag and my sniper. After a furious exchange of fire and some excellent fixing from Ray's Engineer to keep it in the scrum, my sniper managed to come out trumps and brought it down! Meanwhile Ray sneakily pushed his fusilier forward and managed to successfully hack a terminal!

While I dropped down a Sikh commando, killing two and putting Ray's forces into retreat - the game ended 1-0 to Ray.

Even though I lost both games they were damn enjoyable - I managed to dish it out enough to be satisfied with my performance but I do think its time for the Orks to get some reinforcements...

Thanks for your time, cya soon ;)

Production Line: Beyond the Gates of Antares - Algoryn Force

Since the beginning of 2014, I had made myself a promise - not to start any new wargames till all the minis I own for the systems I play are fully painted - and so far I managed to keep to that promised - that's until I heard about Beyond the Gates of Antares by Warlord Games...

So what made me break my promise?
Was it the cool mass effect style aesthetics?
Was it that it was based on Bolt Action?
Was it that it was being written by non other than Rick Priestly?

Not only was it all the above, but actually the biggest draw is the amazing community that is already backing this game. You can find it here on facebook. Never have I witnessed such a close, supportive community and never have I seen the author take such an active role - Rick and the Warlord guys really need to commended in making the GoA community invovled in the games growth. A lot of other companies should be taking notes - as someone who wants to break into this industry - I am! lol.

So promises broken, I acquired myself a small Algoryn force - mainly because they remind me of Turians from Mass Effect. And once reading the background, and learning about there marital society, they are defo my faction of choice!

There cool, mandalorian-esque visors and high collars gave me this kind of sinister feel so when I was thinking of a colour scheme - that is the tone I wanted to capture.

Excuse the quality of these pictures as I had to put the flash on as normal lighting wasn't capturing the detail but this in turn reflected off the varnish - so trust me - they look better in person :P

I have always wanted a black/ stealth coloured army but always had trouble in creating tone and depth to the black. While I think I still haven't quite cracked it yet, this is my best effort to date. This was done by drybrushing GW dawnstone onto a black basecoat and washing with nuln oil. Once dry I drybrushed dawnstone again but this time on to the more raised areas, in a almost zenith process and washed again with nuln oil.

The Red areas are Khorne Red, washed with Agrax Earthsade.

The visors are Nihilakh Oxide and the skin is Vallejo 886 Green Grey, washed with Agrax.

I still have three "buddy" drones left to paint and then I shall be purchasing some reinforcements (After some Napoleonics, Dreadball Xtreme and Bolt Action Fallshirmjager are done!). I heard recently there is to be a special Gates of Antares open day at Warlord HQ this year, so am hoping to be able to attend and take this force with me. If I do go, I will be sure to return with some pics :)

Thanks for your time, cya soon ;)

Guest Post: Jason Molyneux's SFX Pics

Hi there, sorry for the long absence, it was my son's 2nd birthday, had a brilliant time and got a living room full of Toot Toots (If your not a parent and don't understand, don't worry - means your still alive lol) to prove it.

Anyway I wanted to share these great photo edited pics from my brother in law and hobbyist comrade - Jason. These where all from his last game of Bolt Action at Iron Forest Games. The figures are painted by myself, Leigh Phillips, Jason Molyneux and Daniel Ferrant.

Thanks for your time, cya soon ;)

08/02/15 Iron Forest Club Day: Armageddon Begins

Another sunday... another day of gaming at Iron Forest Games :)

After over sleeping from the night shift, I groggily got to IFG later than usual, thankfully Jonno was already prepared to come to my rescue via Rockstar blueberry goodness. Once the elixir had done its magic it was onto gaming. John and Jason had already opened the club three hours earlier so everything was well under way before I got in.

Dan, Leigh and Jay were already well into a game of bolt action on our new (in progress) WW2 layout. The game was pacific themed (even if the terrain says otherwise lol) with Dan's US Rangers vs Leigh and Jay's Japanese.

The game looked a blast and I was told they were implementing a lot of on the fly house rules to heighten the more potential cinematic moments of the game - once I get more details of these will feature them in a rules tinkering post. Also Jason was taking some pics and doing some brilliant Photoshop effects to really bring them to life. Will be posting these pics later in the week so stay tuned ;)

Also at the same time Faction Ray was running the next instalment of his Mecha RPG campaign. Regrettably I did not track the sessions progress but I heard something of Jonno's character trying to woo a princess and ended up with a beating...

Meanwhile I had begun my first game of the clubs 40k Third War of Armageddon Campaign. It was my Ork force led by Big Mek Orkimedes vs Tony's Sir Tomund Eyre leading an Adeptus Mechanicus force. We was playing a standard maelstrom of war game - except on a 4x4 board with objectives 5,6 removed. The fluff of the game is a Ork incursion into the lower levels of Hive Hades looking for steal-able Imperial tech with Sir Tomund ready and waiting for them.

My plan was to use the Looted Wagon to hopefully whittle down a hull point or two while Orkimedes and his retinue charged in to finish the hulk off. If that didnt work than after the Killa Kans, Cybork Slasha's (custom unit of my creation for the campaign - will post rules at a later date) and Dakajet after dealing with the Thallax, Vorax and Thralls would than move in on the Knight. With at the whole time my Boyz staying back grabbing cheaky objectives. As ever that was the plan....

I took first turn and did...nothing. Not intentionally mind you,  just managing to either fail every dice to wound or it being successfully saved. On the other hand Tony's Knight just gave my looted wagon a dirty look and it blew up. At the same time the rest of his force pushed forward, holding the two objective markers.

My next turn began as badly, with failure of bringing in my Dakajet (I know, flyer in hive, but hey - he is a damn good pilot ;) ) but the shooting went better, managed to knock a few wounds off the vorax and thallax with concentrated Big Shoota fire. But Tony returned fire and killed Orkimedes...

Meanwhile knowing my right flank was in peril, I moved the retinue of the now deceased Orkimedes to intercept the advance of Sir Tomund.

My fortune faired better when my Cybork Slasha's assaulted the vorax, killing one in the process.

Tony as ever matched the pain output....

His Thallax jetpacked up onto a building and blazed away down upon the Killa Kans, knocking hull points of two of them.

Meanwhile the warlord-less retinue met there fate under the foot of Sir Tomund.

Turn 3 and finally got my Dakajet! Calling a Waaagh I unleashed hot metal Orky lead into the Thralls and managed to only kill one... bloody feel no pain...

But the Killa Kans did better, charging and felling the remaining Vorax.

But Sir Tomund was into my deployment zone and shot the Trukk to pieces. My Boyz charged out of the building they where holding with their Nob managing to knock off 3 hull points in the process but couldnt survive the backlash and was reduced to green paste.

With just my Kans left (the Dakajet soared off for another pass) they tried to make a last stand but were wrecked under the combined assault of the thallax and thralls. A Ace game ending with a 10-2 score to Tony, ouch!.

Lastly and during our game Leigh was running a demo skirmish game of Bolt Action for Ray, Phil, Alex and Ian. I did not follow the game, but I know it ended a victory for Ian who burrowed Leigh's Japanese force.

After that volley of gaming, the day ended with myself, Alex, Jason, Dan, Tony and Leigh having another game of Bolt Action, US Army vs German Heer. Regrettably no photos but played out something straight out of Brothers in Arms. The Germans tried to blitzkrieg into a hail of US fire, got pinned and then met a deadly crossfire as the yanks flanked their positions.

All in all it was great day at Iron Forest - hitting record numbers for turn out too! Its great to see the club gain in popularity :)

Thanks for your time - cya soon ;)