Modern wargaming

Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 10th through to the 16th of June. BLOG STUFF New post this week (only just) looking at the Drone systems from Spectre Miniatures. I think none of these are required to play ultramodern wargames but having them lets you expand out what you can get up, giving you more options on the table top when building you scenarios. NEWS It was E3 so lots of gaming news. However, ultramodern wargaming wise, things are pretty quiet… For now. PURCHASES No purchases for wargaming this week – I’ve been upgrading my PC and then getting ready for my 1:1 scale wargaming event next weekend and so needed to get ready to operate. More details on all of that stuff next week! HOBBY Painting! First of all, I finished off the two drone operators this week. First of all the Tier 1 operator – I love these guys, especially because the painting is always so easy with the single block colours. In addition, I really like the details on

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 3rd through to the 9th of June. NEWS First up in news, Empress has continued its modern day releases by bringing out a set of brand new elements for the Ultramodern Russian range. As well as the mortar team to bring them to parity with the other nations, there is also a tactical drone team (similar to the British one) and a two pack of EOD and signaller. The final pack is perfect for giving your forces an AT/AA capability, adding a MANPAD system as well as the RPG-29, an AT system designed for knocking out the more heavily armoured weapon systems on the battlefield. Much like the releases last week, this set are bringing the Empress ranges kicking and screaming into a situation where they can be used for a larger scale of battle. Also released this week by Empress was a pair of head packs which was very much a case of “something old, something new”. The Germans have got their older pattern of helmet, the classic PASGAT style seen

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering… a long time. BLOG STUFF A new post went up last week! The battle report I played before I disappeared away to the US was a rather fantastic little game of Spectre Operations that did not immediately start off with a raging firefight. On the other hand, it shouldn’t have taken me three weeks to get it written up – however, on checking my stats it has already done really well. In bigger news, I’m back! My three weeks in the States was incredibly exciting (I don’t travel very much so even just going there was a massive change) and between the sitting in air-conditioned offices for meetings, I did manage to get out and explore the local area. Something I was very keen to go and do (and fitting for this blog) was hit the gun range and try out a few weapons. I quite enjoyed shooting as an Air Cadet and going again confirmed that if I had the opportunity, I would have another hobby to make me incredibly poor. NEWS O

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 29th of April through to the 5th of May. BLOG STUFF First up big news – I’m going quiet on the blog for the next three weeks. In fact, by the time you read this, I’m probably just taking off from Edinburgh Airport and heading out to the west coast of the USA for meetings. Sadly, I’m not planning on doing any hobby stuff while I’m there so this site would be pretty silent. I will be keeping an eye on the news coming out and putting it up on my Facebook page but you won’t get a Wargaming Week until I’m back in the UK. NEWS 4Ground have released a brand new kit that I’m actually quite interested in. Ideal for filling the roads of the Bazistan Oil Fields with prizes for the insurgents, I’m impressed with how this kit looks. Perhaps something to pick up when I get back. PURCHASES Nothing! HOBBY In preparation for this week’s game, I finished off the minivan from Spectre

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 22nd through to the 28th of April. NEWS View this post on Instagram Some work in progress shots of a new team on it’s way soon! #spectreminiatures #spectreoperations #modernminiatures #modernwargaming #tabletopgames #miniaturesculpture A post shared by Spectre (@spectreminiatures) on Apr 26, 2019 at 3:07am PDT First up, we have some new greens from Spectre. These guys look like some high tech operators, armed with a mix of modern weapons like the X95 Tavor, CZ Scorpion Evo and the Vector, all equipped with a mixture of attachments. Their kit also looks very modern. I honestly can’t wait for these guys – they really remind me of some of the contractors from the original Kickstarter which is a very useful style as they can be used for a whole host of different roles. Tiny Terrain are almost at the finish line with their T62, as the casting process has begun. They are looking for a May release date and I have

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 15th through to the 22nd of April. NEWS It’s the post Salute lull so news is basically nothing as everyone rebuilds stock and recovers from standing in the Excel centre. The only exception is Empress who keep drip feeding previews for their ongoing Vietnam range. As always, it’s some fantastic work from Paul Hicks. PURCHASES Nothing! I’m working through the pile I have while getting ready for some time away. That said, having somehow lost some of my scatter, I might be rebuying the rubbish bags from Spectre. HOBBY First up, I finally managed to get the pile of UAVs from Spectre finished off and mounted on the flight stands. I’m going to do a writeup on them along with the MAARS robot and the Operators once I get them all finished. As for these guys, they were super simple – paint white, black ink wash to pick out the details. I was a little slapdash when spraying so some of the flight stand was coloured

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 8th through to the 14th of April. BLOG STUFF My Salute report went up! People always seem to like them (maybe because it means they get to see Salute without risking their wallet) and honestly, showing stuff off is one of the bits I find fun going to A few people said they were quite impressed with the photos which I’m shocked at seeing as I was (in many cases) running and gunning with the Pixel 2XL. It does an incredible job no matter what you throw at it and I’m really hoping the Pixel 4 this year will keep the incredible camera. NEWS First up, Tiny Terrain last week showed off the DSHK coming to their Chechen war. Both sides will be receiving support weapons in the next wave. Also mentioned is the T62 coming soon with a tentative date set for May. After receiving them at Salute, Empress has been drip feeding out new sculpts for the US Marines in Hue. There are plenty more on Empress’s Facebook page, sho

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 1st through to the 7th of April. Ladies and gents, this is going to be a short one. And mostly about Salute. BLOG STUFF My Impressions of Spectre Operations Version 2 are up! As I say in it, this new book is a real evolution of the game, rebuilding what was needed to make the game even better while still maintaining the core that made version 1 such an interesting game. You’ll be seeing me playing this a fair amount – as much as I love Skirmish Sangin, writing scenarios and handouts for it can be a bit of a slog. I’m working on making a way of speeding this up but for when I just want to grab a rulebook and go, Spectre has returned to being my go to product. NEWS SALUTE HAPPENED – EVERYONE GOT READY FOR SALUTE AND THEN WENT PURCHASES So I may have been a little busy at Salute – lots of wobbly shelves throwing items into my bag. Let’s run through the damage. Spectre Miniatures – Careful

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 25th through to the 31st of March. BLOG STUFF I put up a new battle report last week! I know how much people love the games, especially when I get new kit out on the tabletop and this being the first go with Spectre V2 was especially special. Even if the scenario didn’t work, people still had a pretty good time. I also enjoyed taking a little longer to do the write-up, letting me really think back and analyse the game, as well as thinking about what I can change in future games. Also it means I actually get some sleep after running the game! As I’m writing this, I’m also a good chunk of a way through writing up some thoughts on Spectre Operations Version 2, talking about the new book as well as quickly going over the rules tweaks and changes. I’m expecting to get it finished before Salute but there is a lot of stuff to cover in it. Overall though, I’m really enjoying the changes. NEWS This week was A

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 18th through to the 24th of March. BLOG STUFF The battle report from last week’s game is almost done – I’m just adding the last few touches to it, including a section talking about the scenario design and analysing the result. This is something that always comes up in the forum threads afterwards so taking a few days to get the infomation together myself makes sense. I’m also starting to write up some thoughts looking at Spectre V2 and comparing some of the changes. From my first play, the final product is the same great game we had in version 1 but with many of the sticking points removed. More details coming soon! NEWS First up, Sarissa are showing off some new bits of scenery and this caught my eye. I’ve been thinking about what my collection is missing and a big part of it is greenery. These vine trellises would be a really great thing to add to compounds for a MENA situation, adding some green while

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 11th through to the 17th of March. BLOG STUFF This week, I finally got a new post up taking a look at Spectre’s latest vehicle release, the LTV. As you can see, I really enjoyed assembling and getting it painted, so I’m probably going to be adding a second one to my collection at Salute. NEWS Empress didn’t manage to get their new site up and running just yet (hopefully this week) so they sneaked out the releases on the current website. First up, some female insurgents for the Ultramodern range. Inspired by female Kurdish fighters, these packs provide a variety of weapons making them ideal to scatter into your squads for some variety. Next up, more Brits for the WW2. More riflemen, a pair of PIAT teams and some SMG gunners means you can start tweaking your squads and building up a full platoon for Chain of Command. These guys continue to be excellent sculpts from Paul Hicks, packed full of details to make t

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 4th through to the 10th of March. BLOG STUFF The WW2 introduction post finally went up (and only three months late). Despite being packed full of unpainted models, I’m really looking forward to this project. Having spent most of the morning before writing this reading “With the Jocks”, I’m starting to understand why everyone is carry shovels and picks on the models. NEWS Tiny Terrain’s T62, a product I know a lot of people are excited about, is continuing to progress. We’ve now reached the point where the 3D print is being created, thanks to Alan Crookes of White Dragon Miniatures (who is a thoroughly nice chap). As I’ve said, it looks really good – I am excited to picking up a pair of them to give my SF chaps something a little more interesting to fight. Finally, there is some rejoicing going on with the news that Empress is moving to a new website. Ideally, it should be up on th

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 25th of February through to the 3rd of March. BLOG STUFF Yeah I didn’t finish that WW2 post – I got too distracted assembling the models. But soon! NEWS Big news! Spectre V2 is finally announced and up for pre-order. I’m really excited about it, especially after seeing the new layout and diagrams. With all the photos shown off in the run up, I can see it being something that is great to just sit and read. There is also the new limited edition figure which is just the exact style of operator I love. The baseball cap and headset look is ideal. In addition, he’s armed with a battle rifle giving you a nice punch on the battlefield. As someone who helped test it, I’m really looking forward to my copy arriving. I’ll be writing lots about it, especially as intend to get a few games in ! Kind of some half news, Empress didn’t have time to show off their new releases for Hammerhead but hav

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 18th through to the 24th of February. BLOG STUFF I am just putting the finishing touches on a blog post covering my plans for the WW2 project. This will just be covering the intro, as well as a few things I’m aiming for with it. From there, I can start writing post about the individual bits, like the churchill I assembled last week. Although as a bit of a throwback, Spectre has started talking more about V2. Which reminded me about one of the few playtest games I actually wrote about, Big Bird Down. With the news of the full release coming Soon(tm) I’m really looking forward to playing a few more with all the improvements that the team at Spectre have been working on for the past year. NEWS One piece of news this week – Spectre have brought back the Covert Package item to the webstore. This was something I was a fan of back when I was starting, letting you possibly try out new ranges without picking up a whole p

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Let’s start this Wargaming Week, covering the 11th through to the 17th of February. NEWS Spectre have continued to show off more of their photos from V2. This latest batch includes some really cool combinations of figures, ideal for inspiring your next game. In addition to more photos, Spectre has also been talking about some of the rule changes, beginning with Suppression. This was something I found a bit of bugbear as I played and when I got to test V2 the changes basically dragged me back into the game. I’m planning an indepth look at the changes once V2 is released so keep an eye on the blog! PURCHASES No purchases, been busy with other things so haven’t had time to crack on with what I’ve been wanting to do. HOBBY Project WW2 rumble on as I finally assembled the Churchill I got as a present for Christmas. Building plastic kits are really fun, a nice change from the resin. And now having made it, I’m really tempted to get two more to build a fu

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