wargaming – Page 2 – Skinflint Games

Armies On Parade (Hyperian Wars) – The Grand Alliance 301st Skyborne

Posted on September 27, 2023September 4, 2023 by skinflintgames

In this great coalition of nations, there are those amongst our populace who rail against the use of force, who would offer the hand of friendship to monstrosities such as the Orca or the Dead.. those who would see us lie down naked and supplicant in the face of the Virum Nascii. To those in our parliaments and cabinets who question the need for the forces we maintain, I would ask them to look a charging Orca in it’s hate-filled red eye and convince it of the justice of our cause. I would ask them how we should use “soft power” and “social justice programs” to defend against a murderous tide of Ratmen bent on destruction, death and enslavement. I would ask by what means of deterrence would we keep the Cousin Races of the Ee’la and Stoc’d from turning upon us. How we might keep in check the dogmatic religious zealots of the Ancien Regime kingdoms from upending our cherished democracies.

I would remind these people, as they sit in safety and comfort, pondering abstract matters of state.. I would remind them that they have that privilege only so long as rough men stand ready to deliver violence on their behalf. I would remind them that such privilege is bought solely with the blood and bravery of the Skyborne!

Back to our steampunk/fantasy world of Hyperia, and here we are looking at the newly reinforced detachment of the Grand Alliance faction – a loose coalition of floating cities and islands spread across the western hemisphere of Hyperia, bound together by mercantilist tradition and by far the most technologically advanced of the human factions, even if the more esoteric elements of Vril lie beyond their grasp.

Not bound to the rank & file regiment system of all the other powers, the Skyborne Infantry are all able to operate as skirmishers and with hefty firepower are able to punch well above their weight numerically, particularly given their “Mad Minute” special training, although when enemies can get in close in numbers, things get sticky quickly…

These lads have been in the blog before, but they’ve been given a new Dauntless, some Whippets, a nicer basing job and crucially some flags so I thought it’d be nice to give them an airing as they’ve been part of the Hyperian Wars project right from the start.. so, pics:

The lads in parade order – the command section featuring Lt. Caruthers, his ADC, Tactical Identification Device (aka flag) Bearer, signaller (chap with 2 flags), mortar, Enchantment Denial Device crew and an Artificial…

Behind them are the grunts, 3 nine man rifle sections each commanded by a sergeant, and behind them is the heavy support – three FV1066 Whippets (*Willie The Wimp, Winifred, Walter*) and the *Dauntless Redux* (with her crew pictured in front of her).. there were a couple of casualty figures left over which I painted up as objective markers.

*Willie The Wimp* leads the Whippet squadron forward

Artificial – made from a couple of cocktail sticks and card.. close up of the Enchantment Denial Device crew, which in-game provides a degree of defence against magickal powers.

The grunts – old hands may recognise these as Airfix British WW1 infantry

Not to give too much away, but there’s probably going to be an uptick in Hyperian Wars content over the next few weeks as the slow burn “campaign” comes to a head… Stay thrifty out there and see you soon!

Into The Combat Zone Pt. 2 – The Ginger Ninjas (& A Test Game)

Posted on September 11, 2023August 30, 2023 by skinflintgames

As we wipe the sweat from our collective brows after last month’s rather epic battle report, let’s change scale, period and game type back into some (presumably) near future dystopian sci-fi skirmish as we show off our progress through the surprisingly comprehensive Combat Zone box set from EM4 miniatures… for the price of a cheese sandwich or a kiss on the kips with no tongue from GW, you too can own.. MANY miniatures, a rulebook, dice and scenery, everything you need for a campaign (which is also contained in the box.)

We’ve already covered the first squad of Corporate Troopers, so in this post we’ll be taking a look at the OPFOR, the Gangers.. in this instance the notorious Ginger Ninja faction – so named because all members have to show at least some bright orange in theor clothing, and the more orange you show, the higher your status in the gang.

This obviously presents it’s own tactical issues as there are few environments where this is going to be effective camouflage, but given it’s strong association with US prisons I thought it made for quite a good basis for an “outlaw” faction. Plus, of course, South Park:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nA54LxibLI

As with the Corporate Troopers, I started off with grey priming, washed with thinned Smokey Ink and drybrushed with bone craft paint.. this should give a nice 3D surface to paint on, with shadows and highlights already taken care of in the underpainting stage. That way, nicely thinned paints should simply colourise your underpainted shadow/ highlight combination and you’ve already got the hard work done.

Should. I’m still not entirely convinced that it did.

Still, I’m quite pleased with the results – check them out!

Our glorious leader – “Go over there or I’ll cut you!”

The classic “Sword in the ponytail” look.. “What you say? I’m trying to shoot someone!”

There’s a fair bit of double denim going on here, but when you’re packing an automatic shotgun I doubt anyone’s going to call you on it..

Orange was the Vallejo Hot Orange/ Red Ink combo, blues done with Wilko’s (RIP :-/) Duck Egg Blue overpainted with blue craft paint, browns with Vallejo Filthy Brown washed with Brown Ink.. a final very light drybrush with bone craft paint to make the highlights pop.. I also gave all the metallics a Vallejo Smokey Ink Wash to give the weaponry a dirty, beaten up look. Baddies don’t clean, what are you, a narc?Basing was the same recipe as the Corporate Troopers, so follow the link for that one.

We also managed to get the test game in (on an urban board that has seen better days, sadly :-/)

A pretty good ding dong back and forth, ended by a highly cinematic shootout and heroic charge into single combat by the Ginger Ninja’s leader! Once you’ve got your head around a couple of slightly counterintuitive basic points, the rattles along nicely – it will be interesting to see how this scales as we work through the campaign included in the box though, moving to larger battles.. still, only one way to find out, eh?

Stay safe and thrifty, and a belated happy Flag Day – SLAVIA UKRAINIA

Apocalypse Then! Apocalypse: Earth Battle Report

Posted on August 28, 2023August 15, 2023 by skinflintgames

The fan overhead beat rhythmically, echoing the antigrav pulse of the ubiquitous Silverbug engines. Alone in his bunk, Lt. Grant found it hypnotic. He’d been on this new assignment a week now – getting softer, getting weaker.. while out there, the Russians and Chinese only got stronger. He understood now why McAuliffe took solace in whisky – what else was there to do, when peace was just a dream.

The next thing he knew, he was being held under a freezing shower by two MPs. Clean shaven and with his most presentable fatigues on, he struggled not to sway as the Colonel briefed him.

Reading through his notes, Grant couldn’t believe they’d given him the right file. The officer they’d named had been a paragon of anti-Soviet resistance, even volunteering for and passing out through Foreign Legion training at age 38. Grant buried his resentment at the mission as best he could – but his platoon sergeant had no such reserve.

“We’re short and they want to take us upriver to kill a friendly? God F*CKING damn it! I thought you were going up to blow up a bridge, or some railroad lines? Ruskies and Chinese are piling in across the borders every day and we’re supposed to go kill our own goddamn allies?”

Grant gritted his teeth. “This is my task force. We put this thing down where we need to and do what it takes to get the job done.”

Mac looked hard into his Lieutenant’s eyes. “Sir. Yes sir.”

Out on the landing fields, Grant watched the surf crashing against the beach, squinting against the low morning sun. Behind him the familiar pulse of antigravity boosters boomed out as the Silverbugs roared to life, the smell of ozone and cordite wafting across. In spite of himself, Grant couldn’t help but smile, he loved that smell first thing in the morning. It smelled like… victory.

Off we go again with another Apocalypse: Earth Summer Smackdown! Hard on the heels of seeing what Dan can do with a soap dish and a biro, it’s time to put our newly reinforced League of European Nations forces to the test.. and a certain LoEN colonel, deep in the Southeast Asian jungles of an unnamed European protectorate has gone certifiably off his rocker, creating a new wonder weapon with the fruits of espionage on the secret Atlantic Alliance antigrav programs… and the Alliance need to get the situation under control! So who else but Buffalo 2-7, reconstituted after their encounters with a zombie horde and a couple of time warping, reality-bending scraps not to mention their heroic defence of Faslane naval base, to do the job?

Facing the boys would be Kampfgruppe Kurtz, a renegade LoEN colonel commanding Lt. con Hulkenberg’s platoon of regulars including their 88Gw laser cannon, a territorial platoon (not shown you them yet), a squadron of Jaeger tank hunters, Ocelot light tanks and of course the brand new Haunebau.. eagle eyed observers might notice our “Stargate” terrain pieces and a certain piece of wonky looking tech that’s got a flash new paint job! Both sides would deploy along the short edges of the 6×4 table.

Buffalo 2-7 deploy, armour to the fore, skimmer units and Rocketeers set up a flank manoeuvre

Ze Churmans, caught under Kurtz’s spell, rush to meet them!

The Atlantic Alliance win the initiative, first shot from the lead Centurion demolishing the 88Gw laser as the rest of the LoEN force holds out in cover trying to weather the storm..

Alliance forces push forwards at top speed across the exposed open ground, infantry taking cover wherever they can

Haunebau makes its’ debit! And although the plasma cannons are laughably ineffective against the target M60 Centurion, those twin linked machine guns take a terrible toll on the Allied infantry

The state of play after Turn 1- note the burned out M60, a casualty of combined Ocelot laser cannon fire.. on the opposing side, one Ocelot destroyed and another one with a laser cannon blown off.

It had to happen – boosted by a few Command Points spent on her, Silverbug shreds the Haunebau powerfields with her Avenger cannons and demolishes it with Stinger/TOW ADATS missiles! Still, at least it lasted a turn…

Surviving Ocelots attempt to light up another M60…

Kurtz’s HQ section manage to target the underside of the lead Silverbug and manages to penetrate it’s armour, causing a catastrophic explosion! Wingman arrives and scythes through the Jager squadron..

With their armoured assets mostly stripped away by murderous Allied fire, von Hulkenburg gathers his platoon in cover preparing to counterattack the Allied infantry assault

The surviving Ocelot prepares to go down swinging..

Struggling to target von Hulkenburg’s regulars, the Allied APCs absolutely ventilate the territorials up on the hill guarding the objective

The jaws of the Allied trap begin to shut..

Rocketeers vault up onto the clifftop and massacre the Territorials at close range, suppressing them

However Territorial HQ wreaks a terrible vengeance!

Despite the panzerfaust operator being unable to hit the side of a barn door, concentrated rifle and machinegun fire manages to cripple the two Humvees trying to flank von Hulkenburg’s regulars

As the Allied noose draws tighter, von Hulkenburg’s regulars knuckle up on the objective with the remains of the Territorial platoon

But they’re not quick enough as the minigun armed Humvee (bolstered by ALL my Command Points this turn) catches them out in the open, massacring a rifle squad and all Kurtz’ staff!

A last ditch effort by surviving LoEN assault troopers land in by jump pack and massacre Bravo squad

An M113 draws a bead on Kurtz with a grenade launcher and two LMGs..

Surviving Silverbug massacres the Territorial HQ

Surrounded by the Atlantic Alliance Command Element, and wounded by the M113, Col. Kurtz is helpless as Grant icily draws a bead and pumps three rounds at close range into his head…

The first round hit home. “For my men”
The second round hit home. “For von Hulkenburg”
The third round hit home. “For me”

Looking down at his foe, Grant saw him mouthing something. leaning closer, he could just faintly hear.. “The horror…. the horror..”

Hau Nau Haunebau – DIY Flying Saucer!

Posted on August 8, 2023 by skinflintgames

And we return with a thud from the 41st millenium to an alternate 1950s.. Up til now something of a sideshow on the blog compared to the Atlantic Alliance and Holy Soviet Empire, the League Of European Nations is nevertheless on of the main combatants in the fluff for Apocalypse: Earth, representing a proto-EU formed in the wake of the cataclysmic Six Months War of 1914-15 which ended (SPOILER ALERT) in an effective stalemate after a military coup in Germany overthrew and executed the Kaiser..

The upshot is that by 1954 and the Soviet invasion, the Germans are “first among equals” in a mostly-united Europe – quite how happy the French are about that remains to be seen- and are doing their own share of Weird Science Wunderwaffen experimentation..

Oh, and Hitler? Shot in a trench in 1914. Yeah, no Nazis in this game, one lunatic genocidal baddie is enough for us.

Of course, the UK not joining the Six Months War meant no bankruptcy and an alliance with the US on a much more equal footing… plus never being invited to join the League meant no Brexit either, which means that the population have nothing to argue about in the pub and are therefore far more economically productive..

BUT back to the plot! The LoEN might not have had the help of mysterious outside forces (cough *ROSWELL* cough) to help boost their technology levels, but they do have Einstein, and they do have motivation in the face of the Holy Soviet Army amassed on their border.. so without further ado, let me introduce the highly experimental Messerschmitt Me-434 “Haunebau” Repulsor Attack Vehicle (“Antigravitations-Angriffsfahrzeug”)!

It begins! Base shape is an old soap dish discovered during a recent clearout.. Lines drawn are for reference when adding further detail later on.

Rivets added – dots of quick dry-PVA added with a cocktail stick.. I didn’t quite measure these but paid attention to eyeballing them at the same levels… this is a German vehicle, after all!

The force field projector on the top is from a defunct pen, the plasma cannons are cocktail sticks with the spring from the same pen cut into two and wrapped around to represent energy coils… machine gun emplacements are greenstuff blobs with (you guessed it) granny grating embedded in them.

After white priming and a prewash of Vallejo Smokey Ink, I applied two thin coats of Crafter’s Choice tan, a bit of a dry(ish) brush with bone, and then stippled on first Russian Green…

…and then a brain fart happened and I didn’t take any more pictures until the whole thing was done… so next up was a stipple of craft brown, a pin wash of Smokey Ink and a thinned wash of brown in the “creases” of the model.. base was a mini CD (remember them) with a tactical rock affixed and about an inch of clear styrene rod to give the impression of flight. I tried magnetising but the damn things just wouldn’t stick to anything else but each other.. so blue tack to the rescue!

After that it was white on the energy coil and then washed with thinned craft blue, heavy sponge chipping with black around the edges, flocking on the base and out for varnish.. so fanfare please:

On patrol with elements of Kampfgruppe Hulkenberg…

So there we are, a new “Super” unit to give the LoEN something on a par with with the Atlantic Alliance Silverbug gunships or the Holy Soviet Colossus – and oh yes, right now there is quite the scuffle going on in the shed, based around a certain classic Vietnam movie.. and we’ll be bringing that to you as a battle report before long!

Stay safe, thrifty & we’ll see you again soon

The Armageddon Diaries: Game 3 – Run Through The Jungle

Posted on July 27, 2023July 18, 2023 by skinflintgames

(SPOILER ALERT)
…and vengeance was mine! With Captain Tycho rescued from the clutches of Warboss Bludguzzla IV, we took a brief pause to wonder what the next instalment in our vaguely narrative campaign should be..

Some of you may remember the climactic last scene when the Assault Squad landed on the roof amidst the crowd of Grot defenders, cutting a swathe through them and launching the poor little sods left, right and centre.. well, we figured that not all of them would be dead, and of course the Dread had survived with a Gretchin pilot who might just be persuaded to help his fellows reach safety…

With that in mind, we set up a jungle/ forest theme table with loads of covers, as the Grot survivors would be attempting to leg it from one narrow end of the board to sanctuary at the other, being hunted by a force of Marines – the whole thing worked out as about 500 pts for the Grots, which let the Marines send Captain T and his Assault Squad bodyguard after them – quite thematic, I imagine he’d be looking for a little payback and Blood Angels are known for getting stuck in! Plus the Marines had jump packs, which would be quite handy here…

The Grots deployed first and got effectively two turns of movement in to make sure it didn’t immediately become a slaughter, and off we went.

Grots deploy on the left, da Dread in the centre watching over his charges

“Foller me ladz, I’z got a cunning plan”

Off in to the woods we go, everyone running full tilt

Uh oh… Captain T and the Assault Squad deploy, looking to spill some green blood.. Da Dread wheels to face them

Frag grenades fall amongst the scurrying Gretchin, decimating them!

Da Dread wreaks a mighty vengeance, downing two Marines with heavy bolter and lascannon fire

Gunning their jump packs, the Blood Angels get stuck in with bolt pistol, chainsword and krak grenade

Their brothers, however, are less enthusiastic – having lost 40% of their combat squad, they then proceed to fail their morale check and hightail it behind the nearest rocky outcrop….

Da Dread causes carnage, laying about itself and downing Assault Marines right, left & centre! In retrospect I was way too hung up on bringing this thing down, and it absorbed a lot of combat power that could and should have gone on shooting up the Gretchin

Grot mobs are all broken and running for cover, but happily for Jim that’s taking them in the right direction

Captain Tycho pitches in and Da Dread falls!

Scurrying just as fast as their little legs will carry them (and note that not a shot was fired from any of those 40+ autoguns this whole game!) the Gretchin are almost to the safety of Da Black Ork Cav basecamp…

Delirious with rage, the surviving Assault Marines turn their bolt pistols on the Gretchin, hoping to bring down enough to.. well, I don’t know by this point!

Sigh.

Well, some you win… but I think we have to call this at least a qualified success for Da Cav as a good 30 or so Gretchin escaped… the Meks will be hard at work and I daresay won’t be struggling to find volunteer pilots amongst the survivors – but a good fun time all round!

So now… the Blood Angels need to rest and repair their Assault Squad, Da Cav need to reinforce.. so over to you, dear readers, where should the story go next? Answers on a postcode or in a comment!

Stay thrifty out there, and we’ll see you soon

Into The Combat Zone Pt.1 – Musk’s Marauders!

Posted on July 10, 2023July 5, 2023 by skinflintgames

With the gaming shed now more or less organised, it’s time to jump back on a project we started earlier in the year when, in an uncharacteristic move, we actually bought a brand new starter set – EM4’s Combat Zone, a near-future post-apocalypse-pre-another-apocalypse sci fi skirmish game. The box contains two factions, the Corporate Troopers and the Gang members who, according to the blurb, are sworn enemies…

There’s a fair bit of plastic in the box, so it was the work of a solid evening to get everything built & primed, particularly the robot models (the bases don’t fit so you have to snip the pegs off the feet to fix them down) – but is that something to complain about? Hardly…

The quick play sheet gives you a set up for a first game – 5 gang members and 4 corporate troopers, and that seemed like a pretty achievable goal. First on the block – Corporate trooper squad from the Tesla Megacorp, “Musk’s Marauders”!

After building the models with superglue, I painted PVA across the bases and dragged them through the Garage Floor Dust (TM):

before spraying them with grey primer and then trying the zenithal highlight with a can of white primer:

Then I gave them a dunk with my take on the Midwinter Minis signature wash – dab of black paint, Smokey Ink, PVA, matt medium and a little bit of water. This sealed the models, made sure there were no bits of exposed plastic or primer, and gave a nice 3D surface to paint on with grey craft paint as a base for the uniforms:

(another terrain project in the back there…)

Speaking of uniforms, I went with an urban camo scheme – mid grey craft paint flecked with off white (Wilko Granite Dust) and craft black, black for the boots and leather details, Vallejo Filthy Brown washed with brown ink for the leather patches.

For the visors I used Wilko Duck Egg Blue over a white base coat and washed it with a thin coat of blue craft paint, and then it was on to basing – I painted the bases black before drybrushing up with the same palette we used for the urban board, Duck Egg Blue followed by craft red, followed by three shades of grey up to Granite dust before dusting lightly with a mix of flock and dried earth crumbled to a dust texture, and touching up the base edges in black.

I then hit the whole thing with an isopropyl alcohol spray, a spray of 1 part PVA to 10 parts water from an old Windolene spray battle and once that little lot was dry it was off to the shed for varnishing – thankfully the hobby gods were feeling well disposed and I wasn’t hit with frosting.. so, pics!

And the rest of the box, built and ready for priming…

And that would be a #zenithalprimingfail…

Next up are the Gangers and then we’ve got ourselves a nice tidy little force for the first game of the campaign in the Combat Zone box set… be interesting to see how these lads scale against GW plastics too..

As always, stay thrifty out there and we’ll see you soon!

May The 4th Be With You 2023 – DIY Epic Star Wars Reinforcements

Posted on May 9, 2023May 10, 2023 by skinflintgames

I think we may be in danger of starting Yet Another Skinflint Tradition here… over the last couple of years, regular viewers will have seen me appropriate the granny grating techniques that Dan picked up to scratchbuild some Epic scale Star Wars armies, in a somewhat ambitious attempt to recreate one of my favourite old RTS games, “Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds” on the tabletop. It’s also served as an incubator for our “epic scale” version of the Apocalypse: Earth rules, nd believe it or not these are actually in a pretty good state, albeit existing as stapled together Post-It notes and scattered pages of A4 paper!

So this year I figured the Galactic Empire And Rebel Alliance might fancy having a crack at Outpost 44 again, after a pretty tasty fight last year, but this time with some extra support. In SWGB everyone gets basically the same units, albeit with different sprites and different upgrades to differentiate them, so I’ve been building each force to be symmetrical – we started with an infantry company, a pair of speeder bikes and of course Luke & Vader to lead them, and since then they’ve had reinforcements in the shape of a support platoon with heavy blasters and a squadron of mechs each.

This time I wanted to add an aerial dimension – so what else but a flight of TIE fighters for the Empire and X-Wings for the Alliance? And if you’re going to have air, you need anti-air assets, so that meant infantry packing SAMs.. and while I’ve got the granny grating out, why not add infantry packing personal mortars able to provide indirect fire support? Well, it would be rude not to, right? In fairness, I’ve no idea if this is “canon”, but Star Wars lore seems infinitely malleable depending on who owns the IP – and let’s not forget George Lucas was making it all up as he went along anyway – so I decided to stick by SWGBs template!

Right, enough talk, let us get to business – I won’t go into the infantry because it’s pretty much the standard drill now, granny grating & hot glue, granny grating lengths cut to represent SAM launchers and mortar barrels and bipods, 20mm wine box cardboard for basing, you can read all about that in innumerable posts on this blog… and, well, I clearly forgot to take any pictures. Whoops.

But the interesting stuff is here – the ships! X Wings first:

Fuselage crafted from sprue lengths (approximately an inch in length), whittled down with a craft knife to create the X Wing silhouette

Wings cut from cardboard and glued to the fuselage with a mix of PVA and superglue, eyeballed the angles with the help of a ruler

And there are the TIE Fighters! Blobs of greenstuff with cockpit details etched in, wrapped around cocktail sticks chopped down and cardboard wings added with PVA/superglue mix

Bases! These are 30mm squares of Foamex (ePVC to some) bevelled down, and sanded the edges (right hand side)..

Tactical rocks added for cinematic style – and stability! Cocktail sticks driven into the Foamex and glued in place.

The lads take to the skies! Paint scheme was the same as the mechs and for the moment I’ve bodged the bases with Blu-Tack to keep the X Wings in the sky…

Providing air cover to the Rebel Scum (TM)

And from the best angle – two feet away – the army on parade!

TIE Fighters on patrol, overwatching the Galactic Empire – painted black and some edge highlighting done with thinned Duck Egg Blue house paint

Lord Vader leads the troops forward – there will be no-one to stop us this time…

Tune in next time to see how the battle went down, and stay thrifty out there!

Forgotten Classics – Combat Zone

Posted on April 25, 2023April 26, 2023 by skinflintgames

It’s almost lunchtime, so I guess that’s time for a new edition of Warhammer 40,000 then…

Honestly, it doesn’t seem but five minutes since 9th rolled up but that’s age for you, and while we’re honestly quite jazzed for 10th – the free data cards and rules, and the apparent abandonment of Codexes as a “must have” mean we might conceivably be looking at the first genuinely playable free edition of 40k – we all know that whatever the speculation about the contents of the box set, it’s going to COST.

It’s also a racing certainty that whatever the rules rewrites, it’s still going to be hamstrung by the phased IGOUGO turn system, and then a lashing of special rules to negate the inherent clunkiness of said system. We’ve written before about the design constraints that 40k appears to be under, and the reason why they can’t simply scrap it and move to something more elegant and free-flowing (our opinion, of course- YMMV).

But what if they could? One of the best systems I ever played as a nipper was an unassuming small unit skirmish set that came with an A5 dot-matrix printed rulebook and about a dozen miniatures in a nondescript cardboard box, set in a cyberpunk future of the early 21st century – I know, you have to smile, right? That said, they don’t mention COVID or Twitter…

I’ve been racking my brains for months on and off trying to remember what it was called – little did I know Jim had got his considerable Google Fu on the case, and so for my birthday rocked up with this:

Combat Zone from EM4 miniatures! He reckoned he was 90% sure this what I’d meant and after having played a couple of quick pickup games to figure the rules out, he’s nailed it, this feels every bit as fast and fun as I remember from circa 1993!

So much so that I was inspired to do (drumroll please) an “unboxing” video, as these seem to be all the rage on YouTube- hopefully I can figure a way to post it here…

Thanks to Jim for helping me sort out… Ooh look, we’re YouTubers now!

Shades of Mad Max, Aliens, Robocop… all the classics!

Rulebook – full colour and pretty nicely done

It’s a bleak vision of the future, but notice the lack of COVID…

Definite shades of 2nd Ed 40k in the production values..

There’s the plastic crack!!! Gangers, Cops & Mechs…

Bases and dice – a mix of D6, D4s and D8s

Press out cardboard scenery – again, capturing the 2nd Ed vibe

Quick reference rule sheet – we should do one of these for Apocalypse Earth (no, we haven’t forgotten about it..)

Roster sheet – we actually did do one of these, if memory serves….

Templates and status tokens, again all pre-punched cardboard

So, onto the game itself- players alternate model (not unit) activation (although overwatch is a tactic you can use), and each model has a set number of Action Points that they can spend doing various things – the better your troops, the more action points they get. The instructions on firing are a little convoluted, but a couple of read throughs and you’ll be good to go.

Interestingly, the focus is on individual models for things like Panic reactions – a model only panics if they get hit, but are apparently fine seeing their friends gunned down all around them.. which I suppose matches the tone of 80s action films.

Like any system, it’s a bit clunk initially but by our third game just pushing the models around the kitchen table using books and salt shakers for terrain we were getting right into it – now with the models assembled and ready for priming, you can expect a few battle reports as we play through the campaign in the box.

If you’re in the mood for a quick blast of sci-fi skirmish.. and arguably what Necromunda should have been.. I thoroughly recommend throwing the £25 or so down to get this box set, you’ll enjoy it. And I’m pretty certain you could stat up basically any 40k army for this, and if you really wanted to the models in the box would make a fair set up for Necromunda itself at a fraction of the price!

Stay thrifty and see you soon – Combat Zone can be found on the EM4 site here

More Accidental Tyranids – Hive Fleet Imprudens Reinforced!

Posted on April 12, 2023 by skinflintgames

Ebay should come with a health warning. “Based on your previous purchases, you may like…” it simpered innocently at me. And before I knew it I’d snapped another 10 Genestealers for a project that was an accident in the first damn place.

Still, it WAS a good deal – £4.95 including postage for what turned out to be 10 minis, all in more or less good shape.. and after a little bit of selfless internet research, I discovered that Andy Champers (praise be upon him) had in fact written a Genestealer Cult army list as well as a Tyranid Invasion Force for the 2nd Ed Tyranid Codex, and you can download it FREE (and I believe legally) here. I got my copy and have yet to be held to ransom by Russian gangsters… (touches wood just in case).

This is just a quickie post as there really is nothing new here, I painted these lads in exactly the same way I did the previous two waves, but we’re up to 24 models now which is a fairly decent horde (and I’ve probably given the game away for my next plans for them…)

Note a couple of tentacles bodged from greenstuff in place of missing arms.. arms which I subsequently found in the packaging… sigh.

A couple of subtle differences in the shades of wash and basing as I had to hand mix these colours having run out in the period since we last encountered them…

If you look closely you’ll see the basing materials are a little different as I lost my pot of Garage Floor Dust (TM) and used a dab of Dry Garden Soil (TM)…

But on the whole I think they mix pretty well!

Ole’ Six-Eyes leads his newly reinforced brood forward…

..and here they are in action against their spiritual foes, Dan’s 1991 Blood Angel Terminators!

“They’re coming out of the walls! They’re coming out of the Throne-damned walls!”

I’m actually quite chuffed with these, for an accidental maintaining-sanity-during-COVID project they’ve come out OK and are forming into a nice little army.. of course, in Skinflint style these lads will be pulling extra duty, not just for 40k (and if all the rumours surrounding 10th edition having free rules and datasheets and no codexes are to be believed, then HELL YES we’ll be all over that!), but also different flavours of Space Crusade and another Space based GW classic.. plus of course a ’90s classic rule set that was rather overlooked back in the day that we’ve been trying like hell to figure out..

..and maybe these lads will crop up in the jungles of Armageddon too? I mean, you never really know what’s lurking out there…

Stay safe and thrifty out there, and keep watching the skies!

The Armageddon Diaries: Game 2 – Rescue The Captain!

Posted on March 29, 2023 by skinflintgames

As the frosts of winter begin to recede and the rain gets steadily warmer, it’s time to warm up the shed once for more for some 2nd Ed 40k!

Recent terrain builds have all been of a certain re tro theme and that’s been no coincidence, as we’ve been planning the next scenario in our vaguely narrative 2nd Ed 40k campaign featuring the 1991 Blood Angels against the miscellany of Da Black Ork Cav, and in their previous outing my red lads took an absolute kicking and were for the most part unable to hit the side of a barn door before their morale broke. This left Captain Tycho largely unsupported as he attempted to salvage Chapter honours by barrelling into the Warboss and his command section in a last ditch effort to deny them their objective.. and despite dishing out a beating to the various greenskin oiks around him, ultimately fell to a barrage of choppas.

Of course, Space Marines don’t die easy, and we figured it would be much more thematic for a second game if his 2ic, the Lieutenant, led a rescue party on the Black Ork Cav HQ building Jim put together some weeks back. This time, the Marine objective would be to reach the building (presumably Cap. T’s power armour has some sort of emergency distress beacon on it), while the Orks would be attempting to kill, break, or otherwise prevent them – so not quite true to the 2nd Ed Mission Cards, but should be fun.

That table is set – Black Ork Cav HQ garrisoned with Gretchin, the rest of Da Cav ready to counterattack

Battlewagon with Warboss BludGuzzla and co ready to counterattack

Da Dread stands ready to lead the push back

Gretchin stand to on the walls of the HQ

Marines dash forward hugging cover where they can, with missile launcher team providing cover

Missile launcher attempts to take down the Dread.. misses.. of course!

Gretchin fire patters off Marine armour.. at least they hit something, unlike the Dread!

Battlewagon darts forward and drops off the Warboss and entourage.. like all sneaky Blood Axe gitz, they eschew a good honest charge forward and prefer to skulk around in cover… “taktix”, as they call it

Marines gun their jump packs and leap into combat with the Warboss and his entourage

Assault Marines fight a deadly brawl with Ork Warboss, Nobz, and Oddboyz

Assault Marines and Ork Nobz take a healthy toll of each other..

Meanwhile, the second Assault Marine combat squad clears the hill in front of Black Ork Cav HQ

Warboss & Bigboss take a toll on the Assault Marines..

Da Black Ork Cav Don’t Quit! One lone Ork Boy disputes the hill..

Marine Chaplain engages the Warboss in melee while the Bigboss barrels into the Assault Marine squad

BEHIND YOU!!!!! Despite jamming it’s heavy bolter Da Dread turns it’s lascannon on the missile launcher Marine, turning him to superheated mist…

With nothing but bolters to face down the Dread, support team leg it into cover

Meanwhile, the assault group close in on Da Cav HQ

Gretchin gulp down their fire and let fly with their autoguns, to little effect..

The Chaplain finally batters the Warboss into submission, but the Bigboss is still well in the fight and presumably having the time of his life…

A volley of frag grenades massacre the Gretchin

Surviving Assault Marines jump pack in onto Cav HQ roof top and go to *town* on the poor Gretchin!

And that’s 20 Gretchin despatched without a scratch… raining Grot copses off that roof! (We figured it was quite a nice cinematic image to imagine these 7 foot behemoths hurling Gretchin off the roof with each swipe of a chainsword)

That’d be Objective Secured then.. as the surviving Gretchin break and run for the hills

Right, so that’s Captain T rescued then. and the survivors of Da Cav legging it over the horizon.. a Dread, half the Gretchin, a Battlewagon and most of a Boyz Mob.. along with Da Snipa… so what shall we do for the next scenario? Jim has an idea for a “chase” scenario – stay tuned, and most importantly stay thrifty!