Mid Sussex Wargamers : 2015

Saturday, 19 December 2015

MSWG Winter 2015 Newsletter

MID SUSSEX WARGAMERS

Club News

We have recently purchased a BRAND NEW Realm of Battle board. We are after ideas on how to paint it, if you have any please send an email to midsussexwargamers@gmail.com.

One of our goals for the new year is to get all the club scenery painted. As a result, one of the first clubs of the new year will be dedicated to painting scenery. More details will follow in the January 2016 newsletter.

Upcoming MSWG Tournaments

As you know we love to run a tournament here at MSWG and we have two confirmed events to announce in this newsletter.

First up we have our maiden GUILD BALL event

The Grinstead Cup – Jan 30^th – Jan 31^st

Jay of Guild Ball Informer will be coming down from sunny Manchester to help host two one day tournaments. The Saturday event will (hopefully) be an official Bronze sanctioned event with a preliminary 16 spots available. The Sunday event will be a slightly more fun event modelled on the Premier League. There are even rules for a penalty shootout in the event of a tie! See the rules pack in the link below: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9KPDU5lXwLuZDBkV0JUcTAyTm8/view?usp=sharing

We also have got the dates booked for our first Hobbit SBG event of the year. This will be a 2 DAY EVENT and worth award 100GBHL points to the winner. Pub dependant, this event will happen May 7^th-8^th 2016. There is no rules pack yet but it is in progress and will surface sometime in the new year. Keep an eye on our Blog and Facebook page for more details!

Club Pricing
So it is that time of year again. The prices have remained the same from last year.

2016 Year Membership Early Bird Special (Only valid until 30/12/15) -£30

Benefits: £10 saving on Standard price.

You'll receive 8 custom MSWG dice (Colour TBC)

You'll receive 10% off any Tournament entry fees you attend which are hosted by MSWG and receive early access to all tickets

2016 Year Membership - £40

You'll receive 4 custom MSWG dice (Colour TBC)

You'll receive 10% off any Tournament entry fees you attend which are hosted by MSWG and receive early access to all tickets

2015 6 Month Membership - £25

2015 Individual Session - £2

If you wish to purchase any form of membership, please send the money to the club PayPal midsussexwargamers@gmail.com or see either Myself, Tom or Craig at club and ask for a membership form. Alternatively, download a form from here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9KPDU5lXwLuUUlxSWhDRUJfZzA/view?usp=sharing and bring it to the next club meeting.

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Forming a Last Alliance Army - Part 2

Welcome back to my series of articles about forming and painting my Last Alliance Army for WotR.

If you missed my last article ( can't blame you, it was almost 9 months ago), you can find it here. http://midsussexwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/forming-last-alliance-army.html

The first regiment for the Númenórians i decided to paint would be a standard warriors. To finish this unit i still have to do a captain & bannerman.

The gaps are for the banner and captain. For this captain i am thinking of doing an Isildur in a black paint scheme and the crown around his helmet filed off to represent his oldest son Elendur.

For the second regiment I decided on it being the king's guard. To achieve a distinctive look but still keeping the same feel as the rest of the Númenórian force, I went with a bubonic brown trim and a red cloak.

The captain is an Eowyn model with Númenórean head and shield. As with the other regiment it is also awaiting its bannermen.

Keep an eye out for part 3 in the new year when hopefully this army will be fully painted.

MSWG Craig

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Editor Note: Sorry Craig for taking so long to post this, it had got lost in my download folder.

Guildball - Fishermen Showcase

Hi Guys, time for something slightly different today. As of about 10 minutes ago, I have finally finished painting the last member of my Fishermen Guild (that I own).

For those who don't know, Guild ball is a medieval football game set in a pseudo-historical world. It is similar to Bloodbowl but without the Xenos species.

For more information on Guild ball, go here http://guildball.com/

Also check out the Guild ball informer youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxKMVI6BtprAOSPt-vPXDOw

Guild Ball was originally a Kickstarter from Steamforged games and has really taken off all over the world. There are more and more tournaments being held as the game continues to grow.

The Fishermen Guild are one of the first guilds which were announced. These guys are the Barcelona of the Guildball world, they just love to play the beautiful game the way it was supposed to be played. When I was looking to get into Guild Ball, I went for models that sounded and looked coolest. After much perusing of the online shop, I settled on the Fishermen. Who could turn down a guild who could UNLEASH THE KRAKEN!!

Ahem...on with the pictures :)

The completed team (L to R) Salt, Angel, Snakeskin, Shark, Kraken & Siren

The Mascot Salt, Striker Angel, Captain Shark and Sneaky Snakeskin of the Union Guild behind him.

Captain Shark again with Kraken (Centre Back) and Siren (The queen of Mind Control) on the wing.

Closer look at Salt and Angel

Shark and Kraken

Kraken and Siren

The Fishermen's custom ball

An sneaky infiltrator from the Union Guild - Snakeskin

A sneak peak at the next guild on my paint station, The Masons!

So these models are an absolute pain to assemble, some of the worst ones I have ever had the pleasure of owning. Some of the contact areas for gluing/ connecting to the base leave much to be desired but once you get past that, they are fantastic to paint.

I have really enjoyed painting the fishermen guild, it has given me a reason to improve my flesh painting technique. Next up for them will be the players I am missing; Greyscales, Jac and the new player Sakana. I may also get a few union members just to increase the variety.

As you have seen above, I also own the Masons Guild. These guys are great all-rounders and wear a lot of armour which makes them tough to beat up. I will probably try and get these done before I get the next lot of fishermen players.

Keep an eye out for another Showcase within the next month or so.

I hope you enjoyed this brief showcase of my Fishermen Guild. If you would to learn to play, or come to MSWG and have a game, please email midsussexwargamers@gmail.com and I'll be happy to arrange something.

Happy Wargaming Guys!!

MSWG Sam

Wednesday, 2 September 2015

MSWG X-wing Tournament 'Review'

“This is Red 5, I'm going in.” - Luke Skywalker

On the 22nd August 9 determined pilots descended on the Grinstead system to engage in brutal dogfights and claim the new prototype ships (Wave 7 ships as prizes). As we had an odd number I took the opportunity to join in and try out the new cards from the Imperial Raider expansion. This meant dusting off my 3 Tie Advanced and rousing Lord Vader from his eternal slumber.

After a bit of thinking and tweaking I came up with this: 3-unidentified-ships-sir. I am a big fan of the Force Unleashed video games so was dying to use Juno Eclipse.

I won't go into major game details as I honestly can't remember most of them. What I will say though is that Juno Eclipse was last lady standing in every single match. She is SO manoeuvrable and was very reliable with Accuracy correcter. Despite losing 4/5 games, the tie advanced performed well and on another day, I may have won a few more. Advanced Targeting Computer is also amazing, It turns the Tie Adv into a crit machine which helps increase its relatively low damage output.

Below are some photos from all the various games. It was nice to see plenty of different lists and different combos being used.

The Results after 5 intense rounds. Congratulations to Cadan Jones who went undefeated once again with his triple interceptor list. I'm still not sure how he manages to fly it so well, he must be related to Baron Soontir Fel.

Well done also to Ben Lee who flew the BroBots almost to perfection, losing only to Cadan.

A special mention to the MSWG Vice Chairman Craig Harrison for coming Top 4 in his debut x-wing singles tournament. I sense the apprentice will soon become the master.

Keep an eye on the blog and our facebook page for announcements about new events. We have recently secured a Summer 2015 OP pack and are eager to run another X-wing event.

May the Force be with you...Always.

MSWG Sam

Saturday, 15 August 2015

MSWG Unboxing: Halo Fleet Battles Part 2

"Well that's it then, bring the ship back up to combat alert alpha. I want everyone at their stations." - Captain Keyes

Welcome back to the MSWG unboxing of Halo Fleet Battles. In the previous blog post, I showed off all the components in their untouched glory. If you thought they were impressive on the sprue, wait until you have seen them built.

The ships are all very simple to put together, you get a detailed instruction pamphlet but after the first ship of each class, you don't really need it. When cutting out the various bits of ships (especially the curvy covenant ones) be careful not to damage the parts with clippers, it is easily done as they aren't organised on the sprue very well. The same goes for the clear bases, the plastic is brittle and it is easy to take chunks out the base if you're not careful.

Lets get down to business.

I got so excited setting these up on the flight stands, it just screams AWESOME! Stunning models and they are just perfect. Even if I never play a game, they will look pretty on my shelf.

I'll confess I am yet to play a game but after many weeks of reading, I have some idea of how the game plays. I have all the ships built and ready to do battle.

In brief but VERY VERY EXCITING NEWS!!! LOOK!

Master Chief!

Elites

Grunts

Badass Scorpion Tank

Warthogs of every variant!

The above photos were from Gencon 2015 where Spartan Games showed off HFB and also gave a sneak preview of their 15mm ground based Halo game! It is rumoured to be landing early 2016 and I can not wait!

Happy Wargaming!

MSWG Sam

Monday, 10 August 2015

Miniature Showcase: Imperial Assault

''Imperial Assault puts you in the midst of the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire after the destruction of the Death Star over Yavin 4 with two separate game experiences. The campaign game pits the limitless troops and resources of the Galactic Empire against a crack team of elite Rebel operatives as they strive to break the Empire’s hold on the galaxy, while the skirmish game invites you and a friend to muster strike teams and battle head-to-head over conflicting objectives.''

So just before Christmas last year I picked up yet another Fantasy Flight Star Wars system. Being a big fan of x-wing and not having much money, I had originally decided to stay away from Imperial Assault. ''1 expansion based minature game is enough'' I said...

...Oh how I was wrong. Our treasurer, Tom Seccombe, said that he had something cool he wanted to unbox and show for our youtube channel. The video below I think will serve as a just explanation of why the very next day I went out and bought the core set.

I didn't stop there either. Within a few months the wave 1 expansion packs were out and I had everything bar one or two. There was only one problem, these miniatures come unpainted and I really didn't fancy painting all those white stormtroopers.

Step forward Mr James Baldwin of Yggdrasil Painting. If you have attended one of our Hobbit SBG events you have probably met him, he is a regular and a veteran of our tournaments. Long story short my Imperial Assault went away unpainted and came back looking like this! He has done a fantastic job on what look like quite horrible miniatures to paint. I can't wait to start gaming with them again.