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. 

The Rebel heroes from the core set. 

Stormtroopers, all with squad markings on one shoulder

Imperial Officers and Probe Droids

Royal Guard and E-web blasters

ATST!!!!

Trandoshan Slavers and their pet Nexu

IG-88, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker & Royal Guard Champion

Han Solo & Chewbecca Expansion Packs

Rebel Saboteurs Expansion Pack x 2

 If you want to find out more about Imperial Assault including FAQ's and information of new upcoming releases (BOBA FETT!!) - https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-imperial-assault/

Yggdrasil Painting -

http://yggdrasilpainting.wix.com/yggdrasilpainting#!contact/c16fm

https://www.facebook.com/yggdrasilpainting?fref=ts

If you wish to organise a game of IA then feel free to email the club at midsussexwargamers@gmail.com

Happy Wargaming!

MSWG Sam

MSWG Unboxing: Halo Fleet Battles Pt 1

''The Halo: Fleet Battles, The Fall of Reach two player battle box is the ultimate way for fans of the Halo Universe to recreate pivotal space battles between the stalwart forces of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and the relentless Covenant armada. Developed in close cooperation with 343 Industries, The Fall of Reach puts you at the centre of the most pivotal naval conflict of the long Human-Covenant War, commanding massive fleets of deadly warships as they clash above the fortified human colony of Reach. Take humanity's last stand to the gaming table!''

So last week this turned up. I'll start off by saying I am a BIG Halo fan! I have been wanting a Halo war-game since I started war-gaming in 2003 so when this was announced naturally I had to have it. Thankfully, while another space based game like x-wing, Halo Fleet Battles is more about the big capital ships rather than fighter based combat. The thought of commanding some of the most iconic ships from the Halo universe makes me giddy with excitement.

The outer box is a thing of beauty. Slick full colour artwork and a detailed overview of what is inside. The back shows painted examples of all the ships included.

All the dice needed to play are included in the box. You get Faction specific order dice (the grey and purple ones) aswell as some funky white dice which I think are using for attacking and then 2 standard D6.

Cardboard punch out tokens to represent boarding parties, fighter wings and any conditions being suffered by ships. These look very professional and durable. 

 Two fleet commander cards, one for each faction. When constructing a fleet, you must have a fleet commander. At present there are only the two shown above but there are plans to introduce lots more as the game grows.

Card inserts for the ships bases. These detail various firing arcs, formations and stats of the ships on them. Like the tokens above, these look amazing and seem like they will withstand a fair amount of game time. 

4 page instruction manual showing how to build each class of ship. As you will see in the sprue pictures later on, most ships only consist of 2 or 3 pieces. 

Laminated stats/ rules for everything contained in the box. There are different formations for each class of ship, some are designed more for attack whereas some are more defence orientated. 

 Campaign guide and Core Rulebook. Both are full colour and seem well written (I haven't had chance to read it properly yet). There are plenty of pictures and diagrams to assist with learning the rules.

Clear plastic ship bases and stands. There are loads of these with varying heights of stand. 

Included are two of each sprue shown above which builds all the Covenant ships. They are incredibly detailed models and look relatively simple to build. As you can see, they are on purple plastic which means you can leave them unpainted if you wish. In the future I will probably attempt painting mine. 

The UNSC sprues. These are a grey plastic and like the Covenant ships, incredibly detailed. Even the tiny Paris class ships have decent detail. One Paris class ship will definatley become Forward Unto Dawn and one Marathon class ship will become Pillar of Autumn. 

A Vice Admiral Stanforth resin bust. This was a little extra thrown in by Spartan games as a thank you for ordering during the Salute 2015 period. I'm not sure how you can get them now but I am looking forward to painting him up for the cabinet. 

First Impressions: Wow what a game! And I haven't even figured out how to play yet. Everything looks stunning and I can't wait to dive into head-first and blow the covenant to smithereens. 

In Part 2 I will showcase the models built  and possibly go into some detail on how the game works. 

In the meantime, if you wish to come to MSWG for a game of HFB or anything else, feel free to email us at midsussexwargamers@gmail.com.

Hope to see you all soon!

MSWG Sam

New Event Announcement: X-wing Event!

After the success of our last x-wing event, we have decided to run another. See below for more details. 

When: 22nd August 2015

Where: Dorset Arms Pub, East Grinstead

Price: £10 to midsussexwargamers@gmail.com

Prizes: Winter 2014 OP pack

Rounds: 5 x 60 minute rounds

Points: 100pt standard 

Places: 16

Rules Pack: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_JC1bo8hbVzbTBGN1lpMHFKV3M/view?usp=sharing
MSWG X-wing Event Facebook Page


If you want to come along to MSWG before then to practice, then email us to arrange a game!

Tickets on sale now!


MSWG Team

Hobbiton to Bree Challenge 2015

Ladies and Gentlemen!

On July the 20th five brave hobbits are going on a journey!

Kieranadoc "Kerry" Brandybuck
Samegrin Took
Mark "Modo" Baggins
Thomas "Makky" Bolger
and myself,
James "Jamwise" Gamgee

Will set off from Hobbiton on foot, and end their journey six days later at the Prancing Pony, Bree.

Or in English, we are going on a charity hike across Dartmoor (which in England is about as close to Middle Earth as you're likely to get!), starting in Plymouth, camping for two nights, then arriving in Buckland in the Moor (Crickhollow) on night three before venturing in to the Old Forest for another three nights camping, and ending our journey at the Prancing Pony (Pub to be selected) in Newton Abbot.

What's all this in aid of? We are doing it for Macmillan Cancer Support, a fantastic charity which specialises in giving aid, advice and practical support to cancer sufferers and the families of cancer sufferers.

In 2001 James' stepfather died of a brain tumour. Thanks to Macmillan, James and his mum were able to care for him at home, once it was clear that he wasn't going to pull through. He died in his own bed surrounded by the people who loved him, all thanks to Macmillan.

Anyway, I've said my piece- please do consider making a donation to this great cause. Also rest assured that at the end of our journey we will publish a diary of our travels with photos and anecdotes, not least of which, the number of appropriate Tolkien quotes we managed to squeeze in to six days!!

https://www.justgiving.com/Hobbiton

Any donations recieved will also be entered into a raffle to win some very cool prizes including Dice, Knights of Rivendell and a OOP Eomer Bust!

Hobbit SBG Event Review: For the Best Event in Forever! (By the GBHL team)

The weekend 20th-21st June saw the GBHL return to MSWG for another Hobbit SBG event. This one was slightly different though as it was a TWO DAY event!

Congratulations to:
Damian O'Byrne - Winner
Jay Clare - Second
James Long - Third
Ed Ball - Best Good player
Thomas Harrison - Best Evil Player
Hector Bloggs - Best Army (Avengers Themed all hero army)
Dan Huckvale - Most Sporting
Matthew Underwood - Wooden Spoon




For more photos, check out the album on facebook here.

If you haven't already, check out the two part review from GBHL Damian and GBHL Tom.

Look forward to seeing you all again in October for another Hobbit SBG event. 

Hobbit SBG: Battle for East Rivenstead

A Delayed Battle for East Rivenstead Review (ish)







So on March 15th 2015, 22 eager War-gamers descended on the Dorset Arms pub for MSWG's first Hobbit SBG event of the year. This was our 4th or 5th event for the Great British Hobbit League. People had travelled from far and wide to attend this event (there were 3/4 people from Nottingam!) so a massive thanks to them for coming down and supporting their hobbit hobby.

Unlike last time, it was much more relaxed as we didn't have to finish 3 hours early to accommodate a 40th Birthday Party. This made my job as TO much easier as I didn't have to stress about staying on schedule, delayed lunches etc. If you have been to a previous MSWG event, you'll know it is almost tradition for the kitchen to miss someone's lunch order, thankfully this time it was mine.

For those who missed the rules pack, this event was a 750pt event with the only restriction being your two most expensive models had to add up to 250pts or more. There was 8 scenarios which were drawn out at random before the start of each round. These were the 6 standard scenarios from the sourcebook, plus 2 custom scenarios; The ever popular Wargonation and a new one for this year Catch the Pigeon. Despite there being 8 scenarios, there were only 5 games. We did this to try and prevent armies being tailored for the scenarios.

At the end of the day, there was a rather unexpected winner. The GBHL overlord himself, Thomas Harrison, had brought a pure Azog's Hunters force (without Azog though) and had somehow managed to beat the strong favourite Fellbeast army commanded by Ed Ball and win the tournament! It wasn't all doom and gloom for Ed though as he finished a respectable 2nd. James Long completed the northen domination by taking 3rd place. Damian Grantham won Best Army again for his beautiful Fellowship force, while Craig Spooner proved that claiming the Wooden Spoon also meant you won Most Sporting.
Congratulations to all the prize winners!

I'll leave you all with some photos from the event and I hope to see you all soon at another MSWG event. (Note these pictures are in no particular order).

If you wish to see more photos, there rest are in an album on my facebook page here.

GBHL Tom and GBHL Damian have also done their own tournament review for the GBHL Channel, well worth a watch if you have lots of painting to do, it is a long old video.