This is an open gaming night where you can drop in, bring and play or look to make use of for your own organised play, any tabletop games that appeal to you, and while a small games club and an eclectic range of gamers.
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Monday Night Battles is the sub-group of the Nottingham Board and Wargames Club and specialises in more miniature based war and tabletop miniature games.
We have an official NAME !!! Still, formed from a disparate, or is that desperate, bunch of unashamed geeks nerds and nerdowells…..we are independent of any company, game or genre. we seek like minded/ open minded gamers from all walks of life. This is an open gaming night where you can drop in, bring and play or look to make use of for your own organised play, any tabletop games that appeal to you.
One is aware one does not usually do GW partly out of the fact they have a massive PR engine and usually what one catches is in a private concept, journalism arguments aside. However, this one came via other sources so running with it. (please don’t sue)
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| See image of RoC SD bottom left |
Games Workshop it seems is again moving in interesting times and the new CEO is certainly showing that the company can be moved both forward in new and dynamic ways, yet still keep an emotional hand in the past and never more so that with the surprise reprint of the classic Rogue Trader WH40k, yet it seems that this was just the start and in what is expected to be very exciting news will soon join it the ever darkly exquisitely written Realms of Chaos ‘Slave to darkness.’ The book that brought Chaos to the minds of impressionable 80’s teenagers and to be thought of as a game changer in how tabletop gaming could be away from the historical crowds. It less set the stage and more set the stage on fire in being one of a pair of books that grognards now everywhere felt were the most interesting books that GW ever produced. (And bemoaning the sudden price drop and value of their copies, .Ed)
Slaves to Darkness featured extensive detailed descriptions of the gods Khorne and Slaanesh, complete with a pantheon of their Daemons, rules and background for including these in tabletop battles as demonic armies. It also started to encourage people to not just buy an army but make it your own, to buy other miniatures so you could take them apart and create custom conversions, and provide what was many a teenagers life for many moons the basic idea of Chaos warbands and build your own adventures and backgrounds with them.
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| Realm of Chaos ‘Slaves to Darkness’ |
It also introduced the Imperium’s Daemonhunters of the Ordo Malleus and their associated Space Marine chapter – the Grey Knights. The book provided a nice balance in what it offered.
The volume is also notable for its having a solid coherant narriative foundation for the Horus Heresy, an event which while mentioned in Rogue Trader was as then more of a background flavour to the epic galaxy-spanning battles taking place. RoC explained what that flavour was, it locked the Horus Heresy firmly into the midns of the gamers and established the role of Chaos and the demon influence in the GW40k – SF universe
And provides the link between the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 worlds; which is explicitly stated in the first pages of the book.
‘It also features rules on the creation of Chaos Champions and their warbands, Daemon weapons, demonic possession and the Horus Heresy of WH40K. To give a flavour of the background and attributes of followers of Chaos it contained material such as a list of over 120 “Chaos Attributes” – mutations that the followers of Chaos were often afflicted by. This included some mutations that were advantageous, such as those that made the mutant extra strong or taller and those that confer a disadvantage, such as ones that made the mutant small, weak or stupid. Other mutations were purely cosmetic, such as giving the mutant brightly coloured skin or eyes on stalks, whilst some mutations were clearly comical, such as one that gave the mutant a silly walk (possibly inspired by the Monty Python sketch The Ministry of Silly Walks) and even a mutation that bestowed the “gift” of uncontrollable flatulence.’ Quote Wikipedia
written by Rick Priestley, Bryan Ansell, Mike Brunton, Simon Forrest, who were already venerable figures in the gaming industry and GW. They were harmonists who took the art of writing by deftly mixing humour with horror as they tackled the big questions of Galaxy spanning concepts and battles, factions and wars, and lay down the groundwork for what is now a major part of many peoples lives. What the writers brought was an analytical mind, combined with raw creativity and a collection of artists with keen aesthetic insights and an ability to understand the writers’ analytical minds and transcribe them into art that was both raw and somehow right for the book.
It is good to see such older works being released and providing a newer generation with a taste of what was a mind altering experience for those dark and early days of gaming, and one can only hope that they continue with the release of Realms of Chaos – ‘Lost and the Dammed.’
So Mantic has finally announced its new project with James Hewitt of Needy Cat Games and Partners Dark Horse Comics, which will see the The Hellboy Universe is Coming to the Board Game Scene after a licensing partnership deal.
“Dark Horse is excited to work with Mantic Games on a game set in Mike Mignola’s inspirational Hellboy comic book universe.,” said Dark Horse Comics’ Chief Business Development Officer Nick McWhorter. “Mantic is not only a leader in the Miniatures Board Game category, but also have a thorough understanding of Hellboy and the BPRD storylines and how to integrate them into a game. We’re confident they can deliver a board game that fans of Hellboy and miniatures games alike can appreciate!”
The game is set to make its Kickstarter debut in April 2018; The Hellboy board game will be a cooperative play experience where players face off against some of the comic’s most iconic foes, and feature stunning, pre-assembled plastic (Same as with Walking Dead) miniatures that accurately capture the style and feel of Mike Mignola’s comic series. And allow up to four people take control of iconic BRPD members, such as Hellboy, Abe Sapien and Roger the Homunculus, before exploring gothic locations and uncovering ancient artefacts. However with it being Kickstarter the Characters of the Comics Abraham Sapien, Elizabeth Sherman, Roger, Trevor Bruttenholm, Thomas Manning, and Kate Corrigan will no doubt be available with each stretch goals along with all the various monsters and boards to make this an interesting and fun game.
“Hellboy has a great cast of characters, diverse locations and legendary monsters from the pages of folklore and myth,” said Ronnie Renton, Mantic CEO. “The comics provide a fantastic foundation on which to build an immersive, fun and fast-paced co-operative board game that will let players experience some of their favourite moments from the series.”Interesting in the recent output from both mantic and Dark Horse was the ‘The Hellboy board game will be a cooperative play experience where players face off against some of the comic’s most iconic foes.’ That statement and Mantic recent success with both the Walking Dead and Star Saga, would suggest that this game could be something of a hybrid maybe taking the best aspects of the games and bringing a more board game dungeon- esq crawler to the market while engaging in the search and investigation aspects of the Stories.
A well-meaning half-demon whose true name is Anung Un Rama (Translation: “and upon his brow is set a crown of flame”), Hellboy was summoned from Hell to Earth as a baby on October 5th by Nazi occultists. He was discovered by the Allied Forces; amongst them, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, who formed the United States Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence (B.P.R.D.). In time, Hellboy grew to be a large, red-skinned adult with a tail, horns which he cuts off, leaving behind circular stumps on his forehead, cloven hooves for feet, and an oversized right hand made of stone “Right Hand of Doom”. He has been described as smelling of dry-roasted peanuts. Although gruff, he shows none of the malevolence thought to be intrinsic to classical demons, and has an darlky comic and ironic sense of humour. This is said to be because of his upbringing under Professor Bruttenholm, who raised him as a normal boy. Hellboy works for the B.P.R.D, an international non-governmental agency, and for himself against dark forces including Nazis and witches, in a series of tales that have their roots in folklore, pulp magazines, vintage adventure, Lovecraftian horror and horror fiction. In earlier stories, he is identified as the “World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator.”
It also makes for a good fit for both Dark Horse following Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, publisher Dark Horse Comics lost the Star Wars license after two decades, which was then given to Disney’s Marvel Entertainment, becoming one of the publisher’s most successful franchises. So no doubt they are looking to expand their existing lines with new revenue and tie a board game in with the new film release, ‘Neil Marshall’s forthcoming Hellboy film is currently in pre-production, starring David Harbour, Sasha Lane, Ian McShane, Penelope Mitchell, and Milla Jovovich.’ While in the last nine years since its inception, Mantic Games has released several complete tabletop gaming systems including Kings of War®, DeadZone®, Mars Attacks® and DreadBall™. The Mantic team’s obsession for making detailed miniatures, simple yet challenging games has seen Mantic become a global presence in the tabletop gaming arena. Mantic Games has developed very strong relationship with its community, and crowd funding has raised extra development money for recent product launches, which in turn has developed bigger ranges in plastics for the retail launch. And to date, backers have pledged over $5m to fund new projects come to life, making Mantic one of Europe’s most funded companies on Kickstarter. Mantic has sales offices in the USA and UK, supplies 20 countries, has a complete design studio team, a global supply chain with production facilities based in Nottingham, England.
Hellboy™ © Mike Mignola.
It seems that new the year is not over for some and certainly the work load as River Horse has announced plans (apart from rumours over an Arthurian game .Ed) to produce a new board game after obtaining the license for the movie Highlander.
The company has released few details about Highlander: The Board Game,
other than announcing that it is set in the same universe as the 1986 film staring
Christopher Lambert, the new board game In Highlander, The Board Game, utilises an interesting concept of utilising the Immortals ability through certain circumstances like Connor is a strong choice for
the early portions of the game. His high influence (owing to his
charming personality) allows him to find the allies he needs to keep his
unique ability in use. Connor is the immortal that most relies on his
allies, his friends, and when he loses them he can harness his pain into
a weapon that can be used against his enemies.
Excerpt from River Horse Facebook page
“The first character available for play in Highlander, The Board Game is Connor MacLeod, of the clan MacLeod.
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| Highlander the Boardgame Kickstarter Jan 12th 2018 |
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| Sky Relics: Fleet Core |
Sky relics is a Battlefleet game, where players command fleets of Iron Hulks to do battle in the skies for their Nation or for glory.”
This new release from Sky Relics builds upon the history and knowledge of the previous systems and experience, to develop this new and exciting 1:2400 scale navel skyship game. Players begin by placing relevant numbers of highly detailed resin skyships called Sky Relics in place, and through clever manoeuvres and dice rolls attempt to fulfil the objectives of the game or kill their opponents, to determine success or failure.
“We’re incredibly excited to be bringing Sky Relic Games’ best previous game properties to life in this amazing new venture,” said Derek Heath in a press release podcast. “Sky Relics really is made up of very creative types who love tabletop miniature wargames, roleplay games and board games and we are striving to create games that capture the best aspects of all the gaming media to both entertain and develop the game with our fans and backers.”
The skirmish rules are designed to be simple to learn but pack hidden layers of complexity and teach new players while allowing more experienced one’s opportunities to develop winning strategies through careful manoeuvres and placement strategies. The aim, A high tech fantasy dice game where you Build your fleet and rise up to defeat your enemies in this 2-5 player miniature board game based in the world of Targus. Playing the Game Players take on the role of Ship captains, using the ancient Artefact magic’s and technology to control your air ships Ships are represented by highly detailed resin miniatures Each turn players plan their moves and organise their ships in the order they wish to play them. Tactics and Strategy cards to enhance your Sky Ship, sabotage your opponents and change the direction of the game Variety of Play: includes skirmish battles and an adventure mode to consistently update and expand your captain’s story.
Why buy the game??? A combination of card and Miniature driven mechanics with a streamlined combat system Exposes a game theme to a broad range of people & play styles Easy to set up, take down and store. Just stuff back in box Part of an expanding system, which will evolve over time
Sky Relics – Fleet Action is a 2+ player game, for ages 13 an older and takes approximately 45-90 Minutes to play, and the box set includes;
3: Corvos Corvettes,
2: Xiphos Frigates,
1: Saber Destroyer,
1: Longsword Cruiser,
3: War winds Corvettes,
2: War Iron Frigates,
1: War Datru Destroyer,
1: Axler Cruiser
28 Ship Cards
30 mods crew cards
2 captain cards Two movement templates
Dice 8d10’s 12d6’s.
2d8 Rule Book 11″x8.5″ 6 hex titles with printed backs for total 12 types
Derek is in charge of the business operations for the company, and is the primary designer of the game’s look and feel as well as a lot of the rules. Matt has been assisting with areas like graphic design, writing and aspects of the social media and web aspects of the company. For this new and invigorated version, both these two have had a hand in providing the stunning artwork, assisted in rules and operation by Michael Prefontaine, Jose Luis San Sanchez Castro and Dennis Seiffert. Sky Relics LLC is an independent developer and publisher, established over 5 years ago, and have self-published game rules, produced high-quality resin cast miniatures and printable material. Visit us at below:
Press Release packs and information are available here: Press Pack & Images or https://goo.gl/VhJWTR
FACEBOOK facebook.com/SkyRelicsGames/
TWITTER Twitter.com/skyrelics
BOARDGAMEGEEK boardgamegeek.com/Sky-relics
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/skyrelics/
SKETCHFAB: sketchfab.com/skyrelics
Ok firstly I appreciate I have been tardy one has not posted, reason is a host of family emergencies, dad V’s gin which saw him in hospital, mum ill, helping to run a kickstarter, own ll health, design work and painting commissions, as well as assisting in running a Games Club in Nottingham, designing t-shirts and websites for them, etc.
SO I am in on this and trying to catch up so please bear with us.
Over the last year, the Figure Sculpting Company Diehard Miniatures behind smash Kickstarter campaigns Diehard: Fantasy Miniatures, and The Eru-Kin Expansion, encompassing both Fantasy and Sci-Fi miniatures; With small skirmish units to a full armies it seems are teasing something new and exciting with its latest project. The Kickstarter campaign is scheduled to launch this month.
Diehard has been teasing something interesting with their latest Kickstarter, as it hints at some very old school looking but modern styling miniatures.
Now one must be honest, when one first heard about Diehard Miniatures one assumed it was another attempt to cash in on the Oldhammer Movement, as the Mission Statement
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stated. However, with a little bit of research, it became clear that this campaign was never going to be that and why the ongoing project is potentially at its heart what the Oldhammer Movement is about, yet pushing boundaries. Here’s why.
Despite having an unfortunate and awkward initialisation that saw Diehard Miniatures Cancel its first Project, after asking for a £35,000 goal, however it became quickly apparent that this was never going to be achieved. So they dropped the Initial project and re-Launched with a smaller request and more focused approach. It also saw that the company took time as to how it approached its campaign and this showed that Tim Prow and others were interested in what they produced, the core ethic and product rather than the bottom line and a potential jump in produce a product, grab cash and drop out again. The product its self is also one that shows the sheer craft and dedication to what they are producing with an ever growing range of dynamic and superbly sculpted miniatures that pack both cool poses and dynamic range. Kickstarter and the Internet is awash with vanity projects, half-assed sculpts and peoples latest get quick rich scheme that offers poorly or worse overworked 3D sculpted miniatures, but these they have a life and show that the time spent sculpting over the years have put the Diehard miniature Sculptures at the top of their craft and it shows.
Well the latest campaign is about to begin and this is what they have on offer;
Undead Snakemen For those not following us on Facebook or Twitter we have announced our Undead Rising Kickstarter, launching next Tuesday 10th October 2017. We are following the same format as our first two KS (why fix Whats not broken!), we do however have something new! Diehard will be adding original concept art to three of the pledge levels, so if you are interested in buying some awesome art get in early as there will only 3 pieces up for grabs!!We are also repeating the prize draw competition of a half price order and a completely free one!! All you need do is place your pledge of £30+ or £60+ respectively before the 20th and not let it drop below the amount before the end of the campaign, its that simple 🙂As always we have added a few other miniatures for those interested in our other factions, and we’ve got all of Diehard Miniatures back catalogue on offer as well. If you’ve missed out on a previous KS, or just want to add to miniatures you’ve already bought, then check out the ‘Add On’ section towards the bottom of the page.Both our previous Kickstarters shipped on time with over half shipping slightly earlier. We anticipate the same happening again this time round as most of the sculpts are already made and master moulded. Our caster is on the ball and producing some lovely stuff 🙂Thank you for your continued support, and I hope to see you again for our third release!!
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| Sci-Fi Warbot |
What makes the Company interesting is it’s absolutely stacked with top talent, Chaz Elliott and Drew Williams, and the artist is Richard Luong (most recently known for his awesome work on Cthulhu Wars). At its head is the esteemed Tim Prow, a stalwart of the Miniature industry who has seen over a decade as Sculptor and Chief figure painter for Games Workshop and over the past 20 years has been seen his talents at Center Stage Miniatures, Ral Partha, AEG : Clan War, Iron Wind Metals, Reaper, Magnificent Egos and Dark Fable Miniatures amongst others. And Diehard Miniatures has gone from a personal pet project to something that is becoming a serious miniature business competitor.
TP: These will be 28-30mm scale figures. All the humanoids are between 28mm to 32mm (Eru-Kin starting at 28mm and Orcs at the top end at 32mm). Next size up are the snakemen at 40mm, they are slightly larger creatures and do 40mm well. Next are the ogre-sized monsters they are roughly 50mm tall (Troglodyte, Troll, and Chaos Ogre as examples). Gnomes are 20mm, Dwarf and Goblins 25mm.
Kore Thinking, which scored Kickstarter successes with its first 3D vehicle miniature ‘The Kore Aeronautics LARC; a VTOL for 32mm Sci-Fi Wargaming’, has headed back to the crowdfunding site with a new project to bring high-quality Miniatures to the Gaming table. Using innovative Marketing, superb 3d sculpting and 21st Century tech! Kore Automotive has Launched its second Kickstarter aiming squarely at the Wargame market with a range of Cars are modelled in 32mm scale and fit beautifully with a range of Tabletop and Wargames miniatures.
Kore Projects aim is to provide the funding for the production of SUV, Saloon Car, 4×4 Pickup, Classic Taxi, Muscle car, through a Kickstarter campaign that has currently (at time of writing) attracted £2,156 pledged of £500 goal with 8 days to go. Blasting past what Kore was initially, looking for £500 to enable them to begin production of the first of our Kickstarter Vehicles the Family Saloon car!
The difference with this Kickstarter is that Kore has some of the 3D printed Masters for the initial designs which means that initial production is already along its path and Kore can make alterations. A spokesperson for Kore was quoted as saying that, ‘The Masters are already with us, and we are delighted with the quality – the following photos don’t show the wheels or wing mirrors, as we only have 1 set of Masters to use and don’t want to go gluing them in until after we have lifted Moulds from them.’
One has to say from the initial look the cars do not seem to pack much detail, however, what they do show that the product is exactly what you would expect and that is a 32mm scale vehicle and with enough detail to make it useable. One rather suspects that with the inundation of overworked 3d models out there one gets used to thinking in those terms rather than appreciating that this is exactly what the model should look like and that it is in a scale that works for gamers on the table.
Well, the Kickstarter has funded four designs funded, it so one should look at the pledges and what Kore are offering.
Pledge levels
We are keeping this Kickstarter as simple as possible! (This is a smart move as it keeps the project simple and allows those not familiar with Kickstarter an easy understanding, (However that is another bugbear and argument.Ed))
There are 3 Pledge levels;
1st Gear Pledge Level
For the 1st Gear Pledge Level you can select any 1 Vehicle of your choice from all that we fund!
2nd Gear Pledge Level
For the 2nd Gear Pledge Level you can select any 2 Vehicles of your choice from all that we fund!
Top Gear Pledge Level
The pledge options also allow Pledges of expanding – you can pledge for as many Vehicles as you like, at any quantity and variation you like. Simply add +£10 per design you want after the first 3.
I.e. you’d like 2 x Saloons and 2 x SUV’s, simply take the £30 Pledge and add +£10. Do you want 6 x Luxury 4×4’s? Select the £30 pledge and add +£30, and so forth.
As you can see from the picture of the SUV and the pipework that goes into its creation, 3D printing is not something that is easy to set up and get into mass production, the models require extra work cleaning up after printing with the post-production, cutting, grinding, sanding and smoothing out before anyone can even think of creating masters from resin or other production means. Yet the company has taken this into account and are keeping this project manageable.
While there are many Sci-Fi models to go with the 28-32mm figures, they have a tendency to be expensive and the selection is limited, and yet, however, dinky or toy cars are made in a variety of scales and as many a gamer has seen can be bought cheaply. The problem is that a 28mm/32mm figure is not a correct model scale of a person, however, many modern figures have an odd proportion, with an extra bulk and larger head size. A 1:60 scale is correct or near enough for a 28mm miniature, yet as discussed it looks odd. 1:43, after all, looks right but is not quite correct, and even though the height scale might be correct on the table, they look odd.
The biggest issue with most models with regards tabletop gaming is that with scale creep and variance in model sizes vehicles usually do not fit properly or look disproportionate, however from the scale picture to the left you can see that these really do fit in regards most models and for anyone running skirmish level modern warfare or post-apocalyptic games at 28-32mm then these vehicles are going to fit very nicely.
So what can we see with this particular Kickstarter, well while one will admit this is not Nottingham, though just a little outside and was asked as one of the Games Club Members is backing and mentioned that it would be worth taking a look. Well, I can see a lot of people taking a serious look at the project as the prices and options are very tempting. The range of vehicles is also reasonable and cover the widest range of options for such a small number of options. The taxi is very cool and could fit into many games Inc. Pulp action and Sci-fi, while the Pick-up truck can easily be found in games of ‘The Walking Dead’ or modern skirmish games like Middle Eastern wars, or Post-apocalyptic games. The muscle cars could work nicely for a more street racing style of game or just lined up as scenery along a road.
This is a Kickstarter that is both practical and useful, of use rather than a vanity project.
