The upcoming Warhammer 40k Apocalypse is designed to allow you to play 5000+ point armies in epic scale battles with 28mm figures. Here’s a snippet from a promo email I recently received from Vagabond Games in New Zealand.

Apocalypse Rulebook + Baneblade for $250 (normally $285)
Apocalypse Rulebook + Apocalypse Templates for $130 (normally $145)

There are also a number of boxed sets being released at the same time, including a squadron of 10 Leman Russ Battle Tanks, an Eldar Windrider Host and an entire Space Marine Battle Company!

The question I have is who do Games Workshop think is going to buy these kits? For example let’s take the ’squadron of 10 Leman Russ Battle Tanks’. Here in New Zealand a single Leman boxed set costs $55nz. So let’s be kind and say a single box of 10 will set you back $500nz locally. How many will need you need to field an Apocalypse sized Imperial Guard ‘Steel Legion’ Armored Company?

Based on the army lists from the venerable 6mm scale Epic 40k game armies are typically around 3000pts, with a a unit of 10 Leman Russ tanks costing 650 points. Judging from some of the promo shots for Apocalypse this vehicle count isn’t a bad estimate. I can count around thirty armored vehicles in that photo on the Imperial Guard side.

So let’s be kind again and say maybe you’ll need two boxes at $500nz each, and maybe another box of 10 x Basilisk Artillery tanks for support at another $500nz. That’s $1500nz for what will be quite a basic force in 40k Apocalypse. After all we haven’t included any HQ or Infantry support yet!

At those prices who’s going to play 40k Apocalypse? I’ll hazard a guess here and say almost nobody. Particularly when you consider GW’s target audience for 40k is roughly 16-24 year old men. How many of them have $1500nz plus to spend on toy soldiers in one hit? Then of course you’ll have to paint the things!

I’ve already mentioned Epic Armageddon which is a large scale 40k war game in it’s second edition from Specialist Games, an often neglected spin off from Games Workshop. Epic is a 6mm scale game and you can buy a 10 Leman Russ Battle Tank boxed set for 20GBP or roughly $55nz. So you could have the same army (in 6mm scale rather than 28mm) for a grand total of $165nz.

Then you could take that army and play Epic Armageddon (the rules are free to download btw) or if you really feel like it could spring for the 40k Apocalypse rulebook and play those rules instead using your reasonably priced and quite attractive 6mm tanks.

I honestly cannot see the point to 40k Apocalypse, why would anybody play it? Although I am quite curious to get a look at the rule set because I would not be at all surprised if it’s derived from Epic Armageddon!

Where Do You Game the Most?

* 52% (83) - At Home?
* 18% (29) - At Friend’s Homes?
* 16% (26) - At Local Stores?
* 12% (19) - At Local Gaming Clubs?
* 2% (4) - At Tournaments?

Total Votes: 161

As I’ve started another poll, I’d better roundup the previous one. In retrospect this probably wasn’t the most interesting poll question to answer. Of course most people game at home like myself because it’s simply the most convenient. It’s also no surprise that more people game in-store than in clubs, because of course there’s typically more gaming stores than there are gaming clubs!

As an older gamer (almost 40) I also derive more pleasure from gaming with relaxed friends my own age than I suspect I would gaming with angry, testosterone filled youths at a local store. But perhaps that’s a slightly blinkered attitude! I will admit I have considered packing up some Pulp figures and terrain and trying to get a few demo games going in local stores on their regular game nights.

I am surprised to see the four people that game the most at tournaments! They are presumably hard-core gamers with legions of well painted figures at their call. Something that I doubt I’ll ever aspire to, particularly since I’m such a slow painter and I live in New Zealand, where gaming tournaments tend to be fairly small, semi-formal affairs. For a decent GW sponsored torney for example I’d have to fly to Aussie.

Visitors may have noticed this blog is a little quiet again…all I can say is blame Valve and their ‘Orange Box’ deal!

If you’re a regular visitor you may have noticed I’ve been on a 28mm Pulp gaming bender recently. I’ve achieved a fair amount but have paid the price because I feel a little uninspired at the moment. This usually happens to me if I’ve been modeling in one genre for too long.

So gentle readers, here’s a chance for you to control this humble modeler, automaton-like! Which outstanding project would you like to see me work on next?

Vote now! Once we get 100 votes in the poll I’ll start working on the winner!

Ancients:

• Corvus Bellis Carthaginians
• Corvus Bellis Early Romans

Moderns:

• Dragon 1/35th German Paratroopers
• Flames of War Second 15mm Facade
• Flames of War German DAK Armored Company

Fantasy:

• The Vampire Counts Tower
• Hirst Arts Mordheim Church (wow that’s an old link)
• Hirst Arts Cathedral

If this poll works out well, I’d consider doing this from now on to be honest. As I really need to finish some of my outstanding projects and not get distracted by any shiny new toys!

The informal Pulp Tramp Steamer competition over at the Lead Adventure forums closed a couple of days ago, with my ship being one of the three that were submitted at the end. Here’s bow and stern shots of the steamer as of last weekend with 28mm figures and crates for scale.

I haven’t added much since my previous post because it was my eldest son’s 4th birthday last weekend as well. I did manage to make some ladder-work made from cut and filed chicken wire. As well as simple fore and aft deck cranes make from dowel, cut bamboo skewers, sewing thread and a few brass ship building bits and pieces. Finally I applied some 1mm plasti-card around the wheelhouse windows to represent framing.

What I’d still like to do is master and resin cast doors and portholes to fill those blank spaces in the cabin walls. The steamer also needs at least one anchor which I can attach with some brass jeweler’s chain I have in my bits box. The whole vessel also has to be painted after that too which could be interesting!

Overlord and Neldoreth (the other contestents) managed to get more detailing done on their ships and I’ll be happily borrowing some of their ideas to complete mine! I’ve also nabbed a few of their photos from the forum for later reference as I often find forum posts often fade away after a while, leaving you with nothing but dead links.

Rich from Rattrap Productions was also kind enough to actually offer up prizes for the contest! Apparently he’s sending out a pack of Brigade Games ‘Tramp Steamer Crews’ to each entrant which is damned generous of him imho! Thanks Rich!

Anglian Miniatures are a UK firm producing 28mm scale metal figures. Their first range is for the Spanish Civil War which seems like a rather niche theatre to work in, however each to their own!

I recently picked up their MOR2 and MOR4 packs of Moroccan Nationalists because the fez and turban wearing figures would be excellent for the Pulp Egyptian/North African setting I game in. So here’s a quick review of these packs.

They arrived in two baggies inside a bubble-wrap padded envelope, which is understandable given the small size of my order. One hopes that larger orders are boxed however as this isn’t the best method of shipping metal figures via air mail. Several of the figures required some careful bending to get their weapons straight after unpacking.

The figures themselves are excellent, with no flash at all and mold lines that are barely visible. They could be painted straight out of their bags, however I’ll probably file a few of their metal plates down a touch during basing. The figures themselves don’t come with bases from Anglian, in the photos you see the standard Games Workshop bases I use for all my Pulp figures.

Sculpting wise they’re very well done with plenty of detail like ammo pouches, bed rolls and slung rifles. Their poses are all quite naturalistic and believable as you can see in the photos. There’s also a nice mix of action and more static poses in the MOR2 set, with a couple of gentlemen reloading while the others fire.

The MOR4 pack includes two prone figures firing a light machine gun. I grabbed this pack really because of these gents, although the other two ‘tank hunters’ are fine figures too, one of which is armed with a crowbar!

Scale wise here’s a comparison shot of them against an Artizan Designs DAK German in a similar pose. The Moroccans are a little slighter generally than the Artizan figures. Their weapons are also a little more finely sculpted than Artizan’s. Overall though they’re an excellent match and the ranges will happily mix. Particularly since you’d except a Moroccan fellow to be a little more wiry than a Teutonic soldier.

In summary I’d happily order from Anglian again as their figures are very well done, so into the blog-roll they go!

Over the weekend I painted up one of the two Bolt Action Miniatures 1/56th German Scout Cars I own for Pulp gaming. This has to be something of a record for me since I’ve owned these minis for less than a year!

It was also an exercise in speed painting since I wanted the armored car for Tuesday night’s game. I finished it in time but we ended up postponing the game until next fortnight. Ah well, that’ll give me plenty of time to finish off the scenario and a few more figures I need too. The car was painted in a similar technique to the to EBob Opel Blitz I recently finished as well. The spade is actually from that Opel and the small canvas roll (for engine work I imagine) is sculpted from green stuff.

After priming a rust coating was airbrushed on, followed by an ink wash and a dash of Marmite dabbed on with a torn makeup sponge. The whole lot was then painted Tamiya Flat Desert Yellow from a spray can and left to dry before scrubbing down in warm water with a toothbrush. Drybrushing and detail painting followed.

I’m not entirely happy with the cannon and MG as they look a little flat, but overall it bears up fairly well for a rushed weekend paint job I think. I may go back over it and apply some paint chips and exposed metal scratches to contrast the ‘rust’ patches.

The vehicle is also missing markings of any sort for two reasons. Firstly I couldn’t find any reference photos that displayed the markings used on these light scout cars during WWII. Secondly it’s for Pulp gaming in the wierd, vaguely defined inter-war 30’s Egyptian setting I typically force everybody to game in - so Balkenkreuz might be a little inappropriate.

The folks over at Wargamers@Nordalia have an interesting review up of the new plastic tread system Battlefront are using for their Flames of War tanks. The review contains a lot of very useful photos.

Personally I’m going to miss the older white metal treads. Sure they had casting issues and required a lot of clean up but at least they really weighed your vehicles down on the game table. A 15mm resin tank with plastic treads is going to weigh almost nothing which may or may not be an issue on the table, depending on how clumsy a gamer you are.

Mind you I still have an entire 1500pt German DAK Armored Company to paint, so it’ll probably be a while before I encountered the new tread system first-hand!

Via TMP.com