Review: Kingdom Death Twilight Knight Pinup

 

Well after reviewing my favourite Kingdom Death miniature the Flower Knight yesterday, I felt I really ought to end on my Kingdom Death reviews this week on another pinup miniature, before I post up an extensive interview with Adam Poots. What better pinup model to do that with than what I think was their very first pinup miniature in the range, the Twilight Knight Pinup.

Product Description

As with all Kingdom Death miniatures you'll get yourself a postcard sized piece of the concept art, which is a nice touch. As for the miniature itself it'll come in 7 pieces and the standard Kingdom Death resin base. There a tattered cape, her main body, her left arm carrying a lantern, her hooded head, and a sword with her hand. There's also a spare sword and what looks like a sword hilt, that I'm not too sure you're meant to use... but I could be wrong.

Update: The base I got with this miniature was the square resin one you see in this picture. However, if any of you have purchased any Kingdom Death miniatures recently you'll have noticed that they now come with flat plastic discs with an indentation in them where a second plastic disc can go, or a scenic base insert as is the case of the Illuminated Lady. I'm unsure whether these bases are now shipped with all miniatures in the range or just the latest stuff, but I thought it best to inform you all of it any way!

The new plastic Kingdom Death bases.

Review: Kingdom Death Flower Knight

 

Yes it is Approved by Cats!!!

And so we come to the Kingdom Death miniature review that was most requested by you lot. This was going to be the last review for this week, but I've decided to cram another in tomorrow now. This is definitely my favourite Kingdom Death miniatures that I currently own, and I own an awful lot of them. Actually, of the ones I don't own I'm not too sure any of them would match up to the high levels set by this miniature. Because it's arguably one of my favourite miniatures of all times, it's certainly in my top 10. Yes I think it is that splendid I really do, and as you can see the Ministry of Cats approve of it too, but you'll need to read on to find out why...

Look how small some of the bits are!!!

Product Description

Yep you'll get some lovely looking postcard sized artwork with this miniature yet again. The Flower Knight is actually a fair bit bigger than the other Kingdom Death miniatures I have reviewed so far this week, as can be witnessed by the slightly larger 40mm round-lipped plastic base the model comes with, as opposed to the normal small square resin Kingdom Death base you normally find. The Flower Knight comes in 13 (unlucky for some... that will be me putting it together), some of which of incredibly delicate and others still so small they've made me think I need to go to see my opticians. There is nothing of concern about the larger pieces, such as the main body, his trailing bustle, lower right leg, arms, sword hand and right hand. They are of a significant size and structure that they are robust enough. No it is mainly the creeping plant stems, fronds and vines that attach to his bustle that will cause the most angst. I've actually left them off for my pictures in this review because I'm still not sure how I'm going to paint him, so parts of him are held together by blu-tac! Then there are the small tassels on his armour that measure 2.5mm in length and just over 1mm in width... why? If you could see me now I'm making my unhappy face. But even they pale into insignificance when you see the smallest component you'll ever see on a miniature TM. it's the tip of one of the Flower Knights fingers with a butterfly. Yes I screamed a little. You need to me careful removing such delicate and small items from the spru that you don't A) lose them or b) break them.

Update: The base I got with this miniature wasn't the normal square resin one you get with Kingdom Death miniatures but a 40mm round-lipped base like you would get with Warmachine miniatures. However, if any of you have purchased any Kingdom Death miniatures recently you'll have noticed that they now come with flat plastic discs with an indentation in them where a second plastic disc can go, or a scenic base insert as is the case of the Illuminated Lady. I'm unsure whether these bases are now shipped with all miniatures in the range or just the latest stuff, but I thought it best to inform you all of it any way! Even though these plastic disc bases I've had aren't big enough to accommodate the Flower Knight they may also produce 40mm versions of it now, I'm simply unsure.

The new plastic Kingdom Death bases.

Review: Kingdom Death Kings Men

  

Well after the saucy, sexy strumpet that was the Preacher Pinup yesterday mornings review, I thought it would be best to calm things down a notch or two and give you another fully armour clad warrior next. This time with a very delicate looking halberd. Originally this review should have gone live yesterday afternoon, but I forgot that it would clash with by final Heavy Gear Blitz reveal, so I had to do a quick reschedule because I've had a number of people beg me not to more than two articles a day, because it's impossible to keep up apparently! So I'm now working to a self imposed limit of two articles a day. Any way, the Kings Men is one of those Kingdom Death miniatures that many people seem to overlook, but I think it warrants a closer look...

Product Description

Again as always the Kings Man comes with a postcard sized piece of artwork. He isn't though as complex as some of the pieces I've already reviewed this week, as he only comprises of 3 resin components, a head, a halberd and the main body. As well as the standard Kingdom Death resin base. That's your lot, and trust me after putting together the Flower Knight it comes as a mightily big relief!

Update: The base I got with this miniature was the square resin one you see in this picture. However, if any of you have purchased any Kingdom Death miniatures recently you'll have noticed that they now come with flat plastic discs with an indentation in them where a second plastic disc can go, or a scenic base insert as is the case of the Illuminated Lady. I'm unsure whether these bases are now shipped with all miniatures in the range or just the latest stuff, but I thought it best to inform you all of it any way!

The new plastic Kingdom Death bases.

Review: Kingdom Death Preacher Pinup

    
      

After I reviewed two Kingdom Death miniatures yesterday I thought it would be remiss of me not to review one of Kingdom Death's pinup miniatures. Lets be honest here I had a thing or two to say a few months back about sexy miniatures in our hobby. However, just to be clear I don't actually have a issue with their being sexy miniatures, but I do have an issue with miniatures who are overly sexualised and not being honest about what it is. I can't really level that criticism at the Kingdom Death miniatures, simply because they label them pinup's, so you know what you are getting. That discussion aside what do I think of this sexy Preacher Pinup?

Product Description

The Preacher Pinup also comes with her own postcard artwork, as with all Kingdom Death miniatures, although I'm not sure it'll be wise to frame this one and put it on your mantlepiece. As always there is the square Kingdom Death resin base, although if you read my update below that may not be the case anymore. There are 9 high quality resin components in the card box. There are though two hands for one slot, because trust me they're easily lost, thank God they packed two! They are the smallest component I've EVER seen on a miniature and I'm amazed the fingers remain intact. There are also two head variants, one with glasses and one without, you'll only be needing one. The rest of the pieces are her torso and left arm, her exceedingly slender and long legs, her right arm, and a sash of cloth to hang between her legs. The final component is a warhammer, although I'm not too sure I like it on the miniature myself as I'm not entirely sure what it does for composition. That's your lot!

Update: The base I got with this miniature was the square resin one you see in this picture. However, if any of you have purchased any Kingdom Death miniatures recently you'll have noticed that they now come with flat plastic discs with an indentation in them where a second plastic disc can go, or a scenic base insert as is the case of the Illuminated Lady. I'm unsure whether these bases are now shipped with all miniatures in the range or just the latest stuff, but I thought it best to inform you all of it any way!

The new plastic Kingdom Death bases.

Review: Kingdom Death Butcher

 
  

I know, I know, you wait ages for me to review a Kingdom Death miniature and then I go and review two of them in the same day. Just like bloody buses I bet you're thinking! This though isn't one of the Kingdom Death miniatures you'll normally hear people raving about. It's not one of the weird and wacky boob and tentacle beasties that Kingdom Death are best known for, or indeed the sexy pinups that many people seem to love. Nope, the Butcher is just a really nice looking warrior type, with two huge cleavers, and is actually one of the Kingdom Death miniatures that I took a bit of a shine too straight away.

Product Description

The butcher, like all Kingdom Death miniatures comes with a postcard sized art print of the original concept art, that I've not shown here. It's a nice touch though. The miniature itself comprises of the standard Kingdom Death square resin base, with its raised disc at the center, two rather large and fragile looking cleavers, a small and spiky head (I injured myself on it), a large and heavy cloak and the main body. There are also some of the smallest and fiddliest pieces I've ever come across with a miniature, they include two hooked toe ends to both feet (more on these later) and four stupidly small teeth that need to be glued onto that head. I have to give you fair warning that these pieces are stupidly small and when clipping them and cleaning them you need to be very careful not to A) drop them and never see them again and B) break them and then howl in rage at the injustice of it all. Luckily where those teeth are concerned you only actually need two of them... I think... so two are spare. Consider yourselves warned though.

Update: The base I got with this miniature was the square resin one you see in this picture. However, if any of you have purchased any Kingdom Death miniatures recently you'll have noticed that they now come with flat plastic discs with an indentation in them where a second plastic disc can go, or a scenic base insert as is the case of the Illuminated Lady. I'm unsure whether these bases are now shipped with all miniatures in the range or just the latest stuff, but I thought it best to inform you all of it any way!

The new Kingdom Death Bases.

Review: Kingdom Death Grand Mother

  

This is a first in a series of reviews I'm going to be doing for Kingdom Death miniatures. I had chosen not to actually review Kingdom Death miniatures simply because they are highly limited runs and normally they're sold out before I even get my miniature in my hands. So I thought reviewing them would be a highly cruel thing to do. However, after I said this during a Sunday Sermon about limited edition miniatures, I had a number of people tell me that they would actually welcome me reviewing my Kingdom Death miniatures. So I set about starting to review some of them, and then I got an email informing me that the Kingdom Death Kickstarter campaign would be going live on the November 23rd. So I decided to build up some excitement for that event by grouping a few reviews together. This is the first of my Kingdom Death reviews and it is one of my favourite of their miniatures, the Grand Mother.

Product Description

The Grand Mother miniature comes in 8 high quality resin pieces. The two largest components would be the two angel wing's. This would be followed by her main body and then left leg. After this the components become exceedingly fine, so you'll need to be careful when clipping them from spru's, cleaning them up and assembling the miniature. They include a very small left hand and forearm, a piece of a dress that is almost as thin as silk, and a weird tentacle thingy that goes between her legs... well it wouldn't be Kingdom Death without weird tentacles now would it? The miniature also comes with a special kingdom Death resin base, which is like a normal square base with flat sides and then a raised circle in the middle about the size and height of a coin. They look a bit like small presentation plinths I guess, but I'll not be using them for my display pieces. Not included in this picture is a postcard sized image of the Grand Mother concept artwork. All Kingdom Death miniatures come with this, if it is one of the limited edition runs it's come in a protective plastic sleeve with a number, if not it'll come loose without a number.

Update: The base I got with this miniature was the square resin one you see in this picture. However, if any of you have purchased any Kingdom Death miniatures recently you'll have noticed that they now come with flat plastic discs with an indentation in them where a second plastic disc can go, or a scenic base insert as is the case of the Illuminated Lady. I'm unsure whether these bases are now shipped with all miniatures in the range or just the latest stuff, but I thought it best to inform you all of it any way!

The new Kingdom Death bases.

Ravage Magazine

   
      

Ravage Magazine has been somewhat of a French institution for quite some time now. Indeed, whenever I found myself in France walking past a news stand I'd always look to see if they had a copy. Mainly so I could look at the pretty pictures, but also to try and translate the articles myself. Normally with quite comical effect. I don't mind admitting my French skills are not up to scratch. I'm OK with German, and I've been able to guy by in Scandinavian nations, but chuck me in at the deep end with the romance languages and I struggle. True I can order a cheese sandwich and a beer, but I'm not exactly able to communicate too successfully. So when I heard that the guys at Cool Mini or Not were looking to produce an English version of the magazine I have to say I was a little bit excited. After all Ravage magazine is one of the few hobby print publications that seems to be able to survive, if not thrive... so an English language version is an interesting proposition and one many hobbyists should be happy to see.

So is it any good? Well yes and no, early doors there have been some 'unique' and 'special' translation issues, which has led to some awkward syntax and phrasing. However, despite the odd sentence hiccup, which has caused my defective dyslexic brain to do more than the odd double take, it remains a riveting and informative read. I was very happy when I saw Maelstrom Games were stocking it, and readily gobbled up the first two issues. However, there was a problem with me acquiring issue 3 and 4, I'm pretty sure you can all guess as to the reasons why that was the case. Luckily for me and all you lot I have managed to find at least one other store here in the UK that stocks it, Valiant Games. Now this isn't a ringing endorsement, considering recent occurrences I won't be giving any of those out, some of you may have noticed I've removed the service score from my reviews. What I will say though is that David who runs Valiant Games also runs Basecraft and I've had no major problems, plus he seems like a decent chap... he could of course be a serial killer, I just doubt it. So what do I think of each issue so far:

Review: Dark Age Outcasts Starter Box

 

This is the first of two starter set reviews that I'm going to be doing for Dark Age. The outcasts are in fact the newest faction in Dark Age, well... until the Core were released that is. So they should in theory be the most accomplished of the miniature ranges on offer in Dark Age. Also they're the faction that I chose to go with, mainly on the back of the Mongo miniature, which sadly isn't part of the starter set. As with the Dark Age Apocalypse Rulebook and the Dark Age Forcelist Book, this Outcast starter set was sent to me as a review copy. So make of that what you will.

Product description

Well inside the box you will get 8 miniatures in all, 3 Scuts, 3 Wasteland Warriors, 1 Bully and 1 Brute. These will range from single one off sculpts, to some multi-part miniatures with some quite small details. The miniatures are made from a white metal and all in all there are some 27 components, ranging from huge hulking bodies to teeny tiny knee pads. Some of the pieces are really small so be careful when extracting them from their various packets as it's quite easy to drop them or have them go shooting off, forcing you to spend nearly an hour on your hands and knees searching for a tiny knee pad, that when you find it you aren't even sure where it's meant to go... not that this happened to me of course. Ahem. Any way, you also get seven 32mm round lip bases and one 40mm round lip base, as well as 4 character / unit cards, helpfully for the units in the starter box.

Review: Zombicide

There are many regrets one can have in life. Not having the guts to punch a school bully in the nose, I did by the way, then his four friends jumped me and I got a bit of a kicking! Not talking to that smoking hot girl at the bar, because well, you know... look at me and then look at her!!! Plus not being able to get in on the Zombicide Kickstarter action, damn it! That's probably the worst one for a geek like me. I watched the first of Cool Mini or Not's Kickstarters religiously from the off. I probably checked back more often than those of you who had actually pledged. Unfortunately I was completely and utterly broke at the time of that campaign, and had been hit by so many unexpected one off bills that my meager funds were depleted even further. Life can sometimes be a really, really cruel experience you know, because literally two hours after the Kickstarter had finished somebody purchased a whole heap of painted mini's off of me and I was more than flush enough to have funded the Kickstarter... oh cruel fate why do you mock me so? So I guess I missed out on all the free stuff and special miniatures, but hey, at least I get to play the game now. Right? Any way here's the games video from the Kickstarter campaign.

Product Description

The Game comes with 71 plastic miniature, there are six handily colour coded Survivors, which leaves you with 65 zombies of varying types. These are 40 Walkers (normal zombies), 16 Runners (48 hours later zombies), 8 Fatties (erm... fat zombies) and 1 solitary Abomination (think the Tyrant out of the Resident Evil games). You also get 9 large double-sided map tiles, if you're familiar with Super Dungeon Explore you'll know what to expect. You also get 110 mini-gaming cards, the same sort of small card you get with Fantasy Flight Games stuff, there are 42 Zombie Cards, 62 Equipment cards and 6 Wounded cards. There are 6 Survivor identity cards, to help keep track of your survivors progress and 6 red D6. You also get a plethora of the usual chits and gaming tokens. There is quite a bit of 'stuff' in the box.

You get a hell of a lot.

Review: Last Night on Earth

       
         

When I was asking around about what zombie games I should get in to review for this zombie themed week, one game kept on cropping up. No not Zombicide, although that was a fairly popular request too it has to be said... no, I'm talking about Flying Frog Productions 'Last Night on Earth'. I've only really ever heard good things about this game, so when I was reminded of its existence it was bound to go down on my list of games to review. I'm quite glad it did.

Product Description

Right you get 1 large central board tile that is double sided for twice the fun, or something. There are 6 further L-shaped corner tiles, 4 of which will go around the edge of the board to make up the gaming space you'll play the games on. You'll get 22 plastic miniatures, 8 unique (read zombie film tropes) heroes, and 14 zombies, 7 green and 7 red. There are 120 playing cards, split between 40 Zombie Cards, 40 Hero cards and then 20 Advanced cards for both the Hero and Zombie decks. There are also 8 Character Profile cards, 5 Scenario Cards, 6 Reference Cards, the Sun Track, loads of card board chits and tokens and a CD. Don't ask. Did I also mention you get 16 D6's? No! Well you do, although God only knows why you'd need that many

There's a fair amount of stuff in the box.

Review: Zombies!!! Second Edition: Director's Cut

     
       

Arguably the quintessential zombie game.

When I first decided I'd be doing a week of articles on zombie games, the first product that went down on my list was 'Zombies!!!' simply because I don't know anyone who hasn't played it, or a version of it. Simply put it's one of those rare boardgames that appeals to diehard geeks like me, but doesn't put off 'normals'. It's mechanics are simplicity itself, and everyone can understand and enjoy it. Plus it's dirt heap. So why not review it this week I thought, so I am!

Product Description

The box actually comes packed with a lot of basic components. For starters you get 100 plastic zombies in two different poses. OK yeah sure they're small and not incredibly well detailed, but if you want a game about hordes of zombies this might be the place to start. There are 30 map tiles that are about 10cm by 10cm in size or 4" by 4" if you work in old money.You also get 50 cards for the event card deck, 6 human survivors and life and ammunition tokens, which I'm really not going to count, but you get way more than enough. Along with the rules that are printed on to an A4 sheet of paper and two D6's, one red and one blue that's your lot!

The contents of the box.

Review: Munchkin Zombies

      
        

While I was compiling a list of zombie games to review, it hit me that I hadn't actually spoken about Munchkin at all on my Blog. I hadn't even reviewed a single version of Steve Jackson's insanely popular game. Given how many drink fueled games of Munchkin I've played over the years that is incredibly remiss of me. So here I am trying to kill two birds with one stone... or should that be two zombies with one bullet? Either way I'm reviewing Zombie Munchkin.

Product Description

It comes in a box with a lot of cards, 168 full-colour cards in total. These are split between the Door Deck and the Treasure Deck, with there being 74 and 94 respectively. You also get a lovely looking dice with the Munchkin symbol on it, and the incredibly simple and easy to learn rules to Munchkin, in a full colour pamphlet form. Nothing fancy, just a card game in a box. As a warning, because I know a lot of people who buy Munchkin products are surprised by this, Zombie Munchkin does NOT come with a board or counter system to keep track of your levels in game as you progress, which I've always found an annoying oversight myself. So you'll need something to keep score for yourselves, that isn't open to easy abuse. You have been warned!!!

Here's what you get in the box.

Review: Zombie Fluxx

Gaaahhhhhh... braaaiiiinnsss!!!

I've never played any version of Fluxx before. I know plenty of people who have, but card games aren't necessarily my favourite sort of game in the world. Sure they can be simple, quick, easy fun, but I'm the sort of gamer who wants to sit down and play a full on game with little toy soldiers and counters. Whether that be a board game, wargame or indeed a card game. Fluxx doesn't really come onto my radar therefore, because it is so simple and so straight forward, and more importantly so quick to play. But, I figured that I can't really judge the product as not being for me if I'm not willing to at least give it a go, right? Besides many people have raved about Fluxx and I feel like I don't want to miss out, it is after-all an Origins Award Winner. So why not review Zombie Fluxx given I'm doing a week of zombie articles?

Product description

This is what you get in the box.

Zombie Fluxx isn't a complex product. It comes in a really small tight and compact box, it contains100 cards and some fold out rules to let you know just exactly what you've let yourself in for. However, I'll post a video from the games creator to give you

Review: Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game

A long time ago in a Blog far, far away... I wrote an article about Fantasy Flight Games getting the Star Wars license. Three products were instantly announced, there was going to be an RPG, which for me personally was a bit 'meh'. I've never been a big fan of RPGs, I've given them a go but I've never really gotten into them, they're just not for me. Then there was a card game announced too, something that at the time I was starting to enjoy more and more, mainly as filler for when wargames or boardgames ended early. Indeed the card game was slated to be the first product out of the Fantasy Flight stables bearing the Star Wars branding... turns out there were some issues with it, and it still hasn't seen the light of day. I still have it on pre-order somewhere, I just can't remember where! Finally there was the X-Wing Miniatures Game, which lets be brutally honest here, probably got most geeks I know a trifle moist. However, I was a bit down on the announcement at the time because of the awful news that the miniatures would be pre-paints... Luke I am your father... Nooooooooooooooooo!!! OK, so I've had the game now for a short while, and I've played my allotted amount of games before I feel safe in making my judgements, as always there's no rush on my part to get a shallow knee jerk review out. So what do I think of Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars based dog fight simulator?

Product Description

It's a game in a box! It's a game in a box gurl!!! Except it is, and it isn't. In effect the core boxed set, which is what is being reviewed, is actually presented as a typical Fantasy Flight Games, game in a box. As a game in a box for RRP circa £30 it's not bad... but there are add ons to the game to help 'personalise' it. In the box you get two pre-painted TIE Fighters and an X-Wing, plus 3 swanky (but brittle) plastic flying stands to put them on. There are also six custom D8's, a shed load of card tokens, including a card range ruler and maneuver templates. As is always the case with Fantasy Flight products these come on a thick, good quality card. There are three ship Maneuver Dials, 51 cards for various game functions, a quick start set of rules and then there is the 28 page full colour rulebook. Again Fantasy Flight include a number of zip-lock bags to put your various bits into, which helps with storage and is a nice touch. As a quick point, the box comes with a cut out for shelf display purposes that shows off the aforementioned pre-painted miniatures. Great sales ploy, but if you throw away or lose the clear plastic cover for your mini's... well it becomes a bit of a design flaw because those pre-painted ships will no longer stay in the box. Consider yourselves well and truly warned!

Review: Freebooter's Fate Casimeere Flynn

Well yesterday I reviewed an older Freebooter's Fate miniature, Miedo a Morir. So today I thought I'd better try and review one of the more recent releases. As a heads up, this was actually given to me by the lovely Hendrik who works at Freebooter Miniatures... although thinking about it I'm not sure what him giving me a rose wielding Casanova for a present says about our relationship... o_0 ... any way please bear that in mind as you read my thoughts on it.

Product description

Unlike many of the more complex Freebooter's Fate characters, Casimeere Flynn is absolutely no where near as complex in composition or pieces. He normally comes served in a plastic blister pack, but as this was a pre-release mini he came in a zip-lock bag. As always with Freeboter Miniatures products there is the sunken black plastic square base, and a metal scenic base insert. I'm kinda starting to wish more companies would go with this sort of arrangement as it really set the miniatures off nicely. Beyond that the miniature is made of metal and comes in three further parts. The main body, legs, torso, right arm and head cast as one piece and then the left arm wielding a rose and the right had brandishing a rapier. As always with Freebooter's Fate miniatures it also come with two cards, one in the native German and the other thankfully in English.

Review: Freebooter's Fate Miedo a Morir

I realised the other day I hadn't actually written that many reviews since my brief hiatus, and sitting in my to do pile are a load of older reviews I've yet to finish off. There are a few for Freebooter's Fate reviews that I want to do, so I'll try to get them finished this week. So I'll start with one of my favourite Freebooter's Fate miniatures, Miedo a Morir.

Product description

Miedo a Morir is a single character for the Brotherhood faction in Freebooter's Fate... or he's just a sodding awesome painting challenge. He comes with both his German and English gaming cards, so my mission to brush up on my German using Freebooter's Fate continues apace... although I'm really not quite sure how knowing 'unterleib' is meant to help me in everyday conversation! Miedo comes with the usual sunken square plastic Freebooter's base and a metal scenic base insert, which is something I love about Freebooter's miniatures. The miniature itself comprises of 7 metal components, 4 of which come attached to a metal spru... sorry the technical term escapes me for now. Some of these pieces are quite small and fiddly so be careful when removing them, and when sticking him together.

A better shot of the individual components.

Review: Dark Age Apocalypse Forcelists Book

   
     

This review should have gone live yesterday, but I was trying to cheer a friend up who suffered a bereavement, so apologies for that. On Tuesday of this week  I reviewed the Dark Age Apocalypse rulebook, well today it's the turn of the Dark Age Apocalypse Forcelists book. It's a far bigger beast than the core rules, and is far more filled with that lovely fluff that many of us so enjoy. As with yesterdays review, this book was a review copy sent to me free of charge, I'm making this clear just for the sake of full disclosure, so you can judge my review with all pertinent information at hand.

The cover art in all its gory glory!

Product Description

As with yesterdays review of the Dark Age Apocalypse Rulebook, the Forcelists book is a full-colour hardback rulebook, that comes in at a whopping 356 pages long.  That's a pretty hefty tome if you ask me, and it is a very heavy book that you really won't want to be carrying around with you to clubs and tournaments. The pages are yet again satin finish... mmmm... satin... I'm still a fan of satin finished pages. The pages are this time crammed with fluff and some utterly fantastic artwork, plus there is a veritable bucket load full of unit profiles and rules. Everything currently available in the Dark Age universe in fact. If you like your games to have a strong and detailed background, history and setting then this book certainly ticks that box. Obviously it also provides the Forcelists for the games five main factions, the Forsaken, Skarrd, Brood, Outcasts and Dragyri.

Review: Dark Age Apocalypse Rulebook

Dark Age has a pretty visceral look about it, which isn't surprising considering the game was inspired by the Artwork of Brom. Speaking of Brom there is currently a highly successful Kickstarter campaign running for the production of a book of his works. The game tries to take his macabre and twisted creations as inspiration and then turn them into a brutal experience on the tabletop. As always I'll fess up right at the start, this product was sent to me free of charge to review after I did some research for an article introducing the game on this Blog. I wasn't sure I was going to like the game, but hey I thought I'd give it a blast as so many of my readers had asked me to take a look at it for them. Truth is I was reluctant to spend my money on it at first, so getting some review stuff really helped. I mean I have a lot of games to play right now and adding another didn't seem like a wise idea at first. Now? Well read on to see what I think of the game now.

Product Description

The Dark Age Apocalypse Rulebook is a 96 page full-colour hardback rulebook. Although there is a brief amount of fluff at the start of the book it is unashamedly full to the brim with crunch, or rules as 'normals' refer to them. So in effect it is 90 pages crammed with ways to play games of Dark Age, right from the basics as you'd expect, up to a full and extensive campaign system. The pages are a satin finish, and long-term readers of this Blog will know just how happy that simple pleasure makes me... yeah I'm a bit obsessed with my satin finished pages. I never claimed to be 'sane'.

Review: Pefect Storm NuCoal Field Guide

Yeah it totally deserves its Approved by Cats badge.

You possibly won't hear me saying this phrase very often, but in terms of individual army books I think 'Games Workshop do it right'. Sure I like having a main rulebook with faction rules in it as well, and I also like the idea that as a game grows every faction grows too, a la HoMachine, Infinity or MoFaux... but I do like those individual army books. They give game designers and authors the chance to really go to town and develop their universe and enrich our gaming experience. They also help us as gamers to compartmentalize our game systems and actually can greatly reduce the amount of stuff we need to transport with us when gaming, not to mention the weight. When I first started getting into Heavy Gear Blitz I don't mind telling you I found the shear array of books and options a little bit bewildering. Indeed part of the reason I chose the NuCoal faction was that it had this book, its own army book if you will. The other reason was the Hussar, which I'll be reviewing shortly.

Product description

This is a 136 page, full-colour, softback rulebook. It is a faction guide / rulebook for the NuCoal faction, and as such it contains absolutely everything you could possibly want to know about the NuCoal faction in Heavy Gear Blitz... and I do mean EVERYTHING! It also contains the force lists for fielding a PAK force too... which is tempting! From the history behind the faction, to unit breakdowns, where the gears were developed from, and of course, the rules. The internal pages are matte finish and the cover is a soft glossy cover. The book is glue bound, and that's about it for a product description.

Review: Antenocitis Workshop Modern K-Rail Barriers

   
    

These were perchased primarily for use in games of Infinity. But I'm sure they'd work just as well in 40k or any modern warfare setting based game. They are simply put Jersey type barriers, and act as linear terrain... I'm going to struggle to make these sound interesting, but genuinely they've been really useful.

Product Description

You get 8 of these resin K-Rail barriers in a pack. There dimensions are pretty straight forward, they are 4" in length, just over half an inch wide and three quarters of an inch tall. Don't worry too much there will be photographs with Larry the Ultramarine to give you a sense of scale. They are cast in a pretty firm resin that, for mine at least, were a lovely shade of blue.

What you get in a pack