King Of War V2

Woohoo my kickstarter arrived, and  on time, I've had a read of the rules and to me everything seems similar to the first version except all those things people didn't like, getting charged in the rear by a flying unit and spending 2 turns to face only to have them fly off and recharge you in the rare again!.

Now my Kickstarter arrived and so did 2 other Rulebooks I thought I decided against ordering them due to the shipping but they were included so I got all of the above and 2 additional rulebooks I gave one to a friend and I'm going to give one away on the Behind Enemy Lines podcast. 

So a new version comes along and if you're a Warhammer player you're probably wondering whats been written out, what have GW forgotten or who's been nerfed etc.

 Well above you there (minus my Necromancer) is my old 1000 point list also in the same picture is my 1000 V2 list throughout the changes and  balances I lost 10 points this meant my Necromancer didn't get his artifact the made the enemy deploy additional units rather than the I go you go, no biggy it's never really helped.

So how does it play under V2 well just like V1 but with all the things you hated gone. I had a game against a Warhammer refugee and he absolutely loved it even though I won and what makes the game even cooler is now they have lists for all the Warhammer races so if you're a Beastmen fan you can use the Herd, Skaven fans use the Ratkin the lists keep going on, oh and here are all the lists kow2.easyarmy.com . So far it's a great game and because of it's fortunate timing with AOS coming out it's become very popular. Now I'm just waiting for their sci-fi game Warpath to see if that's worth picking up.

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Product Review: Rubicon 28mm 1/56th Scale Tiger 1E

So a friend wanted a Tiger for his Bolt Action force, don't ask just..nevermind, so he arranged for a Tiger to be ordered now I intercepted it before he could get it so I set about looking at it an putting it together.

Now what you get for your $40ish dollars is a really nicely detailed kit with options for and Early Tiger, A Desert Tiger with Air filters or a late war Tiger a set of decals and some very easy to follow instructions. This vehicle is non Zimmerit.

This isn't mine I didn't take WIP pics I was too excited

The track wheels and running gear are a dream to assemble coming as part of the track itself no fiddly semi rubber track here once this is on the rest of the tank takes about 20 minutes to assemble. The vehicle itself doesn't have a commander but that's okay.

I spent a couple of hours painting and weathering this beast and it's come up tops surprisingly I'm finding this 28mm stuff good fun to paint I hope you enjoyed this short review. For any painting queries or commission requests please email kingdan82@gmail.com.  

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Product Review: Battlefronts New Plastic British Shermans/Firefly boxset

I had another opportunity to pick up some more of Battlefronts new awesome plastic range this time it's the British Sherman Armoured Platoon. Like most other medium tank boxes it contains enough parts to build 5 Sherman V's or 5 Sherman Firefly VC tanks.

The box itself is about double the thickness of a regular box but that's not really an issue unless you're pressed for space. It has a colour coded semi-assembly guide on the back and comes with a British decal sheet that appears to look like it's for a guards division but it lacks magnets (XX105 Rare Earth Magnets - 1mm x 5mm $7 for 40 magnets) but that's not an issue for me.

Now lets take a look at what you get in the box 

So there's your full plastic Shermans which are very crisp and one part tracks the sprue is laid out very well and I had no missing parts and 2 left tracks are impossible another win here.

 Now these guys will go great with the plastic paratroopers from Open Fire or the new plastic Brits which are not out yet but they too look awesome.

Thanks for reading!

    

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Product Review: Battlefronts new Plastic Stugs

I jumped at the chance to get my hands on these since I sold my old Stugs but these new plastic ones are just so much better and for $45.00USD (much better than the old $62.50) you get a lot more options include five plastic StuG III G sprues (with 7.5cm & 10.5cm gun options), one plastic Tank Commander sprue & one StuG III decal sheet.

It's a very well made unit and with the correct use of really little rare each magnets you could have a quick change out between hulls and guns. I've also burrowed some of the sexy new plastic tank commanders for my Panthers I'm currently working on.

Some generic decals which are great because you don't want to limit yourself to one company or army

Sprue close ups so,so pretty

If you're thinking about picking up some Stug G's for your Mid war or Late war lists they are worth it. They're cheaper than the old ones and twice as many options.

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Product Review: Battlefield in a box Large Craters and Ruined House

I recently picked up a bit more terrain for my WW2 collection it may be designed with WW1 in mind but a crater is a crater and I'd imagine European architecture didn't change much from 1914 - 1945 so the ruined building fits in really well.

So what does your $29 USD get you? Two craters and a ruined house and two baggies with flock and grass (I never use these I have about 50 or so little baggies around the house) and all pre-painted and it's done pretty nicely. The ruined building fits in well with the building that came with the old Jagdpanther box.

Overall it's cheap and ready to go straight away and as WW1 is played on a smaller table this is a good value product for WW2 I'd suggest picking up 3 or 4 of them if only for the ruined buildings.

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Warzone Resurrection a series of unfortunate events

Holy cow it finally arrived after Prodo's suffered from Fraud, Flooding, F*cking couriers, Sickness, Machine breakdown and whatever else ruined their deadline. These are, however, the risks you take on with any Kickstarter but it is here now and I was one of the last to receive mine so let us review.

The rulebook is just under 300 pages long it's well constructed and looks to be rugged enough to dragged out often.

The first 25 pages are fluff the next section is the actual rules and so far seems easy to follow following on from this you've got the lists and special unit rules.

 One thing the book is missing is a painting guide but this is more than made up for with the awesome artwork both new and some from 20+ years ago.

Overall it flows well, looks good and seems durable.

The miniatures have come a long way from the 90's. If you remember the 90's you'll remember chunky mini's made of depleted uranium and hilarious paint jobs we've come along way since 20 odd years ago.

Although not ideal the mini's are made in a blue resin, I do believe they told the kickstarters they would get plastic toys, and are very well detailed. Below are some awesomely painted toys.

The future has another race/nationality/megacorp Imperial on the way and they do look very nice in renders so far. There's 7 forces available in Warzone Resurrection they are Capitol Corp, Bauhaus Corp, Mishima Corp, Cybertronic Corp, The Brotherhood, The Dark Legion and the upcoming Imperials.

What else? Hows about an RPG? It looks good from what I've heard made by the same folks who made Achtung Cthulhu here watch this video also there's like 4 days left so support it!

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Tank Art Volume 2

I picked this book up as an early Christmas present to myself (I gave myself a lot of gifts this Christmas). For some reason I though that this would just end up being one big advert for AK Interactive, I'm not sure why I thought that, however it isn't.

This book is a 228 page practical and very useful guide with step by step instructions on working, weathering and detailing allied tanks. The mix of techniques is vast from hairspray to pigment washes and can be translated to any scale.

I found the winter wash effect particularly useful when I did my King Tiger tutorial. Another thing I found useful was once you came to the end of an article it would have the steps broken down in a two page summary.



(This is from Tank Art 3)

The price for a book which is graphic heavy is reasonable at $59.95 NZD and should by on every modellers bookshelf whether you're a scale model builder a Flames of War player or even and Imperial Guard Tank commander it's worth it. Two more volumes are available or coming soon focusing on modern armour and more German armour (this first book was also about German armour). 

 

    

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Malifaux 2.0

Woot new Malifaux 2.0 is out and I couldn't resist getting another crew this time I went with the Guilds Judgement it's 100% plastic it's still their 30-32mm heroic style, just thinner. So if you've got big ham hands probably best stick to the metal mini's.

One of the awesome things about the new plastics it the weight which allows for some awesome poses and balancing that you just couldn't do with metal. Below is the pic of the one piece Lady Justice and the new plastic version of her.

Previously know as Lady Beewbs I guess she won't be anymore. Another awesome thing about Malifaux 2.0 is the new cards they've finally reduced them down to one double sided card which means they'll fit in card protectors now. 

The new Judge looks a lot more dynamic as well plus he has a hat and everyone knows hat's make for a better mini.

Because it's a plastic mini you can do things like have a guy held on by one hand balancing on something on an angle and not have it topple it's pretty awesome. 

Having only seen one game of the new version I'm keen to get my game on and see how the new thing ticks.

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It's TOOL TIME

There's a few things I dislike in real life like waiting, stupid people, children, teenagers, old people,  people in general, messed up coffee order, being stuck in traffic, full trains, religion and atheists, Summer, Winter and a whole bunch of other stuff but as a wargamer the thing that really grinds my gears is paying for the Peripherals.

That's the hobby tools and in this review/rant/comparison we'll compare the prices (in New Zealand Dollars) of the more commonly used modelling tools. I'm also well aware that I could've poped down to the local $2 shop and got craft knives and super glue up the wazoo, but hey, I'm a professional (I'm also aware of the irony).

So here we go Games Workshop VS Gale Force 9

Super Glue

Basically it's the same stuff anywhere you go however being super glue and in a bottle is where the similarity ends the GF9 Glue has more in it 1oz or 28.4gm while the GW stuff 0.17oz or 5gm and the price GF9 $10.00 and GW $15.00

Hobby Knife

A basic hobby knife with a scalpel blade used for cutting things (duh) the GW knife offers and ergonomic rubber handle and is designed to be used in key modelling positions and comes with 12 spare blades by comparison the GF9 hobby knife has much less fanfare it's used for cleaning mould lines and cutting plastic however it only comes with 5 spare blades

price GF9 $15.00 and GW $30.00 

Sprue/Plastic Cutters



These tools are great for chopping through plastic sprue to help hasen your trip to modelling town I'm generally a bit harsher on mine I used the GF9 cutter on the right here to cut heads of metal minis it's not what it was designed for but it works. Once again both similar products in nature although it seems GW have updated theirs to go down to a 1mm point of which the GF9 already has.

price GF9 $20.00 and GW $30.00

Hobby Drill

Mostly used to drill holes in weak points in miniatures for secure pinning or putting on a large base etc GF9 refers to theirs as a Model Pinning System whereas GW still call theirs the Hobby Drill the GW version comes with 6 spare 1mm drill bits (I still have my GW drill from 1998) The GF9 drill has just the one bit a maple wood handle (I'm not sure if this was supposed to impress?) and 3 bits of brass rod to get you pinning although stolen paperclips work just fine.

price GF9 $20 (for an extra $10 you can get 2 different drill bits and 12 rods) and GW  $30

Bone Saw

These bad boys wouldn't look out of place as part of a carpenters tool kit but these are mostly used for big conversion jobs like cutting up Landraiders and taking the limbs of giant monsters not essential but it's one of those things you need just encase also you can't buy the GW one online because "we're not able to sell chunky blades like this online because, without age verification, anyone can get their hands on it - younger children and goblins alike"

 (I haven't taken mine out of the plastic yet)

price GF9 $20.00 and GW $45.00

Tape Measures



The most important tool for any wargamer and you'll go through about 20 in about 10 years of gaming although you can get them at any hardware store the gaming tape must have 2 things on it Centimeters and Inches as we all know proper wargames are played in inches and for some reason a strange few like to play in centimeters. Both of these tapes are 10ft long and have a lock to keep you ranged in the GF9 tape however says it has tensile strength for up to four (4) feet good for faux sword fighting.

price GF9 $10.00 and GW $9.00

So in summing up GF9 is the cheapest however there are other options your local hardware store probably has all these items for less than half of all this it's up to you how you want to spend your money.





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