Tor Megiddo: Seqemose and Guardsman Vell

War in the Sun.

As of writing this, Tor Megiddo, a collaborative hobby event hosted by Alexander Winberg from Echos of the Imperium and Helge "Wilhelminiatures," is about to take place. The event sees a group of incredibly talented hobbyists building warbands and ramshackle vehicles to race across the sun-scorched ruin that is Tor Megiddo. Although we knew we were not going to be able to make it to the event, we wanted to create a few models to take part. Inspiration was not hard to come by for the project, with the setting’s parallels to GorkaMorka (and Mad Max), coupled with all of the incredible models being produced over the last few months (search #tormegiddo on Instagram a Twitter for a fraction of the excellent models that have been created). We decided that we wanted to create a pair of bounty hunters, one a grizzled Imperial Guard veteran, while the other a tall and wispy thin humanoid bird creature.

A look back: The miniatures of 2014

It is hard to argue with the notion that 2014 has been a remarkable year for hobbyists, one which has seen the release of a huge range of fantastic miniatures. Similar to last year, we thought that it would be appropriate to go back and take a look at some of our favorite models released over the year. Fortunately, it was not just a single company that dominated the scene, with Games Workshop, Forge World, Wyrd, and Corvus Belli, each releasing a host of excellent models.  Without further ado, we are going to go through each of the aforementioned companies and talk about some of their standout models for the year and select our favorite.  Finally we will reveal our overall favorite model of the year.  Now to the models!

Infinity: Operation Icestorm unboxing and review

Moving into third edition, Infinity continues to maintain its characteristic anime-inspired art direction.

I have been collecting and assembling Infinity models for well on two years now and I have not played a single game of Infinity. Despite my best intentions, I still have never dredged up enough motivation to read and learn the rules for the game (despite them being free online…).  I think this is finally going to change, now that they have released a starter boxed game, Operation Icestorm, containing all that one needs to play.  Fortunately, it comes with a set of starter rules, designed to introduce the rules to new and veteran players alike, since it is the first exposure anyone will get for the new third edition ruleset.  I preordered a copy of the box when it was first unveiled at Gencon, and am happy to report that it has finally arrived!

Infinity: Perfecting metal models

"We are leaving!"

Although I primarily play Warhammer 40,000, I am constantly looking at other miniature games, particularly skirmish games because of their low model count and entry price.  One of the first that caught my eye, long before I started to play Malifaux, was Infinity.  The game’s intriguing blend of “Ghost in the Shell”-science fiction and modern tactical military operations is pretty unmistakable.  This lead me to start slowly acquiring some models from the range, basically anything that caught my eye, not adhering to any particular faction (which resulted in me  primarily buying snipers, ha ha).  At Gencon this year, Infinity’s 3rd edition ruleset was released, along with a boxed game, making it easier than ever to give the game a try.  All of this excitement over Infinity encouraged me to get out some of my models, and I thought that it would be an ideal time to show some of them and to talk about my impressions of their miniatures

Playing Miniature Games Long Distance: Vassal

Miniature-based wargaming is graced with a huge amount of variety, from setting to scope, science fiction to low fantasy, skirmish to total warfare.  But whereas the genre affords players a plethora of different themes to explore, one aspect of the hobby always remains the same. And that is the investment of time that it takes to play a miniature-based wargame. From assembling, painting, reading background material, learning rules, and ultimately meeting up with some friends to push models around on a tabletop, the hobby takes a lot of time.  And if you are anything like me, as you get older, time is more and more at a premium.  No longer in school/college, you are starting a career, a family, or both, and even if you do have some free time a few evenings a week, your gaming friends likely are not just down the hall or across the street.  Because this is a hobby that I love, I still make time to assemble and convert models, read background lore, explore the vast and dedicated miniature gaming blogosphere, and try my best to keep up-to-date on the rule sets of multiple games.  Of these, being knowledgeable about the rules, has probably become the tallest order.  And this is simply because I do not often get the chance to actually play the games.  Although I really enjoy reading and learning new rule systems, just reading them is not the same thing as playing them.  Playing a single game every five months, when I get together with my like-minded friends, is hardly a good way to learn and retain the nuances and complexities of many of these games, let alone experiment with army lists.  This got me to thinking about how it would be wonderful if there was a way that I could play some of these games digitally, such that when I actually got together with my friends, the games we played would be as good as possible, filled with strategy and character, rather than paging through rulebooks and reusing army lists from years ago. This led me to Vassal: the open-source boardgame engine.