Warhammer 40.000 – Battlezone: Manufactorum – Vertigus
For the 9th edition Games Workshop released a new series of starter sets, covering two forces and terrain in different tiers. You can choose for example the Command Edition or just the Battlezone terrain from that boxed set, or if you want to go all-in, the large Battlezone: Manufactorum - Vertigus boxed set that we're going to take a closer look into today.
spiel.digital and throwback to Spiel 2010
Like many other shows, the large toy and game fair SPIEL in Essen went digital this year to accomodate the needs of the current situation. A good reason to take a look on how they handled the transition from physical show into a digital one and a great invitation for a throwback!
In October 10 years ago, the I was quite busy, we just came back from our Nottingham tour (read about our throwback here), we went to one of the last DUZI shows and the Games Day Germany was just last week (throwback on that one is in preparation). So towards the end of the year and tour season for us, we went to the largest toy fair in Europe, SPIEL in Essen.
Back in the day, due to their size and to safe on marketing costs, Warlord Games and Mantic shared a booth (and Alessio joined in with Riverhorse as well to present Shuuro and support Kings of War), and the old set up of hall 6 at the show took not only a bit of preparation to avoid missing out on some wargaming or tabletop booths. It was great fun to drop by, as we met most of the lovely people just a few weeks ago on their home turf.
Slave Ogryns Mechanics and Pit Slaves
I already talked about the possibilities of this kit in the review on the Slave Ogryn Gang for Necromunda, but now it is time to let some actions follow those words.
These are not the first ogryn sized models within the Warhammer range, and as we how quite the few bits to choose from for some kit bashing it was time to see, what would work.
The most obvious kit to look into would be the Ogryns / Bullgryns kit from the regular 40k range. The heads fit the size, but need a bit of green stuff on the neck, as the connection is different. A fist from the Kastellan Robots could be interesting to mix up the augmented power fists, and with the Slave Ogryns being often pit crew or mechanic, a few tool bits from the Genestealer Cultists or similar items from the Orks (in this case the biker) a good choice as well.
Pizza, Beers and Frostgrave 2nd Edition
We had a gaming night on wednesday. Florian brought some fine beverages from Frankonia, and I prepared some self-made pizzas for the night.
Using the NY Pizza Dough recipe by Kenji Lopez-Alt as usual, I made a veggie pie with spelt flour for my wife, and a rustica pie with pepperoni, sausage, red onion, corn and bell pepper and a meat lover with pepperoni, beef and sausage. A proper base for some light drinking over the evening, covering Hopfengarten Bamberg Rauschkönig, Überquell World White IPA and Reckendorfer Keller-Bier.
Imperial Space Marine LE2 1986 and 2016
Finally found it! I was looking for the LE2 Space Marine from 1985 for quite a while and last week I got the miniature for my collection. And he completes the duo, along with the first LE1 Space Orc (Yes, with an C and not a K).
The miniature was released with a hexagon base as the second miniature from a limited edition series, and later released as a regular Space Marine from the Rogue Trader era, and seeing the material on my copy, it is most likely a Mail Order cast from the late 90s. It was sculpted by Bob Naismith back in the day.
Bolt Action – Carro Armato M13/40 and M14/41
After a bit of a pause, a new plastic vehicle kit for Bolt Action. Not bound to a certain campaign book this time, and from the cooperation of Italeri and Warlord Games an italian medium tank multi-kit, the Carro Armato / Semovente.
This is the first italian plastic tank kit for Bolt Action, so far they only had access to resin kits and among those primarely tankettes. With this kit, the player is able to field either a Carro Armato M13/40, M14/41 or Semovente da 75/18.
Black Seas – Terrors of the Deep
Mantic Games just announced the Black Seas based Fantasy Spin-Off Armada, but Warlord Games already went for a bit of fantasy content for the Age of Sail game - with a set of legendary sea monsters, Terrors of the Deep.
This is a boxed set, that covers six different sea monsters casted from resin with the occasional metal bit to go along. The set includes a scenario booklet and stat cards for the six models. The booklet has the Bermuda Triangle scenario, along with the rules for the six models and a ghost ship (just repaint one of your regular vessels).
Realm of Chaos – Herdstone part I
In context of my beastmen warband I have mentioned Paul Sawyer's participation in The Tale of Four Gamers, with his chaos beastmen army. And one of the things that really caught my eye in that series, was the herdstone he build for his army (covered in the White Dwarf #221 and #222).
The Tabletop Parking Lot Situation
I have talked about evaluating projects in the past, just recently as part of the ongoing decluttering of the physical brick & mortar chaosbunker.
Where I have valuated the projects by doing a kind of SWOT analysis, I think that space and purpose are two strong factors, that weigh in a bit more. As for space, that is probably in our hobby a much more limiting factor than financial assets (beside available time maybe), as you can get the same miniatures very likely second hand or get a deal on them on a show or so, but going for a different scale changes the overall experience (and doesn't give you the same miniatures). So I came up with a parking lot theory to sort my projects.
Is this one of the car allegories? You betcha!
(throwback from my 2010 set-up, really let that bright wallpaper soak into you ... an my current setup)
September 2020 review
The month is over and I finished the summer project successfully! Yay! Realm of Chaos part one is done and ready for battle, four more to go.