Throwback – Lead Belt Nottingham 2010 – Day 4
Last day of our trip to the lead belt and we headed to the outer area of the Nottinghamshire, to Mansfield to be exactly. Why head out there? Maelstrom Games had their facilities there, back in the day one of the largest wargaming stores, maybe only second to Wayland Games in the UK.
What made it interesting was not only the vast range, but the incredibly large gaming hall with 72 (!) tables, that hosted two tournaments at the same time. Epic 40.000 and Warhammer Ancient Battles on that day we were there. But not all, they even covered a bar, lounge and even more gaming tables. I think one of the things that impressed me the most, that even although the vast amount of tables and this not being club rooms, the amount of terrain was high and the quality of it more than just presentable.
Throwback – Lead Belt Nottingham 2010 – Day 3
Friday started quite early, at 9 a.m. we went for a quick shopping at Mantic, as some of us wanted to buy some Kings of War armies. In my case, it were a few zombies (I really like the versatile use of the ghouls and zombies by Mantic) and the Dwarfen kings council. On top we got these Mantic messenger bags with personal dedication by Ronnie and Alessio.
But that was just a brief stay at Mantics, as we had the second part of our meeting with Warlord Games. I had the chance to meet John Stallard, who was tied the day before (he participated in the Games Workshop shareholder meeting). It was really great to meet another former high ranking manager. John participated in the same battle report, we mentioned yesterday with Ronnie.
Throwback – Lead Belt Nottingham 2010 – Day 1
In August I have written about my anniversary in "professional" wargaming, and during my time as editor-in-chief I visited a lot of shows and convention, and we did some tours to meet with some of the manufacturers. Our first large tour of that kind was exactly 10 years ago (well in the night from the 14th to the 15th), towards the lead belt.
For those of you not familiar with that term, the lead belt describes the greater Nottingham area / Midlands, as due to Games Workshop sitting there, a lot of other tabletop companies were founded in the surrounding area - many by former Games Workshop employees.
As we were already in touch with the bigger companies for coverage, news and such, we arranged a couple of meetings in and around Nottingham and booked our stay in a hotel in Nottingham (Jury's Inn, proper stay, can only recommend). When I say we, it was Christian/Darkover (my former second-in-command), his wife Sarah, and two friends of mine from the local wargaming club; Andre (the albanian national coach, more on that later) and Lukas (my flatmate from my student days).
Decluttering the ‘bunker
With the project private home continuing further, I'm preparing moving my studio into the new house. And as I don't intend to bring "dead projects" into our new home (as it will be harder to get rid off them, as that hopefully will be our last move), so I'm progressing further with the evaluation of projects and minimizing my stock. Currently focusing on bulk projects and items, where I'll see the results of emptying up space quickly. Sold and gave away a few items already, for example the majority of my Warmachine stock (Colossals and Battle Engines), Battle Masters leftovers, and am willing to split with my early Saxon Saga and Mantic Orks.
And while sorting through the drawers and boxes of my studio, I did not only find things from the days past, like the tickets to my first Warhammer World or Games Day visit, but quite the lot of assembly instructions.
A trip down memory lane … my first Games Day
Games Days (the predecessors of the Warhammer Fest) were a format of an event, organized by Games Workshop for the first time in 1975, originally in London, and covered the broader range of products that the company imported and distributed, like role playing games or miniature boardgames. Later the event was moved to Birmingham, to the NEC and the focus changed according to the company's range towards tabletop wargames.
With Games Workshop growing internationally, the Games Days were not only held annualy in the UK, but in many European countries like Germany, France and Italy, and on other continents, like Australia (Sydney) and North America (Atlanta, Baltimore and Chicago) as well. The first German Games Day was hosted in 1999, with many of the international events joining in the early 2000's.
I went to my first Games Day exactly 17 years ago on August 24th 2003. But why do I write about a Games Day that was so long ago? The same day I found the tickets from my first trip to Warhammer World, I came across my ticket from the 2003 Games Day in Cologne.
Back in the day, the German one was held in Cologne, at the Gürzenich. Quite an impressive location for such an event, as the Gürzenich is a representational building in the heart of the city, which was first opened in 1447 and has a classic late Gothic façade. And is it used as a festival theatre, it easily covers enough space for a wargaming events.
Vanguard Miniatures – Defeat in Detail 6mm
Vanguard Miniatures is a British online shop that covers your miniature needs in small or epic scale warfare. But they do not only carry their own range(s), but are the distributor for other brands like Troublemaker Games, of whom I covered the multi-part plastic terrain kits.
As the Adeptus Titanicus bug bit me, I was looking for fitting miniatures to place on the bases or walkways among my titans, and I came across their Defeat in Detail range, in 6mm. The range is also available in 3mm or 15mm, but 6mm is the strongest / broadest among them. And today we're going to take a deep dive into this very same 6mm range, as John sent me a couple of samples, incl. some pre-releases / yet to come novelties, you can see below.
Aeronautica Imperialis – Arvus Lighter and Vulture Gunship
In the second wave of Aeronautica Imperialis Forge World supports the range with two new resin aircrafts, the Vulture Gunship for the Astra Militarum and the Arvus Lighter of the Imperial Navy.
These are multi-part resin (not Finecast!) kits, available only through Forge World. Each clamshell blister covers two flyers, along with the accessories needed for use in Aeronautica; flying bases, clear rod and status cards with profile. The inlay covers the assembly instructions as well.
Adeptus Titanicus – The Defence of Ryza
After Titandeath and Doom of Molech in 2019, and Shadow and Iron in 2020, The Defence of Ryza is the fourth campaign supplement published for Adeptus Titanicus, and we're going to cover it today.
The supplement is either available as a 108 page hardcover for 29 EUR or as an ePub3 through Warhammer Digital for 25.99 EUR.
Adeptus Titanicus – Cerastus Knights Acheron and Castigator
Along with the Defence of Ryza campaign supplement, Games Workshop released the two of the missing Cerastus Knight variants - the Acheron and Castigator.
Among the Imperial Titans is a class of smaller and less powerful versions of the god-machines - the Imperial Knights. They are piloted by a single Knight commander, called scion, and not by a crew of princeps and moderati. With the knights being much smaller than Warhound Scout Titans, they can only to a limited amount carry titan weapon systems into battle. The Knights were introduced to Epic / Space Marine in UK White Dwarf #126 in June 1990, and a few years later in December of 1994 updated as part of the new editions of this game, Epic Titan Legions. Some of the new classes even derivate from the old names and types. There were Paladins, Lancers and Wardens, and those came back in the current variant as well. In addition knights had tiers, Squire, Knight and Lord, along with Senechal. Something that was picked up in the latest rules for Warhammer 40,000 to a degree.
Aeronautica Imperialis – Taros Air War
Right along with the Skies of Fire starter box, came Taros Air War, the second campaign supplement for Aeronautica Imperialis.
The Taros Air War is part of the Taros Campaign, a conflict Forge World covered in one of their Imperial Armour books back in 2004, Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign, to be precise. Taros was mining world, in the Ultima Segmentum, in the service of the Imperium of Man. But the Planetary Governor Aulis, head of the Taros government, developed friendly trading relations with the Tau, and sought to defect to the Tau Empire with the support of much of the planetary population. A treachery the Imperium couldn't let go unpunished, and their response was relentless.
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