Scenery is an essential ingredient in making the tabletop wargaming a much more of a challenging experience for both players. Scenery or terrain provides cover for your armies whilst allowing you to think in a more strategic way in. When beginning usually players resort to an empty can or books to represent buildings and obstacles however, this doesn’t quite provide the cinematic feel which modern day tabletop wargames strive to achieve!

Scenery back in the day of Warhammer Fantasy 2 nd edition was  supplied on card print outs of houses and buildings which had to be assembled with glue or sticky tape. 80s box sets contained sheets of buildings requiring cutting out and assembling. Some even appeared in issues of White Dwarf and Citadel Journals to help the novice wargamer. There were resin cast rooms and dungeons for roleplayers but nothing at the time like full resin cast buildings as far as I can remember.

Nowadays, a company like Games Workshop produces some really great quality scenery for both its Warhammer gaming systems. Taking an example like a personal favourite of mine:  The Garden of Morr for instance which is a quality generic graveyard scene that can be pieced together for as little as £20. Other companies can offer different plastic kit terrain systems for fantasy and sci-fi battle such as ‘Battlefield in a Box’ which contains a fully constructed scenery kit and it’s pre-painted as well.

Things have moved full circle with companies like Battle Systems offering ‘paper’ scenery through the use of personal printers this time round. The advantage of this is that you can configure the scenery to your own preferences with ease. This is cleverly done through its modular pod system using foam mount board and some basic tools. Check out some of the scenery you can put together in these pictures:

Make sure you check out their site for more information: www.battlesystems.co.uk

The choices of terrain are pretty much up to player and scenario. Our recommendation is to mix between soft (hedges, walls, bushes) with a slant towards more hard cover forms such as houses and small buildings for an interesting (and exciting) game set up.

More Computer Game Crossovers

Increasingly computer games have had a bigger influence on ‘offline’ gaming. 2011 saw big releases like ‘Gears of War’ for instance making the transition to baord games and HeroClix. What other big IPs can we see making the leap? Well, I’d really like to see much more done in the worlds of Elder Scroll series. Skyrim is a massive gaming hit (Previous versions have done equally well) and in my opinion needs to see much more coverage in card games, board games and traditional role playing.

Sci-fi mega hit: Mass Effect most definitely needs the offline treatment. Someone? Anyone? Makers Bioware were gracious enough to give Dragon Age brand to Role playing game publisher Green Ronin: which they called: Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Role Playing (greenronin.com/dragon_age/). So why not Mass Effect? The mystery continues but I reckon there would be something in 2012 for Mass Effect fans.

Dust Warfare a Hit

The strategy board game, Dust Tactics has been going strength to strength. However, 2012 sees the release of Dust Warfare. This is a new take on the game which frees it from the grided board of Tactics and allows its whole raft of its cool miniatures to be played freely on the table top!

One of the biggest attractions of the game is commanding large attack walkers in your armies. It is unclear how the rules of the game will evolve but expect flowing game play to say the least. Rumours suggest that each player has commend points to spend during each turn. These points must be spent wisely to gain the upper hand on your opponent. Further pints can be spent on each unit and obviously for attack.

One final comment, with Veteran games designer, Andy Chambers involved we expect great things.

Star Wars Gaming to go from strength to strength

With Lucas releasing the film saga in 3D, the merchandise tie-ins are soon to follow. Episode 1 3D gets its cinematic airing in February but it’s the classic trilogy that the SDG staff are waiting for.

The classic Star Wars franchise comes back to the card game format with Fantasy Flight’s 2012 offering: Star Wars: The Card Game. This living card game features a whole wealth of card options for this co-operative game where the Rebellion must defeat the dark forces of the Empire.

Also on the horizon is a space combat strategy game which promises to capture the fast paced action of Star Wars space dog fights. Personally, I want to play the Tie Fighter squadrons in this set myself but this game is bound to be a sure fire hit. Expansion could be plentiful for this game and we expect a series this year to include Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon and dreaded Star Destroyers.

The Hobbit will rock

You’ve most likely seen the Trailer for the new Hobbit film to be released in December 2012. Expect a plethora of new stuff to come out from CCGs, Board games and other merchandise. Games Workshop are looking to re-energise its Lord of the Rings offering and it should release a table-top strategy game before the film’s release. The Lord of the Rings films released from 2001 to 2003 will most likely have new life breathed through them so new products should be launched including Lego sets and more from WizKids Heroclix range which is already out there.

Lord of the Rings HeroClix Campaign Starter is sold here

Warhammer 40k 6^th Edition released

Another big release for Games Workshop the cards?  Rumblings of the next edition of 40k have been gathering throughout 2011 and it is cited that GW will indeed release the next iteration of 40k doing the Summer.

The supposed 6th Edition box set have had intenet buzz talking of a match up between the Chaos Space Marines and the noble Eldar forces.  The rumour mill has been churning for potential rule changes including turn phase changes to make the action more ‘real-time’ for instance. I’m not going to speculate too much but it’s bound to be a high point for 40k fans!

No official announcement yet but with all the buzz I’d expect it to happen sooner rather than later.

So you have assembled and built your armies. Spent countless days/weeks with a brush and paint until the small hours. The rules have been memorised and practiced and it’s now time for war! Although the brutal reality is that the kitchen table stained from last week’s Spaghetti Bolognaise is about as close as it gets to any war terrain!

Now is the time to really impress your friends with some serious war terrain making. All you need  are wooden boards, matt paint, miniature paints, some scenic sand & grass and some air drying clay. It’s really quite simple to be up and running fairly swiftly if you have a decent plan in mind.

Make sure that your board adheres to the rules set out in the manuals. So if you are playing Warhammer 40k, terrain is usually set on a 6′x4′ play area. Use MDF as its cheap and easy to cut. You can always get your DIY centre to cut you out your pieces for you if need be. Make sure your boards are nice and sturdy by using strips of wood underneath to make a frame. Nail it together and then sand the board down for a good smooth finish.

Your DIY centre can be full of really good ideas for texturing the board top. For instance,  you can use garden sand or even rippled wallpaper. It’s also a good idea to pick up PVA glue as it comes in tubs and not tubes quantities. Don’t try to even paint the board using the small pots of paint – instead use them as your reference colour and ask the DIY store to match the colour for you to make as a custom matt paint tin. Perfect!

With the board constructed, you can start adding scenic grass flock. There’s plenty of different shades of flock to match whatever environment you are trying to create. Try Gale Force Nine’s range of coloured grass ranging all seasons’ shades.  You may even try to create highlights with spray paints or even trying your hand at dry brushing.

Moveable hills and mountains can be made out of clay from hobby shops – simply mould your hill onto a shaped piece of MDF. Wait to dry and then paint for perfect terrain pieces. Scenery pieces can be bought and used to spice up your battles

If the idea of war terrain is still a little bit of a hassle then you could try a whole range of services out there to get an instant table top terrain straight to your door step. For instance, the friendly people at www. battleboards.co.uk use their talents for you to customise terrain to your preferences giving you a really professional piece of kit at the end of the day. So if it’s a full battle field you require then great but something more elaborate like a fantasy football arena then they can sort that out too!  Battleboards even offers a trade-in scheme on old boards once they are no longer used. Make sure you head to their website to check out all the details.

Check out some of Battleboards detailed creations here:

U-Boat Terrain (Courtesy of Battleboards)

Fantasy Arena (Courtesy of Battleboards)

“Borodino” Landscape (Courtesy of Battleboards)

In my household, Doctor Who is pretty much the best programmes on TV right now. My daughter loves the show. She’ only five and the Daleks are like the coolest bad guys ever in her opinion. It just so happened that we have a weekly publication here in the UK called ‘Doctor Who Adventures  magazine‘ and they gave away these small 28mm scale figures of Daleks , Cyberman and Sontarian warriors freely in past issues. They are made out of plastic and pretty brittle making them worthless adversaries for the Doctor but great for a potential  tabletop strategy game! All you need are the miniatures and a fistful of 6 sided dice! There are no templates involved. As I said even a 5 yr old can understand the rules.

It makes a perfect little game using my dice set from Warhammer 40k. Obviously the rules have to be simplified alot but enough to keep little ones amused for 30minutes. Here’s how I devised a simplistic set of rules…

Firstly there is very little in the way of moving or cover just to strip down the rules to its barest. The game is about making shots and eliminating the other side. Simple as that really.

One round consists of one player choosing a squad of three models and designating which opposing squad he or she is targeting.  Daleks essentially are all powerful and can shoot twice in one round. A shot represents one die which rolls 3 or above to hit. Sontarian and Cybermen units only shoot their guns once.  If a model is hit, it takes a damage roll and this I use a normal Warhammer 40k dice with the hit and arrow symbols on them. If you haven’t got those I suggest odds and even numbers on a normal 6 sided die.

To make the game a little more interesting, a different coloured Dalek in the pack represents a leader who gets three lives.

What was recently done was that Doctor Who Magazine recently put out a pack of 12 scale Weeping Angels. Those familiar with the series know these a a particularly nasty aliens made of stone who move and get you if you blink or look away. This proved a little more tricky to devise rules that could be understood by a five year old. The best I could think of was that the Weeping Angels can move to attack your opposing squads. To do this a Weeping Angels squad of three must roll 5 or more. If susccessful you can move the Angels in front of a chosen opponent’s squad. That squad are now unable to fire indefinitely as they have to take a ‘Bilnk test’ in each new round.  Again this is using the 40k Hit’n'miss target dice. If failed, you are allowed to remove a model from your opponent’s squad. The Angels can only be destroyed by another squad in the usual way.

I hope that explains these simple rules for kids to play this game.

Drop me a comment if you have any questions.

Disclaimer: Please note that this game is not a product of the BBC or endorsed by the BBC or  Doctor Who Licensing.

Dust Tactics the game is quite a strange beast as you’d expect these kind of miniature wargames to be proper skirmish game without the need of a board. It comes to no surprise then that Fantasy Flight and Dust Studios have indeed created a new spin off called Dust Warfare which is coming soon. However, this review is concentrating solely on the board game version.

The Game

The year is 1947 but it’s very much a parallel universe as massive combat mechs stomp around the green fields of Europe as the Allies and Axis forces do battle. It’s a power struggle literally as both sides seek an elusive alien material called VX. All this is the brain child of Paolao Parente and he’s created a setting that’s a heck of alot of fun!

The game is played by miniatures and dice which dictate the hits-n-misses. Players go head to head as either the Allied or Axis forces. It’s very much a fast shooter game and relatively quick to play with each skirmish taking under an hour to complete.

Some of the parts in the box (yes, there is a lot more!!)…

What goes into the squad is determined by the player and there is a limit of points value of the total units in each side. The most exciting part of the game is the ability to control giant Mech units that stomp around. Units essentially move on 90mm x 90mm squares on a grid of a 9 squared board.

Here’s the full list of contents:-
• Never-before-released miniatures exclusive to this Core Set
• An updated and comprehensive rulebook
• The “Victory Bridge” scenario book
• Six Combat Dice
• Two double-sided terrain posters (each the size of six terrain tiles)
• 10 unit cards
• Nine double-sided hazard squares
• Two ammo-crates
• Two anti-tank traps
• 1 Blackhawk Walker
• 1 Rhino Hero
• 5 Hell Boys Soldiers
• 5 Death Dealers Soldiers
• 3 The Hammers Soldiers
• 1 Hans Walker
• 1 Lara Hero
• 5 Sturmpioniere Soldiers
• 3 Heavy Laser Grenadiers Soldiers
• 3 Heavy Flak Grenadiers Soldiers
• 1 Plastic Loaded Token
• 1 Quick Start Rules Card

The miniatures is one of the best things about this game. They are incredibly detailed for plastic board game components. You certainly get the feeling of quality from these.

Here’s a couple of pictures from the set…

The Allied forces…

The Axis forces included in the set…

The rules are designed to keep the action flowing as much as possible. There are various rules about movement and firepower of weapons that are described on the individual unit cards. Line of Sight and Cover rules apply in Dust Tactics. They are handled differently according to where a unit is shooting from on which side of buildings for instance. Cover saves work on a soft and hard cover basis and the dice is rolled to indicate whether shots successfully hit targets. If the squad consists of a number of hit troops it’s up to the player to remove which troop/s are taken out of the game. The victory goes to the squad that captured the target objective and victory points are calculated at the end the game.

As you can imagine there’s quite a lot to cover in the rulebook but in terms of quality and gameplay it’s an excellent introduction into the Dust Tactics Universe. Coupled with the fact that a new table top rule set is on its way, it’s an ideal place to build up a decent set of miniatures. Expansions and Scenarios are available and  released through Fantasy Flight Games.

Buy Dust Tactics: Revised Core Set here

Additional resource:-

The Rule set is available to download here from Fantasy Flight