Confrontation Miniatures: Sasia Samaris 2nd Incarnation.

After a break here is the next Dirz mini.
This one is one of my favourite minis al-time: Sasia Samaris with and without cape.

Sasia Samara 2nd Incarnation foot

Sasia Samara 2nd Incarnation cape

Thanks for looking.

The V3 book bundle, a review.

Last Sunday I picked up my copy of the Flames of War V3 bundle. Although there are already several reviews of the book to be found on the net I like to share my thoughts about this bundle.

The bundle contains 3 books. The Flames of War V3 rulebook, the Flames of War Forces book and the Flames of War Hobby book.

The Flames of War V3 rulebook:
What can I say. It is an copy of the free give away small rulebook only now as a nice big hard-cover book. The page-numbering is the same as in the small rulebook. 293 pages. So no longer, when you asked something about the rules, you have to tell on which page it is in which book. The hard-cover book also contains some extra pages. Which is a time-line of WWII history and is numbered I - XVI.
The book looks excellent with well written text and clear diagrams. Of-course there is always a rule to find that can be a little unclear but I have never seen gaming rules that are 100% perfect.
A great book for new players and veterans.

The Flames of War Forces book:
This is a 100 page soft-cover book like for instance Fortress Europe and replaces more or less the Fortress Europe army book. It contains the basic list for the 4 biggest nations; United States, Germany, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. For each nation there are 3 briefings. A Tank Company, a Mechanized Company and a Rifle Company. The Germans get 1 extra briefing. Beside 1 for the Grenadier Company there is also a briefing for a Panzergrenadier Company.
For new players it is a great book to start your first army. A lot of the diagrams of the platoons in the book come with pictures of the models and there stats. I think that this is very well done. The company's in the book are a great way to learn the rules of the game because you don't have all kinds of extra rules that you find in other army- books.
For veteran players the lists maybe a bit standard because most of the time they play with a company out of a more special army book like Red Bear. But personally I think because you have most, if not all, of the models you can built a nice company out of this book which can be handy if you play against a new player to learn him the rules.

The Flames of War Hobby book.
The last of the three books. It has 40 pages and a stapled back. This book contains everything about collecting, modelling and painting an army as well as information how to set up a good battlefield. The last part is about community and clubs.
For people new to painting miniatures or new to painting 15mm miniatures the painting information is good and detailed. For the more experienced painters there is not much new to find. And here is one of the negative things I have to say. I also would have liked if they have told more about painting using an Airbrush. The part I liked the most is the one on how to set up a good battlefield. I think that a lot players can learn from this.

Overall.
I paid for the bundle a total of €40.50 that is with 10% discount. Knowing that the hard-cover army-books are close to €40.00 you can say that you pay for the big fat rulebook and get the Forces and Hobby book for free.
If I were a new player I would give this set probably 5 out of 5 stars. But I am not a new player and there are things that are not that useful for me so I should rate it with 4,5 out of 5. But if I take in account the price of the bundle I also give it a 5 out of 5.

Well this was my little review of the new Flames of War rule set.

Thanks for reading.

The Ancible Issue 14

I just checked their site and The Ancible #14 is up for download.
The contents of this issue:

- Dystopian Wars
- Gears of War
- Carnevale
- Painting the Kingdom of Britannia
- Firestorm Armada Battle Report

Where to look for this issue: The Ancible

Thanks for reading.

Army file update.

Les pointed out to me that the Hell's Highway - US Airborne (3v1.0) Under Review army file contained some errors that needed fixing. Thanks for that Les.  I have fixed these errors and uploaded the updated file for download (Hell's Highway - US Airborne (3v1.1) Under Review).
Also there is a new file:  Hell's Highway - XXX Corps (3v1.1) Under Review. Even before I could tell here on my blog that I had finished converting a new army file I already had to update it because several things didn't work. Now I hope that these problems are solved too.
It will take some more time now before the next converted file will be up for download.
I have to spent more of my time on some other things.

Thanks for reading.

The next Army File convert from the V2 rules to the V3 rules.

The next 2 converted Under Review army files are:
1) Hell's Highway - US Airborne (3v1.0) Under Review
2) Glider Rifle Company Market Garden PDF (3v1.0) Under Review
This used to be the old Hell's Highway - US Airborne (V3.5) + Glider Rifle Company PDF (V1.5) file. I have now chosen to cut it into 2 separate files.
Besides the Under Review points mentioned in the recent post an other point for these files is the AOP. At the moment it is unclear how the points will be and how it will work with the V3 rules. That is because the AOP from Hell's Highway and the Glider PDF have a different point cost compared to the one from Turning Tide. Also in Hell's Highway and the Glider PDF the AOP doesn't have Column Security, something the AOP does have in the Turning Tide book, but now that Column Security in V3 has become a US National Special Rule it is the question if the AOP from Hell's Highway and the Glider PDF now also have this special rule.
If you find any errors or things aren't working the way it should please let me know.
These army files can be found in the Files page, just click the link right under the header of this blog. The files available are in standard Excel and ODS.
Later on, as soon as all US Airborne files are no longer Under review, all the US Airborne army files will also be combined in 1 big army file.

Thanks for reading.