Messages

1

News and Rumors / Warlord Games naval games on sale

« on: November 14, 2024, 09:40:07 pm »

Warlord Games have included the majority of their Victory at Sea fleet boxes and ships in this year's November Madness sale, so until the end of the month they are starting at a 15% discount.

To a lesser extent, Blood Red Skies in the air, and Cruel Seas off the shore, are also included with a selection of starter boxes at 15% off.

Black Seas as their final naval game is not included in the 2024 sale, but with Warlord's reduced thresholds for free shipping this could be a good time to take the plunge into one of their other options.

2

The Pavilus Binary War / Re: Pavilus Binary Key Points of Interest

« on: November 07, 2024, 08:27:20 pm »

Katren Sound: The narrow passage of open space between Pav-A and Pav-B. The Sound is typically congested with civilian shipping of all descriptions, plying their trade between Pav-A and the various mining stations and orbital facilities scattered around the system.

Enjoyed reading through the setting, but I kept coming back to this one region... will there be ships with indeterminate cargos crossing the map, blocking sight lines, and hazardous to approach or target?

Does that system ship contain warp cores in need of urgent repair, megatons of volatile fuel, or just thousands of crates of uniforms all one size too big?

3

The Pavilus Binary War / Re: Campaign Introduction

« on: October 20, 2024, 02:41:22 pm »

I like the map layout, and am looking forward to hearing about the campaign's progression.

4

MBS Media / Re: MBS Podcast Episode 88: 2024 Event Review

« on: October 04, 2024, 03:43:47 pm »

Either audio or video is fine, I prefer the podcasts as they can be listened to anywhere, but I also enjoy picture heavy videos after I get home, but more content of either is always good.

Lots more I want to say on the topic of joined campaigns! The one I've been working on for LI/BFG/AI has been going really well so far.

...looking forward to campaign talk!

5

The Shipyard / Re: Homeworld first pass

« on: September 25, 2024, 11:55:48 pm »

From the Scout expansion to the campaign, here are stealth fighters for both the Kushan and Taiidan fleets.


These are the same designs as the regular interceptors, just molded in clear plastic… if the original tokens were hard to tell apart at arm’s length, these were impossible.  Several tries with washes and I have the outlines picked out in ink; well, most of the outlines as since these are translucent, I had to take out several lines that were showing through and blurring the details more than I liked.

I considered trying blue and red ink for the two sides but the red was tending towards pink, again from diffusing through the model, so plain black will remain.

6

MBS Media / Re: MBS Podcast Episode 88: 2024 Event Review

« on: September 25, 2024, 11:53:11 pm »

I did not realize how picture heavy this episode was going to be, so this one needed a view after the listen.

Enjoyed the breakdowns, and from the closing I think that smaller scale land games are really well suited to linkages with naval games because a smaller scale allows a larger scope of game, and naval games naturally have larger scopes than most ground based alternatives.  Apart from amphibious landings or shore operations though, I am not really familiar with many games that deal with many units based on both mediums on the same table apart from Dystopian Wars.

For ground and naval games across different tables, I also have not seen many published campaigns that have a great deal of integration between the two areas either.  For example the following is from the two paragraphs dealing with land campaigns in Warlord Games’ Black Seas…

Or you might play a campaign which uses Black Powder to resolve land battles and Black Seas to resolve sea battles.  Such a campaign probably needs an umpire, who would have the role of working out what the impact of the two kinds of battle would be.

…not the most defined system that I have seen, and I would be glad to hear of any others that have more detail.

7

News and Rumors / Re: 2024 Great Wargaming Survey

« on: September 13, 2024, 02:12:26 pm »

None of the analysis has been released yet for 2024, but I did hear on the last Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy podcast that while the numbers this year were slightly down, there was a new high of 46% of the respondents being under the age of 40 so I am looking forward to see whether any of the results are shifting.

8

The Shipyard / Re: Homeworld first pass

« on: September 13, 2024, 02:11:37 pm »

Here are the last of the regular ships from the expansion, Kushan and Taiidan cruisers.


These were not as quick to paint as the other capital ships as the level of detail in the molds are not constant across the lines, the Kushan cruiser in particular (right) had even more elements on the hull than either of the carriers did.

I realize all of the sample pictures have been flat on their pedestal bases for sizing comparisons so far, so here is a more dramatic view of a portion of the Kushan fleet so far…


…and of the Taiidan fleet.  Their destroyer is probably the most faithful conversion from the screen to three dimensions out of all of the pieces in the set with its dorsal spines, and is definitely my favorite.


After the fateful decision to travel down the road of paint and sorrow, I had to work out a conversion plan to allow for traditional 1/8 inch acrylic rods placement to keep the handling and wear of the paint to a minimum.  Except for the Taiidan salvage corvette as it is easily the worst model from the entire range, all of the other designs have taken to the balance drilling well and now these can be used with any other 1/8 inch base setup, and are in-line with my standard storage.  (250)

9

The Shipyard / Re: Homeworld first pass

« on: August 30, 2024, 05:42:23 pm »

Here are carriers and destroyers* as the capital / super-capital ships from Homeworld Fleet Command for both the Kushan and Taiidan forces…


All of these are substantially larger than the frigates but the destroyers did not take much longer to paint since they were designed very well.  That was not the case for the carriers as they went in a much different aesthetic direction than the rest of their respective fleets and had too much detail, but I will not have many of those to paint.

Great job on these, as usual! I love your style with all the precise black-lining.

I was literally thinking while painting the destroyers “I have never met a panel line I didn’t like” and then I got to the carriers.

How is the game itself? Have you gotten a chance to play?

We are only a few scenarios in so far and I have a lot of thoughts on Homeworld that I am still trying to organize but absolutely do not regret the purchase.  The decision to paint… well I am absolutely regretting that though.

*I know, I know…

10

News and Rumors / Dropfleet Commander 2.0

« on: August 30, 2024, 05:35:36 pm »

Dropfleet Commander version 2 is up for preorder with an October 18 release date…


More UCM ships come in the starter along with a new faction, the Bioficers.
https://ttcombat.com/collections/dropfleet-commander/products/drop-fleet-2-player-starter-set

October 18 is also marked for re-releases on all of their other PHR, Scourge, Shaltari, and UCM ship options.

11

The Shipyard / Re: Homeworld first pass

« on: August 22, 2024, 10:18:08 pm »

Here are the additional options of corvettes and frigates from the expansion for Homeworld Fleet Command for the Kushan and Taiidan forces…


The corvettes for both are salvage corvettes, so of limited use in most missions, and the Taiidan version is the first asymmetric ship so far, by which I mean one side is impossibly difficult to paint, so I doubt that all of those will end up finished.  The alternate frigates are a totally different story, better balanced designs that are a quarter again bigger than the originals, and much easier to paint.

12

News and Rumors / 2024 Great Wargaming Survey

« on: August 03, 2024, 08:18:47 pm »

The Wargames, Soldiers, & Strategy survey for 2024 is running this August, and this year there are several new questions and rewritten questions that take naval gaming into account.
https://gws2024.paperform.co/

I will let the entrants discover those welcome additions, and there has been more analysis posted from the 2023 survey at the below link…
https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/wss_gws/

13

The Shipyard / Re: Homeworld first pass

« on: July 24, 2024, 11:43:02 pm »

Here are the corvettes and frigates from the basic Homeworld Fleet Command set for both the Kushan and Taiidan forces…


The larger ships do have strikingly different silhouettes, so there are not any real confusion issues that would come up with the fighters, but I think their palettes turned out well and will tie each side in cohesively to each other with just a few alterations.  Now I just have to test out colors for the next set of classes from the campaign box.

14

MBS Media / Re: MBS Podcast Episode 87: Star Wars Armada Cancellation Reaction

« on: July 06, 2024, 12:17:01 am »

There are solid alternatives and variants available for all of the current Armada ship releases (except for maybe the SSD) but I imagine the cards and dice are going to present the greatest issues in the years to come.

Well, with the bankruptcy of Shapeways being announced this week the majority of alternatives I was aware of for Armada ships will be scarcer at least for the time being.  The site is still operating 3 days into the notice, but with noticeable delays and search errors, and I would not trust the two week production turnaround being quoted now.

The chapter of bankruptcy requested was for liquidation, not for restructuring, so Shapeways will not be operating at some point in the future, after questions of ownership and prior asset sales have been resolved, which means the largest distributor of third party printing services will no longer be available for the largest suppliers of Armada designs.  Will those models be available from another printing service... I would say yes, but not for some time and not at the price or quality of consistency they were from Shapeways.

15

The Shipyard / Re: Homeworld first pass

« on: July 03, 2024, 08:04:19 pm »

The basic fighter tokens from Homeworld Fleet Command and the campaign box come in two forms, bombers and interceptors, for both forces...


Paint really helps recognizability on the table from a distance, because the size differences between the small craft classes are lost when uncolored, especially for the blue tokens for the Kushan side.  Is that enough of a benefit to make up for all of the time being locked up in the project... I have no idea and make a point of not thinking along those lines...