A wargamer’s journal….
I picked up the Crusader figures to see how the 7YW stuff looked and am pleased with how they painted up. I chose Loudon’s unit because of the uniform color but later found out that Loudon was a Scot who had served in the Russian army and then in the Austrian army against Frederick the Great. Another great character for an OSW Imagination!
The figure I selected had a helmet on rather than a turban. The lance is one I purchased from VVV a few years ago when I was working on an ECW army.They are made from brass wire and have a flattened and pointed tip (and you *do* have to be careful reaching for them as they are sharp!) The pennant was made from cutting up an aluminum pie pan and glued together with superglue.
I tried to carry over the same color scheme I used for the infantry and like the look of them so will probably add some to my universe!
I took the rock chips I liked and arranged them on pieces of medium density fiberboard (MDF). I filled in some of the overhangs with pliable resin and waited until they were set up. Then I spray painted them black to ensure that they looked the way I wanted them to. Then I made molds from them using MoldMax 30 from SmoothOn. The castings you see below were made from an expanding type of foam that expands 10:1 by volume. I used this as I wanted to make sure I got the resin into all of the crevasses. Once the resin had set up (about 15-20 minutes) I took the pieces out and spray painted them with black spray paint from WalMart and drybrushed them with craft paints. The flock is from GF9. I am pleased with how they turned out. I have had several people ask me if I can make them for them. If you are interested, let me know and I can send you one each of them for $15 which would include postage. You can then paint them as desired.
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will be my miniatures painting table. I am fortunate in having a wife that likes thing to look nice, even when they might get cluttered. One of the benefits is a nice painting desk which is set up on a permanent basis. The top is a formica countertop laid over some drawers with a wall section on the right. I have a CD/Tape Player/Radio on the top right so I can listen to books on tape when I paint. There is a Robart paint shaker on the shelf immediately below it with room to store tapes and CDs. Many months ago I bought a bunch of bottles from Western Plastics (see bottles on bottom of page) to store some of my GW paints in. They fill the left two shelves along with glue, etc. The front and right shelves contain my Reaper Master Series paints and Vallejos . I have my brushes stored in glass containers on the right and a cutting board I paint on to protect the countertop. I have a goose neck lamp with a Reveal light bulb in it (100 watt) so I get good colors and so I can see. If I am painting using blending and advanced techniques, I also use a MagEye optical magnifier. The drawers contain bases, plasticard, miscellaneous "things" you always need when working on miniatures. It’s a nice setup and is in the basement so I can be cool when painting in the summer.
I *really* liked the figures! Like the title says, I hate when this happens. My promise to not buy more until I got through more of my lead mountain is eroding. I can see using these figures as the basis for a light infantry unit in my Imaginations! The figure on the left is an S3-001 Jacobite advancing with Musket which I converted to an officer using a Turkish pistol and some of the additional items RSM sends with their figures (the Claymore in this instance). The figure in the center is S3-003, Stand and Fire, and the one on the right is S3-005 Advancing with Claymore/Axe which I added a brass spear from VVV to and made into a standard bearer (unfortunately VVV no longer sells these fine weapons!). Sigh, looks like I’ll be placing another order to RSM next month!
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The paratrooper wrapped in the chute is a great pose and probably worth buying the pack on its own. I mounted these on the Privateer Press style bases so they would match all of the other miniatures I have for SOTR.
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These are great figures and I hope to see more from this company.
The figures came in separate sealed zip lock bags and used the standard style of 25mm rounds that GW uses. I replaced these with the 30mm style similar to the Privateer Press bases. The flash was minimal and the detail quite good. The poses are all unique and there are a couple you will not see from any other manufacturer – the pathfinder with Mohawk and the zombie with parachute cover. I hope to get the remainder of them painted in the next few days.
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I chose a dwarf engineer as he got to play with “things” and overall, I felt that a Dwarf had a good chance of surviving most combats (I was wrong on this, but that’s the nature of this kind of game.)
The boot up screens for the game are plentiful as they hide a long loading process. Take the time to watch the cinematics as they are nicely done. Once you get into the game, things work smoothly if your machine is up to more than the minimum snuff. I have a 3.2 Ghz proceser and 2 Gigs of RAM and am running Media Center XP 2005 (my machine is about 6 years old and seems sluggish now). Even so, I get through the game well and the only issues I have are when there are multiple people in combats. I have been using a trackball to play the game as a mouse causes me some pain in my right hand.
I have never played an online massive game like this, so I am coming at this from the standpoint of a complete newb.
Most of the game I have played solo. I have ocasionally gone off and participated in some of the realm versus realm combats, especially the Mourkain Temple one. In this scenario, two groups fight over the control of an artifact which can be picked up and moved back to a home area. The temple lies on a hill surrounded by swamps and rocky areas and the players start on high steep hills opposite each other. My experience has been that there are three areas where combat takes place on the board — on the flat, granite areas in front of the temple, on a hill in front of the Destruction entry area, and in the swamp in front of the Order area.
I have found that I am outclassed by most of the characters in the scenario, especially in the first few times at it. I am now level 14 and am the lowest of the levels of the participants. I find that my best tactic is to put my little gun turret in place, move away from it a good distance, and then start sniping with my rifle. When the fighting moves back to the swamp, I can snipe from the ridge in front of the deployment area and not get pummeled by hand to hand fighters as only wizards and archers can reachme.
All in all, I think the game flows well and is loyal to the Warhammer milieu. There is a lot to explore and do and I have spent *way* too much time on already. I don’t watch much TV any more, nor do I attend many movies, so the monthly payment of $14.95 is not a drain on the entertainment budget. I don’t know how higher levels play so I can’t say how long I’ll continue to be involved, but it will be good for another several months and I’ve gotten more gaming out of it than other computer games I have purchased. Highly Recommended!
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