Farewell 2013

It's been a good hobby year for me. My momentum has been good and I aim to keep it that way.

As far as the Mumblings goes, it keeps shambling along, with over 200 followers and almost 200,0000 page views I guess it's holding it's own. This is but a wee message of new year good wishes to all the patrons of the Mumblings, thank you one and all. I've gotten some very good tips and advice from the various folks who call in from time to time and I hope some of what I've committed to the internet has been of use or provided some entertainment.

There are some very exciting projects on the table for next year and I hope you'll pop in to observe me banging on about whatever the hell I like to whoever happens to read it.

Happy new year to all you excellent people.

Sigmar's Blood - A New Way for Warhammer?

 

For one of my last posts of 2013, I thought some mulling on the possible directions for Warhammer Fantasy might be in order. There have been some definite deviations lately from the strict rulebook and army book combo that has been the norm over the last few years, and this might have some clues as to the way things might be going in 2014 and beyond.

I received a copy of Sigmar's Blood as a Christmas present, and I have to say I am enjoying reading through it. There's a lot of background, in fact most of the book is just that, which, to be honest I have no problem with. In fact, I have been following the relatively recent exploits of Mannfred Von Carstein with much interest. His resurrection and endeavours thereafter have been spread out through various army books and short stories over the last few years, gathering some pace over the last year or so. It's nice to see characters and events in the Warhammer world moving forward.

There are similarities between this book and the direct only Codex such as Iyanden, Black Legion and so on insofar as they are mostly background. I don't play 40k currently, and I'll never collect eldar, but I enjoyed the Iyanden codex immensely for the background focus on that craftworld. I'm hoping there are more Warhammer Fantasy books like this in the offing.

I noticed the forces for each battle in Sigmar's Blood are termed as battle scrolls, the same as the advent calendar releases that can be taken in a regular army. I've not read the whole thing, so I don't know if I could take say, Ghorst's night stalkers in an ordinary game, but I must say the battle scrolls released over Christmas are a new direction for GW. They are official, so can be taken in a regular game, unlike scrolls of binding. Could we see a return to a less stringent game? New official rules in campaign books, white dwarf or via more digital releases? A headache for tournament organisers for sure, who up to now only have to deal with the rulebook and army books and all the associated FAQ. I can see controversy over the new battle scrolls in upcoming tournaments.

Personally I would love to see the game move in this direction, it would be wonderful to have a new rule or unit coming out each month to shake up the killer lists and armies. Hard to balance, sure, but then it's hardly a perfect game right now. Players and tournament organisers will always find a way to iron out the crinkles. I'd love  to see more models and rules for armies outside of the army book releases. How great would it be to see a new, say, vampire counts unit or regiment of renown just crop up in White Dwarf? Perhaps fantasy book releases comparable to the supplementary codex for 40k we're seeing focusing in on one specific force. Slayer army anyone? Slaaneshi dark elves? The undead of Nagash? A Nuln Empire contingent? It could be very exciting.

9th edition could hold quite a few surprises.

Metal Beards - Steampunk Style Dwarf Army Kickstarter

Titan Forge have launched a new kickstarter to fund their steampunk style dwarf army. It's already full past funded with 30 days to go. Titan Forge have done some great stuff in the past, the Drakskull Menace undead orc and Bloodsail Island ogre ranges, both of which are excellent.

This particular range looks really good. Essentially a mechanical dwarf army with the addition of giant golems and such. Where the interest really lies for me is the additions of 'evil dwarf' versions of the army, including mechanical cavalry and hopefully monstrous infantry size versions of the larger dwarf mechanicals. While I have an idea what I'd like to use for fireborn in my chaos dwarf army, these guys have piqued my interest something fierce.

So, with the rumours of the new dwarf book's upcoming release getting more certain, it would be a good time to give this a look.

2013 Hobby Recap

The year is fading fast now, just a few more days to the Christmas. Before things get too mental I thought I would throw a look back over my shoulder at what I've done over the year.

I spent the first few months of the year finishing my unit of half dead for my fimir. I really, really enjoyed building and painting these guys. In between finishing the half dead, I started on my unit of marlwyms. I've been pretty monkish about getting the fimir ready for battle, which is hard going at my pace, which is not speedy. It's been pretty tough keeping on track with a plethora of new projects tempting me to deviate from my divine mission to bring one-eyed pseudo Celtic cyclopean doom back to the gaming table.

Once the bog zombies were done, it was full speed into the marlwyrms. To date there are three finished. I still have the unit champion to add, and the movement tray. It's a big movement tray. So much bog/moss/heather/rocks to paint.

Another model I finished was Crom, my first fimir daemon ally. All the daemons in the army are either daemons of Fimul, who are generally worm type beasties, or those who owe fealty to Fimul in some way. This model (and the marlwyrms, to a lesser extent) gave me my first chance to really experiment with drool and slime effects. After some false starts I found a great glue that had the right properties. I still need to perfect a method of applying the glue, but I'll have a lot more opportunity for that before the army is finished.

As September, and NWG (the deadline I had set myself for 2000 points) rapidly approached, I finished one of the smaller units, some warhounds. I say finished, but I still need to add a handler to the unit. I'll swap out one of the hounds and add a handler and hound, both on 25x25mm bases to fill the space left by the 25x50mm cavalry base.

At NWG I unveiled the army and was delighted to pick up best painted. I had been painting feverishly for the few weeks coming up to it, and so October was a bit light on hobby, with only a single movement tray rolling out of the hobby factory.

Once I got my mojo back, I took stock and decided to finish off any units that needed finishing. The last marlwyrm, hound handlers and some bases and trays. That's where I am now. I've built a larger base for Crom so he can masquerade as a hellcannon, and my latest endeavour, which has mutated utterly from it's initial function, was a base extender for my meargh so she can have a 50x50mm or 40x40mm base. This has changed so much it's now an entirely new character, a dirach on a floating stone plinth. He's magnetised so he can sit on the plinth or a 25x25mm base. This is my first real excursion into using magnets, and it's going well so far. He still needs his tail, arm and other wee bits added, but he's getting there. I'll also add a familiar and some other scrolls and such to the plinth, partly to disguise the join, but mostly for the hell of it.

Once this bit of army housekeeping is done, the next objective is to get the army to 2,500 points. A unit of fenbeasts led by a dirach, an athach (huge tunnelling Earth daemon), a unit of fianna fimm, nobles, there's a lot of options. I really want to get the army to the point where I can have some variety in lists, which brings me onto what I'll be doing in 2014. First and foremost I'll be getting the fimir army to a size where I can happily field different lists. After that, well, there's a lot to choose from...

Crack into the chaos dwarves?

Finish off the vampire counts?

Get that  Bloodbowl team off the blocks?

Welly into the cult?

Paint some Nurgle Renegades? (This isn't one of mine, sadly.)

I'm actively collecting bits and pieces for the cult. I've a fairly definite idea of what I want*, and I'm also waiting to see if Games Workshop release a cult supplement for the upcoming tyranid release.  That would be glorious.
*may not be true.

Then, of course, there's stuff coming down the line for 2014.

All Quiet on the Martian Front. I cannot wait for this to be released.

Mantic's Mars Attacks

Hmm. Definite Martian flavour to 2014. I feel a rising sense of panic looking at all the stuff I'd like to devote my time to. If I could grow several extra arms, give up all contact with the world, oh, and lose the need for sleep, I'd still not have enough time to do it all.

Still, it's fun trying, eh?

Fimir - Dirach Grunsgul, Update 1

Since I decided that my floating rock plinth needed a dedicated rider, I thought I'd use the the opportunity to build a human size dirach. I don't want him stuck on the plinth, so I'm going to magnetise him to it, and make another magnetized 25x25mm base for him should I want to field him on foot. This comes of the back of some salient advice from the various forums. Indeed, the idea for the model to use as a dirach came from Chico of Oldhammer on a Budget, who is a bit of a fimir fan as well.

As you can see, I've converted the head to make him a bit more dirachy. It's a really characterful head, and it suits the horns which serve to lengthen the face even more. I may convert the tail too, as dirach have smooth tails. (It does dawn on me that most folks won't know what the hell a dirach even is, let alone what kind of tail he has, or why I needed to add horns. Just go with it. It'll be grand.)

He's going to have a familiar on the plinth with him, a scroll carrier to help the ageing fimir remember his spells. I can feel a back story coalescing already. Anyhow, I'm going to use this little fella, who has been sitting in a box for years awaiting some attention.

I'll probably add a little paraphernalia to the plinth too, some scrolls and such to add a little more detail. To think this all started out as a base extender...

Fimir - Floating Altar

At the moment I'm still very much in the process of tidying up some loose ends with the fimir before I launch into any new units. One of the things I wanted to do was to make a small base extender for my meargh so she could be mounted on a 40x40mm base or a 50x50mm depending on how I was going to field her. Just a wee base add-on I said to myself. Texture the edge to match her 40x40mm base, paint it up, and done.

This is what I ended up with.

As you can see, the idea expanded a bit. Still some water effects to go on, but other than that, done. When I was digging through my bits box looking for interesting little bits for it, I thought hey, why don't I make it into more of a floating slab of rock magically torn from the bog. Then I could use it to give the meargh some height when she's pretending to be a daemon prince, or I could even magnetise the top so I could put other fimir characters there if I needed a disk rider. So that's the way it went.

 I was looking at it last night thinking while it's pretty versatile, does the base sitting on the stone look a bit weird? I've looked at it so much now I can't tell anymore. The other thing is the magnetic steel holds the magnetised base down well, but it's not going to take a major jostle. I have visions of my meargh taking an undignified tumble mid-game.

One thing I am thinking of is to just add a permanent rider to the plinth. A dirach, possibly. Then I could add some paraphernalia to the rock, a familiar, spell book or some other bits. The familiar would be especially appropriate for a dirach. Here's the model I'd be thinking of using, from Oakbound games. He'd need a little conversion, some horns and perhaps a weapon, but other than that he's pretty much bang on. His pose would work well as a rider.

I'd then work up the original base extender for the meargh, and lo, I'd have the meargh and a new mounted character.

Or, maybe I'm just making work for myself.

Oakbound Games - Marsh Demons

The weekend before last a fellow oldhammerer (Just John) handed me a package of miniatures from a new company, Oakbound Games.  My interest was considerable as the first range to be released from Oakbound are their marsh daemons, who bear more than a passing resemblance to my personal obsession, the fimir. You can get more information here.

They are the first range for an upcoming roleplay system called The Woods, an open source RPG available from next year as free downloads. More on that here.With more than a nod to the aesthetic of films like the Dark Crystal, these sculpts appealed to me at once. I picked up the majority of the range, and once I had them in my grubby paws I assembled them with some blu-tack to get an idea of scale, and what manner of use I will put them to in various units. You can see some here next to an old school fianna fimm on the far right.

The models range in size, some are the equivalent of the larger fimm and could easily be mounted on 40x40 millimetre bases. Others are quite comfy on 25x25 bases. This suits me perfectly. They come without weapons, which can be ordered separately, but I plan on converting up my own, probably bases on chaos/ogre weapons. There is some minor flash on the figures, but overall they are very clean sculpts. They don't have the wealth of detail of the Forge World fimir, but they do have a ton of character and hey, fimir command models, what's not to love?

This brings me onto my 2 favourite models. First and foremost is this fimm piper. I just goddam love this model. I love it. A fimm bagpiper is an inspired notion. He'll be going in the next unit that needs a musician, probably my second fimm unit.

The other fellow is the standard bearer. He looks like a gnarly, veteran, somewhat cranky fimm, and as I'm in the market for a battle standard bearer, he's just what I'm after. All respect to Geoff Sims, the man behind Oakbound, and the very fine Fimm McCool's Games Orkshop blog, but I'll most likely convert him with a much larger banner. He's top of the list as soon as I finish what I'm working on at the moment.

The other models I picked up were a Tiarna (hero), two clubtails (fimm/fianna fimm) and a thrall (shearl). The thrall is quite small and would make a good juvenile fimir or young shearl. There's also a mystery figure, which turns out to be a kelpie. It's a creeepy mini.

All in all a very nice wee range that I'd recommend to anyone interested in the fimir, or just some different and interesting models to add to their collection.

Heroquest - 25th Anniversary Edition

Gamezone have opened a 25th Anniversary Edition of Heroquest on Kickstarter. Check it out here. This hits the nostalgia button right on the nose for me, and obviously a lot of others too. I still have my original which makes me go misty-eyed every time I open it. From what I can see so far, its looks really good, but there's been little in the way of communication from Gamezone despite already busted their funding goal wide open. At the time of writing they are over $272,000 pledged for a $58,000 goal. Granted the kickstarter has just started, and Gamezone might have been surprised by the flood of pledges.

If they can get a handle on things though, and release a steady stream of updates and stretch goals, this is going to be a BIG one folks.

Cityhammer - Post Mortem

marlwyrms on the charge.

Last weekend saw the first Cityhammer, a small event in Limerick for a few folks to get together and play some friendly warhammer at 2,500 points set up by Jay McKeown, the wargaming honcho for BroCon. Well, I say friendly, but what I mean is non-competitive. Actually, more not a strict tournament than non-competitive. Just as well as I was more forgetful than usual with the old rules.You know what it's like when the dice start rolling.

The photos here are from his Craigness, you can see some more here. You can often catch Craig weeping softly on the Blog of Grudges.

I took my fimir (warrior of chaos). I took a lvl 4 Nurgle Daemon Prince on lore of death with all the toys, a defensive Nurgle  BSB with the Crown of Command, a lvl 1 sorcerer with Dispel Scroll, and Throgg. 17 Nurgle Chaos Warriors with halberd, full command and the Standard of Discipline, 3 crushers with ensorcelled weapons and the gleaming pennant, 17 Forsaken of Khorne, 5 Chaos Warhounds, Hellcannon and 5 Chaos Trolls.

Game 1: Bruce Sutton - Orcs & Goblins
I've known Bruce for a good while now, but we've never managed to play each other. We decided to finally consummate the relationship. Bruce was playing with a large block or black orcs, boyz, arrer boyz, a stone thrower, 2 orc chariots, doom diver, a unit of six trolls and a large mob of gobbos with 2 heroes with great weapons, shaman and fanatics. An bsb and fighty lord completed the army.

Things went awry for Bruce early as he failed all three required animosity rolls and had to charge with all three units, the arrer boyz, wolf riders and gobbos. None connected bar the wolf riders, who saw off my warhounds.

The fimir mean to teach them orcs some manners.

We juggled about a bit before the battle lines met. My warped (forsaken) took a charge from two orc chariots and a unit of black orcs and were wiped out to a man. Well, fimir. Rolling double six for the chariots impact hits was painful. In return the black orcs were murdered by the fimm (chaos warriors) and meargh (daemon prince). The goblin unit turned out to be a real pain, after unloading their fanatics with great weapon wielding goblin heroes actually managing to take down a few warriors. The eventually failed their steadfast roll and fled only to be run down. On the flanks a unit of trolls and wyrm riders (skullcrushers) danced about each other for most of the game. My hellcannon performed poorly, hitting bugger all before running off an orc chariot. My unit of fianna fimm with dirach, (Trolls with Throgg) which I'd never taken before surprised me with their ungodly kill power. Throgg is a murderer.

The MVP on my side was certainly the meargh. She was toting lore of death this game, and purple sunned her way through a high tally of orcs, gobbos and various heroes. We called it at the end of turn three, slow play (we were taking it pretty easy) dictating we call it. I came out about 400 victory points on top. A great game with a high blood content.

Throgg. What a pr*ck.

Game 2: Kevin Rynne - Bretonnians
Kevin is a great player to face as he is both gracious and merciless. He knows the game extremely well which is gold for someone like me who plays less than I might like to. He played Bretonnians (Game of Thrones themed), a tough army to win consistently with. Kevin fielded four units of knights of various flavours, two trebuchets, a big unit of men at arms, some archers and three peg knights as well as a couple of paladins, a heroic killing blow lord and some damsels.

The first couple of turns elapsed with Kevin lining up the optimum charges and myself trying to best line up to receive them. I did manage to get a purple sun through two units of knights, and the lord did fail his look out sir, but then managed to escape purpley death. Darn.

Two lances of knights including the choppy lord barrelled into the warriors, who took it well and would most likely have held if the bsb hadn't been cut down by the Bret lord. They broke and fled, and were cut down.

The trolls spent a few turns trying to avoid the flaming knight unit, but it was not to be. They were cauterised in short order, but by the end of the game the lord was down to a single paladin companion. Not before he employed his heroic killing blow on my hellcannon though. I did forget it's ward too. Sigh. The daemon prince got stuck into a unit of men-at-arms with a 5+ ward, and only ran them down in the last turn, ensuring her escape.

Once again the forsaken proved their worth (to me, anyway) and ran off a lance of knights a couple of times, but were never able to catch them, and the knights held them off long enough for reinforcements to arrive. The crushers were able to hold out long enough to down a couple pegasus knights, but in the end I was taken down piecemeal. Kevin has the movement phase pretty well down and it was good to see some great examples of how to get the most out of the phase.

A cracking game, Kevin seeing me off back to the swamps. He had a little glow about him after the game.

A spooky mortis engine.

After a break for some grub we got into the evening's entertainment, board games and a four player game of Triumph & Treachery, Games Workshop's new expansion for warhammer. Two dwarf and two chaos players duked it out. The dwarf players had a bad time of it, being run over by Jay and his unstoppable monsters. I for one have to apologise for faffing about in deployment, sorry Bruce! I played much too cautiously, only barely resisting the temptation to charge a unit of dwarf warriors in the rear after convincing them I was friendly. Why did I do that?! Jay ran away with it, easily amassing a fortune in tokens. The cards didn't affect the game as much as I'd hoped, but again I think we need to give it another shake.

Not the best first outing I think, but I believe the game works well, and I'd certainly be willing to give it another go, I feel it's a good expansion.

Angry dinosaurs.

The High Elf dragon known as 'Craig's Bane'

Asur vs Lizardemen

Good fun all in all, though I was totally wrecked by the end of it, but still managed to drive back to Galway through ice and freezing fog.

I'd do it again though.

(An oldhammer mate of mine brought me a very welcome package on the day too, some new fimi... ah, I means 'marsh daemon' sculpts just out from Oakbound Games. Check them out at here the Oldhammer forum. A review of these fellows soon.)

Basing - Hellcannon Swamp 2

Today basing fun is still much in evidence. I've finished sculpting on the swampy detail to Crom's hellcannon base, and it's turning out pretty well. The card provided a great guide for the recesses and the bog pools. I've left some areas quite bare, and these will be where I'll be adding swamp grasses, moss and other foliage once the base is painted.

In other news, I managed to bag myself a model I've been after for some time. Every so often a real bargain crops up on ebay, the chaos dreadnought below going for the most reasonable sum of £4.99. Har de har! GET in that Dettol!

Genestealer Cult - Digital Codex?

"What's that? A real codex you say?!"

For those of you out there who are fellow devotees of the Cult, you've probably fantasized about Games Workshop releasing an official list. It seems the digital codex might not be a pipe dream after all. I'm sure there are many gamers out there on their knees praying that this rumour is true, myself amongst them. The mere thought of an  official genestealer cult codex is enough to send me into rapture. I haven't played 40k in an aeon, but if this were to come to pass I'd be reading the latest 40k rules the next day.

I hear on the gaming grapevine that this is indeed the case, and it comes from pretty close to the source. Now, as with all rumour, this is just that. But it's very, very promising.

I guess the cost of hybrids on ebay will soar to even higher levels. I doubt GW would bring out any new kits, but can you imagine a hybrid kit? Oh lordy.

Basing - Hellcannon Swamp

It's all basing at the Mumblings right now. My continuing army house keeping has me making a hellcannon size base for Crom to sit in. Initially I wondered how to get a nice clean edge on the recesses for the bases to sit in, but after some ruminating and rummaging I settled on using 5mm thick card to cut the depressions into. This will also serve to give me the outline of the bog pools. After cutting it to size I bevelled the edges so the greenstuff can slope down to the edge of the base more naturally. I gave it a thick coat of PVA to stop it soaking in any moisture, the last thing I need is for it to warp when it's being painted. You can see Crom's three little attendants at the back there too. I guess I could have modelled them into the base, but I thought it was better to have them removable in case Crom eats them.

Next the whole thing needs some sculpting done to turn it from a bit of card into swampy bog. More on that soon.

Basing - Multiple Roles for a Single Model

Lately I've been creating a lot of bases. I like basing in general, and the basing scheme for my fimir includes a lot of opportunity to go nuts with sexy basing. I especially enjoy adding the tinted water effects to a base to see how the objects half-submerged are affected by the water.

While making up a new base for my meargh when I want her to sport a 50x50 base, I decided to use a 25x25 piece of adhesive steel to fix her in place. She's on a 40x40 in case she needs to pull duty as a monstrous character of if I want to use her as part of a 3rd ed force, but I'm using a 25x25 piece of steel in case I want an infantry sized fimir character to use the same plinth as a disk or daemonic mount.

Johnny Hastings' Bull Ogre chariot

This got me thinking about how common it is to give models multiple roles using base add-ons and such. I've seen beastman chariots (see above) where the tuskgors slot out and can be replaced with razorgors, and terrorgheists where a space is left on the base to add a ghoul king, but generally it seems uncommon to jiggle basing about like this, though would seem to make sense in terms of options available, and for a 'counts as' army like mine means I get more out of the models I have finished.

Take my gorebeast chariot/hell cannon for example. I use the gooey gent above as both. Right now I'm working on the large hellcannon size base, with magnetised slots for the smaller 100x50 base he's on to fit into. There are also 20x20 slots for the three maggot 'crew' to sit into. 'What if you want a gorebeast chariot AND a hellcannon matey?' I hear you wail. Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I'll probably do the same with the marlbeast mount (daemonic mount) I'm planning. He's on a 50x50, but if I want him to work as a marlwyrm (juggernaut) mount, I'll add a 50x25 spacer to the back of the move tray he's in, or cut a steel sheet to 50x75 that he and the spacer can sit on if he's off on his own.

I'd love to see more examples of this kind of tomfoolery, so if anyone has seen more, lay it on me.

Fimir - Floating Stone Plinth

Right at the moment I'm modelling up some bits and pieces to round off the two thousand point fimir army. Some, like three move trays are killing me, but one is done now, thank the powers. Some more hounds, another marlwyrm, a large base for Crom and so on.

I took a break from painting moss on move trays to do something a little more interesting. I've been meaning to build a 50x50 base for the meargh for a while now, both to increase her stature when she masquerades as a daemon prince and to give me an option to mount a hero on a disk. I've gone for a stone slab, pulled up from the swamp and powered by a wyrd stone. It's almost modelled here, I need to add more trailing mossy stuff to the underside and work the tilting marker stone into the base. I'll be putting a 25x25 piece of adhesive steel sheet on the top so I can attach either the meargh or another character as need and whim dictate.

Mars Attacks - Last Few Days

The Mars Attacks Kickstarter is entering it's last few days, and today's update adds another dollop of cool to an already overloaded wodge of amazeballs. Mantic have announced the long awaited giant mutant bug and handler will be unlocked at $500,000. The rather nice thing here is that they are adding it free the 'Invaders Arrive' pledge of $150 and 3 of them to the 'Alien Abduction' and 'Bloodshed on the Battlefield' pledges of $300, which is pretty great. Behold it's chittery glory below.

Mutant Ant

Science Division Bug Handler

This is in addition to the Martian supreme regent added free to the $100 pledge yesterday, and the Martian standard bearer added free to pledges of $300 up. From $500,000 through $550,000 they will add a heavy weapon option to the Novas Vira and more free figures to bulk out the units. After this Mantic have alluded to variations on the bug and the giant robot.

The first of the Novas Vira renders have also surfaced. Pretty sweet.

This broken pillar is so cool the way it moves when I do.

Hobby Filters and Unlikely Ruins

I was out doing some work about the house the other day, and while I was getting some stuff ready for the bin, my hobby filter kicked in and brought a halt to the work while I scrutinised a piece of broken plastic. Mine is probably on any time I'm not asleep. You most likely have one too if you're reading this. That little voice in the back of your head that evaluates almost everything for hobby value. Allow me to elaborate.

• You're walking along the beach and you notice some shells. You think: "They'd look great on the base of my daemon prince."
• You're picking out tiles for a new bathroom and you pause and think: "I must hold onto the offcuts for smashing into nice basing material." (You can tell I like basing.)
• You can never walk past a pet store in case they have some fish tank plants or decorations that can be used as scenery. 
• Every plastic take out container is cleaned and pressed into service as a miniature box. 
• You can't visit a hardware store without looking at glues, blue foam, cork sheeting and filler, but not for DIY. 
• Every time you see a movie with knights/lasers/Roman soldiers you're looking at it in terms of a painting guide/next army inspiration. 

If you're with me still, you know the score. Anyhow, back to scrutinised broken plastic. I held this up for a good two or three minutes.

The more I stared, the more I could see, with a good mdf base, come cutting and a couple of little additions, I'd have me a pretty good ruined building. Extra floors could be added too. These plastic baskets are in almost every hardware store, and you could easily make 3 or 4 big ruins sections with them. You'd have that ruined cityscape up in no time.

Mars Attacks Kickstarter - Final Push

At the time of writing there are 11 days left on the Mantic Games Mars Attacks kickstarter. I was in on day 1, but then, I do love the Mars Attacks universe. You don't get too many tongue in cheek pulp sci-fi games at the moment, especially set in modern day. There have been quite a few stretch goals broken, not the least of which is the 6.5" Martian robot complete with clear canopy so you can see the pilot and controls. You can get it for $20 in one of the deals, which for a miniature that size is peanuts.

There are saucers, Martian marines, a veritable pile of human heroes, burning cattle and a pile of other add ons and upgrades. Hopefully some giant mutant bugs will appear if the pledge level gets high enough. The thing about this particular game is it looks to function as either a boardgame or wargame, depending on what you want from it. The Escalation expansion increases the playing area and introduces new troop types and vehicles.

The various accessories include modern scenery as well. Dumpsters, trash cans, crashed cars, ruins etc, will work for a variety of games, as will the US marines included in the base game. I'm in for the hordes of Martians meself.

Certainly worth a look!