So What Makes a Game ‘Fun’ Then?

With my recent return to my Ghost Legions setting, of course I drew up a new set of rules. Which I posted here. They’re an okay set, make sense, play relatively quickly, and can give you some difficult choices to make… but are they fun? Maybe… I guess fun is in the brain of the […]

Ghost Legions Battle Report: WW1 Germans vs Medieval Knights

Here’s a somewhat shorter and maybe less detailed battle report, of a recent game I had using the rules I posted last time. The game sparked something, an entire mental debate around what makes a game ‘fun’… which if my thought properly coagulate, will make up my next post. Not much to report game wise, […]

Ghost Legions – The Rules So Far

If you’ve been following along, this should make sense. The game so far should let you pitch any group of historical figures against any other. The points costs are listed at the end, and I usually play around 150 points. From here I’m going to need to figure out my lore, and think about possible […]

Ghost Legions Playtesting: WW1 Germans vs Goths

This may not make too much sense just yet, as I’ve not posted the rules in full, however I’m still very much playtesting this thing, and trying to get the points costs balanced. Here are my very basic points calculations: Armour Save (light) 5+ = 6pts Armour Save (medium) 4+ = 9pts Armour Save (heavy) […]

Mechanics Lab: New Ghost Legions

This isn’t your average milk toast wargaming, this is your fully caffeinated, balls to the wall sort of wargaming. There’s only one rule: There are no rules! That’s because we’re going to figure out the rules as we go. So I’ve got a pile of dice, a notepad, a tape measure and some minis on […]

The Best MDF Terrain?

MDF terrain is everywhere, and there are huge numbers of kits available all at various price points and complexities. But I’m a simple man, who enjoys simple things, and since my gaming spans multiple scales and genres, I’m always itching for something generic. Sure I could collect an authentic 40k battlefield but it would do […]

A Public Service Announcement Regarding the Instructions For The Wolverine Tank

It’s great that smaller companies are now producing hard plastic vehicles for sci-fi settings. The Wolverine Tank from Archon Studio is fantastic. It’s a brilliantly kit, highly detailed and chunky. However there is an issue with the instructions that can make your life building one an absolute nightmare (I guess mileage on your nightmares may […]

So Can AI Write Wargame Rules? The Battle Report

So let’s actually try to play this thing (the rules are on my previous AI post here). After reading through them a few times I realised a lot of the issues could be solved by playing with single figure units like a small scale skirmish game, rather than the squad based game I had initially […]

Speed Painting Pretty Much Anything

After weeks of Havok (I’m waiting for some tanks to arrive), and after playing with those AI generated rules, I was in the mood to not be so sensible. My heart is always with silly little skirmish games, and Ghost Legions is a project that I frequently stop and start without really scratching the itch. […]

Can AI Write Wargames Rules?

A friend and I were playing with Chat GPT, and wondered if it could effectively write a set of rules, and I was especially interested to see if it would produce any new or interesting game mechanics. I suppose I was also wondering how long it was going to be before all Warhammer Rulebooks and […]

A Big Havok Battle

I set up both of my entire collections of Karn and Nexus and pitched them against each other, not worrying about points, but just to play the game. There were a few special rules I wanted to play with, and as far as Havok 2.0 is concerned, I’ve backtracked a lot of my changes largely […]

Borkian Mercenaries and Reaver Captains

Continuing on, with my ever expanding Havok collection… I’m pretty happy that I’ve managed to fill a few slots from the original Havok line up that I thought I’d struggle to recreate. First up are my Borkian Mercenaries: They’re very different from the originals: I’ve gone less flying psycho in fishnets and more Laserburn – […]

Havok Tanks?: The Sturnhammer

I was rather shocked to find this on Amazon for £20. Thinking getting some tanks together for Havok as going to cost me an arm and a leg may not quite be true! The Sturnhammer is a really great kit, the parts don’t come in a sprue, however they are all decently clean of mould […]

Havok Reinforcements Completed

As shown off in my last post, here are my finished Havok reinforcements, for the Nexus: It’s been an interesting project recreating these figures using Wargames Atlantic’s fantastic range of plastic figures, and then painting them has also presented its own challenges, in trying to mimic a more modern pre-painted style (toysoldier2000?). The Storm Troopers […]

Kitbashing Wargames Atlantic Figures and my Havok WIP

My January hyperfocus continues in earnest with more unit for my Havok forces. This time around I nabbed a box of Bulldogs and Space Nam. For my Nexus force I’ve put together 3 new units. From the standard Havok roster I put together some Tribunes: The Bulldogs box gives you steam punk colonial era British […]

Fixing Havok? Or Havok 2.0

So to make my former posts make a little more sense and before expanding things outwards, here’s what we’re working with in regards to Havok, with a few sensible adjustments from me: COMBAT DATA SPEED – Generally lighter armed warriors will be able to move faster than more heavily armed warriors. However, physical size can […]

Invasion of the Pteravore

In the week just gone I was frantically painting figures for my Pteravore army for a game of Havok Skirmish. I’m not sure if I like the overall effect of the finished force as funnily enough I think it’s a bit too uniform. To explain further here are my Nexus and Karn forces: Each force […]

A Havok Battle Report

I tested my two Havok armies against each other attempting to stick as closely to the rules as written as possible (it was difficult at times). My Karn army consisted of 8 Troopers, 9 Darkest Suns, 6 Heavy Weapons, 2 Form Warriors and a Battle Form. My Nexus force consisted of 5 47th Line, 5 […]

The Nexus Rebellion

In opposition to the Karn Empire we have the Nexus Rebellion. This time I picked up a box of Wargames Atlantic’s Cannon Fodder, a kit that I’ve also had before and was already well aware of how much mileage you could get out it. First up are the Nexus Troopers: They’re the backbone of the […]

The Karn Empire

I’ve been getting the ball rolling on my Havok project already. My first port of call was a box of Eisenkern Stormtroopers from Wargames Atlantic. The figures are really good, and I’ve already built and painted a box before, so I know what I’m up to. The challenge here however, was finding rough equivalents to […]

Havok in 2025?

Havok was a wargame produced by Blubird Toys in the late 90s. It was extremely short lived, dying before all of the units were released. I can’t imagine their intention was to rival 40k at the time, but maybe just exist as a slightly cheaper pocket money option. All the miniatures came pre-assembled (bar vehicles […]

Perpetually Painting Partisans

Phew! It’s been a longish stretch of painting Partisans this week (and picking up penguins*). It’s not that the Partisans took a long time in the grand scheme of things, a full platoon in a week isn’t exactly tough. However, they did take long as far as Bolt Action painting is concerned. My Russians and […]

The Sweetest Wargame

Inspired by a fellow instagrammer Hyvemynd I’ve been thinking about extremely small scale wargaming. Hyvemynd created Roman Legions by using 1mm thick card cut into 4mm squares. Painting was the main issue and they couldn’t figure out a way to paint the card to look convincingly like groups of Romans. To be the sort of […]

Ambush! An Advanced Deathzap Battle Report

Gearing up for some serious Deathzapping in 2025 means I need to settle on some rules. I recently had an obsession with Deathzap 3, the rules which over time I’ve probably played the most. They are decently compact, and tactical, but I couldn’t help finding my Advanced Deathzap rules so alluring. I suppose going for […]

A Game in a Matchbox Part 2: Rules

While continuing to ponder my Matchbox game with my spare grey matter while at work today, I imagined a game with a single stat. Since there won’t be much room for stats! And along the lines of SKIRMASH I want that stat to be balanced whether it’s low or high. Keeping things simple and using […]