A Simple Toy Soldier Game Battle Report

I have a go at one of the oldest rulesets I ever wrote, the very first version of The Simple Toy Soldier Game, not previously featured on the blog.

The Great Western War

The first post of my Great Western War Project. Setting the stage for some historical Deathzap gaming!

So what did I get up to in 2025?

It always fun to look back over the blog and reminisce about projects past. Sometimes I’ve forgotten about projects entirely, sometimes looking back over the blog reignites the embers of a formerly dead project. In January I hit the ground running with Havok: Havok was a game from my childhood, dead now, but once put […]

A Rambling Look Through My Hobby Drawers

A rambling look through my hobby drawers full of past and present wargaming projects…

Faithzap 3

Being away this week visiting family means no physical hobby for me, but I still love to engage in the mental – writing lore and rules. And despite being on the back burner I had promised to produce a few religious to add flavour to my own Deathzap setting. So here you go: Cyclism Religious […]

Ghost Legions Lore or Faithzap Part 2?

In my last Deathzap post, I mentioned that I’d be looking to build out the setting by adding in all the various Religions that theoretically would exist… across a few… roughly Earth sized planets… a quick google search tells you that Earth has over 4000 faiths. My Deathzap setting includes the habited planets of Kannis, […]

Cambar Border Attack

Jed Stedder grit his teeth, and stared off into the distance as the Tigers marched over the horizon. He had hoped for the simple life of a farmer after decades of fighting in the Oltra Campaign, but the Rin Empire had different plans, and now him and his workers were forced into defending their homes. […]

Faithzap

This past week I’ve been away at a Church Camp with my Church’s Youth Group, so as you can imagine there’s been a lack of hobbying. Corralling teenagers takes up a lot of time. I did have pondering time though, and with the religious atmosphere, I’ve been considering how religion functions in my own Deathzap […]

Cambari Gunslingers

I recently procured a large bag of cowboys from Amazon. The figures looked decent enough, certainly a far better quality than a lot of what I’ve been painting lately. The only real downside to the figures was the lack of poses. There was only four in all. Poses I think originated with Airfix. So I […]

Deathmelt

Odd little projects are always a good idea, because good ideas come from experimentation, experimentation that may not have been done otherwise. My Melt madness of late has been one such project, and it’s really helped me with a problem I’ve had for a long time with Deathzap. Two things I’ve loved about playing my […]

Battle For The Brain

Synth brains are key to intelligence gathering. The data is often encrypted, but with the right tools some memories can be reconstructed. There have even been attempts at extracting memories from human casualties with limited success. The body of a Synth Pirate Captain was reportedly seen amidst some ruins near the border of the Rin […]

Jendari Tigers

The first mention of the ‘Tigers’ dates back to the 67BC (Before Colonisation), where a loose group of militias joined together to defend a group of bases on Ganymede in order to help Titus Jendar’s work in restoring the Martian Portal. Use of the term ‘Tiger’ has not been without controversy, as traditional Tiger uniforms […]

The Skirmish At Anvar And Tweaking Deathzap 2

Anvar was little more than an outpost, its walls were old and crumbling, peppered with holes from generations of rifle and repeater fire. Supremacy of Kannis forces held a tenuous grip on the entire sector, employing mercenary Pirates and Ascended rather than their superior Davians and Second Ascended. Supremacy Generals, now utilising portal generators were […]

Wartomata

Wartomata or Wautomata, short for War Automata are the large robotic suits, sometimes piloted, sometimes AI controlled, that are utilised by the Allegiance of Gnossos, the Legion of Kharthion and the League of Zandor. The Allegiance’s Wartomata frequently look more robotic, whereas the League’s and Legion’s Wartomata have the quirk of appearing like fully armoured […]

Are Army Men Cursed?

Not sure if you’ve noticed, probably because you’re not the sort of weirdo that checks your local plastic tat shops for changes in big bags of crappy army men… but there’s been a degradation. Some might say this doesn’t matter… that I’m overthinking… but maybe it’s a hint at the entire collapse of western civilisation? […]

The Raid on Caliphane

The emergence of the Supremacy of Kannis was the main reason the Exiled Tribes were offered a deal by the Selenoids. A deal they took. The Selenoids stabilised the biology of the Exiles, they offered them improved equipment, and free passage through space (once the Tribes had acquired their own ships). In exchange, the Exiled […]

Space Pirates

The generation ships of the Solar Raiders and the Heavens Peace Accord pushed the entire Xolar System in one direction when it came to the design of their ships – the bigger, the better. Invasions were executed by large and almost entirely self sustaining ships. However once Selenoid raids had reached their peak, that dogma […]

Knockoff Xenomorphs

A while back I bought a bag of Dinosaur Skeletons: And then didn’t do anything with them. I had initially planned to include them in my Crusage project, however my focus shifted elsewhere. But while digging through my hobby room, looking for useful figures for my Big Deathzap project I stumbled across them again. I […]

Big Deathzap

I had the sudden urge to paint some cheap army men this weekend. The fruits of my labour were two squads for some skirmishing in the Deathzap universe. These figures are much bigger than usual Deathzap figures and rather than being 20-30mms tall clock in at 54mm. The first squad represent the Jendari Defence Army, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Improving my terrain

Barreling towards some games of Deathzap, I knew I needed to improve on my terrain. I’ve had the same cork buildings for some time now: They functioned… sort of… but could do with some improvements. One of the major complaints I had was the lack of room on the insides of the buildings, it was […]

The Supremacy of Kannis’ Second Ascended

Darros Mortan’s work in genetic engineering brought about the ‘Ascended’, the elite troops of Mortan’s Men and feared defenders of the moon of Oltra. Their increased size and strength allowed Mortan’s Men to put heavy weaponry in the hands of infantry. They were the best troops seen, out pacing and out fighting all comers, their […]

The ALL Alien Response Force

While the Jendari Defence Army utilised fairly standard infantry platoons and supporting armour in the Selenoid Wars, the ALL took a different route. Heavy infantry armour had been in use for centuries in Swordsport, one of the more popular Warsports played between the League of Zandor and Legion of Kharthion. While fighting in the Oltra […]

The Khydran Enclaves

I was pondering how humanity would be able to fight the Selenoids, given the Selenoids can teleport themselves at will, appear and disappear in such a way that typical human warfare with frontlines would be a nonsense. Scanners would be a requirement, to detect atmospheric changes, to predict a Selenoid raiding parties appearance before they […]