One Big Worm

At the height of my Havok hyperfocus, after getting at decently sized Nexus and Karn force together I turned my attention to the Pteravore. As any Havok fan is aware, the Pteravore unfortunately only had three units released before the game died, Razors, Screamers and Hell Hounds. I managed all three utilising Wargames Atlantic’s Harvesters […]

S.S.U.S.R – Story Battle Report: The Family VS The Greys

The cave was dark and wet, but it was the safest place that could be found. Mother eyed her children. They weren’t strong enough, weren’t ready for the coming fight, but she had no choice, the space men were closing in on them, and the Family had to take its stand. Mother looked to the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A Game in a Matchbox

I spied a really great challenge on the Man of Tin’s blog, that he and The Duchy Tragardland have been working on, the idea of getting an entire Wargame in a matchbox! http://tradgardland.blogspot.com/2024/11/no-time-for-swanning-around.html?m=1 https://manoftinblogtwo.wordpress.com/2024/11/16/wargame-in-a-wee-matchbox-challenge-accepted-1/ I’m always inspired by this kind of restricted wargame. Whether that’s fitting an entire ruleset on one page of A4, or […]

Even More SKIRMASHers and Zero Player Duelling

Over the past week I’ve added three more warriors to my SKIRMASH collection. An Orc Champion, an Assyrian Officer and a Goblin Shaman. I’ve had these guys for ages so it’s good to finally press them into action, and to have a fun little game like SKIRMASH I can throw odd figures into. Here are […]

SKIRMASH Battle Report: Dice of the gods!

Same stats as before: Dice of power have once again fallen from the gods. The great beings however want their dice back, and one of the five dice (randomly picked) will vanish back to the heavens at the end of each round. A side gains 1 point per die they have a figure within 3” […]

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 […]

One Box Wargame Challenge Progress

So I got working on my Afghans this weekend, making two warbands of 10 figures each, leaving me enough for two more warbands. Wargames Atlantic figures really are incredible value. The kit is great, and you really could knock out a huge Afghan Tribal army for colonial era gaming for very little money (just over […]

The One Box Wargame Challenge

Malev Minis recently started a challenge to create an entire wargame from a single box of miniatures. His own creation ‘Convict Combat’ is a death match style game using a box of Wargames Atlantic’s Cannon Fodder. https://youtu.be/yG8IhzpMk8Y?feature=shared I thought for a while about the challenge and wanted to go with something a little outside the […]

Mechanics Lab: The Amalgamation

Non descriptive titles maybe unhelpful, but I couldn’t think of what to call this post. It’s my attempt at combing the Simple Toy Soldier Game and my Universal Skirmish Rules into some sort of Chimera. Warning! This post is really rambling and only half makes sense, but this is the creative rules writing process in […]