Entering The Ion Age

Games Workshop has reached a tipping point for me mentally, a point where I can’t really justify buying their models. While I may have funds available, the cost per miniature is just too high for me to want to spend that money. £4 per Khorne Berserker is just not worth it. That’s entirely a personal […]

The One Page Game Jam is Here and Incarn28

I must have missed this somehow, but a while ago I mentioned writing something for the One Page Game Jam: https://deathzap.co.uk/2023/04/07/1-page-game-jam-ideas/ After much silliness a friend and I put something together we called Incarn28. I’ve posted a little about it before: https://deathzap.co.uk/2023/05/01/weird-and-wonderful-warbands/ https://deathzap.co.uk/2023/05/08/the-most-insane-one-page-rules-ever/ https://deathzap.co.uk/2023/05/13/the-eyes-above-an-incarn28-story-battle-report/ I’d really recommend checking out the Game Jam, there’s a lot […]

The Technology of Deathzap

While playtesting my ‘crunchy’ version of Deathzap, I’ve realised I’ve needed to think more about the weaponry and technology available to my little plastic men. If I’m attempting to model something in game with mechanics, like an exotic alien weapon, I need some idea of what I’m attempting to model. The lack of powered armour […]

Deathzap: Crunchy

Or Crunchzap. I had the desire in the past week to get rules writing again, and to go for something crunchier than I normally do. While I’ve got several hundred versions of Deathzap they always seem to play like a WW2 game with add ons. I’ve always gone for the fastest and leanest approach to […]

Defending Cabolt

I knew the next battle in my Deathzap campaign would be the siege of Cabolt the capital city of Caerdonia. This put things on hold for a while. The main struggle I’ve had with my global war is the lack of terrain options I have in my collection, currently everywhere looks the same in the […]

Army in an Hour: Spooky Spiders

One of the factions that has never fully manifested in the Deathzap Universe are the Khydran Enclaves. Giant bugs chomping on soldiers has been a love of mine ever since I saw the film ‘Them!’ as a kid. With Halloween upon us there’s a plethora of cheap plastic bugs (usually spiders, but not always) in […]

Chaos Cultists

Chaos Cultists are a problem, and they have been for a very long time. This is a bizarre problem for the biggest wargaming company GW to have. Cultists are a basic infantry option for arguably the second most important faction in Warhammer 40,000. That’s like Warlord Games announcing Bolt Action and then saying they’re not […]

Uniforms of the Deathzap Universe: Allegiance of Gnossos and The Solar Raiders

Instead of countries the Allegiance of Gnossos is divided up into Sectors and each Sector has its own army. The uniforms of the Sector armies generally have the same mix of colours, black, white, blues and greys, however in different combinations. The SA soldiers above are from the 5th Sector Vol-Zo. The Prosecution Directive is […]

The Road to Cabolt

Collective forces continued their advance in northern Caerdonia down towards the capital Cabolt. Jendari Rangers, Rin Empire, Jendari Defence Army, Tigers and even Dragons assaulted House Baronor positions held by Baronor Guards, Knights and Solar Raider Mercenaries. The stats required and army lists are minimal with the latest version of Deathzap and the simplicity of […]

When Pegs Fly…

I’ve often though about space battles in my own Deathzap universe, but came to the conclusion that they would likely not take place at all. Battles in the void of space itself would most likely be avoided. There’s no real need to fight in deeper space especially if you can warp travel away at any […]

Polishing More Turds

I posted what is possible with basically the worst figures available in your local discount shop a while ago: https://deathzap.co.uk/2021/08/15/polishing-a-turd/ And recently I had a strange hankering to paint some truly terrible figures. I think the worst a available (although if you’re aware of worse please let me know) are these guys: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Y-Republic-Traditional-Army-Battle/dp/B0BCL3YDLV/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=25YJ3OYRJ6KMV&keywords=army+men+figures&qid=1688734468&sprefix=army+me%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-3 I’ve had […]

Charge of the Bite Brigade

According to Archaeologists at the University of Nyandar the Boskovan Mountains were where the first Solar Colonists set foot on the planet Jendar. One thousand years later the mountains would see some of the most significant battles of the ‘War of the Three Dragons’, and in 1237AC battles of the much smaller ‘Pudding War’. Now […]

Pointing Up Deathzap

Points systems are contentious things, broken at worst (see Warhammer 40,000) and a necessary evil at best. The goal of any points system is to have a game that is balanced, so both players in any given game can feel like they have an equal chance of winning. The only real alternative is very specific […]

On the Outskirts of Ariban

With the failed invasion of Haerkalia, Collective forces had once again found themselves fighting in Khef, but this time the retreating armies were in disarray and a defence was slow to develop allowing the forces of House Baronor to maintain their momentum and strike deep into the country. A hasty defence force was cobbled together, […]

Rescue the Cambarian

On the northern coast of Haerkalia a Cambarian Stalker trapped behind enemy lines with key intelligence and needs pulling out. A small force of Jendari Tigers is teleported to the area, but a similar sized force of House Guards responds hoping to eliminate the escaping Stalker. In this scenario each time the Tigers make it […]

A Couple of Very Cheap Armoured Cars

In my last post I played out a quick ambush battle report featuring a couple of armoured cars. The cars themselves came from a cheap set of soldiers and vehicles: https://deathzap.co.uk/2022/06/27/soldiers-of-the-combat/ I wanted to use the cars in my ambush scenario, but was concerned that paint wouldn’t stick to them. It’s seemed to be that […]

Convoy Attack

Agents of the Prosecution Directive ambush a SolRad convoy on the outskirts of District Aben-Sha on Oltra. The Agents have intelligence on Solar Raiders smuggling Gnossian technology and they must be eliminated. The Agents attack with D12s and save with D10s. The Solar Raiders attack and save with D8s. The two middle APCs cannot attack, […]

Daring-Do Deathzap

After playing out the Battle of Alnoth yesterday I found myself struggling with the rules as I have with so many previous sets of rules I have used for Deathzap. While streamlined they felt slow. I think this is because alternate unit activation does get bogged down with larger numbers of units. They also lacked […]

The Invasion of Haerkalia Battle of Alnoth

It’s been a while since I’ve touched my current Deathzap campaign – the war for the planet Jendar between the Jendari Collective and House Baronor. The previous battle is here and had led to the invasion of the country of Haerkalia by the Jendari Collective after the failure of House Baronor’s invasion of Khef. The […]

Another-nother lesson in never throwing anything away

In the dark, dark house, there was a dark, dark staircase. Down the dark, dark staircase, there was a dark, dark cellar. And in the dark, dark cellar, some space marines were in a plastic container covered in goo. I’ve been holding onto these marines for a long time, and they had been somewhat unsuccessfully […]

‘Someone has to play the Nazis’?

You may have seen or heard of the recent controversy online regarding a video put out by a much loved, mostly Warhammer YouTuber Midwinter Minis: In the video he wonders why historical wargaming isn’t as popular as Warhammer, and considering WW2 is by far the most popular historical period, he wonders if it’s the presence […]

The Eyes Above – An Incarn28 Story Battle Report

Carvus looked up at the eyes, they watched him closely. He had thought from youth that they were the gods, watching over him, but in truth no one really knew. No one knew why the sky was covered with them. No one knew their purpose. No one knew why their giant tears of blood that […]

The Most Insane One Page Rules Ever?

‘When men multiplied in the land and developed their own technologies rivalling the gods in power, the gods considered allowing men to join their pantheon. A lesser of the gods knowing what was in men’s hearts gave each of them the power of carnomancy, the ability to manipulate their physical forms to their own wills. […]

Weird and Wonderful Warbands

I’m still working on my one page skirmish rule set for the one page game jam, and a big part of that is playtesting, and so obviously I needed minis to playtest with. Sticking with the same ‘grimcandy’ style I’ve been figuring out of late I’ve been kitbashing various 28mm plastic kits together: A few […]

Miniature Painting Styles?

I occasionally like to get artsy fartsy on this blog. In this case I’d like to talk about miniature painting styles. This has been spurred on by my recent delving into Grimcandy/Grimbright painting, but also this YouTube video from Lenric’s Realm: So as Lenric points out most painting styles come under the heading of ‘realism’, […]