Saturday, February 28, 2015

China - The Rebirth

After I tried to do some Chinese a while back that never got produced or released because they turned out to be much to small to be suitable, I´ve rebooted the project almost by accident.

After running out of AKs again due to my restock being overdue I´ve had a look through my stockpile of weapons and rediscovered my QBZ95 rifles. As my priority for 2015 is to flesh out the ranges I already have (which required AKs) and expand my range by adding the dominant major powers I decided I might as well start doing some Chinese again.

This time the size is right!


More is on the way until I either run out of QBZ or get new AKs to resume work on the Russians, Insurgents and Taliban. 

Monday, February 23, 2015

SpecOps (UPDATED)

As promised yesterday, some first pics of my SpecOps unit. Will add another Rifleman or Teamleader figure and an LMG to complete the set.

It´s supposed to be Special Forces in Light gear, partly disguised in local civilian garb, kept as generic as possible to be suitable for a variety of theatres..

Updated picture so you can see some more details and the two latest figures to complete the group:



 And the original picture with another angle on the figures:


Hope you can pick out the details despite the less than ideal picture.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Hunting Humvees

A small paintjob I did for a customer as comission work - I thought I might as well share the result. Hardcore Al Qaida / Chechen Fighters from my Taliban range: 


I also continued sculpting on the Russians and some Special Forces - pictures will appear soon I think. ;)

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Russian Grenadiers (UPDATED)

Work continues on the Russians to prepare the next Squad:

One more down, three to go! 

And number two, all grenadiers done for the second squad!


Now I have to mold and cast some more dollies to prepare the last rifleman and wait for my next delivery of figures and weapons to pop the RPK into the hands of the LMG-gunner. 

In the meantime, I´ll be prepping more weapons and doing some Special Forces in light gear... 
Speaking of weapons, this is my next generation G36. 


Monday, February 16, 2015

Reflections on Ukraine - Part 2: USA

Disclaimer: I´m abusing my wargaming blog for something non wargaming-related, but with my focus on modern wargaming and making miniatures for modern conflicts, I don´t think I´m leaving the primary topic of this blog.
 I usually do not involve myself in the open political discussion on the internet, knowing that this will usually produce flame wars and heavy disputes. So I´m doing it here, where I can moderate or end the inevitable discussion at my whim -  against better knowledge, I want to throw in my personal analysis on the situation in Ukraine as I am increasingly having the impression that many people don´t seem to understand what is going on – which results in absurd claims, demands and support for positions that are not helpful to resolve the situation!
I am hoping to shed some light onto the situation by providing some historical and strategic analysis. Many people don´t seem to understand strategic interests and motives of the different actors in the conflict and don´t think things through. That being said, you are free to disagree with my analysis, it is purely my personal, subjective impression on the situation – and I might be wrong!  
Another warning: This is a european perspective, so I might not conform to the American narrative.
I´m willing to discuss this topic with you in a polite and educated manner, but I will heavily moderate any comments that are not analytical and neutral in their wording and content. 
 

Friday, February 13, 2015

Code Red - Status Report

Hey folks,

It´s been a while since I posted the last development diary on Code Red, our modern wargaming system. Time for another update on what´s been going on behind the veil of silence.



After several weeks of writing the german version of the rules, Code Red has entered the first stages of playtesting in January. Since then, several playtests have been conducted with a basic version of the game (including only infantry rules) and reports have been coming back with important feedback on rule wording, missing bits and confusing or unclear rules.  These annotations will be refined into the next version of the rules, while the testing framework will be expanded bit by bit each version by adding rules for heavy weapons and Fire Support, Vehicles and at last, scenario and list building.  



This allows any playtesters to get introduced to the ruleset slowly, learning and commenting it bit by bit. It also allows me to judge the different building blocks and mechanics with their respective effect on the overall game balance. It also enables me to prepare an English version somewhere in the middle of the road,  based on a refined and playtested german version – i.e. I can translate infantry combat to widen my circle of playtesters at any time, even if playtesting for games including Air Support rules are still being tested. It also allows me to get rid of “lazy” playtesters who are not showing that much interest after all. Playtesting is work and can be frustrating at times, because it´s very likely to discover some ambiguity in rules or balance issues.


The downside is obvious as well, you don´t get the whole picture throughout the first test versions. Some tactical decisions are simply not available (Artillery, Airstrikes, Vehicles), which can be problematic for some formations in certain situation. A few factions, especially mechanized elements, are just not meant to operate without their vehicles and thus are not very fun to play without vehicle support (duh…). The downsides of some choices will not be apparent until later versions. 

But the very first versions are tightly controlled by me anyway, so I can pick out the things that need  immediate fixing and put some other issues onto a list to raise the issue again in later versions of the game.


 So, what has been done and what needs to be done? At which stage of development are we?
The following list, in no particular order, should give you a nice overview:


Done:
  • The first (german) version has been written.
  • Infantry Combat works -  it is  being tasted and no major flaws  have been detected yet. Minor issues are being on the watch list for testing when the other elements are in place
  • Basic infantry cost/benefit - balance seems to be good right now
  • Draft versions of fire support have been written and are waiting to be tested on a larger scale
  • Basic vehicle combat framework exists

To-Do:
  • Testing, Testing, Testing…!
  • …and balancing + refining
  •  Correcting the usual minor flaws, oversights and rewording the rules to reduce ambiguity.
  • Writing the vehicle rules into a proper rules text
  • Reworking vehicle and heavy weapon pricing formulas and get the relation to infantry point values right
  • Refining & possibly expanding available scenario objectives and their point cost
  • Expanding list building options to create more variety in scenario building (depleted units, patrols, etc.)
  • Design a balanced framework for national flavor in faction lists
  • Build lists for the many factions that are not yet included!
  • Translating the rules into an English version
  • Evaluate the playtest of the English version

As you can see, there´s still some way to go, but the list has been shrinking  down considerably during the last 4 months and progress has been good despite very little opportunity to playtest the game myself. 


The game is perceived as very fun overall, with playtesters stressing the tactical depth of the game. It seems to be flowing nicely but sometimes runs the risk of slowing or even bogging down. I hope future options (vehicles, artillery) and some of the changes from the last versions help to mitigate this factor, but only more playtesting will show.

That´s it for today on Code Red!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Reflections on Ukraine - Part 1: Russia

Disclaimer: I´m abusing my wargaming blog for something non wargaming-related, but with my focus on modern wargaming and making miniatures for modern conflicts, I don´t think I´m leaving the primary topic of this blog.

 I usually do not involve myself in the open political discussion on the internet, knowing that this will usually produce flame wars and heavy disputes. So I´m doing it here, where I can moderate or end the inevitable discussion at my whim -  against better knowledge, I want to throw in my personal analysis on the situation in Ukraine as I am increasingly having the impression that many people don´t seem to understand what is going on – which results in absurd claims, demands and support for positions that are not helpful to resolve the situation!
I am hoping to shed some light onto the situation by providing some historical and strategic analysis. Many people don´t seem to understand strategic interests and motives of the different actors in the conflict and don´t think things through. That being said, you are free to disagree with my analysis, it is purely my personal, subjective impression on the situation – and I might be wrong!  
Another warning: This is a european perspective, so I might not conform to the American narrative.
I´m willing to discuss this topic with you in a polite and educated manner, but I will heavily moderate any comments that are not analytical and neutral in their wording and content. 


Monday, February 9, 2015

For Allah!

I´m running out of titles for my Insurgents, so I´m resorting to the obvious. I´m sure that title alone will net me a few places on some NSA terror list... :-(

Anyway, I´m just painting figures:



New Afghans, casts arrived last week and are not being painted for the shop. Two new sets incoming, 3 guys with AKs and 3 with RPGs!

Hope you like them, I hope to release them within the next few days.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Colonial Wars Portugese - First two Test figures

I´ve been working on a few Portugese to test if there´s enough interest to start this as a separate range, as it´s been requested from customers. Because I´m a little in doubt if we can gather enough supporters I decided to launch a Kickstarter-style preorder scheme.

This will allow me to gather the funds to produce the mold with the additional option of cancelling the project if there aren´t enough people who´s like to buy it.


The conditions are as follows:

My plan is to release one or two squads (Portugese squads have 10 figures) depending on the level of support. By buying a Kickstarter ticket you´ll be supporting the creation of the Portugese Colonial Wars range AND receive a full 10 figures per ticket of 10€. If multiple squads are produced you´ll get two squads if you buy two tickets, and so on. If you have purchased more tickets than squads that are going to be produced, you´ll get doubles of the same pack.

The scheme will run until  May 1st, 2015 (01.05.2015), if I don´t collect enough money to start a squad all people will get a refund both for their ticket and the shipping cost.
If we get enough support for one squad, but not for a second, everyone will get a partial refund  (i.e. 13 tickets result in the creation of a single squad of 10 figures. The remaining 3 tickets, 30€, will be refunded at 2,30€ per ticket (30€ / 13 tickets).
Please order the Portugese Kickstarter tickets separately of any other items to avoid any issues with refunding and shipment cost! 

IF you´d like to support the project, please check in here


A second figure is also ready:


If you want to follow the projects progress you can also check out the project thead in my subforum on the guild: here

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Rocket Propelled

And another one!



By the way, a new package with the next production batch has arrived recently, time to get back to painting my own minis for the shop...

Sunday, February 1, 2015

...and even more Taliban

I´ve been productive today and found my motivation to paint again - picked up a completely blank figure and painted him from start to finish, then picked up two I had started and added the final touches as well.

I´ve been experimenting with my camera settings and light options and FINALLY took some good pics. These fotos are almost not edited, something went right this time!


Another angle to show you the guy on the left, who was my motivator today. Lovely figure sculpted by Matt from Elhiem Figures (just like the rest)



Afghan Village - Part 4

Moving on with the afghan village - tiles 3 and 4 have got some color. Finishing touches on all of the tiles are needed, but they´re slowly getting closer to their final appearance:



More tiles are in the work :)