Osprey Poseidon's Warriors - First Review

The first reviews of my new book are up on the web.

Here

and

Here

Many thanks to the gamers who took the trouble to look at the rules.

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Note: I will use this blog to answer rules queries as they come up.

Q: If a ship has 2 or more artillery (platforms), may i roll 1D6 for each in an artillery attack? It´s not clear in the rules.
Michael D.

Yes, each artillery engine on a ship may attack a target. Roll a D6 for each engine.
John Lambshead

Broadsword Wargames Show - Kent

The quality of the display games at Broadsword was astonishingly high. US Marines attack in the Pacific under air cover provided by a P38 Lightning flying very, very low.

An Old Crow VTOL lands on a pad downtown in the colony slums.

On the Rainham Club stand the BUF assault the churchyard in a Very British Civil War.

But the Kent Miners Action Column is ready for them.

The Medway Club demonstrating 7TV II.

Steampunk Mars

This is what Mars may have looked like before the solar wind stripped its atmosphere when it was warm enough for water to exist as a liquid.

A series of delta - type structures all at the same height suggest that there was a water table near our even above the surface for most of the northern hemisphere.  Of the table was above the surface then a shallow ocean may have covered all the blue areas.

The lack of a detectable coastline suggests otherwise but there are ways that coastline might have been smoothed out,  such as tsunamis.

Anyway, this is a potential early Mars.

I feel a steampunk plot coming on.

Build Review - Antares C3M4 Combat Drone

Warlord Games' C3M4 Combat Drone for Beyond The Gates of Antares is now on general sale for twenty five of our English Pounds sterling.

Inside the box are two plastic sprues of components and and three stands for the combat drone and two slave drones. The primary stand comes with two different lengths for posing multiple buys.

The build instructions are  clear and helpful.

The drone goes together really easily. Everything fits perfectly, to my relief. I have been constructing some classic aircraft kits recently and some of them end up more filler than plastic. I suppose it took me about half an hour and some of that was waiting for glue to dry.

The components are robust and chunky - very suitable for wargaming.

All the turrets (and other bits) rotate and the kit boasts a clever design idea. A choice of three main weapons are included: a plasma cannon, a compression cannon, and a fractal cannon. The twist is that they clip on and off without gluing or fitting rare earth magnets.

Brilliant!

The finished kit is about the size of a 1/72 WWII fighter plane so, again, well designed for wargaming.

I think even SF wargamers who don't play Antares will fancy picking up one of these. Plastic kits are so much more convenient for storage and carrying around than resin because they are robust and light.

Recommended.

Now to paint it.

Air Support For My Bolt Action Japanese Forces

Three Japanese Army fighter aircraft. Imperial Japan had no independent air force and the Army and Navy treated each other as enemy powers. The IJN procured land-based planes that were completely different from IJA planes, right down to the minor fittings.

I use 1/72 models for Bolt Action air support because of their convenient size.

From right to left, we have:

Type 1 'Oscar'
The most common Army fighter, nearly 6,000 were built, it soldiered on to the end of the war despite increasing obsolescence: light, manoeuvrable, fragile and under-armed.

Type 2 'Tojo'
A heavier armed interceptor, the Tojo was faster and less manoeuvrable than the Oscar. Poor performance at high altitude impeded its use against B29s. Over a thousand built.

Type 3 'Tony'
The most 'European' of the main three IJA fighters, the Tony had an inline engine. Over 3,000 built.

Navy Bomber 'Frances'
A fast, long-ranged, land-based, multi-role bomber, the Frances was too sophisticated for Japanese industry to manufacture in bulk and the thousand or so built were notorious for unreliability. A good medium bomber, the Frances was an utter failure as a nigh-fighter.

Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway Armoured Train

My daughters used to like a ride on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway when they were younger.

While working on my latest wargame project I came across this: Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway Armoured Train.

And before anyone laughs, they are credited with an He111, Me109 and Do17 during the Battle of Britain....and there's not many light railways with that record.

Early Author Copy

Guess what just dropped through my door courtesy of those wonderful people at Osprey Wargames.

Available from all good bookshops, wargame shops and Amazon.