Antares 2401: Action in the Zingara system

... some more (unedited) pictures from our latest game in the Antares 2401 campaign (see label below for previous post and campaign philosophy).

4 squads took part, with a new squad (Eta squad) being recruited into the ranks of SpecOps.

A scifi special operations campaign is the ideal vehicle for putting lots of different figures and scenery items (WW1 barbed wire, WW2 bunkers, dinosaurs) on the table. Much recommended :-)

Antares 2401: Aboard spaceship Odessa

Some pictures from a recent Antares 2401 campaign game (see label below to track previous posts and read up about the campaign philosophy).

This time, the game was played on the floorplans on a large spaceship. I used the excellent Modular Rocketship plans from Dramascape - available through Wargamevault.com.

Oldhammer: Eternal Champion

I still remember the time when I first starting buying wargaming miniatures. This was during the late 80s, when Warhammer 3rd edition was published. For me, this was my main vehicle for acquiring new wargaming stuff, and naturally, I was drawn heavily into the Citadel range of figures. I sort of knew other figure ranges were available, but I only moved into historicals around 1997. For me, Games Workshop was my entry point into miniature wargaming, due to its availability, but also because the tone and nature of the games that came out of Nottingham during that period struck a certain chord with a geek still at university. (For the record, I started with wargaming much sooner than that, but during high school, was mostly involved with board wargames such as those from Avalon Hill, SPI or International Team).

Anyway, I never gave away or threw out any of my Citadel miniatures. After 25 years, they not only hold a nostalgic spot in my gaming experiences and they much defined my early miniature gaming, but I still use them! Our Scifi Antares campaign features Mark6 Space Marines (beakies!), and I still have dozens of unpainted Citadel miniatures lying around. These days, they are becoming fashionable again -- cfr. Oldhammer.

Browsing through old catalogues, I sometimes regret that I didn't buy more of those classic Citadel miniatures from the 80s. That's why now and then, one gets lucky. Looking on a 2nd-handsite, I suddenly discovered someone who was selling the boxed set "Eternal Champion". Not only were the figures unpainted, but still in the original (opened) box. A real treasure - also because Moorcock's Elric stories inspired much of the Realm of Chaos backstory back in the day.

I even drove to the seller's house, to make sure I picked up the figures myself and they wouldn't get lost in the post.

I know that the Elric range of Citadel figures was much more extensive than just this box (see this page on the Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki), but it is a start. When collecting old figures, I have learned that one must be patient!

My new wargaming room (part 3)

A few people let me know that it was difficult for them to judge the size of my wargaming room, based on the previous pictures (here and here).

Therefore, I tried to take some more pictures with my rather limited camera, now from outside the window. I hope this gives a better impression :-)

The game on the table is an ACW 28mm game.

 The last photograph is a close-up of one of the cabinets, displaying a collection of 100-year old flat figures, alongside my copies of Little Wars and FLoor Games by HG Wells.

Oldhammer: Undead

When re-organizing some of my drawers full of miniatures, I decided to take a few pictures of one of my old Warhammer Armies. The undead below are mostly Citadel figures from the late eighties, early nineties. A few more recent figures snuck in, and here and there there might be an old Grenadier or Reaper figure, or some other figures of unknown make. The pictures are not of the best quality, my apologies.

Some figures are painted suboptimal to my current standards, being painted over 20 years ago. However, I never repaint any of my figures. I think they are a testimony to my painting and playing style from long ago, and as long as I have unpainted lead, I see no point in repainting already painted ones.

Overview of the entire army.

Plastic skeleton archers; the undead war catapult in the background; the plague cart on the left, accompanied by some undead riders. In the foreground some night horrors: spectres, a vampire, and a ghost with his head under his arm.

More plastc skeletons. Plague cart visible on the left, chariot on the right.

Skeleton cavalry. Note the use of cardboard flags, something I would definitely do different today. On the left an undead rider is mounted on a staggering horse. I used this figure quite often as commander for the entire army. The mounted figure bottom-left is from Reaper, one of the four horseman of the apocalypse.

More plastic skeletons. Note also the Death Elemental in front, as well as the wraith riders in the back.

Some mummies - the only unit mostly consisting of non-Citadel figures. I remember mummies were hard to find, so I used some Heroquest mummies instead. Both leader figures (skeleton monkey and Pharaoh) are non-Citadel.