CaptainCon 2016 Wrap-up

On February 6th, we held our first local DropZone Commander tournament at CaptainCon 2016, in Warwick, RI. Even with a couple of last-minute  no-shows, we were able to muster five players (6 with me as organizer). I am prepared to call it a success, and look forward to the next one!

This was my second tournament, after Gencon, and the first I have organized myself. As I posted during the past weeks, I dedicated a great deal of time to preparing terrain for the event. The end result was four tables ready to go right at the start, with enough extra materials for at least one more, should the players materialize.

Ten Mil Terrain Wrap-up

After an unexpected month-long delay, caused by the mad race to CaptainCon, I thought I'd post my final thoughts on the ten millimeter terrain products I have been trying out. Although there are a few other options to look at, perhaps most notably N-scale railroad scenery, I think the three I have explored here provide a pretty good cross-section of the options on the market.

The above photo shows the tables we set up for the DropZone Commander tournament at CaptainCon. Our setup showcased a mix of Hawk, Blotz and 4Ground terrain options, as well as a little bit of home-made scenery, bodged together by yours truly. (More on that in a future post) Also featured, although not reviewed, were a set of 10mm urban F.A.T. Mats, from Frontline Games.

So, now that I have worked with all three brands, and used quite a few on actual gaming tables, what do I think of them? Read on for a comparative summary of my thoughts.

Fighting Fields of the Reconquest - Terrain part 3

I can't honestly go through a survey of small scale terrain pieces without including the card stock and resin offerings from Hawk Wargames. Any of the 10mm pieces I have looked at so far would be an excellent fit with Hawk's popular Dropzone Commander game, but Hawk has produced a line of their own (mostly) resin terrain pieces to fit the scale as well.

Although very clearly molded in the style of Dropzone Commander, these pieces are perfectly usable in other 10mm scale games, such as CAV or Firestorm Planetfall. Really enterprising 10mm sci-fi gamers might even trot out their old GROPOS models to play along.

Building a Better Tomorrow, Today - Terrain part 2

Last week, I posted my thoughts on the 10mm urban terrain options offered by 4Ground miniatures. This week, I turn my attention to the equivalent product line from Blotz.

Blotz terrain is superficially similar to 4Ground's products: Both are made from laser-cut MDF; Both are made in the UK, and both require you, the consumer, to assemble them. How do they stack up? Read on to find out.

Pick your battle(fields) - Terrain part 1

Recently, I have been working with a lot of war games terrain. Part of this is to get some variety in my miniatures work, and part is because I have agreed to run a Dropzone Commander tournament in the spring - and I need to be able to supply three or four tables worth of terrain! As part of that project, I will be sharing some of my experiences with 10mm scale terrain over the next few weeks. This week, we begin with pre-painted, laser-cut terrain by 4Ground Miniatures.

4Ground offers quite a range of terrain styles for 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, and 28mm gaming. They also offer terrain from many genres, but they are not evenly distributed across scales. Happily, their 10mm terrain focuses on a combination of ultra-modern and art-deco urban terrain. I will leave it to your imagination to guess why.

Say, is that a Scourge Grav tank in their promotional image? How did that get there?

Anyway...

Dropfleet Commander

I have been posting quite a bit work on Dropzone Commander over the past year, including my review of the game. I have really been enjoying Hawk's approach to tactical, objective-oriented games, and now I am very excited over the impending release of Dropfleet Commander.

Confrontation Part II: It's Not Easy Being Green

As expected, I have been proceeding slowly with this giant diorama WIP. In the past few weeks, I have been mostly painting tabletop miniatures for my Dropzone Commander armies (more on that in a later entry.) Still, I have done a lot of work preparing the dragon Narthrax for paint.

I need to get both the dragon and the knight mostly cleaned and assembled before I can begin construction of the scenic base to support them. I can't really complete their assembly or paint until I get that done. As is usually the case, prep work is key.