Although I've been mostly focused on fantasy miniatures this year, when starter sets of the Gundam Trading Card Game began shipping earlier in the summer, I couldn't resist the opportunity to give the card game a go and get hold of some of the minis from the forthcoming Gundam Assemble a little bit early as well and I have to say that the miniatures (and the card game) have not disappointed. Like most other plastic miniatures (and full size Gunpla kits), the Gundam Assemble kits come on sprues and are push fit assembly. Clean up of mould lines didn't take very long either and if you were so inclined, you could have them fully built and ready to use for gaming mere minutes after opening the packaging. Although initially I wasn't sure about the design of the Principality of Zeon's mobile suits, they've really grown on me, so of the four Assemble sets available, I went for Zeon's Rush which contains one MS-06F 'commander suit' (distinguished by the ...

Missives from Middle Earth #13 "...we do not stop the fight for night or day, for fair weather or for storm..."

It's been a couple of months since my last Missive from Middle Earth , but I've been busily expanding the battle company into an army using the Lurtz's Scouts list from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book. This happened rather more by design than some of my other MESBG projects and I'll get into the why of that a bit more below, but suffice it to say that I'm pretty chuffed to have gone from scratching a hobby itch with a few models to fully fledged army in only a couple of months - it's certainly a lot faster than I've done so before! So, how did we get here? Well, back in mid-January, GW kicked off a One Million Miniatures challenge. The idea was that hobbyists across the world would collectively paint up a million miniatures. Being a bit of a sucker for these kind of marketing ploys and being grateful for a change from the New Year, New Army format I signed up to take part at my local store. Knowing my limitations though, I pledged for 25 mini...

Are you not entertained? - A mini review of Blood on the Sands

"Under the watchful eyes of the lanista of Ludus Fulgur, the magister prepares a thraex and murmillo for a practice bout. There'll be blood on the sands before long..." This month's Wargames Illustrated came with a frame of miniatures and the quick start rules for Dead Again Games' soon to be released gladiatorial combat game Blood on the Sands . The free miniatures were definitely of interest, but equally intriguing was the game itself. I find 'arena combat' settings for tabletop gaming incredibly appealing (low model count, small required playing area) so something that looked to capture the tactical depth and bloodthirsty spectacle of gladiatorial combat immediately caught my intention. Having been caught out when looking to try out a new game before, I twisted my friend Steve's arm into giving it a look and then picked up a copy of the magazine for each of us so that we could give the rules a proper read over and we would both be able to pick our ...