Weekender: Wolsung Boot Camp Announced Set Sail For Blood & Plunder Week!
June 17, 2017 by dignity
Welcome to The Weekender as we're delving into some more awesomeness from the world of tabletop gaming and giving you our thoughts on it.
Weekender Podcast Download
We have a packed show today so let's get stuck in. Here's what we have coming up...
Wolsung Boot Camp Announced!
We have one more Boot Camp coming this year on the weekend of September 15th 2017 where we will be heading to the Steampunk world of Wolsung.
This promises to be a great one and will be open to Backstagers first. You will get a great bundle of miniatures and accessories plus a chance for clubs and stores to get the tables we build for this one.
Tickets for this will be limited so if you're interested, make sure to be quick!
Blood & Plunder Week & Map Building
We have a fantastic week of Blood & Plunder content coming up for you next week as we sat down with the guys from Firelock Games to talk about the factions, history and more behind this game.
Additionally, Mel TheTerrainTutor will be launching his own Project Log with us soon where he will be building the massive Fabled Realms Map from 4Ground.
Blood & Plunder Kickstarter Interview
With the Kickstarter launching next week for this expansion to Blood & Plunder Justin got to sit down with the creators, Firelock Games, and talk about what to look out for.
News Time
We get stuck into some of the cool news from this week...
- Company Of Iron Coming To Warmachine & Hordes - Get stuck into some skirmish level gaming.
- Cygnar Trenchers Getting An Upgrade - Do you like this new take on the classic Trenchers?
- Revenant King On Undead Wyrm For Kings Of War - Do you prefer this one with wings or without?
- New Planes & More For Flames Of War 4th Edition - Watch the skies for dive bomber attacks.
...did any of this catch your eye?
Six-Day War Interview
Getting the history buffs in the studio we talk with Jim (oriskany) about his Six-Day War article series which has been running over the past few weeks.
You can get into the history and wargaming potential of this conflict with Part One and Part Two and watch out for the final one next week.
Kickstarters!
It's now time to check out the Kickstarters worth looking at in more detail this week.
- Conan: Rise Of Monsters - Conan returns with this pre-painted miniatures game.
- Universal Miniatures Battles - Could you see your club using a rule set like this?
- Terra-Formers - Do you see the potential for terrain making tech like this?
Will you be backing any of these projects?
Let us know what you thought of the different topics we talked about this week and remember to...
Have a happy weekend!
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It’s the Weekend!!
A weekend where yet again I find myself cursed by clashes between my work schedule and boot camp plans… Darn it!
Re magnetizing the terrain modules, for maximum flexibility (assuming each piece is square) make sure that you always have both polarities on each side consistent;y; i.e. always put N on the left and S in the right. This will ensure that whatever the orientation of any piece (except upside down) it will align with any other piece. How do you control polarity? I magnetize a lot and soon found that a simple purpose built tool and some simple steps and controls helps me ensure I stick it in the right way. The tool is simply a dowel or piece of… Read more »
You sir are a life saver, this is exactly the advise i was hoping for!
We shall construct such a tool… a mighty rod with a red and a blue end… on that depending on your polarity wiil be either attractive or repulsive!
And it shall get a lot of use! 😉
There you go again with your obsession with the size of tools! Sometimes a small tool is more useful and easier to handle, especially when trying to squeeze it into tight places… just ask @dignity!
Although don’t let him near the finished tool in case he feels the urge to snip the ends off!
“Sometimes a small tool is more useful and easier to handle”
Funny my wife @orkess says the same thing!!! Often preceeded with ‘there there warren’
Gives a man a complex 😉
I’ve been advised that apparently my mention of asking @dignity‘s advice about small tools could be misconstrued… not my intention at all ( 😉 )
I believe that Justin was once a veritable craftsman with an honourable trade (before falling in with the BoW crowd) and understands therefore that the appropriate size, built for purpose tool is always the correct option… for example he’d never use a screwdriver to open a paint tin… would he?!
The cosmica terrain uses a 4 magnet pattern – essentially:
N——S
||||||||||||
S——N
This allows room frame pieces to be connected together to make larger rooms or the side panels to be connected and it is all modular as with the system featured.
https://warsen.al/blogs/product-updates/83581697-magnetizing-cosmica
Wouldn’t it be easier to simply use one of those horseshoe shaped magnets ?
All you’d have to do is paint both ends a different colour and your tool would be ready for use.
A straight one would be easier for ‘pushing in’ type tasks rather than a bendy one though?
I’ll take a picture of my tool and post a link here later. I assure you that it’s very straight with a couple of knobby bits along its length…
… you see it’s made from a bit of sprue.
You really don’t need or want strong magnetic forces from the tool, the less strong the better. Bear in mind you’re using it to pick up other magnets… but then need to be able to easily separate the magnets to leave the payload magnet behind.
It’s main role is to pick up the magnet with the right polarity and to be able to position it. I can barely pick up really small magnets (2x1mm or even 1x1mm) in my fingers as it is even before thinking about reaching in and placing accurately into 28mm miniature limb joints!
happy saturday and ……noo its open for everyone to buy tickets ! knowing my luck It will sold out 🙁 before I get my holiday.
ok note to mysels watch weekender first then comment.
@stusidle are you interested?
Happy weekend
I don’t think universal rulesets struggle now because of greater miniature quality. GURPS would have been the #1 rpg if that were the case. D20 was a top down open license by the market leader, and even that had a short shelf life.
My point is less to do with quality and more to do with marketing. We are marketed based on physical product first and rulesets second. Because its very hard to market a rule set, and much easier to market a physical product 🙂
Sure, though even when you remove that from the equation, the rpg market shows people still go for fit-for-purpose rulesets over universal rulesets.
Yep but the frame of my point is tighter than that, im specifically looking at miniature games. In RpG’s its quite different in that the rules are the primary product, but even then my point still kind of works in that, new rule sets are still hard to market – because rules are just hard to market – in the rpg sector you can replace minis with ‘brand’ – its easier to market DnD as a brand or a concept (because it is now highly evocative and very visual – and has had the benifit of growing in a vacuum)… Read more »
Had to remind myself of the exact definition of ‘fit for purpose’ as im unsure how to appropriately use that phrase in this context, does that mean anything universal despite its compatibility with a period or genre, because its not written with a specific arena (or theatre – struggling to find the right word) in mind it is considered ‘unfit for purpose’?
What is somthing that isnt ‘fit for purpose’? (Help me out here lol)
I don’t think they’re so different. You touch on an important point when you say a universal ruleset would have to be amazing to get people to play it. If it’s no better than a fit for purpose ruleset, then why switch to it. This further has the problem that it’s matching up different genres in a confrontation game. GURPS might provide a universal ruleset for every setting, but the group is usually sticking to one setting at a time. I’m of the opinion, and have been since I first encountered universale rulesets thirty years ago, that they sound great… Read more »
Yup and compared side by side on the basis of a single game that could be often the case (but i stress not always or by default!) However thats not where i see Universal Rules competing… in many groups and clubs im sure there are multiple occassions of wouldnt this battle be cool to do (and it could be anything really) in those moments a well crafted URS that all club members have a resonable knowlege of would let them just do it. Again it starts to hinge on what a URS should do, and the fast almost out of… Read more »
I’m using ‘fit for purpose’ in opposition to ‘universal’ here. The latter to mean a ruleset designed to be picked up and played for any setting, so fit for purpose would be anything else, at least here.
I prefer ‘bespoke’ to ‘fit for purpose’ for the reasons stated above 🙂
“The last Bootcamp … probably for some time.” That addition to the line worries me a bit. What’s going on? I thought companies were standing in line to get their game to a Bootcamp.
Yep but they are a heck of a lot of work mate (pretty exhausting!)
This upsets me. I’ve never been to one (and probably never will 🙁 ) but they look great!
Regarding Israeli armour I’m building a Meng 1/35 Achzarit which were built from T-55 tank bodies they captured from the Arabs as per this article, goes to Johns “inept no adept” with making something out of what was to all intents scrap.
http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/israels-heavy-armored-personnel-carriers/
Awesome information, @mintballs . A friend mine and I were actually talking about these T-55 and Centurion APCs conversions just yesterday – as well as the “TI-67”, Israeli rebuilds of the hundreds to T-55s they captured during the Six-Day War. Basically pulled out the D10 100mm gun, replaced with a British L7 105mm rifle, and put in an American engine (Continental, I think, John Lyons would know better) and used them in Yom Kippur. Still the “weakest” tank of the Israeli forces in 1973, reservist brigades, etc. I’m sure Israeli tank crews were “drawing the short straw” to see who… Read more »
Darn it why couldn’t the bootcamp be during the Summer Holidays?!?! As a teacher I’m not going to be able to make this one. So sad as I’d have already been booking my flights by now otherwise 🙁 Maybe next time…
Unfortunately seasonal pricing would maybe double or triple the cost of a boot camp ticket.
Summer gets busy around these parts 🙂
And we try to keep bootcamps the best value for money you will ever find anywhere 🙂
I just have to go into two quotes @warzan made during this weekender (I’ll be quoting freely): 1. “The most thing that always interests me about historical wargaming is the global politics in it!”. – I just can remember a Warren a few years ago who just went “YAAAAAAWNNNNNN!” on any historical topic – especially political ones – and changed the topic. I just point this out, as it has been the absolute same thing for me. Like 10 years ago I couldn’t imagine that anything beyond scifi and fantasy would ever interest me. I found history boring and dry.… Read more »
Oh I forgot: On the topic of the modular terrain building sets. They are great. But they have a huge drawback. That is when you play a game where premeasuring is not allowed and you have to guess distances for artillery or declare charges not knowing if you are in range. By the looks the modular squares are something like 12’x12′ inches. Even when you are not thinking about it, it will give you another feature influencing you’re distance guessing. Which could take away of the gaming experience. On a system where premeasuring is allowed, this is obviously not an… Read more »
History will get you, @bothi . Sooner or later, we will claim your soul! We are the one part of wargaming that never really goes away! Our “background fluff” is bottomless, because it’s literally everything that has ever happened in human existence.
Thanks very much for the comment! 😀
@bothi :
It definitely is easier to estimate distances if you’ve got a good reference point.
Especially if you’re used to metric and have to convert to that other system.
At the same time this is a double edged sword.
It might be easier to learn, but at the same time you may start to rely on that reference a little too much which will give you a disadvantage whenever you play on a non modular board.
@warzan Zombicide green horde is running their Kickstarter and you just might like these Viking stretch goals
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/zombicide-green-horde/posts/1898779
A modular system that does trenches right. Very nice, terra-formers. Very nice indeed.
“Conan – Rise of Monsters” = CROM. The game must be epic just because of the name. 😀
You cannot speak of Universal Rule Sets without talking about GRUPS
Via Wikipedia
“The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting. It was created by Steve Jackson Games and first published in 1986 at a time when most such systems were story- or genre-specific.”
IMHO, still one of the best uni rule sets.
Happy saturday!
I’m looking forward to the blood and plunder week though typically I’m off on holiday and may have to catch up on my return. Really been enjoying my games so far so can’t wait for the new kickstarter. Shame we didn’t get any sneak previews of the minis in the interview 🙁
For those that are coming to the show at the tank museum on the 1st-2nd July a few of us will be playing blood and plunder so if you are interested please say hello!
You know, with the teraformers thing, just use some expanding foam in them. Would work rather well to get things going.
a fabulous weekender guys love’n the new terrain stuff.
I think your coverage of things like Salute shows that many groups prefer tooling their own rules sets. “What are you guys playing?” “It’s our own custom rules for blah blah.”
Wash, rinse, repeat. :/
I highly doubt the pre-painted Conan miniatures are going to be even close to the quality of work show in those pictures. I love Conan and backed Monolith’s Kickstarter and will back their next project but there is thankfully( already backing too many games) not too much to tempt me in this KS.
Both Dust and X-wing prove that quality pre-painted miniatures are possible.
And I remember seeing ads in Wargames Illustrated showing similar stuff for WW2 era minis.
As such the problem is not ‘can it be done’.
The real problem is : ‘can I afford it’
with the magnets i’d go left side magnet and right side piece of metal therefore you never need to worry about polarity. and even though not as strong as two magnets pulling against each other they would hold and you shouldn’t be bashing the table around that much anyway.
Happy Saturday!
Love the look of that modular terrain system. I’ve now bought several commercial systems so possibly this comes to late – or at least too late for me to justify buying into it – but I love the idea. I really want to make my own modular board but have no interest in – or aptitude for – making the accurate modular pieces myself.
Awesome show once again. How I wish I could join the Wolsung Bootcamp. Gotta eat though 🙁
Did anyone catch our special guest feature swipe this week?
@lancorz yeah I saw it 🙂
Great Weekender this week. Those terrain modules look quite interesting…
Could we get to see John’s scale model work as it was skipped over a bit in the feature, only skimming the Super Sherman?
On universal rule systems: I don’t think we would ever be able to agree on a system in our club. And even if we were, for many of us, myself included, part of the fun is the different rules and mechanics that drive us to try new games. What @warzan suggested about a special period, participation or a mega game, where no established system exists, it could work. After a mile long online debate of course 😉 .