Urban War/Metropolis and a Force on Force update.

Hello again folks.
I mentioned in one of my recent posts that I have a strike team for Urban War. So the majority of this post is devoted to a quick lowdown on the game and the factions available.
Urban War (which used to be known as Void) is a game of small-scale skirmish Strike Team Actions, representing a larger conflict in the continent sized city of Iskandria, where battles took place between its inhabitants and an Alien invasion. This set of rules is currently in its second edition, with the first set being available as a series of magazines, which contained rules and background, as well as articles on scenery and the miniatures.
Full scale battles with armies are available with a slightly different ruleset, also available from Urban Mammoth, which is called Metropolis, and adds giant battlesuits for some of the nations, and just outright monsters for some of the others.

All the rulesets in one place.

The current factions lists are:
Junkers- grim convict legions, basically futuristic romans
Gladiators- warriors of the arenas
Syntha- human cyborgs and robotic androsynths
VASA- galactic enforcers of law and order
Triads- clan warriors, contemptuous of outsider
Viridians- traders replying on pure firepower
Koralon- alien symbiotes, wielders of unearthly powers
There is another faction coming soon, called the Neo-Isk.

I have the Viridian faction, an army of Colonial Marines and Special Forces, mixed with extra heavy weapon teams, snipers and giant battlesuits.
I have virtually painted all of my current models for the game, and these are shown in the pictures.

The basic Infantry. the crouching one is a Spotter for the HMG team.

My Snipers, one is from the Starter set, and wears Colonial Marine armour, whilst the other two are from a blister pack. I'm very pleased with how the camo came out on these guys.

This is the HMG Team weapon platform, this is one of the small minority I haven't finished yet.

Here's the official website for Urban War: http://www.urbanwarthegame.com/news.php

To conclude this post, I've got a picture update of the painting for the Force on Force modern stuff; all the British are fully painted and finished, and the picture shows how far I've got through painting them.

Well, I'm over halfway through painting them.

Greed.... and Horus Heresy

Above is a picture of the Primarch Angron, as sculpted and due for release by Forgeworld. 
This is not me praising, I am not a fan, and it's £50. Which even for Forgeworld, is too much money to spend on a single, infantry sized model. Hypocritically, slightly, given I own a Warhound Titan in my collection, but I think this isn't a price in order to make a profit, this price is pure greed in my eyes, the company knows Horus Heresy stuff will sell, and definately Primarchs. So they've made it a stupidly high price to get as much money as possible, which is what companies do, but this is too much. So no Forgeworld, I'm not buying it.....

However, the Forgeworld Horus Heresy stuff in general looks good, and is a part of the 40k background I have long liked, so GW models for it is a godsend.
Fellblades, jetbikes (hopefully other, better looking ones), old armour marks, crested command sets, new rules, and amazing looking books!  Looking forward to it, as long as prices aren't being set stupidly high just to scave money from hobbyists.

Update: Nice to see  freedom of speech, I wrote that the model was too expensive on the comments for the model and it's related video on the Forgeworld Facebook page and come back a few hours later to find it's gone.

Vietnam in 28mm - Force on Force

I decided to give my plans for some 28mm Vietnam a kick-start, so I ordered the "Ambush Alley" campaign supplement for Vietnam 1965-75, and I'm still waiting on the book to arrive in the post, but on Friday I managed to find some aircraft in 1:48 scale, which according to other blogs, is the scale for aircraft to match with 28mm. 
So I bought two aircraft: one A-7D Corsair II Subsonic Bomber as an air asset choice for the USA, and a UH-1 Huey Hog helicopter for transport. 

Aircraft and vehicles are something I haven't tried in Force on Force except for an extraction Chinook in my 2001 onwards Afghanistan forces, but it hasn't been used in any major role yet.
I decided to start building the UH-1 Huey Hog first, and so far I've started on the cockpit and the navigating crew-man, the navigator has been built and also painted, and I'm very pleased with the result, shown below:

I admit that the picture isn't the best focus (as is the standard at the moment due to the lack of a high quality camera), but hopefully you can understand what I was aiming for.
The cockpit and transport space are virtually one and the same, it's nearly assembled, but so far, I'm making good progress:

Although having been following the instructions I do wonder about the logic in sticking all the small thin plastic elements, such as the control sticks and such, before the crew, makes no sense to me.

The Plan For The Next Year.

I thought I'd share my plans for my wargaming hobby for the next few months/year. 
Some of it's the usual hobbyist ideals, some of it is new stuff and ideas. 
So in no particular order or importance, we begin to examine the list:

1). Finish my Secrets of the Third Reich British Force.

This involves painting a few more men, the HMG and then assembling and painting the final 4 British Steel, which is going to take a bit longer than the rest, as I think some converting is in order to make them more individual, as befits members of an elite team. Plus it makes them look better on the table.

2). Get the Dystopian Wars fleet fully painted.

This is coming along, and I think I'm holding off on these painting projects a bit due to the number of models per force I need doing. I'm working on a cruiser, having just done a Frigate.

3). Paint the Urban War stuff.


I haven't mentioned this game on this blog yet, as I've not got alot to say on it yet. It came to light at the Dice and Decks Charity Event back in July (my summer has flown past), as Square Orange Games has a fair volume on show, so a club member bought some (a fine set of the Junkers faction - Futuristic Romans), and talked me into doing likewise with a different faction, so i selected the Viridian Colonial Marines, who reminded me alot of the guys from Aliens, crossed with Helghast from the video game Killzone. (All images from the Urban War website: http://www.urbanwarthegame.com/game.php). I got the starter set, a blister pack of 2 Snipers, and a HMG Team. So far I've painted a Sniper, and Three Colonial Marines, including the Sergeant, who doesn't stand out a great deal, except for a vaguely different pose and the addition of some Sergeant's stripes I've painted on myself. I'll update the pictures up this week.
 

4).  Paint and finish the Bolt Action stuff for a game.

I'm planning on this being done sooner rather than later since the game has been released early, and is now open for purchase. I'll be travelling to get some paint so I can crack on with this on Friday. 

5). New stuff planned.

I've got three major projects planned, as always, new stuff. 
One is to have a crack at a Vietnam era game, so I've made this easy, it involves the Vietnam supplement for Force on Force, called "Ambush Alley" and covers 1965-75. This has come about from a rather incredible game and board featured in the September 2012 issue of Wargames Illustrated. Models, I have already scouted for and come up with two ranges; West Wind, and as always for Force on Force; The Assault Group. West Wind I'm planning on using for their APC and Artillery, as well as some supplement infantry for variety.
Two, is to have a second "Black Powder" period set, at the end of the era, complimentary to the evolution of warfare after Napoleon, I'm aiming to get some models for either the First or Second Sudanese Campaigns, 1882-5 and 1896-98 respectively. More likely than not, I'm going for the First Sudanese Campaign, as I am hoping, in a money-saving operation, to try and convert Warlord Games Anglo-Zulu War British to match the uniforms and gear of the Sudan War, which is basically some leg alterations and cuffs of the jackets, and a pugaree on the Pith Hat.
Three, is to gear up and have a go at Dystopian Legions, a new game from Spartan Games, this is a 28mm game that represents the same era and universe as Dystopian Wars, of course, I'll be collecting the Kingdom of Brittania, whose troops are basically the same as for the Anglo-Zulu War/Early Sudan War in uniform, except for some slightly futuristic technology and a metal breastplate, but still Pith hats all the way.