Dwarf Kings Hold: Ancient Grudge - A Look Inside

This is my look at the third set in the Dwarf Kings Hold series by Mantic games; Ancient Grudge.  I had a few issues with this, being sent two copies without rulebook (see here), but I then contacted Mantic directly and they sorted it out easily and quickly.  Putting that aside what do we have in this set?  The first thing to be aware of is that unlike the previous two sets this is not a stand alone game and you will need at least one of the sets to be able to use this.  Too get the full use out of this you'll need both sets really and I'd advise you too get both the origanal sets before looking at getting this.

The box is exactly the same shape and size as the box for green menace which is good as it stacks nicely on the shelf with the other games in the series.  Again the box art matches the previous sets and is another great throwback in style to the 1980's dungeon sets I remember so fondly.

Ok time to start looking at what you actually get in the box, forst off the box conatians a single sheet of card which contains two new large board sections and nine counters.  The board sections are both new big pieces with new 'icy' artwork, all very nice.  Most of the counters you will have seen before, with 5 more bloodied tokens and 2 more green rage tokens, which are nessacery for the bigger battles this set enables you to play.  The two new counters have a big 'R' on them and are for showing when dwarf ironwatch are reloading their guns.

The set conatains 12 miniatures in all, 11 plastic and 1 metal, all of which are from the standard mantic kings of war range.  You should have one of the other DKH sets if you're looking at getting this, but just in case, all the plastic models require assembling with glue, no issue here just something to be aware of.

The above 3 pictures show the plastic models you get in the set after I've assembled them.  You get 2 elf scouts, 2 dwarf ironwatch (can be assembled with either guns or crossbows), 4 ghouls and 3 zombies.  The quality varies quite significantly, I'm really not keen on the elves and the dwarves are only average, luckily the ghouls and zombies make up for this by being brilliant. 

The metal Dwarf Berserker Lord you get is shown above (in both painted and unpainted forms).  It's a really nice model, but I liked him enough that I'd bought him some time ago from the Kings of War range and you can't use two in the game, so having a second one is pretty pointless and I'll have to sell or trade it on.  This is the problem with recyling models from other ranges, whilst everyone can use a few more ghouls and zombies I really feel that Mantic should have offered a unique hero scuplt.  Of course if you haven't already bought him then don't worry he's a great fig.

As ususal with the DKH series you don't get any square bases which would enable you to use the miniatures for other wargames as well, as usual I find it a tad annoying, but hardly the end of the world.

The rulebook is the same small black and white format used in the other sets in the series, we get 20 pages of rules this time.  We start off with an introduction and then a reprint of the shooting rules just in case you haven't got green menace where they origanally appeared.  After that we get the new rules, which basically break down into 4 sections; The rules allowing you to use any race in any scenario and the points system, then rules for 20 new adventurers (5 for each race), rules for multiplayer games and finally 2 new scenarios (designed as 3-4 player games but that could be played with 2 players).

This all adds a huge amount of variabilty and replayability to the game.  The multiplayer rules are fine and no doubt useful, but certainly for me its the ability to add different troops and to switch races around in the scenarios are what's so great about this set.  As well as rules for the new troops included in the box there are rules for a number of other troops that you will have to buy (or proxy) to use the rules for.  The whole approach is pretty good as it allows players to add a few bits of pieces here and there to their collections and use them without having to invest in a whole army.  There are some really interesting choices as well, like a large werewolf (hopefully a model will soon be forthcoming), the dwarf driller (see my painted version here), wraiths (who can walk through walls) and even tiny little orclings (hope you didn't throw away the ones that came with green menace).  It also means its very easy for Mantic to add new pieces to the game now that everything has a points value and a new scenario isn't needed each time.  The only slight gripe I have is with the lack of any real background information on the new troop types, whilst experienced gamers will be familiar with most of the troops just by their names, I've always thought DKH would serve as the perfect introduction to miniature gaming and a little bit of background would really help people new to the hobby, but I'm just nit-picking really, it's not a big deal.

I'm also very glad I bought the Mantic crazy christmas bag a couple of months ago, as as well as providing more of many of the new troop types there are enough parts on the sprues to allow me to knock together a few more grander pieces to represent the unique characters in the game such as the dwarf prince and elven lord and captain..

Nunney Castle

I visited Nunney Castle in somerset a few days ago.  It's only the shell of the keep thats survives surrounded by the moat.

It immediatley struck me as odd looking (I've been to a lot of castles over the years and never seen anything quite like this one).  The keep is reasonably tall, but very thin.  Origanally built in the 14th century by a sir John Delamare using money he'd obtained in the hundred years war.  There was a small battle there in the civil war when the parliamentarians besiged the royalist garrison and damaged the castle.

The castle is now under the care of English Heritage and is freely acessible to the public with no charge.  I wouldn't recomend going miles to see this, but if you're in the are in the area its worth popping in and having a look.

Planet Earth DVD Game

I was round a freinds house the other day and after a game of trivial pursuit he bought this out, Planet Earth: the interactive DVD game, and we gave it a go.

It's superfically very similar to trivial pursuit, you have a board with question squares (no categories, all just planet earth questions), roll again squares and bigger squares that have more specific question areas.  You roll the dice and move your piece answering questions until you get a question wrong or land on one of the specific squares.  You then answer a question on that specific topic, if you get it wrong your turn ends, if you get it right the DVD tells you to get a certain number of pieces of the 'planet earth puzzle', which you are trying to complete and your turn then ends.  The person who puts in the last piece of the puzzle wins.

The questions are on the DVD and are all multiple choice and feature facts and little videos from the planet earth series (I thought I clocked a bit of footage from other BBC series too).  It's all very pretty and well produced, but it's designed as a family game and I found most of the questions rather easy although there was the odd thoughie.  As you get 2-3 answers to pick from anyone can happily guess with a chance of getting it right, but knowlegde will still help you.

The questions being on the easy side isn't the issuse with this game though, the problem is that whoever happens to place the last piece wins.  Which makes basically all the questions before that completely pointless, and winning has no bearing on who has answered the most questions or even who's landed on the best squares.  This might be ok if playing with young children, but we were playing with a bunch of competative adults and it was more than a bit frustrating.  In fact it completely ruined the game, because there was no game.

Not all is lost though, we played again with some ajustments and managed to salvage the game.  It's very simple, put the puzzle pieces away and go and find your trival pursuit set, get out the wedges and the pies.  Basically treat it as a trivial pursuit board with the 6 specific catagories represented by the six coloured wedges, still end the turn on a wrong question or the successful getting of a wedge.  The first player to get all 6 wedges wins.  A simple fix that made the game go from frustrating and pointless to fun and enjoyable.  Of course this will only work if you like trivial pursuit.  The other alternative would be to keep track of puzzule pieces recived and annouce the winner as the player with the most.

If you like trivia games and the natural world and follow my suggested ajustments (or come up with your own of course) it's fun enough (although they essentially turn the game into an alternative card deck for trivial pursuit), although I think the replayability will be limited.  If you don't like trivia games, have no interest in the natural world or can't be bothered to modify the rules so there is actually a game, then really don't bother.

Army Focus - Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game

The Fellowship of the Ring

This 'army focus' post is a little different to normal, as it doesn't feature an army as such, but is a showcase of my figures from Games Workshops Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game.  I bought the first of these as the fellowship models came out with the first movie, this was just as I headed off to university and gaming got put to the side for a few years and I never really got into the game.

Faramir and Eowyn

Faramir's Rangers

Tom Bombadil & Radaghast the Brown 

When I returned from my 7 year trip up north I bought a few more minis and painted them as well and thats the collection that your looking at.  I like the realistic scuplting proportions on these models as compared to GW's usual output and enjoyed painting them.  You'll notice I've mainly got good guys as well, I suppose thats because they're more developed as characters and this is a collection of figs that appeal to me rather than a gaming force.  If I was to make a proper army out of these guys I'd probaly go with an elven army, but it's not a key priority at the moment.

Glorfindal, Haldir and Elrond

Galadriel and Celeborn

High Elves

This collection is bound to grow by the end of the year as new miniatures are released for the new Hobbit movie, I have no idea yet if I'll get into playing this game, or whatever game they release for the Hobbit, but I'm almost certainly going to the get the boxed set of bilbo and the dwarves that will ineviatbly be released (I remember feilding such a unit to represent the party in a game of warhammer many many moons ago and have always wanted an offical version), and I still have a few unpainted heroes and plastics I might get around to at some point as well.

The Witch King, Gollum and Saruman

Warriors of Rohan

The Ninth Wave - A Bit of Fantasy

My first wave of reinforcements for my WW2 Royal Navy Fleet in a while today.  This is a wave with a difference though as none of the ships actually fought in the war, five of them were never finished and one carrier was finished post war.  They do have rules in victory at sea though so will be useable in 'what if' games or if I'm just trying to be competative (as they're all rather good).

First off two N3 or Saint class battleships that were cancelled due to the limitations of the washington naval treaty, they're very powerful game wsie and I'm looking forward to trying them out.  I've christened mine HMS St. George and HMS St. Andrew

These are two Lion class battleships, an improved version of the King Goerge V design, mine have been christened HMS Lion and HMS Thunder.

These are two large fleet carriers, on the left is HMS Malta, a very large carrier cancelled at the end of the war, if she were finished she would have been even bigger than the American Essex class carriers.  On the right is HMS eagle which formed a core part of the post war fleet.

I've also painted a couple of other almost random ships, first off HMS Victory, Nelsons famous ship.  I've painted this as she's technically still in comission so I need her in my aim to collect the current Royal Navy.  It was a pain to assemble and paint and doesn't even look that good, if I ever move to Napoleonic naval wargaming it will have to be in a bigger scale.

And finally the Italian cruiser Bolzano, after her projected conversion to an air defense ship.  My freind bought this for his Italian fleet and I thought it was so different and interesting that I had to have one too.

Lords of Undeath: Warhammer Vampire Counts Special Characters

The recent re-release of the Vampire Counts army has made me dig out three special character models that have been languishing in the queue for some time.  To be honest I've been a bit scared of both Vlad and Kemmler, with their cloaks and undead flesh to paint, but I've manned up and finally painted them, and to be honest I'm pretty pleased with the result, but as always feel free to judge for yourselves.  All three models are the old metal versions and not finecast.

Vlad Von Catstein

The Lichemaster, Henrich Kemmler

Krell

Dreadfleet - Finished at Last! - Auxillary Cogs

Well I've gone and done it! I've finished my Dreadfleet painting project, below are the 7 auxillary cogs, which means I've now painted every warship, auxillary, sea monster and island in the game.  I've enjoyed it overall and am pleased with the result, even if it did feel like I'd never get there at some points, it's nice to feel that I've actually managed to finish a project for once as well.

The 'Good' Pirate Cogs

The 'Bad' Pirate Cogs

It all looks rather good painted up I reckon.

In truth I could still paint the ruler, turning templates and wind guage, but I'm not going to, can't see the point!

1:3000 Modern Royal Navy Taskforce

I've finished painting the first batch of models from my recent purchase of Navwar's modern British starter pack, I've painted the models currently in service first as my real aim here it to collect the current fleet.  What I've painted would actually represent a pretty major deployment of force for Britain nowadays, and whilst my collection is far from complete I could certainly game with what I have.  Just need to decide on a suitable opponent and find some rules next.

The Helicopter carriers HMS Ocean and HMS Illustrious, Illustrious was of course formerly an aircraft carrier whose role was changed with the early retirement of the harrier fleet.

The Type 42 Destroyer HMS Liverpool and the fleet replenishment ship RFA Fort Rosalie

The backbone of the fleet the type 23 frigates, HMS St. Albans, HMS Kent, HMS Sutherland and HMS Portland 

3 Trafalgar class attack submarines and the 4 Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines

The taskforce sets sail.

White Dwarf 386 & Wargames Illustrated 292

Febuary's Gaming Magazines have arrived, so lets have a looky...

White dwarf's main theme this month was a suprise (to me anyway) return to the Lord of the Rings strategy game, for which they've released a bunch of new models (mainly expensive looking and in finecast) and a bunch of new army books.  I have bunch of Lord of the Rings figures but have only ever played the game once, and will almost certainly get some of the models when the Hobbit range comes out, the coverage however was really a bit naff, and felt like a giant sales pitch rather than any real content.  The rest of the mag however isn't too bad.  For warhammer we get the second part of the civil war rules, the rules for the new deathknell watchtower, a new scenario using said watchtower (although you could any watchtower and play it), and a couple of players vampire counts armies featured, all good stuff.

You have to turn and flip your mag over to get the warhammer 40,000 25 years celebration stuff at the back, which includes a suprislingly interesting article on the origins of 40k and a battle report.  Also featured is the 25th anniversay collectors model based on the origanal rouge trader cover.  Very nice it is too, unfortunately its in finecast and costs £20 for what is essentially one space marine, I'm going to have to think very carefully about this.  As usual we get standard bearer as well, which this month is an odd ramble about tape measures and templates! 

This months Wargames Illustrated has the theme of 'darkest africa', a period I have a good deal of interest in, so prehaps inevitably I like this issue quite a lot.  The theme articles include a general overview and then three battle reports using different rules and showcasing the variety of forces avaliable to feild in this setting, with a lot of focus on the natives rather than just the colonial troops.  The other article that I suspect will raise a lot of peoples interest is the (breif) design notes on the new flames of war third edition.  Having only played a couple of intro games of flames of war second edition I'm not really in a posistion of pass any kind of judgement on these.  We also get articles on wargaming the battles of Ligny and Sedgemoor and a Fall In! 2011 show report.  Not a bad issue all round.

For those interested in darkest africa it's also worth taking note that wargames illustrated have put a few articles from older issues up for free PDF download on their site.

Dwarf Kings Hold: Ancient Grudge... Nearly Arrives

I came home from work this evening to find an exciting parcel from Maelstrom Games waiting for me in the hallway.  I ripped it open quickly knowing full well it contained the new dwarf kings hold expansion from mantic games that I'd been waiting for........

All was well at this point.

Then I opened up the box and damnit theres no rulebook....

See no rulebook!

Which pretty much makes the set useless!  These things happen, I worked breifly on a packing line and I know how easy it is for mistakes to happen, the key now is how it's dealt with. I've e-mailed maelstrom games and eagerly await their response.  I hope this is just a one off and they didn't forget to include the rulebook in all the sets!  Such a disapointing evening :(


Update: maelstrom quickly responded and asked me to return the set, which I did and they quickly got a replacement out to me... but this one was also missing its rulebook!  I'm getting annoyed now and maelstrom have advised me to contact mantic directly to see if they can get the book out to me as everything else is there, we'll see how this goes.

Update: mantic replied the next day and immediatley sent out the rulebook that I have now finally recieved, so we got there eventually.

Warhammer High Elves Ellyrian Reavers

In line with one of my new years resolutions I've been beavering away at this unit of reavers that I've now finished.  They're the Island of Blood versions of the models.  I like them a lot, although they've taken me ages to paint as they have a lot of details.  My army already contains a unit of these and they've performed brilliantly over the last year.  The always strikes first rule really gives them a chance to pull off some suprise combat results.  I have another 5 of these to paint at some point, but my next high elf project will be the unit of sea guard that I need to do to bring my army upto 3000pts.

Navwar 1:3000 Scale Modern British Starter Pack

My first new models of the year arrived this morning (I'm quietly pleased with myself that I lasted this long), and they are the modern British navy starter pack from Navwar.  I'm not sure yet what the gaming purpose for these models is, although I am considering a couple of what if conflicts.  I need to do some reserch into possible rules sets as well.  This aside I am aiming to collect all the major surface assets of the current Royal Navy (and with the defense cuts that shouldn't be too hard).

You get a total of 16 ships and 7 submarines (which I think is pretty good value for £10 + £1 postage).  4 of them are large ships, 2 Invincible class carriers, HMS Ocean and a RFA replenisment ship.  The bulk of the pack is the 12 escorts of various types, 8 frigates and 4 destroyers.  And finally you get 4 ballistic missile submarines and 3 attack submarines.  Around half the escorts and one of the carriers have now been retired from active service, but are obviously useful if you wanted to wargame some of the conflicts of the last few decades.  The detail is pretty well the same as the WW2 stuff I have from Navwar, it won't be good enough for everyone, but I'm happy enough with it.

As usual the service from Navwar was excellent, with delivery in 4 days from me posting my order to them, I'm pretty chuffed with these.