So you also need a place to live... you know.. somewhere to count the creds... crack open the crate you .. ermm.. borrowed... and live the high life.
All in all, this lot, plus the three "shops" from the earlier posts, have cost me around £20 in total, including delivery, from eBay.
So I may be a player that has not played in nigh on 20 years. That does not mean I have not dreamed about it, made up army lists and kept up to the speed with the latest developments.
I have in fact collected quite a few rulebooks over the past year, including actual printed ones! I hope to look at them together over a few posts and compare some of their main features.
Lion Rampant from Osprey is written by Daniel Mersey. It gives an excellent broad set of rules that allow you to plan lots of historical battles from the medieval period and can be adjusted to suit your needs if you are a Bretonnian player!
Dragon Rampant is an adapation of Lion Rampant, catering for the fantasy market. Written by the same author it allows for some variation in play and a wider range (or stranger range) of units.
Conqueror: Fields of Victory by A H Lloyd is another set of rules that starts from the ground up that allow you to play historical or fantasy games a little more rapidly than the old fashioned bloated rules of certain Warhammer editions.
One Page Fantasy is part of the excellent One Page Games website that, well, pretty much allows you to play fantasy in one page of rules!
Ninth Age is essentially a fan reworking of Warhammer Fantasy, carrying on from where it left off before AoS squatted some of the armies in an attempt to rebalance everything.
All of these look excellent and value for money. I cannot pretend I have played any to death but I hope to look at a few of them in more detail. If anything, owning or using several of these provide a useful alternative to whatever your favourite system is and allows you to keep it fresh and different whilst using the same models.
I have very much got into the game of XWing over the last year, which is particularly strange when you learn I have never really even played a proper game of it!
I originally asked for the starter set as a birthday present and since then have collected a fair few add ons over the last year and a half. Spare cash is tight so they have all come about as birthday/Christmas gifts or as a result of selling some items on eBay.
I had managed before then to pick up a couple of aluminium KR cases which were on clearance on eBay (and a good deal they were too). After using a few different systems of storage for my XWing collection, and seeing it grow, I eventually moved them all into the smaller aluminium KR case.
This is an excellent case and well suited to XWing. I used a few old diskette holders I had lying around (plastic sheets designed with a sticky back that you would put on or near PCs and then slot in an old floppy disk you needed for something - tells you how long I have had them!). I then cut out a few choice bits of packaging from some of the expansions to slot it and it makes an excellent label.
The case is very strong, is lockable so it will not all fall out by accident, and came with good foam. Technically the foam was rejected (hence the cheap price on eBay) although really there is nothing whatsoever wrong with it except visibly you can see more air bubbles than usual. Mechanically it is perfect. The case has rubber feet enabling you to stand it on end or flat on your table and comes with a shoulder strap (not shown).
The top yellow sheet comes with all KR cases and sits at the top (even though the inside of the case has some padding at the top). The top layer has all the rulebooks (including expansion sheets with the extra missions in) and range rulers. You may note the top foam tray is actually an extra tray, i.e. more than SHOULD be in the box. This is because I have now maxed out my storage in this box and even still it packs in fine without damaging anything further down. This top tray contains the miscellaneous bits and bobs (like unusual tokens and a couple of the large ship cards and stands and generally stuff that does not fit elsewhere).
The next layer down contains most of the cards and gaming items. It has all the dice, movement templates, asteroid templates, many stands and stacks of cards. All the cards are sleeved and arranged by groups and put into a plastic packet (e.g. all missiles in one, all bombs in another, all Rebel pilots in one, all Scum in another). I have all the cards (including those that explain the game rules) and they pretty much just about fit in that tray. A lot of the movement templates are found here too.
The next layer down has most of the tokens and movement templates. They are stacked about 3 to a slot for the movement templates and arranged by faction. The tokens are arranged by type (with some common types having more than one slot). The Target Lock tokens are arranged by number as well - it makes it easier to dig out a matching pair.
At the bottom of the case are all the beautiful models. I did originally have them one to a slot but as the collection grew I had to have a rethink (again and again!)
The foam trays are actually designed for Vallejo paints as I got another KR Cardboard Case very cheap on ebay with stacks of that foam. I then discovered they are absolute perfect sizes for fitting all my IG Heavy Weapons teams in (the original 2nd Edition type, no bases) which worked out lovely. I then used the remainder for the XWing ships.
Most of them slot in very snugly and work very well. The Tie Fighters are held brilliantly within that slot (just pushing it out slightly) as long as the next slot is a thin ship. The A Wings fit inside the Tie Fighter shape nicely and the Tie Interceptors double up well. I do not like the Y Wings having to touch but they seem fine.
The horrible shapes are the X Wings (very delicate weapons and hard to cut out and keep in place), the K Wing (just quite large and not an easy shape), the Tie Defender (very hard shape - it is very big and is one of the few ships to be sitting pointing out of the case).
The B Wings are not so bad, cutting a simple slot for them worked well. The Tie Punisher is much bigger than the Tie Bomber!
The two large ships are a more recent addition and meant having to have a big rearrange and squash up of the smaller ships but I managed it. I always keep the spare foam I cut out in a draw and use it to protect items like these. I think I have just about used every inch of space in that case at the moment but it does mean, in theory, I can rock up with that case alone and play just about anything. That, coupled with all my XWing apps on the phone and my recent printing of the Solo rule (more on that later!) mean I have a very nice 'complete' collection - please let my Wife continue to stop me buying any huge ships!
I have very limited space in my house so I have used a few left over kitchen cupboards and put them in the garage.
Within the top cupboards I keep all my painting and modelling gear
In the bottom ones I keep all my models (well.. some of my painted models anyway. There is still a mountain of stuff elsewhere). These are kept in KR cases. I have a few cardboard ones and a couple of different size aluminum ones.
The smaller aluminium case actually holds all my Xwing stuff. The larger one is quite suitable for swapping out a current army to go and take elsewhere. The KR cases keep them nice and secure and dust free.
My painting table is actually the living room table. I take out the top hobby box and a large old towel and spread that out on the table, with a cutting mat on top.
In that I just about keep almost all my Vallejo and GW paints with the brushes and bits and bobs and a mat. The other hobby case is for modelling with spare bitz, lots of bitz, knife, basing material etc. I have a large box of modelling knifes and such like. On top of the cabinet is my compressor and metal box for stripping models.
For such a limited space I am able to keep everything neat, tidy and safe and it only means pulling out a box or two to get setup for a painting session. It does mean packing away afterwards and not being able to leave it out...but then with my 5 year old I would not want to leave anything out!
Models that are work in progress sit on a tray above a kitchen cupboard in the kitchen, out of harms reach and sight of everyone else.
When you are really really naughty in the 40K world you get the joy and privilege of joining the Penal Legion.
Life is very short in the legion. With a lasgun thrust into your hand (maybe some clothes and shoes if you are lucky) you are kicked off the drop ship into the maelstrom of battle and pointed in the general direction of the enemy. If you manage to clog up their tank tracks with your lifeless body for a couple of seconds you will have done your job.
I wanted my unit to look like they were just a rag tag bunch they had been thrown into the fray. The blind nutter with the flamer and torch. The madman in the stocks with two live grenades in his hands. The masked one wielding some massive club. The crazy bearded fanatic with the banner pole and a laspistol.
I also wanted to give them a leader/shepherd who was not a commissar or similar. Perhaps he is also a condemned guardsmen but one trusted enough with all the keys and told that if he can lead his unit through another 10 battles he might earn back some freedom.
I plan on doing a good few more to add to this unit. These were just an idea. I have always wanted to make a Penal Legion unit right from looking at the 'codex' pamphlet that came way back with Second Edition (another unit I always wanted, just from the basic entry in that was the Electro Priests. Somehow the new models for them just don't jive with how I have imagined them the last 20 years).
