IHMN - Mountain Shootout

Following the successful retrieval of the Cyberman Tech data module in Obsession, The Doctor and colleagues re-located up to an abandoned mountain lodge to extract the data. Because of the residual Ion Flux the process generated the procedure could not take place inside the TARDIS. With the equipment almost set up they headed back to the TARDIS to retrieve the final cables, just as the Dooley gang show up to take back what they started out to have...

IHMN - Cyberman Hunt in Obsession

A long overdue trip up to MacSver's battle happened the last week to try a kickstart "In Her Majesty's Name" back onto the gaming agenda. We had given the rules a quick game back at the start of the year but hadn't managed to progress past that. For a variety of reasons though the gaming agenda has cleared for this to come in now, at last.

The scenario was a basic treasure hunt. There were rumours in the Wild West town of Obsession that  the remains of a strange automaton were located in the centre of town (the middle 4 buildings of the table). MacSver's hastily assembled Wild West Company were out to investigate, whilst a section of UNIT, led my their Scientific Advisor The Doctor were also in the area to stop the technology falling into the wrong hands.

IHMN - Dr Who Unit Expeditionary Force

I've been looking to play "In Her Majesty's Name" more, but have stalled in getting my Grenadier Guards finished to accompany Her Royal Empress an House staff. However it did occur to me that with a little effort I was closer to levering in a Doctor Who themed company.

First missing component was to get a bit more Whovian flavouring. What better (and as importantly quicker) than K9, so I happly managed to get him painted on Sunday evening.

Next up were some Unit soldiers. Back in the dim and distant past (when I was Space 1889 roleplaying) I had picked up some ready painted British Soldiers (picture on the left). I have no idea if thay had come already dipped, or if it was me, but with a little of post (ie 7 years) highlighting and rebasing they are table worthy enough.

And so to the assembled company.

The Unit Soldiers have Tartan Trews as they are garrisoned in the Highlands of Scotland at Blair Castle under the guise of the Duke of Atholl's own private army The Atholl Higlanders. This is the only legal private army in Europe (and now you know why!). Now and again they set out on missions with their special consultant scientific expert, known only as "The Doctor", and his assistant.

Unit Expeditionary Force 246pts

• The Doctor: Pluck 2+/ FV +1/ SV 0/ Speed +1/ Points 56;
  Leadership +2, Engineer, Erudite Wit, Inspirational; Magneto-static Waistcoat, Sonic Screwdriver(*)
• Amy Pond: Pluck 4+/ FV 0/ SV 0/ Speed +1/ Points 30; Intervention, Unearthly Beauty; Brigandine, Nightstick 
• K9: Pluck 5+/FV 0/ SV +2/ Speed 0 Points 20; Tough; Steel Armour, Arc Pistol 
• Unit Captain Stewart: Pluck 3+/ FV +4/ SV +4/ Speed +1/ Points 40; Leadership +1; Brigandine, Pistol, Sabre  
• Unit Rifleman x 5: Pluck 5+/ FV +2/ SV +2/ Speed 0/ Points 20;; Brigandine, Bayonet, Military Rifle

* Sonic Screwdriver: 10pts (Costed as Mystical Power) 6" range, no pluck roll. Causes weapon to jam (one shooting phase to clear)

> I was going to originally cast K9 as a Clockwork Dog from the rulebook, but on reading the description it was most un-K9-like, so I have taken the base Clockwork Dog stats and worked round that. I had similar problems trying to bring in a sonic screwdriver, but figured that effect I was looking for (temporarily jamming weapons) sounded more like a mystical power than a weapon, so I had a bash costing it as such.

Painted Bow Ties Are Cool!

Now that the Woodelves have finally galloped into the woods I can move forward on my projects. First up was Tweedy Mattison from Crooked Dice. Despite sometrouble with the face (still too out of practice!) I'm pretty happy from the gaming standard "arm's length" range. Especially as it's my first attempt at painting a tweed effect jacket!

Tardis, Master and WPC Pond

Next group from the table clearance. The Master (from Heresy) and Amy Pong in WPC mode (from Crooked Dice). Of course in the background is the Tardis, from Ainsty, I think.

I don't think I've enjoyed painting a set of figures so much for a while. Typically I've only just noticed that I've forgotten to do the handles - doh!

Who made these Sontarans & Cybermen?

The excited waiting for the cover figures on the Doctor Who Adventures magazine #204 is over. As a certain Mr. Ian Fraser Kilmister would sing, "The chase is better than the catch".

The general consensous on the previously released new Dalek figures was that they were pretty good (even if no-one likes the actual design of the new Daleks). These new figures however are not as good.

The better first. The Sontaran sculpts are well sized if not quite stocky enough. For some reason they are also un-armed, which is a bit disappointing. The plastic used is quite soft, but not as soft at that used for my recently purchased Airfix soldiers, so I'm at least hopeful that they will hold paint. I'm not a fan of the look of the new TV Sontaran's helmeted look, so I still don't like the look of the figures. Accurate then!

Citadel, Micro Universe and new DWA. Cybermen.

The Cybermen are awful. They look like they've spent the entire festive period sitting in a comfy chair,and  watching telly eating cake. Non stop. The sculptor also seems to have interpreted "emotionless" for "featureless" when it came down to the head.

So what now? I'll probably get another copy for more Sontarans. No idea what I'll do with the cybermen...

WHO is that strange man

Huzzah. My pre-ordered minis from Crooked Dice have arrived and are as lovely in person as they were anticipated in green form (see picture). They come under the names of Tweedy Mattison & WPC May Killan, but bare an uncanny resemblance to a particular time travelling duo. The sculpts are by Kevin White, who is currently the man behind the excellent Hasslefree Miniatures . Crooked Dice is the (relatively) newly formed front for the Doctor Who Miniatures Game which looks great. Did I mention the game is also free and currently new characters stats are uploaded the weekend of every new episode of the current series. Top work!

To add to the new series minis, the new issue of Doctor Who Adventures magazine comes with 5 plastic perfectly scaled new style daleks (refered to on a few forums as iDaleks for some reason). Like most Who fans it seems I hate the new look daleks, but faced with a bargain and the pressure to stay current I've wilted and purchased a copy. They come at around 35mm tall which is a mite bigger than the old daleks (see left for comparison photo shamelessly stolen from the very good DW gaming blog "An Evil Giraffe"). This however would is entirely accurate given the screen shot from the episode. Best get the United Colours of Benettton paint set out!

Who are you?

With the new series of Doctor Who starting this Easter Sunday over here in the UK, I thought I may as well use it as an excuse to post a picture I found on file from a Daleks vs Cyberman "Mutants and Death Ray Guns" game ArabianSquire and myself had.

Figures were plastic Citadel Cybermen and Doctor Who Micro Universe Daleks, Hybrids Daleks and Humans.

We used the following stats:

• Cyberman: (Androids) Q4+ C3, Artificial, Laser Gun, Heavy Armour, Terror
• Dalek: Q4+, C4, Artificial, Laser Gun, Heavy Armour, Fly, Short Move, Terror
• Dalek Hybrid: Q4+ C2, Laser Gun, Superior Touch, Terror
• Humans: Q3+, C2

To make up for their weaker stats the Cybermen had greater numbers. The Cyberman objective was simply to destroy(shoot) the Dalek menace. They could bolster their numbers by capturing humans (hidden in the buildings) and taking them back to base to be converted into new Cybermen. The Daleks could win using 2 methods. The first was basically to shoot and kill the Cybermen. The other was to capture a human, get it back to the Dalek base, convert it into a Dalek Hybrid and get the hybrid to a control panel on the Cyberman base to deactivate them (using its superior touch).

In this game the Daleks won by blasting the Cybermen despite their superior numbers.