Who me....an award you say!

The award has these easy to follow rules:

1.Give a thank you and link back to the person giving you the award.
I've just been nominated for The Stylish blogger Award by the very kind Hein over at http://av-priest.blogspot.com/. Thank you very much Hein and please folks go visit his very nice blog!

2.Share seven things about yourself others may not know.
-I'm a total night owl as is my Mother, Father, Brother and Daughter.
-Pizza tops my list as the most tasty dish(wish my waist liked it as well!)
-I'm an absolute fan of epic Fantasy and in particular of George R. R. Martin and Steven Erikson's works.
-I'm a terrible speller(So bad my wife corrects it and she's German!),to add to my embarrassment my writing is so poor with forgetting things I've become an edit addict. :-0 I guess a slight case of dyslexia doesn't help either.
-My favourite mini series and book I might add is James Clavell's Shogun.
-My dream is to rent an RV and visit all the major Civil War battlefields in America.
-I watch a great deal of news on the TV.

3. Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
In random order.

http://gilesallison.blogspot.com/-Stunning blend of history and modeling
http://minimike-ministories.blogspot.com/- Wonderful painting(really like the ACW)
http://saxondog.blogspot.com/-Awesome ECW among other things.
http://lonelygamers.blogspot.com/-A wealth of periods covered arrayed on great tables
http://geektactica.blogspot.com/-Superb Gothic/Horror adventure wargaming
http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/-Amazing amount of well painted mini's on each battlefield
http://warcabinet.blogspot.com/-Lovely boards with equally lovely mini's.
http://tankgirl666.blogspot.com/-Great WWII Japanese
http://paintingshed.blogspot.com/-Super AWI modeling
http://theleutnantsdiary.blogspot.com/-Great RCW and other things.
http://lead-mountain.blogspot.com/-More nice painting.
http://docphobossdiary.blogspot.com/-Super painting.
http://flintlockandtomahawk.blogspot.com/-Fantastic F&IW blog!
http://macpheesminiaturemen.blogspot.com/-Just a great ACW blog.
http://lairoftheubergeek.blogspot.com/-Great tables!

If you don't see your blog listed it's just that I ran out of room. I like all the blogs I follow and keep up to date on each and so please don't feel left out. Some of course are not listed as they already have several nominations!

4.Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award
I'll do my best to make contact.

Clash of Empires

Just got my copy yesterday. It arrived damaged which didn't please me, but I tried to set that aside in my observation.
Clash of Empires is a rule set designed for playing the Ancient Period right on up to late Medieval and is a successor game to Warhammer Ancient Battles. This has largely came about due to the poor support from FW/GW in handling WAB and the pages of Errata.
The book is a nice hardback with lots of useful diagrams and pictures. Easy to read and understand with a very nice summery at the back. Worth buying for sure.
However, to be fair when comparing the look and layout of this book to WAB2 here is my opinion:

Cover of the book- WAB2 looks better.
Pages-Grainy feel and somewhat cheap. WAB2 superior quality in this.
Art work- Again, vastly prefer the WAB artists and artwork
Photo's- Yet once again, WAB2 has superior photographs without any blurred images and dark pictures found in some picks in COE. Generally, the armies shown in WAB2 are better painted then in COE as well. Not to say there are not some really nicely painted mini's in COE which there are!
WAB2 is more expensive then COE, but this is justified by the higher quality.


As we know, looks are only a part of the package with the rules themselves the other.


Here is a quick observation of the rules themselves:


I Like:
-Basing similar to WAB2 makes easy transitions between the two games, however I wish they would have followed WAB2 exactly even if they say it's not important to avoid any confusion.
- minimum unit size
-Abundance of helpful diagrams
-Oblique manoeuvre
-Interpenetration of units allows for ease of movement
-Impetuous/Reckless troops(an extra rule that makes controlling some troops more difficult and adds flavour)
-Massed fire not allowed vs chargers or units with rear rank in woods
-Disruption(extra element not found in WAB that adds an extra level to the state of troops)
-Bonus to combat for closest unit to General( nice that the general can effect combat in units he is not personally in)
-Limited amount of skirmish units(very nice, as I hate clouds of skirmishers)
-Easily understood and mechanics similar to WAB
-Nice summery

I Don't like:
-Centimetres instead on inches!!
-Maximums on unit sizes.(I personally like to decide that)
-No BSB(I like a BSB to steady the line)
-Rolling to kill/Wound after armour saves(Prefer the WAB2 order)
-Only one character per unit
-Unit standards and musicians having no effect in
combat
-Prefer percentage to slots when choosing my
armies

Undecided(must play test):
-Discipline tests(Tests you have to make before making certain manoeuvres)
-Forming square as that's really not a typical ancient
manoeuvre, but could be good for play.
-Intercept(Allows cavalry and chariots to intercept flank and rear charges)
- Concerned it may be to easy to kill characters in close combat(2 wounds on a unit and roll a d6 and character is killed on a 1)
-Much, much more that will come to light after playing


Overall, on the basis of rules I don't think I will change from WAB2 to COE as my primary Ancients game even with FW/GW mistakes as I still think WAB2 is a great game. But, for sure I will add COE to games that I play and why not I say as basing similarities makes hopping between the two pretty painless!

Year of the the Rules

I'd have to say this year looks to be the year of buying rulebooks and supporting material to rival a third of my miniature expenditures. What's even more surprising is a great deal of it is core rules! It's bordering downright overwhelming!

So far I've already purchased just this year alone:
Lasalle
Regimental Fire and Fury
A House Divided
Guns at Gettysburg
SOTR
Numerous Source books and Osprey's 

Making it's way to me as I write this:
Heartland Scenario Book
British Grenadier Scenario book 3

On the to get list that's already been released:
Black Powder
Hail Caesar
General de Brigade deluxe edition
General de Brigade scenario books
Impetus series(I have the basic)

On the to get list when released:
British Grenadier deluxe editionClash of Empires
War and Conquest
Kampfgruppe Normandy(if the reviews are tops)
Blücher(if it's released this year)
Stonewall(if it's released this year)
GASLIGHT Compendium 

What's even more crazy is this list will grow as more things are added not yet published or announced yet, plus some I forgot to mention!!:-0

2nd Airborne squad Finished!

Just finished up my 2nd Airborne squad and this time added some US and Airborne decals from Company B and I like them. The helmet decals were to big and so I left those Off. Command and some support up next. Thank you for viewing. :-)

Rifle Section w/Sergeant with M1 Carbine, Bazooka Gunner and Assistant, Trooper with M1 Garand

Rifle section w/2 Troopers with M1  Garand's and 2 with BAR's(one will go to the other squad)

LMG section w/ Corporal with a Thomson, Trooper, LGM Gunner and Assistant

Close ups of LMG Gunner and Assistant

Miniature Company- Artizan Designs

Added a couple fun polls

Added a couple running polls to my blog on the side bar to see where wargamers collecting habits tended to be. I tend(not always) to fall between quite a few and recorded history for range of periods and embarrassingly completely buried and still ordering more for completions!  :-0
Thank you for joining in!:-)

Lasalle

Just played my first game of Lasalle(Napoleonic wargaming) Saturday night using our clubs old 1/72ndNap stuff. We played the Liberation period with me controlling the French and my friend the Prussians. I got my can kicked through a combination of bad rolls, bad tactics and a serious ineptitude in using my artillery advantage and so my verdict is..... I really, really enjoyed the rules! Easy movement, interesting change up in game sequence and combat resolutions generally being quick and decisive..........just how I like it!!
The result of all of this of course will be me placing a very large order to the Perry twins for my French army to support the Emperor.
Vive l'Empereur!
In the meantime back to my Airborne and F&F ACW.
Honour Rule Set