UK Games Expo in Birmingham 5-7 June

The UK's most all-encompassing Gaming event takes place from 5-7 June in Birmingham, with board games, wargames, RPGs and LARP all happening. If you are anywhere near there, I'd thoroughly recommend you drop in and give it a go, as there's so much going on - click the headline to go to their website.

Madaxeman Invitational Battle Reports

Romans vs Illyrians and Romans vs Parthians now posted, with commentarty by Caeasar and Hannibal.

PC Games on Amazon

Just added a page which carries Amazon.co.uk's current bestsellers list for PC Strategy & Roleplay games to this site.

Britcon 2009

I'm helping out the BHGS with the "trade stands" side of Britcon this year, and have signed up with Miniature Wargames to help promote the show. If you are a trader and are interested, get in touch with me on the email address above. For more details you can click on the title of this story, or simply read on:

Britcon 2009 - Trader News.

Britcon is not only the UKs largest gaming competition, it is also one of the North West’s best attended Trade events with around 700 competitors and visitors expected at UMIST in Manchester, over the weekend of the 15th and 16th August.

Britcon’s USP remains our many competition periods, which guarantee the presence of some 300+ gamers at the show throughout the entire weekend. In 2009 we will have competitions for all of the most popular 15mm & 25-28mm Historical and Fantasy/Sci-Fi rules, including Flames of War, Field of Glory and a full suite of Games Workshop events. All of these periods have seen a flurry of new rulesets and army supplements over the past 12 months, so if you are selling products which are compatible with any of these rulesets you can be sure that many of our visitors and competitors will be looking for new figures, terrain and gaming supplies to bring their armies up to scratch with the latest rules and lists this August.


Our Trader rates have also been frozen at their 2008 level, with a 6’ stand starting at just £75 however in response to feedback from our current Traders we have made a number of changes to the show to help you achieve better sales from this year’s events. These include:

• A new partnership Miniature Wargames which will see the 2009 Britcon Show Guide appear in full in the August edition of Miniature Wargames, so all their regular readers will receive it in addition to our usual distribution of free copies being handed to each and every one of the expected 700+ competition and expo attendees at Britcon 2009.
• Miniature Wargames will also be offering specially discounted "Britcon 2009" advertising rates to all of our traders the August edition of the magazine, giving you a saving of 1/3 on their standard rates. If you want to make sure that every competition gamer, day visitor and a further 7,000 active wargamers across the country know you are at this year's biggest UK wargames competition, you can now do so at an even more cost effective manner than ever before.
• The 2009 Show guide will now also include editorial space for a 50-word catalogue entry for all of our exhibitors, allowing you to highlight the ranges you will be bringing to the show, as well as announcing any new product launches and special offers you may be running at the show.
• To increase the volume of day visitors, we will be undertaking more expo-only promotion than ever before, with advertising in all of the main journals and an online campaign where we will be posting regular announcements about our exhibitors to all the major online portals and forums used by UK gamers.
• To help you make sales to our expected 300+ competition gamers, we will be sending out a series of regular email shots throughout July & August to all the registered players specifically to promote our traders, so if you have any exciting announcements or news to share, or if you simply want to encourage our gamers to "order in advance - collect at show", we want to hear from you!

As well as all these new initiatives, our 2009 competition schedules will again feature the very popular and specially extended "Shopping Frenzy" session on Sunday lunchtime, and we will also again be offering discounted Traders accommodation rates and parking within the University Campus, making your stay in Manchester as economical as possible.

In order to take advantage of the extra promotion available via the August edition of Miniature Wargames you will need to confirm your participation as a Britcon Trader by Friday June 26th, and provide artwork by Friday July 3rd. Traders booking after this date will still enjoy all of our on-site and web-based promotion, but will miss out on the extra benefits of inclusion in the August edition of Miniature Wargames.
To find out more about our new enhanced 2009 Trader Packages you can download and complete the Britcon Trader Form from the BHGS website, or contact me at tim@madaxeman.com
To book space in Miniature Wargames show issue please contact Gareth MacFarlane at Miniature Wargames on 01354 695559.

 On behalf of the BHGS

Madaxeman Invitational - The Results

Final Placings (and armies) are

1st - Ray Duggins - Visigoth - 35 points

2nd - Me - Late Republican Roman - 29 points

3rd= - Alan Goodearl - Illyrian - 28 points

3rd = - Nik Gaukroger - Hepthalite Hunnic - 28 points

5th - Graham Willmott - Palmyran - 27 points

6th - Kris Pugh - Parthians - 22 points

7th - Brian Holmes - Classical Indian - 19 points

8th - Carlos Ferrao - Dominate Roman - 17 points

9th - Michael Row - Sassanid Persian - 15 points

10th - Geoff Punshon - Western Hunnic - 5 points

Madaxeman Invitational

Manchester United may have just won the Premier League, however The Madaxeman Invitational takes center stage in the world of Sport as of tomorrow. The first round draw has already been released, and pits...

Early Vandal vs Western Hunnic
Late Republican Roman vs Illyrian
Dominate Roman vs Palmyran
Sassanid Persian vs Parthian
Hepthalite Hun vs Classical Indian

If you are in London and fancy a pint tomorrow, please feel free to drop in.

Rebel Mini's Roman - Pics & Review

These chaps are now painted and in the Ancients Photo Gallery. As a preview, here are some of the pictures.


Overall they are nice looking little figures, although it does need you to stick on their (separate) shields at a variety of jaunty angles to give them any real attempt at animation. The shields all come with well thought out "plugs" on the back, into which each figure's left hand fits snugly, allowing you a very decent chance of glueing the shields on in a secure manner - although I always try and glue separate shields to a 2nd anchor point elsewhere on the figure just to be on the safe side. Castings are clean, and the blokes themselves are normally-proportioned, not cartoonish - which makes them appear quite slight compared to some of the chunkier ranges out there. Size-wise they look to be a mite smaller than Old Glory, and almost exactly bang on the same as Corvus Belli's Romans.

Overall however its still a limited range of figures, only 2 varieties in each pack, and expensive compared to many other ranges means this feels to me like a range that might not quite make the cut despite being pretty good.

Rebel Minis Romans

Just got some 15mm Romans thru the post from America - so they are being sped thru the painting table and there will maybe be photos as soon as tomorrow!

Posted with LifeCast

Hedges & Trees for terrain

With spring in the air here in the UK, I've added Auction Listing pages for you to buy wargaming trees and also clumped foliage for making hedges & bushes, so now you have no excuse not to make your scenery as good as your figures!

Loads of photos

Just added some US Paratroops with Mohicans from Pendraken to the 10mm Directory - first new 10mm WW2 in ages!

The Ancients directory has also seen some additions, and now has close to having 2000 photos. Latest additions include two brand new elephants just released by Donnington including an armoured Seleucid elephant HEL03 and a re-sculpted Sassanid elephant SDEL01. I've also added some more infantry (painted) from their New Era range of medievals

They've also sent me some photos of
Baggage horses due for release later this month. There are two basic horses, one with a frame and basic baggage bundle over the saddle and the other with a pair of large wicker panniers over the saddle. Each horse comes with a set of equipment/stowage to enable gamers to build the horse to whatever configuration is required. There are different tops for the pannier baskets which can be stuck on to represent different stowage, and all sorts of other bits and pieces such as kit/blanket rolls, bunches of salamis (yes sausages!), wine skins, tools (spade, pick and mattock), panniers full of bread, spears, shields, amphorae and cheese, lances, pole arms, medieval shields, small barrels, jugs and flagons.

The pictures also show the two different figures to lead the horses, one in medieval dress and the other is more generic being dressed in a tunic, trousers and cap.

If you are a manufacturer and woud llike to send me photos of your new stuff so I can mention it, please drop me a line !

Shadows in The Desert

The highly regarded "Shadows in The Desert" by Kaveh Farrokh, covering the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids is now out in paperback in both the UK and US already. Amazon are selling it at 30% off list price.

• UK Version of Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War
• Us Amazon Version of Shadows in the Desert
  

Madaxeman Invitational FoG Tourney

I'm running a 1-day mini FoG tourney in London on the 17th of May. Full details via this link.

Oxford Doubles Report

Poles in action in a themed Eternal Empire competition - 4 match reports.

New Era Donnington Miniatures

Just added some pics of painted Donnington "New Era" medievals to the 15mm Directory. Donnington have also got a full set of pictures on their website as well now.



They are pretty much all either in the Men at Arms or Barded Knights directories.

New 15mm Supplier Added

Just added Baker Company, who produce 15mm Siamese & Burmese figures, to the 15mm Suppliers Directory

Chalons sur Marne

I hope to be playing in a mega-FOG game today (the afternoon of 3rd April) leading the Rugian contingent at Chalons against the Romans. With a bit of luck I may even be posting photos and updates from the game in real time on this page.

Samurai Armies 1467-1694

Samurai Armies 1467-1694 is the latest tome from Osprey in their Battle Orders series. Written by Stephen Turnbull (who along with Anthony Bryant has authored most of Osprey's range of Samurai books) this volume covers the period of Japanese history when the country was split into a multitude of rival princedoms and Samurai leaders fought for local - and eventually national - dominance.


The book itself is a weighty tome - no "8 pages of colour plates with some sketchy and largely irrelevant bonus text wrapped round it " Osprey this one!


This volume's 96 text-heavy pages do go into detail on Samurai history & politics of the period, giving an overview of how Japan changed and developed and highlighting the origins of the key players and clans. however - and most importantly for the likes of us gamers - there is absolutely stacks about warfare, battle tactics, uniforms, heraldry, with detailed maps and tactically astute accounts of battles and campaigns - in fact, everything from page 21 onwards is pretty much about the nitty gritty of warfare.

The book covers a number of key wargame-related topics in great detail, devoting many pages to each. The 17-page "Campaigns" section covers battlefield formations, communications, weaponry and how evolutions in weaponry (ie the arquebus) affected samurai tactics throughout this period.

20 Pages of "Strategic Engagement and Battlefield Movement" follows several key campaigns and uses them to highlight the classic array of formalized - and formula-busting - tactics used by key generals of the era.

A further 18 page section addresses in yet more detail the great battles of the Tokugawa Shoguns, from the unification of Japan through to the formation of the first real "Japanese" army and its abortive mission to subjugate Korea.

Summary:
For someone like myself for whom Samurai armies are not a passion, but something which fits into the "I'd like one one day just for the painting" the book is initially a somewhat challenging read, with a host of names of Japanese leaders and the rather confusing histories of various warring dynasties crammed into the first few pages.

However once this is out of the way (which it is quite soon) the book quickly kicks into a new life as something that almost seems to have been designed as a wargamers companion, and the speed at which I was able to take it all in increased dramatically.

By the time I'd finished I felt confident that the book had given me just enough history and background to put a context around what must be on many peoples "to do" lists, and shared enough pictures and uniform guides to inspire me to have a go at the uniforms, banners and flags as well. For a wargamer thinking of dipping their toe in Japanese waters then, it'd be hard to see how a one-volume guide to the period could be better put together.

Buy this book now from Amazon

Xystons Monsters!

Just added some new photos of the Xyston Theurophoroi to the 15mm photo gallery, as the size of these chaps seems to be a regular subject on many discussion boards. I've put up comparison shots with Essex, Old Glory, Corvus Belli and also some other Xyston ranges as well.

FoG Surveys

The FoG WIKI now includes polls on each and every army page so you can give your opinion on how each army performs. The options are:

• Great all round army
• Good, but only in its own theme/book
• Not great, but still a solid choice
• A near-duplicate of a better list
• Eccentric - Terrain or matchup dependant
• A real dog I'm afraid
• None of the above

There's also a new Survey you can take on how you'd like FoG tournaments to be set up.

Become a Fan of Madaxeman.com on Facebook

If you have a Facebook account you can now become a Fan of Madaxeman.com! just click this link and sign up as a fan!

10mm Medievals on eBay

Another one of the nicely painted 10mm Medieval armies I'm selling (Italian Condotta or Ordonnance French) ends on ebay this Sunday. For the listing click this link

New Medieval Figures from Donnington

I've just gotten my hands on some of the new Medieval figures from Donnington (due to be released at Salute 2009) - and very nice they are too.

.

Having chatted to Damian at last weeks Doubles in Oxford, it seems these figures have been designed by a totally new sculptor for Donnington, so are a big step forwards from some of their other ranges. The figures themselves are compatible in size and bulk with the popular medieval ranges from Essex & Corvus Belli, but have more innovation and animation in poses than the Essex ranges. They even stand up very favourably when set against figures from my personal favourites, Mirliton and could be mixed IMO with any of these three manufacturers with no problems at all. The first 3 ranges on offer are 100YW, Swiss and Low Countries - so plenty of Men at Arms and halberdiers all round, as well as some longbowmen who will give the well-regarded 100YW Corvus Belli range a stiff challenge in the popularity stakes - especially as Donnington have nicked an idea from Peter Pig and slipped in a longbowman giving the Frenchies the finger!

Donnington intend to sell these new figures under a slightly different brand to the rest of their ranges (maybe "New Donnington" - which I suppose is better than renaming the old lot "Classic Donnington"!), and at a higher unit price. They still intend to offer the option to buy figures individually, but probably will offer unit-sized packs as well. There is a good variety in each range with at least 4 variations for most types of troops, and if they continue to allow you to mix and match their horses (of which there are 12 on offer in the 100YW range) when you buy the variety you can achieve could be very impressive.

The figures generally come with open hands, or at least hands that need to be drilled to accommodate spears or pikes, although some of the halberdiers come with cast-in weapons. Donnington intend to offer a range of weapons with the figures, maximising variety within each unit. The clever innovation with the range is visible in the above photos of the horse-less Men at Arms - the guys have been cast with a "Vamplate" (no, I didn't know what it was either) on their hands, which creates the hand guard part of a proper lance when its drilled through to take a metal wire spear - very cute!

Overall these look to be a really good range, and continue the recent trend of ever-improving 15mm figures with more "human" proportions, lots of variety and some genuine thought going into the poses to create more interesting units. There are plenty more pictures of these in the 15mm Photo Gallery (search for "New Donnington" in the "manufacturer" field) - and I'll be adding more as I get to take some photos of them. Details of procing etc haven't been released yet, but if you contact Donnington or go along to see them at Salute I'm sure you will be able to get hold of some soon!

Warmaster Medieval Eye Candy

Three armies now painted up and on this site in their full glory with bucket-loads of photos.

Ordonance French,

The Black Army of Matthieu Corvinius,

100YW English / WOTR,

Fully Updated Tactical Tips

The Tactical Tips section of the Wiki has been fully updated, revised and extended, and is all here in it's full (Field of) Glory. Its in the WIKI, so if you have any bright ideas to add to it, you can do so !

Another 10mm WMM Army on sale

This time the army on offer has options for Italian Condotta or Ordonnance French. It - and all its pictures - can be seen now on eBay now via this link.

Stronghold / Jacobite added to Supplier Directory

I managed to find a link to a full listing of the Stronghold/Jacobite ranges which worked and so I've now added them to the 15mm Ancients Suppliers Directory.

Don;t forget that if you have pictures of figures from any of the ranges in the 15mm Ancients Suppliers Directory please drop me a line as I'd love to add them to the Directory and Photo Gallery.

New "News" Page added

I've added a new page that pulls together all the latest postings from various Yahoo Groups and Wargaming news sites, and previews them here on this site. It's available here. If you can't be bothered logging into Yahoo groups to see if anything interesting is happening, this is the page for you to bookmark!

Xyston Gallic Nobles reviewed

Xystons latest release is a pack of 8 armoured Gallic infantry. As usual they come with separate shields, which all have well-sized anchor points for the figures hands (although some of these figures don't seem to accommodate / need shields). There is also a separate "ornament" which sits on top of the helmet of one of the warriors.

This is a picture of the figures as they arrived, so a little flash needs to be cut off the swords and some other parts of the figures, but nothing too technical. Having picked up some Xyston Gaeasati recently, these figures are noticably more well-fed, even allowing for the fact they are wearing both clothes and armour, making it easier to see them fitting in alongside other ranges. The armour (in fact, all of the figure) is well cast with good detail to pick up drybrushing, and the poses are well animated although anatomically a touch suspect in cases (see this review elsewhere for comments).

The first figure is waving a sword (which is cast with the figure avoiding risk of it falling off with use). The second, with the seagull-attachment to his helmet stands on a rock, looking forwards, and the third lunges forward again with a sword cast in hand.

The final figure is holding his sword slightly uncomfortably, but has a great moustache and rather angry demeanour. The other photo shows the first figure again, but this time from the rear.

Overall another nice set of figures from Xyston, not as stylized as their Gaeasati warriors, but yet again it would still be difficultto mix these chaps with anyone else's figures as they are rather large. I have managed to combine them on the same base as the Fantassin/Warmodelling Gauls, but they tower head and shoulders (literally) over my Essex, Old Glory and Corvus Belli troops.

10m Medieval Army Photos !!

I'm selling a 10mm Warmaster Medieval army on eBay right now. for lots of photos follow this link. For the listing on eBay click here.

Total War : Empire - Out Very Soon!

The new 18th Century Total War PC game is out in less than a week - and I'm excited! The review in PC gamer gave it 94%!!! There are several demo videos available for Empire: Total War (UK Edition) here. Amazon are offering it for under £28 in the UK or $46.99 for the US version with free delivery via those links.