Warhammer 40K Alternatives by Victoria Miniatures

If you are on the lookout for some alternatives to Games Workshop Warhammer 40k miniatures, Check out Victoria Miniatures. They offer some fantastic vehicles which we'll focus on here, but they also have a nice line of figures. Here's the Matilda Fury Assault Tank!

For those who play Bolt Action or other World War Two games, this is a nice hybrid of historic and futuristic! Most of the Victoria products are are sculpted by Victoria Lamb, the owner, and cast in fine resin. Jake Schneider does the designing and sculpting of hardware, weapons and the vehicles. All of the kits are 28mm Heroic scale so will blend well with any Warhammer 40K armies.

The Matilda Fury kit includes 4 turret cannon options: Gatling Cannon, Plasma Cannon, Laser Cannon and the Bombard. Also 2 hull gun options included: Laser Cannon and Heavy Bolter.

The Matilda Boss Battle Tank has the distinct early war style riveted turret and armour plates.

The Boss kit includes 4 turret cannon options: Tank Slayer Cannon, Battle Cannon, Nuclear Fire Cannon and Twin Auto Cannon. Also 2 hull gun options included: Laser Cannon and Heavy Bolter.

The Matilda tanks have insets to accept magnets 1/4 inch diameter x 1/32 inch thick. Two can be used for the turret mount and four can be used for each of the removable sponson side panels.

There is a Matilda tank swappable sponson Panel set available separately.

It includes left and right interchangeable sponsons with Plasma Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter and Fusion Cannon options. An extra Turret Cannon set is also available separately.

If these two beasts weren't enough for you, the Kangaroo APC is now available!

It's a highly detailed alternative transport option for you troops. So check out Victoria Miniatures regiments of the Galaxies Finest figures!!

Have A Great Battle!
The Old Crow

Build A Dragon Rampant Halfling Army Quick and Cheap!

Let's build a Halfling army for Dragon Rampant on the cheap! We are always looking for inexpensive ways to field an army on any war game table and Dragon Rampant is a grand game for doing that! We'll show you how to get a halfling army on the table for as little as 46 USD.

Wargames Atlantic has put out a Halfling Militia box set that contains 40, yes we said 40, of the brave folk of the Shire for only 34.95 plus shipping. With it as our starting point we will put together a 24 point Dragon Rampant army. This hard plastic box set allows you to build Halfling Militiamen equipped with bow, sling, halberd, or pike and with options for full command.

In Dragon Rampant a unit of 12 infantry is standard. The box set gives you eight sprues with 5 figures each, 15 different heads and all the equipment seen here.

Let's start with a unit of archers or Light Missile troops for some ranged attacks. You can build up to 16 but only need to field 12. The Robin Hood cap and bare head options would do well on these chaps. We will add the Sharpshooter special rule to give them a better chance of hitting on their rolls.

Next is a core of Heavy Foot. These guys don't attack strong but will give you a solid defensive unit to stay stuck in! There are enough options to build plenty of pike, spear and halberd wielding halflings and we only need 12 for our army so have plenty to spare. For our army we'll use the spear halberds for our heavies! Getting two on each sprue will make us the quantity we need for our unit. Sticking with the kettle hat, or brimmed helmet, will add consistency to the unit

Next we will take a unit of Bellicose Foot which will pack a punch on the attack but are considered to have no armor so defense is low. We'll use the sword and spear options and use the various skull cap helmets. That will give you the third infantry squad for your army

With the remaining four models we'd make a command unit with our general, musician, standard bearer and a hero. These will be a reduced model unit of Elite Foot We'll use the sugar loaf helmets on three of them and the crested helm for our general. You could mix and match anything you really wanted for this unit.

Lastly we'll add some additional muscle in the form of a Lesser War Beast. Northstar Military Figures Rangers of Shadows Deep line has a sweet Ogre for around 10.00. "While not inherently evil, they have a tendency towards violence and cruelty which makes them extremely susceptible to the corrupting influence of the Shadow Deep." For our purposes we can use the old lion and the mouse fable and assume a nice hobbit pulled a large splinter from his foot and now he works with the halflings.

There are a lot of other variations you could use like making 6 slingers to use as a unit of Scouts. Another would be to pick up a special general figure like this halfling hero on his pony, with three accompanying halflings from Copplestone Castings for around 11.00.

Warlord Games now offers halfling cavalry in the form of goat riders and heavy pig riders! You can get  5 goat riders for 28.00 and a command unit for about 25.00.

Options are only limited by what you can find out there on the internet.
So get building something!!

Have a Great Battle!!
The Old Crow

Dragon Rampant Fantasy War Gaming from Osprey Publishing

Over the holidays and into the new year we discovered Dragon Rampant, the wonderfully simple fantasy war game from Osprey Publishing!

After the last few years of Bolt Action it was grand breaking out the old fantasy figures and putting them into action. The beauty of the game, created by Daniel Mersey, is the fact you can use virtually any fantasy figure you have or like! His previous game Lion Rampant is the historical equivalent of the same game. The Command and Control aspect is where the game differs from others.

It's not as simple as you move, enemy moves, you move, etc..  You begin by giving a command to one unit and if it passes, then you go to another unit and test. If it passes your turn continues, but the first time you miss a command test, then your turn is over. You can have a turn where you move every unit in your army just as easily as failing your first test and ending your turn that fast.

Armies are made up of an average of 5-8 units with anywhere from 1-12 figures. A basic infantry unit has 12 figures and a basic cavalry unit has 6.

Here we have a 24 point army with 12 Heavy Foot, 6 Heavy Riders, Heavy Missiles, 12 Belicos Foot and the army general is an Elite Rider with the Flying Special Rule

If you like Orcs and Goblins, they are just as easy to build a 24 pt army. The spider riders are Light Riders, the wolf riders act as Heavy Riders, The general is a single model that stands as a unit of Elite Riders so he will have the same number of wounds as a six model count unit. On the right is a 12 orc unit of Belicose Foot which act like beserkers with high offence and low defense. And a six model count Heavy Foot unit. Heavy Foot normally have 12 models so can take 12 wounds. Each wound removes one model. With a reduced model count unit of 6, each model can take 2 wounds before being removed.

Here a heavy hitting Lizardman army, also 24 points, has a Greater War Beast, two units of  Belicose Foot, and a reduced model count Heavy Foot unit consisting of only 3 models. Because it is still a 12 wound unit, each model can take 4 wounds before being removed. The general is acting as a unit of Elite Foot

The army builds are evenly balanced so every army has an even chance. The rule book gives you an Overview, Understanding the basics,
Playing the game section, How to build your Army list, basic Strategies and tactics, Sample armies, 6 easy Scenarios and lastly a Campaigns section.

Yes that is an undead T-Rex.

Here the orc Belicose Foot charge into a Greater Warbeast as the Heavy Foot move in for the kill.

You can build an army using any figures YOU like!! So go wild with it and try out as many options as you like. The one army here has A Greater War Beast with the fly rule, 2 giants are Lesser War Beasts and the Chariots are Heavy Riders with the chariot special rule!



So break out those fantasy figures and Have A Great Battle!!
The Old Crow

4Ground European Windmill for Bolt Action

Have a look at this fabulous 4Ground kit, the European Windmill! Windmills played a part in the Second World War, particularly in the Netherlands, as shelter for refugees as well as look-out posts for the Wermacht. Here a group of British Commandos aided by a Daimler MK1 armoured car use the windmill as a base of operations to launch their attack.

Some Resistance groups used the sails to send signals to warn the locals of impending Nazi raids and some were used by the Allied forces as radio outposts.

This is another great kit from 4Ground and probably the trickiest to build so far. Fortunately the full color step by step instructions help a lot. Refer to them often during the building process.

This multi-level kit can be used for snipers or spotters during your Bolt Action battles.

The roof cap can be spun around the building...

and does lift off.

The sails are mounted and spin on a magnet too.

It's a grand unique piece for any table top battleground!!

Have a Great Battle!!
The Old Crow

Early War Polish Reinforcements from Crusader Miniatures

The Polish Army in 1939 needs all the help it can get to repel the German Blitzkrieg. Here we've added another Polish Infantry Section from Crusader Miniatures for our Bolt Action battles.

The twelve man rifle squad has extra punch with the addition of a BAR Automatic (LMG) squad in it. Backup also provided by an Ursus armored car

Packs are loaded out with everything an infantryman would need.

Crusader Miniatures came up with nice poses for the riflemen.Including the BAR squad

And the advancing sculpts are also very interesting. The detail for metal miniatures is pretty substantial.

If you need to get squads on the table fast, metal figures don't need assembly so are usually faster to complete.

Have A Great Battle!
The Old Crow

Warlord Games Gurkas

Gurkas, like these models from Warlord Games, served in the Second World War recruited from the sovereign state of Nepal. These tough allies to the British royal crown can really pack a punch.

They fought in Syria, North Africa, Italy, Greece, as well as in Burma against the Japanese.

Each Gurka carries a traditional Nepalese knife known as a Khukuri or Kukri. 

This heavy, curved blade is a fearsome close-combat weapon, as well as being useful for more mundane tasks such as clearing a path through dense jungle terrain.

Metal box set contains a 10 man rifle section, 3 man command group and 8 man charging section.

These guys are the completed charging section with NCO.

Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow