Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Massive list of Panzer Command: Kharkov improvements

Matrix Games has a nice little post on their forums detailing exactly what Panzer Command: Kharkov will update over the first game, Panzer Command: Winter Storm.

Here are some of the details, but if you are a wargamer head over to the Matrix Games forums and check out the rest of the details.

What’s New in Panzer Command: Kharkov!

• New Scenarios and Campaigns
o German Kharkov, May 1942, 14th Panzer Division, (8 Battles)
o Soviet Kharkov, May 1942, 169th Rifle Divison, (8 Battles)
o German Mcensk, October 1941, 4th Panzer Division, (4 Battles)
o German Kursk North, July 1943, (3 Battles)
o Boot Camp Tutorial (6 Battles)
o Plus additional individual battles and updated Winter Storm campaigns for Winter Storm owners (48 scenarios total if you own Winter Storm)

• Updated Manual
o Includes all the new rules and comprehensive tables on game modifiers and effects as well as detailed editor documentation and a full historical background of the Kharkov and Mcensk campaigns
o Separate tutorial guide

• New Random Battle Generator o Create new battles from 1941 through 1945 on the Eastern Front, choosing from a variety of map and force templates as well as battle options for each side. The resulting battles are virtually infinite in their variety, while maintaining realistic setups and force composition thanks to the predesigned templates (which are also customizable).

• New Random Campaign Generator
o Choose a time period, a number of missions and a core force and progress through a series of randomly generated linked battles
o Also supports semi-historical and historical campaigns o Includes support for unit equipment upgrades for longer campaigns
o Design and share your own Random or semi-Random campaigns

• New Spring and Summer Maps
o A variety of new maps that are both historically accurate for the Kharkov campaign also combine to give a representative variety of Eastern Front terrain.

• Trenches and Foxholes
o New trenches and foxholes provide more cover for infantry against enemy fire and make them harder to spot
o New gun pits provide covered firing positions for field guns and vehicles

• Minefields
o Anti-personnel and Anti-Tank minefields are now supported for all scenarios.
o Density and area can be defined and minefields can overlap.

o Minefields are initially visible only to friendly forces and must be discovered by the enemy

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Warhammer 40K: Building the Eldar army 1

Ok so I reported how I was getting back into Warhammer 40k and today I decided to build my HQ character and my Dire Avengers. The Dire Avengers came in two box sets, each one contained a Wave Serpent.

I thought that knocking out 10 plastic miniatures would be easy, but how wrong I was.

First the HQ unit was a big pain in the ass. All metal of course and I plan on using him with Swooping Hawk wings so I knew those would be a pain to attach. The actual model, all painted, looks like this on the GW site. I am going to give him a Reaper Launcher though to give my noobie army sone long range anti-armor punch.

So I started assembling the HQ unit and then moved on to the Dire Avenger squads. Each Dire Avenger required removing the plastic flash from the plastic first off. Flash is the molding stuck on the model after you take it off the sprue. I had to start by attaching the legs to the base first, and then had to "base" the model after that. Basing is where you add fake gravel to the stand to make it look like the model is walking on land or terrain.

That took a while since I had to wait for everything to dry. Little did I know that the Dire Avenger torsos were in two parts and had to be glued together so I started on that next. Then I had to attach the waist sash to each of the leg units to finish the lower part of the models. Between the basing and the gluing of the torsos and adding the sashes the entire project took at least 2 hours. I had forgotten how much time it took to make an army look good and I hadn't even started painting anything yet. I am going to let that dry over night and then get back to it later next week depending on my work schedule. It is hard to not just toss these models together, but one of the pacts I made to myself on coming back to the hobby is that the army would be PAINTED and properly table ready when I decided to play a real game.

Next blog entry I will point out exactly what my army will consist of with Army Builder 3.0.