Winter Haul Report 2020-2021 – “It Wasn’t Me, It Was Santa”

Christmas is about friends, family, celebrating, spending time together, having fun and exchanging gifts. Sadly, most of these were impossible at the end of the last year, which is why I focused more on gifts – some for my loved ones and some for myself.

I received thoughtful and nice Christmas gifts: a 1:72 Valentine kit from my wife, a 15mm Kra’Vak Alien army and 1/300 scale starfighters from one of my gaming friends.

I like the work of Patrick Todoroff, and when his new Hardwired book – Hostile Takeover became available, I bought it immediately. It’s not just an expansion, but a PvP ruleset that works without the previously published books. It does not feature any new scenarios, but there are rules for heavy support units, non-combatants, resource and campaign management, and reputation, which will surely spice up the game. Nightwatch is a solo or cooperative rule set for fantasy skirmishes, where you can lead a group of Hunters (Blades, Trackers, Mancers and Alchemists) against monsters. The mechanics and the mindset is similar to Hardwired: you can use any set of miniatures in a fast-paced game with simple and flexible rules. I like the idea that I don’t have to buy a dedicated set of minis to play, but I can use my existing – and ever-growing – collection.

After a chat about Gerry Anderson’s UFO, and an old PC game (X-COM: Enemy Unknown), I made an impulse purchase and bought the X-COM: Enemy Unknown board game and its expansion as well, Enemy Within. It is basically the remake of one of my old favourite PC games. The game comes with a load of cards, tokens, cool minis in dramatic poses, and an app that decides the aliens’ moves! It works as a solo game or for up to four players. I didn’t have time to test the game yet, but it looks exciting.

This time, I tried to buy fewer minis – with moderate success:

• 1/300 scale Yenpalo starfighters, an 8 wheeler Centurion LTV with additional dozer blades and stovage, plus a set of civilian mechanics from Brigade.
• The new Type 2 helmet militia sets from GZG will make excellent troops for a soon to come Zaporoskiye Brigade. I also bought, a huge construction Mecha – a surprisingly big and complex model -, a couple of Ravager spaceships and – as part of the Christmas sales – Jon sent additional spaceships too (Thank you Jon!). The minis are full of character and details, there are no disturbing flashes, and I’m happy with the design and the quality.
• 15mm sci-fi accessories from Combatzone Scenery. – 15mm wargaming has many advantages (this topic deserves a whole post when I get the chance to write about it), there are plenty of rule sets, units, vehicles and buildings, but finding good sci-fi accessories is challenging: this is a real niche product.
• After obtaining a copy of Dungeon Crawl Classic and Mutant Crawl Classic, it was beyond question that I would need a Zocchi dice set too. The idea behind this set is that the classic polyhedral dice set (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) has too many gaps and there is a big jump from d12 to d20. The Zocchi set makes the dice chain more complete by adding d3, d5, d14, d16, d24 (but I also bought a d30 too). One of the recognisable features of these dice are the precise and sharp edges (more to read here).
• Since my Dungeon Saga collection had almost been complete, I bought the missing pieces: The Eye of the Abyss pack and the Legendary Heroes of the Crypts, of Halpi and of Galahir. The Eye of the Abyss has four new heroes, a quest-book with new adventures, monsters, new boss-, hero- and item cards. The resin minis are in very dramatic poses, but has a lot of flashes that will have to be removed before painting – they are also very fragile, so I will have to be very careful with them! The Legendary Heroes boxes contain minis that represent the legendary versions of the characters from the previously issued games. I like the idea, it’s a nice touch that further improves the gaming experience. The only thing that bothers me is the packaging: I love the tome-like design of the Dungeon Saga series, but the quest pack comes in a standard and dull box. ☹

I also bought “a few” books and painting supplies:

• Visiting The Tank Museum in Bovington has been on my to-do list for a while, but sadly it’s not possible at the moment. However, their webshop has an amazing range of books, models and anything that a tank-fan needs. It took me strong self-control to buy only two books: The Tank Book and the El Alamein 1942 Battle Story. Oh, by the way, they also sell chocolate!
• Programmed Wargame Scenarios for Solo and Multiplayer Wargamers by Charles S. Grant – this book has a very good reputation, and it was hard to find, but now that the second edition has also been published, I finally had the chance to buy it.
• Fighting Sails rulebook from Osprey Publishing – I haven’t started painting my 1:2400 Napoleonic naval collection yet, but it’s always better to have more than one rulebooks.
• Wet Palette from Army Painter – The drybrush set of Army Painter was a very pleasant surprise and the Wet Palette works similarly well. This wet palette keeps your paint wet for a day or two and you can store your brushes in the top tray safely. It’s a very handy accessory.
• Coat D’Arms paints from Black Hat Miniatures – Do you remember the old Citadel paints in hexagonal jars with black lids that sealed properly, and the paints that never dried out? (Seriously, I still have a few of those and they still work!) The good news is that that’s exactly what the Coat d’Arms paints are – they come in 20ml jars with tight lids, at a very reasonable price, with a decent range of colours and in a reliable quality.
• Paints, washes, pigments and the third book of the “Encyclopedia of Figures Modelling Techniques” series from Ammo by MIG Jimenez. As usual, the book is full of amazing pictures and loads of insights. I have already used some of these paints and the wash in my Valentine tank project, and I loved how they worked.

Well, I guess both Santa and I had been busy with my hobby purchases. 😊