Saga Figure Showcase: Viking Age of Quarrel

Last article I introduced the game Saga: Viking Age to readers. What I left out of my ridiculous and meandering prose was discussion of how to get your grubby hands on one of the most important aspects of any miniatures game, the figures. See, historical games are a little different than the current incarnations of Warhammer, Malifaux, WarhmaHordes etc… in that there are often times a plethora of miniature companies that make compatible figures, and there is no IP infringement or cease and desist letters on history. It isn’t always as easy as just purchasing the exact thing they show in the book, but with this added effort comes incredible choice on how you want to spend your hard earned stacks of cash.

If you’ve been primarily coddled by the sweet retail presence of Games Workshop or Privateer press, you might find sourcing figures for Saga a different (and sometimes challenging) experience. The purpose of this article therefore is to quickly discuss a whole host of manufacturers, what Saga relevant figures they’ll have and some thoughts on their quality. Its a primer, a showcase of this particular period and some of the best (and worst) the internet will throw up on you. This is not meant to be a totally exhaustive list, but as close as I could come to with the knowledge I have. About 95% of these manufacturers I own miniatures from, sometimes from the ranges I’m picturing, so while this is my highly subjective opinion, it at least has some false grounding in experience. Finally, I’ll throw in some good pop culture inspiration to get your mind working and ready to jump on board the fad train as it once again leaves the station. First however, I’d like to discuss a couple realities for those new to the historical miniatures scene.

GBP01_Plastic_Viking_Hirdmen_81424

Continue reading

March hardcore round up.

0006953045_10It’s been a while since we have had any hardcore on the blog and that is unacceptable. I must confess that we do actually get sent a lot of stuff for review and honestly most of it is weird blues music or lame rock shit that I cannot be arsed to find words for. So I decided to take a night off from writing essays and listening to Pat Benatar’s greatest hits and have a rummage around on the internet and cast my scornful judgements upon some of the more recent efforts bubbling up from the gutters and sewers of the underground…… Continue reading

Jason Frye Of Harrowed – A Thanet State Of Mind

10730867_816735798377774_5192776515379629312_nEarlier this year I resurrected my hardcore fanzine Harder They Fall. I had written the two previous issues back in the early 2000’s, when my involvement in that scene was far more active. In 2015 I felt like I wanted to flex some creative punk rock muscles that had cramped up and so I recorded some punk songs with my friends Jamie and Kieron which became the Severed demo and I interviewed some other friends  and Harder They Fall issue 3 became a thing. The issue sold well, certainly well enough for to convince me that doing a fourth issue might be a nice idea. And sadly that’s where we come unstuck. Life got busy again and my plans to publish another issue had to get dialled back. Anyhow, I DID manage to conduct a couple of interviews for issue 4 before I ran out of steam and rather than let them languish I figured I’d throw them up on the ol’ Hammer. First up is an interview with my old friend Jason Frye. We’ve been allies for over a decade, we’ve  played in bands together and he’s patiently endured more of my  belicose ranting than most. With a new Harrowed split EP with Art Of Burning Water on the horizon courtesy of Secret Law & Superfi Records I thought it was high time that the quiet man of Kent’s hardcore/metal scene had his say….
Continue reading

Corehammer presents: Dungeonpunx Podcast

LogoAfter much procrastination we have finally got our finger out and recorded the debut episode of the Corehammer podcast, which I have dubbed Dungeonpunx. I had been wanting to try my hand at podcasting for a while but the opportunity to get the rest of the OG Corehammer mournival around the table on the regular was proving to be an impossible feat. Despite my best efforts, conflicting schedules, geographical hinderance and a generous serving of good old fashioned apathy amongst our ranks put the clappers on my plan for full media dominance. I sulkily resigned my podasting ambitions to the steadily increasing mountain of ‘that could have been cool’ ideas.

Regular readers may recall my crisis of faith a few months back HERE Increasing pressures from work and university as well as recently volunteering a couple of Saturdays a month to work with autistic kids have led to a gradual withdrawal from regular posting and editing here, as well as a re-evaluation of what I really want out of the hobby. And whilst my 13th Company have not graced a battlefield since last years Corehammer Christmas party, I HAVE been playing D&D 5th Edition on the regular for just over a year and absolutely loving it.

A change in personal  responsibilities meant that I recently had to take a hiatus from my usual Wednesday night  D&D sessions. In anticipation of this I set up a regular Sunday afternoon session with a group of close friends that were keen to give D&D a try but had very little experience of actual RPG’s. Being the only member of the group familiar with 5th Ed D&D I grudgingly found myself sitting in the DM’s chair and after a few clumsy sessions we have found our feet and really got stuck into it. The natural rapport that already existed between Boardy, Max, Ager, Tom, Connor and I translated well into creating a comfortable and entertaining gaming dynamic. It soon occurred to me that this gang of cocky dungeoneers could perhaps serve a dual purpose and so I revived the idea of starting a podcast with the rest of the crew as my conspirators & co-hosts and lo, Dungeonpunx was born.
Continue reading

Oath of Moment: Grey Knights – Part 1

“The daemonic are without number, and their legions span the galaxy. But faith does not tire. Should it take us an eternity, the Ordo Malleus will find and exterminate them all.”
– Lord Hephaestos Grudd

army

This is a bit of a back story to my current hobby situation. Yes I’m going to ramble, but you’ll get to the rest of the pictures eventually. Just hang in for a little while; I hope it’ll be worth it.
Continue reading