My father Güner Ardalı...

Yesterday at 07.15 (turkish time) I lost my father, my mother her husband...

He was 80 years old...

In his last hours I was with him, holding his hands, so that he wasn't alone...

R.I.P.

Battlelore French editions with english online support are available!

BattleLore Core Sets and expansions are now available.

Click here:

http://fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2045

While both the Core Set and the expansions have a French rulebook, all the cards and components are in English

English rules are available online as .pdf downloads on the BattleLore support page.

Good news for Battlelore!

İt lives!

Giant Ogres / a new troop type for Battlelore's goblin army?

Those who read the manual of "Horrific Horde"-expansion carefully, noticed, that a new troop type "Giant Ogres" has been written on page 1, while describing the "Ogres".

Will be there another expansion with new additional troop types for the goblin army?

I hope so..

New units, Ogres and goblin halberdiers in the "Horrific horde" expansion of Battlelore!

The new expansion introduces 2 new troop types for the goblin army.

Ogres with red banner:

and

Goblin Halberdiers with their green banner:

Today I would like to explain the Ogres.

The Ogres are larger than most Hobgoblins, but they are not Creatures.

They fight in units and as an unusual foot unit, not 4 figures form a unit, only 3 are enough.


Their weapon is a spiked club for a melee and they fight with 4 dices, typical for a red banner unit, which means they move one hex and battle.

Against mounted units, their first "on shield"-hit is ignored, although they are bigger then mounted units. This fact makes them IMO different than other foot units.

On the contrary, they are resistance against "on shield"-hits of their enemies.

They have a "bonus" strike with "on shield"- result and they have the ability "FRENZY"

But they may NOT ignore a flag unless supported.

As usual, they take one hit for each retreat hex, which is blocked.

This is another fact, which irritates me, because they are not a creature, but they "are larger and stronger" (from the manual!). than other goblin units.

IMO these facts make them something special, a "special unit" should have some "special" characteristics.

The ones, who read the manual and the unit card, could say, that they have 2 specialities.

-Being "Frenzy"!

and

-Rampage

Being "Frenzy" means, while attacking enemy unit, each "on shield" dice result of the Ogre unit, is rerolled for additional hits OR flags until the target enemy unit is dead or no more "on shield" dice result are rolled.

You are right, this ability is something special, but such a unit deserves this one, IMO it's nothing extra.

The ability, "RAMPAGE" is actually a consequence of "may not ignoring a flag!"

This new troops, who are larger and stronger than their racial brothers, are forced to retreat in case of a flag-result of an attacking enemy unit when they are not supported by another unit of the goblin army.
But, then they break into a fit of rage and rampage before retreating.

All units, (enemy or friendly) in adjacent hexes, must roll 2 dice.

Each player rolls for hits on his opponents units.

A hit is scored when a banner color is rolled that matches the unit; all other symbols are ignored.
Ogres retreat after all rampage rolls.

When you first read these rules, you don't recognize how they influence the game. I'll say like a double-sided sword.

OK, the Ogres should reteat, but the ability of "Rampage" makes them very dangerous for the attacker.

I can hear you now, saying "Look, another special ability!". But, don't forget; it makes them very dangerous, also for their own army units in the adjacent hexes.

And Each flag could cause a loss of a figure, in case of a blocked retreat path.

Did you said: "OK! Then play offensive with them."

I'll do; but it's not always wise, because they could be surrounded easily and possible too!

As you see, this "special" ability is not 100% benefit for the Ogres unit.

Last word:Ogres are a very good addition to the goblin army, exactly the "through break" or "spear-head" troop type, which the goblins needed!

But, we'll change 2 rules for our house games.
1-Their first "on shield"-hit against "mounted unit" is NOT ignored.

2-They retreat in case of 2 flags-result of the attacker with RAMPAGE.

3-In case of 1 flag result of the attacker they DON'T retreat BUT RAMPAGE.

AND DON'T FORGET, there are standard and pennant banners for Ogres, which means you can hire them also for a human army!

Battlelore: Horrific Horde expansion!

Today I opened one of the expansion sets of Battlelore.

Horrific Horde is the name of the expansion and its called also "goblin army pack"

This expansion set contains

42 figures, including

three types of previously released troops,

12 goblin swordsmen, (blue banner /core set)

6 Hobgoblin cavalry, (green banner/ core set)

6 Hobgoblin Hyena riders, (blue banner/"Goblin marauders" expansion)

and 2 new types of troops,

6 Ogres, (red banner)

12 goblin Halberdiers (green banner).

This pack comes with 14 banners;

to field the Goblinoid troops for the Pennant camp and to field the Ogres by either camps (Pennant or standard).

As usual there are

2 Specialist cards, for both new troop types and

2 unit Summary cards,

1 "medieval tactics for "battle savy troops",

2 weapon summary cards, (incl. the update of "Sling"),

and 15 deployment cards for the "Call to arms" deployment system.
and at least 5 ready-to-play scenarios.

With this expansion, or this reinforcement of 42 additional goblin troops, goblins are no more "sporting actors" in the "Battlelore-world", not only mercenaries, they can build their own goblin army and devastate their enemies for their own purposes.

and don't forget it's only an expansion, but a scary one...

Fatih Sultan Mehmed / Altar modelling

Today I want to show the second figure of my first order from Altar modelling.

It belongs to the so-called, "Ottoman Sultans"-series.

After the final production of 3 fiugres in 54 mm. Mr. Abdullah Turhal began with a new line of 25 mm. figures, so-called "wargame figures".

Loyal to his "mission", "producing figures at world standards from turkish history" he had choosen Ottoman sultans as subject of this new line and IMHO he made a right choice.

In Spring 2009, 3 figures were released.

Sultan Bayezid (Thunderbolt),
Sultan Mehmed (the Conqueror),
Sultan Sueleiman (the Magnificent).

I ordered, Sultan Mehmed. The figure is packed in a beatiful box with a photo of a painted figure by Matt Verzani,

and an illustration from Jon Hodgson.

with a lot of information in turkish and english.


In the box there are 3 separated bags for the sultan figure, his horse and a sword with the shield.

The scupltor Uhrin Zsolt, was inspired by ottoman paintings and made a fantastic work.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk / Altar modelling

Yesterday I got my first order from Altar modelling in Ankara.

Mr. Abdullah Turhal sent me my order in 2 days. If you think, that he makes "one-man-show", as a creator, searcher,designer and organizer, you can just imagine the whole work.

The service and packing are super.

The first one, "Ataturk"-figure is a 54 mm. white metal figure, in marshal uniform from 1923 during "Turkish Independence War 1919-1923", produced in 2009.

Each figure is packed in a box, complete with historic notes, in turkish and english and with a color photo.

Historical research and design was made of Abdullah Turhal, sculptor was Uhrin Zsolt,the figure on the photo was painted by Julio Cabos from Andrea Miniatures.

The figure is made of 3 separate parts and packed in 3 different bags.

That's how it looks, without painting:
The quality of the figure is very good, a natural pose with no flash and good detail.

And at last, the similarity of teh face to the person of "Ataturk" is really fantastic.

If you want to read more about "Ataturk", the founder of the "Turkish republic", "Wikipedia" can be a good start:

and you should read more, if you are interested in history...

The website of the company:

http://www.altarmodeling.com/index.html

Altar modelling / turkish producer of 25 and 54 mm. metal/resin figures!

I was surprised when I found a "Ataturk" metal figure in 54 mm. scale. My surprise was bigger when I realized that the producer was a turkish company, settled in Ankara, the capital of Turkey.

Since 2006, the owner Abdullah Turhal is producing figures in 2 scales from various periods of turkish history.

He began with 54 mm.-1/32 scale, producing at first, an ottoman deli (crazy/mad) cavalry, the Sultan Tamerlane, a turkish commando and Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic.

His second series began with 25 mm. ottoman sultans. Till now 3 of them are released:

Sultan "Thunderbold" Beyazit, (Sultan Yıldırım Bayezid)
Sultan "Conqueror" Mehmed, (Fatih Sultan Mehmed)
Sultan Suleiman the "Magnificent" (Kanuni Sultan Süleyman)

On their website, it's written, that it is "the first and only turkish figure producer at world standards from turkish history". As far as Iknow, this is correct!

The company produced also a woman reclining on a divan, directly taken from an ottoman painting from 17. century.

Ans a fearsome demon taken from another painting. Both of them are made of resin.

Mr. Turhal is cooperating with famous sculptors like Uhrin Zsolt and painters Matt Verzani.

I am really proud of presenting this turkish company.

http://www.altarmodeling.com/index.html

Ju-52 and LI-2 models in different scales from "Art of Tactic"?

During 2011 there will be 2 transport planes for each side for the boardgame "The great Patriotic War" from Zvezda.

The well-known Ju-52, Junkers 52, nicknamed"Tante JU/Auntie JU", as a german transport aircraft, which is illustrated in the 2011 catalog with a drawing:


and Li-2, Lisunov -2, which was a licence-built version of Douglas DC-3, announced in the Zvezda catalog with a photo:
The issue which confuses me is the scale of both planes. It is written as 1:200, while all the other planes has the scale of 1:100.

Maybe both planes are too big in compare to the fighter and ground-attack aircraft, so that this additional scale should be choosen as an exception.

Premium banner Packs for "Battles of Westeros"-boardgame!

Premium Banner Packs for "Battles of Westeros"-boardgame from Fantasy Flight Games are now on sale!

Each pack contents 44 plastic banners with sticker sheets of green, blue and red units for both sides of the game, Stark ans Lannister.

That's a very good idea, because the original banners in the core game has been critised in a lot of forums.

The highest number of banners needed in a single scenario totaly for both sides is 41.

And in the "skirmish" scenarios, the maximum number of units incl. commanders is 15.

That means, one pack of those "premium banners" will be enough for all the scenarios in the core game!

The price on FFG webstore is 9.95 USD.