Battle Ravens Preview - PSC games

Battle Ravens is a brand new boardgame created by Dan Mersey and produced by the Plastic Soldier Company (http://www.pscgames.co.uk/). Apologies to both as I received this pre-view copy a few weeks ago but I haven’t had the time to talk about it until now, better late than never I suppose. The game is currently running on Kickstarter, it has already been fully funded so the game will be despatched to everyone to backs the campaign, along with the relevant stretch goals.  

Link to Kickstarter Daniel Mersey's 'Battle Ravens' boardgame

Box Fresh Battle Ravens

Contents

As with other games by Dan these rules appear deceptively simple, but once played it soon becomes apparent that no two games will play the same. Typically for the very first game I failed to read the rules properly (the same reason I still make plastic models kits and then wonder why they didn’t fit together correctly or why pieces are left over). Everyone I played has been able to play the game within a few minutes of starting.

To play you line up your army within the six main blocks and try and smash through the opposition’s shieldwall. It sounds easy but using the Raven tokens enables you to attack, block or move allowing enough variation to make every game unpredictable and enjoyable (even though I’ve lost every single game I’ve played so far). Therefore one stand (berserkers?) could possibly defeat a superior numbered (nine stands max per block) opposing group. To win you ‘simply’ have to break through three areas of the enemy shieldwall. Attacks and blocks are achieved rolling 4,5 or 6 on a D6 with a 6 counting a double hit. The number of dice rolled is determined by the number of raven counters you choose to use.

There are also advanced rules which involves using tactic cards for each army. These enable you to fight in a specific manner i.e aggressive Norse, defensive Anglo-Saxon but you can choose to field the same army as you opponent, Norse v Norse etc.

There are several subtle aspects to the game which I won't reveal here, I'd rather players discover these for themselves.

Peter Dennis artwork - Anglo-Saxons

Peter Dennis artwork - Norse

The playing pieces are drawn by Peter Dennis, my favourite military illustrator (I'd like him to adopt me even though I believe he supports Mansfield FC). The preview copy has Anglo-Saxon and Norse armies from his 1066 paperboys book. Anyone familiar with these will recognise the style straight away but these playing pieces are printed on heavy cardstock paper. The Kickstarter has stretch goals for extra armies for the Normans, Scots, and Welsh.

Little Norse gits

There are understandable limitations to the game; for instance you can’t attempt flanking attacks once you break the shield wall. Although I imagine the game would rapidly culminate if this was an option (I can lose enough games as it is). Games typically last 40-60 minutes.

Please note that this is a preview/review copy, supplied free of charge by PSC Games. This means that the final edition may be slightly different from the images shown here although I can't imagine it would be much different.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy Dark Age themed boardgame where you can crush and humiliate your sworn enemies (well ok, probably only if you’re playing against me) then I’d recommend you take a closer look at Battle Raven but be quick as the Kickstarter campaign only runs until 6th December 2018. The game is due to be released in April 2019. The retail price for Battle Ravens will be £35, but it will be available for £30 through Kickstarter with the Scottish army pack now included for free.

At the time of writing Stretch Goals 1, 2 & 3 have been unlocked which means tactic cards for the armies, a mounted board and more dice, which is more or less what you can see in the images here. Every Kickstarter pledge level will also include a Scottish army (not shown).

I may try a variation of the games using medieval figures but I’ll detail that in a future post.

Soviet 76mm infantry gun M1943 & Crew, Plastic Soldier Company

This is the second model taken from the 28mm plastic '45mm Anti Tank Gun' set from the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC), the other can be seen (here) . This model depicts the 76mm infantry M1943 which used the same carriage.

There will eventually be a online video showing how this base was made detailing in particular the tree roots. This will be on Ade's own website (Wargaming for fun) and on YouTube (Wargaming For Fun).

Ade does a great job of editing his videos which actually takes a substantial amount of time. This video will have a new voice-over as the original involved a fair amount of industrial language as it doesn't show the bit where I managed to superglue my fingers to the acrylic base, or the important bit (i.e. making the actual tree roots) when I didn't realise the camera battery had run out.

Soviet DP28 Light Machine Gun, Plastic Solder Company - Part 2 of 2

These figures are also from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform' set - others can be seen elsewhere on my blog (click here). These are the final group of miniatures from the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) for the time being, except for another piece of artillery, that I've completed from that particualr boxset. There are more in the set that I have block painted but I can't quite motivate myself to finish them. They are perfectly adequate for gaming but they don't (without wishing to sound too pretentious) inspire me  to spend the time on detailing them up to my own preferred standard.

 

 

Next up, if I can take some decent photographs, will be a few pieces/figures I've recently finished for use with Bolt Action rules.

Soviet DP28 Light Machine Gun, Plastic Solder Company - Part 1 of 2

The DP28 or Degtyaryova Pekhotny "Degtyaryov's infantry machine gun" introduced in 1928 (hence DP28 code, the Russians had a very simple and logical method of creating their equipment codes). The pan magazine could hold 47 rounds firing at a rate of approx. 500rpm.

This effective weapon saw service throughout the WWII by both the Soviet forces and the Finnish army, which captured thousands during the Winter and Continuation Wars, and was later used in large numbers by Communist forces in Asia.

 

These figures are from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform' set. 

 

  

 

The tree stump with roots was made using the same method described in a previous post (click here). It adds a little detail to what would otherwise be a relatively bland base.

Soviet 82mm mortar team, Plastic Soldier Company

Finally this is last group I painted up taken from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Heavy Weapons' set, Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) - for the Plastic Soldier Review (click here). As you may notice from the review there are other figures within the set but I don't need them at present.

 

 

Once I've completed my Warlord Games plastic Soviet infantry I'll add any spare weapons, rifles, sub-machine guns etc. to these groups as they look a bit vulnerable at the moment.

 

Also in the same boxset:

Soviet Maxim M1910 Heavy Machine Gun

& Soviet 50mm Mortar 

 

Soviet 50mm mortar team, Plastic Soldier Company

Another group taken from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Heavy Weapons' set by the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC). For a proper review (click here).

 

 

Soviet Maxim M1910 heavy machine gun & Crew, Plastic Soldier Company

This group is taken from the 28mm plastic 'Russian Heavy Weapons' set, Plastic Soldier Company (PSC). For a proper review, although of the 1/72 scale kit version, take a look at the Plastic Soldier Review site (click here).

 

 

The tree stump is made from a real twig picked up from my local park and stuck into place with PVA glue. Alternatively if you have more money than sense you can buy a 0.5oz (14g) bag of sticks..sorry 'Broken Stumps' from Woodland Scenics (for between £3.75 and £5.99). To quote their website:

"Use this natural, realistic product to model fallen or standing dead trees and stumps. It has the look of aged wood with gnarled branches, knots with some smooth, weathered pieces."

Or, as I've just said, you can pop outside, look under a tree, bush or hedge and grab a handful of dead wood for free.
The roots are simply made by twisting a suitable length of tissue paper. Glue one end, (you'll have to use super glue) near the stump. Once dry twist the tissue paper again and carefully glue the other end into position, being careful to avoid gluing your figures to the base (not like I'd be daft enough to do that, of course). Then apply super glue over the length of the paper to set it so that it doesn't unwind itself. Simple as that.

The most notable problem with this set is that there isn't any ammunition being fed into the machine gun. This would be less obvious with the 1/72 scale version but I will have to add an ammo box and belt sometime in the future.

Soviet 45mm anti-tank gun M1942 & Crew, Plastic Soldier Company

This model is taken from the 28mm plastic '45mm Anti Tank Gun' set from the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC). This model depicts the 45mm anti-tank gun M1942 and is one of three available options you can make. The boxset for the 28mm version contains enough parts and figures to make two guns complete with crew.

 

 

There is a far better detailed review, of the 1/72 scale kit, on the Plastic Soldier Review site (click here).

WIP WWII Russians, Plastic Soldier Company

And now for something completely different!

Regular readers ("hello mom") may recall that I visited the latest Derby Show held at a new venue at Castle Donington with my brother and old mate Ade. There we played a small demo of Warlord Games new'ish WWII rule set Bolt Action. After a game in which we somehow managed to completely wipe each other out Ade and myself decided to invest some of our future time and efforts in this game system. Ade bought the rules there and then. As mentioned previously, Ade intended to go with US forces and his rather spiffing first lot of figures can be seen here. 

 

I however opted to take on the mighty Red Army, purchasing a box of The Plastic Soldier Company's (PSC) plastic 28mm WWII 'Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform' from Wayland's Forge in Birmingham. Leaving the shop I noticed Warlord Games (WG) plastic Russian set and went back and bought those as well, justifying the purchase as I wanted to recreate the 'human wave' effect in games as cheaply as possible.

The Plastic Soldier Company's set has a certain retro charm but suffers from a lack of sharpness of detail compared to the figures in the WG set. I believe the masters were designed for 1/72 (20mm) scale and then scaled up to 28mm but suffering in the process. I'll detail the box contents once I've finished at least one lot of sprues worth of figures.

Added Russian M52 helmet & Ushanka fur hat (even if he is wearing summer uniform).

The box set contains three identical sprues but the majority of figures are single mouldings, not multi pose like WG but regular readers ("hello again mom") will know I enjoy chopping and changing figures whenever possible as I like to add some variety to my red horde. Having numerous spare heads from the WG box I decided the chop and change at least one of the three figures per sprue.

In this first batch I've only changed the heads (and a single hand), I hope to modify a few other bits and pieces with other figures. All the original, unaltered, miniatures are the first figure the left hand side (except for the second photo because I forgot) but hopefully the differences should be obvious.