The Redstone Rumble is rocking Huntsville, Alabama, this weekend. I had the pleasure to meet the organizers and a few players. The event is an impressive size, boasting well-attended tournaments for Warhammer 40K, Kings of War (to replace Warhammer Fantasy), Infinity, and Bolt Action.
I happened to arrive during lunch-hour, so I was lucky to capture a lot of photos while the armies were on display. Here are some views of the general game areas, to give an idea of the size of the event.
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| The 40K tables. |
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| Kings of War |
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| Some very well-provisioned Infinity tables. |
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| The Bolt Action area, with probably the fanciest tables among the events. |
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| Is that enough bocage for you, John Stiening? |
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| Some very nice elements for the 40K tables. |
Redstone Rumble draws players from Atlanta, Birmingham, Tennessee,....
And it was fantastic to see the high standard of painting and hobby on display.
The fantasy armies for Kings of War:
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| A wonderful display board for a Skaven army. |
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| A Hellpit Abomination, prodded to war by the scurrying ratmen. |
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| Another inspired display board for an Ogre army. |
40K armies...
And here is an army painted by local talent, Clay Williams, of Mastermind Models & Miniatures.
And here was another one of my favorites, another Skitaari army by a nice gentleman, Charles, from Atlanta.
(4Probably not enough bocage, I'm going to guess.)
ReplyDeleteThose are some great examples of what I love about a lot of historical tables: they feel like actual _places_. There's a believability about them that's generally absent from most sci-fi/fantasy games where it's hills-and-trees-in-corners or space paintball or whatever.
I don't know what it is, because it's not like you _can't_ get that effect with sci-fi/fantasy, or that you can't have bland historical tables... but there's just something about historical games that swing more towards the more coherent tables.
I totally agree. I've always tried to make my fantasy tables at home have a sense of location and coherency. Occasionally, I would hear a complaint of "well, that village is too hard to maneuver through" or "that river divides the battlefield", but more often than not, my opponents either enjoyed the challenge and aesthetic of asymmetrical, thematic terrain, or they were at least indifferent.
DeleteI picked up a copy of "The Devil's Playground" while I was at the Rumble. It's a sourcebook for the 30 Years War for Pike & Shotte. Between that book and the sight of those historical tables, I'm inspired to build out my Renaissance-era miniatures and have a go! Alas, that project must remain far down the queue, given my nearer-term goals and opportunities.
I'm so pumped about the Thirty Years War; proximity to it is what drew my attention to By Fire & Sword. There's persistent hope that Wargamer.pl (or fans) will knock together lists for TYW and/or the contemporary English Civil Wars. This period is so incredibly compelling for so many different reasons; I can't express enough excitement about it.
DeleteHey, there were some Montgomery people at that too. Bolt action and Kings of War folks. I didn't have the spare scratch to head up there this weekend which is why I'm not among them. Great coverage though, thanks!
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of service, Simon. Thanks for the comment and thanks for pimpin' the Montgomery contingent!
DeleteYou guessed correctly. There is never enough bocage. :)
ReplyDeleteAny table that looks like a place feels like a real battle to me. That might be one reason you guys have seen such a huge scenery push recently. We need real feeling tables. Not want, need.
Thanks so much for the photos Mike! Love seeing the different armies at these events and the lovely tables. I really like that hexagonal shield/camo on the one knight...would be really cool to weather something like that in layers!
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued with how Clay managed to apply the stencils to such irregular surfaces, e.g. maintaining continuity over the edges of the different plates. Luckily, I know where Clay works, so I plan to ask him!
DeleteI got really lucky to arrive at the event while everyone was away at lunch and had their armies out on display. That made for some ideal photo opps!
One idea that I've had for a while is to make a display board, which can be used as part of a terrain table. That way, you kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, I've been "working on" my 'canal district' for something like 3 years now....
Any sort of multi-purpose display is a win win in my book. If I had really really planned it, I Would have made my ork cart display pieces actually fit in my display shelf as well! Now I have this cart and nowhere to put it...at least it looks cool :)
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