Reviews

Deadloque (1st Ed) Review - Napoleonic Fantasy Supplement

As Flintloque gets more and more popular, Mac at Alternative has done the decent thing and got us a supplement to spend our monies on. Whereas Flintloque as based around the Peninsular War, Deadloque is centred on the Winter War in Russia.

For your money you get a 32 page rulebook (in a similar vein to Flintloque), six Elven personalities and ten Undead figures.

Flintloque Elves

First the rules for the Undead, they are dead good (no pun intended). Forget all those other rules you’ve used where the Undead fall to pieces at the first sight of a sword and the only way to win was to have hundreds and hundreds of skeletons (and them some...) The Undead in Deadloque are dead good (pun intended this time). They will not fall down easily, and as demonstrated in the SFSFW’s Deadloque game at Salute, only rapid musket fire and close-combat will eventually get them to lie down...

Flintloques’ emphasis on character development is continued with Deadloque, but with the Undead we are truly talking about character deterioration as they gradually forget and disintegrate... The Undead equivalent of the Provost is the Kommisariat Graviski Bureov, geddit...

In the rules you will also find an Undead Morale Check Table, which differs somewhat from Flintloque with, a lot of confusion going on.

As with Flintloque you also get sixteen miniatures, six Elven characters, and I must say how much I liked the Elven Lancer (minus his mount, shot from under him during the retreat). The Elves in winter clothing (long greatcoats and scarves) look defeated and miserable (just as you would be forced to retreat in the snow and hordes of Undead after you (even if some of them fall apart before they reach you)). The Undead comprise zombies, skeletons, a KGB officer and wonderful vampyre, Dracsul. Beautifully sculptured and well-cast miniatures, they really are worth buying Deadloque just for them.

If you like Flintloque and are looking for new challenges and ideas, then go out and buy Deadloque, it’s dead good.

Review by Felix

Since this review was written, Alternative Armies was bought by Crescent City Industries and they have since then released a new version of Deadloque which includes the full upgraded second edition Flintloque rules as well as the sixteen miniatures mentioned in this review.

go to the Flintloque page

FOUNDRY - 25mm Wild West Figures

Gurnsey Foundry, La Guelle, Mont Arrive, St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands.

Very few people use the Wild West as an inspiration for their fantasy (or even really their science-fictions) games. It has a lot going for it: imagine the US Cavalry hunting a Native American Sky Kite in an armoured aerial flyer, supported by horses on the ground; imagine the local sheriff and her deputies clearing the town of Orc bandits; imagine aliens landing in Tombstone. Also Castle Falkenstein will be releasing a Wild West expansion any day now. So what do you do for figures?

These are superbly crafted miniatures, very much in the Wargames Foundry mould, and I am sure my photographs do not do justice to the range. They certainly are some of the best miniatures around and have a certain style which many people will find familiar and they are easy to paint.

I particularly liked the Mexicans and the Native Americans, which is an era of history I hadn’t really thought about gaming, but looking at these models, I am certainly considering it (though see below). It must be said though the shootists, townspeople and cowhands are also nice. There is a certain amount of familiarity about these figures and I am sure I have seen some of them on the big screen (not entirely sure, mind you).

Bryan has told me that some of his customers “have admitted to buying them for Cthulu, Space 1889 and Castle Falkenstein. I really like these miniatures, and am currently planning a fantastical Wild West game in which to use them, combining elements of Space 1889, the Difference Engine and Dances with Wolves.

I would recommend these figures.

Felix

see photographs of the Darkest Africa range

Barbarian Leader

25mm Fantasy Figure/Diorama Harlequin Miniatures, Unit S3, 632 Radford Road, Nottingham, NG7 7EE.

This 25mm figure set/diorama consists of a barbarian leader, armed folded, held aloft by two retainers. It is quite a sterotypical model and a bit of a fantasy cliche (not that there’s anything wrong with that, as to be honest sometimes it’s nice to find models which don’t have spikes, humps, or other extras).

The leader is not quite Conan, but you wouldn’t want to mess with him if you found him (and his retainers) down the local drinking hole. It is well cast and there was minimal cleaning need to be done.

It would be nice for a detailed diorama. You could also use it as a HOTT general.

Felix