Cutway: Wartime Images

Uma galeria de imagens bem interessantes, diferentes das habituais sobre o tema...
Vale a pena a visita.

CUTWAY: UNUSUAL TECHNICAL IMAGES OF EQUIPMENT USED IN WORLD WAR II

http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/cutaway/

Featuring technical cutaway drawings of submarines, ships, aircraft and arms PLUS contemporary photos of and on mostly "S" Class Royal Naval Submarines.

Another " content over style" web page from Steve Johnson Cyberheritage.

In the Second World War people at home with loved ones spread far away around the world with the forces were fed a diet, often government backed, of "how it works" or "how we will win" technical information leaflets. Very often these would have contained superb cut away and sectioned diagrams, showing the "insides" or as was said at the time "the works!" of the machines that were winning the war for us!

Babylon 5: A Call To Arms

Mais uma noticia relacionada com este jogo:

Space Combat Game Up For Origins Awards

Two games covered by SCN are nominated for the 2005 Origins Awards in the category: Best Miniatures Game or Expansion. A Call to Arms and Attack Vector: Tactical will find out on July 2nd if they won. Voting will be done by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design who are published game designers, writers, artists and other game creators.

E mais algum historico sobre o jogo: A Call of Arms @ Starship Combat News

E entretanto, aqui ficam umas imagens de algumas novas fleet boxes:

Gear Krieg

WWII e Pulp Superscience

Sei lá eu à quanto tempo ando a namorar este jogo de miniaturas, mas o material da Dream Pod 9 muito difícil de encontrar na Europa, mesmo em lojas online ou no EBay, e então por cá nem pensar...

E o que acham disto?
(e o «aroma» pulp que isto daria a um FOW... ai as carótidas aos saltos...)

GEAR KRIEG - Two-Fisted Pulp Superscience in a World at War! http://www.dp9.com/Worlds/GK.htm

• 1920s Development of the "Mechanical Walking Suspension" by J. Walter Christie;
• 1930s Germans copy Christie's walking machines under the peaceful guise of their 'Landwirtschaftlicher Arbeiter' ('Agricultural Worker') experiments;
• 1934 The world's first true walking machine revealed at the Nuremberg Rally;
• 1936 The PzK III armored walker presented at the Berlin Olympic Games;
• 1939 The first successful American walkers are showcased at the World's Fair "Futurama" pavilion;
• 1939 German Panzerkämpfer cross into Poland. The Second World War has begun.

The world would indeed have been a different place had the Roaring Twenties not delivered the wonders promised by visionaries. Instead, war walkers now stride across the battlefield of Europe, huge supertanks thunder over North Africa, rocket fighters duel high above the Pacific, adventurers and superspies battle the Nazi forces in the shadows and scientists work feveriously in their laboratories to perfect the next doomsday weapon for their masters. Powered by advanced science, will the darkness of fascism spread across the world, or can brave men and women prevent it? Gear Krieg is Dream Pod 9’s alternate history WWII game.

E umas imagens, para contemplarem...

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Novo Director's Cut

Recebi esta «inside-information» noutro dia por eMail, de fonte fidedigna... from «The Man Himself»... que ele tem muito o habito de tomar conselhos cá com o jê... e isto tem tido tanto movimento que até me esqueçi de postar isto por ai...

Vai ser lançado um novo Director's Cut do Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, com algumas adaptações para colocar o storyline em linha com os 3 primeiros episódios da saga.

Esse novo Director's Cut inclui diversas alterações, entre elas a remontagem da cena da batalha entre Luke Skywalker e Darth Vader, na Cloud City em Bespin.

E, em primeira mão para todos os FANATICUS e lurkers out there, aqui fica uma transcrição do novo guião relativo a esse conjunto de cenas...

INT: BESPIN GANTRY - MOMENTS LATER: A furious lightsaber duel is underway.

DARTH VADER is backing LUKE SKYWALKER towards the end of the gantry.
A quick move by Vader, chops off Luke's hand!
It goes spinning off into the ventilation shaft.
Luke backs away.
He looks around, but realizes there's nowhere to go but straight down.

Darth Vader: Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father.

Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!

Darth Vader: No . . . I am your father!

Luke: No, it's not true! It's impossible.

Darth Vader: Search your feelings . . . you know it to be true . . .

Luke: NO!

Darth Vader: Yes, it is true . . . and you know what else? You know that brass droid of yours?

Luke: Threepio?

Darth Vader: Yes . . . Threepio . . . I built him . . . when I was 7 years old . . .

Luke: No . . .

Darth Vader: Seven years old! And what have you done? Look at yourself, no hand, no job, and couldn't even levitate your own ship out of the swamp . . .

Luke: I destroyed your precious Death Star!

Darth Vader: When you were 20! When I was 10, I single-handedly destroyed a Trade Federation Droid Control ship!

Luke: Well, it's not my fault . . .

Darth Vader: Oh, here we go. . . "Poor me . . . my father never gave me what I wanted for my birthday . . . boo hoo, my daddy's the Dark Lord of the Sith . .. waahhh wahhh!"

Luke: Shut up!

Darth Vader: You're a slacker! By the time I was your age, I had exterminated the Jedi knights!

Luke: I used to race my T-16 through Beggar's Canyon...

Darth Vader: Oh, for the love of the Emperor . . . 10 years old, winner of the Boonta Eve Open . . . Only human to ever fly a Pod Racer. . . right here baby!

Luke looks down the shaft. Takes a step towards it.

Darth Vader: I was wrong . . . You're not my kid . . . You're not good enough to be my kid.

Luke takes a step off the platform, hesitates, then plunges down the shaft.

Darth Vader looks after him.

Darth Vader: And get a haircut!

Axis & Allies Miniatures

Ainda noutro dia conversava com algumas pessoas sobre diversas questões sobre jogos de WWII, sobre todas as polémicas que por vezes andam a «pairar» por ai, sobre os modelos e formatos de jogo que existem por ai, sobre abordagens que, sabe-se lá porquê, ainda não foram utilizadas - como por exemplo, a abordagem de miniaturas pré-pintadas, num booster, prontas a jogar... o paradigma do jogo histórico out-of-the-box...

E eis que surge esta noticia... ora leiam...

Axis & Allies Miniatures Game Coming in August!
Avalon Hill to Establish Beachhead in Miniatures Market!

May 6, 2005 (Renton, Wash.) -- On Sunday, May 8, Avalon Hill -- published by Seattle-based hobby-game leader Wizards of the Coast (NYSE: HAS) -- will announce the launch of Axis & Allies Miniatures, a revolutionary, new World War II themed wargame system set to hit store shelves in late summer of 2005. The announcement will coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of VE Day, commemorating the end of the war in Europe.

Axis & Allies Miniatures gives both novice wargamers and veteran grognards the ability to engage in historically authentic, squad-level tactical combat with detailed, 15mm scale, pre-painted plastic miniatures featuring varying degrees of rarity to enhance collectability. Hard-hitting, fast-paced game play makes every Axis & Allies Miniatures battle a blitzkrieg. Ready to play right out of the box, Axis & Allies Miniatures features easy-to-master rules that don’t sacrifice authenticity. A single skirmish can be played in under an hour, or players can advance their custom-constructed squad through a meat grinder of combat, battling from the hedgerows of Brittany to the steps of the Reich Chancellery.

“Axis & Allies Miniatures represents the crossroad between Avalon Hill's greatest wargame titles of yesteryear, such as Squad Leader and Up Front, and Wizards’ role as a pacesetter in tactical miniatures combat games,” said Linda Cox, brand manager for Avalon Hill at Wizards of the Coast. “There’s no politics in Axis & Allies Miniatures -- this is gritty combat in the trenches as only Avalon Hill can portray.”

The Axis & Allies name is best known as the title of a cult-classic strategic board game first published by Nova Games in 1981 and subsequently revised and expanded by Milton Bradley and Avalon Hill with Axis & Allies Europe, Axis & Allies Pacific, and Axis & Allies D-Day. Console and PC-game titles bearing the Axis & Allies name have also been produced by Hasbro Interactive and Atari. Axis & Allies Miniatures brings yet another dimension into the A&A game universe.

“Since 1957 the story of Avalon Hill has been inseparably tangled with the story of serious, strategy gaming. Axis & Allies Miniatures represents a bold rededication of Wizards’ commitment to the rich history and tradition at the heart of that brand,” said Kyle Murray, Director of Marketing at Wizards of the Coast. “Axis & Allies is the gold standard in WWII games; Axis & Allies Miniatures will meet and exceed our customers expectations.”

Base Set, featuring 48 soldiers and vehicles from WWII plus detailed hex maps of terrain representing the battlefields of Europe, will be first shown to the public at the Gencon game convention in Indianapolis this August and is set to hit store shelves the following week. A 48-figure expansion, bringing additional vehicles and troops into combat, will follow in December. More expansions are planned through 2006.

E esta?
No minimo, muitas carótidas vão saltar por ai...
Isto vai ser só veias a palpitar, muita pressão arterial vai subir...

Mais alguns detalhes:

Game Details

Challenge your friends to fast, head-to-head combat with the Axis & Allies Miniatures Game! This high-quality skirmish game is playable right out of the box. With these faithful reproductions of real WWII combat vehicles and fighting units, you can recreate historical battles from World War II with authentic Shermans, Panzers, infantry, and more! Or create your own battles!

The starter kit contains pre-painted, 15mm, plastic miniature soldiers and vehicles from WWII that animate the action on the battlefield, along with game stat cards that dictate the firepower, armor, and abilities of each unit. Booster packs bring additional soldiers and vehicles into play.

The Base Set Starter Pack Contains:

• 12 collectable miniatures based on battlefield units of World War II tanks, antitank guns, commanders, infantry units, and 1 random rare miniatures are prepainted, fully assembled, and made of durable plastic
• Full-color game stat cards
• 4 double-sided, full-color battle mats
• 10 six-sided dice
• Rulebook
• Set checklist

The Base Set Booster Pack Contains:

• 9 randomized, prepainted, durable plastic miniatures
• Full-color game stat cards
• Set checklist
  (Rules not included in booster.)

$24.99 (MSRP) - Starter
$14.99 (MSRP) - Booster

Qual o futuro deste modelo de jogo?

Vamos ver o que o futuro nos reserva...

UBoat.net

http://UBoat.net
The U-Boat War 1939-1945

Estava a investigar no cyber-espaço sobre esta temática a ponderar a compra de certos livros - de deparei-me com este site que acho verdadeiramente espectacular a abrangente sobre o tema.

Artigos, a história dos homens, dos U-Boats, os seus comandantes, uma galeria de imagens espectaculares, os filmes, os livros... um portento de informação.

De certo merecedor de uma visita prolongada, e de uma adição aos favoritos.