Small things and taking stock

With the main armies either completed or yet to arrive, I thought it's time to paint up the bits that I gathered over the years.





From left to right, they are: two dwarven statues from the GW Battle at Skull Pass set barricades, a Celtic Cross and a gravestone (both from Ziterdes), and six resin barrels from Itar's Workshop.

They are all scaled for 25/28mm, but the Celtic Cross will probably serve for my 15mm Anglo-Saxon England games. They are all useful in a skirmish game to add colour and cover to the game, and I think the gravestone and barrels can in addition be used for my Blood Bowl pitch.

It's a busy week for me, but with some planning I can probably start work on them this coming Sunday.

+++

It was a fruitful weekend. Not only did we complete the FPW campaign, I also managed to play a game of Strandhogg with Adrian - my LOTR dwarves against his Warhammer Night Goblins.

As much as I like the rules, I can see that the melee system is flawed. For example, under these rules wielding a two-handed axe gives you a +1 in melee vs shieldwall and mounted; however, a figure holding a shield (and a melee weapon) will get a +1 in melee vs all opponents, and get a +1 defence vs missiles - so while a two-handed axe sounds good, it is in all ways inferior to just a sword and spear!

I think what I will do is to port the melee system from Warhammer over to Strandhogg - after all, what appeals to me most about the rules are the fast command and morale system. The Warhammer melee system, while involving a little more maths and many more die-rolls, allows more differentia in the troop types, and adds to the narrative ("They score hit after hit on the troll, but the weapons just bounced off its tough hide!"). Under the Warhammer rules, two-handed axes come with advantages (+2 Strength, which increases your chances of wounding and bypassing armour) and disadvantages (strike last in melee unless you charged, and cannot hold a shield*) - that at least gives a reason for the huscarls to want to carry them.

(* - I have ordered some loose kite shields to glue onto the back of my dwarves holding two-handed axes so they look like they are being slung; I will house-rule that they count as shielded against missiles if there are no enemy figures within 6" - again, there was a reason why the huscarls carried them...)

Finally, I must confess that I have succumbed to the lure of plastics and ordered a box of Perry Plastics WOTR infantry. At 40 figures with a mix of melee, missile and command troops, it's perfect as a human/Bretonnian army for Strandhogg. The planned colour scheme is blue-and-yellow livery, so I am thinking whether or not to depart from my usual black primer and go with a white one instead.

Stay tuned.