New Season of Blood Bowl

It's been more than two years since our last game, but fg and I decided to start a new season going.

I chose to field my fantasy Greek-themed Chaos Dwarf team, and fg fielded his female orc team which he used in our first league years ago.

The orcs are a rather versatile team which we have both used previously, but I found the Chaos Dwarf had no answer to the Black Orcs.

The teams face off for the first kick-off of the season.

A series of good dice-rolls on the part of fg saw several of my team go down, and the orcs were up by 2 touchdowns in the first game of the season. In the final turns I decided to run a passing play and managed to slip a hobgoblin down the side to score a point.

The depleted Spartans sneak a hobgoblin down the flank to score a touchdown.

With a bit of time left we decided to play the first half of the second game. This time the dice were a little more to my favour, and we both managed to score a touchdown each.

Line of scrimmage.

We used the pitch that fg bought from Impact!, which is really quite pretty.

As before fg has a more cautious style of play while I prefer the riskier style of play (hence my 4 re-rolls). The two teams seem well-matched, and I think the season will be a close-fought one.

Pleasant Surprise 2014 Part 2

I went to the post office today to pick up a parcel which I thought was some spearmen I ordered, but it turned out to be my Pleasant Surprise!

My gift came from Simon, known as somegeezer on the Warhammer Empire forum, and are six Perry HYW armed peasants plus a priest, all of which I have actually been eyeing! What's more, in the friendly letter he had included in the parcel he explained that he tried to paint them such I can add these beauties to my unit of militia; and as you can see from the photo below featuring both his work and mine, he has done a pretty good job - my only complaint is that his work is better than mine!

These guys are definitely going on my army list for my next game!

The priest is superb - Simon's blending is beautiful on this figure. I can use him as a wizard or perhaps even a warrior priest. And not that I can field him in a unit of flagellants, but he really adds to the whole mood of the unit when I pose him together with them!

Thank you very much, Simon. I must say this has indeed been a surprise, and a very pleasant one too!

I can only hope that I can give so much joy to my recipient in next year's exchange.

Fifteen fanatical female flagellants...

...  furiously flourish flails from farms fringing forests far from fens...

Swing out, sisters! OK, there are actually sixteen of them...

The thing about a game with army lists is that, you tend to want to have figures for all the units on the list.

As a Warhammer (The) Empire player, one of the units I've always thought would be fun to field was the flagellants - a bunch of flail-swinging, self-flagellating fanatics who look like they were based on the Seinfeld character Kramer.

However, as my army is based on a Wars of the Roses theme, I couldn't think of a way to incorporate them into my army - curiously, the flagellant movement, popular for a time in Europe, never caught on in England.

Still reluctant to give up altogether, I googled around for some flail-wielding figures and came to the Kingmaker site. There I found some figures which I have not noticed on my previous: Hussite women. The all wear hoods over their heads, which gives them a rather nun-like appearance. And of course, they wield flails!

It was not long before I came up with the fluff for a unit of fearless female fanatics for my army. I imagined them to be the widows of soldiers who died in battle, banding together in their common grief and seeking either revenge or rest in battle. Their dress would have to be black, as befitting of widows, and they would be nicknamed The Black Widows.

As an all-black garb will make the unit appear too dull, I thought I might give them a badge of sorts based on the markings on a real black widow spider. And wouldn't you know it, the black widow spider has a red hourglass shaped marking on its abdomen.

It occurred to me that the marking also resembles a chalice, which was an emblem used by the Hussites! We have come full circle.

So there you have it: I have a unit of black-clad warrior-women called the Black Widows, made up of figures of Hussite women and bearing the Hussite emblem.

I think I will make them an order of nuns, perhaps the Sisters of the Order of the Chalice, although they are more often called The Black Widows or the Sisters of Little Mercy by other people.

I have ordered an additional figure which I hope will make a suitable leader for them. Stay tuned.

Eureka Gendarme as Empire General

As usual with my collection, one thing leads to another...

The general mistook the feathers meant for the horse as for his own helmet, and none of the knights dared to tell him...

After painting the Reaper Bones griffon I thought I would mount a knight on it to use as an Empire General for Warhammer. However, the WOTR figures look a little too plain for the fluff, and so I bought a Eureka Miniatures Italian Wars gendarme to play the part. The right arm comes from the Perry plastic sprue, and I puttied over the left sleeve to match the right.

As you may be able to see from the picture above, both the rider and the horse are a little smaller than the Perry plastics; I had to raise the horse on its base and also the rider on its saddle to make it look less obvious.

However, on the griffon the crest on the helmet lends the whole model some visual balance.

I have been battling a bad cough for the past four weeks, but today it looks like I am finally rid of it. Hopefully that allows me to do some work on my next unit, in between some household chores.

Frostgrave - Final Playtest

Last Thursday fg and I got together to play two games of the latest draft of Frostgrave - unfortunately, right after the game I got an email informing me that the final manuscript for Frostgrave has been submitted to Osprey.

Dwarves and goblins scour the ruins of Frostgrave for treasures.

The good news is, even after a lapse of a few months, we both managed to pick up the rules quickly again, and we had fun. I guess over all, "fun" is how I would sum up Frostgrave. The rules are not complex, there are lots of spells you can use creatively, and you can have different strategies, from going after the treasures and making off as quickly as you can, to aggressively going for your opponent's troops; you can go for a small force of elite, or a horde of cheaper troops; you can have mainly offensive spells, to "buffing" spells for your figures.

It is also easy to get into - your warband will probably start off from about five figures, and max out to about a dozen figures, and there are enough troop types for you to get a warband together using whatever fantasy or medieval figures you have. Terrain is important, but many of our games were played on geomorphic 2D tiles.

A goblin thug takes the treasure from the cold dead hands of a fallen dwarf ranger.

Unlike the previous books from the Osprey Wargames series, Frostgrave is planned to be a hardback book, but hopefully it will be affordable.

Pleasant Surprise VII

This year I once again took part in the Pleasant Surprise gift-exchange organised on the Warhammer Empire forum. My unsuspecting recipient was Novogord, who has a dwarf army made up of the old Marauder figures. I managed to get one of these off ebay, and this was what I came up with:

A donkey cart of beer for his army.

The cart is one of two from the Nikolai 1/72 medieval cart box, and the donkey was from Warlord Games, with the harness made from epoxy putty. The barrels were from my existing collection of bits.

I painted the dwarf in the colours of his army, and tried to match his painting technique and base work - hopefully it blends nicely with his existing figures.

I really enjoy the process of cyber-sleuthing and thinking up and painting a suitable gift for a fellow wargamer, and will sign up for another round next year as long as it is being organised.

Reaper Griffin

I like griffons, but I think they are weird. Not just weird because they are monsters which are made up of two different creatures, but because they are neither the size of an eagle nor that of a lion. To my mind it would be more logical if the whole creature were based on the size of a lion. Maybe they are like ligers, which are bigger than a lion or a tiger.

Anyway, when fg backed the Reaper Bones kickstarter, I asked him to get me one of their griffons, which I thought would be useful for RPGs, dungeoncrawls, or as a monstrous mount for my Warhammer (The) Empire army. The Bones material is a bit soft, but it preserved the detail of the feathers and I think the Vallejo primer made a good bond.

Here is the figure painted:

Based on a monster-size 50mm x 50mm base.

On a 100mm x 50mm monstrous mount base, with a Perry mounted men-at-arms.

Another view with the rider.

I like Reaper's interpretation of the griffon. The current Games Workshop one looks like an obese pigeon. I decided against adding a saddle and reins because I want to use the figure as a "wild" griffin for RPGs and dungeoncrawls too - in any case I doubt griffons appreciate bits and reins. I am thinking of getting another rider though; something more flamboyant and with a cast saddle so it looks more "accurate".

Yet more CoC terrain

So far my CoC project has been frustrated first by a packing error on the part of the merchant, which required a re-shipment, and the incompetence (and I suspect sheer dishonesty) of my local postal worker. This means that the whole project will be at least 8 weeks behind schedule, which frankly makes me quite unhappy.

Still, we must soldier on, and I spent the time building our terrain collection. Here are the results:

From L to R: Italeri wire obstacle frame with Pegasus Hobbies barbed wire, Fujimi Dragon's teeth, Italerie Czech Hedgehog.

Wills Barn (SS30) with Nikolai (ACC09) medieval cart, scratch-built log pile, and Noch Abandoned Fences (13060).

Closer view of the barn.

Krosmaster Arena

fg and I played a couple of games of Krosmaster Arena, a chibi figure boardgame where... well, cartoon characters fight each other for gold and glory. While the rules are pretty simple, there are lots of upgrades you can buy which will add depth to the game. The figures and terrain come prepainted and the game components are of good production quality.

Warhammer Game 2

A dwarven unit is raked by enfilade fire as it marches across the Empire battleine.

Adrian and I played a 900-point game of Warhammer this afternoon. Actually, we played two - we forgot the rules and played it wrong the first time and so played it a second time since we still had time.

A dwarf miner unit that has erupted behind the Empire line is attacked in the flank by a unit of Knights.

The Warhammer system has so many special rules and it is hard for us to remember all of them since we only play them once in a while. Hopefully with a few more games under our belts we can play a perfect game in the future.

Everybody in the House

With Adrian and Thomas starting painting their Warhammer figures again, I thought I would do a photo-inventory of what I have painted.

Here's everything I've got so far:

Armed peasants. Not sure what to class these as under the Warhammer rules.

The first-aid post.

A closer view of the centre.

Whacked Pak

Remember this photo?

Well, here's the result of my attempt to replicate it:

PSC gives you empty shell casings in the set, which really helps with the atmosphere.

And here's the view of the whole destroyed gun.

The availability of cheap plastic kits aimed mainly at wargamers makes creating wrecked vehicles and guns as terrain pieces affordable. PSC is planning to release German trucks, so I hope to do the same thing with one. Problem is, you actually need a detailed kit if you want to reproduce a wrecked truck, because it's when a truck is blown up that you can really see the innards and axles and all the other bits which you hate having to glue together for your wargaming pieces. Take a look at this:

From militarymodels.co.nz

From militarymodels.co.nz

See what I mean? Now you know why they made the tyres separate from the wheels in Tamiya kits!

Anyway, if you do come across a photo of a destroyed Opel Blitz or similar which looks like it can be reproduced in 20mm, please send it my way. Thanks.

X-Wings again

Thomas joined fg and I for a game this afternoon, and it turns out he has bought almost every single X-Wing supplement released!

He had more ships that we can possibly handle, so we played a 150-points aside game. I chose to play the Imperial side and fly some TIE Interceptors which I have never played, and fg chose to use the Millennium Falcon (OK, the generic version with a generic pilot and generic pilot) and the A-Wing and B-Wing, all of which we haven't played before. Thomas took the other half of the Rebel force with two X-Wings and an A-Wing.

I am not sure if it was my poor piloting or my poor dice-rolls, but I found the TIE Interceptors to be a disappointment; without shields, they are rather vulnerable. I think I will stick with the TIE Advance from now on.

It was another enjoyable game nonetheless, and we wondered if we should get our hand on the D&D version of the franchise when it is released.

Liebstered

Thank you Nate for nominating me.

The rules of this meme are (amazing how the meaning of meme has changed over the past few decades, isn't it?):

1: Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it you.

2. Pass the award to your top 11 blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.


3. Sit back and bask in the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing you have made someones day!


4. There is no obligation to pass this onto someone else but it's nice if you take the time to do so.


And now to the questions...

1. Why did you start blogging?

Several reasons. To keep a log of the games my gang and I played, show my works in progress, share my ideas and work with other fellow gamers. I benefit from other gamers' blogs, and hope mine can be helpful to others in turn.

2. If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be?


Well, not the hobby itself per se, but I wish postage was cheaper - that would probably stimulate sales and provide more incentives for companies to release new stuff.

3. What is best in life?


To not live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

4. Do you want to live forever?

Yes. Yes I do.

5. Fame or fortune?


Fame never dies. But if I were immortal, then maybe fortune...

6. What miniatures are you most proud of having painted?

7. How do you deal with burn out?

Step away from what I've been doing and either do something a little different (making terrain, computer games) or altogether different (cook, read). 


8. Why is a raven like a writing desk?


One of its legs are both the same.

9. Star Wars or Star Trek?


Star Trek. Because greatness lies in the choices you make, not in some hokey religion. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.

10. If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which one would it be?


Tough one. I'm going to cheat by going with Eureka, because if you wanted something bad enough you can try to get them to produce it under the Club 300 scheme.

11. What is your favourite takeaway?

Takeaway sushi by default, because it won't get cold.


Well, two of the four blogs I have on my reading list have already got the award, so I will tag Dan and, er, Dan.

X-Wing and Pak 38

fg came over for a game of X-Wing and we used the new star mat that he bought.

Rebel and Imperial forces duke it out in an asteroid field.

He chose a mat with a hex grid as our other starship game of choice is Starmada Compendium, which uses hexes.

My order from Plastic Solider Company arrived earlier in the week, but unfortunately there was a mistake with the order, which means there will be a few week's delay in our planned campaign. Nevertheless, I thought I should just work with what I have on hand and continue to build up my terrain collection.

The PSC Pak 38 box comes with four guns, so after assembling one and passing two to fg in case he decided to start a German force, I thought I would make a wrecked gun as a terrain piece. I thought I would make it a "realistic" terrain piece and base it on a photo of an actual destroyed Pak 38 gun; turns out those aren't common on Google (most are actually of restored guns or of the crew in action, taken from the rear or side). I did manage to find one photo on flickr (sorry, I didn't note down the user):

Here is my attempt to duplicate that in 20mm:

I think I didn't do too badly, although I wonder if I should remove the rivets on the right side of the gun shield, which appear to have popped off due to the impact of the round.

Should be fun to paint, this.

More CoC Terrain

Work on terrain bits continue...

Klaus strolls between two camouflaged Fujimi pillboxes.

I'm not sure why I built those as the CoC rules don't cover them; they came in the box so I thought I might as well just do them up.

Klaus walks behind a log pile.

I made this from a twig I picked up. It provides enough cover for a team of infantry.

A US minefield

I also decided to make another minefield, and this time I thought I would mark it as a US minefield. As I can't find an image of what a US minefield sign looks like, I decided to create one based on a iconic US sign...

Achtung! Chain of Command

Over the past couple of weeks the gang and I decided we will get into WW2 wargaming again; wahj has a dozen 1/72 T-34s of various makes, and Martin has Brits and Americans infantry and armour, so it was a matter of getting some Germans and Soviet infantry. That decided the scale.

For the rules I decided to try the Chain of Command rules from Too Fat Lardies; I have read good reviews of the rules and after reading them through I think I will enjoy them.

So I ordered some hard plastic German infantry and support weapons which I plan to sort, assemble, and the send off to a painter. They have not yet arrived so I busied myself with terrain-making, which is after all what makes a WW2 game look like a WW2 game.

Here are the results of this week's work.

The watchtower and the sentry box are from two Fujimi kits, while the barrier is made from parts from one of the Fujimi kits plus some styrene rods and strips I had - the original barrier was too short and I needed something longer than 2" long to span the roads I also ordered. I decided that painting the sentry box in that black-white-and-red chevron pattern is beyond my skills and opted for an unpainted look.

The two area terrain pieces are made from the Pegasus barb wire set. The larger enclosed area measures 6" x 6" and represents a minefield in CoC rules, while the smaller one measures 6" x 2" and represents a barb wire obstacle. The posts actually come longer/taller than that which is shown in the picture. They have 3 hooks along their length and I cut them down to 2 for the minefield and 1 for the obstacle, which depicts just the entanglement part of a full wire obstacle.

Klaus checks the guard duty roster for the week.

Minen! sign, which - let's face it - is half the fun of modeling a minefield.

Detail of the Pegasus barb wire and a sprig of tree moss.

Since I have decided to outsource the painting of the figures to a painting service, I hope I can devote more time to making small terrain accents in the weeks before we are ready to play.