Claymore Castings Crossbowmen

I know I say this a lot, but these are some of the best-sculpted figures I own. They are the French crossbowmen recently released by Claymore Castings, which has become my "company to watch". There are 3 packs of 4 figures in this release, so I bought them all. The detail and animation on these figures are just amazing, as is the engineering. The "cross-piece" (bow and bowstring) comes in a separate piece, and as you can see some bows are drawn, some are not, and some have quarrels in them... which means each piece is specific to a figure! At least one of the pieces had the tip of the quarrel on the bow piece, and the shaft on the stock, and one had the hand on the bow piece! And the thing is, everything fits together so well, I bet you can't tell which figure had which combination.

The pavises are from the Perry WOTR European mercenaries box set.

Here are the figures shown separately. About half of them must have played Skyrim, because they are wearing some form of knee armour.

I show the last figure separately, because it is probably my favourite of the lot; check it out: he is holding a crossbow bolt in his teeth!

The next release from Claymore Castings is Hundred Years War knights, which I may not get; but I will be keeping an eye for figures I can use.

The next purchase for this army is likely to be the WOTR light horse box set from Perry, which will be released at Salute this year. After those my army may be considered "complete". I think.

Warhammer Fantasy Spell Markers

I am not a big fan of magic in my fantasy wargames, and my Empire army doesn't even have a wizard. I do field a Warrior Priest though, and he has prayers which he can use to either increase his unit's attack strength or its defence. It can sometimes be hard to remember which one is effect during a turn, so I made a couple of markers for them.

They are just spare bits from my bits box, glued to a plastic 20mm base and painted in monochrome.

Shield of Faith and Hammer of Sigmar

I wanted to make something for my Night Goblin army too, which does have a few shamans (because they can't survive without a few). I assume the spell I will use most often is Sneaky Stabbin', but instead of using just bit of a weapon I decided to use a spare goblin figure I had.

Perhaps I should have based him on a round base to make him stand out, but on a square base he can be used in a unit in case I needed an extra figure.

SAGA - LOTR Edition

fg bought a copy of SAGA: The Crescent and the Cross and we tried the rules using some Lord of the Rings battleboards that he found.

We set up a 4 point game using his Gondor troops and my Moria goblins.

The warbands face off in the ruins of Osgiliath.

The men of Gondor push the goblin archers from their cover behind the low wall and advance!

A goblin counter-attack force the warlord to a corner.

The warlord cuts down a troll... with a little help.

I have read about SAGA but have not had a chance to play it. I had imagined that the game is a bit "gamey", relying on the right combo of dice to perform some super-action that wins the game for you. In reality one seldom has the chance to wait for the right combination of dice to come up as he is constantly under attack by the opposing side.

Still, as a skirmish game I didn't find it substantively different or superior to the other ones we have been playing. Perhaps some of the new rules in The Crescent and the Cross may make the game more interesting?

Hector

Despite the lack of updates, I *have* been painting - just not so urgently as there isn't an immediate project that I *need* to paint for.

One of the projects I have been painting is this "Hector on chariot" by Redoubt Enterprise. I am a little disappointed by the quality of the sculpt and I had difficulty making out how to assemble the chariot as I ordered two which came in separate ziplocs but then I mixed them up and... well, an instruction sheet included in the package or available on their website would have been nice. I have a feeling I did something wrong because the chariot is sort of tilted backwards...

I painted Hector according to the Connolly illustration, which seems to be what Redoubt based their figure on too. I haven't figured out how I want to flock the chariot base, or how I am going to secure the figures to the chariot and still be able to remove them during the game.

In fact, I haven't even figured out which set of rules I am going to use the figures with when I eventually get enough painted for a game, but I do know whichever set of rules I settle on, I will need to track some stats on the chariot using dice.

Because I saw these cool dice-holders from Warbases and I knew I had to use them somehow.

The dice can be used to mark number of javelins, speed of the chariot, hit points/morale of the hero... something.

February Giveaway

Last month's giveaway had a grand total of one participant, so I am upping the ante this month.

Since my last post was about a set of colonial rules, let me offer the following this month:

On offer are Chris Peers' Ever-Victorious Armies, The Kris and the Flame supplement for The Sword and the Flame, and the Colonial Campaign's Ethiopian supplement.

Again, the rules are:

Let me know if you are interested in getting either of the bundles by leaving a comment, and I will draw a recipient on the 15th of the month. This is not a first-come, first-serve offer.
The offer is free; once I let you know you have been drawn, do let me have your email and mailing address and I will mail it off to you. You don't even have to pay for the postage. I am doing this not to get some money back, but to give these rules a good home. If you want to pay back somehow, I ask that you make a small donation to a local charity, or consider doing the same thing I am doing and give some rulebooks that you no longer use a chance for a new lease of gaming life.

Good luck.

Colonial Rules Playtest

I am playtesting another set of rules for Dan, this time for colonial warfare. The rules are primarily meant for individually-based figures, but since all I have for the colonial period are my 15mm Indian Mutiny figures based on elements, I used them for the test game.

I set up a simple encounter battle, where a British/EIC relief force on their way to... some besieged garrison finds their way blocked by a force of sepoys and badmash.

The set-up

The British bring their gun to bear and commence counter-battery fire, while the infantry close in. The cavalry executes a deep flank around the hill to the right. The mutineers counter the move by moving two units to the flank.

A fierce fire-fight ensues. Casualties mount on both sides.

The rebel gun is taken out! The mutineers push their right flank forward. What's taking the cavalry so long?

The cavalry finally reach the rebel flank, but the mutineers are ready for them!

The cavalry is destroyed in a quick melee, and the badmash engage the British left in hand-to-hand combat...

... and are driven back! But the mutineer left flank now turns around and begin to threaten the weakened British centre.

The British fall back and form a new line of defence anchored by their gun; a whiff of grapeshot should save the day: 8 dice, needing 4+ to hit...

Really?

In the end the British were overwhelmed by the mutineers and wiped out. There are not yet any "army morale" rules in the current draft, so it was a fight to the last man. What the game did show is that the force ratio recommended in the rules is about right. I probably should have reduced the shooting skills of the sepoys a bit more, although with the good die-rolls they were making I doubt it would have made a difference.

I think the problem here was that I was over-confident with the British, while I played the mutineers more cautiously; the British should have engaged the mutineers at long range, capitalising on their superior artillery drills and longer rifle ranges (compared to the obsolete ones used by the mutineers, which were the spark that started the whole mutiny). The cavalry was too weak to take on infantry on its own, and should have been held back for pursuit, riding down individual units of mutineers that are suffering from morale penalty.

I think I should give this scenario another go another day.

Blood Bowl Game 4

The apothecary attends to Achilles. In the background the Black Orcess feigns innocence.

First game of the year!

fg and I decided to play a weekday game of Blood Bowl.

The game was particularly bloody, and we each had one player brought back to life by our apothecaries, and at one point in the second half I was playing with 4 players down.

The orcs managed to score a touchdown in each half, while I barely managed to escape a scoreless game by passing to and then sprinting one of my Bull Centaurs to the endzone.

fg's team managed a few more advancements, while mine only managed one - this will make the next game harder for me, unless I can gain some inducement.

D&D Stone Giant Elder repaint

The rules for giants in Warhammer are quite fun, and so I wanted to paint one up for Adrian's Orcs and Goblins army; problem is, the official model is expensive.

After some googling, I got myself a D&D Stone Giant Elder which I did a minimal conversion on to end up with the fellow pictured above. I swapped his head for that of a Warhammer Ogre, and also cut the top half of his soft, curved club and grafted the hard plastic club from the Warhammer Ogre sprue.

Getting the flesh paint done on such a large figure was not easy - I needed several coats before I had an even finish. It also took me a while to decide what colours to paint his clothes. In the end I decided they were mainly leather and fur, and that he used part of a medieval tournament tent as his belt, and the kilt and bucklers from an unfortunate Scotsman for the top half of his... well, top.

One problem with buying the prepainted D&D figures online is that there is usually no indication of the size of the model. Fortunately, this model is just the right height for a Warhammer giant, being 7.5cm from sole to top of his (swapped) head, and would be 10cm if measured he was standing straight.

You can get an idea of his size from the picture below, which shows the 5cm x 7.5cm base I glued him on.

January Giveaway

In November 2013 I gave away a couple of bundle of rulebooks, and I was planning to continue to do so but 2014 started off bad for me. Anyway, things are more settled now and I want to continue to give away some of my stuff over the next few months.

The offer this month is on a copy of Contemptible Little Armies, pictured above.

The "rules", once again, are:

Let me know if you are interested in getting either of the bundles by leaving a comment, and I will draw a recipient at the end on the 15th of the month. This is not a first-come, first-serve offer.
The offer is free; once I let you know you have been drawn, do let me have your email and mailing address and I will mail it off to you. You don't even have to pay for the postage. I am doing this not to get some money back, but to give these rules a good home. If you want to pay back somehow, I ask that you make a small donation to a local charity, or consider doing the same thing I am doing and give some rulebooks that you no longer use a chance for a new lease of gaming life.

Good luck.

2014 in Review and Looking Ahead

The wargamer and friends fend off  attacks from minions of Real Life as they try to get a few games in.
(Frostgrave art from Osorey)

Despite a terrible first quarter of the year for me, we actually managed to play a total of 25 games in 20 sessions this year, which isn't too shabby.

As with the previous year the actual games we played differ from what I expected: OGAM turned out to be less fun than what I expected, we never did continue our RPG campaign, and our Dystopian Wars project still hasn't taken off.

Most of my painting and buying this year was for Warhammer Fantasy: I painted or refurbished close to 300 figures for three separate armies, and have another couple dozen (count as) (The) Empire figures to paint and over a hundred Night Goblin figures to refurbish. We had a couple of practice games this year, and should be in a good position to play some big games next school holidays.

And once again, a highlight of the gaming schedule was unexpected: WW2 Chain of Command. Despite me having to start from scratch and delays due to a mix-up by the seller and what I suspect to be a dishonest postman, Martin and I really enjoyed our short campaign.

Looking ahead I am hoping to play another couple of Chain of Command campaigns: an Arnhem campaign against Martin's British Paras, and the "29, Let's Go!" campaign with fg's US once they are painted. So far I have found a couple of sites with campaign outlines and scenarios for Arnhem, so once I have finished reading "A Bridge Too Far" I should be ready to scale them down for our purposes.

fg and I still have an ongoing Blood Bowl league; Blood Bowl is always a load of fun and an easy option when fg and I are the only players available for a session.

I have also ordered the Black Powder rules and their first Peninsular War supplement, and if Martin and I like them we might be doing some 15mm Napoleonic gaming next year. For this period we have enough French and allies and British and allies painted, but Age of Eagles, our current set, demands too much prep time in the cutting and pasting of the unit labels, and we haven't got as much mileage out of the figures and rules as we have hoped for - perhaps the more "fun" nature of BP is what we need.

One other period I might buy some figures for is our Macedonian War project - the new War & Empire figures may be released for general sale early next year, so I might just get a couple of packs of figures to supplement my Pergamene army.

One thing I am really looking forward to is the release of Frostgrave. Unlike with OGAM, fg and I were playtesters for the rules and so we *know* we like the rules. I hope Frostgrave will fill the niche of the "small warband" fantasy skirmish game which we hoped OGAM would have done - it certainly will be easy for everyone in the group to get into since we already have many fantasy and medieval armies in 28mm to use. The only hard parts for me for this project will be waiting for the rules to be released (hopefully Osprey's acquisition by Bloomsbury will not change the released schedule) and deciding which figures to use for my warband.

A couple of other side projects which may also happen are gladiators and Bronze Age heroic warfare. While we haven't actually found a set of gladiator rules we like, fg is interested in the period and we already have several figures painted, so when we do find one it will be easy to start.

Bronze Age heroic warfare is something I have been meaning to get into, and to that end I have bought several Redoubt Trojan War figures. Perhaps they can be the focus of my painting in the new year.

Well, that's the plan. Let's revisit this post at the end of the next year and see how far off the mark we are!

Chain of Command: Normandy Game 4

Martin and I played the last game of our campaign on Sunday.

For the final game, we depicted a German counter-attack on a British-held village.

The set-up was simple: Martin held a village at one end of the table, and I entered from the other end. I managed to get two Jump-Off Points into the woods near the village, but I needed a bit of heavy support to get across the open ground.

For once I am the attacker and I managed to get some decent support in the shape of a StuG. I planned to suppress the Brits with HE fire, and then gain a foothold when they evacuate a building, then proceed to reduce another one. Martin on his end chose a second 2" mortar as his support, and proceeded to lay a sea of smoke in front of my StuG. With only 4 Command Dice and a starting Force Morale of only 5, I could not remove the smoke. At the same time, Martin's PIATs took potshots at my StuG.

The StuG makes its entrance.

A flurry of activity in the village.

After several rounds of waiting for the smoke to lift and then trading ineffective shots, I changed my plan and had the StuG drive round the woods on the left so it would be exposed to only one of the PIATs. This soon paid off as I managed to eliminate the squad in the building on the left. My infantry crested the hill, ready to charge into the building on the right once the StuG has supprssed the squad inside... and then the StuG got hit by a PIAT round and became immobilised and the crew panicked and failed to support the infantry.

Caught in the open, my infantry squad was cut down by fire, and the attack failed.

The PIAT finds its target!

I enjoyed the campaign very much, and we plan to do an Arnhem campaign the next year. This will of course require more buildings than we currently own, but I have the feeling we can use the VSF terrain boards fg and I have made but never used for the city streets.

I have just purchased some OO scale pdf buildings from Scalescenes to see if they can be a cost- and time-effective way to have a decent urban terrain done up. The kit doesn't look easy to assemble, but hopefully the result is worth the attempt.

Plague monks done

The three metal figures I ordered arrived and I managed to complete the unit.

The next figure to be painted is a giant, and following that will probably be the new crossbowmen figures from Claymore Castings which I just ordered last night (along with 4 more pikemen to bring my unit of pikes to a horde).

Goblins of the night...

What a din they make!

Here are two of the hordes of Night Goblins I have refurbished.

As with the skavens, I have bought them mostly painted off ebay and will be organising them into units. Night Goblins are probably one of the most uniformly painted Warhammer armies since they are always dressed in black and have, well, green skins (although I have seen pictures of them painted to look like Smurfs...), so it is rather easy to integrate figures painted by different painters into a single army; I am also lucky that the previous owners have used a similar scheme for their basing, so hopefully with uniform movement trays they will look like a cohesive force.

I have bought enough Night Goblin figures that, together with the ones Adrian owns, will allow me to field a 2000-point all-Night Goblin army, which I think looks pretty cool. I have more than a hundred of these little guys to go, which will probably keep me busy for the next few months.

fg came over for a game of Blood Bowl this afternoon. We played to a draw again - it seems our two teams are rather evenly matched.

After the game we finished watching the John Woo movie. It has a really hilarious ending, which I won't spoil for you - but if you are looking for a silly movie to watch over the year-end holiday season that is "so bad it is good", I once again recommend it.

You can find it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHliqlsig90

Photo Dump

Uploading some photos of my figures for some planned project...