Townsbeasts

My better half got us a selection of miniatures to represent all manner of townsbeasts for Burrows and Badgers.

To start with a trio of mice called to the religious life:

Every fantasy village has some kind of tavern right? A hare barkeep and a drunken weasel are most likely found in Bear's Wood's local:

A trio of no doubt fine upstanding citizens (I'm pretty sure that magpie would sell his own grandmother if it'd make a copper coin!):

A mice on her shopping trip and a rather feisty shrew baker provide some life to the market:

A mole blacksmith also plies his trade in Bear's Wood:

There's clearly a somewhat magickal element to Bear's Wood - a seeress and an alchemist can be found offering their particular skills to the local beasts:

My wife also ordered us a trio of special characters - a mouse battledancer, a regal fox assassin, and a thieving mouse:

She also got us the Stoatbart family (I'll need their cart at some point!):

Finally a Mist-Ghast and the mouse-oleum provide a supernatural element to our games:

As always with Oathsworn stuff these required minimal clean up to get ready - Burrows & Badgers is truly a captivating range with lots of charm! I'm sure we'll add more to the collection soon!

Bear's Wood Town Watch

Oathsworn Miniatures held a Great and Small Kickstarter campaign a little while ago and I picked up the really rather awesome Bulldog Knight sculpt:

It's a big 'un - single-piece, cast in resin - there wasn't much tidy-up needed on this chap; no bubbles to fill.

I didn't really have a specific use for it, but when I had it in hand I decided to get him some friends to form a Town Watch for the Bear's Wood - kind of like a neutral NPC warband in between my band of rogues and my wife's sisterhood.

So, with that in mind I hit up the Oathsworn shop and this is what I got!

I'd admired the Weasel Soldier with his crossbow and thought he'd fit right in with the theme of this band:

I also added the two Town Watch-Mouse minis - one with crossbow and one with halberd:

I also added a Shrew Heroine - purely because I liked the mini and thought she'd make a cool second-in-command to the Bulldog Knight!

I wanted to add a little bit of spiritual support (well, magickal no doubt) - so chose the Mole Friar to join the Bear's Wood Town Watch:

Finally, I wanted to include the family pet somehow - the Cat Duellist looked like he could fit in (maybe he's the local Baron's right hand beast making sure the Town Watch are up to scratch!):

As with all Oathsworn minis these are really characterful and needed almost no clean-up at all to prep.  The only problem with looking at the Oathsworn shop is that it makes me want all the things!

Shadowpaw's Company completed!

You may remember a previous post where I introduced the miniatures I'd picked up for my warband for Burrows and Badgers.  Well, I've finally finished them and thought they deserved to be introduced a little more formally here!

My leader is Hildeth Shadowpaw, an ill-tempered ferret with a reputation for using all sorts of cunning and chicanery to secure a victory.  Some have asked her about her purple dagger sheaths, but they get only silence and a look as sharp and deadly as the blades she carries.

Her second is Kennard of Myrce - one of the fox folk that control that land.  He brings a strength of arm that is much needed by Hildeth's company, although he's as wily as the rest of the band to boot.

Hildeth has secured the services of a sorceress of fell repute - Hextilda the Grey.  Hextilda, despite her reputation and that of her kin, is actually a friendly woman who is fiercely loyal to her comrades.

Otho Sharpeye was the first beast to join Hildeth - they formed an unlikely partnership with Otho acting as a look-out for Shadowpaw for whatever nefarious activity she was engaged in that day.  Otho, and his bow, have proven invaluable to the Company on many occasions.

Deryk Redpelt was a footpad long before joining up with Shadowpaw's Company - he was known as the Scourge of the Thimble Mill before he swore his loyalty to Hildeth.

Arnet the Fierce is considered by the other members of the company to be unhinged - unlike most of his folk, Arnet revels in combat; a trait which has made him a welcome fighter amongst Hildeth's band.

Probably the most affable of Shadowpaw's Company, Chatterbox Jenkin is the one most often met by strangers.  He tends to be sent to visit merchants and find out about potential marks - his likeable nature means beasts will open up to him easily.

All of the models were from Oathsworn - while they are really nice sculpts I found them a bit of a slog for some reason.  I'm really happy with how they've turned out though!

Looking forward to sorting some scenery for Burrows and Badgers ready to take on my wife's band soon!

Autumn... well, at least in The Bear's Wood

I decided upon an autumnal theme for the basing for our Burrows and Badgers warbands.  Of course, that meant needing to source some suitable scatters and details.

My absolute must was some fallen leaves - nothing says autumn quite like leaf litter.  I looked around and found some suitable options from Javis. I decided upon the Autumn Fine Leaf Scatter, which I found at Hobbies 24/7.  Their service was super smooth - I'll definitely check them out as one of my options for future hobby material needs.

It comes in its own baggie which is helpful and there's plenty in the bag for both warbands and then some.

Of course, you may know that Serious-Play is one of my go-tos for basing stuff so I searched their extensive catalogue for autumn-themed elements and picked out a few.  First up is their Orange Flowers and Bushes Tufts - I already know how great their tufts are so knew I wanted some to give some pops of colour and texture:

This is what they call a taster sheet - which is perfect for skirmish gamers as it has 52 tufts.  You can buy them in greater volumes if you are a large-army kind of gamer.

I also decided to try some of their lichen - of course it had to be their Autumn Mix:

Just look at those colours! These'll look great on the bases of larger models like my wife's Badger or my Fox.

Finally I picked up a bag of their Creeping Undergrowth in dark red:

This will look great to represent roots, brambles and the like. It's a packed bag too - there's loads in it!

Serious-Play never disappoints, the service was great as always - although I had to get these from their eBay shop as they didn't have the Creeping Undergrowth seperately on their own site for some reason.

These will really help our warbands tie thematically together and to our favourite season!

Shadowpaw's Company

I've prepped our Burrows & Badgers warbands ready for priming - and I've put together a list for my band which means they get their first proper appearance here on the blog! I've not quite decided between Rogue or Freebeast yet though.

Of course, all the miniatures are from Oathsworn.

Here's Hildeth Shadowpaw, my leader (Ferret Rogue):

Her second is Kennard of Myrce (Fox Rogue):

Here's Deryk Redpelt (Weasel Rogue):

Next we have Arnet the Fierce (Squirrel Rogue):

This little chap is Otho Sharpeye (Mouse Ranger):

Here we have Chatterbox Jenkin (Starling Rogue):

And finally we have Hextilda the Grey (Noctule Bat Necromancer):

That little lot (with some kit and gear) comes to 342 pennies - so I can stash 8 to float the campaign kitty!

Burrows & Badgers

After Christmas I had a bit of money and was looking around at the deals and sales that the various game companies were running - Warlord Games didn't have anything that caught my eye, War Banner/Footsore had a good deal on - but I just couldn't decide what to get, Mantic stuff wasn't doing it for me... my mind turned back to a game I'd heard about and seen a few bits and pieces of; Burrows and Badgers from Oathsworn (via Osprey).

So I picked up the book - which is a rather nice hardback:

I'd done my reading and knew that it was the perfect kind of game for me and my wife - cute (and awesome) miniatures, fun setting and character development throughout the life of a campaign.  When I saw the box out on page 8 my thoughts were confirmed:

"Fair Warning - Burrows & Badgers is a game that doesn't take itself too seriously.  The game is meant to be fun for both players, rather than overly competitive.  If you are looking for a tournament game, this probably isn't it.  If you want to enjoy a full campaign, where your characters can change and develop over the course of your adventures, then you've picked up the right book!"

Spot on!

I've also picked up miniatures to provide us with two warbands - a warrior sisterhood for my wife and a diverse cast of rogues and trouble-makers for me.  We've got a great mix of animal species across the two warbands.

We've decided to set our campaign in The Bear's Wood - which is influenced by our local neighbourhood and the nearby woodlands.  I'll share more once we've had chance to actually write up our warband lists and flesh out our characters' backgrounds.

We're really looking forward to giving this a whirl - hoping to pick up a couple of the Sarissa buildings for the game in due course (at the very least a couple of small houses).