Wild Blog Post Appeared!

The best laid plans of mice and men and all that.  But, I’m still here, I’m still at least thinking about hobby, so that’s a win right? Between a resurgent depression (managed to not follow through plans though so that's something) and *gestures at world* it's all been a struggle.

But anyway, a few bits by way of update since my last (failed) attempt to get back on the blog horse:

Black Ops
I’ve purchased two small forces for games of Black Ops – from CP Models 15mm range.  I’m going a bit imagi-nations with this, making the bad guys a paramilitary wing of the Freemen-on-the-Land movement and the good guys a special task force trying to take them and their utter nonsense down.  I’m planning quite a bit of fun terrain for this one – although I’m trying to stay the right side of post-apocalyptic looking! (whilst Zona Alfa waves frantically in the distance)

Kobolds & Cobblestones
When looking at my available scenery for The Silver Bayonet I decided to see what else I could conceivably use the same buildings and scatter for.  Well, Kobolds & Cobblestones seemed a good fit – and with Ral Partha Europe’s Demonworld range it was easy enough to put together a couple of gangs’ worth of miscreants.  I opted for the Dwarf Loan Shark and the Orc Warlord characters to lead, pretty much simply because I could get the suitable-looking single minis from RPE!

En Garde!
A further spin-off from the scenery contemplating, this is a very small project pitching Landknechts against an evil warlock of some kind.  The miniatures came from Alternative Armies and are as much an excuse to paint some Landsknechts in a less uniform style than my 10mm Empire force as anything else.

Rampanthammer
I’ve added a third army in the form of a Skaven force.  A mixture of Magister Militum’s Ratmen and 3D printed bits and bobs – got a few more bits being printed to finish this army.  As I will have some 10mm jungle and Aztec scenery I’m toying with adding Lizardmen as an opposing force (although of course the four armies can fight each other for reasons) – if I do that will be from Eureka who have all the good stuff I’d want for the scaly chaps.

Malifaux
I've kept adding bits and bobs to the stack of boxes awaiting their time on the hobby table.  Most recently the Explorer's Society and Outcast starter boxes and a few random single minis for OOK purposes.

Outremer
I've decided to shrink the scale of my previous Outremer stuff - so out with the 28mm and in with the 15mm (waiting on an order).  This will allow me to get double-duty out of most  of the scenery I'll need for The Burning Sands and free up some storage.

As for future plans I think I’m aiming to mostly add finishing touches to existing projects so that I can really start to sink my teeth back into the practical side of the hobby rather than the theoretical and acquisition side!  More scenery across the board is a given – 10mm Rampanthammer scatter/detailing, 15mm Modern paramilitary camp, 15mm The Burning Sands stuff and .  Beyond that there’s a few more Malifaux boxes I want, mostly the Malifaux Burns new title master boxes for my favourites – although I do intend to finish off the Umbra keyword too; and Jedza still catches my eye! 

Anyhoo – the best place to keep up to date with me is probably Twitter (I’m in the friendly hobby bit, honestly, it’s a good vibe!) and I'll be ramping back up on The Wargames Website especially for Rampanthammer as that's the best place for 10mm WFB style stuff, but I fully intend to update this blog, particularly with my ham-fisted attempts at writing background fluff and any interesting WIPs, and anything I actually complete painting! (no laughing at the back!!)

Naffatun Mercenaries

Since I first picked up Outremer I had ideas of introducing a Naffatun mercenary option - these fire troops are too interesting to leave out!

I wasn't sure whether to go for Bomb or Syphon options, but when I was gifted a pack of Perry Miniatures Naffatun I didn't have to choose - so I'm planning one of each in the collection! I picked my favourite two out of the pack - but of course with Perry, they were all good!

Salim al-Sarrah (left) and Qabisah ibn Masruq (right)

I'm working on rules that I'll share when a draft is ready!

Théodard the Mute

I spotted an eBay seller offering some individual Carnevale miniatures - one of the minis for the Vatican faction caught my eye as having potential for Outremer. Called a Martyr and carrying a huge cross I thought it would fit right in as a mercenary for the Christian warbands of Outremer - I've called him Théodard the Mute.  Here he is prepped for priming:

I'm still working on rules, but I'm currently thinking he'll be fairly tanky with limited damage output - but the cross will offer some kind of buff to the faithful... anyway, that'll get some further thought before I share it on the blog!

TTCombat Streets of Venice

I picked up a really good deal on a Carnevale starter set (with extras) and while it comes with street/canal tiles and lots of awesome buildings - and even a gondola! - I knew I'd want some additional scatter terrain to add some life to the table.

Well, it's no surprise that TTCombat have a range dedicated to support their re-release of Carnevale, so I picked up some of their resin packs to add to the collection.

First up, a set of 3 Round Wells:

Two are whole and capped off, the third is broken (asking for a little water effect I guess!).  I think I can probably use these in Gangs of Rome and Broken Legions too.

I also picked up a set of Barrels:

Containing 12 barrels of various sizes, this will come in handy for all sorts of games - pretty much anything fantasy (Burrows & Badgers, Dragon Rampant, Mordheim, Frostgrave), historical (En Garde!, Outremer, TPL, Gangs of Rome) or both (Broken Legions) can make use of these versatile little pieces.

I thought it would be good to add to the Gondola that came in the Carnevale pack for some water-based scenery.  I got the Noble Gondola:

As well as an ornate Gondola (including cushions!) the pack includes three gondola poles to add to the canals for games of Carnevale.

I spotted the Floating Detritus pack and couldn't resist:

The pack includes 14 pieces - from small barrels to collections of wooden junk.  They are all sculpted to look as thought they are floating on the canals of Venice (or the waters of Port Royal).

While finalising my order I came across the Wood Scaffolding MDF kit:

These will help provide routes up to building roof tops in Carnevale, but will also work well for Gangs of Rome in particular.

Variety is the spice of life... or something like that!

Coming up the only source for tabletop gaming was GW - of course, I was aware of the concept of historicals and a handful of other systems but GW had such a headlock on the high street presence for gaming that it was the only option most of us ever really had in the UK of the 90s.  Remember, this was back before the internet was anything like it is today – if you didn’t know someone who was already into a system then you weren’t likely to find it on your own.  Growth was slow back then and most of us tended to stick with GW games.

Now, I’m not going to bash GW here – from what I hear they are doing better things game-design wise these days and they aren’t all about 10,000 point armies any more (permit me the hyperbole - that’s how it felt when Apocalypse was first released).  In fact, much of what I see in Kill Team and Shadespire etc. I greatly appreciate the concept of.  I’m just not keen on the aesthetics of modern GW miniatures… although Blood Bowl keeps calling me, I can’t lie!

Of course, regular visitors will know I maintain a love of what I call the OGSG (Necromunda, Mordheim and Gorkamorka in my case) – these are long-term projects I’m chipping away at as an ode to my gaming past.  That certainly won’t change!

But, on to what I am particularly enjoying (playing/painting/armylisting/plotting) at the moment, and why:

Osprey Wargames – what I call the blue book series.  These books provide such a range of settings and styles of game for a great price – probably the highest profile of the blue books is Gaslands.  It seems to have crossed over beyond us wargamers into part of the general tabletop gaming community – perhaps it’s that X-Wing style manoeuvre template vibe.  It’s a fun beer and pretzels style game (or Pringles and Pepsi in me and Trials of a Casual Wargamer's case!) with an easy entry level (grab a couple of cars from Poundland or similar and away you go!).

But there are lots of other interesting games in the blue book series that have encouraged me to delve into worlds and time periods that, when I was a less mature (attitude not age!) gamer, I might have ignored.  Of particular note is that they are mostly skirmish (or similar) – which means having multiple forces for either the same/different game(s) is a far more affordable prospect!

Here are some of my personal favourites from the blue book line:

Chosen Men – Napoleonics without the need for 100s of miniatures, this sparked a force to represent the 1798 Irish Rebellion.  Scratches an itch for an era of history that I never knew I had!  It plays pretty smoothly – cavalry are particularly brutal.

Outremer: Faith and Blood – Crusaders, Saracens, Military Orders and campaign progression, with a playing card-based activation system.  And if, like some people I’ve seen online, you don’t like the setting, then treat it as bands of knights fighting for riches in the medieval land of Generica; sorted.

 
Broken Legions – now, this needs a campaign fix (on the long list of homebrew projects) but mix ancients and fantasy and you get this game about competing warbands of treasure/artefact hunters with added random monsters of myth.  Got loads of warbands for this one – and even homebrewed a new one to represent the Kingdom of Kush (Africa always gets overlooked except for Egypt and I wanted to put that right in my own little way).

Dragon Rampant – the fantasy …Rampant book, this has replaced WHFB for me.  Some criticise its somewhat limited variety of fantastical elements; but then I’m the type who will just homebrew and houserule anything and everything I feel so I’ll add anything I feel is missing.  In that way, I view this as a fantastic toolbox ruleset – and while I’ve got plans for 28mm armies, I keep turning my attention to some 15mm for this one too…

The Pikeman’s Lament – the pike and shot version of the …Rampant books.  I didn’t expect to be hooked by this setting, but despite not having the strongest emotional connection to the era, I still have put together a lot of options for an Irish Confederation force (with redshanks mercenaries of course!).  There’s just something about this ruleset and era that has now intrigued me!

I’ve got projects for various others (En Garde!, Ronin, Rogue Stars and more) but the ones above are my initial priorities (although project/paint queues jump a heck of a lot in ADHS HQ!)

Bolt Action/Konflikt’47 – what started as a ‘why not’ to spread my hobby wings has become probably my most played game ever at this stage (although Across the Dead Earth runs a close second I’d guess).  It became my first fully painted army ever (although I do have a few newer bits awaiting the paintbrush!) and the battles between my Germans and Trials…’s British are without doubt the most entertaining, narrative and bloody games I’ve ever had.  Of course, a lot of that is down to the awesome custom scenarios Trials… writes and the incredible tables he puts together for it.  I’m very grateful to have such a talented and awesome gaming partner-in-crime!

Infinity – these are the pinnacle of science-fiction miniatures for me and the setting has completely captured my imagination (I’ve also picked up the RPG).  The ruleset is almost off-puttingly complicated; but I’m viewing this as a challenge to help improve my mental health.  Seriously, most rulesets I have are quite straight-forward when it comes down to it; and even then I tend to forget most of the special rules or specifics – I believe this to be largely attributable to my poor mental health; but I know that by exercising my brain more it can (and hopefully will) improve memory and comprehension!

Darklands – this is the fantasy reflection of Infinity to me; some of the finest miniatures out there, great lore and setting, dense as all hell rulebook.  This presents the same challenge as Infinity, but I will endeavour to overcome it – the stash of metal and resin I have for it demands no less!  I think these will probably jump up the queue when my metal Maiobhanagh eventually get made as I’m planning an Escalation-style approach to my armies and they are the main missing piece of the puzzle.

There are loads more I could mention – I’ve got so many projects and ideas floating around my head it’s inevitable that they will appear here at some point, so if you are interested in the breadth of the modern wargaming hobby please check back!

O:WiC - Mercenaries!

As part of Operation Winter is Coming I've prepped and based some mercenaries for a few of the games in the collection.  First up is Onkólithos, a Cyclops for Broken Legions:

It turns out (with a bit more detailed digging) that this sculpt was done by Bob Olley for Ral Partha (as part of the Crucible line).  It's a big mini and a nice chunk of lead.

Next up is William de Chartres, a nasty mercenary foot knight without morals for Outremer:

Like some of the other metals in my Outremer collection this one is from Crusader Miniatures.  It's a nice simple mini with a classic attacking pose.

Finally we have Zit Turnip, a goblin highwayman for Mordheim:

This little chap came as a freebie when I ordered a warband from the ShortWars range.  It's a mad sculpt with a shock of spiky hair - but he'll fit in well with my eclectic collection of mercenaries for Mordheim.

Operation Winter is Coming

Last year (before I started the blog) I ran what I called Operation Winter is Coming on my Instagram.  The idea came from talking to my wife about what to do hobby-wise one day - with winter fast approaching (and therefore the cruddiest of cruddy weather here in the UK) we came to the conclusion that it made sense to concentrate on the prep, assembly, basing and priming of miniatures to get them done and ready for the rainy, wet and colder nights and weekends.  Well, this year I'm taking the same approach to ensure I've got plenty of stuff to paint! (even though the backlog is real)

So, I've sourced and sorted bases to make my hobby supplies look a bit more healthy:

Most of the plastic bases are Warlord Games, the MDF are from the superb JB MDF Wargames Products. I've used them on a few occasions now and I'm always very happy with both the service and the product. I'm hoping to also get some of their scenery; their Adobe stuff looks spot on for Outremer!

So, current plans for Operation Winter is Coming is to compile, prep, assemble, base and prime the following projects:

MacSweeney's Company - Irish Confederation/ECW force for The Pikeman's Lament
Forannán's War Host - Irish Dark Ages force for Saga
Gobzalo Pizarro's Conquistagobs - Goblin Conquistador warband for En Garde!
The Atholl Brigade - Highlander Jacobites for En Garde!

Hopefully I'll get all this in place ready to prime when the weather permits!

Mercenaries of Outremer

There are a couple of mercenaries listed as options in the Outremer book.  Well, as you might have seen from my Mordheim and Necromunda hireling posts, I do like mercenaries (and the variety they offer for modelling, painting and gaming) so I went about assembling them.

First is the Varangian Guard.  I used a Fireforge Russian Infantry sprue to make the rather menacing looking Ivar Bæglir:

I wanted a really heavily armoured look for this Varangian - and of course he has the iconic axe!

The other option in the Outremer book is the Hashashin.  I found a model in the Perry Miniatures Muslim Armies range - in the Civilians pack.  Here's Ubaid of Jabala:

I deliberately wanted a quite unthreatening looking mini for this lethal assassin and think this fits the bill!

Finally, in Miniature Wargames magazine an additional mercenary was published - the Mutatawwi’a. Of course, I had to cobble something together to represent this fanatical warrior and thanks to some left over Gripping Beast Arab spearmen sprues I made Hawari Abdul-Azeem:

Now poor Hawari here ran the risk of looking a little too much like his comrades in my Saracen warband.  To counter this I did two things: had no other spears in that warband, and gave him a different style of shield (from the Fireforge Russian sprue).  I'll also make sure I use a different colour scheme for him to make him stand out.

I'll be trying to keep on top of other mercenaries as and when the rules are released, but for now this is a good start I think!

Military Order - Getting Started

Hopefully you've seen my other Outremer getting started posts - here's my final one (well there are only three factions in the book!) - a Military Order warband.  I've gone for a Knights of St Lazarus theme as, let's be honest, they were (and are) pretty cool.

As always with these things, it started with some sprues and some metals:

In every warband there's a leader - and this one is led by Sebastianus de Marsico (left), a devout knight of St Lazarus.  Of course, the Order hasn't neglected its spiritual needs and he is accompanied by (l-r) Father Clement, Brother Jacob and Brother Focard:

Sebastianus is made using Fireforge Games sprues (thanks to a box splitter) and the Men of God are from the Perry Miniatures Crusaders range.

The Knights of St Lazarus are, naturally, the first warriors I added to the warband.  Here we have Gérard (left) and Octavian (right):

These were from a Fireforge Games sprue too.  I wanted a couple of real heavy hitters so made these with double-handed weapons.

Of course, I needed a couple of 'classic' knight-types too, you know, sword and board guys! Here's Bartolmeo (left) and Raymond (right):

These are Fireforge again.  I'm quite pleased with how dynamic these two turned out!

Now, in Outremer a fully armoured knight is quite slow, so I knew I needed some ranged punch to help keep enemies at bay.  This is where some Sergeant-Brothers come in!  Here's (l-r) Matthaeus, Marcus, Lucas and Iohannes:

Overall I think this is the warband I'm looking forward to painting up the most!

The Saracens - Getting Started

To balance the Crusader warband I've previously posted about, I thought it important to get a Saracen warband too!  So, in my now traditional manner, sprues and some metals was the starting point:

As always I needed a leader (left) who I named Jibril ibn Qatadah al-Tayyib.  He is joined by the learned Imam (centre) named Sulaiman al-Nabil and his second in command (right) Ishaq ibn Bakr:

These all came from the excellent Perry Miniatures Muslim Armies range.

I added a couple of second tier warriors - professional melee fighters - who I named Hamzah ibn Sabur (left) and Muqatil ibn Talhah (right):

They are both from the Perry Miniatures range again.  Hamzah got a spare shield from a Gripping Beast sprue.

Next we have some low tier warrior options (l-r) Mahmud, Malik and Tahir:

These were made from a Gripping Beast Arab spearman/archer sprue - although Tahir got an axe made from a spear arm and an axe-head from a Fireforge sprue to mix it up a little.

Finally I added some bow-armed peasants to help show the ranged prowess of the Saracens.  Here we have (l-r) Da'ud, Ghalib, Rashid and Hassan:

Just like Crusader peasants these guys can specialise as tradesman as a campaign goes on so they can end up bringing some useful skills to the warband.

I think the miniatures, while from different manufacturers, work well together and I'm looking forward to choosing a colour scheme for Jibril's warband.

The Crusaders - Getting Started

Just like with my Broken Legions stuff, Outremer: Faith and Blood (again from Osprey's blue series) offers me a chance to enjoy a different game, exploring a different era, with different styles of model in a very affordable way. Of course, in a game ultimately about the Crusades, it would be a bit weird if I didn't have a Crusader warband!  So, picking up a few sprues and some metal minis I put together a warband of Frankish zealots.

Of course, every warband needs a leader and in this case it is a Knight who I have named Adelbert de Stavelot (centre).  He is joined by his loyal, but possibly psychotic squire Bernard de Stavelot (left) and the ranting preacher Farther Norbert (right):

Adelbert and Bernard are from Crusader Miniatures (their Later Crusades range) and the priest model is from the always-superb Perry Miniatures (Crusaders range).

The next tier of fighters are the men-at-arms type; I've gone for one ranged specialist and one melee focussed chap.  Here's Médard (left) and Letard (right):

Médard is another Crusader Miniatures model with an added shield from a Fireforge sprue for some added survivability.  Letard is made from a Fireforge Foot Sergeants sprue and carries a rather wicked mace.

Further down the chain we have a couple of hairy pilgrim types.  These are Poppo (left) and Ebbo (right):

These guys were made from a Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warrior sprue.  Nothing fancy, but give me some low-cost melee support options.

Of course, it'd be a bit silly not to have some ranged options, so some bow armed pilgrim types were in order.  L-R we have Dudon, Fulk and Brice (not of Nice):

Again these are Gripping Beast minis, this time from a Dark Ages Archer sprue.

Finally I thought it made sense to have some low-tier fodder - over the course of a campaign these guys (if they survive) can specialise into tradespeople giving all sorts of useful skills.  L-R we have Abbo, Odger, Pepin:

Handsome chaps aren't they?! Handily, these nicely used up the remainder of the Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warrior sprue.

I'm aiming to give these guys a colour scheme tied to one of the coats of arms associated with my family name - no way I could recreate the real coat of arms though!