Lockdown Day 81: Fantasy Ponderment

Hi!

As I mentioned in my last post, I have had a bit of a wobble with my hobbying and have decided that I needed to take a bit of a break from the unrelenting posting of new stuff every day and instead want to spend a bit of time pondering on how to get the mojo going again.

To get the ball rolling, I want to look at what, in an ideal world I'd like to pursue as a bit of a project. Some of these will be sheer madness to try but I do like a bit of wishlisting as it may give me some inspiration that might even get me going again!

First and foremost, I've found myself fascinated by the Oldhammer movement that has grown so spectacularly over the last four or five years. There's something really fascinating about seeing miniatures I remember from my youth painted to a modern standard and love to see folks brilliant armies. A good example of this is the Oldhammer Army Challenge, where a disparate group of gamers spend six months painting up some really original armies.

Back in the early 2000's I actually had a mighty Dwarf army that I spent quite a bit of time painting but they got sold off when I went off to uni in 2008 and since then I've struggled to get the impetus to manage anything similar.

There is the occasional urge to try out something similar using a mixture of more modern figures but I just never seem to summon up the energy to make a go of it. I think part of the issue is that I am so used to painting skirmish forces that painting whole regiments just leaves me cold.

With that being said, I have also pondered doing a 15mm scale version as it's relatively cheap and cheerful option that combines the detail of the larger scale and affordability (especially as so many of the old Warhammer figures are becoming ruinously expensive second hand). There is also the space factor in that I only have a 3'x3' board so playing the likes of Warhammer in 28mm is a bit of a stretch.

I've also had quite a bit of success with 6mm as the scale is really easy to paint and it's quite possible to put together a decent sized army in next to no time at all and for very little outlay. Again, the issue here is that while the visual spectacle of lots of teeny tiny figures is quite good, the lack of individual detail isn't as pleasing.

I'll really need to finish painting the little guys at some point but onto the next ponderment, some of the other older or niche games that I'd really love to paint an army for:

First and foremost, I'd love to get back into Chronopia as it's got such a great combination of artwork, background and miniatures that was fantastic back in the day when it was released. The downside is that the figures are almost impossible to get hold of as many of them suffered from leadrot and proxying is a bit of a challenge too.

There's also Crucible, another great game with an interesting setting and unique factions but never got the interest it deserved. Whilst technically still in print, only the first two supplements got released and many of the miniatures never got a release.

Leviathan is another game that I've obsessed about for ages and even made several attempts to collect a warband and breath fresh life into but it always stalls, partially because my own take on the game is different from the official one.

Instead I spent quite a bit of time sculpting my own, stylised figures that gave me great satisfaction and over the years the small warbands have expanded and campaigns have been played but I've not done anything with them in over a year now.

I'm both keen to give myself a challenge and I'm just not sure what to do about it, as I've already mentioned, it's not like I don't have lots of stuff I'd like to do but I just don't seem to be able to settle on anything. It's quite frustrating as I do want to put together some fantasy gaming but I just don't have any success with it!

Kuld

I've tried out War of Ashes and really like the progress I've made and maybe a combination of continuing with my own sculpts for it and my Somewhere on the Border project is the way to go but there is still the siren call of fantasy games of a more traditional style. 

I've actually been pondering trying out some Mordheim as I do like a bit of a skirmish campaign so maybe this will be a good option as it would allow me to scratch the 28mm scale Old/Middlehammer fantasy itch whilst not spending an age trying to paint whole armies which I know I'll never do.

I think I'll need to have a bit of a think about what my options are over the next few days while I continue my ponderings. I also think I need to have a clearout of the stuff I'm not going to use as it's causing me stress so combined with all this, I think I'm going to post some gubbins on ebay to see if I can't both clear out some space and give me some pennies to spend on a new project...

In the meantime, All the best and thanks for persevering with my rambling post!