Ramshackle Games

 Hi!

Just a quick update today as I'm still busily painting some more Orcs for my Longmyre project but wanted to post a quick post about Ramshackle Games.

Giggles Clanner

Over the years I've painted a few of Curtis's sculpts and I do love the sheer personality he gets on each of his figures as they've got absolutely tons of character and almost paint themselves.

I noticed a post over on Facebook from Curtis saying he was in danger of going bust as orders had dried up and it looks like he's now got the opposite issue as several hundred orders have piled in but I thought I'd add my two pence worth with a bit of a recommendation as his stuff is a perfect antidote to the modern trend towards 3d printing and I do recommend folks take a peek at his site as he's got a wonderfully eclectic range.

Heres a link to RAMSHACKLE GAMES  site if you're interested in having a peruse. His Nuclear Renaissance game is rather fun too and I do like the equally quirky setting he's created as well.

I've also produced some assorted fan art of Curtis' gubbins:

If I didn't have a tight budget on the hobby front, I'd be placing an order too and possibly even basing my 2025 project around a Nuclear Renaissance style post apocalyptic shenanigans!

Hopefully I'll get some more Orcs finished before we head off for a much needed weeks holiday in Shropshire this weekend but if not, All the best!

Longmyre Progress

 Hi!

I've got the day off work and have managed to get the pics taken of my Orcish raiders that I'd picked up a couple of weeks back.

The miniatures themselves are chunky plastics made from a Restic type material which does take detail quite nicely with the only downside being that the mould lines are a wee bit difficult to clean off as they need carving rather than filing.

Style wise, they're maybe a bit more realistic than the older GW style cartoony Orcs but they will do the job for a low fantasy setting like Longmyre!

The Orc Gladiator is quite a nice piece and the set comes with two identical sculpts so I'll have another one to add a second higher level fighter to encounters.

The spearmen are nice figures and the first I painted of the miniatures in the set. There's enough detail to make for an interesting and satisfying figure to paint without it getting overwhelming. I believe the figures are digitally sculpted and it does showcase the issues with the medium as the spearmen's faces are a bit soft in detail and I feel it's the case of what looks good onscreen doesn't always work too well in physical form, especially with plastic casts.

Saying that, they're still nice additions to the bestiary that will give me some goons for my heroes to do battle with.

The archer is possibly the most intimidating of the figures of the group which is interesting as he seems more physically imposing than the spearmen or gladiator. Again the face has a bit of soft detail around the mouth that gave me pause on what was supposed to be what. With that said, he does look great once painted!

I've played a couple of skirmishes using Brutal Quest with them against some mercenaries and while they've lost both times, I've come to fear the archer as the amount of damage he does when he hits is absolutely brutal (no pun intended!) so think that I'll be limiting how many I'll be featuring in most skirmishes so they don't unbalance encounters.

In other news, I've sent a bunch of games that I've got the PDF of to get printed and bound with the idea of playing some more small simple skirmishes and re-exploring some of the games I played years ago but have fallen by the wayside over the years and plan on posting a wee review of each once they arrive.

Longmyre Frontier Watchtower

The setting of Longmyre continues to grow and I'm looking forward to delving into the project as the months progress and I'm now needing to paint a few hero types to do battle with the marauding Orcs I've painted!

Fingers crossed, I'll get another few Orcs painted over the coming week but in the meantime, All the best!

Brutal Questing Five Leagues

 Hi!

I've got the first four Orcs from the box I picked up earlier this month nearly finished but I've been perusing my copy of Five Leagues from the Borderlands with the vague idea of using it as the basis of my Brutal Quest campaign.

I do love the campaign system that the game has and the rules for games themselves are pretty nice and simple but fun but the only snag I've found is that I'd need to get a chonk more miniatures painted than I'm able to so I plan on smooshing the two rulesets together to allow me to do something a bit more modest.

I've used the system to create my adventuring area and am working on populating it with some interesting denizens, locations and whatnot over the next few weeks.

Longmyre

At present its looking like the town of Longmyre is being menaced by Beastkin and Bandits as the enemy within and Orcish raiders as the enemy without and its going to be up to my heroes to do some investigating and fight the assorted villains to secure the region.

Lady Cynthia

Our patron is Cynthia, the ruler of the small and rather inconsequential fiefdom that consists of winding rivers and cold lakes, wild moors and not much else so the sudden outbreak of disorder and unrest seems to have sinister undertones, possibly fuelled by the nearby kingdoms of Arcadia and Dulac whose constant feuding seems to be spreading to the otherwise peaceful Longmyre.

Already several farmsteads in the Barrens to the south have been torched by bands of roving bandits and now Orcish raiders have been sighted to the north from their usual stomping grounds in the Near Endless Plains.

Longmyre Moors

I've tied this all into a mini RPG I've been pottering around with too as Cynthia has her hands full dealing with a corrupt mayor who seems to be working with the underworld and her house troops are thinly stretched patrolling the wilderness so she's decided to hire us to try and discover what is behind the unrest and hopefully deal with it.

Its a bit of a ramshackle affair but the project is already seeing me playing games, creating background and even painting miniatures and generally enjoying myself so fingers crossed, I'll be kept busy throughout the year pulling together some suitable miniatures and then playing out an ongoing hybrid of RPG and Miniatures game coupled with ongoing worldbuilding and whatnot.

While I'd love to go for all physical miniatures from the get go, I do think that I may have to incorporate some paper standees to get me going as my painting is very slow and I suspect that its going to take at least a couple of months to get enough stuff painted, even for a small project so we shall see what I can do in the meantime to actually get some games played.

Hopefully I'll get the fourth Orc finished tomorrow and have them all based up for my next day off and will keep updating as I go but in the meantime, All the best!

Brutalquest Project: Hall of the Orc King

 Hi!

I have been footling about trying to settle on a suitable project to start the year and happened to be perusing Game in Perth when I spotted they had several boxes of Epic Encounters in their sale. 

A little pondering later I ended up picking up a copy of Hall of the Orc King for £25, reduced from almost £40.

Aimed more at the RPG crowd, it none the less has 20 chunky Orcish types along with a built in campaign that suits the sort of narrative driven approach that I'm trying to do.

The set comes with nine different sculpts which are of a decent quality, especially as they worked out at 80p each with a mixture of troop types, characters and even some rather nice cavalry to add a bit of spice to encounters.

You get four Orc cavalry mounted on bears and wielding bows and short stabbing spears. while each sculpt is identical, I plan on doing a wee bit of conversion work to them to give them a bit of individuality and they're surprisingly nice figures to boot.

You also get three archers and three spearmen. Fairly workmanlike poses and sculpt quality but should be fairly easy to either sculpt on a hat or do a head swap. I'd actually like to have had another basic troop type with something like a sword or axe but I can always add to the mix at some point in the future.

The first of the specialists are a bit odd, Orc Brewmasters with a barrel of Orc Ale on their backs and spiked tankards to thrash people with, the second specialist is a Gladiator who comes with a pair of swords and a bad attitude.

Next up are the heavies, a pair of half troll types with spikes growing out of them and heavy flails and two Orc Butchers who wouldn't look out of place as 15mm scale Ogres. These two sculpts are probably my favourites of the set as they've got tons of character and I'm really looking forward to painting them.

Finally you get the Orc King himself and a Shaman to back him up. Interestingly, for the key characters in the set, they're pretty dull but will give me some characters to lead my Orcs on Aeroth. I suspect I'll do a head swap on them and eventually upgrade them to something more interesting but as already mentioned, they cost 80p so I can't grumble too much.

As a whole the boxed set is well worth the cost and comes with a battle mat and campaign book too which is nice (although the infantry figures are based on 30mm rounds and the map is gridded for 25mm which seems a bit silly). 

The sculpts themselves are pretty nice and look like they'll lend themselves well to a coat of paint and the plastic they're made from is better quality than some manufacturers as none of them have wobbly bendy weapons and the sculpts have an interesting level of detail without being too busy.

I'm hoping to paint up some basic boys to act as villains and plan on chipping away at the set as a whole over the next few months until I get the lot done and if I add say a few Gobbos and an Ogre or Troll to the mix, I think I've got enough stuff for a nice campaign in the making.

I'm hoping to get a sample figure painted up in the coming weekend to see how I get on with them and will post an update when I've got it done but I'll be keeping my eye out to see if Game do any other sets in their sale (I'd been sorely tempted to pick up some Heroquest supplements they had in the sale but I've not got the core set yet so thought it may be a bit silly to get add ons rather than the basic game).

We shall see if this rather random addition to my collection helps in the hobby slump but I'm quite interested to see how I get on with them and would recommend folks take a peek in their local shops to see if there's any bargains to be had...

All the best!

2025 Planning of a Sort

 Hi!

So here we are in 2025 and I thought I'd post a bit of inspiration for myself.

First up, I'm going to have to face facts. There is no way I've got the time, space or indeed motivation for any big projects this year. I had hopes to finally make a decent attempt at Leviathan but until I have some more spare time and indeed space for gaming, I think I'm going to have to shelve that particular project for a while.

What I do think I can manage is something more modest. Namely some teeny warbands for Brutal Quest or Planet 28.

Both rulesets are wonderfully simple but fun and I've had a great deal of enjoyment from using them over the years, especially as I only need 2-3 figures a side and a small gaming space which really lends itself to narrative driven and character based projects which suits me more than a larger warband or army based project.

Now I immediately have a bit of a spanner in the works of getting gaming going in early January as our kitchen ceiling is finally getting fixed after a full twelve months of hassling the letting agent from upstairs whose previous tenant so kindly flooded our kitchen with their crappy washing machine on repeated occasions. I'm so relieved its finally getting done but it does mean that I'm expecting workmen wandering in and out for the best part of a week while the ceiling comes down and is replaced, plastered and painted.

While this gets done, the hobby time will be taking a back seat but I plan on using the time to continue fleshing out my Aeroth, Farpoint and Stump settings with a bit of a vague idea of creating a crib book for each which will be incorporated into my mini campaigns.

I have a lot of ideas I want to work on this year and I do have hopes that I'll be able to make a bit of a bash at getting them developed beyond nebulous planning and into something that will keep me entertained and motivated!

In the meantime, All the best!