Galdo The Exile

Hi!

Ive just finished a couple of new characters for the Axeblade Campaign:

Galdo the Exile and Grigor the Squire

Galdo is an exiled Knight of the Eternal Light. In his youth he was disgraced for killing a fellow knight and exiled into the Axeblades. He took his faithful squire Grigor with him and has spent the last thirty years roaming the Axeblades attempting to atone for his crime.

He has joined a Dwarven supply convoy part of the way as rumours have surfaced of the long forgotten temple of Arizhiva, the Angry God and is hoping to find it and finally end his long exile.

I've also started work on some other bits and pieces which will get photographed as soon as possible!

All the best!

Axeblade Mountain Reference!

Hi!

Well I am slowly working my way up to getting the Axebite Pass campaign underway! I have almost got the map finished (it just needs some mountain replacements as I killed the old ones) and some suitable forces and I will be ready to go!

The Endless Plains as seen from the Axeblade Mountains

I hope to flesh out the campaign before it gets underway but heres a quick bit of info on the background:

Background

A full twenty five years have passed since the Elves sundered the last great seal unleashing the Fallen upon Aeroth. Now the Dwarves have unsealed the gates to their great holds and are venturing out to explore the changed lands in hope of carving out a life in this strange new world full of terror and wonder.

Unfortunately the Orcs have been busy during this time and now infest the region bordering the Axeblade mountains. A great council of the remaining holds has been convened and it has been decided that the Dwarves must regain their ancestral lands from the foul invaders.

Orcs and their Goblin slaves are not all that the Dwarves must face as rouge and debauched Elves with their Fallen minions encroach from the West, Human barbarian kingdoms lie to the North and even in their underground fastness dark forces are stirring.

Another View From the Axeblades

Initially I plan on starting small and limiting the forces to Dwarves and Orcs with the occasional monster thrown into the mix but hope to escalate matters with new forces ranging from Elves to Barbarians and even some Fallen!

I will be posting more information on the progress of the forces as and when I get chance but hope to get a game in tomorrow representing the Boar Companies scouting activities!

All the best!

An Updated Map Part 6

Hi!

Alas I still haven't finished the modular map but its rapidly getting there!

Heres a couple of rather poor pictures of it:

Fortified Town

Map In Various Stages of Completion!

Alas the lighting has turned it orange but I will get some proper ones taken once its all finished!

I am finding the project oddly compelling as the tiny details are really fun to make. With elements like tiny towns made from balsa and forests of pipe cleaners its proving to be quite a lot of fun!

I now have a series of cliffs and escarpments done too and hope to get the lot painted up this evening!

By the time I have completed it the area surrounding the Axebite Pass along with all the surrounding settlements. With this map I can then get my campaign underway as soon as I have some army and flag counters sorted out.

Its nice to see that the project is finally coming together as it will be one less thing on the to do list!

All the best!

An Updated Map Part 5

Hi!

Well I have finally started work on my modular map project to help chronicle the Axebite Pass campaign!

At present I have over a load of plain, road, forest and mountain tiles in varying stages of completion along with an assortment of towns, cities, fortresses and ruins for my forces to fight over!

With a little luck I will have the lot done by this time tomorrow and hopefully some pictures too!

An unexpected benefit of the new map is that it is suitable for both 2mm gaming and aerial combat!

In other news I have got some work done on my Technomancer Guilders! The 28mm stuff has been languishing in a box since I conceded defeat in painting them a month or so ago. I have re-undercoated the various smaller machines and am half way through painting them up. I still need to find some suitable infantry for them but will no doubt sculpt them once I get chance.

Hopefully I will be able to get some more regular updates sorted out too!

All the best!

Leviathan and Crucible in 6mm!

Hi!

I seem to have worn myself out with my Leviathan project so am going to be taking a bit of a break from painting the big stuff and experiment in playing Leviathan and Crucible in 6mm scale!

The plan is to place a small order with IRREGULAR miniatures for two small forces, one of dwarves and the other of orcs. I have calculated the cost to be about £5.00 each which is nice!

The two forces will see action in games of both Crucible and Leviathan as at that scale they should be fairly interchangeable. I will also get to work sculpting a couple of warbeasts for them!

I will be fielding the following forces:

DWARVES

Crucible

1 Grandfather, 131

1 Knome, Null Bomb, 64

20 Shieldmen plus Leader, 334

20 Shieldmen plus Leader, 334

10 Thunder Chiefs, 230

10 Thunder Chiefs, 230

5 Ornithopters, 115

Total 1438

Leviathan

1 Level 3 Hero, H. Armour, Shield, 75

10 Guards, Shields, Standard, 332.5

10 Guards, Blunderbuss, Std, 347.5

2 Multi Barrel Launchers, 230

2 Wargolems, 212

2 Thunderhammer Battle Tanks, 280

Total 1477

ORCS

Crucible

1 Chieftain, 114

1 Shaman, Tough, 120

10 Skirmishers, 200

10 Skirmishers, 200

10 Skirmishers, 200

20 Warriors, 380

15 Warriors, 285

Total 1499

Leviathan

1 Level 3 Khan, M. Armour, Shield, Necrosaur Mount, 196

1 Level 1 Khan, L. Armour, Shield, Spear, Necrodon Mount, 55

10 Orcs, Bows, 295

5 Orc Necrodons, Spears, Shield, 200

5 Orc Necrodons, Bows, 220

2 Carnosaurs, Bows, Spears, Shield, 170

1 Necrosaur Harpoon, 215

1 Necrosaur, Bows, 145

Total 1496

As you can see, each system has a very different layout of unit sizes. Leviathan is more of an armoured combat game while Crucible is a mass battle one. I am settled on using multiples of 5 for my units as I will be counting each base of troops as five models (each base will have between five and ten figures on it though but it looks better for mass combat effect!)

The Dwarves for Crucible will be relying on two large blocks of heavy infantry backed up by two smaller units of ranged troops and a skirmish force of ornithopters, while their command is the Grandfather who excels in both ranged and close combat. I also included a Knome to give me some magical protection and with a few points left I may get him another couple of spells.

For Leviathan the Dwarf force is split between the infantry who will be protecting the artillery pieces and the armour, golems and tanks who will move forward to engage the enemy.

The orc force in Crucible is formed of a mass of infantry, both skirmishers and warriors who will try to use their weight of numbers to smash the dwarven lines. They are led by a chieftain to add some muscle to one of the warrior units and a shaman who has used his magical skill to toughen up the large orc unit so it can better withstand the powerful thunder rifles.

In the Leviathan force I have gone for a highly mobile army of assorted warbeasts with a few archers to back them up. I will need to use the warbeasts to engage the dwarven armour as quickly as possible so they don't get chance to annihilate me with their powerful cannons, I will use the orc cavalry to close with and engage the infantry.

Most of the infantry will come from Irregular Miniatures with the cavalry, artillery,war engines and beasts being sculpted by me!

These will form the opening battles of my Axebite Pass campaign which will see the orcs trying to break through the dwarven defences and invade the lands beyond. Some of the games will take place in the dwarven underholds that extend under the mountains, while others will be meeting skirmishes between scouts.

I will post battle reports, painted samples, new sculpts and a blow by blow account of the campaign as it develops!

All the best!

Wargaming on the Cheap?

Hi!

I have been wondering if it is actually to collect an entire force for £10 or less.

Back in the day when I first started gaming GW sold 3 tanks for a tenner and the same price bought you 36 imperial guard. Fantasy wise, figures were £1.25 each which meant that ones money went quite a way. Nowadays its a different story with many figures costing £10+ each!

The best option seems to either go for the cheap Mageknight or Dungeons and Dragons pre-painted plastics or to choose a different scale!

The first option has its plus points as I have in the past used a similar approach to get some rather nice figures cheaply. However, one must be prepared to have slightly soft detail and somewhat bendy figures plus a lack of variation as most have a single sculpt for any given miniature.

I did well with the other option over on my Stainless Steel Rat blog where I managed to get quite a pile of lead for relatively little outlay by electing for 15mm scale. The choice to play mainly skirmish games aided this but for fantasy, I sometimes want to see a large-ish army.

I have also got very little gaming space at present so collecting an army of any real size is out of the question and I am attempting to make do with skirmish forces for my Leviathan project.

I do however want to be able to play larger actions from time to time as my Axebite Pass campaign will call for a mixture of skirmishes and several pitched battles so how can I represent this without spending a fortune or running out of space?

The answer seems to be with dropping the scale down dramatically. The reduced space, price and painting time are all attractive and a massed army can look really spectacular too!

Therefore I am looking into placing a small order with IRREGULAR MINIATURES, who produce a vast range of figures in 6mm scale that could solve my dilemma. I have painted their miniatures before and have been struck by just how nice they look when painted (unpainted they look really quite rough which is really off putting).

Irregular 6mm Miniatures Painted By Andrew Taylor

As you can see from the image above a splash of paint can have amazing results!

As to the gaming surface, I plan on building a small gaming board, perhaps 2x2' which will allow me to play a decent sized game and can easily be stored. It will also give me the opportunity to test out my 28mm army lists quickly and without spending too much. An added benefit is that the units painted will be generic enough to be useful in several different systems!

I will post my progress as and when I can but I figure I will be able to get the first few rounds of the campaign season in relatively quickly using this approach!

All the best!

An updated Map Part 4

Hi!

My order from WARBASES arrived this morning and I have to admit that I am really pleased with them! My previous experience with them was somewhat less than stellar but this time round the order was just what I was looking for!

Hex Bases!

Now they have arrived I will be able to get on with my map project! Hopefully I will be able to get a test piece done by the end of play tomorrow!

In the meantime heres a picture I found online which sums up my idea for what Aeroth looks like:

View From The Axeblade Mountains!

I want to avoid the usual cliched European look of the setting as the background clearly says that Aeroth doesn't look like that anymore but is a blasted desert!

All the best!

An updated Map Part 3

Hi!

I've mapped out the rough region of the Axblade mountains which will be the setting for my Axebite Pass Campaign!

Axeblade Maountains

Once my wooden hexes arrive from Warbases I will get to work texturing and painting them into a decent topographic representation of the campaign map. Once this has been completed I will need some counters to represent settlements and castles and some armies!

I am also considering having a part of the campaign fought beneath the ground in the vast maze of tunnels and caverns that spread underneath the Axeblade region. This will probably involve skirmishes between Dwarven tunnel fighters and Orc scouts, but also give me the opportunity to involve all sorts of underground dwelling beasties to torment both factions!

As you can see there is also an elven citadel on the west side of the mountains, this will be an independent empire that may take a hand in the campaign. There may also be a number of undocumented barbarian settlements in the northern section of the map who are not averse to raiding baggage caravans or picking off stragglers. It also provides the Orcs with the possibility of raiding the villages for supplies and slaves and a possible source of allies for the dwarves!

Hopefully I will have stuff up and running soon, including a few completed hex tiles so folks can see what I am up to!

In a related topic, I was watching Land of the Lost Volcano, a BBC nature programme the other day and they visited an island with an active volcano on it which gave me some ideas as to what the terrain should be like on much of Aeroth!

Volcanic Ash!

I also spotted this image and it made me think what a fantastic board that would make!

Hoodoo

Its actually a rock formation called a Hoodoo! I plan on using it for some of the locations in Aeroth but making a tiny version of it for my campaign map is very tempting!

All the best!

An Updated Map Part 2

Hi!

I've ordered a couple of packs of hex bases from Warbases and have found that Games Workshop has a copy of the first edition of Mighty Empires available as a free download. After a quick peruse I have found that it will make a good game in its own right and i will be attempting to get the Axebite Pass campaign started up as soon as possible.

This will involve me texturing the bases into the required mountainous country of the Axeblade region, the mountain range that splits the lands of Aeroth in two with the blasted wastes of the elven empire in the west and the endless plains of the orc hordes in the east.

The campaign itself will be fought primarily between the dwarves and the orc hordes and should give me plenty of opportunity to get some games of various sizes done!

I will begin work on the background ASAP but for those of you interested in a preview heres the first page of a report on one battle from the Leviathan Rulebook:

As I get the project underway I will add the rest of the report!

All the best!