Longmyre Reinforcements and Dark Age Obsession

Hi!

I've managed to get my unit of Longmyre militia painted up and based so thought I'd post them up here with some ponderings on one of my other interests, namely the Dark Ages.

Before I head off on a tangent, here's my Longmyre Militiamen:

Longmyre Militia

Constructed from Frostgrave Soldiers, they're pleasingly characterful and suitably grubby for a small, poor and unimportant Duchy sitting on the frontier of the civilised world.

I had been thinking of bulking up their numbers to do a Dragon Rampant style army of them but feel that 28mm is currently better suited to smaller skirmish games so they'll be seeing action in games of Brutal Quest, Song of Blades and Heroes and the likes. I've sent off for some grass tufts as I wasn't 100% happy with the bases of my Orcs so there's still a little work to do to finish them off but we'll see how they look once their bases are complete.

Longmyre Militia clashing with Orcs on the Frontier.

With that out of the way, I thought I'd have a bit of a look at another project I'd started a couple of years ago and then promptly forgotten about, the mythical Dark Ages!

Dark Age Adventurers

Looking back at this stalled project, I had an absolute obsession, collecting books, sourcing miniatures and all sorts of other madness which saw me paint a couple of small bands and then real life got in the way and I immediately forgot about the project.

Now here I am, four years later and thinking about getting it back up and running but this led me to think about how I want to do it and realised I wasn't sure exactly what I was wanting to do with it. I've never been one who can stick to any sort of historical accuracy in wargaming, preferring fantasy and science fiction over historicals but I do find myself drawn to this fascinating period of history which saw the foundation of what would become England.

On the one hand, I'd love to have small skirmishes with bold warriors braving the wilds to face wild beasts from another age, marauding Norsemen or even the odd Fae incursion but at the same time the prospect of mass battles between warring kingdoms or trying to drive off raids from the Vikings also has real appeal!

But what to do! I don't have the amount of time, space, budget or frankly focus to paint up large armies of 28mm figures so a compromise may be required, namely scale. I do think I'll keep painting small 28mm scale warbands of up to maybe 10-12 figures but I want to make use of Lion Rampant to represent larger scale conflicts between raiders, norse and all manner of other stuff and my recent acquisition and painting of some 10mm Risk figures has got me thinking that maybe I can make some larger warbands in 10-15mm scale.

There are quite a few companies out there who produce lovely stuff in smaller scales and I love the appearance of larger numbers of figures (which happen to be cheaper and take up much less space and less time to paint!) on the battlefield.

I'm not going to go mad and buy a ton of stuff but I do think I'm going to dip my toe and pick up a pack or two of figures to see how I get on as I reckon I can make a Lion Rampant army for £25ish quid in 10mm scale which isn't too pricy and would allow me to build several different armies cheaply.

I've still got a bunch of plastic 28mm scale figures to paint up for skirmishes or incorporate into my Longmyre project but we'll see what I can come up with in the coming months!

In the meantime, All the best!

Orcish Reinforcements!

 Hi!

I've finally got round to taking some pictures of my slowly expanding Orcish horde with their newest addition, the Butcher!

Orc Butcher

As with the other figures in the warband he comes from the Hall of the Orc King box that I picked up earlier in the year and have slowly been painting my way through and alongside the big spiky chap from my earlier post, he's been the most fun to paint.

The Warband thus far

Of all the figures in the set thus far the Butcher has probably had the most details but was still a pleasure to paint and actually took less time to finish than the archers did. I've got a second one to paint but have been distracted by other mini projects that have struck my fancy over the last week or so.

Butcher, Gorath's Chosen and Brewmaster

I've been quite motivated hobbywide, despite having limited time and have just finished a 54mm scale Viking chappy who will need basing alongside my 10mm Risk stuff and the Longmyre militia who have been done for a while now.

While I've not managed to concentrate on any single project, I do seem to be making up for the lack of focus by just pelting through whatever catches my fancy at present which is keeping me from getting bogged down and losing interest.

I've also rummaged out my Stump conversions and am eying them up alongside the Dark Age Brutal Quest project I started the other year and am footling around with several other bits and bobs which seems to be my method for actually getting anything done. While it means that completing any single project in a timely fashion is not really working out, I am pleased with the fact that I'm blasting through all sorts of bits and bobs that have been sitting for ages!

I'm going to try and get my Longmyre dudes based up alongside my Viking this evening (if I can find a 40mm round base!) and will post pics tomorrow if all goes well but in the meantime, 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!

Pootling Around in Felstadt

 Hi!

I've been humming and hahing about Frostgrave for a while now. On the one hand, it's been around for a while and gets a lot of support, be it supplements, new miniatures and lots of folks playing it. On the other, I'm not sure I want to play the actual game as its just not quite my cup of tea. I'd prefer to have a more Mordheim style sort of a thing that doesn't focus quite so much on the mad wizards blasting each other with spells.

What I do like is the background that's lightly touched on, that a previously lost city has been rediscovered and bands of adventurers flock to it to explore and plunder the place.

I'm thinking of doing a somewhat toned down version with my bold adventuring party, led by Miss Fisher delving into the forgotten ruins in search of lost relics of a previous epoch and fighting all manner of villains, scoundrels and monsters!

I don't know if it's going to be set in the frozen wastes of Felstadt or in the post apocalyptic ruins of Aeroth or even the stinking boggy mess of Stump but I think it could be quite a fun mini project, especially if I use Brutalquest as my ruleset and build some characters loosely based on the Miss Fisher Mysteries, much as I did with my Inquisitorial team for Rogue Trader.

With this in mind, I nipped to my local model shop and picked up a box of Frostgrave Soldiers and have put the first sprue together to create a bunch of mercenary types to use as friend or foes for Miss Fisher.

I'll post some pics of my progress in the next couple of days but the figures are just what I needed to get out of my hobby slump as they are really easy and fun to paint, especially as I picked up a couple of Army Painter Speed Paints 2.0 at the same time which I've found to be really handy in getting figures done quickly but still looking good!

Once I've got the first five done, I'll post my thoughts on them and see how the project proceeds!

In the meantime, All the best!

Re-Exploring Old Games: Leviathan

 Hi!

I seem to be getting a bit of a post hobby slump urge to look at old games again which is always exciting, until I realise the possibility of actually creating said project it decidedly marginal at best but this got me to thinking about ways I can actually incorporate the spirit of the old games I love into a more manageable format.

For todays update I'll be looking at Leviathan, possibly the game that has obsessed me the most over the years.

Released in 1995, I picked up this book in Mac's Models on the Royal Mile and was blown away by how awesome it looked. As with all things hobby related it then sat on a bookshelf for 20 years as I left the hobby and sold pretty much everything I had apart from a few old rulebooks that nobody wanted.

Skip forward to 2008 and I found myself at university as a mature student and for some reason I had taken my now old and battered copy of Leviathan with me and sat down to read it one evening. This reignited my obsession and over the next couple of years I set up and ran my Leviathan blog:

I initially attempted to collect and paint whole armies of massive resin monsters and vehicles as well as sourcing infantry as well as speaking to the original creators about any further material they had for Earthpower, the promised but never released supplement but the whole thing was too much to do while trying to study at uni as well as working part time with a long commute to boot so things basically ground to a halt.

Over the next decade I've periodically ventured back into the game, using cardboard counters or my own sculpts to allow me to play the game or at least skirmishes set in the world of Aeroth. 

I found the game was pretty playable using counters but lacked the visual appeal of actual miniatures and despite getting in at least one or two games a year using them, I've never really done much more with classic Leviathan as is.

This brings me to today where I once again find myself wanting to explore Leviathan again but to actually go into the miniature side of things a bit more. 

Before I go any further though I realise that I just cannot face collecting all the miniatures for a mass battle game, especially with all the massive resin warbeasts and engines of destruction that were required for Leviathan (it recommends one use an 8'x4' board which I most certainly do not have!).

Coupled with the fact that while I love the old sculpts, the range is showing its age and it also has an awful lot of stuff missing from even the core rulebook which surely makes any attempt to play the game a futile endeavour.

But then I got to thinking about a two prong approach. Was there a way of putting together an army in a smaller scale that would tick the visuals but also allow me to play a game without spending a fortune or needing a large space and is there a way of capturing the feel of Leviathan in a different game? The answer is kind of. The thing is Leviathan has a lot of unique figures that just don't have anything like them in other scales which is an issue that many of my old game collection has: they are unique for a reason and its getting increasingly difficult, not to mention expensive to get figures that fit the vibe. Similarly the post apocalyptic setting makes for a difficult choice for fantasy gaming.

Before throwing my hands in the air and admitting defeat, I decided to look through my rulebooks for other games systems that I could use to play skirmish games which are driven by an interesting narrative that I could port Leviathan and the world of Aeroth into and came up with the following:

My collection of random rules gave me the options of Rangers of Shadowdeep, Frostgrave and Brutal Quest. You may notice I've gone for primarily small skirmish games as that will allow me to focus on small warbands and a small playing area rather than having to spend a fortune on figures. 

Of these options, I must admit that Brutal Quest is a firm favourite as I've played it a load of times and feel its sandbox nature will lend itself to playing games really well in the grim post Death world of Aeroth. Similarly Rangers of Shadowdeep and Frostgrave allow for both interesting warbands and narrative driven play that I really enjoy so I find myself pondering on having a go. 

I'll need to see what I have in my collection but I figure I could easily start with Brutal Quest level warbands of 4-5 figures and expand the collection so I can play either Frostgrave or Rangers of Shadowdeep without too much stress.

But what about Leviathan? I really want to play the mad mass battle game that it is so I'm looking at putting together some of my Tiny Troops to build a couple of armies and see how I go.

While not super detailed, they do give the feel of a proper miniatures game and are really easy to make so literally anyone can build at least infantry that fits the aesthetics of Aeroth. If this works out, I'll post my progress here as usual and may end up using this approach to allow me to try out other games in my collection that I don't have the time or money to invest in collecting armies for.

With this two prong approach, I've some high hopes of playing out at least a small skirmish or two using Brutal Quest and hopefully a classic Leviathan session and if it goes well, I will use it as an opportunity to build upon any successes I have to keep the hobby mojo going!

Gosh! Looking back at this post makes me realise I've basically jabbered on about what I want to do in yet another project that may or may not take off, but I find laying out an idea and working on it does help get the creative juices flowing. Hopefully I'll have something to show for the weekend but in the meantime, All the best!

Colostle Season 2: A New Adventure

 Hi!

I've got a weeks holiday and have spent a bit of time putting together my assorted solo RPG stuff for a campaign of Colostle.

I've played a session or two of Colostle last year and really enjoyed the game but felt that the combat system was a bit simple as its really easy for you to defeat non rook opponents but the actual rook combat was too abstracted, with the result being decided by random card draws.

For this adventure, I decided to mash together a bunch of different bits and bobs to create my own combat system based on Brutalquest as well as throwing in bits and bobs from my Table Fables books. Initially it seemed to have worked out rather well but as I got further into the game, I got overwhelmed with choices and whatnot so I've decided to start afresh using just the basic Colostle rules and a dice system for combat.

I'm also using papercraft tokens to represent my character as well as the assorted heroes, villains and denizens of the Roomlands that he encounters along the way.

I've also been using some random generators from Cairn (a freely available RPG)  and some diy ones I made up to help design my characters which seems to be adding a bit more depth and flavour to my game and will be drawing up the locations I discover and those I meet along the way.

Hopefully I'll be able to post up the campaign as it proceeds in the coming week so watch this space!

In the meantime, All the best!

Planet 28 2nd Edition!

 Hi!

Just a quick post this evening as I'm knackered after a very long and busy day of work but I had to share the exciting news that my copy of Planet 28 2nd edition and it's supplement, Death in the Throne Room have arrived!

I've only had the chance to take a quick peek within its hallowed pages but its a great looking book and I can't wait to see the madness of the festive period to be over so I can delve into it a bit more.

Death in the Throne Room is a setting guide and has an outline of a campaign that looks like it could be utterly brilliant fun to put together some suitable warbands for but I'm refraining from getting too excited just now.

On a related note, Hobby Dungeon has released some interesting supplements for both Planet 28 and Brutal Quest over on WARGAME VAULT under open license from Mammoth Miniatures. 

I've not had chance to look at them other than the briefest of glances but I look forward to delving into them in the future. It's interesting to see that they are using AI art in them which is a topic for another day.

Hopefully I'll be able to crack on and read all this great stuff in the new year but until then, All the best!

Creating Original Characters Part 1

 Hi!

I've been pootling away with more terrain for my tiny gaming board but I'm finding myself in need of some characters to populate my setting so I've had a rummage through my bookshelves to see if I can find some inspiration.

My first port of call is my Rory's Story Cubes, a resource I am becoming ever more enamoured with but I also have my wife's copy of The Amazing Story Generator, a really handy book that allows you to create literally thousands of different characters and their motivations.

Essentially the Amazing Story Generator gives you a scene or motivation, the character or personality and then something to get the story going. It's a really simple idea that uses three different stacks of ringbound cards that allow you to flip to different sections to get the story going.

Now for a fantasy game, having the above sample may result in a bit of head scratching but with a bit of work, it can be made to fit in. For example the first section is fine but by using elements of the following two, it is possible to create a character that belongs in any setting. In my setting of Aeroth, the most reclusive peoples are the Grey Elves who live deep in the Western Axeblade mountains. Also as JFK never existed in Aeroth, he can be replaced by any leader, in this case the spire's ruler has been slain, supposedly by some external villains but the character has discovered that the true killers are actually much closer to home...

So here we have some really interesting ideas for the characters motivations and surroundings but with the use of Rory's Story Cubes, I want to develop the character more so I rolled three random dice to see what caused the hottest summer and got the following:

So the key to what is causing the hot summer is held by aquatic creatures. Again turning to Aeroth, there are several aquatic races who inhabit the world, primarily the Sea Demons but also the Daughters of Leviathan who are both villainous types so my as yet unidentified character will need to venture to the West to the lost coastal cities or even the secret Leviathan lab which lies deep in the Sea of Storms.

Next up, we roll another three dice to see if we can find out more about the characters motivation.

With the above dice, I decided that the character has discovered documents which has drawn them from their home in search of answers.

Finally, we have another three dice to give my character a goal to work towards:

The character then is revealed to be exploring the world in search of something and there's also a bee come up so I decided to incorporate it into my characters gear so they will be using summoned elemental bees to defend themselves and furthermore will have bee themed elements to their design.

So we have a Grey Elf scientist who has discovered that the ruler of their spire has been murdered by shadowy forces within the community, possibly at the behest of his successor. They've left the supposed safety of the spire and are now searching for a way to bring the assassins to justice whilst heading towards the dangers of the coastal regions.

Are they going to be tracked by the shadowy figure behind the assassination or will they fall afoul of the dangers of the wastelands and its marauding gangs. How will they reach the fabled coastline? Will they hire a group of adventurers to protect them on their journey or do they have retainers of their own? Only time will tell!

With the characters background developing nicely and heading towards a region of Aeroth that I've not really explored before it's time to decide on a gender (1-3 male and 4-6 female) and I ended up with Ara Qinlar of Grey Spire.

Ara Qinlar of Grey Spire

The next step will be to delve into Brutal Quest to put together her stats and abilities but I've put together a bit of a concept sketch to give me an idea of what I want her to look like and in my next update I'll go through making her stat profile before I go on to sculpting a figure to represent her in game.

I've been finding the process of using different tools and methods to create characters and settings really enjoyable and think I'm going to set myself a challenge for September to create a character a day and see how I get on!

In the meantime, All the best!

Tiny Gaming Board Terrain

 Hi!

Happily I've got a weeks holiday so I've been working on getting my tiny gaming board terrain made for my ongoing solo RPG campaign.

The board itself is made of EVA foam and measures 180mm x 270mm and was quickly painted with lots of different green stippling to give a grassy sort of a finish to it. I also scored it before painting with a pencil to mark out 30mm squares which my models can move around in.

The scenery is a mixture of EVA foam for the rock piles which came from some play mats I picked up a while back and I probably have enough left to make all my terrain needs for the foreseeable future. The cacti are made from sculpey and quickly shaped before cooking and painting and then mounted on some 30mm MDF bases I grabbed at Claymore.

I still use Brutal Quest for the rules of my solo RPG sessions as it's got a satisfying amount of detail whilst being endlessly bodgeable, not to mention that I'm a big fan of the Brutality points system as it really adds a cinematic element to the game!

I did alter things a bit so movement for an average character is two squares whilst ranged combat is now also measured per square with a shortbow having a 5 square reach for example. Also the rock mounds can be climbed up requiring a successful Agility check to make sure you don't fall and the cacti count as either impassable or dangerous depending on the mood.

I've tried out the simple set up with a few encounters thus far and it's worked out pretty well with 2-3 figures a side but I think I may use a second mat if I'm running a larger encounter.

Thus far I've got some desert or mesa themed terrain built but I plan on expanding this into more temperate with trees and stuff as well as alpine, volcanic and cursed wastelands too, not to mention fungal forests and all manner of other interesting gubbins. The best thing about working on this limited sized board is that with a handful of terrain items, it is remarkably easy to lay out a nice little encounter and store all the supplies in a small box.

I'm working on putting some trees together at the moment and will be making some more base mats to suit the terrain my characters are fighting in but as a proof of concept, I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

I'm also planning on making some more encounters for my characters to fight as my choices are at present a bit limited but expect to see Goblins, Orcs, mutants and beastkin soon as this little project seems to be really getting the creative juices flowing!

Hopefully I'll have a few more bits and bobs finished tomorrow to share but until then, All the best!