Dark Age Brutal Quest Project: Adventurers!

 Hi!

Sorry about the quiet spell here on the blog but with work, an exploding oven and other odds and ends I've not had much time to get on with the important business of hobbying but I have finally finished my first three adventurers for my Dark Age themed Brutal Quest project!

Osgard Thane of Farpoint (centre) leading Beorngar (right) his trusty drinking companion and strong right hand and Ceolwyn the Fyrd (left).

Osgard is the Thane of Farpoint, a small fortified settlement on the border of the great forest known as The Wode Wood, a wild and untamed place inhabited by fierce beasts, bandits and at least one court of the Fae. As such, Osgard is often forced to venture forth into the ancient wood to deal with the many threats to his land.

While Farpoint is a small settlement, it lies on the ancient Roman Road that still acts as a trading route that connects the many scattered settlements that make up the Kingdom of Lost Albion and Osgard is determined to keep his holdings free from the ever present threat of both the wilds and the Northmen who have been raiding ever further inland in the last few years.

Beorngar the Black is one of Osgard's most trusted henchmen or dugud and has served as both staunch shieldbearer and drinking companion over the years and his family call Farpoint home. While a taciturn fellow, Berongar is a well respected warrior who has fought at his lords side for over a decade.

 

Ceolwyn is a Freeman who holds a farmstead just outside the settlement of Faerleah and has answered his. Thain's call to duty and while he is relatively poorly armoured, he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the area surrounding the settlement, partially due to his skill at poaching. 

Shield designs

The figures are all Victrix Anglo Saxon's and were lovely figures to work on with crisp detail and painted up surprisingly quickly. I had intended to get some of the rather lovely shield transfers that Victrix do but ended up going for some vaguely historically accurate hand painted designs. I have tried to settle on using mostly muted colours for the project with brighter elements being reserved for shields and the odd bit of gold here and there and am quite pleased with how it's turned out thus far.

I hope to expand on the setting a bit in the coming week to give a rough outline of the area and the assorted denizens of the frontier and have a few figures that I'm working on at present which I hope to finish off tomorrow which will add a few more interesting elements to a mini campaign I'm thinking of putting together in the coming weeks.

While my setting is going to be loosely based on Anglo-Saxon Britain circa 800AD, it is going to be its own distinct place which resembles the country but is also quite different as there will be lost legions of Romans, the Fae and other, exotic characters making an appearance as well as a bunch of NPC's and a few monsters too! 

Somewhere on my old laptop I have a load of gubbins about an alternative Britain that I wrote up about a decade ago where the Fae returned to reclaim the land and I plan on incorporating elements of it into this so there will be plenty of excuses to introduce all manner of interesting bits and pieces as I go...

Osgard's party clash with Churlish bandits on the outskirts of the Wode Wood

It may take quite a while to flesh it out but I now have enough figures painted to get a start with the campaign so expect to see a battle report this weekend with Osgard and co setting forth to deal with some bandits who have been plaguing outlying homesteads and travellers along the old road.

In the meantime, All the best!

Super Tiny Giant Battles Kickstarter

 Hi!

Nick Evans, creator of Brutal Quest and Planet 28 has a new kickstarter going for his rather fun little micro game called Super Tiny Giant Battles and I thought I'd share the kickstarter link here as I've been enjoying Nicks other games so much over the last months.

The Kickstarter can be found HERE and it's well worth a peek as the digital version of the rules is a mere £3.00 which is less than a cup of coffee while the physical rules which comes with paper armies, battle mat and even some dice is £10.

Nick has promised to post up a breakdown on how the game works in the coming days and I've decided to back it for the digital version as I'm looking for a simple set of rules that will allow me to expand my Dark Age skirmishes using Brutal Quest into something a bit more epic and I am a big fan of Nicks rules which are simple but elegant and can easily be modified to allow one to do pretty much whatever they want. 

Coupled with the rather wonderful artwork that evokes old school Warhammer and reminds me a bit of Gary Chalk, Fighting Fantasy and those little illustrations one used to see in 5th edition Fantasy Battle you can't really go wrong!

I suspect I'll substitute the paper armies for some Irregular Miniatures 6mm but I'm really looking forward to seeing how the game works and look forward to getting the chance to give them a spin in the coming months.

In other news, I'm still working on my Brutal Quest painting and have begun work on the last of my Saxon retainers for my adventuring party and even managed to play a quick test game the other evening with two adventurers taking on five lowly bandits. Despite the heroes winning the game, they didn't make it through the encounter undamaged as the bandits managed to wound both before being driven off leaving two of their party dead.

I'm really enjoying the game so far but need to tweak a few things here and there to make it more suited to what I'm trying to do, be it add a few new weapons or downgrade the armour a bit as the heavier armour is nigh on impervious to normal attacks and even with the boost of brutality points, it can be a real struggle to defeat heavily armoured knights. 

Fortunately the Dark Ages featured mainly leather and chainmail so its a limited issue until I get the members of the Byzantine Delegation I've got planned finished...

Still that's ramblings for another day, in the meantime, please do check out the Kickstarter as I've really enjoyed the last two Nick has done and All the best!

Dark Age Brutal Quest Project Part 5: Fyrd and Lost Legion

 Hi!

I've managed to get some photos of the assorted gubbins that I've been working on over the last couple of weeks and have finally got round to posting them here!

First up, there's my Lost Legion:

Representing a cohort of Caesar's XIII legion, also known as the Gemina who were dispatched to Britannia in 55BC in search of a valuable artefact for Caesar and vanished into the mists only to reemerge over 800 years later, these were test pieces initially but I liked how they turned out and have found myself adding a small faction of them to my setting!

I have re-worked them a bit to give them less pallid skin and redone bases to add a more grim and grimy feel to them and am really pleased with their new finish and am now looking to pick up a sprue of Gladius wielding ones as well as a command sprue to give me some leaders...

Next up, there's some lowly Saxon Fyrd:

 

I must admit that I really enjoyed painting them with a limited palette of greens and browns and game wise, they will probably represent lowly levy troops or even bandits and as such I went with a bit of a random mixture of weapons and equipment. I think I need another sprue of them to give me some more options for some low level opponents for my adventurers to slay and am also after a couple of archers to give them some more effective ranged firepower.

One of the best things about playing super small skirmish games is that forces are generally pretty cheap and quick to put together with the Fyrd costing me about £3 and the Lost Legion being free with Wargames Illustrated! 

I'm currently working on getting my Anglo Saxon adventuring party built and painted before moving onto some Vikings and beasts but I'm really enjoying the project and looking forward to getting enough painted to play some games in the not too distant future (once I've got some decent scenery built!)

A Lost Legion patrol clashes with some Saxon Fyrd

Hopefully I'll get the three adventurers finished this week and will post further progress when I do and will start fleshing out the setting to boot. I've also got loads of reading to be getting on with so we shall see how I get on but in the meantime, All the best!

Dark Age Brutal Quest Project Part 4: Down the Rabbit Hole

 Hi!

Well it's been a couple of weeks and I've got a week of holidays under my belt but have found myself having to self isolate as I may or may not have Covid. Huzzah!

On the plus side, I seem to be obsessing over Dark Age reading materials and have been working my way through my assorted bits and bobs and happened across these two whilst at work (pre Covid lurgy!):

I must admit that I'd picked up Kin on a whim as the cover was cool but once I started reading it I found myself drawn into the amazing world of the Dark Ages where history, myth and magic are all rolled into a really great murder mystery with a fantastic cast of characters and it's well worth a peruse as the writing is top notch!

Smile of the Wolf is a blood soaked retelling of a feud in 10th century Iceland and it's also fantastic stuff and give a more personal account of the period rather than the sweeping battles of Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom series.

I've also been steadily painting my way through my Brutal Quest stuff but with a cough that seems to await the very moment that I put paintbrush to miniature to manifest itself so I've had to settle for assembling the Victrix stuff I picked up recently. They're absolutely beautiful sculpts and when compared to the Gripping Beast Saxons and Caesarian Legionaries that I have been working on they're very much like comparing GW plastics from the late 90's and early 00's (Gripping Beast) and modern GW (Victrix) as the level of detail is fantastic and the sculpts themselves are dynamic enough to be interesting without being over the top.

Thus far I have the four test piece Romans completed who will be making an appearance as a lost legion who has spent the last 800 plus years lost in the Fae realms before reappearing in my fantastical version of Britain in approximately 800AD. They've also had a bit of reworking from the photo above and I'm far happier with how they turned out.

I also have the bulk of my Warlord Games Saxon Fyrd done and quite like how they are turning out, especially with their limited palette but I've not managed to get any photo's yet but will attempt to get some tomorrow but I'm also finding myself rather bereft of any suitable Grim Darkage terrain so will need to get some odds and ends put together which will allow me to play a game or two once I have the figures finished!

Once I've got all these elements sorted, I will need to fish out some fantastical elements to add to the mix and have a few bits put aside for the project and will update my blog as I get them done but until then, I'm off to lie down and All the best!

Dark Age Brutal Quest Project Log Part 3: Miniatures Arrive and Testing the Waters

 Hi!

I've got the delivery of my assorted gubbins for my Brutal Quest mini project set in an alternative Dark Ages but before I set to painting them I wanted to test the waters and see if I could paint something in a different style from my usual bright and cheery 90's way and something a bit more grim and grimy.

With that in mind, I noticed that the new Wargames Illustrated came with a sprue of Caesarian Legionnaires from Warlord Games and I grabbed it to use them as test pieces for my new project. 

Primed black then given successive drybrushes of grey and then white in as close to a zenithal style as I could get without spray paints (I fished my rattle cans out of my cupboard and discovered they'd dried up some time ago) and then painted in a quick and grimy fashion with quite a few washes of browns and rust.

I also changed my usual flesh tone, moving away from a healthy and rosy tan to a pallid bone with a brown wash. It worked out pretty nicely and despite repeated panics that I was making a big mess, I think they turned out ok and I now plan on painting up the remaining two to complete the set. I do want to do something a bit more interesting with the bases, be it add some scatter material or some fallen leaf litter but they look a tad bland with just a drybrush of brown and some static grass. 

Still I've now settled on a style that should work out pretty well for some Dark Age Mythological shenanigans and I plan on trying some different washes for the remaining Romans to see if I can get a more interesting finish that doesn't look quite so unhealthy...

I had originally ordered a sprue each of Victrix Saxons and Vikings and really am impressed with the quality of the figures and look forward to beginning on working on them. 

I'm really impressed with the combination of bits, dynamic sculpts and mixture of armoured and unarmoured figures and reckon I have enough to represent a couple of decent sized warbands which will be a good starting off position for the project.

I also accidentally ordered a set of Warlord Games Saxon Fyrd (UPDATE: They're actually Gripping Beast plastics!) at the same time and while the detail is not as crisp and the figures somewhat more simplistic, They're pretty cheap and will make decent low level Levy, ruffians or angry villagers.

My plan is to get the two test Roman figures out the way and then paint 3-4 Saxons and a similar number of Vikings which should allow me to get some games of Brutal Quest in before adding some more fantastical touches, be they monsters, ancient beings or some souped up humans and I will be posting battle reports of my progress as I make it so watch this space but until then, All the best!

Dark Age Brutal Quest Project Part 2: Gathering the Troops and Further Reading

 Hi!

After finding myself drawn to putting together a bit of a mini project for Brutal Quest set in the Dark Ages I've been doing a bit of reading and perusing of the charity shops to see if I can find some more interesting source material to pull ideas from and found the interestingly titled Bloodfeud for a princely 50p!

It's proving to be a rather interesting book on a quick flick through and for such a paltry sum, I couldn't resist it! But all this reading and planning requires some miniatures to fight in blood feuds, quests and other skirmishes and after a bit of a ponder, I settled on picking up a sprue of Victrix Saxons and one of Vikings:

As Brutal Quest only requires a handful of figures, I figure that the single sprue of each will give me a decent selection of stuff to get started with, especially as the Victrix sprues come with a mixture of armoured and unarmoured figures and the reviews for them have been really positive too.

With a smidgen of a grounding in the history of the era, I am fairly sure that the historical purists will be outraged by the inaccuracies I plan on playing but the more I read, the more ideas I seem to be getting and while my version of the Dark Ages (or early medieval as is apparently what it should be called but doesn't sound so exciting) may well end up being a fictional setting similar to England in the 9th century but it's own thing with elements drawn from various sources and with a fair amount of imagination but its proving to be fun!

For visual inspiration, I've been perusing the rather wonderful art of Angus McBride who illustrated many of Osprey Publishings books over the years and its rather wonderful to boot. Combine a bit of Blanchitsu gribble, a pinch of muted paint tones and I will see what I can put together but in the meantime, All the best!

Dark Age Brutal Quest Project Part 1: Introduction

Hi!

It's been a bit quiet here for the last week or so as I've been super busy with work so I figured it was high time to get back to the blog and post something new!

Earlier this year I backed Brutal Quest, the fantasy version of Planet 28 and I've rather enjoyed playing it using my Boar Company and their assorted friends and foes but I found myself pondering on trying to use it for something a little bit different, namely a low fantasy version of the Dark Ages featuring Saxons, Vikings, the odd Fae and various other bits and bobs.

A little bit of rummaging in my library at home and the history section at work and I have some historical reading materials which have been really fun to peruse and I am starting to get a bit of a feel for the sort of vibe that I want to try to replicate on the table.

I must admit, I am not entirely sure what has got me onto this train of thought but I am going to pick up a couple of sprues of assorted Saxons, Vikings and whatnot from Ebay and see what I can come up with and plan on trying to do some Dark Age of Sigmar style painting with the figures.

The best thing about Brutal Quest is that I only need 2-3 heroes and a small selection of foes to make a game of it so it works out, I may try a similar project going for an Arthurian theme as I'm rather liking the prospect of a fantasy game that is rooted in British myths and legends as there are so many fascinating elements to draw on.

Similarly, for my games I only use a 2'x2' board so it won't be too onerous a task to build some more realistic terrain to cover it and I'm quite excited to have a try at making some themed terrain for the project too!

 If nothing else, I am really enjoying reading about periods of history that I had only a passing knowledge of previously and I'll see what I can get done in the coming week but in the meantime, All the best!