Osprey Wargames

Hi!

Over the last couple of years I've picked up a fair number of the Osprey Wargames series and have been swithering about the possibility of putting together some small warbands based on them.

First off, there's Dragon Rampant and Frostgrave, possibly the two best known of their games.

Both games have a strong following online and seem like rather a lot of fun but neither have quite clicked with me and I'm not quite sure why.

Next up there's Of Gods and Mortals, written by the creator of Song of Blades and Heroes and Kobolds & Cobblestones:

Both of these games look rather good but I've not really delved into them, possibly in the case of the Song of Blades driven Of Gods and Mortals I am worried it will involve a lot of pushing backwards and forwards rather than any decisive combat ala Song of Blades and with Kobolds & Cobblestones, I suspect I'd need to sculpt my own stuff to do the fantasy gang theme real justice.

I've also got Burrows and Badgers!

It's a beautiful looking game with nice figures and illustrated by Gary Chalk but yet I still haven't been tempted to pick up any figures (which are absolutely fantastic looking!) and start building a warband.

I've also got Rogue Stars, a game that was hugely anticipated but vanished without trace upon release (and I can see why!). Lastly, there's Horizon Wars, another very well received game that pits giant robots against each other in skirmishes which allows you to also use more conventional forces:

I could probably play a game of this fairly easily using my Epic collection but thus far the most I've done is peruse the rulebook and it's just not clicking with me.

Maybe it's because so many of the rulesets are generic or maybe I'm being too picky but it almost feels that they are all missing that certain something that makes a game great. Saying that, the games are all very simple and straightforward rules wise (other than Rogue Stars which is just a bit dull) so I'd love to hear from folks who have played and enjoyed any of these games and hear your opinion on them!

In the meantime, I am having to trudge off to work so All the Best for now!

English Civil War With A Twist

Hi!

It's been really busy with work of late with a last minute book festival to deal with but I've been putting a little bit of thought into a 15mm fantasy project and have found myself thinking of doing a bit of a twist on the English Civil War.

I've been looking at Peter Pig's most excellent range of English Civil War miniatures and am thinking of using either The Pikeman's Lament by Osprey publishing (with a little tweaking with Dragon Rampant) or Baroque by Dadi & Piombo which both look interesting and can be played with smaller numbers of figures than a grand scale sort of game.

Ye Rules in Question

I'm in the early stages yet, but I shall post some updates when I can but quite like the idea of trying out a new period of history (even if it won't be historically accurate!) and will post an update once I've settled on what exactly I am going to do!

Hopefully I'll get chance to sketch out some ideas in the next week or so but in the meantime, I think I am going to crack out some books and get reading as the Civil War period is fascinating!

All the best!

The Siren Call...

Morning folks!

It's been a while since I updated the blog but with lots of Real Life goings on, I've not really had much chance to do anything hobby related for ages.

My return to 15mm sci-fi gaming has really reinvigorated my hobby interest and I've rather enjoyed putting together lots of random terrain and painting some small chaps to fight over it but it has got me to wondering about doing something similar for the fantasy side of things...

Now I've tried 15mm fantasy before with my Slann warband and Dwarf Troops that I put together a couple of years ago but sadly both got sold off when I moved house as I had lost interest in the projects.

 Slann!

I've been thinking of putting together some smallish forces with vague hopes of playing some fantasy gubbins, be it an edition of Warhammer or Dragon Rampant but have been putting off any decision as I am just not sure what exact scale to go for.

Dwarves

While 15mm is a fantastic scale to work with, I have seen some amazing stuff done in 10mm, 6mm and even 2mm scale that has me wondering if I can scratch the fantasy itch in a more micro scale sort of way on a similarly micro budget.

I must admit that I am rather conflicted by what to do as on the one hand, I'd love to collect a force in classic 28mm scale but know that is just not going to happen. The next option of 15mm is sorely tempting as figures cost an average of 40p each and have enough detail to be characterful without taking an age to paint and still have enough personality to make for an interesting painting project.

10mm seems to be getting a lot of fantasy gamers interest too with Minihammer being quite popular:

Minihammer Bretonnians (image by Lord Gnarkill over on the Ninth Age forum)

There's a lot to be said for putting together a decent sized force and being able to play a couple of thousand points of Warhammer on a 2'x3' surface and I've seen some cracking armies too but outwith human armies, the available ranges are a bit spotty.

Moving down to 6mm, I actually have a decent Horned Folk force put together for my take on Leviathan:

Horned Folk

Sadly there's not too much choice in the UK for 6mm fantasy at the moment. Irregular produces a large range but I must admit that I have struggled with painting them and the Microworld range, while lovely is a US import that makes it rather too expensive for the purposes of what I am going for.

The final scale I have been looking at is the teeny tiny 2mm:

Tiny 2mm armies (pic from Steel on Sand)

At this tiny scale, individual figures are pretty indistinct but one can get the impression of huge armies duking it. At this scale, as with 6mm, things are going to be more suited to the likes of Warmaster than Warhammer but it might be an interesting project to attempt if I'm feeling a bit mental.

It's all a bit perplexing and I seem to be rather stuck on just what to try, if anything as the urge to try is becoming ever more difficult to resist!

Maybe I just need to experiment a bit as I do have some 15mm, 10mm and 6mm fantasy gubbins kicking about my bits box at the moment so I think I will just need to sit down and try painting a few test figures and see how things go...

In the meantime, I hope to get some more sci-fi goodies added in the next couple of days so watch this space!

All the best!

Squigs Spotted!

Hi!

Sadly I'm down to my last couple of days of holiday but I have managed to paint a couple of new additions to my Badmoon Warband in the form of a trio of Squigs:

Chomp!

I sculpted these little chaps from a plastic bead with some wire and a bit of greenstuff and am really quite pleased with how they turned out!

Squiggly Beasts

I was originally going to go with the traditional bright reds and oranges for the little guys but settled on a more ruddy finish and I must say the wet, fleshy look that the paint has left them in really suits the little fellows.

Squigs with Prodder team

The three took about an hour to sculpt all told and I have another three to make for my second prodder team so expect to see more of the little blighters soon!

In the meantime, All the best!

Space Pudding Cultist Temple

Hi!

I'm about to flit off on a weeks much needed holidays but have managed to finish the newest addition to my terrain collection, the Pudding Cultist Temple!

 The Space Pudding Temple in all it's glory with Brother Maynard, resident loon.

Constructed from a hexagonal box from Hobbycraft, a loo roll tube and lots of bits of cardboard, plastic and grease proof paper, the temple makes an interesting addition to my collection. Be it a simple objective in a game or source of a sinister cult of brain eating space monsters, I've wanted to build one for a while!

I wanted to have a suitably grubby and somewhat dilapidated building in keeping with the rest of my collection but wanted to brighten it up a bit so settled on turquoise for the frontage. I then got the suggestion of adding pink details to it by my wife and think the combination looks pretty decent!

 The Pud Is Good!

I went to town on adding lots of hand written signs on the entryway, be they prayers from supplicants, or advertising slogans written by the cult leader, they added a bit of interest to the building and helped add to the somewhat demented ramblings of a cult of Space Pudding worshippers! 

The posters are made from greaseproof paper with a wash of brown paint to give them a more parchment style of finish and they look the business too with lots of pudding related commandments and ravings.

 Puds for the Pud God! Puddings for the Pudding Throne!

It took me quite a long time to construct and even longer to paint but I am really pleased with the finish and can't help but feel that it will be the focus for several campaigns in the future. Now all I need to do is paint up some suitably masked goons to act as cult members (I have quite a few ideas for this but more on them later!).

 Spycam view

There's enough space on the roof to land a small VTOL or add barricades for when the unbelievers need to be roughed up a bit too.

 Brother Maynard inspects the devotional texts

As I mentioned, I am about to head off on holiday so won't be able to do any more hobby related gubbins till I get back but think my next update will probably be some much needed figures as I an becoming obsessed with making terrain to the detriment of my leadpile!

Creepy Bag Lady inspects the signage, maybe Mr Tinkles would like to join...

Hopefully I will return from said holidays brimming with energy and raring to go on the further investigations into 15mm goodies and my reimagined Imperium setting but in the meantime, All the best!

15mm Scale Hive Terrain

Hi!

It's been a bit quiet here for the last couple of weeks but I've been really busy with hobby related shenanigans!

I've been collecting used till rolls for quite a while now to use for some suitably grubby industrial hive terrain and I've spent the last two weeks building and painting the first few pieces:

 First Hive terrain

I've got lots more on the go at the moment including some larger pieces which I will be adding to the collection in the coming weeks.

At present, the largest piece of terrain I have is the Core Column:

 

Made from a toilet roll, till roll cores and assorted plastic, card and wire, it will eventually provide me with a second level of walkways to heighten the battlefield.

I made a point of making the terrain as grubby as possible and went to town on adding rust, dust and lots of graffiti.

I've also got some more figures painted! The chap on the left is a heavy industrial unit from GZG and painted up really nicely. The other figure is from Alternative Armies Space Viking range and was sculpted by myself many moons ago.

 Hive Denizens

I've painted him up as another member of my Demihuman force and while the figure is a bit crude, I rather enjoyed painting him.

Next up, there's the vent column, a slightly shorter piece of terrain but still adds some much needed height to the board:

Again I went to town with adding washes to give the piece a really grubby finish and added lots of graffiti, including the MOFO logo (MOllusc Freedom Organisation).

Next up, there's the smaller columns which I need to make another half dozen or so to finish off my terrain collection:

I've really been enjoying making this terrain and need to build some larger structures for my assorted forces to fight over including more surface level terrain but I have plans for processing plants, tox pools and industrial cranes as well as landing pads, downtrodden shanties and lots more!

It's interesting that moving back to 15mm scale has really got me engaged in not only painting figures and playing the odd game, I'm also feverishly constructing terrain and even sculpting some odd bits and bobs to flesh out my existing forces!

Speaking of which, I've just finished a trio of Squigs for my Grots to prod about:

Squig!

They took very little effort to put together and I'm looking forward to having them finished and added to my fledgling Badmoon warband!

Hopefully I will be able to add some more gubbins to my blog in the coming weeks but we are away on holiday next week so I am hoping to have a relaxing time down south and will be taking a sketchbook with me to thrash out some ideas I have for everything from terrain to figures to the background of my Alternative Imperium so watch this space!

All the best!

O.G.R.E. Warzone

Hi!

I'm not going to be talking about mythological humanoids or cybertanks from the far future this morning but my new project, O.G.R.E or Old Game Retried Experiments (a handy acronym if I do say so!).

I've settled on Warzone 1st edition as my first experiment as I have the physical rulebooks purchased back in the mid 90's from both Mac's Models and Ral Partha. It was also the first game I moved onto after leaving the GW hobby so I have a real soft spot for the game and its setting.

Having settled on what ruleset I wanted to have a try at, I had a bit of a rummage through my leadpile to see what I had lying around that could be drafted into use.

Handily I had picked up a couple of packs of Ground Zero Games Neu Swabian League Jaegers during a recent sale and I thought they would make decent Bauhaus troops with some suitable conversion.

GZG NSL Jaegers

Half an hour of puttying later, saw some armour added on as nothing says Warzone like mighty shoulder pads! I then spent the next couple of days painting them up in suitably Bauhaus colours:

 Hussars on maneuver 

I think they look rather good and make ideal proxies for Bauhaus Hussars for Warzone! I must admit that I really hate batch painting but wanted to get the full squad finished and am rather pleased with getting them all done.

I still need to paint up a second squad and a character and I'll have a playable force for Warzone 1st edition. My next step will be to build a Dark Legion force to fight against!

1st Squad complete!

I suspect it's going to be an entertaining few weeks as I rummage out some suitable miniatures to flesh out the two forces and I'm also making some more jungle themed terrain to represent the steaming jungles of Venus (or Farpoint for further gaming!). Hopefully I will get some more updates in the next week or two but will also add the odd figure or two that I've been painting to keep myself from getting bored!

In the meantime, All the best!