An actuall gaming post.

Well, now that all that stylish blogger nonsense is out of the way, I did get a chance to finish my knights for Sir Percival, Icon Bearer of the King.

These pics are of the two current warbands I have done and the Kings cav unit.

I am a little torn about keeping these single skirmish mounted, cause they look really good on group bases. and could be used for Flower of Chivalry and Commands and Colors. What to do, what to do. the BAron recommends staying with singles, to skirmish/warband with, which was the original intent. But I sure would like to have these guys ready to fight my elves.

Pics of the medieval Infantry of Sir Percival

Here's some pics of Sir Percivals foot troops. A unit of Archers, Halberdiers and Men at Arms. Bases not finished, but , if I finish the cav this weekend (Sunday I hope) Then I will finish all the bases and do some glamour shots.

so here they are. First up, The Men at Arms:

And the Halberdiers:

And a few group shots with the archers in there too:

All in all, with the Cav, a nice little Warband. As I flesh out the Kingdom, I will add the King and his troops, And three or four more Lords, plus The Fey (Woodelves, beastmen and the like) and the Barbarians from across the sea (GW Chaos old and new/ but men only, no creatures). I smell a mini campaign coming on. I am planning on using the Brytenwalda or Song of Blades and Heroes for rules.

Medieval - Unit of Archers Complete

Well I finally got a couple of hours last night to paint, so I finished that first unit of archers for the green and gold retinue. I have a unit of Men at Arms to do (simple) and a unit of halberds (Lots of armor) so hopefully I'll be painting ponies this weekend.

Pic of the Medievals

Here's some WIPs pf the Bretonnians I mentioned from yesterday. Didn't get to the painting table last night, we were watching a movie as a family. But did get a chance to go through my bound copy of the 2nd Edition of Mutant Future from lulu. Awesome.

 So here's a really bad photo of the whole group on base and primered. All of the flesh and wash is done. Cav on the left infantry in front and on the right.

Metal bretonnian arcehrs. These will be blue and yellow(gold). Their mounted bowmen companions are behind them.

The ubiquitous Bretonnian arcehrs from the WHFB box set. The beginning of plastics in a modern sense for GW. I have a hundred or so of these guys. Can probably get more. They are nice and simple to paint.

 The mounted longbowmen, and behind them, the mounted knights from the WHFB box set. I have a ton of these guys too. these will be painted black and red. I will repaint the McDonalds standard bearer to be red and black.

Another unit of plastic knights. They will be green and yellow(gold).

And the rest of the infantry. a unit of men at arms (old foundry), and a halberdier unit on left (green and yellow(gold)), and a unit of halberds, spears and archers on the right (black and red).

Once done, I should have about 150 bretonnians painted, certainly enough for a nice scrum. Especially if you add a couple of wizards or druids and some Fey creatures as well. that reminds me, I need to get some beastmen.

It has passed..just barely

It always starts slowly, then builds to a fever pitch, and goes away only after 1000's of brush strokes and months of time. That's right, Nappy Fever!!!!

I am happy to announce that my recent bout with Nappy Fever has passed. Just barely. Jeesh. It was close, but the full distraction of the holidays tempered the fever quite a bit, so I was never really fully in its throes, although it felt like it for a couple of weeks.

And as the fever has passed, it still lurks out there ready to grasp my weakened constitution and wreak havoc with my system.

But in the mean time, MEDIEVALS!!!!!

As the fever passed, I got to put together some warbands for Song of Blades and Heroes. GW Bretonnnians to be exact. Mounted on 1" washers as all my warbands and skirmish units are.

So over the weekend, I built a bunch of small warbandy units from my Bretonnians, to add to what I already had done.

I have 6 units of 6 infantry (mixed spear, halberd, men at arms, archers) 2 units of 5 mtd knights, and 1 unit of mounted bows. Half will be painted in green and yellow livery, and the other in Red and Black. While the Mounted long bows will be blue and yellow, accompanied by a dozen foot bows.

Base painted the first green and yellow archer unit and they look just fine.

Hopefully will finish them and the Men at Arms (armored) tonight.

I would like to find a warband scale medieval ruleset that would accomodate about 30 figs a player, multiple player, about 5-10 figs per unit. But smaller skirmish scale of 1 to 1. Song of Blades can bog a little bit. I guess Pig Wars would work as would a modified GASLIGHT. Looking for something more though.

Quick list of X Mas goodies

Well it seems the old lead addict was pretty good(lucky) again this year. Santa brought me a bunch of goodies. a Quick List:

1. Commands and Colors Napoleonics - Box is nice and heavy. I will never use it as a block game, but need it for the rules, cards and dice. I love C&C.

2. C&C:Epic - The Epic expansion for C&C. It allows multi player play. Since we alsways have multi player, it works great. Can't wait til the multi player comes out for C&C Nappys.

3. Ground Zero Games Hi Mobility Wheeled Battle Force - Can't really afford to miss the xmas sale at GZG. This has become kinda a staple. I got the Grav force last year. And these guys help me field an NAC force of a good size for Future War Commander or Tomorrow's War.

4. Wargames Factory SciFi Troopers - I followed and participated in the discussions on the forum for these guys. They will make good stand in for WWW II Nazis and such. They are big guys with BFGs.

5. AT-43 at 60% off - While shopping I ducked into our only real wargamming shop in KC. They had AT-43 at 60% off. Just like tohe clearance sales a while back. So I picked up another unit of Kolossus walkers, a gig Red Block Walker, and a box of Oni walking time bomb zombies, who will be pressed into Neo Soviet service. So a good find. added some brushes and some static grass cause I was running low.

With what little free time I had between parties, I messed around with my AT-43 Red Block guys, trying to decide if they were total repaints, or just wash, highlight and play. It may be some of both. I washed a unit to see how the turned out and they look ok. A little skin painting, highlights and they would be just fine. Just not sure I like the tan and burnt orange paint scheme. Its distinct, but not necessarily the scheme I would have decided on for my Neo Soviets. But it sure would be nice to just have them all done. I may keep some and repaint others.

I cleaned and based a bunch of Undead 15mm guys for C&C:Fantasy. So they are ready to paint. Not inspired so I haven't painted them yet.

Flirted with painting a bunch of guys I have ready for Song of Drums and Shakos, but decided not to go there. Nappy's are a long fall down a deep well for me. Once I start it usually means I don't touch anything else for months. I am not ready for that right now. Especialy since Phase II of my 28mm Brits are sitting on their sticks ready to go and staring at me everytime I paint. It would be nice to add 2 more units of cav and 6 more units of infantry. If nothing else than I get to paint my Highlanders after Phase II is done. Kinda a reward for getting the majority of it done. See even in print I can feel myself getting sucked in. Once Phase II is done I can play C&C Nappy's with them. Until then I will play C&C NAppy's with my 15's. My miles and miles of 15's.

So I was digging for something to do yesterday when I had the whole afternoon, and found I wasn't really in the mood to paint. So I was digging through boxes and came across some oldies but goodies. Old Citadel Chaos Warriors. I have had these guys for eons. Back when I collected eveything that Citadel and Marauder made. So I began buidling them and getting them ready to paint. I cleaned them, cut off their tabs(sacrelidge), and based them on washers like all my single mounted figs. I hate GW slotta bases. I hate their height and what to do with the edge. I hate how unstable they are. Everything really. So I mount all singles I would use for skirmish or warband play on washers and Litko round bases. Then texture and finish. Works great and looks so much better. So I got 4 old Chaos Warior riders, 8 old Marauders, and 10 Warriors mounted, an old Chaos Minotaur,  as well as a newer Chaos Troll I picked up at a convention. I have another 10 warriors to mount. Then I need to add a box of Beastmen platics, or find some old ones on ebay. I love the old beastmen. It was fun. and this could lead me into finally painting some of the gorgeous Hudson and Allen buildings that I have had forever. I already have a Bretonnian/High Medieval warband that would be of comparable size. Would be a good song of Blades and Heroes battle or even a modified Pig Wars. I really would like a set of large warband sized rules for fantasy. Not WFB. But units of ten, heroes, monsters, etc.

I then played Fable II, which I picked up at Walmart on clearance. Fun roleplaying game. I like games where I can choose to be good, evil, neutral, and decide if I want to be a fighter, a shooter, or mage. Makes it fun. But I gotta not do that since it just cuts into my painting time and at least after painting I have a painted miniature.

Oh one last thing. Played C&C Fantasy at the BArons last week. Started tweaking the armies stats and such. It really is a pretty subtle game with an ability to model almost anything you want. So its gonna take some time to really think about the units, then model their attributes. That was the lessen for the day. That and Pegasus Riders should be able to flee or evade at will. That would be the whole reason to have them. Flying. Duh.

Have a great new years. I think the Baron is having everyone over on Wed. for a VSF slugfest. Should be fun as usual. Makes me want to paint my Minions of Abdul-ak-Abduhl's army. With his gold plated Parrot of Doom, and Giant Mechanical Desert Lizard of Doom with Howdah.

I really do like it all. Can you tell?

Battle Lore!

BattleLore!

The Baron and I have been talking about doing a miniatures/tabletop version of BattleLore for some time. I have an obscenely big collection of 15mm Demonworld figs(I just delivered the whole Dwarf Army to the BAron last night for painting) and thay have just been sitting doing nothing for a long time. Only about 1/3 of them are painted.

So we decided to play Battle Lore, with 15mm fantasy, on the table top with 5" hexes, and 50mm x25mm infantry and 50mm x 50mm cav stands. # of figs per stand varies, but generally:

Hvy (RED)Inf - 6 figs

Reg (BLUE)Inf - 4-6 figs

Light Inf (GREEN)- 3-4 figs

Monster Inf - 1-3figs(or as fits and looks good)

Hvy Cav(RED) - 3-4 figs

Med Cav(BLUE) - 3 figs

Lt Cav/Small Flyers(Green) - 1-2 figs

Number of stands is:

RED Inf = 4

BLUE Inf=4

GREEN Inf = 3

All Cav = 3

Monsters =1-4

I just got what is painted of my wood elf and Orcs armies rebased on the fabulous Litko bases, and we were off to the races. We decided to playtest last night with waht we had. About 12 units a side, Myself, the Baron, and my youngest(7), Vs Scott(one of the Basement Generals), and the Baron's son(9), and my niddle son(10).

We used the hexless rules that were developed for Commands and Colors(sister to Battle Lore) and it worked fine. The Orcs won a very marginal victory. I llike the hexless system and I love the overall play of the C&C/BL system. Its by Richard Borg, and its a graceful, elegant, no rules lawyering, no munchining,no gamey BS is allowed kinda rules set. Simple, fun, with ehough tactical interest for us old grognards, and easy enough for 3 kids to play under the age of 10 and get it. 

I will say that all said and done, I prefer the hexes, so we have to make our own hex mat, but no sweat. I am really jonesing to keep painting these Demonworld guys, and its a tragedy that they are not avaolable anymore. BEtter than most 28mm fantasy lines. They are a joy to paint.

So as much as I decided to never paint another 15mm fig again, I am now painting Fantasy, Sci Fi(my new love), and will probably buy a couple of ancients armies to play C&C with. We are already talking about a straight medieval port of it. And the new Napoleonic set of C&C is coming soon as well. It sure is nice when you find a system you like.

BTW, I blatantly stole the BL banner above from the Battle Lore Master website. Go there if you have any interest in the game. And the Fantasy Flight Games site has all of the rules downloadable for FREE!  

More on this project as it progresses. Thanks to the Baron for hosting. As always, check out the BArons post on last night at: http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2010/04/battlelore-wednesday.html

Recruits

Here are some very late pics of the Recruits Convention Samurai game we put on. It was with my friend Baron Von Jaye and it was using the Song of Blades and Heroes Rules. 8 factions, all to steal The Relics of True Divine Rule. It was won by a nefarious ninja clan who destroyed the relics and put the rule of misty Nippon in turnoil forever! Hope you enjoy.