Challenge Catch-Up

I'm so bad at cross-posting my uploads to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to my own blog, so here's a photo dump version.

First up, a unit of Bidowers/Scouts for Lion/Dragon Rampant.  Figures by Crusader Miniatures, I'm not in love with the autumn flock as is.  I should have put down a layer of my usual basing grit and then layered the autumn flock over it. 

Next, a set of undead hounds, painted for the "Reconnaissance" bonus round, with the idea that these would be a unit of Lesser Warbeasts in my undead Dragon Rampant army, sniffing out the living wherever they might try to hide.  Figures by Reaper Miniatures. 

And finally, Reaper's "Abraxus the Dire-Dead," who when I saw him I just had to paint up as Skeletor from "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe."

Rampanting the Dragon, Again

I need to start a project; I've got nothing really sitting half-finished (at least not anything I'm likely to pick up again), and I think having something to work on would help my stress levels.  I haven't bought the book yet for Gaslands, though I probably will, but my frequent opponent Tom has begun work on a Dragon Rampant army.  I have 24 points of undead but I'm not really feeling them; I decided to start a fresh army.

Last November I'd assembled a box of Perry War of the Roses plastic infantry, giving me a unit of billmen (Offensive Heavy Foot in Dragon Rampant terms) and two of archers (Light Missiles).  I'd picked up some foot knights with poleaxes (Elite Foot) and with just those, I could field either a Lion Rampant retinue for the War of the Roses, or a very mundane human force for Dragon Rampant.  I started brainstorming and playing around with list ideas over the past two days, and got the unpainted figures out of the closet.

The metal foot knights I'd bought were not good clean casts, unfortunately; they'd had a ton of excess metal and the butt-ends of the poleaxes were all malformed.  I did my best to get them cleaned up and presentable but ultimately I couldn't get them to a place where I felt happy with them.  They've been binned and replacements - six dismounted men-at-arms from Front Rank's War of the Roses line - ordered.

The next step was fantasy elements.  I started thinking about legendary or mythological creatures

from the British Isles, and hit on the idea of a Giant; I removed one of the units of archers from the list and added in a giant (treating it as a single-model unit of Bellicose Foot, with either the Terrifically Shiny Armor or Fear special rules applied).  This would be not only a hard-hitting unit that emphasizes the fantastic nature of the game, but also provide a visual centerpiece to the army, towering over the remaining troops.  I'm picturing the giant as having been rounded up and press-ganged into service; I think I still have enough pieces left over to make a couple more billmen to model prodding the giant forward on a big diorama base.  I selected Reaper's "Krug, Hill Giant" to serve as my brute, favoring the $8 Bones figure over the $40 metal version.  I'll probably have to put a steel pin in one of his legs to keep him from leaning and possibly do the same with his club to keep it straight.

I'm tempted to paint the giant as having Pictish-style tattoos; we'll see how ambitious I get when he's actually in my hands.

So my list at this point looks like this:

• Foot Knights (Elite Foot, Leader) - 6 pts
• Billmen (Offensive Heavy Foot) - 6 pts.
• Archers (Light Missiles) - 4 pts.
• Giant (Bellicose Foot, Fear, Single Model Unit) - 6 pts.

This puts me at 22 points, 2 points short of a standard game.  I could throw "Enchanted Weapons" on the Foot Knights, or upgrade the Archers with "Sharpshooter," which would make them activate (to Shoot) on a roll of 4+ on 2d6, or I could boost the Giant's armor to make him harder to kill.  Or, I could pick up some Halflings/Hobbits with bows and add a unit of Scouts.

Ultimately, I think I'm going to add a minor spellcaster, or "Wizardling" in game terms.  While a full "Spellcaster" costs 4 points as an upgrade and can cast any spell on the list in the book, the Wizardling costs 2 points and can have three spells, selected before the game starts.  Rather than the pointy-hatted wizard with a floor-length beard, I decided I wanted a more subdued-looking, utilitarian figure.  After doing some digging, I settled on an older figure from Reaper's Dark Heavens line of metal miniatures, #2306 "Lor Gorna of Kjord." I like the shorter beard, the simpler staff and the open book.  I definitely get a "hedge wizard convinced to help the army before returning to his hermitage" vibe off this figure.

I'm on the fence as to whether I want to add him to the Elite Foot unit as an adviser to the warband's general, or put him with the billmen to bolster them with spells like "Sharper Swords!" or "Stronger Shields!" If we end up doing larger game with higher point values, I'll probably separate him off as a single model unit of Light Foot, but for now he's mixed in with the troops.

So this is what I'm going to be working on for a bit.  The weather is finally nice enough to where I can spray-prime, so a dozen archers and the billmen are going in the priming box today.  Hopefully I can start painting tomorrow.

Men of the White Island

So, funny story.  I had been thinking I would build 24-point and 48-point versions of two or three different armies for Dragon Rampant for demo purposes.  I've got my 24 points' worth of Undead and Men of the West; and a good chunk of my "Coalition of Evil" army is on its way.  While digesting pie, I was weighing options for what I would need to buy to build the second 24 points for the Men of the West.  

And then I remembered that I have a box of Perry Miniatures' Wars of the Roses infantry sitting in my closet from last Christmas, and it makes two dozen archers and a dozen billmen, plus command.  With the right upgrades, that's 18 points of a Dragon Rampant army right there.  Pulling it out and giving the sprues a once-over, I decided that given the differences in armor styles and weaponry between these figures and the Normans I'm using for my Men of the West, these would be a different, potentially allied kingdom, and for simplicity's sake I dubbed it "the White Island." I tend to favor the Hyborian approach when designing a fantasy world and steal as much from history with the names changed as possible.  

Selecting the 10 heaviest-armored bodies off the main sprues, and the two bodies off one of the command sprues, I quickly assembled a unit of Offensive Heavy Foot using the bill-carrying arms, and gave them a commanding officer and standard bearer as well.  

Tomorrow I'm thinking I'll get the two dozen archers assembled and then I can start priming them, holding off on painting them until the Painting Challenge begins.  Colorwise, I'm leaning towards the white and blue livery of Richard, Duke of York as my basis for these; based on my limited research, I believe that's whose banner my own ancestors would have been marching under in the 1450s and I think it'd be amusing - since this will be able to double as a Lion Rampant retinue - to field a retinue raised from the town in which my great-great-great-great-great-grandparents had lived.  

I placed an order with Perry Miniatures just now for a half-dozen foot knights with polearms to complete the retinue.  

In Dragon Rampant, the army roster will look like this:

• 1x Elite Foot - 6 pts
• 1x Offensive Heavy Foot - 6 pts
• 2x Light Missiles (Sharpshooter) - 12 pts

In Lion Rampant, it will look like this:

• 1x Foot Men-at-Arms - 6 pts
• 1x Expert Foot Serjeants - 6 pts
• 2x Expert Archers  - 12 pts

All in all, what I'm looking at painting for the Painting Challenge is going to look like this:

12 War of the Roses Billmen

24 War of the Roses Archers

6 War of the Roses Foot Knights

6 Normans with Two-Handed Axes

12 Medieval Russians with Spears

12 Medieval Russians converted to be carrying Crossbows

24 Goblins with Spears

6 Goblins with Bows

3 Giant Spiders

For a total of 105 28mm figures, putting me comfortably within my target goal.  Granted, I don't know that I'll be able to get all that done, especially as I anticipate having other deadlines to meet and projects requiring my attention, but it's a goal.  

Progress on my WAB Teutons

I've been puttering away at my army for Warhammer Ancient Battles; I'm going very cavalry-heavy at first, which will put me at a disadvantage against anyone fielding a Phalanx-y army, but it's a good starting place.  I've got everything I need for my first 2800 points, I just need to assemble the last regiment of mounted Brother Knights and then get everything painted.

Yesterday was a real good mail day today, and I was able to finish assembling my last unit of infantry - a regiment of Brother Knights on foot with hand weapons and shields.  In a 2800 point game it will be a 13-man unit, in a 3000 point game it'll be 15.

The regiment is a mixture of Gripping Beast metal figures and Crusader miniatures - it would have been all Crusader figures, but they didn't offer a foot command blister, hence the mix, which resulted in two visibly different groups of knights in regards height and bulk.  The Gripping Beast figures are much bigger, closer to 32mm I suspect; I packed the front rank with them to disguise the disparity on the table. The standard held up by the standard bearer is a 6cm lance from Fireforge and a banner off the Fireforge Teutonic Knights sprue.

I've also gotten some good progress done on a regiment of allied Livonian Swordbrothers; historically, the Livonian Order was subsumed into and became an independent order within the Teutonic Order.  Since I can't have more than half my list as Brother Knights, I had to fill out the list with Allied Crusaders, and I've opted to paint my Allied Crusaders as Livonians.  These were assembled from the Fireforge Teutonic Infantry box, with a few weapons taken from the Teutonic Knights sprues.

All that's left are the bases, belts, and hafts of various axes and maces; the shields have all been painted and are just waiting to be glued into place.

While these are being painted with Warhammer Ancient Battles in mind, I'm expected them to also see use in Lion and Dragon Rampant at some point.

Merry Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas to all, and strongest possible wishes for your continued health and good cheer in the new year ahead.  I hope everyone was able to spend time with loved ones, eat well, and received every bit of gaming loot their hearts desired.  I made out like a bandit this year:

Three boxes of Fireforge plastics and one of Perry Brothers - apparently my mother picked up some in London and then bought more on Amazon when she got home.  The box of Teutonic Infantry and one of the boxes of Knights (damn army list composition restrictions!) will form the basis of a Teutonic Order army for Warhammer Ancient Battles, while the Perry Wars of the Roses infantry will likely become the basis for a retinue for Lion/Dragon Rampant.  The second box of Teutonic Knights I'll hold on to in case of very large games of Warhammer Ancient Battles.

Finally, the board game "Elder Sign" was a gift from my sister, knowing my interest in Lovecraftian gaming.  Gina and I may give that a go later tonight.

We're in for a small bit of unseasonably warm weather, so I've begun assembly in hopes of getting some priming in tomorrow while I'm off work for the holiday. As of right now I've got a unit of 10 knights with command assembled and ready to go:

Progress on the Home Front

Greetings, readers, and to my fellow Americans, happy Thanksgiving! I certainly had a pleasant one this year, spent with friends rather than family, and more importantly, I've taken some time off work to give myself a five day weekend, during which time I'm hoping to get some serious modeling work done.

Going through the rules for Broken Legions, I'm finding myself not wowed by them - certainly not the immediate, viscerally-positive reaction I felt during my first read throughs of Frostgrave and Lion Rampant.  I think I'm going to have to give them a play-through or two to really see if they're for me or not.  That being said, I'm revisiting Lion Rampant (I might be getting Dragon Rampant as a Christmas gift, which is the only reason I've held off thus far on buying a copy) and I downloaded the PDF version of Wargaming Soldiers and Strategy magazine issue 82, which has a Bronze Age variant, "Chariot Rampant." As some of you may recall, back in 2014 I made a rather large order from Wargames Factory, before they went belly-up.  Among what I bought were a box of Greek Hoplites, a box of Fantasy Amazons, and enough Achaemenid Persians to choke the Hot Gates.

Digging out the box of Hoplites the other night, I assembled a unit of 12, based on round bases for skirmish gaming, for use with Lion/Dragon/Chariot Rampant.  I can also draw from this pool of figures to create an "Argonauts" warband for Broken Legions.  I opted to model them with kopis-style short swords rather than spears, in part to make them easier to store and less likely to break in storage, and in part because the default Argonaut in BL carries a hand weapon, not a spear.

Shields will be glued into place after they're painted.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get out the box of Amazons and assemble a unit of them; in a game I'd probably field them as Fierce Foot or similar in Lion/Chariot/Dragon Rampant.  After that I'd like to start on a couple units of Persians, but we'll see how much free time I end up having this weekend.  I'm envisioning them as the backbone of a "fiery sorcerer from the eastern deserts" type Dragon Rampant retinue, supporting an elemental-summoning sorcerer and backed by things like cockatrices or manticores.

The weather should be nice enough to prime this weekend too - I'm looking forward to painting these guys once the Challenge begins.

What's Ahead in 2017?

So I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to see happen in the next year of miniature painting.  In the last year, I didn't really have any sort of solid plan to my purchasing and painting; for 2017 I'd like to have dedicated projects I'm working towards.  I want to focus on just a couple things and try to really accomplish something with them.  My list, in order of importance, is as follows:

Frostgrave

My game tonight didn't end up taking place, as Tom was feeling under the weather, but this is the big one.  I have three finished warbands (Summoner, Necromancer and Elementalist), two that are assembled and primed, but unpainted (Witch and Sigilist), and have purchased a couple figures towards two more (Illusionist and Thaumaturge).  I'm thinking about trying to encourage some sort of league-play at Just Games; we've got a number of people who've bought the book and shown interest and I'd like to see more of those people at the table, pushing figures around.

I may eventually finish building warbands for every school of magic in Frostgrave, but seven might be enough for now.  I want to finish assembling and painting the four warbands that I have that are unfinished and build more terrain for the tabletop.

I'm also looking towards building up a bestiary of monsters for Frostgrave's wandering monster rules, for which I think Reaper Bones are probably the best suited.

Lion/Dragon Rampant

I've had the rulebook for this game for almost a year.  I've thought about building generic medieval forces out of 1/72 scale plastics, but I'm starting to reconsider; 28mm seems to be the scale gamers locally go for, and I think my chances of getting someone to play against will go up in 28mm.  I'm still probably going to end up building two armies for this.  I think it's probably worthwhile to pick a conflict to model on a small scale with Lion Rampant and do just the belligerents of that conflict.

I've always liked the look of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, so maybe the Baltic Crusades are in order.  Fireforge has some really beautiful Teutonic Order plastic sets, and they recently released a line of Medieval Russians, who would provide a nice splash of color against the monochrome of the Germans.

EDIT: Adam reminded me that a fantasy version, Dragon Rampant, exists, which might be an easier sell at the local gaming store than a strictly historical game.  For fantasy races, I think I'd look first to Mantic Games' Kings of War line, especially their Orcs and "Abyssal Dwarves."

Rogue Stars

This is kind of the lowest priority for the moment, especially as the book isn't actually out yet, but I like what I'm reading about this sci-fi skirmish game from Osprey.  I have a couple alien figures from Reaper's Chronoscope line to use as the beginning of a sci-fi gang; I may pick up some packs from Copplestone's "Future Wars" line for use with this at some point.

Terrain will also be something to look at with Rogue Stars, and for that I'm looking at Pegasus Hobbies' "Hexagon" snap-together terrain pieces.

So this is where I think my wish-list stands:

• Reaper 02459 "Ava, Female Templar"
• Reaper 02390 "Templar Standard"
• Reaper 02330 "Templar Knight"
• Reaper 02513 "Templar Knight"
• Reaper 02339 "Templar Knight"
• Reaper 02433 "Omar Al-Kafour"
• Reaper 02497 "Jasmine Silverveil"
• Reaper 02447 "Sallah, Arabian Hero"
• Reaper 02749 "Jade, Dancing Girl"
• Reaper 02501 "Mirari the Seductress"
• Reaper Bones monsters
• Pegasus Hobbies' Gothic Scenery
• Pegasus Hobbies' "Hexagon" scenery
• Fireforge Teutonic Knights
• Fireforge Teutonic Infantry
• Mantic Games' Orcs or Abyssal Dwarves

I should note that I am taking part in Ian's annual "Secret Santa" exchange this year, and so this list isn't *strictly* for my own use.  I have a pretty good idea what I'm getting for my target wargamer, and I'm pretty excited to be a part of this.  

Planning Ahead for the Painting Challenge

last year's logo

I may be getting ahead of myself, but it occurs to me that it's just a few months until Curt over at Analogue Hobbies announces the 7th annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  I think I should probably start thinking about stockpiling figures and getting what needs to be cleaned and primed done while the weather's warm enough to prime outside.  Nothing gets a drop of paint before the challenge begins - that would be cheating!

First up, taking stock of my current lead-pile.  Here's what's currently in my stash:

12x Foundry Valkyries
1x Reaper "Ice Queen"
1x Reaper "Cactus Joe, Gorilla Gunslinger"
1x Reaper "Magda Mintsilver, Female Dwarf"
1x Oathsworn "Female Fighter"
1x Oathsworn "Pregnant Villager" (given to me as a freebie for supporting their "Heroines in Sensible Shoes" Kickstarter)
1x Dark Fable "Prophet of Set"
6x Dark Fable "Cultists of Set"
1x Reaper "Bones" "Jabberwock"

pictured: little weirdo

Somewhere I have a box that Ray from Don't Throw a 1 sent me last year, containing 10 eastern cataphracts and a couple miscellaneous infantry figures, but darned if I can find it right now; last I saw it it was on the shelf in our bedroom closet, but since then Gina cleaned and reorganized the closet and now I have no idea where it is, and neither does she.  We'll find it.

The big challenge is having the closet door open; Atticus, our cat, is obsessed with the closets in our apartment and will take any opportunity to get inside, find a dark corner and squat there for hours.  We keep our closet doors rubber banded shut because he's figured out how to pull them open, and we don't want to risk the little weirdo pulling something down on himself and getting hurt.  So I'll have to lure Atticus out on to our enclosed patio or something and close him out so I can ransack the closet.

Once the Bonus Rounds get announced, I'm going to try to do as much as I can for them with Reaper Bones figures, seeing as how I can paint those in the winter without having to worry about priming them beforehand.  I've got a pretty good handle on painting Bones now so I think I'll have better results this year than I did last time around.

I think I want to give myself a big project for the winter as well, and I'm leaning towards assembling a couple retinues for Lion/Dragon Rampant.  I got the rulebook for Lion Rampant for Christmas last year and found it a really enjoyable read and looks like it'd be fun to play; I imagine Dragon Rampant, the fantasy version, would be much the same.

I'm looking at using 1/72 scale plastic figures for this project, to lighten the financial cost and to speed up the painting process; using the Plastic Soldier Review website, I tallied up the numbers and types of figures I would get from buying one each of Zvezda's Hundred Year War English boxed sets; I figure these would be a good choice for "generically medieval" retinues.  I did the math and figured out how to turn the contents of those two boxes into two full size, 24-point retinues for Lion Rampant with only about six figures left over for future projects.

While there's some Frostgrave interest growing at my FLGS, and Guild Ball is very popular among the local wargaming contingent, I'm hoping to stir up interest in other games as well, and I think Lion Rampant would do well if I can run a few high-visibility demo games.

For those who aren't interested in historical games that don't involve tanks, a purely fantasy army is called for, I think - brightly-colored knights aren't enough on their own, but brightly-colored knights and a dragon will draw people in.  For these people, I'm thinking of grabbing a couple boxes of Dark Alliance "Army of the Dead" figures and putting together a retinue of skeleton warriors to march inexorably across the land, laying waste to all in their path.

I've never painted 1/72 scale figures before; I had a couple boxes of them as toys as a kid, and my dad always hated them from his model kit building days because back in the 1960s and 1970s the tools needed to successfully paint these little soft plastic figures just weren't available.  I've been reading tutorials to figure out how best to apply paint to these figures and not have to worry about it immediately flaking off.  Should be an interesting exercise, to say the least.

So that's what I'm looking at right now for this winter's big painting challenge.  I think that'll put me at a good start and keep my morale up through the long, dark Rochester winter.

Gaming Loot 2015

Here's what Santa (and by Santa, I mean the Lovely Gina and my mother) delivered unto me:

Mom was kind enough to give me the Lion Rampant ruleset (which I read through some today - I was not expecting the amount of humor in Daniel Mersey's writing that was there.  The Serfs entry had me rolling) and the Malifaux starter set, while Gina got me a stack of Reaper Miniatures.  In case you can't read the labels from the pictures, she got me:

• "Cactus Joe, Gorilla Gunslinger" (on the grounds that I love gorillas and "this seemed so pulpy for you Bill."
• "Black Mist, Vigilante" (furthering the Pulp theme, since this is The Shadow in all but name - even his girasol ring is depicted!)
• "Sasquatch" (I'm a sucker for Bigfoot stuff, even though I'm not a believer)
• "Crazy Pete, Prospector" ("It's Old Man Walter!" Gina said, referencing a character from my last D&D game)
• "Nadia of the Blade" (on account that she couldn't let me go without getting a barbarian woman)

All of these will be getting painted up for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, with Nadia of the Blade being recruited into my second Frostgrave warband, the "Sisterhood," while Sasquatch will be incorporated into one of my bonus round entries.  Which one? I'm not telling...