A Forest of Kings - Warriors, Characters and Peasants

 It took me a little longer than expected due to how cold my basement got over the past week, but I've finished the next two formations of Warriors for my Maya Tribal project, along with a couple of heroes and some peasants. 

First up, the Warriors. These ones are armed with Short Weapons per Tribal's rules, gaining a bonus when performing straightforward bashing attacks on their opponents. Again, like with the spearmen I finished last month, these are more or less color-coded into formations. Figures again by Lucid Eye.

Next up, two heroes - a "Mayan General" from Paymaster Games here in the US, and a second Mayan Shaman from Gringo40s.

And finally, four Mayan Peasants carrying cotton bundles from Gringo40s - these have been based two to a 40mm round to serve as objective markers in games of Tribal.

What's left to go with this project? Well, I've got four characters primed and awaiting paint, and ten figures with bows and atlatls waiting to be assembled and primed. And shields for all these warriors to batch-paint. I also have a dozen buildings awaiting cleaning, assembly, and painting but that's going to be a warm weather project. I think I'm unlikely at this point to buy more figures for this project unless something really spectacular releases. 

Going through my spreadsheet and tallying everything I've painted (including some things I can't post here yet because they haven't gone live on the Challenge blog), and everything I've bought...I'm actually all tied up for the moment. For the moment, because I've got another dozen figures almost done being painted that will shift the needle properly into the green. 

Miniatures Acquired: 47

Miniatures Painted: 47

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 0

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

A Forest of Kings - Warriors with Spears

 Pleased to report I've completed another two units (or "Formations") for wargaming inter-city Maya conflicts using Mana Press' Tribal, both warriors armed with spears or, in the language of the game, "long weapons." 

These are Lucid Eye "Jaguar Tribes" figures, and range from almost totally nude to full body suits that, in bright colors, make them look like enthusiastic Muppets cosplayers. 

I've detailed the two formations in different accent colors to better differentiate them on the table. I'll be doing similar with the next two formations, which are armed with clubs and flint-edged macahuitls. 

I've also completed two Gringo 40s Maya casualty figures, to serve as disordered/panicked tokens in game. I should have painted the figures separately and then glued them to the base after I flocked it!

I'm very pleased to report that these bring me up to 30 figures painted; however, I've also bought some figures - Dragon Bait Miniatures has announced their retirement and closure, so I took advantage of their retirement 15% off sale to stock up on some Egyptian civilians and soldiers from the Dark Fable line - which was one of the miniature lines that brought me back to the hobby in 2014. I've also ordered another 10 Maya warriors from Gringo 40s, all armed with bows and atlatls to give me some ranged options. Fortunately, I have another 16 figures already half-finished on my painting bench, so I'll be back in the green soon.

So, let's update the tracker:

Miniatures Acquired: 44

Miniatures Painted: 30

Terrain Acquired: 0

Terrain Painted: 0

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

Maya Ajaw and Ah'kin

First post of the year! The one downside of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is that I can't show my painted figures anywhere else until they've gone live on the Challenge blog. I've done quite a bit of painting already this year, but it's going to be spread across three Challenge blog posts (so far), so it takes some time for me to be able to share them here. 

One of my big goals for this year is to knock out my backlog of Maya figures so I can start gaming with them. So, while the first finished figures off my table were the Boomstick Cultists, I did start immediately in on the first of the Maya on the 21st, choosing some of the more richly dressed and ornamented figures from the Lucid Eye range; these five I'm treating as ajaw, members of the noble class in a Mayan city-state, fighting for personal glory and social status.

I misplaced the shields for this group; if I find them or buy more (or more likely, buy more and then find them), I'll get them painted and glued on. 

I also picked up some 28mm Maya figures from Gringo 40s to accompany my Lucid Eye figures and fill in some gaps. One such is this priest, or ah'kin; He wears a Chaac mask, putting on the persona of the god of rain, agriculture and (sometimes) warfare, with a plume of quetzal feathers. 

This is one of two copies of Gringo 40s' priest figure I bought, so you'll see another one in different colors later on in the challenge. 

While I'm going to work extra hard to paint more than I buy in 2026, I did pick up two figures at my LGS when I went in for paint the other day; this particular store, Casual Dragon Amherst, used to be under different ownership under the name Dragon Snack; when the owner of Dragon Snack took ill, his family shut down the shop, with all merchandise still inside, and the owners of Casual Dragon Lockport stepped and made Dragon Snack a satellite location of their own store. 

There is quite a bit of *old* merchandise still on the shelves that they don't quite know what to do with, including a couple of blisters of "Legend of the Five Rings" samurai fantasy figures dating back to when Reaper Miniatures briefly held the license around 20 years ago. These have been marked down dramatically (well below MSRP as it was two decades ago!) so I grabbed a few. I may go back and grab the rest; Casual Dragon has, unfortunately, jacked their paint prices through the roof in the last month so I can't afford to continue to buy my paints there. 

And, with a new year, we start the tracker afresh, and add some new categories:

Miniatures Purchased: 2

Miniatures Painted: 6

Terrain Purchased: 0

Terrain Painted: 0

Scatter Purchased: 0

Scatter Painted: 0

Moving Forward on the Maya

I received a package today from Gringo 40s containing a small assortment of their Maya figures - shamans, a chieftain, princess, a few peasants carrying packs of maize and some casualty figures. Ged at Gringo 40s went well above and beyond in my interactions with him - detailed communication throughout (some of the figures I'd ordered had had their mold blow out, necessitating substitutions), a bonus figure as a thank you for ordering, and some hints about a planned expansion to the Gringo40s Mesoamerican line.

Naturally, I couldn't wait to get them on the workbench, cleaned up and glued to bases. The weather should be clear and well above freezing the rest of the week, so priming them is going to be possible. The chieftain, princess, casualties and peasants went on 40mm round bases - to serve as Warlords, Panicked markers and "People" objective tokens under Tribal's rules. The princess, with her extravagant headgear, could easily be either a Warlord or an objective to be rescued, kidnapped, or even sacrificed in game. 

This cleared out the last of my stock of 40mm round bases from Renedra, so I will need more at some point in the not too distant future. 

I also finished some painting for the Maya tonight!

I was anxious to get a good handle on painting Mesoamerican skin tones, so I grabbed the five figures showing the most collective skin from my pile of Lucid Eye "Jaguar Tribes" ersatz Maya. These five absolute madmen, dressed in naught but a cotton belt, are carrying hornets' nests to throw at their enemies. 

While there is some questionable historical support for hornets being weaponized by the Maya in the Popul Vuh, the idea of picking up a hornets' nest, carrying it to the battlefield and throwing it at someone hoping they get stung more than you do seems to originate in the video game "Medieval II: Total War." Still, the legend is good enough to warrant a place on my table. 

I like the way the skin tone came out - over black primer, this is two coats of Reaper "Bronzed Shadow," washed liberally with GW "Reikland Flesh Shade" before getting re-highlighted with more Bronzed Shadow. Hair is Reaper "Coal Black," which has a bit of blue-green to it; I really like it for any sort of organic black like hair, and use it quite a bit for black leather as well. It's a color Reaper only offers in December - I've got about half a bottle left but I'll probably pick some more up next month just to ensure I don't run out! The cotton cloth is base coated in Reaper "Yellowed Bone," washed with GW "Seraphim Sepia" and highlighted along the edges with "Creamy Ivory."

I should probably go in with a micron pigma pen or a fine-tipped brush and apply some tattoos to these guys; I was reminded of the 2006 Mel Gibson movie "Apocalypto" tonight, so I'll probably try to rewatch it soon for inspiration. 

Tomorrow night I should really get my new recruits started for Dracula's America - can't play my next game with unpainted figures! 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 246

Figures Painted in 2025: 169

2026 Goals #1: 6th Century "Star Wars"

 

That's a heck of a title, isn't it?

Let me explain.

Looking ahead to 2026 and planning my hobby goals, one thing I want to do is a project centered on pre-European Contact Maya culture. This stems from my friend Chris gifting me copies of some Maya miniatures he'd had sculpted and cast, which got me reading about these fascinating people of Central America for the first time since the Mesoamerican history class I took in college almost 20 years ago. 

The figures Chris gave me. They're based and primed now.

In reading "A Forest of Kings," by Linda Schele and David Freidel, I came across the concept of Maya "Star Wars." The Maya of the first millennium CE were every bit as into astronomy/astrology as the Ancient Egyptians, and they had a specific type of warfare in which city-states would attack and even overthrow one another in conjunction with certain appearances of the planet Venus (known as Chak ek', the "Great Star") in the night sky. Linda Schele named these Venus-driven conflicts "Star Wars."

Well who could resist?

To go with these figures from Chris, I've bought about 30 figures from Lucid Eye's "Savage Core" range - their "Jaguar Tribes" figures are passable Maya/generically Mesoamerican - as well as a few Maya character figures from Paymaster Games (with an eye towards getting more) and a few days ago ordered another 10 Maya figures from Gringo 40s. 

I've also bought some terrain: two MDF temples and two pairs of engraved columns from Things From The Basement, and so far two Aztec-style houses and a pair of Olmec heads from Acheson Creations. I even got a Lemax cobblestone-stamped vinyl mat from my local craft store, designed for use with Christmas village displays, to form a city square. There will be more houses, grain storage, etc., ordered from Acheson in the coming months, and probably more columns (and maybe some walls/lookout towers) from Things From The Basement. 

So what's the plan?

I want to put on a game of Maya warfare at the June 2026 Wargames Among the Warplanes show that's able to seat four players, in which one side (ideally, two players each taking one "wing" of an invading army) attacks a Maya city-state being defended by the other side (again, ideally two players each taking one "wing" of a defending army). Each army has specific goals (capture slaves/sacrifices, loot a treasury, protect the King's daughter, etc) so that victory isn't simply a matter of "we move all armies to the middle of the table and roll dice until one side's all dead."

Ruleset: Right now I'm looking at Mana Press' "Tribal, 2nd Edition" rules for this. Each warband will be about 16-18 figures (three units of five, a warlord, and a hero, maybe two heroes), which feels very doable painting-wise. And it's a ruleset that's already designed to handle ceremonial warfare among pre-gunpowder peoples, where how much Honor (or, since the game is written by non-Americans, Honour) one gains and loses is as important if not more so than actual victory in the field. 

I haven't played Tribal, but I've got 7 months to practice and get enough of a handle on it to confidently teach the game at an event. I think Chris has played it so maybe I can talk him into giving me a hand. 

The figures I have right now are enough to yield two warbands. So I'm already off to a great start in terms of purchasing, I just have to start slinging paint at them. I've got four figures I need to paint for my Dracula's America posse ahead of them, but once those are taken care of I plan to jump on painting my Maya. The sooner they're painted the sooner they're on the gaming table. 

I might grab another eight or nine packs of Lucid Eye Jaguar Tribes to make up the second two warbands, or I might order a bunch of Maya from Gringo 40s; the only thing I'm maybe worried about there is I've heard their alloy is softer, so spears and atlatls tend to be on the bendy side. Ged at Gringo 40s has also let me know in the email exchange following my order that he's planning on expanding their Mesoamerican offerings in the coming year. So either way I'm anticipating another Gringo 40s order or two or three in the coming months. 

As mentioned above, I've made a start on terrain collecting. For a lot of my terrain I'm taking beaucoup inspiration from Mark Morin's 2022 Mesoamerican project; reading his blog posts reminded me of Acheson's offerings (which fortuitously came back into production exactly when I started considering this project). Things From The Basement also ran a 20% off sale on their Mesoamerican-inspired "Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago" line of buildings a few months ago, allowing me to get both temples and a pair of column sets at a discount. 

I'm still so damn proud of how these turned out.

I also have my jungle terrain that I scratchbuilt; it surprisingly does not provide that much coverage on a 3x3 table, much less the 4x4 I'd want to use for an event game. So producing more bases of jungle terrain will be a necessity; fortunately, they're pretty fast and easy to make all things considered! Maybe do another 20 terrain bases? 

I've got a pair of Olmec stone heads from Acheson, one intact and one ruined; I'll incorporate these into terrain bases for variety and because the Maya were aware of the Olmec people and saw them as their ancestors, so having Olmec ruins on the table is not anachronistic or anything like that. Less anachronistic than having "Aztec" branded architecture, though from what I've seen in my readings so far there was probably a lot of overlap between cultures in that regard. I'm not expecting any tenured Maya studies scholars showing up at my wargaming table! 

So let's start breaking this down into steps:

1. Paint 34 figures that I already have cleaned, based and primed.
2. Begin practicing Tribal, using the solo rules provided in the rulebook and Chris' help if he's amenable.
3. Buy and paint an additional 34 figures (plus additional figures for objective markers).
4. Assemble and paint the terrain I already have.
5. DETERMINE HOW MANY MORE BUILDINGS I WANT TO HAVE ON THE TABLE. This is a project I can easily see growing dangerously, to the point where I end up with a village filling half the table and that's probably not necessary. I just need to evoke the feel of a Maya city on the tabletop, not build an accurate recreation. My love of cluttered urban table setups does not need to come into play here! It helps that the Maya didn't have wheeled vehicles or carts, domesticated animals, crates, barrels, garbage cans or any of my usual street scatter. 
6. Buy, assemble and paint the remaining buildings I want/need.
7. Produce another 20 bases of jungle terrain. 
8. Make sure I can pack it all securely and ensure it fits in my car. Another vitally important step in the process! 

This feels like a big project but one that breaks down into manageable chunks; one eats an elephant a bite at a time, and I feel like this divides neatly into phases or sub-projects that I can hopefully rotate between to keep things feeling fresh. Having an outlined plan will also hopefully help me stay motivated and moving forward. 

I do also want to make sure I'm allowing myself grace to paint other things along the way; if I need to paint new posse members for Dracula's America, or if I want to paint aliens for Majestic 13, I should feel free to do so and not let my anxiety convince me that I'm meaningfully taking away from the larger Maya project by doing so. 

I think that sums up the project outline, at least for now. As we wargamers know all too well, no plan survives contact with the enemy, so we'll see what needs to change as I work my way through it. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 244

Figures Painted in 2025: 164

Cro-Magnon Boss finished

 I'm pleased to say my Cro-Magnon warlord, for use in paleolithic games of Mana Press' Tribal, has been completed as of tonight. This is "Sterm Stonelund, Cro-Magnon Boss," from Lucid Eye Publications, intended for their "Savage Core" skirmish game - which I still haven't tried out; I managed to buy the first edition of the rules a week before the second edition was announced -- and the announcement went out a week before the book released! This is one of three Cro-Magnon Bosses Lucid Eye makes, more than they offer for any other faction in the game, incidentally.

I'm really pleased with how the base turned out; some torn corkboard pieces built up to form the rock outcropping, some Woodland Scenics fine "earth" flock, a few different colors and lengths of Gamer's Grass brand tufts and then some Army Painter snow over the top after everything else had fully dried. 

Here's where the Wolf Clan, my Cro-Magnon warband, stands now:

A unit of Warriors, a unit of Marksmen, two Heroes and a Warlord. One unit of Warriors left to assemble, base and paint up, and I should do a couple objective markers for them as well. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 139

Fighting for Focus

 As you might guess from my posts in the month of August, I've been kind of scattershot. I haven't really been focused on any projects lately, just painting a few odd figures here and there - painting for the sake of putting paint on figures, versus having any sort of goal in mind. And while painting for the sake of painting is laudable in its own way, I would like to feel like I'm finishing something and moving towards playing a game with something. So it's time to set some goals.

I've got figures on the way for Mayans, to go with the "Forest of Kings" figures Chris gave me last week (I also ordered a few officer figures from Paymaster Games here in the US to round out a pair of small armies). 

I think I want to commit to putting on a game with them (maybe requiring some allied forces) at next spring's Wargames Among the Warplanes show. That gives me about 9 months to paint...let's call it 70 figures overall to cover four players, plus terrain, and playtest and master a set of rules well enough to feel confident refereeing it for strangers. About five of those months are going to be too cold and wet to do any priming or varnishing outside. 

Once the figures arrive, I'll probably spend a week cleaning the first 40 of them, gluing them to bases and getting them primed. Anything I can have prepped before the weather turns in November, I intend to. 

In the meantime...

A couple months back I painted a dozen cavemen with the intent to use them in Mana Press' "Tribal." This is also the ruleset I intend to use my Mayans with, so I think it behooves me to get them finished and on the table so I can practice the ruleset! 

I think it's fair to require myself to finish these before I can work on the shiny new Mayans, right? 

This week I've circled around and started painting their opponents, a band of Neanderthals from Northstar. I took the opportunity to use a friend's collection of Army Painter speed paints this past Monday, and got 10 warriors almost fully painted in the span of two hours. 

Pretty much just fine details, especially in the faces, and touch ups left to go on these, and bases. And boy do they need some touch ups! Unfortunately I'm the new guy in the group I paint with on Monday nights, and my spot at the painting table has less-than-ideal lighting - not an intentional thing, it's just something they never noticed when it was just three people at the table. Under my workbench lamp at home, I'm finding tons of spots I missed! 

Fortunately I made a list of the speed paints I used, and I'll be picking some up this weekend to do the touch ups that need doing under good lighting. 

I've also been working away at a warlord figure for the Cro-Magnons; Tribal calls for leaders to be based on larger bases, and given the Frazetta-esque posture of this figure, I decided building things up with cork was called for.

The top of the rock shelves will be flocked, tufted and given some snow to match the rest of the Cro-Magnons; I still have some detailing and highlighting (and again, touch ups) to go on him before I start flocking though. 

So what's left to paint for the paleolithic warbands? 

• Five Cro-Magnon Warriors
• Five Neanderthal Marksmen
• Two Neanderthal Heroes
• Neanderthal Warlord
• Two Neanderthal Civilians (objective marker)

Fifteen figures isn't too bad. With the aid of speed paints, I'm confident I can knock those out within the month after finishing these. 

Finally, I'm finishing off the last two figures I need for the Fall 2025 Wargames Among the Warplanes show which is...in just over a week. I feel like it snuck up on me a bit. 

These adorable little moppets are from Midlam Miniatures, and will be Innocents in games of Devilry Afoot - especially a scenario involving rescuing a couple of kids from a pair of hungry Bogeymen. 

So that's where I'm at. Finish these two kids, finish two warbands of cavemen, and then I can start working on armies and terrain for next spring's wargaming event. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 138

Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc in 28mm

 On Friday, I had the opportunity to meet up with Chris Regan, a local gamer who I'd interacted with on social media quite a bit over the past couple of years, but this was the first time we'd gotten the chance to meet up; we weren't able to get a game in, but he picked up a copy of one of my RPG scenarios and was generous enough to gift me copies of a pair of miniatures he'd commissioned. Chris runs a Facebook group called "A Forest of Kings - a Maya Wargaming Project", and he'd had these sculpted and cast up to commemorate the group reaching 500 members. 

These figures are based on Yaxchilan Lintel 24, currently in the British Museum. Lintel 24 depicts King Itzamnaaj Bahlam III, aka Lord Shield Jaguar, and his wife, Queen Consort K'abal Xoc; he is holding a torch aloft, illuminating her as she performs a bloodletting ritual. She's pulled a rope studded with obsidian shards through her tongue (AH!), allowing blood to spill on to a codex in front of her, which will be burned as part of the ritual. 

So, now I'm contemplating a Classical Maya project. And by "contemplating," I mean I just pulled the trigger on an order over at Badger Games. Since they carry Lucid Eye Publications' miniatures, I picked up nine packs of their "Maxzan" figures, slightly fantastical Mesoamerican-style figures that work well as Mayans. I bought enough to assemble 10 spearmen, 10 warriors with hand weapons, and six "Hornet Throwers," men armed with wasps' nests! I believe I've got another six that I'd bought a few years ago as well. Mana Press' Tribal would be a perfect ruleset for this, and 32 infantry gives me a total of six units (two armies of three!) with a couple figures leftover. 

So adding 28 (2 for the figures from Chris, 26 Lucid Eye figures) to the Acquired side of things.

Figures Acquired in 2025: 155

Figures Painted in 2025: 138

The Wolf Clan Complete (For Now)

 My wife says she heard my satisfied exclamation of "Done!" from the living room above my painting bench as I dipped the last figure's base into Army Painter snow flock. These Cro-Magnons and Amazons from Lucid Eye definitely became a slog as I worked on them, and there were days where I was doing more touch up than actual moving forward, so I'm very happy to call them finished...for now.

I have another five Cro-Magnon males to paint at some point, but for now I'm real tired of painting earth-tones. So I'll take a break before I paint any more cavemen. 

I did finish basing the ghost I showed the other day while I was at it:

So what's next? I've got five Ghouls from Heresy Miniatures about half finished on my workbench, and I've had a dig through my leadpile and pulled out a few things I can use for Devilry Afoot - a couple of innocent civilians, a bloodhound with his nose to the ground, a Bogeyman, a couple of imps, a witch or two. I've got a suspicious looking goat that might serve as a "Pact Devil" in Devilry Afoot - wouldst thou like to live deliciously? 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 90

Figures Painted in 2025: 98

Continuing the Wolf Clan

 The last figures I needed for the Wolf Clan, my Cro-Magnon warband for Mana Press' game Tribal arrived today! With my miniatures and terrain all finished for Wargames Among the Warplanes, I'm ready to take a break from modern stuff and spend some time in another era - in this case, the Paleolithic. I paused work on the Wolf Clan while getting things ready for Saturday, but I resumed work on the two units I'd started last month tonight.

They're an exercise in earth-tones, that's for sure. 

At this point, it's pouches, shoes, wrist- and leg-wraps and weapons left to go on these 12. One or two more sessions should be all I need to finish them up. Maybe a third session for bases. 

After this, I've got another unit of five warriors to clean up, base and get primed, along with my new warlord:

Doesn't that just scream "I am MAN! Pointy tip of the food chain!" to you? Tribal calls for characters to be on larger bases, so he's on a 40mm round built up with cork. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today's my birthday, and while I took the day off work, I never made it down to my hobby bench - too busy running errands and getting the house ready to have guests tomorrow. I did receive some lovely gifts from my wife however!

Two more modern buildings from Atomic Laser Cut Designs - an Urgent Care and a blank storefront that has a really nice brick pattern over the entire exterior walls - as well as some 3D printed scatter from Bad Goblin Games - some disheveled cinderblock walls, an above-ground swimming pool and most charmingly, an on-fire dumpster that comes with a little flickering LED light and battery, so that the flames actually light up. That is going to be an absolute must to have ready for my game in 3 weeks!

And I think I want to recreate what the Bad Goblin team did for the product image on their site, and put an alligator and some scummy "water" in that swimming pool...

I have to thank Mike over at Lead Legionaries for turning me on to Bad Goblin's goodies. He's painted a lot of their scenic pieces, including a variety of ruined and armored trailers and a stunning water tower, over recent months, and has been putting on some amazing games showcasing them. If you're not following his blog you should definitely check it out. 

Gina was also kind enough to hand me her card and tell me to use it to buy myself some miniatures. By coincidence, Lucid Eye Publications put out a call on their Facebook group for what miniatures people would like to see go on sale this week. I requested their Cro-Magnons, and they were kind enough to do it, so I bought another Tribal formation's worth of warriors, as well as another few characters. 

Since I've ordered more figures, it's time to update the tracker:

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

WIP: The Wolf Clan

 I've gotten a little work in on my first warband for Mana Press' Tribal. These are Lucid Eye Cro-Magnons and Amazons from their "Savage Core" line, all pretty similarly dressed for cold weather (more or less). I do still need to order some more Cro-Magnons to add a third formation to this warband, and since I didn't put my warlord on a larger base as the rules recommended, I'll probably get another warlord figure for a 40mm diorama base and downgrade my current warlord to a Hero. 

Funny how this was supposed to be a no-expenditure side project just using figures already in my leadpile...

So far I've base-coated their exposed skin with Reaper "Dark Flesh," washed all the clothing with GW "Seraphim Sepia" to make sure there's no exposed white primer in the recesses, and went over pants and leggings with GW "Gore-Grunta Brown" contrast paint.

I chose dark skin because I'm a big fan of Bjorn Kurten's 1978 novel "Dance of the Tiger," which deals with one possible way contact between Neanderthals and anatomically modern ("Cro-Magnon") humans could have gone; Kurten's Cro-Magnons are dark-skinned, having only relatively recently expanded out of Africa and not having had time to lose their ancestral melanin in northern latitudes. 

Here we have "The Wolf Mother," a shamanic sort of figure dressed in a wolfskin cloak; underneath it she's dressed like a Frazetta painting, but maybe she's high on hallucinogenics and not feeling the Ice Age chill. Next to her is Menhir Five-Tusks, my current warlord. The raised arm gives him an orator vibe, and I can see him standing on a tall rock shouting encouragement to his followers. Maybe give him the skill "Boast" in games to reflect this?

Next up we have a formation of Cro-Magnon Warriors; they're armed with short spears, almost assegai-like, along with atlatls. In Tribal, they'll be Warriors with Short Weapons and the skill "Throwing Weapons" to represent this.

Finally the Amazons:

These are the most fantastical of the bunch; one is carrying a long stone blade and another has a big bird skull strapped over her shoulder. Second from the left is technically a character model, "Seratra the Foundling" but she's pulling double-duty as a regular archer since I misplaced the other two I had. In Tribal, these would be Marksmen. 

So that's where I'm at with these for now. Work is continuing slowly and not particularly photogenically on terrain for Wargames Among the Warplanes. We've had a bunch of wet days which has stopped me from spraying the last stuff I need to spray. Probably only one or two more sessions to finish off the pizza parlor and then I'll focus on the video store. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Side Project: TRIBAL as a palate-cleanser

 So I'm winding down somewhat with the stuff I need to paint for Wargames Among the Warplanes - a couple buildings that are more or less at the wash and drybrush stages, and a couple of trucks that I need to pick up more spray paint for. And as I'm working on it...I'm starting to get tired of the project, and eager for it to just be done. But with that tiredness, my energy to keep working on it is flagging. 

I think a little bit of a side project might be in order just to reenergize myself. To that end, I pulled my copy of Mana Press' "Tribal" down off my shelf, and pulled out my box of cavemen purchased last year. I'd posted back in March 2024 about the Wolf Tribe, comprised of Lucid Eye Cro-Magnons and Amazons; well, I finally got them into the priming box. 

I probably should have popped my Chieftain off the 25mm base and put him on a 40mm...maybe we'll figure that out later. 

This gives me two formations - Warriors with Short Weapons (and we'll give them the Throwing Weapons skill to represent the atlatls they're sculpted with) and Marksmen - plus a Chieftain and Hero. That's a perfectly fine starter army for me to begin solo-playing with for practice. Dressed in buckskin, leather and furs I'm anticipating them being a fairly fast paint up as well. 

The hero is a shamanic figure, sold on the Lucid Eye site as "The Wolf Mother," and while her face is a little obscured by the wolfskin she wears, I'm kind of thinking I could maybe recreate Darryl Hannah's makeup from CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR on her...

Beginning the Wolf Tribe

 So, I know I said I wasn't sure when I'd start on painting more prehistoric figures, aaaaaand...I've started. Well, getting them cleaned up and glued to bases at least. I've been struggling through a hobby slump - I've only managed to actually get paint on a single piece of scatter terrain this month. Insomnia's been a big issue for me, and that combined with day job and being a caregiver for my wife, who has an autoimmune condition...I don't have a lot of energy left at the end of the day so just sitting down at the hobby desk has felt a bit like scaling Everest lately. 

I've been really fixated on the prehistoric stuff lately - reading through rulesets, examining different companies' offerings in terms of mammoths and mastodons, watching "Quest for Fire" and "Clan of the Cave Bear" - and I'm hoping I can re-invigorate myself by getting work done towards playing more prehistoric games. 

 

Over the past two days, I've gotten 15 figures cleaned (even filing mold lines!) and glued to bases. These are all from Lucid Eye Publications' Savage Core line, and comprise two packs of Cro-Magnon warriors with javelins and atlatls, two packs of "Age of Ice" Amazons with bows (and one blowgun!) and some heroic leader-types. They're all anatomically modern humans (no Neanderthal brow ridges here) dressed warmly in tanned hides and fur cloaks so should mesh together fairly well. I'm calling them the Wolf Tribe, since one of the heroes is the shamanic-looking "Wolf Mother" clad in a wolf pelt. 

The goal is to have a pool of figures I can draw from for any prehistoric wargame I please; I can split these up into two opposing forces for Lucid Eye's "Savage Core" game, for example, or I can treat them as a pool to pull from when building a hunting party for "Tusk" or "Palaeo Diet." And what I've got right here can be a Warlord, two Heroes, and two Formations for Mana Press' skirmish game "Tribal." I've got an eye towards picking up another two packs of Savage Core Cro-Magnons for a more robust Tribal warband.

I'm also considering converting one Cro-Magnon and one Amazon to be holding torches; both Tusk and Palaeo Diet offer rules for starting fires to drive game, and I'd like to be able to play with those rules.

Tusk: Ground Sloth Hunt

 It's been a couple weeks since I've gotten anything on the table to play with, or even to paint for that matter. I did get another few sets of prepainted trees from Monster Fight Club, and wanted to get them on the table, so for simplicity's sake I set myself up for a couple rounds of Wessex Games' Tusk. I've got a lot of unpainted cavemen in a box in my closet and I hate playing unpainted, so I used the same batch of Lucid Eye cavemen that I used in my last game back in December. I still don't have a mammoth purchased or painted, but I did find a Reaper Bones giant prehistoric ground sloth that I painted a few years back so that was today's substitute megafauna. 

I played twice, but only took pictures of the first game since my phone was low battery. Both games lasted about 15 minutes and ended with the ground sloth being run down and killed; also in both games, Og the Hero (here portrayed by Lucid Eye's "Muok Mangod") got squished while trying to show off for his tribe. He's got a 50-50 chance of either killing the prey animal in one hit or getting killed himself, and so far on my tables it's been 100% "Og bites it."

 

The one thing I really haven't done that I should do for Tusk is get some fire and smoke markers prepped. Tusk offers rules for cavemen to start fires and try to hem prey in or herd them towards cliffs or marshes to kill them. The fires, once started, spread with the wind and can get out of control, even turn around and and threaten the cavemen.I think that would add a very different tactical element; as is, my painted cavemen run in with their clubs and on a 10+ on 2D6 kill the mammoth/ground sloth/Brontosaurus etc. which makes for very fast games. 

I'm not sure when I'll get more cavemen painted; my wife and I are moving to a new city this summer so I know I'll be winnowing down my collection somewhat over the next couple months to minimize what we're moving. I also want to work on being better about being less of a hobby mayfly and really focus on one project at a time for six months or a year; for 2025 I really want that focus to be on prehistoric wargaming. Tusk, Savage Core, and Mana Press' "Tribal" are all on my list of games I want to try playing with painted cavemen of various types, and I've heard good things about Ganesha Games' "Palaeo Diet" - it's been described to me as "Tusk on steroids" so I'll be picking that up at some point. Cavemen and various prehistoric animals will be a great painting project, plus terrain; not just natural stuff like hills and rocks, but villages, idols, etc.

Tusk: The Last of the Thunder Lizards

 The mighty saurian lumbered slowly across the landscape, pausing occasionally to gnaw on a shrubby tree; it had been many years since it had seen another of its kind. Following the course of a swift-flowing river, the great long-necked creature wandered vaguely south. Perhaps it would find another of its kind - perhaps a female. If the saurian had the mental capacity to consider something "nice," it would have thought such a prospect so. 

I was recently made aware of a dandy little beer-and-pretzels wargame called "Tusk," distributed by Wessex Games. Set up for solo, co-op or competitive play, players control a hunting party of cavemen, pursuing a woolly mammoth across the landscape and trying to slay it for the tribe's larder. The game also includes rules for Victorian big game hunters and relic dinosaurs surviving into the 19th century in isolated locales. While I do not currently have a woolly mammoth in my collection, I do have some Lucid Eye cavemen painted and a toy Brontosaurus on my work-from-home desk. Being geared towards solo play and me having everything I needed to play already made the decision to give it a go a no-brainer. I printed out a copy of the rules and got the table set up. 

I put together my hunting party, consisting of Og the Hero, three melee hunters and a dog; the other troop types available are archers and fire-makers (the latter of whom can set fires that drive beasts into bogs or off cliffs). Then, I set up my table, with a river crossing one corner and a few hills, and the Brontosaurus dead center on the table. The game is written for 15mm or 6mm scale figures, but I doubled all the ranges for 28mm and increased the table size from 2' square to 3'. 

The dog ran ahead to harry the Brontosaurus around the ankles, with Og jogging not far behind. After a few turns of closing in and having the Brontosaurus turn and withdraw each time, Og, frustrated, charged in, swinging his club. Unfortunately, Og the Hero's legend ended before it truly even began, as the Brontosaurus stepped on him and kept going, oblivious to the Hero mashed flat beneath its thunderous tread. 

As the dog continued to keep the Brontosaurus moving, the remaining hunters closed in. Finally, one of them darted forward, jabbing his spear deep into the creature's muscular neck. With an agonizing bellow, the Brontosaurus collapsed to earth, narrowly missing taking its killer with it. The tribe would feast for the next moon. 

And so passed the great saurian, the last of its kind. The story of this hunt would be told and retold, echoing down the centuries, the names and locations changing to suit the needs of each new retelling. Marduk and Tiamat. Ra and Apophis. Herakles and the Hydra. All containing the germ of this one, great hunt, and the last of the thunder lizards. 

So I really enjoyed playing this; the game took all of half an hour, making it a great pick-up game for a weeknight after work or something like that. Obviously not having archers or fire-makers on the table impacted how I played, and I'm looking forward to incorporating them into a future play-through. 

The rules are simple enough that I think a six year old could learn them, but gameplay requires some thoughtful resource management - you get 1D6 "action points" per turn, used to activate figures, and there's a good chance you won't be able to activate your entire hunting party in any given turn. There's also a nice element of risk management; it's easier to kill the Brontosaurus (or Mammoth, etc.) in melee combat than at range, but each turn there's a 1-in-3 chance that a random hunter within an inch or two of the beast gets stomped into beef stroganoff. Fire can be used to force your prey into a panic, stampeding into a bog/tar pit or off a cliff; however, the fire spreads on its own accord, and can easily turn back and pen your own hunters in a deadly inferno. 

All in all, I'm super happy I picked up "Tusk" and can't wait to give it another go.