Too... Many... Projects...

Over the last few days I've tried to be good and spend as much spare time as I can afford painting figures. But this afternoon I sat back and realised I had actually been working on lots of different ones, a few figures at a time, instead of my main one at the moment. Part of this is due to getting distracted. Whenever I think of a set of rules I would like to play a game with, or worse, a new set I have just got, I always end up rummaging around to see what I can paint next. If I had actually spent all of my painting time on one thing I would probably have at least finished something properly this weekend. As it is, I still have a table full of half complete projects!

 Normans!

This is the one thing I should have been concentrating on... I guess knowing I didn't have a game of Saga at the club next week meant I felt I could put off finishing my Norman warband, but that should not be an excuse. I've base painted the 8 crossbowmen and they are ready for dipping. In the background are 13 horses for my knights and warlord. I'm fairly sure I could have completed everything if I had just remained focused!

Pirates!
 

I recently got my copy of "And a Bottle of Rum" by Two Hour Wargames in the post and am really keen to try it. While I could just dive in and play with the pirates I've got, I want to go for the 'full experience' which means I'd like some soldiers, civilians, smugglers, natives etc. Part of what is good about THW rules is that there are several markers representing a chance of an unknown encounter on the table at the start and I want to have some kind of surprise to it rather than just getting 'more pirates' each time. So I am going to hit eBay later to fund this! But that isn't what this picture is about. I have a lot of Old Glory pirates, which are fair enough, but not dripping with character, and decided they might be an efficient way to put together a 'ghost pirate' option for if I want a supernatural element to my games. The chap pictured above is a go at painting 'ghostly' colours. I think it might work okay, especially if there is a group of 4 or 5 of them.

Zombies!

 The figures I was waiting for from 15mm.co.uk arrived safe and sound, so I wanted to waste no time in painting the 'Mad Axeman' for my zombie games. It'll be interesting to play a couple of games with him and see what happens...

 I had also ordered a zombie hoard (well, a pack of 16) at the same time. Now, while these are supposed to be fantasy/medieval zombies, I think they work just fine when you paint them up in 'modern' colours. And as they are pretty generic looking, it makes them easy to paint. I got the above finished today no problem. There are only 11 pictured above as I am keeping 5 for a Hoards of the Things element.

Rooting around in my 'zombie box file' I realised that I had a lot of half finished figures. So I picked an armed civilian and a couple of government agents and finished them off. The government agents, especially, will be interesting for the Mad Axeman to encounter! All of these figures have not had their bases finished as I am going to buy some of the easy, no, I mean lazy, coloured sand from The Army Painter. I get so bored painting grey urban bases!

Hoards!

One of the joys of HotT is that you only need a few figures to get a new element together. This makes it perfect for working on a few figures while I am waiting for other stuff to dry. So I was able to complete an undead bone giant and two units of death knights. With the addition of a few more elements, I'll have a fair sized undead/chaos army ready to go. Which brings me to...

The Tray!

Precariously balanced on a pile of boxes is my Dark Dwarf army from Irregular Miniatures and also several bags of unpainted 15mm figures which represent the start of projects I have hardly mentioned on this blog! Sigh....

Naboo!

Well, between all the above going on and various other commitments, I didn't even get a chance to play a game of The Queen's Gambit, which a friend had generously lent me. But I did get to set it up on Friday! Unfortunately it is now Sunday evening and I really should put it away again...

Now what?!

This has all got me thinking... Hang on, no, let's start again, because 'thinking' is actually part of the problem! When I am happily working away in the man-cave, I'll be mulling things over and getting new ideas as I paint. And it is this which leads me to take a break from whatever I am doing and paint just a few figures for another project. I think what I need is a more focused approach. A target. I should be saying to myself: "Right, if you paint this group of figures over the next few days, that will be enough to play an interesting game of [insert name here]." After all, I certainly don't enjoy the painting side of things as much as the playing. Knowing what I need to paint and how that will actually work in terms of a scenario for a game should keep me both motivated and able to produce something I can actually use, rather than an assortment of figures for various games... at least, that's the idea...

I think I'll have to test that out and see what happens....

15mm.co.uk Hooded Executioners

Sometimes some new figures come out which just inspire you and you have to get them! That's how I felt about the Hooded Executioners from 15mm.co.uk.

I did delay for as long as possible, but they just seemed to call to me. Partly because I figured they would be perfect Warband elements for my chaos forces in Hordes of the Things, but, as they come in a pack of sixteen, I can get 5 warband elements (3 per base) and have one left over.

What?! A left over figure, what's the use in that?!

Well, it gives me a groovy character to use in All Things Zombie!

I've been toying with using card makers for Magic The Gathering in order to create ATZ character cards (as many seem to do) and have just had a first attempt.

This is just a first draft, banged out in a couple of minutes, but I like how it is heading and it seems perfect for making character records for one off games.

For those of you interested, I used this free software: http://magicseteditor.sourceforge.net/

Now, I just need to wait for the figures to arrive!

Random roundup

Phew, where does time go?! Between this that and the other I haven't had much time for any kind of painting or gaming for ages, but am trying to scrape together a few moments to get various projects back on track.

I went and visited my parents for my Dad's birthday and Father's Day last weekend, which was a perfect excuse to get some DBA in! We played Rome (Dad) vs Carthage (Me) and the game went something like this:

1) The Carthaginian army approaches the Roman battle line.

2) Contact is made and a lengthy melee ensues

3) I lose really badly...

In my defense I was suffering from a really bad cold, which I had picked up the Friday before, but it was still a pretty poor show on my part...

In other news, my wife's Edward Monkton 'Madness Hamster' keyring broke. It was pretty old and battered by that point so it was not greatly mourned, but, being a wargamer who plays Hordes of the Things, I immediately thought "Oooh behemoth for my ratman army"...

One quick paint job later....

I thought it was a fun inclusion for when I want a 'less serious' kind of game.

To round up other events:

1. I went back to the club after an absence of several weeks and had a good couple of games of Saga. I was planning on using my Normans, but illness prevented me from finishing them. On the other hand, playing again has spurred me to try and complete them.
2. No pictures yet, but I now have a 15mm Dark Dwarf HotT army from Irregular. I will be reviewing this in the same style as the ratman army a while back.
3. We saw World War Z a while back and, I have to say, very much enjoyed it. It seems a lot of the criticism seems to stem from it not being very closely tied to the books and also that it is only a 15 rating. Ultimately I would say it is less of a zombie film than 28 Days Later etc, but works better if you view it as a thriller rather than a horror film. It was certainly tense and exciting (although it helps if you overlook a few large plot holes!). Basically it made me want to play more zombie games with fast zombies, so I guess it did its job there!
4. I have two more 'secret' projects on the go at the moment. Won't say much about them right now as it will probably just mean I lose focus on the things I need to finish first...

Right, better go. The postman just arrived and by the sound of things he has delivered my recent order from 15mm.co.uk!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Saga challenge complete!

Phew! That was a bit of work. I needed to prepare my 4 point Viking warband for a game this Thursday and was only able to work on it from Saturday... Due to using multipart plastics for most of the figures, it meant I effectively lost all of Saturday to gluing them together!

So that left me with Sunday, Monday night, Tuesday afternoon and tonight to finish them all! Well, you'l be happy to know I succeeded and, while not the best painted figures, they'll do for my purposes and I'd rather have them done for gaming than still be trying to paint the buckles on their belts!

Before I introduce you to them, I should say thanks to Pete who gave me the plastics, thereby saving me a small wad of cash and proving he is one of the most generous and kind natured wargamers I know! Well, either that or he really did hate the figures as much as he said... Thanks, mate!

Anyhow, on with the show....

8 Warriors (Plastics from Wargames Factory) 1 point. 

Warlord. Made up of two spare plastic warriors, but I may upgrade to a more 'warlordy' figure at some point.

8 Warriors (Plastics from Wargames Factory) 1 point. 

8 Hearthguard (Metal figures from Black Tree) 2 points

The whole motley crew. I'm content with that for a couple of day's work...

Side view to display my clumsily painted shield designs!

So that's it. I'm hoping they will do me proud on Thursday... The next question will be what to chose for the next 2 points worth. I'm thinking berserkers and another Hearthguard unit...

But for now it's on to the Normans....

Saga

I've been shamefully absent from my blog for ages now and thought it was time for an update on what I've been up to. The title pretty much gives it away!

I had played Saga a few times at the club I go to, always as the Vikings and usually against the Skraelings. This was fine and I enjoyed the games a lot, but I didn't have the overwhelming passion for it that I do now. The reason for this is probably that the Viking battleboard is fairly simple and the Skraeling one tends to focus on using the enemy's abilities against them, so I wasn't getting a real feel for the way other factions played and the interesting challenges this provided. (If you don't know about the battleboards used in Saga, click here for a useful overview.)

Enter the Welsh...

One evening I played 2 three way games and in the second I got to try the Welsh. This totally changed the way I saw the game. The Viking abilities are all about getting stuck in and timing attacks so they are backed up with some good effects. The Welsh on the other hand are sneaky ****s who disrupt enemy movement and stay out of reach whilst peppering their foe with javelins. So much more my style!

I suddenly found that I absolutely loved this game. I immediately texted a friend to see if he would sell me his copy as part of a clear out he was having and he was happy to oblige. We played a couple of games one day and  found I liked the Normans almost as much as I liked the Welsh...

Norman Knights holding a hill and awaiting a Viking onslaught!

While the Welsh are notoriously 'unfair' fighters, the Normans love to soften up the enemy with bow fire before smashing them with heroic cavalry charges. Hurrah!

Vikings advance towards the protection of the woods

What is excellent about the system, in my opinion, is how the abilities of each faction act to make each of them unique and all this information is gathered on an easy to read board without the need to flick though a book for charts, tables or lists of abilities. The core rules themselves are really quite simple and effective, to the extent that you may read them and think 'what's the point of cavalry, they don't get anything except a move bonus and an armour penalty from shooting?'. But when this is combined with the abilities on the board which reflect how the various factions fought, you end up with a game of considerable depth and interest to it: Norman cavalry are deeply scary when they charge into you, whereas Welsh mounted are used to conduct hit and run missile attacks while staying out of reach of foot troops. It is a rare thing that I play a skirmish game and feel I have a great deal of options and tough decisions to make, but this is something Saga does very well indeed.

The downside of this is that it becomes really hard to resist wanting to try a new army when you read what their abilities are. So far I am working on Vikings and Normans, but have plans to collect Welsh, Anglo-Dane, Breton, Jomsviking and possibly Scot armies as well... Oh and for those of you who are wondering, no I am not doing it in 15mm. I have found a game which has made me break this promise to myself, mainly because I want to play against other people's warbands at the club.

So do give Saga a go if you get the chance. Don't expect a 'historical simulation' if that is your thing, but if you like games where your decisions really matter and are rewarding to play, you might just find yourself with a new gaming addiction!

(PS: I'm going to be selling things on eBay to fund my new Saga habit!)

Monsterpocalypse

This post is a bit of an aside as it is not about my usual wargaming antics, but I just feel like writing about it. Monsterpocalypse is an out of production collectible miniatures game from Privateer Press. I came to it a little late in the day which has a bit of an advantage in that I didn't end up spending lots of money on it! On the other hand, it is now very hard to expand my collection. And that makes me sad.

I only own a two-player starter set, but what sets it apart from a lot of other CMGs is that it feels like a complete game in itself. For those who do not know, Monsterpocalypse sees two monsters battle it out over an urban landscape, supported by smaller units aligned to them. These monsters vary from giant robots, apes and dinosaurs to Martians and Cthulhu type monsters, catering to every taste.

But aside from the variety, theme and surprising depth of game-play, the game just looks fantastic. (Sorry for the glare on the board, I lay some perspex over the paper maps when I play.)

The Martian menace advances

A helicopter swoops across the urban landscape.

Sky Sentinel protects the humans from the alien invaders

Woosh! Boom! Zap!

Saucers advance on a nuclear power plant

So anyway, I just stopped by to post a few pictures. And if anyone is looking to sell any Monsterpocalypse stuff, drop me a message!

15mm Ratmen HotT army (Irregular Miniatures)

While browsing options for 15mm HotT army packs/deals, I came across an offer that could not be refused! While it appears that most armies sell for £15-20, I happened to see Irregular Miniatures have a line in their 15mm fantasy catalogue which simply states:

24 AP Armies	£9.00
except Lizard Army	£10.00

(Note for those who have not played HotT: AP= Army Points and a usual army is 24 points. Units are generally 2 AP each with some exceptions, leading to a typical 12 element army)

Intrigued, I sent a quick email to Ian Kay (super chap, great customer service) to inquire as to the contents of the 24AP pack for the Ratmen. His speedy response was:

"It contains 25 assorted rat inf, 2 rat riders, 2 chaos knights, 2 magicians ,1 lurker and a god figure! Over £12 of figures!"

Well, that was enough for me to take a shot, although I was slightly wary that there were no specific ratman magicians, lurkers or gods listed in the rest of the catalogue. By some crazy miracle, the packet which was posted on Friday turned up on Saturday morning and I eagerly tore it open.

Here is a picture of the small pile of led my £9 got me (note this does not include 9 ratman archers which I foolishly started to paint before taking this picture):

True to Ian's word, the contents were just as described. True to what I guessed from the catalogue, the god, lurker and wizard figures were generic and not ratman specific. The god in particular was a curious choice as it seemed to be a 28mm Greek philosopher, not exactly what I picture ratmen worshipping. Of the wizards, I preferred the one which looked like a hunchbacked old man, as that seemed to fit the army better. The other looked like a generic evil wizard (which will no doubt find a place in another army).

Figures which did not make it to the painting stage 

Sorting out the rest of the figures, I saw they were a good mix of ratmen with hand weapons, some with bows, a few banners and a couple of polearm types with helmets. There were a couple riding wolves, which was good to see, and also the chaos knights, which looked fine as an 'ally contingent'.

Arranging the force into suitable elements, I came up with the following:


1x Warband General (Ratman leader and armed guard) @2AP

1x Hero (Ratman Hero) @4AP

1x Riders (Ratmen on wolves) @2AP

1x Knights (Chaos Knight allies) @2AP

3x Shooters (Ratmen with bows) @2AP

4x Warband (Ratmen warriors) @2AP


So an 11 element 24AP army was achievable while adhering to my need for a theme which did not include philosophising Greek deities.... At this point I realised that I had a spare ratman, so I decided against the magician and picked the ratman which looked most like a hero and based him for that purpose. I have painted the magician anyway and it can find a home in this or another army at some point.

Once painted and based, the figures looked like this:

3x Shooters (Ratman Archers) 

4x Warband (Ratman warriors) 

1x Ratman Hero and 1x Magician 

1x Warband General (Ratman elite warriors) 

1x Riders (Ratman wolf riders), 1x Knights (Chaos Knight allies) 

To a degree you 'get what you paid for', but then again for £9 I think this is excellent value for money. If I were to make any suggestion, it would be for Irregular to ditch the generic figures and include more of the wolf-mounted ratmen, or even a couple of their fantasy wolves as a Beast element option. In my opinion, this would give the army more thematic coherency. But as it stands, it was only the knights in my final selection which were not 'ratman specific'.

All in all, though, I am very happy and will definitely consider buying more of these army packs! I want to end by mentioning that the service from Ian was top notch throughout, with quick email responses and super fast delivery.

(Note: I started drafting this post when the figures arrived and before painting had started. When my wife saw I had put a reminder in the text saying "[Insert painted figure pictures]" she 'helpfully' commented "Painted figures? So just when do you expect to be able to post that entry?" Naturally this filled me with resolve and a desire to prove myself, resulting in the army being painted over the course of the weekend. As it would never have been so without that comment, this post is dedicated to my wife! Thanks for helping me get through all the painting!)