Dragonewt on weirdy beast

I actually finished this little monster mash-up on Sunday, but thought I'd write up my gaming session with Dunc first.

The rider came from the Runequest set of Dragonewts I painted up a few months ago and would ordinarily ride on a terror bird (painted maybe a year or so back). However, I wanted to keep the terror birds as separate adversaries as they are lovely figures and would be too limited if used only with the actual Dragonewt riders. I had a rummage through my unpainted lead drawers and found this strange horsey-chaos thing. I think it is a Citadel mini that had some sort of fish-man or long-necked rider, that I doubt I will ever use, unless I stick it on a horse? Anyway, the Dragonewt fitted onto this mount perfectly, so I thought 'Why not?'

Next up : I have put a little more paint onto some Warriors of Rohan and I also undercoated the freebie Ghouls that I got with one of the wargames mags a month or two back. I aim to put them to use on my magician base for the HotT barbarian army I finished a while back. I have also almost finished the Splintered Lands minis. Decisions, decisions.

Into the Perilous Realm...

I got down to see Dunc, my new online gaming buddy, this weekend. I packed the chariot with all the requirements for a day's gaming and set off through the Dark Wood into the Perilous Realm of Sussex. My landlubber's legs trembling at the thought of meeting my sea-worthy adversary in mortal combat. The Saxons were invading and the remnants of the Romano-British resistance needed to show they were made of stern stuff.

After a thoroughly warm and friendly greeting at the door of chez Dunc I was ushered into the realm of the lord of battle. We had four smashing games. The first three I was able to roll an absolutely unbelievable amount of sixes (something I am not usually renowned for). However, when the dice went back to resembling normality in our final game, Dunc gave me a sound thrashing with his superior tactics.



Dunc has actually beaten me to the write up of our games here, but I have a few photos and comments of my own to add to his wonderful summaries. I managed to photo (on my Blackberry, so please excuse the poor quality) the Splintered Lands versus Dwarfs match up close to the start and then at the death.

Dunc's Dwarf Hero on a bear charged forward in the hope of mashing up some mouselings cowering in a huddle between the hills and the marsh. My Hare leader ran out to meet him in single combat - ordinarily a foolhardy decision but he thought his troops would back him up. Looking back, he saw the mice cowering together and the otters refusing to enter the marsh - perhaps these aqueous creatures didn't want to get their fur wet? This game saw me roll unbelievably in combat but I failed on numerous occasions to activate - rolling a double fail for something like four turns in a row. If it wasn't for a Transfix cast by the mouse shaman, the Hare (and then the rest of the army) would have been mincemeat, but the constant flow of sixes meant the combat went against the far superior warrior.

The battle ebbed to and fro, but the Splintered Lands army just managed to cling to a victory.

This was my first foray into the world of Songs of Blades and Heroes, and I can quite honestly say that this set of rules makes for a fun, actioned packed half-an-hour. The four games we had during the afternoon were great and the ruleset made for each being unique.

After the actual gaming, we were both called indoors by Mrs Tangent to a hearty, and most tasty, meal of meatballs (thank you again for your hospitality). Absolutely perfect for rounding off a great day out.

We parted with the promise of more to come. I look forward to it with great anticipation.

Roman Top Brass

These took me forever to finish. Not sure why, but I just lacked the enthusiasm for them for a long time. Maybe it was because I had painted so many legionaries and auxiliary troops in the last year I had just lost the will to do any more, or maybe it was because for the first time in a long time I had used a white undercoat instead of my usual black. Anyway, I got stuck into them this weekend and finished them up late this afternoon.

First up is the legion's top brass - the Aquilifer, a tribune or legate and a Primus Pilus (all are from Warlord Games's range of Early Imperial Romans). These are way too highly ranked for my skirmish set up of a century plus its auxiliaries hidden away on some frontier somewhere, but I guess they could always show their faces in a scenario idea - kidnap/kill the legate type thing.

Next up are the top brass of a century - cornicern, centurion and a vexillarius (carrying a vexillum that doesn't have any unit details on it - I decided to keep it blank).

To round out my auxiliary units, I needed an optio for each. Below is the first optio I painted, for the western auxiliary unit of spearmen and archers I have. I stayed with the standard oval shield and chain armour for him.

For this chap I decided on a little back story. He was a late transfer to the auxiliaries from a legionary century. Therefore, he is wearing his lorica segmentata and carrying a rectangular scutum. I gave the scutum the unit's shield design, but had to fill up around the transfer as it was an oval decal on an oblong shield. I think it makes a nice change. I have another optio in chain with round shield, but will paint him up to go with the century command above.

What other Early Imperial Roman stuff do I still have in the painting backlog? Well, I have 2 scorpios and 1 onager with attendant crews, plus a unit of Balearic slingers. I also have a unit of about a dozen Numidian auxiliary cavalry. I think I will add enough Roman cavalry to create a full turma of around 32 men. I may also add some Numidian footmen, Celtic cavalry, a few elephants and a baggage train along with some civilians. I also have a Roman watch tower that I could use as the beginnings of a semi-permanent camp if I can manage to sum up the courage to create some earthworks.

Next up I am painting a few odds and ends of fantasy stuff and I have made a start on my Warriors of Rohan.

Nick Lund's Kobolds

I bought these way back in the day when they were first released at a shop in west London. I cannot remember the name of the shop now but, as far as I know, it is no longer there - a shame really as I only went there the once (to get these and their Hobgoblin counterparts) and I recall it being a haven for RPG gamers. I went with my friend Steve, from school, whom I had just got into gaming and we went armed with a wodge of pocket money and high hopes. My aim was to get a stack of Nick Lund's stuff and his was to get a stack of dwarfs and orcs. We were neither disappointed and both of us came away with massive bags full of miniatures. Happy days indeed.

First up here is a picture of the hand weapon and shield armed Kobold warriors. They are nice and chunky and no way do they represent the weedy D&D style Kobolds. They are dressed in furs, cloth and a bit of chainmail for one - they look like they scavenged all their weaponry from their (or others'?) victims in the depths of the dark woods or dungeon.

Here are the same fellas showing off their shields.

These figures are of more warriors with two-handed weaponry. Again in an assortment of clothing; furs, studded leather and chain. The large weapons look functional - heavy (but not outsized like many modern manufacturer's renditions) and grim. I believe there was another from this part of the range, but the shop didn't have all of them in stock (likewise the Hobgoblins). Alas, I was unable to complete either collection, but nine of the critters should be enough to create a small, spiteful warband.

No right minded warband would go into action without magical assistance. Here is the Kobold shaman.

And finally, here is the chieftain himself. Much larger than the others, armed with a solid looking two-headed axe, wearing chain mail and a tatty green cloak that must have seen a lot of action.



I decided on a green theme for these to tie the warband together, with a couple of contrasting red items to complement the green. I like the way they have turned out.

The only issue I had with these was that they were mounted on pennies from a long time ago and therefore didn't have the steel content of today's currency. I couldn't remove the figures from those old pennies without damaging them, so I had to stick more modern pennies underneath to 'magnetise' them for storage. The double height bases look a little strange from close up, but look fine from a distance.

Next up should be some EIR command.

Centaur

This is my oldest shop bought figure; a Ral Partha Centaur from 1976. I don't remember why I bought him as I had no use for him at the time. I think it was a case of I saw what I thought at the time was a fantastic figure and made an impulse buy; the first of many, I might add.

I painted him up for use with Runequest, but the lack of detail meant it was hard to make it look any good. He was originally armed with a sword, but that has gone missing through the mists of time, so I added a heavy spear and a shield from my bits box. I painted a very crude Sagitarius symbol on the shield to match his barbaric origins. I will most probably start using him in SoBH along with some human adventurers to go against the Broo I painted earlier this year before trying to resurrect an old Runequest character (created after the fact I bought the figure so I could get some use out of him!).

I am hoping to finish those Kobolds this weekend and make more headway on the last of my Early Imperial Roman command figures (I am finding these very difficult to summon up any enthusiasm to paint at the moment).

Some random fantasy stuff

Here are the rest of the miniatures I painted up over the weekend. They are a random assortment of fantasy and historical figures painted to be fantasy miniatures of sorts.

First up is a Warlord Games Celtic boy being chased by an old Citadel Amazon.

And back in the other direction in true Benny Hill style. I wonder what he has stolen to make the Amazon chase him with such wrath?

Here are a couple of left over Warlord Games Numidians painted like my HotT base of mounted barbarians. I still have a stack of these to be used with my ever growing Roman army.

Almost finished: a very old centaur (my first ever bought figure from around 1976), some Nick Lund kobolds and some Roman command.

Reaper Cleric

The weekend allowed me to finish off quite a few fantasy minis to the stage where they just need to be varnished or have their bases completed. This is a fairly modern take on the Cleric character class by Reaper Miniatures. I bought him at Colours about two or three years ago on an impulse, with no real use for him.

I decided to paint him in a mixture of D&D and Runequest styles; the bronze chain armour being the nod to a standard Runequest character and the iron weaponry and plate a nod to iron shod Rune Priests/Lords. However his look, to me, is far more D&D. I used him as an experimental paint job to see how well the purple and yellow go together.



This figure is quite a bit bigger than my earlier fantasy minatures, which are all true 25mm. This miniature fits in more with my Runequest minis or later historicals by Gripping Beast. As a result, he needed to go on a 2p coin rather than the usual 1p coin.

I have been using all sorts of basing colours but have yet to settle on a particular colour or style. Eventually when I get to paint an army for use in a game, I will have to settle on a particular colour scheme. I may have to then go back and repaint a few base rims to match further figures in with them.

The next few days should see a few more fantasy figures up on the blog as I finish and photograph them.