TERRAIN FINISHED

So I have finally finished some terrain, in the past I have called this my Tusk Terrain, but realistically I think its better suited as a generic open field for any project that suits it, whether its a couple of Greek phalanxes facing off or a couple of Dark age warbands either way the terrain will work nicely, now design wise, the terrain has a dirt road starting from the bottom left corner making its way to the top right where it splits around a hilltop, it also has small concentrations of pine trees in opposite corners, with a few field rocks scattered around, aswell as small clumps of grass to break up the open field, this terrain shall make for a good place where a couple of armies can meet and fight man to man.

  

CASTING STONES

 

A while back I purchased a Woodland Scenics Rock Mould, at a first glance the mould looked nicely detailed and made of sturdy material, when I got the mould home I had a closer look and noticed that some of the moulds were quite deep, I wondered how hard it would be to get the castings out once they had set, anyway for $12.95 I thought it was a good buy, eventually I tracked down some casting plaster, found some free time and thought I would cast some meduim sized boulders for my terrain field.

So last weekend I took the time and cast some boulders, they seem to set fairly quickly but for safety's sake I left them over night as per the instructions, the next day, like a child unwrapping their christmas gift, I made my way to the garage and proceeded to pop the boulders out of the mould, the first thing I realised was just how brittle they turned out, bits breaking here and there, in the photo below you can see a boulder that broke after I had finished with it, the second thing I noticed was the deep moulded boulders took some convincing to come out and some of them came out in peices (just as I thought) overall the boulders turned out real nice, plenty of detail, with a realistic look, they are fragile but I think once you glue them down to the terrain, they should be fine.   

VIKING BERSERKERS

Viking Berserkers were a Norse cult warrior class who historians believed would work themselves up into a raged state and would then charge the enemy lines in an attempt to hack their way through, one Icelandic historian described them in the following way:

"His (Odin's) men rushed forwards without armour, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild oxen, and killed people at a blow, but neither fire nor iron told upon them."

After reading this description you wouldn't blame me for thinking these guys had consumed some kind of designer drug, if I'm not mistaken drugs like PCP, Methamphetemines, and even a Cocaine overdose can produce similar effects, even this new stuff called Bath salts (not the stuff you put in the bath) which I think is a Cocaine Methamphetemine cross is reported to produce an extreme version of these effects, but lasting longer than the others, hours and even days in some cases, fearlessness, superhuman strength, high level of aggresion, perhaps they came up with a Dark Age version of these drugs? either way, whether they were taking anything before battle or not they certainly left their mark in history.

WARNING

If you are reading this and know very little about drugs, what I dont mention in the above paragraph is all the other side effects that go with taking these types of drugs like extreme agression, agitation, paranoia, hallucinations, chest pain, suicidality, psychosis, and other stimulatory effects, this stuff is really bad news, you may end up harming someone or even end up harming yourself, so, stay well away from drugs... of any kind.

 

 



These miniatures are from Khurasan Miniatures and they are 15/18mm in scale, nicely posed, managing to capture the Dark Age Viking feel very well, they have plenty of character and there was minimal prep work involved in getting the miniatures to a primed state, the painting part as you know is the most enjoyable and these miniatures were no exception. More Vikings still to come.

SAXON CHAMPION - BEOWULF

This week I painted up a few more Saxons from Splintered Light Minis, Beowulf (pronounced bearwulf ) the Saxon Hero from Geatland (Scandinavia), slayer of Grendal (Troll / Giant) and Grendal's mother, this mini shall come in handy for some Mythological type skirmishes or I can simply use him as a Saxon Commander, a nice sculpt posed well, a pleasure to paint, for the shield I used LBM transfers.

I also painted up a couple more Saxon skirmishers, an archer and a Ceorl with Javelins, the guy with the javelins is a veteran of a couple of campaigns complete with bushy beard and cloak, again these are SLM minis and are 15/18mm scale.

MORE SAXON FRYD

We have more Saxon Ceorls this week, these guys will fill the bulk of the Fryd strengthening the shieldwall, theres not a whole lot to say about these guys, they would have typically been farmers working the land for most of the year, and taking up arms as needed in the defense of their homeland, in modern day terms they would be known as a militia, As with all my Saxons they are SLM miniatures 15/18mm, beautifully made and pretty easy to paint.

HENGIST AND HORSA

I painted up these two guys as special characters that I will use for my early Dark Age skirmishes, Hengist and Horsa were a couple of Legendary Saxon figures, it is said that these two guys originally served as mercenaries to the then High King of the Romano - British, Vortigern, they were hired to help stem the incursions of the Picts in the north who were sailing down the east coast and raiding the british from the south, and the Irish in the west, who were sailing across and raiding the north western british coast, in return, the british payed the Saxons and allowed the Saxon / Jutish forces to settle the Isle of Thanet and what is now known as the area of Kent. 

It was not long before trouble broke out between the Brits and the Saxons, the Saxons claiming that the Brits were not keeping to the original deal, and the Brits claiming the Saxons wanted to much of their land, in an effort to keep the Peace Hengist offered his daughter in marriage to the High king of the British, but during a peace meeting (everyone was meant to be unarmed) the Saxons butchered most of the British cheiftains, these events are now seen as marking the start of the Anglo Saxon invasion of Britian.   

Miniatures are 15mm SLM Anglo Saxon cavalry and the shields are 15mm  LBMS shield transfers.

1066 BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH

I watched this movie the other night, '1066' dubbed the most famous date in English history, for those that have not seen this movie here is a quick summary,  this movie plays out from the perspective of a couple of Saxon Ceorls who are called up for service in the Fyrd (local militia force), they get marched up north to tackle the threat of the Vikings in two decisive encounters, the Battle of Fulford and the Battle of Stamford Bridge and then they are marched south again with whatever troops they have left to face the menacing Normans in the Battle of Hastings.

The movie is no 'Braveheart' and the acting is OK, but still convincing enough to enjoy, it has a basic plot with a couple of likable characters as leads, costume wise the uniforms are faithful as is the armour and weapons, but everything is to clean and shiny, in fact the documentary style in which it is portrayed almost leaves you thinking that this is a high budget reenactment ! but don't let that scare you off, if your into the Dark Ages, then get your hands on this movie, bang it on and enjoy what it has to offer..... 6.5 /10  

AGE OF WOLVES

Well, the last three weeks have been a bit of a challenge, I started painting a couple of items for two potential posts and only got half way through both before I picked up a nasty Man Flu Bug, this thing laid me out for a good couple of weeks, missing many days from work, and not being able to get even close to a computer, here I am three weeks later, and the mojo is starting to come back again.

Easing back into things, I started working on a Dark Age rules set, not that there is a lack of rule sets or anything, and not that I wouldn't try any other sets, of course I would, but I wanted to create a skirmish rule set that mimicked reality as much as possible, a rule set that encompasses everthing Dark Age combat stood for with lots of detail, I want the individual combat to be quick and bloody, and the realism as accurate as possible without ruining the Fun factor, the weapons must be reflected faithfully and they must function like there real life counter parts.

So much realism only means one thing, lots and lots of research, I wanted to run a quick test game this weekend gone by, but quickly realised that there were so many aspects of the rule set I had not resolved yet, this will need to be done as soon as I can, so far I have nutted out the game structure or sequence, I also have resolved all movement and have made my way through most of the projectile fire side of things, once I sort out projectile fire I still have to work out hand to hand combat and combat damage, once I am sorted on these issues I can run a test combat encounter to see how balanced things are, still lots of work and research to be done, I shall post more on this as progress is made.

GROWING THE FYRD

Managed to paint up some more Saxon Ceorls this week, they have come up well I think, everything from the colours chosen to the way they are posed, I really like them, this month is really turning out to be a Dark age month for me, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up finishing the whole Saxon warband, as mentioned in a previous post there is not that much more to do, let me see, 7 more ceorl warriors to paint up, 2 more skirmish ceorls, a Saxon war flag, a few cavalry (in two minds about this) and a couple of Saxon Heroes.
After the Saxons I think I will start on the Picts, I want to paint these guys to match their reputation, Barbaric and mysterious even by Saxon standards, but I don't want to do this at the expense of historical accuracy, I want to fulfill the above mandate but still have them look fairly accurate, any ideas out there? 

I watched Beowulf and Grendel on dvd (G.Butler version) the other night, this really bolstered the Saxon fire, Visually, the whole movie set up felt very authentic, weapons were spot on, armour and helmets looked very Saxony even right down to the small shaggy horses that were available at that time! good movie, if your into the Dark ages and haven't seen it, check it out, its well worth the watch.

Gerard Butler In 'Beowulf and Grendal'

 

SAXON WARLORDS

As promised, this post I am delivering a couple of Saxon warlords, a pagan battle standard and a horn blower, as with the rest of the Saxons, these minis are from SLM  and are 15/18mm, SLM sculpt some very good poses on their minis, very natural looking poses, which is a welcomed sight, these days there are way to many 'awkard' looking poses out there in miniatures land, there casting process must also be good as there is very little prep work needed to get their minis ready for painting, this is a big bonus for me, I think there is nothing worse than having to repair or adjust newly bought minis.

Only one way to settle a land dispute...

With my Dark age project, most of my skirmishers will probably take place in the earlier part of the Dark ages, so they will most likely be small affairs, One Saxon Lord disputing with another, or a Saxon Lord fighting off a cross border raid curtersy of the dreaded Picts or something like that, so I painted up two Saxon Lords that can be used together as part of a bigger warband or separately as two smaller bands, theres not many more Saxons left to paint, actually 6 to be exact, but, I recently ordered even more Saxons, a small cavalry group and more lads with spears, so I will keep plugging away for now, but we are not far from finishing the Saxons.

The last couple of weeks I've been a little side tracked, I started going to a new gaming group whom I believe are called 'Peninsula Praetorians' we meet up every Friday night at one of the guy's house and so far its been a real blast, with this new group I have played Ambush Alley's Enduring Freedom (played at the show), FOGN Field of Glory Napoleonic and for the next few weeks we are doing it Old school, we are play testing the new DnD rules called simply 'DnD Next', which feel very much like the Basic version of DnD (think Red box set) published by TSR but revised/ simplified by Frank Mentzer, which happens to be the set I played with when I was in School, all this dungeon dwelling could see my DnD Fantasy project revived, stay tuned for more.

SAXON SKIRMISHERS

Continuing on with the Dark Ages Project, I slapped some paint on four Saxon ceorls (churls) to complete a small group of skirmishers, I don't believe projectile weapons were a major part of Saxon tactics, a lesson they would learn at the battle of Hastings, but they were definitely present in battles from a historical perspective, so I will include a small group of them, again these are SLM miniatures and the scale is 15/18mm, up next will be some Saxon Lords / Rulers, maybe even a battle standard.

LITTLE WARS 2012

Battle of Rork's Drift - 28mm

Little Wars Melb 2012 ran for only one day (Sunday) this is probably Melbournes largest Game convention, which isn't very big by international standards, but is still a good enough game convention to go too, and is the only game convention in my area (beggers cant be chooses), it was held in a German club, club Tivoli, a nice place with a full eating facility and bar, but unfortunately the big hall they had the convention in was dark and dingy, no climate control, so hot and stuffy and too top it off it had shitful lighting, ah well what can you do.... 

I adjusted my camera settings and started to snap away  (apologies about the photos)

Sword Beach, D-Day - 15mm FOW WWII

Command & Colors Board game conversion
Romans vs Gauls - 28mm

Warning:
Many Teddy bears were hurt in the making of this terrain.

Battle of Waterloo - 15mm FOG Napoleonics

Charge of the Ice brigade - 28mm Wings of War rules

Cast of Thousands - 28mm Pulp gaming

Home Brew rules (no one dies ! WTF ?!)

Force on Force Afghanistan - 28mm

I took the time to participate in a Force on Force game, and really enjoyed it, but found that the realism factor was lacking big time, while I was there the US troops radio failed to work like 4-5 times, we (Afghanies) shot 5 US troopers only to have them revived by one of their team mates, and I couldn't help but feel that the game favoured the US heavily, even though in this game the Afghanies put the smack down on the US.

I even managed to score an invite with this local gaming group, well see how that goes.  

LITTLE WARS MELB 2012

Just a quick post to let you know, Ancient Warriors (me) will be going to Little Wars Melbourne 2012, so you can expect pics and a quick rundown of events, this is only a smallish convention / show but there should be sum good stuff available, I'm hoping to take part in a Saga demo game if time permits, again you can expect a post some time next week.
Cheers for now.

WOW - FIGHTING ACES

As you all know last weekend I had a few fellas over for a WOW (Wings Of War) gaming night, I was hoping to get about six guys for a 3 vs 3, but it ended up being just 2 vs 2 which worked fine, bad timing had some potential gaming friends interstate, maybe next time well get more fellas involved, much fun was had anyway.

Allied players Chris (left) and Berend (right)...
someone doesn't like getting his picture taken.

John (Brother) AKA Candyman, he and I made up
the Central Powers Team.

So once everyone turned up we ordered pizza and started to distribute some drinks, scotch, coke, Cinzano, yep you get the idea.
We played two scenarios that night, as my brother had to go home to his wife and sick child (who is better now) earlier than expected, I will only post on one scenario this time and in the next few days I will post the other one up, so here is the mission statement and parameters:

‘Fighting Aces’ (Team Aerial Dogfight)

Mission Scenario
Feb, 1918, during the Great War
German and British fighter patrols meet over the muddy trenches of Europe; they battle it out for air supremacy.

Allied player:
Air Assets: RAF Se5a or Sopwith Snipe
Primary Objective - Destroy enemy fighters.
Allied Deployment:
All planes deploy a half rulers distance from the edge of the allied side, on turn 1.

German player:
Air Assets: Fokker DV II’s
Primary Objective - Destroy enemy fighters.
German Deployment:
All  planes deploy together a half rulers distance from the edge of the German side, on turn 1.

House Rules used
*Altitude rules will NOT be in play.
*Only one explosion card will be used in two damage decks
*Limited ammunition rules
Any plane that uses a lewis machine gun must draw 10 damage cards, this represents the small ammunition drums that were used for this weapon, reloading takes three phases, during this time you cannot fire.
RAF Se5a  planes draw 10 damage cards (97rnd drum, Lewis)

Collisions rules will be in play for this scenario.
If the model plane of one player overlaps the model plane of another player (friend or foe), this constitutes the dreaded mid air collision, for each plane that a player collides with they must draw a card from the ‘c’ damage deck.

Game Notes
The game ends when the planes of only one side are left on the gaming surface.

Winning conditions
Team with the most points win.

Shooting down an enemy plane = 2pts for team
Being shot down by enemy plane = loss of 2pts for team
Being forced off or flying off playing surface = loss of 1pt for team

Starting positions

First engagement had Chris and I in a game of chicken
with minimal damage done to Chris's plane only.

In a freak incident Berend clips Chris's plane causing
lots of structural damage to both planes and also injures
Chris's pilot in the process.

After a couple turns of maneuvering we managed to

separate the two and we caught Chris outright gunning

him down, not only was the pilot hit and killed instantly, 

but the planes structural integrity failed also, losing a wing,

Chris's biplane plummets to the muddy trenches below. 

In the very next turn Berend attempts a flybuy but collides with
the Candyman's plane, this being his second collision, his plane
crumbles, and he also nose dives to the muddy trenches below   

A really bad run for the Allied forces, doing more damage to themselves than to us, but we must remember that this was there first game, the Wings of War mechanics can be so unforgiving, a good introduction game, this only made the allies even hungrier for revenge in the next scenario.
Allies 0 Central Powers 1.

Here are some actual photos of the game, sorry about the quality, bad lighting and poor camera skills is the cause, shall work on this for next time.