Frostgrave Warband

These arrived in the post on Friday, which was really quick, so I grabbed some time today to base them up. There's a shamen (witch) and an apprentice, a mail armoured paladin, a barbarian, a warband leader (knight) and four archers. This adds up to 700 points so I'm obviously not going to use them all together but will be able to try out different combinations of figures. I also have a lack of lower value soldiers, so have ordered some more unarmoured barbarians with single handed weapons to use as expendable low-cost thugs. The nice people at Forlorn Hope gave me 5% off as an introductory offer, so I felt obliged to use it!

Next week at the club...SAGA!

I thought I'd take up an offer of a game at the club next Tuesday, the first of the year, as a break from the tedium of work. We're going to play a 4 point game of Saga, with my Normans against Andy's Anglo Saxons, which is something I've wanted to try out for ages. The last few attempts to actually get a game going have all ended in disaster, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing gets in the way of this belated opportunity to try out the rules. If I enjoy it, I'm thinking of building another warband at some point this year, although it will probably not be the chunky Foundry Vikings that I originally intended. I have some Gripping Beast Anglo Saxons that would make a very nice West Saxon or Mercian comitatus, so I think I'll go down that route instead.

Operation Nordwind

I found this hardback in the second hand bookshop today for two quid. It's an interesting subject which is overshadowed by the Battle of the Bulge but is well worth a look as an wargaming alternative. It also give my 28mm Artizan Yanks another excuse to be deployed in winter terrain and to have at least one Corgi Sherman tanks painted up in snow camouflage. I really should get round to finishing off those last few remaining figures to use with  Bolt Action!, Rate of Fire or Iron Cross.

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves [4]

I haven't had any time to spend on these this week, even though they only need some basic dry brushing and blocking in done at this stage. To put this right, I'm going to get up early tomorrow, head down the garage and get this sorted, with the overall aim to complete the army by the end of the month. I have also decided to add a second four point unit of twelve spearmen, so have sent off for a box of twenty spear armed figures, from which I may also be able to squeeze something else? These Mantic box sets are good value too, if you shop around, with each figure in this case working out at less than 50p. Not bad!

Frostgrave Barbarians

It looks like Frostgrave is going to be making an appearance at the club soon, so I thought I'd start on a warband of half a dozen fighters and a magic user of some sort. I'm not overly keen on the plastic figures and so have been looking for some alternatives, if possible by making use of some stuff I already have at hand.

I have, however, decided to splash out on something a bit different, so have sent off for a handful of the old Grenadier barbarians sculpted by Mark Copplestone and now available from Forlorn Hope / EM4. I have a couple of these fantastic figures already but have added some archers, some two-handed weapon figures and a couple of champions.

The barbarians don't really fit with the warband lists in the rules but I can match the figures with their equivalent henchmen without too much trouble. At least one of them can be a 'barbarian' whilst the others can be archers, rangers, men at arms and so on. I'll ignore the lack of leather armour too, as they're tough enough already!

The magic is covered by a couple of the shamen figures in the range which are perfect as a witch and apprentice. I've also ordered a couple of mail and plate armoured knights from the same range to use as non-barbarian warband reinforcements. I think this lot will make a very unusual and interesting warband...once I get round to painting them up.

The Man Who Would Be King

I found this at the weekend in a sale for peanuts and, as I think it's a cracking film, I had no hesitation in grabbing copy. I'm surprised I didn't have it already but, now that I do, I'm going to save it for a late night weekend when I have no school work to do and can put my feet up. I'm deep in a pile of Year 9 exercise books this evening, marking essays on the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, so at least I now have something to look forward to!

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves [3]

Ice Elf guinea pig

...now that would be an interesting unit?

It's back to work tomorrow (bugger!) so today has been spent marking Year 10 exercise books, ready for the start of term. I haven't had time for any painting today apart from a test figure, which has been drybrushed in Foundry Spearpoint and then had the face and hair blocked in with Foundry Arctic Grey Shade. Big result!

These will get over-painted with pale flesh and white respectively, followed by a wash or further highlights. I'm thinking of using a three stage light blue approach on the spears, to create an icy effect, then all that I'll add will be a few details leaving the rest of the figure in shiny metal armour. I'll see what this looks like before I decide if I'm going to do anything more involved....it's supposed to be a quick project after all? 

Too Fat Lardies Xmas Special

A bit late but better than never, the TFL Xmas Special is out and has some interesting stuff in it, although less variety than usual with a distinct Chain of Command focus. From my perspective, two articles are of particular interest. The first is a Malaya campaign for Chain of Command including lists for the Japanese and some theatre specific rules, which is directly relevant to what I was doing last year over the Summer, so food for thought and something I hope to return to in the not too distant future.

The second article is about scratch building polar terrain, which is something I've been thinking of doing for many years but never got round to, despite having Copplestone explorers, a sledge, a polar bear, a walrus, some inuit hunters and a seaplane model kit stashed away for just such a thing. I've even got a scary snow monster in the shape of a fantastic snow troll figure. The Xmas Special is only a fiver and has lots more in it than just these articles, so well worth downloading!

Project Plans for 2016

I'm being very cautious with my plans for the coming year, so I'm keeping down to a skirmish level and focussing on small projects that I can complete in the space of weeks rather than months. These will include both Dragon Rampant, which is already underway, and Lion Rampant War of the Roses which I've decided to do in 28mm rather than 15mm, at least at the moment. I'll may also have a crack at Black Ops, Ronin, Frostgrave and En Garde, all of which require a small number of figures and are published by Osprey. The Achtung Commando! project and Saga will be in there somewhere too.

One thing I will use to tie this all together is an ice and snow theme, using my lovely new(ish) tundra gaming cloth from Cigar Box Battlemats. This means that I can maximise the use of the relatively expensive cloth and combine any other terrain that I build or buy to cover several projects. I like the idea of War of the Roses in the snow for a start, all very redolent of Towton, and there are obvious connections with Frostgrave, the Heroes of Telemark and the Ice Elves on the workbench. I may even do something sci-fi or pulp set in the snow, either in 15mm or 28mm, who knows...

...and there will definitely be some more mdf !

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves [2]

I finished assembling the ice elf army this afternoon, with the addition of a mage (an old GW Lord of the Rings Saruman figure), a mounted elven hero and a medium sized flying dragon (an old GW model). I also finished the last of the spearmen and scouts, although I'd like to add at least one more unit of infantry in the longer run, if I can find some cheap ones. I was going to add a reduced sized unit of three elite riders but I couldn't be bothered!

This lot will be sprayed with the Humbrol aluminium, then washed in Army Painter Strong Tone and drybrushed with Foundry Spearpoint, ready for the detailing stage. I'm not sure how I'll paint the dragon but it will probably be in some shade of ice blue to match the rest of the army. The breakdown of the ice elf army for Dragon Rampant looks like this:

1 x Heavy Foot with Swords (Offensive) @ 6 points

1 x Heavy Foot with Spears @ 4 points

1 x Scouts @ 2 points
1 x Heavy Foot Hero (reduced size unit) @ 4 points
plus

1 x Small Warbeast (Flyer) @ 6 + Ice attack @ + 2 = 8 points
or

1 x Elite Rider Hero (reduced size unit) @ 6 + Magic Armour @ + 2 = 8 points

or

1 x Heavy Foot Wizard (reduced size unit ) @  4 + 4 = 8 points

I haven't worked out all the magical or fantastical additions yet so will have to fiddle around with the points balance before I decide the most interesting composition, so this isn't frozen solid yet (see what I did there!). Anyway, I need to re-read the rules properly, so in the meantime I'll crack on with the painting in the last couple of days of holiday left before the inevitable return to work.