Saga Saxon Shields

These look rather nice. I have a leftover handful of the Viking shield decals from Battleflag so thought I'd also get a full sheet of forty four Saxon shield transfers to use on my Gripping Beast Saga war bands when I get the chance to start putting them together. This will hopefully happen in a couple of weeks time when I have a short half term break. With a bit of organising the transfer designs will do for warriors, hearth guard and even levy, so I can decide which specific units to assign them to and still have some leftover.

Battles of the Dark Ages

I thought I'd give this a try on the Kindle as I'm in an early medieval frame of mind at the moment, what with all that Gripping Beast plastic sitting on the shelves above the workbench. It's had iffy reviews on the historical accuracy front but it should be an interesting read nonetheless, especially as it is written with the wargamer in mind. I'll see what it's like before I make any rushed judgements....it is the so-called 'dark ages' after all...?

Birthday Presents

I've been so busy this week that I haven't had the time to open my birthday presents until today. The work life balance is definitely completely screwed at the moment as you can see. Anyway, the wife and kids asked me what I wanted and, as a result, I now have the basis of a couple of Saga warbands and some extra reinforcements for my Lion Rampant War of the Roses project. I've no idea when I'll get the time to even open the boxes but I'm very happy with my presents!

En Garde!

I pre-ordered a digital copy of the new swashbuckling skirmish rules from Osprey a while back and they arrived on the Kindle today. A quick skim through and I'm really liking what I see, especially as the system is based on the Ronin rules expanded and developed to cover the swashbuckling genre. The rules are also lavishly illustrated with colour plates by Peter Dennis and photos of some stunning 28mm figures from Redoubt and Foundry amongst others. I expect that there will now be a bit of a rush for these ranges, especially the Redoubt Three Musketeers which are superb (I have some in a dusty box somewhere).

The other thing about En Garde! is that I actually already have some figures painted and ready to play! I have a decent selection of 28mm pirates that I originally painted up for Legends of the High Seas and which have seen quite a lot of action, even hunting dinosaurs in Saurian Safari on a few occasions. The figures might need a bit of a touch up where they've been bashed about a bit but they're ready to be organised into a warband, so a Treasure Island style scenario would be easy to set up and run. I'll have to sort them out and do some number crunching using the lists in the rulebook to see how far they can be stretched. It might even be worth painting a handful more to swell the ranks?

Armies Army Cold War Kickstarter

I've always wanted to skirmish game a Cold War Gone Hot Norway scenario, with Royal Marines and Norwegian troops up against their Soviet paratrooper opposition. I even used to have a selection of the old Platoon 20 figures for this many, many years ago, although where they are now is anyone's guess? So, I was really enthused by the Armies Army Cold War Kickstarter which promises to deliver exactly what I'm after, complete with British troops in winter kit and Soviet VDV paratroops.

I've backed the basic starter set and will be adding a few extras like support weapons and a handful of vehicles once the Kickstarter is complete in February. In the meantime, I'm also thinking of digging out my 10mm Pendraken Royal Marines as a quick project to round off what has otherwise been a very unproductive month. I can't find them despite several attempts to excavate through the piles of stuff on the garage shelves but, when I do locate them, I'll see what I can come up with.

The rules will be Five Core Company Command which I think will be perfect for the level of game I'm looking for, with each stand representing a squad or fire team and each vehicle being one for one. The idea will be to use my tundra terrain cloth folded in half to 4' x 3' plus whatever terrain I can plonk on top to represent Norway in the winter time. The initial focus is on solo-play but I'm also keen to try out the rules at the club first, using my AK47 figures and terrain to see how they work.

Can I retire yet?

Happy Birthday to me (again).

Saga

I really enjoyed the Saga game last week and so have decided to hold onto my Normans rather than selling them on. I have a couple of units that I have based up and undercoated to expand the four point warband to a full six points, although when I get round to that is yet to be decided. I also think I'll get some crossbows to make the most of the Aimed Volley and Storm of Arrows attributes, which would have been really handy the other night!

I'm also seriously thinking of a second or even third warband for SAGA now, moving the focus back to the ninth century with an Anglo-Saxon theme as the first option. I've always wanted to wargame this period, specifically the south westward expansion of Wessex under King Ecgbert in the 820's and 830's, with the focus on battles against the West Welsh and their Danish allies. It's a very interesting period and a bit off the beaten track, although I did manage to scrape 25000 words out of it for my under graduate dissertation many, many years ago!

Dragon Rampant Ice Elves...meltdown!

I sat down this afternoon to paint the Mantic elves for Dragon Rampant. It was all going well until I started on the fiddly bits at which point I completely lost the plot. I don't know why but I am finding it very difficult to paint well these days and get increasingly frustrated with my clumsy brushwork. As a result, I decided to bin the lot and start again, which is a bit radical but made me feel a lot better!

I'm now going to re-think the project and use the GW Lord of the Rings plastic goblins and trolls that I have in a cardboard box somewhere instead. At least they can be painted up in a rough and ready fashion rather than having to pick out lots of detail, which is more and more of a problem due to my eyesight these days. In the meantime, I'll find something else to practice on so that I can kick my rusty painting habits.

The Boer War

It's been a bit quiet here for the last couple of weeks, as the return to work sinks in and then piles up, so it was great to take a trip into town this afternoon with the boys for a bit of retail therapy in the second hand charity book shop. I always pop in on Friday after work as we have half an hour to kill before judo and swimming at the local pool. There's also the added incentive that the odd fiver here of there all goes to Oxfam, which can't be a bad thing.

There's usually something worth acquiring for the bookshelf and today it was a copy of this hardback Osprey Military title on the Boer War, including loads of contemporary photographs, maps and colour plates, together with pictures of the various battlefields today. It's not a conflict that I know much about, even though my parent's house was designed by an architect who was killed at Colenso. The house was actually called Colenso for many years as a result.

I've always thought it would be perfect for 10mm using the extensive Pendraken Boer War range, but that is something that I won't be adding to the backlog of projects at the moment. If the Too Fat Lardies ever get round to publishing their rules for South Africa, then I might have to change my mind? Instead, I'm hoping to make some progress with my Dragon Rampant elves this weekend, although it's flipping freezing in the garage and the workbench is sub-zero as a result!

Saga Skirmish

I enjoyed a very bloody but closely fought game of Saga at the club this evening, which is the first time I've had the chance to really try out the rules, despite having a copy for ages and a 4 point Norman warband to pillage the local Saxon village. The game was an Anglo-Dane versus Norman scenario with both sides attempting to wipe each other out and to eliminate the rival warlord. In the end, it was a narrow Anglo-Danish victory but it was a very close run thing.

I thought the order dice and battle boards worked really well, although I did screw up the dice play to start with and mistook my mounted knights for proper medieval cavalry, rather than just hearth guard on horses. I also neglected to bring any missile troops, which would have given me lots more options (apparently crossbows are the best thing since sliced turnip in the 11th century).  An enjoyable game either way and I certainly picked it up faster than I thought I would.

Anyway, I've decided to sell on the almost completed Normans, which I've never been that pleased with as far as painting is concerned, then use the funds to build a couple of alternative warbands. These will probably be a Viking and an Anglo-Saxon army, although I haven't made up my mind yet and also quite like the idea of some West Welsh. I see that Northstar have the Gripping Beast plastic boxed sets on special offer now as well...very tempting!