Red Planet Terrain Mat

I spotted this bargain today on TMP, a £10 discount offer on Deepcut Studios red planet terrain mats over at the Big Red Bat Cave web shop thingy. As it's Friday and I have had a very, very heavy week, I thought 'I could do with one of those!' and promptly bunged in an order. It works out at a little over £40 for a 6' x 4' mat including First Class postage, so a pretty good deal.

I'm not sure what I'll use it for but initial thoughts are for 15mm Sci Fi, which is one of my projects for this year, along with some Post Apocalypse Mad Max style games using 28mm Copplestone Future Wars figures and 1/43rd scale die-cast toy car conversions. I could also have a go at using it for Fistful of Lead: Reloaded, although it's probably a bit too extra-terrestrial to look quite right?

More Saga Shields

This finishes off my shopping list for the Saga West Welsh, with a selection of shield decals from Little Big Men Studios for the Gripping Beast six point Cornish warband. They don't have many units with shields anyway but I thought it would be nice to deck out the Teulu with some decent patterns to give the warband a bit of colour. I've chosen a mix of the Arthurian and generic Dark Age designs but will decide which ones to use once I've assembled the units.

Saga Basing

I've decided to go all out on the basing for the Saga West Welsh having seen other players at thr club using skirmish style multiple bases with removable stands, rather than just juggling with individual figures. The place to go for these is Warbases who have a range of what they call 'Zombie' bases that are ideal for the purpose. I've gone for  mix of four, six and eight hole bases, so that I can group heartguard, warriors and levy together and also combine some of them to make larger units if required. I've also gone for the 2p sized slots, although I'll be using 2p sized mdf  circles rather than coins, as I prefer them for some inexplicable reason. I'm hoping this will all look pretty good?

Saga Supplement

I now have a copy of The Raven's Shadow to add to the main rules and the first supplement which I already own. I'm not thinking of adding any of the various forces from this supplement at the moment but the rules for using war banners will be useful for my West Saxon and Cornish war bands, along with the extra scenario material. I'm surprised that there isn't a list and battle board for a Pictish war band as this would seem to be an obvious thing to include?

Happy Birthday Action Man!

Happy Birthday Action Man....50 years old today no less!

It's got to be the best Xmas present I ever had, way back in 1976.

(although I never did get that Scorpion tank!).

I wonder how many wargamers out there used to have Action Man collections...

...and realistic hair?

Saga West Welsh

Well, it's been a total washout this month as far as wargaming is concerned, so I'm planning something for February to make up for the lack of anything tangible over the last three weeks. I really enjoyed the Saga game at the club this month, so have decided to put together a second Saga army in the shape of a Welsh warband. This was already on my list of things to do in 2016, so it's all going in the right direction.

To make this a bit different, I'm going to design my warband as a Cornish force - the West Welsh - who fought a border war against the West Saxons in the 800's. They allied with the Danes on a number of occasions, so I'm going to make at least one of the units a Viking contingent, using the standard Welsh battle board as it is. The rest of the warband will be mostly lightly armed warriors and levy with pointy sticks but will also have a core of hearthguard to give it some 'oomph'.

I have the Gripping Beast 4 point starter army and have added a second four man unit of teulu plus a second twelve man unit of javelin armed bonnedig, to fit alongside the archers from the starter set . This should round out the warband to six points and makes the most of the skirmishy shooting attributes from the battle board. I've also replaced the foot warlord with the mounted Strathclyde Welsh version, as it's a cracking figure. All I need now are some bases before I can get going.

I'm not going to start on this project for another week or two but will get the units based and undercoated over the half term holidays. We're off to Cornwall for the week so I'll have plenty of time to get the warband ready for painting then. I'll also be doing some fieldwork in the local area to re-visit the battlefield of Hingston Down (838) and King Doniert's Stone, which records the death of Dumgarth the last King of Cornwall (c875), both of which are just a few minutes away from home.

Red Star, White Lights

I got a £1.00 discount as a Kickstarter backer of the Armies Army 15mm Cold War project today, for a new pdf  scenario booklet Red Star, White Lights by Ram Company Games. This is a 'what if' Cold War Gone Hot scenario package set in Norway, so spot on for the Royal Marine Commando 10mm project that I added to the lead pile last year. Here's the blurb:

In an alternate 1985, Soviet tanks rolled across the West German border…but that wasn’t the only battleground the Superpowers came to blows. One of these battlegrounds was Scandinavia. This scenario pack is Volume 1 of a new series meant to address the question “What is occurring in these “Other Fires” of the Third World War. Volume 1 contains 12 scenarios covering tank battles, small commando raids meant to shape the fate of nations, and everything inbetween!

My 10mm project uses Pendraken Falklands figures for the British and Modern Soviets from the same place, once they get added to the range at some point in 2016 (I hope...!). It will also now work with the Armies Army 15mm figures, so I have both options to consider when it comes round to actually putting it all together. I'm hoping that this scenario collection will give some good ideas and help me to make up my mind. about which scale to go for?

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!