More Figures From The Painting Table

As I said in my last post, I have been making a stab at lowering the concentration on my painting table, so more recently painted, or finished, figures.

This was a pre-painted snow leopard with about 6 spots per side.  Also grey.  Not acceptable, so I repainted him.

We have been playing a bit of Zombiecide: Black Plague, and Theresa has claimed Ann as her own.  However, the miniature provided is a bit on the anorexic side, and Theresa is definitely not.  So I did a simple Reaper Bones conversion.

I got this Viking figure in a group that I bought on the Miniatures Page. I don't know the manufacturer, but its quite a nice figure that sat unfinished for 6 months.

I picked up the Frostgrave rules and realized I didn't have any imps! So I bought some from Reaper. What's that? Finish what's on the table?

This elf archer is probably an old Sandra Garrity Grenadier figure.  She was sitting half-finished on the paint table, and now she's off.

Two Black Tree Design evil elf religious figures.  Come on, how much would it have taken to finish them when started? 

Another Reaper mini, a bit on the small side for today's minis.  Another Sandra Garitty, I'm sure. Perhaps she'll fit in a barbarian horde.

This is a very old resin figure, possibly Scotia.  They came in a bag of multiples with slight differences in the figure, i.e.: helmet, armor, face. Another barbarian.

Wizkids pre-primed boars. I really like them! Dark ages, post-apocalypse.

Children.  I haven't checked the makers, but I'm sure the one on the right is Rebel Minis. Whoops, have to paint the eyes on the little girl in the center!

A resin Amazon, possibly from Brother Vinnie. As I do more resin figures, I am becoming less fond of them for table figures.  They are too delicate, and swords, etc, tend to be a bit wiggly.

This is another Wizkids pre-primed figure.  Transparent Tamiya paint on the clear flame. The figures are ok, but, as you can see, the faces are definitely rudimentary.

The other one that came in the pack with the one above.

I've had this figure for a very long time, as identified by being atop a penny, atop a washer.  It's a nice figure, yet another Scandinavian blond to traipse about Sherwood!  Grenadier?

"There are those who call me...Tim!" I've reworked the eyes, but I'm still not satisfied. It's a recent figure, but I can't remember who made it.

This is not newly constructed, but newly returned.  The first edition on THW's "NUTS!" had a learning game using a building of this layout, so I built this from black foamcore, and ran games at conventions.

The Wounding of Egbert the Eveready by Ase the Average

     I finally have just enough Vikings and Saxons to put on a battle between 2 persons of Medium Social Standing in Two Hour Wargames Captains and Kings. So without further ado, let's introduce the two sides.  First is Egbert's retinue. All the figures are Wargames Factory.

And now, Ase's retinue. The hirdsmen and thralls are Wargames Factory. The Freemen are Gripping Beast Dark Age Warrior plastics, and the berserkers are Old Glory, Hasslefree, and Wargames Factory.

Egbert was anxious to get at the Vikings, so he moved forward quickly.  The Vikings proved no pikers, and ran at the Saxons, breaking their formation. They were unable to close, and the beserkers ended up short of the bows, who sent arrows their way.

As the archers' fire was having a bad effect on the beserkers, Egbert moved his troops behind them. The beserkers lost one figure to the arrows, but 2 more fled. Some berserkers.

The archers ran to the left flank of Egbert's retinue, knowing they were no match for anyone with a shield and melee weapon.  Egbert charged the remaining two berserkers, and slew them, though he lost a man in the process.

The Saxon Weak Fyrd charged the Viking Freeman, probably not a wise decision, but they are Ferocious. The Saxons lose a figure, and 2 more run away. The Vikings, of course, lost a single figure.

The Saxon Quality Fyrd charge the Viking Thralls, and lose 2 to the Viking 1.  Things are not going so well for the Saxons.

The Viking Thrall continue their melee with the Saxon Quality Fyrd, and come off best again, with 3 Saxon casualties to their one. The Viking Freemen continue the carnage on the Weak Fyrd. Ase finally gets his hirdsmen into the Saxon thegns. The Saxons lose two to one, but one of theirs is Egbert himself, wounded and out of the battle, regardless of what it says in the picture below.  This brings all advance from the Saxons to a halt, but none break.

The Saxon Weak Fyrd are destroyed, but the Viking Freemen turn tail and run.

The Viking hirdsmen and Saxon Thegns continue their fight with equal casualties. The Quality Fyrd fare poorly against the Viking Thralls.

The Quality Fyrd and the Viking Thralls continue to trade blows with equal effect.  The Saxon bows move to the Viking right flank.

The Thralls wipe out the Quality Fyrd, but the Saxon bows now have no reason not to shoot at the Thralls, and kill 2.  The rest run!

In what was the center, the hirdsmen continue to deal damage to the thegns, but their nerve also breaks, and the remaining Vikings run!

The Saxons win the day with 2 thegns and 8 bowmen.  

In Conclusion:

I gave the berserkers Rep 5 AC 2, Ferocious.

I forgot to roll for Egbert. He was wounded and not killed. If a melee unit causes an enemy unit to run, they pursue.  In both cases here, the Viking units destroyed the units, and had to take the in melee test. Both were below half, and both failed by 1d6 and routed.The Saxon thegns could have pursued the Vikings, but with only 2 figures against 5, it wouldn't have been wise.

A work about the figures.  I've been building Wargames Factory for a while.  I like the separate arms and weapons. The Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors are ok.  They only have 5 different figures, two of whom seem to be hunched over with appendix attacks. You must carefully consider what heads you put on those figures, or the shields will come nowhere near the figure's left hand, and will have to be glued to the beard and skirt of the figure.  The GB figures are a little crude, with only pouches on one figure. The shields are not to the standard of most others, having no fasteners to hold the edge binding on. There are heat cracks, quite small, on the backs of some. There are no helmeted heads, and only one head with a fur-lined cap.  There are none of the Phrygian caps, though they are shown on the box art.

The Wargames Factory spears are weak.  I am now using plastic broomstraws in their place.  They must be superguled in. Solvent glues won't work. All things said, I far prefer them over the Gripping Dark Age Warriors.  Gripping Beast Thegns are fine, and of a higher quality.

A kirk for my Saxons

The Nothelm Chronicle inspired me to copy him and make a Saxon kirk from the Dapol (ex-Airfix) village church.  I didn't do any assembly photos, since the church is pretty simple.  However, it's HO/OO scale and too short for 28mm.

To bring it up to 28mm, I added 1/2" of sheet rockwork to the bottom of the church all around. In a marvelous example of serendipity, I had a Plastruct rectangular tube that exactly matched the width of the columns cast on the church. I only had to cut them to height and depth with a razor saw. I did a little filling with Squadron Green Stuff. and then painted it.  The roof was thatched with funny fur (a.k.a. teddy bear fur).  The cross is a jewelry piece painted to look like weathered wood.

Here are some photos after I based it.  The thatch is a bit darker than it photographed. The figure is a Wargames Factory Saxon for scale.

Friday at Bayou Wars 2016

We arrived around 9am after the usual terrible traffic in Baton Rouge. (A seven-car pileup completely closed I-10.)  We set up our dealer's table, and I began to set up for my 2pm game.

Chris Swearwengen arrived and we stumbled through our first game of Dragon Rampant. I took us a while, as neither of us had played before.  After a hard fought battle, my Undead defeated his orcs by a healthy margin. Very enjoyable, even had I lost.

At 2pm, we started my game of Defend the Kirk, Saxons defending against a Viking raid. Here's the table before the start of the game.

If it's not obvious, all the buildings except the 2 4ground buildings on the far edge, are paper, as is the Viking ship and the marshland near the river.  The watchtower and wooden keep are an old set called Stronghold from Microtactix.  All of the hovels, the kirk, and the longhouse were all designed in Model Builder.  The roofs were covered with funny fur to us Yanks, teddy bear fur to you Brits.

Almost all the Viking and Saxon warriors are plastic Wargames Factory figures.  The women are a mix of Old Glory and other manufacturers. The rules were Swordplay 2016 by Two Hour Wargames. I made a few mods to fit the game, since it is intended for small actions of 4 or 5 figures per side.

Players in the game were, left to right, Josh Switzer and his son, Richard Allen (Viking commander), Bob Kelso (Saxon commander), Harman, and Michael Hayman. At the table to the left background, facing the camera is Steve Wirth, who was nice enough to lend me his livestock, as I forgot mine. Facing the camera at the right hand table is Jim Pitts.

The Viking advanced from the ship, and were seen by a bowman in the watchtower, who sounded the alarm.  The Saxons were slow and cautious in reaction, allowing the Vikings to swarm around a couple of houses before beginning to plunder.

Since there were Saxons of lower Rep inhabiting the hovels, most of the men therein were killed and their women taken as plunder, though a good number of women were able to successfully flee.  As GM, I was not able to photograph the game as meaningfully as I would have wished.

Saxon warriors begin to advance, as the Vikings begin to plunder. The Vikings have fired a house, which alerted the countryside, as did the incessant ringing of the kirk bell!

Saxons begin to advance around the tavern.

Vikings violate the kirk, downing Brother Caedfel and the other clergy along with a woman who had sought sanctuary there.  There was a berserker in the kirk who had no thought other than the death of all Saxons on his mind. Of course, there was the chest of gold church items to be taken by other Vikings.

More Saxons come in from the countryside.

As others advance to stop the Vikings.

Saxons advance cautiously near the watchtower.  For quite a while, only 2 Vikings had fallen, one wounded by a Saxon hut dweller, who paid for it with his life, and another to an arrow from the watchtower. They stayed out of range after that.

A Viking has entered a pen to make off with some livestock, while others make off with a woman and her naked child.

Vikings flank a field near the river, perhaps intending an end run.

Saxons have trapped 2 Vikings in a hovel, where they have killed the husband and captured the wife. A naked berserker has come to their aid.

The bloodiest fight took place over the chest from the kirk, changing hands a number of times before all the Vikings attempting to take it were killed.

Melees rage across the table!  By games end, the Vikings had lost half their men, captured a few women, some livestock, and food.  The Saxons made an attempt to fire the longship, but the Viking guard put it out. The Saxons had failed to defend the kirk, losing all the clergy, but recapturing all their relics.

We decided that the Viking warlord would return a hero, since his lone ship defeated over 1,000 Saxons, captured all their women, and defiled the kirk. All those who died were already drinking mead with the gods in Valhalla..

The Saxons had defeated 5 longships of vicious Vikings, killing hundreds of the scum.  However, they had to face the shame of being unable to defend the kirk, from hundreds of heathen berserker madmen who slaughtered the clergy and those who sought sanctuary there.

 Would the bishop kindly send more clergy to see to the souls of the departed and tend to his flock, battered by heathens?

 And, Eorl, we humbly submit that we might be a little low on our just portion of our crops that we happily render to you, through His grace.