Cultists! The Knights of the Mystical Sword.

I was digging through my stacks of unpainted and I found a bag of cultists.  Some were from Artizan Design, some from Pulp Figures, and a couple from Rattrap Productions, though they no longer show on their page.

To start, we have the High Potentate of the Mystical Sword, by Pulp Figures.

A group of unarmed cultists.  Those with the crest on chest and/or hood are by Artizan Design, the uncrested are by Pulp Figures. The crested figures are the Elevated Knights of the Mystical Sword, while those without are merely Knights of the Mystical Sword.

The tommygunners, all from Artizan Design. Since they only have the crest on their hoods, they are the Ultimate Protectors of the Mystical Sword.

Pistoliers from Artizan Design and Pulp Figures. Those with the crest are the Ultimate Minions of the Mystical Sword, and the crestless, merely a Minion of the Mystical Sword.

The Knight Keeper of the Mystical Keys, from Artizan Designs, the cage is plastic and came with two enormous piles of chain.

I believe that these two figures had Rattrap engraved on the bottom of their bases. The figure in the brown suit has the only nickeled pistol because one painted black disappeared. Since they have earned neither robe nor propper hood, they are merely Acolytes of the Mystical Sword.

And finally, we have the Ultimate Torch Singer of the Mystical Knights (also the Ultimate Squeeze of the High Potentate of the Mystical Sword), flanked by the Carrier of the Mystical Torch of the Mystical Sword, and the Highest Purifier of the Mystical Sword.

Here are my cultists, eager to Purify the non-believers with bullet and flame.

Painting was pretty simple. They were all painted blue and washed with a homemade black wash. Hands were painted with a craft paint flesh and washed with GW flesh. The torch singer was painted with a lighter flesh tone with my brown wash. Her dress and hood are painted with a Martha Stewart craft paint. The swords on the crests were added with a Prismacolor Premier .005 pen. The curlicues on the High Potentate's throne were added with a fine brush.  I failed to show that the back is painted to simulate plywood.

French and Indian War troops

Here's everything I've painted over the years since I've been playing.  I've played French and Indian war with a large number of rules, so the numbers of troops may not conform to your favorite.  Here are the rules I've played under.  Bob Moon's rules, The Sword and the Flame, Brother Against Brother, Flintloque, Long Rifle and Muskets & Mohawks by THW, Sharpe Practice, and Rebels And Patriots.

British Line: Front Rank campaign dress, 36 infantry and 3 officers.

Highlanders: Old Glory 18 infantry, officer and drummer.

British Rangers: Old Glory and Wargames Factory, 12 men.

British Lights: RSM, 18 figures including an officer and drummer

French Line: The London War Room, 29 figures, including 4 officers, 3 NCO's, a drummer and a standard bearer.

French Militia: Old Glory, 32 figures including 2 officers.

Franche de la Marine: Warlord Games and Old Glory, 18 figures including 2 leaders.

Couriers du Bois: Old Glory and Wargames Factory, 12 figures.

British Militia: Old Glory, Wargames Factory and Staden, 56 figures including 3 leaders.

Women and Children: Dixon, Black Orc, Amazon Miniatures, RAFM and Old Glory, 16 figures, plus a dog.

Native Americans, from the RKO tribes: Old Glory and RSM, 54 figures including leaders. (My friend has another 18 painted, and I have another 3 bags of 18 to paint)

That's my collection. The Native Americans are of no particular tribe, since most come from the Old Glory bags.  Don't be too impressed; if you can't tell from all the rules sets they've been played under, this is about 20 years work.  The photography isn't too impressive. I had my contact lenses in while taking them.

Brits in shorts and Stuarts.

I've been building up my forces in anticipation of a NUTS: Big Battles game at Hubcon.  So far I have added a company of 8th Army Brits, to act as Argyll & Southerlands in the fall of Singapor, and a pack of Stuarts.

I'm no longer sure if these are Battlefront or Forged in Battle figures.  They were begun too long ago. In NUTS: Big Battles, a platoon is 3 bases (squads, sections) + a support weapon.  A company is 3 platoons + a company support weapon and a company command squad. In this formation, all are considered to be in control of  the company commander and can activate on his rep.  The picture's not the greatest.

The Stuarts are from Plastic Soldier.  They are a bit fiddly to assemble, but contain lots of options.  I named them on the left side so that I can use them for both US and UK.  An odd thing about the photo is the 2 different shades of OD.  They came from the same can of Testors spray, and are exactly the same color.  It shows the hazard many modelers fall into when basing their finely painted models on a single photograph.

Lagertha and the Shield Maidens

I'm always on the look-out for somewhat different figures to plop into my Viking hordes.  Gorgon Studios, https://gorgon-studios.myshopify.com/ has provide Lagertha and some of her shield maidens.  They fit in perfectly with my Wargames Factory and Gripping Beast plastics. They will fit in fine in my units for Two Hour Wargames' "Great Hall Burning" and "Captains and Kings."

Left to right, we have a woman in chain with a sword over her shoulder. The next warrior is wearing a chain tunic under a cape, and also carrying a sword. The third is wearing leather armor and carrying an axe. And finally, our spearwoman, also in leather armor.

There are fine seams along the bottom of the cloth garments, which the figure painter on the site has painted as whip-stitched. It seemed like a fine idea to me! I should point out that I have substituted Wargame Factory's shield so that the figures will blend in more.

And now we have Lagertha herself! She's also wearing leather armor and sporting a sword.

The hair of all the figures is obviously influenced by television's "The Vikings".  This is better than giving them all 44DDD busts as a way to identify them as women. The figures with sword will all be added to the ranks of the huscarls.  The two without swords will be added to the bondi.  And here are some Gripping Beast bondi!

I've pretty well said everything about these figures that I have to say, except to repeat that they are easy to assemble and fun to paint.

Here's a comparison photo.

Sir Bivalve and the Uruk-Hai

Sir Bivalve and the Uruk-Hai is another playtest of Warrior Heroes: New Dawn, in the works at Two Hour Wargames.  My aim was to try out the mounted rules with mounted on both sides and to use shooting, which I had not before.

Here are the comic pages, which you will have to click on to see full size.

This game only went 3 turns, but was quite a bit more complicated than the comic pages show.  Let me list the opponents and etc.  Sir Bivalve (Star), Sir Remaunch and Sir Greenclaw were all Rep 5, AC 6 with Born To The Saddle trait. The longbowmen were Rep 4 AC 2.  The warg spearman and bowman were Rep 5. All the other orcs were Rep 4. All the orcs were AC 0, except the mounted bowman who was AC 2. The mounted spear was Born to the Saddle, the mounted sword had the Riddle of Steel, and the mounted bowman had the Way of the Hunter.

The Miasma was only 3, but was never passed by enough to matter in any case.  Also, the figure has to active to try his trait.

The bows were pretty much ineffective, even against one another, causing only a retire.  The other retires were caused by Man Down.

Sir Bivalve got in trouble against his mounted opponent, and had to rely on Star Power to save his skin.

It was a pretty uneven affair, with the human knights riding roughshod over the Uruk-Hai.

DAEMONETTES FOR DESSERT!!

Herewith follows a tale of Sir Cammillus driving the daemonettes from his fief, protecting his serfs from their depredations! Two Hour Wargames "Warrior Heroes: New Dawn (Armies and Adventures 2) playtest. I haven't figured out how to make the pages larger, so you'll be obliged to click on them to read the comments.

The purpose of this game was to playtest the new mounted rules which are on the way. Sir Cammillus was a Rep 5; his spearmen Rep 4.  The barbarian (who played very little part in the game) was Rep 5, the daemonettes Rep 4.

I used a combination of the Non-Player Character reactions, and regular character reactions.

The game went 8 turns, mostly because the last daemonette was so difficult to kill.  Sir Cammillus had to use his Star power a number of times to not be Stunned, which would have killed him.  He was down to 3 dice by the end of the game.  The mount is a great equalizer, as it is a larger base, giving a moderator to melee, and allowing the mounted warrior to keep in combat, if he so chooses. The daemonettes had Born To The Saddle trait, and the knight The Riddle Of Steel. Miasma stayed at 4 for the whole game, so the traits failed about 90% of the time, but never badly enough to Stun The user.

Egyptians for Colonial Adventures, The Sword and The Flame, and The Men Who Would Be Kings

Colonial Barracks was an excellent TSATF convention.  I got to catch up with old friends and play in games.  One of the things that impressed me was Richard Smethurst's 15mm games, to the point that I went out and ordered a bunch of 15mm Egyptians (momentarily forgetting the Fuzzy-Wuzzies to oppose them).

Both Colonial Adventures and TSATF use a 20-man unit including an officer and NCO. Richard had based his figures 2 to a 20 x 30mm base. He used base removal to mark casualties at a higher level. Each 20-man unit equaled a company.  I'm using the same bases, but I'm playing at the unit equaling a platoon, two platoons equaling a company with another officer added.

Here is a unit of Egyptian infantry in Formed Line.  This formation, though slow to move, can volley fire, very important in Colonial Adventures, since each hit caused by the volley results in a reduced Reputation for the target, who then tests to see if they stay or go.  This is very important when the Rep 3 Egyptian infantry is firing at a Rep 5 Beja mob! The figures are Old Glory 15s, not Blue Moon, which are 18mm.

The officer is marked by a white rock and the NCO by a darker one. All figures here would be able to fire.

Ammo can run low, and casualties must be taken, so there are two figures on half-sized single bases.  I chose to leave the officer and NCO on double bases, and will mark them with rings if they become casualties.  This is to remind the player that the unit is leaderless. When ammo runs low, a figure is sent to the ammo dump to replace the ammo. Why send 2 figures when 1 will do?

Egyptian companies each have a different flag. The first company's is blue. I have marked all the bases in this unit in blue with a 1, to indicate the 1st platoon of the 1st company.  The second platoon will be marked with, tah-dah, a 2.  This photo also shows the 2 single bases.

Next is a unit of Egyptian gendarmes in Mob formation.  They are a police force, and not really as well trained as the regular infantry, so they will only be able to adopt the Mob and Open formations. This means they cannot volley fire.  Right now, there are only 16 figures in the unit. I'll have to see if that makes them too weak, on top of not being able to volley fire.  Their unit also includes 2 single bases. Essex figures with a Old Glory 15s officer.

These are all the figures I have finished, though there is another regular infantry platoon half finished on popsicle sticks, and 4 more finished gendarmes still mounted on sticks.

I have another company of regular infantry still in the bag, a company of Sudanese infantry, cavalry and artillery, but I'll stop at the second platoon, to paint Fuzzies coming from Stone Mountain.

Salvage Run: a 2013 5150 game.

This is a 5150 AAR I did in 2013 and put up in the Yahoo group. I figured I'd add it to my blog, even though the rules are outdated.
Salvage Run

The following is a solo game using the Xenoform part of 5150, and various interpretations from earlier Two Hour Wargames rules.

Planet New Iberia is the scene of sporadic combat between humans and bugs.  All has been quiet for several months now.  The mining outpost of Wheel Leisure has been abandoned since bugs were found in the lower mines.  Everyone left in very hasty way, so lots of valuables were left behind.

Bailey Mull had talked to enough drunken miners at the spaceport bar to realize that there were lots of goods in Wheel Leisure ripe for the pickings.  Her good looks and free hand with drinks brought some very exact info as to what she could expect to find for salvage.

Her ship, Grifter, had lain on a rocky ledge for 3 days as she and her crew scouted out Wheel Leisure for any signs of bugs.  For 3 days, there was nothing but the wind to disturb the dirt streets.

She had six crew in three vehicles to head to the warehouses on the far side of town n The crew consists of :

Bailey Mull: Rep 5, Hard Armor, Assault Rifle, Stone Cold

Froggy Hunter:  Rep 5, Assault Rifle, Slow

Al Scramuzza:  Rep 4, Assault Rifle, Hard As Nails.

The Ferret: Rep 4, Flamethrower, Brawler

Izzy Knot:  Rep 4, Grenade Launcher, Medic

Natalie Goodbody: Rep 3, Pistol, Ambidex- terous

Juliette Street: Rep 2, Machine Pistol, Runt

They were in three vehicles.

The lead vehicle was a Teixeira T35, an armored half-track, with a heavy machine gun in an enclosed turret, and a flexible mount light machine gun.  The T35 was cobbled together on a mid-tech world, and due to being just good enough to do the job, and low cost, was as common as a Volkswagen beetle was in the 20^th century. The vehicle was driven by Natalie, with Al riding shotgun, and Bailey in the turret.

Next was a pickup truck, driven by Izzy, with The Ferret as co-pilot.

Tail-end Charley was occupied by Sadie,a Salvage Dog halftrack with a lightly-armored cab and a flexible mount light machine gun.  It’s driven by Juliette, with Froggy riding shotgun.

Bailey led the parade down the main (only) street in Wheel Leisure until a bug hole opened up and out poured a mix of Big Ones and Little Ones to the tune of one dozen.

Bailey immediately let rip with the HMG and killed one Big One.  More bugs filled the holes in the ranks, and Bailey kept shooting, knocking out a total of 2 Big Ones and 2 Little Ones.  And then 4 Big Ones jumped on the T35, blocking the driver’s vision, and too close for the turret gun to bear.  As the T35 came to a halt, Izzy gunned the pickup around the bugs and headed for the warehouse.  Sadie lumbered up, and Froggy hosed the T35 with LMG fire, taking care of 3 bugs.

Bailey hoses the bugs that didn’t make it to the T35, and takes out 2, and tells Natalie to run over another 2.  She misses.  A Big One charges Sadie, but Froggy guns him down.  Meanwhile the last Big One on the T35 strikes frantically at it, but can’t damage the T35.  Since the T35 is impervious to LMG fire, Froggy takes care of the last Big One on board.

Up the street, Izzy and The Ferret jump out of the pickup and enter the warehouse.

The T35 takes care of the last Little One, and heads up the street.  Sadie inexplicably hangs back.  (Juliette’s lousy Rep 2 plays havoc with continuing activation)

While Izzy and The Ferret start looting the warehouse, the T35 turns around and comes up next to Sadie.  Bailey opens the hatch and screams blue murder at Juliette, who lurches forward.  Natalie keeps the T35 fender to fender with Sadie, as Bailey makes interesting comments as to the family history of Juliette, while the 2 vehicles make their way to the warehouse.

Bailey leaps out of the T35, and jerks Juliette out of Sadie, and continues to chew on her, while everyone else loads Sadie, glad not to be Juliette.

Natalie goes to check the fuel tanks across the street, and the pickup starts back to the Grifter.

Sadie is loaded, and Natalie moves the T35 to the tanks to fuel up.

Suddenly 14 bugs pop up between the crews and the way out.  The pickup is long gone, and going faster.  Only Bailey sees them.  She jumps back into the T35, and yells at Natalie to get in and drive.  Sadie rounds the back of the abandoned hauler, and Froggy spots the bugs and takes out 1, and runs out of ammo 

Natalie spins the T35 and Bailey takes out 1 bug.  Froggy reloads.

Bailey fires again, and knocks 1 out.  Froggy takes out 2.

The T35 and Sadie move slowly forward and fires.  Bailey takes out 1, and click, click, is out of ammo.  Froggy misses and is out of ammo.

Natalie guns the engine as Bailey reloads and Sadie lumbers forward as Froggy reloads.  But while they are unloaded, a Little One leaps on the T35, and another jumps on the front of Sadie, and attempts to get Froggy, who gives him a haymaker on jaw, with no effect.

Both the T35 and Sadie move out, with bugs clinging to them.  Froggy and the bug spar ineffectively.

As they roll forward, a sudden lunge from the bug kills Froggy.  The bug continues to slice and dice, and Sadie rolls to a halt, as Juliette grabs for her machine pistol.  The T35 continues on, unaware of what is going on behind them.

Bailey opens the hatch and kills the bug on the T35 with her assault rifle.  Only then does she realize that Sadie is halted, and can only watch as the bug slips into Sadie’s hatch and kills Juliette.

The T35 spins around, with Bailey firing with her assault rifle, since the HMG is too low to have any chance of shooting down the hatch, and might damage Sadie. 

As they pull alongside, she finally pink mists the bug.  She sends Al to get Sadie running so they can get out of Dodge with all of the goodies.  Al cleans out enough goo in record time, and Sadie lurches forward.

As they pass the only 2 story building in town, the second story door swings open and a young voice yells, “Hey, don’t leave me, you salvage skanks,” and Niki the Twister sprints down the stairs, onto the T35, and into the co-pilot’s hatch that Al left open. 

Bailey screams at her, and Natalie says they can’t leave her; she’s just a kid.

Bailey groans, “And you thought the bugs were trouble?”

Even in a vehicle, bugs can give you trouble.  The bugs were very unfortunate in activation rolls, or the game might have gone differently.  There was also a bug activation 45” off the table, so it was ignored.  The humans were drawn with the ATZ NPC table, with appropriate weapons for the figures I had.

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.