Splintered Light

The kids and wife are asleep, and I can't be arsed to paint this evening - so a little glance into part of my wargaming world.

As much as I enjoy the collection, research, painting and pushing around on a table of small representations of historical military units (all whilst arguing over rules), it can get a little bit serious. War, largely, isn't funny - so deriving enjoyment from recreating little bits of War usually comes from, for me at least, the winning. On the fantasy side of the hobby it's all quite serious too - high fantasy, low fantasy, sci-fi, near-future, etc all strive to create a believable, serious, environment in which one can become engrossed.

Having inherited my Father's appreciation of the silly, and raised on comedic diet of Python and Milligan, I had for some time craved the absurd. Chuck into this mix my inherent butterfly tendancies, and it's no surprise that I 'got' the whole Splintered Light Miniatures thing. Specifically their Splintered Lands range.

Along with the excellent Song of Blades & Heroes rules and Song of Splintered Lands supplement, this Bob Olley sculpted range ticks all the right boxes. Who could possibly say no to charging an armoured Badger into a line of Mouse Spears, or battering pesky Squirrel Archers with a Wolverine?

David, the proprietor and arch-overlord of Splintered Light is a thoroughly nice and personable chap - which always makes the whole experience much more enjoyable. He introduced me to the Brytenwalda rules which, if anything, look even better than Songs rules, and consequently I ended up buying a small 15mm Romano-British warband from his historical range too.

Anyway, the point of this meander is that apart from fun, this largely boils down to two things; Time, and Money. Whilst having a vast collection of 28mm 1940 British and Germans, that is neither cheap, nor is it quick to paint, nor quick to game. My current fad is one of cheap wargaming. The whole kit and kaboodle for Splintered Lands came to something like $50 USD - all the rules, all the miniatures (plus some I didn't really need) for less than the price of a Land Raider.

Quick, simple, cheap, fun; Can't go wrong, borne out by the fact that I've played more Splintered Lands games in the last twelve months than all the other game/rule systems combined.

They also paint up nice, which is rather important.