10mm Naps & 15mm Sci-Fi

I painted some stuff.

Firstly, I dragged the 10mm Redline Miniatures Napoleonics out of the lead pile and finished some more of them. Despite the fact they look excellent, I'm never going to play wargames with them, so they went on eBay.

Underneath them in the pile were some 15mm GZG USNC Hardsuit Marines of the space man variety. Fellow geek Pete had bought them for me a while back (at Triples I think) as he's intent on playing Laserburn with the damn things.

As everyone of my age knows, real space soldiers don't wear camo - they wear grubby orange environment suits, and their armour always looks like glossy white plastic. Jim Burns is primarily to blame for this.

After this photo I gloss varnished the white bits. Despite being a quick and dirty paint job, I'm very happy with how they've come out. Eagle-eyed readers will note I went for the truly old school effect of using PVA and sand on the bases, with the obligatory contraction showing the outline of the figure's base on some of them.

Also on the bench are three SLM Hedgehog spear teams, and some Conquest metal Norman command - of which the horses are near enough complete.

More soon, especially since I'm now looking for a suitable grav tank for the space soldiers.

Sabot Bases

Massed Fantasy Battles. Those three words together in that order can bring about a wide variety of reactions from wargamers. For some, they hark too closely to the Marmite world of WFB, or the incomprehensible HotT.

Me, I used to love WFB when I were a kid. 3rd Edition. Bretonnians, when Bretonnians were basically HYW English/French with a wizard. Since those heady days, I've not played anything which required regiments of units, and the associated stuff that goes with it.

I've got some rules on the hard drive, including Pride of Lions. I've got some printed rules too, including WAB and WFB 3rd ed, and the aforementioned cryto-analyst's wet dream which is HotT. Closest I've come is my half-complete abandoned 10mm Napoleonic armies from Redline, and the now-sold 28mm early Saxon army from Musketeer.

Not played any of them though, mainly because I can't be bothered with painting several 'undred of basically the same miniature, to then spend an afternoon getting wound up over wheeling units, facings, charges, and so on.

However, I do miss the fun of pushing large armies around, and of course the visual aspect. So, on and off over the last few months, I've been hammering Song of Splintered Lands into something more suitable for mass battles. Rather than rebase everything, or buy a whole lot more SLM, I decided to utilise the large existing collection with sabot bases from warbases.co.uk (be prepared for a not very good website if you visit).

Dunno why they're called sabots. A sabot to me is a kinetic dart for use against armour, not a piece of laser cut wood. Anyway, bought 20 of the 3x2 for units of 6, for use in my cut-down SSL version.

Turned up to they did. Very nice, for the 80p each, and saves a lot of work. Just need to get the pumice gel out and get them to match the basing scheme. They'll also double for 15mm Dux Bellorum (or whatever it is Stuart bought).

Sharp, clean, cuts. Good price. Good services from warbases. Recommended.

Litko Review

This morning, the sullen unionised despondency of our national postal service arrived with a parcel from the US. A mere 8 days after I'd ordered (on a Sunday evening I think), Litko had packed the order in a box, and got it here to me in Blighty. That's damn good service in my book. Amazon aren't even usually that quick for stuff they've got in stock, and they're only 90 miles up the road.

 Litko SBH 15mm set

My first thought upon opening the parcel was 'crikey, they're small', but then I fished out a few Splintered Lands miniatures and remembered how small they are too. So no worries there.

This is my first ever bit of Litko kit, and I have to say I'm impressed. Well cut, without sharp edges, nice finish, and generally a good thing. My only gripe is the lettering is a bit hard to see, but that's as much my failing eyesight than anything else. They're pretty thick too - see bottom pic.

In terms of service from Litko - 10/10. $10 for the set, and 8 days to ship from US to UK is bloody good.

Overall, a great little pack from Litko, and I think pretty essential if you play as much Songs as I do.

The Price of War?

As regular readers of my ramblings will know, I've got a thing for 15mm at the moment. Although I maintain the guiding principle behind this fixation is cost, it must be said that the 15mm world does get some seriously cool toys to play with, and with a typical board being two or three feet by two, not much space is required.

In a rare moment (for my gaming at least), I decided to work out how much my 15mm Dark Ages setup has cost thus far;

Brytenwalda Rules - £0
Splintered Light Romano British Warband - £20*
Splintered Light Saxon Warband - £20*
LBMS Shield Transfers - £9
Hovels Celtic Pigsty & Farm/Hamlet - £26
ERM Livestock (for rustling scenarios) - £5**
Hotz Matz 3 x 2 Gaming mat - £18
Trees - £0 (left overs from 28mm tree making
Shoreline/Beach - £0 (more on this later)

Total - £106

*approximate
**tiny livestock have vanished, completely, so will need to be replaced

There's a few other scenic/objective type bits I'm going to get, but haven't decided yet. Nevertheless, a hundred quid for everything one might possibly need to play 15mm Dark Ages skirmish until the cows come home. Two warbands as well - so I can play against anyone on our Tuesday gaming nights.

So, ignoring the fact that the terrain mat and scenery are useable for other systems (such as Song of Splintered Lands) I'm pretty chuffed with the whole thing myself. By comparison, that £100 spent on a Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard Army would get you, just, the absolute basic platoon.

See?

Cheap wargaming.

Sort of.

More 15mm Dark Ages

Some more shots of the Romano-British warband - finished the Cavalry, so they're largely complete/fightable at around 1000 Solidus in Brytenwalda, or a huge Song of Blades and Heroes (Song of Arthur and Merlin variant) warband. I'll also be buying some Sabots so that they (and others) can be adapted to Impetus or whatever else we end up arguing about.