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.

Mass Battles with Splintered Light

The unmistakable thud of a lead filled Jiffy bag hitting the door mat resounded through the halls of Castle Tangent yesterday, heralding the arrival of 70 more of the Splintered Lands range from David McBride at Splintered Light Miniatures.

The general idea behind increasing the SL collection from 'a lot' into 'the entire catalogue' is twofold; Firstly, it gives yet more options for Song of Splintered Lands, and secondly it means we can play some mass battles using Sabot bases.

The whole mass battles thing is something I've not done for a long time (Dystopian Wars excepted), but I've been collecting rules for some time. The closest I've come to actually liking any of them is Doc McBride's (David's father) Pride of Lions. An interesting system, and shows Doc's considerable experience in pushing lead around the table.

However, it is aimed more at the 15mm fantasy crowd - using what appears to be an evolution of the HotT basing regime, with each unit having three 40mm x 40mm bases. Although basing size and regime is not important, the whole thing is prevaricated on the three-base-unit concept. This would turn an SL 20mm 'mass' battle into 'bloody enormous' battle and would need a 6x4 board to really do it justice.

So, I've set about hacking Song of Splintered Lands about to make it fit what I'm trying to achieve. Fairly easy so far; just tweaking the movement, combat, and morale engines to suit units rather than individuals. In keeping with my love of the simple, I'm trying to keep it to four pages max.

At the moment, it reads/feels like a mix of WFB, SoBH, with a sprinkling of HotT thrown in. The current bit I'm pondering is how individualism to create between unit types.

For example, should a unit of Fox Spears be different from Squirrel Spears? To create a difference big enough to drive tactical challenges requires more stat lines, which brings complexity and that slows the game.

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.

SSL Batrep in Pikshers

Song of Splintered Lands; my favourite Favourite Thing. Sir Odo of the Kentish came South again yesterday for more Toy Soldier & Food entertainment. Rather than lots of words, thought I'd tip my hat to the old White Dwarf batreps from when I were a lad by actually showing what was going on. Nothing spectacular here, just a bit of scribbling in Gimp on a lazy Easter Sunday.

We played three games all told, but the pictures are for the first game of the day - SSL Ambush scenario.

Abbot Sugar, his Son, and their Faithful warband of Mice Spears (pushed around the table by me) are on their way back to the Wyldewood, escorted by two Badgers. The road is long and perilous, even for an accomplished bunch of veteran warriors such as these chaps.

As the afternoon wears on they approach the edge of the forest when one of the Badgers spots movement ahead in the tree line. Ambush!



The Badgers charge up the right hand side of the road to engage the would-be attackers. As they do, from out of the trees on the left pile a gang of crazed berserker Shrews. Abbot Sugar calmly orders his mice to form up a shieldwall to face the Shrews. He knows that two Badgers will make short work of whatever they've scented, and will return shortly to deal with the Shrews. The Mice only need hold them for a while.



As the mice form up, the good Abbot becomes separated from his Bodyguard.



On the hill behind the Shrews, the Hare archer sees the lone Abbot, and starts placing some well aimed arrows at him. The Shrews, enraged by the presence of, well, everything, charge the Mice. Up to the right, the Badgers have uncovered the Hare captain (leader) and Hare spear. They make short work of both of them. Lurking behind the Hares is an Armoured Badger - finally, a worthwhile opponent! Their battle will be legendary! (apologies to Ian McShane in Kung Fu Panda)



With two dead Hares, and 2-1 Badger Advantage (tm), the Abbot's band are confident of Final Wictory (again, tm). The Ambushers, however, have other ideas. The Hare archer confidently nails the Abbot, who is saved at the last moment by his Son's ultimate sacrifice. The Shrews smash into the end of the Mouse line and a gruesome kill forces a morale check, with two retreating. One of the Shrews gamely charges a Badger, in an effort to relieve the pressure on his own Badger.



But then, as is so often the way with Songs, Fate decides it is not to be the Abbot's day. In fact, it's not his day at all as the sharp shooting Hare finds his mark and kills him. The two shaken Mice retreat further, and the Shrews deal with the one who stood firm.



Not too much drama though - the 2-1 Badger advantage will surely win through, and two shrews and a hare archer aren't going to put up much fight against them when they do. Won't they? Erm, well actually, no they won't. The Badgers lost their fight, and the Mice continued to stream off the field, hotly pursued by the Shrews.

Defeat!

No worries though, turned it around and played it again - I ambushed Mike this time. Same warband for him, but I cracked out the Dwarfs. I lost that one too.

Then we played SAM/SBH/SSL mix with 28mm Dwarfs against my Saxons. Which I lost as well.

Ho-hum, sometimes the dice just aren't with you. Personally I blame the Laughing Ferret - I've been reading his Bloodbowl Tourney reports, and I think I've collected a bit of his statistical improbability.

Rules for Kids

My daughter is now 5, and whilst thankfully not the spitting image of me, she is rather keen on Dragons, Goblins, and especially the Splintered Light animals - Skirrels being a particular favourite.

I've been encouraging the love of Fantasy since birth. Apart from the vast array of stuff from the likes of Splintered Light, Heresy, Hasslefree, Red Box Games, etc, kicking about the house, she's always been allowed, nay encouraged, to thumb through things like Paul Bonner's Out Of The Forests (can't recommend this book enough, it's beautiful). There's also subtle stuff like Julia Donaldson & Axel Schiffer's Gruffalo, Zog, and other books which are very good, and unarguably close to the Tolkien-esque fantasy world I inhabit.

When Mike was down the other week, offspring insisted on selecting my Warband (Skirrels and Bunnies), and lining the rest of the collection up on the nearest hill "to watch". This, to me, means she's ready to begin the first steps to geekhood.

So, I've downloaded the rather excellent Song of Fur & Buttons from Ganesha. SFB was written by Ben at Darwin Games, AKA Kermit. The basic premise of SFB is hinged around Eureka Games' splendidly daft Teddy Bear range, and runs as a narrative game - very good it is too. In fact, it's so splendid I'm going to get some Eureka teddies to play it with.

In the meantime though, I'm taking inspiration from SFB and going to adapt SSL into a similar vein; a sort of Nursery Rhyme of Splintered Lands. A bit of simplification of the special abilities into something a five year English girl can relate to, and perhaps some changes to the activation or combat system, and create a narrative adventure campaign based on the miniatures I have... think Hobbit meets Wind in the Willows meets Watership Down, all taken from my enormous Splintered Light collection, which is going to get dropped/chewed/pressed into service; the Not Wind in The Willows, the Badgers, Goblins, Squirrels, Foxes, Mice, and Dragons.

Progress as it happens.

No photos today, have a browse of Ben's excellent blog instead!

I Are Fanboy

The Litany of Lead, procured from David at Splintered Light Miniatures has grown, again, as I felt the need to bolster my warbands in preparation for... well, in preparation for nothing - I just hadn't bought any toy soldiers recently, so made amends.

David always looks after me as a customer, doubtless because I have spent rather a lot with him over the last couple of years. Working from memory, here's what I have; (asterix denotes just ordered)

Faithful Warband
Mouse Spears
Mouse Command
Otter Rogues
Badger Lords
Badger in Plate
Heroes
Heroes 2
Villagers
Squirrel Command*

Rebel Warband
Heroes
Fox Archers
Heroes 2*
Fox Command*

Beastlands Warband
Minotaur Guard

Dwarf Warband
Dwarf High Command
Dwarf Heavy Cavalry on Bears

Goblin Bat Clan Warband*
Goblin Bat Clan light cavalry on bats*

Giant Eagles*

Romano-British Army - approx 70 figures
Saxon Army - 50 figures

Plus there's a Faithful warband I bought for Mike, and a Kobold warband I bought for Pete, plus some odds and ends like an Ice Dragon.

It's rather obvious which faction is my favourite, but looking forward to getting the Goblins in the next week or so, and getting them ready for a game against Mike's Faithful when he's down next.

Some SLM Otters, yesterday.

Let there be war!

The morrow brings conflict to the House of Tangent, for the morrow brings good chum Odo and his effeminate nancy-boy post Roman British... 400pts of the oval-shielded weirdos for Song of Arthur & Merlin (Welsh Legend variant) conflict to be precise.

Rather looking forward to it; Mike is excellent company, and plays a good game (which is very important to me). He also rolls an unfeasible number of sixes with my dice.

Nonetheless, a Saxon warlord has been painted in preparation, and I finished off some more of the Dwarfs. Well, I say 'some more', what I actually mean is I finished the ones I'd already started.

More news tomorrow, with photos and everything.

2011 review, and plans for 2012

As 2011 fizzles out, I'm starting to look at next year, and what I'm planning to get painted/played, and also look back on this year and review how it went.

As it turned out, this year has been pretty good, all in all. I painted a 15mm Romano-British warband, sort of started a Saxon warband to fight against them. Got plenty of Splintered Lands painted, and bought - Dwarfs and Beastlands. Also invested in a fair amount of scenery.

Gaming-wise played Brytenwalda a few times, but then got diverted back to my favourite of Song of Splintered Lands. Played a bit of Song of Arthur & Merlin, and a couple of other randoms such as Sturmovik Commander.

Next year I'm planning on the following;

Saga; already got a load of Musketeer early Saxons unpainted. Think I'll get some bigger shields for them to make them later, then painting them up for Saga and Song of Arthur & Merlin

Splintered Lands: lots of painting to do here, and hopefully lots of games.

Bag The Hun; Already have enough 1/600 to replay the Battle of Britain in 1:1, so just need a hex mat/map. Discovered a website with aerial reconnaissance photos of Blighty taken by the RAF in 1946. So, stitched together a load of them from Woodmancote - a village about 5 miles North of here. Slowly colouring them in, and will get that to a Graphic/Printers to be printed on a 4 x 6 vinyl mat with hexes over the top

The actual image I'm working on is currently 13mb and enormous - haven't worked out what scale it'll be in when printed at that size, so may need to add bits later on. Strangely therapeutic process, and enjoying mucking about with Gimp trying to recreate fields to the human eye.

So what's in the pipeline for you next year?

The Tangent goes to War!

Myself and the rather smashing chap Mike of Little Odo's Miniature Wargaming Blog have been threatening to actually push some of the collective lead mountains around some green fuzzy polystyrene for a while now, and it finally happened this afternoon.

Mike made the perilous journey down from farthest Bromley in the dark wilds of Kent, bringing some Gripping Beast 28mm Romano-British, and some warband lists for Song of Splintered Lands.

You'll have to excuse the photos - using my Blackberry Curve, and the camera on it is utterly useless. Mike took a handful more using his Blackberry, so between us we might be able to find one that's in focus.

Anyway - first out of the block was SSL. Mike's first outing with the SBH engine, and he played the baddies (the Flowering/Rebels), and promptly handed my goodies (the Faithful) their collective furry backsides on plates.

Can't remember much of the game - seemed to involve a gruesome kill from both sides, but morale held. My decision to use the brilliantly hopeless Tassletail Brothers again but paid to any hope of winning things... that and Mike's uncanny ability to roll six after six after six... with my bloody dice!

We then swapped it around, and Mike picked up the Faithful whilst I elected to give my sort-of-painted Dwarf warband its first outing.

So, how did the Stunty Debut go? Erm, well - the Champion on Bear charged off on his own, fully expecting to make short work of the clump of mice, but he ended up transfixed, then suffered a sudden bout of being dead. The battle in the middle see-sawed, and eventually the Faithful prevailed. It was a close run thing though. Mike rolled a lot of sixes.



So, how does the Dwarf faction in SSL shape up? Rather well, I must say - they've all got long ranged attack, which didn't dawn on me at first. This potentially has huge benefit when using the SBH tactic of stopping short of an opponent to force him to charge (thereby increasing his chance of failing activation when he has to roll at least 2 activations, or preferably three).

The Bear could have been good I suspect, but I went a bit mental with him. The Bondi are better than their stat line would have you believe; shieldwall is hugely powerful. Huscarls are so-so, but the good overall quality makes them a dependable lot. The Crossbow Specialists are very strong indeed - Shooter Long, sharpshooter, and C3 means they're rocking with +5 within 5", which is very respectable indeed.

After that, we played the new version of Song of Arthur & Merlin. The first game took about 5 minutes with my Saxons getting pummeled by Mike's numerically superior Romano British. Mike rolled a lot of sixes.

Second game, we doubled the size of the table, and added a couple of cavalry each to run about 370 points. (I think SAM in historical mode is too small at 300pts). This gave us more tactical scope, and I finally won something. Mike didn't roll a lot of sixes.

Set up on 4x4 board.



Saxon horse pile into the back of the Romano-British shieldwall.



Then it was dinner time, so we called it after four games and a rousing afternoon's toy soldier action.

Think Mike enjoyed himself - he certainly didn't run away screaming, which most people usually do from the house of Tangent, and looking forward to another outing soon.

I think I'll actually find some time to finish the Dwarf band - great fun to play with, and a nice change from the Druid's Children. I'll also get the Beastlands warband underway properly, just because I'm all inspired again.

Nothing else to report, except Splintered Light having a 25% sale until the end of the year. Get over there, say hi to David, and get your lead mountain up.

Beards and Cheese

Looking back over the blog, it's been interesting to note my gradual loss of gaming mojo in the last twelve months. Of late I've painted nothing, gamed even less, and displayed the classic symptoms of a gamer scratching around for inspiration.

So, last weekend I embarked on a proper tidy up of the lead pile. The intention was to spark a bit of interest in my hobby, and to give myself the opportunity to sift through the vast mountain of stuff and perhaps sell a few bits.

Typically I didn't find anything I really wanted to sell, having sold off all the really useless stuff a few years back. Nonetheless, a tidy workbench is a productive workbench. Probably.

Alongside that an incident with the boiler at home (no, not that one, the one which heats the water) prompted local chum Stuart at the Great Game to offer to buy my 28mm town scenery from me - some of which can be seen here;


I've had it a number of years, made for me by a bloke in Oz. It's probably only been used in anger no more than a dozen times, and has spent the last couple of years languishing in another friend's gaming hut/shed/thing. Stuart has a son and they're both into 28mm WW2 at the moment, so it'll be going to a good home.

This sale is rather convenient in terms of timing and funds. A week or so ago I was in a cantankerous mood, and decided to email the local gaming circle about restarting Blood Bowl. For reasons which would take ages to explain, Blood Bowl had become the byword for Beardy Cheese Play and after running in a very active league, we all dropped it. I was surprised, therefore, when all bar one person readily agreed. So now I need to buy a team.

The person to blame for this, I've decided, is Laughing Ferret Labs. Quite apart from having a bloody brilliant blog, detailing a steady descent into gaming madness, he's also a dab hand at painting things. Especially Blood Bowl teams. If I wasn't reading about his Blood Bowl teams so often it never would have occurred to me to mention it to anyone. Honest.

My previous BB team was a Shadowforge Bunny Girl team, supported by a Heresy Ogre. They looked brilliant, but were pretty crap on the table. Not entirely their fault it must be said, as I've never been a great tactical player, especially with the wonky rules GW tend to turn out. The girls were sold a number of years back for a rather large sum of cash, so the hunt begins. It might be a short hunt, truth be told, because Impact! Miniatures do a Scotling team, and being descended of the mighty clan Hamilton that appeals to me. (I should state I am in no way Scottish. I'm Sussex.)

Last but by no means least, Mike of Little Odo's Blogspot is probably going to make the perilous journey South West from his vast mansion in Kent to push lead round a table, eat food, and generally talk rubbish. Games we're intending on are Song of Splintered Lands, and probably something Dark Ages like Saga.

This may happen in November. Which November is entirely open because both of us work and have families, so getting to play with toy soldiers for any length of time requires planning and co-ordination which makes Overlord look like it was jotted down on the back of a Woodbine packet.

So, that's that. 28mm WW2 is now to the bottom of the pile for me - which is a touch sad, because it's what got me back into wargaming back in 2005. Blood Bowl rears it's ugly UgoIgo head again. I've got even more to paint. And, I've still not painted anything.

Just to finish, here's some Splintered Light Badgers and chums lurking about the woods looking menacing. 'You want some? You want some? Grrrr... I'll bite yer face off'

Roman villa; abandoned or not?

I'm on a scenery vibe at the moment. I've not bothered with it much since I commissioned a whole town of 28mm WW2 stuff back in 2005. Further discussions with Paul's Modelling Workshop about where to go next with the 15mm stuff yielded this;





A provincial Roman Villa - this one being 28mm, but you get the idea. A 15mm version would be around 8" x 10" (roughly the size of an A4 sheet of paper) - which given a typical 15mm skirmish board is rarely bigger than 48" x 48", and more normally 24" x 24" makes it a fairly sizeable thing to fight over/round/through.

This would give my Romano-British something to fight for, and something for my Saxons to raid, not to mention the Scots-Irish and Pictish warbands also in the club. As with the other pieces, it would also double up for Songs of Splintered Lands, and Pride of Lions (if I ever get that far).

The decision I'm stuck on is whether to have the Villa abandoned, or have it occupied in a good state of repair?

Historically the villas remained in use after 465AD, but seem to have slowly fallen into disrepair as the old skills were lost, and the Saxons encroached ever further westwards. From a gaming perspective it has relative merits either way.

Thoughts, chaps?

Scenery Pt.II

Hurrah!

The rest of the scenery pics arrived.
Marsh/Swamp area


Woodland section


Another view of the section above, plus the other section of the set.


Very pleased with these - will photograph accordingly when they appear.

Now thinking about what to add next - an abandoned Roman Villa is an idea which won't go away.

Commissioned Scenery

Nothing has happened in my world of wargaming of late. I bought a Splintered Light 'Beastlands' warband a few months back, half started painting them, then lost interest in the whole thing. The reasons for this are manifold, and beyond explanation in print as they'd really need a supporting powerpoint presentation, and I do enough of that with the day job.

This morning, an unexpected email appeared from the chap I'd commissioned four or five months ago to make some 15mm scenery. To be honest, I'd given up expecting anything from him, and was considering cancelling the cheque.

So, the email was most welcome for this reason, and primarily because it contained pictures of what he's made.



Now, suddenly, I'm looking forward to turfing out my Saxon warband to paint them up to fight my Romano-British - probably using Saga - and will also crack on with the Dwarf and Beastland warbands for Splintered Lands.

Happy gamer.

More pics when they arrive and I've got my grubby palms on them and scattered toy soldiers artistically across them.

Splintered Light painting WIP

A big pile of painting WIP, all Splintered Light, all brilliant sculpts/casts. Just to prove that sometimes I do get the brushes out. Note these photos were taken outdoors on a bright sunny day, in the shade. My camera is completely stuffed.

I also, somehow, managed to order a Beastlands warband (Satyrs, Fauns & Minotaurs) from SLM, so will need to reduce the lead pile a bit before they arrive

First elements of my Dwarven warband for SSL. For non-uniform units, I tend to batch paint things these days in fairly identical little groups... once the warband is complete it gives a good overall impression of variety


Second elements - a little further behind.


Mr Toad, possibly resident of Toad Hall. Because he's awesome. Rest of the not-Willows gang on the table too.


A little band of Otters which I'm slowly building up. These guys all come with the original Faithful boxed set, and I've got six Otter Rogues to go with them


Rebels/Flowering foxes with wolverine. These belong to my friend who almost never paints, so wanting to battle against painted toy soldiers, I'm working through his boxed set. Also got some supplementary Fox warriors to go with them.


Lastly, the brilliant Fire Dragon, which was intercepted and claimed, then subsequently painted by my 4yr old daughter. She's got drybrushing to learn next. Proof that the Camera is smegged - right wing is bright green, left is vermillion. Camera says otherwise.

More Splintered Lands

Sooo, I may have possibly sent some more money in the general direction of David @ Splintered Light... again...

This time I'm blaming it on my virtual pal Mike - although I think we've got a reciprocating he made me do it . In truth, I think Mike commented on my Splintered Lands Druid's Children a while ago, and then I suggested he take a look at Songs, and specifically Song of Splintered Lands. Then David @ Splintered Light decided to have a 20% sale for his regular customers (now extended to everyone), and the rest, as they say, was inevitable.

As I was getting a warband on Mike's behalf, I thought it prudent to, erm, save on the shipping, and get myself a Dwarven warband (of the Bob Olley Splintered Land variety, rather than the tiny 15mm fantasy range sculpted by Whiff Whaff). I also got my youngest the rather spiffing Fire Dragon to paint - she's rather positive about Dragons.

As I'm an old 80's Citadel type of chap at heart, I find the Bob Olley sculpts just tick all my boxes - and they have leapfrogged the Splintered Light Saxon warband on the painting table. As of this afternoon, all of them have been stuck on coin of the realm, sprayed black, and painting is underway. They'll be Saxon themed - mainly because that's the colours I've been using of late - so not many grey hairs, but lots of blondes, stripes, and so on. Slapping some more paint on tomorrow, so should have the first five completed - will post pics accordingly.

What else has occured in the tangential world of my wargaming? Well, the scenery commissioned from Paul's Modelling Workshop is still WIP, so waiting for that. Also, I picked up four 2' x 2' TSS scenic tiles from someone off a forum - cheap at £4 a tile. I've been looking at these for yonks, but never taken the plunge - something I regret doing now - they're brilliant.

So, if all works out, should soon have a nice load of spiffing scenery to put on my new tiles, and fight over with Romano-British, Saxons, Dwarves, and Badgers. Can't go wrong. Well, can go wrong, and seemingly is going rather wrong, but that's another story.

Oh, last bit of news - in my capacity as copyreader for WSS, I've blagged myself a copy of Bag The Hun 2, reviewing, for the purposes of. Major problem with this is that I don't have a bloody great hex mat - so the coming months may see a sudden lurch back into flying things. Pete and myself gave the rules a small run out the other evening, and I really liked some of the elements of the rules.

That's all for tonight folks. Pictures of painted things next time, promise.

SSL: The Good, The Bad, and the Unlucky

Third SSL game in as many weeks last night, and a huge attack of Arrghhh!!

An outing against Pete's Kobolds, only the second or third time Pete has played Songs with the Kobolds, so let him get away with more than I usually would. Also threw some advice across the table - although none of this would have made the blindest bit of difference to the way the game panned out.

Kobolds brought legions of little dog-faced warriors to the table - ten warriors, five skirmishers, a wizard, and a leader. The Faithful had an Otter Leader, Otter Hero, two Otter Archers, and two Badgers.

When you're outnumbered 3-1, there's only really one thing for it - Charge! However, Charge! relies on several factors of statistical likelihood occurring; namely, activation dice.

The Faithful managed to turnover play on their first activation roll no less than four times, and turned over six times in total. Kobolds only had to maintain formation to pick off the various Badgers and Otters.

I should point out that these failures were occurring with a Leader at Q2 (he failed twice), and Badgers and Otter hero at Q3 within command radius giving them effective Q2.

So I lost - badly. Managed to kill one solitary Kobold warrior (all fifteen points) for the loss of 250pts worth of Badgers and Otters.

I'm going burn my dice today, and plot revenge.

I've got some Otter Rogues, and the not Wind-in-the-Willows packs winging their way from Splintered Light. These, I think, will be supported in future by the Mice spearmen - I've not used them for some time now, and I think it's beginning to show.

SSL: For A Few Badgers More

A very picture heavy battle report for the next instalment of Song of Splintered Lands this evening - sorry if you've got a poor connection.

So, to business - the freshly painted Rebels/Flowering (Oli) were out for revenge after last week's drubbing (see A Fistful of Badgers a few posts back), so much so that they wheeled out the mighty Wolverine character. 122pts of mightiness. Escorting him were two Rat personalities, five rat warriors, and the obligatory pair of fox archers.

Flushed and confident from their last success, the Faithful's Badgers had largely gone onto the reserves bench. Thus, the Faithful warband (Me) comprised of things not often seen; The Tassletail Brothers leading a pair of Squirrel Swords, a Squirrel Archer, Otter sword, Otter Spear, Otter Archer, and heavy support in the form of just two armoured Badgers.

Excuse the pictures - poor lighting and the texture of the terrain mat confused the hell out of the camera.

Starting positions

Faithful nearest the bottom, archers just out of shot in bottom right corner.

And they're off - business as usual for the rats, no doubt feeling particularly brave due to the presence of that Wolverine


The Faithful adopt a similar formation. Archers again out of shot.


So, on the second turn, combat begins. Badgers engage the Wolverine, who is knocked down after pushing back the first Badger


The Rats swamp the Blue Badger, and the Shamen transfixes him. He dies - with crashing inevitability Mr. Anderson, as Elrond might say.


The Wolverine then deals with second Badger after knocking him down (Badger did get up, then fell over again, then the Otter failed his activation), and it all starts to go horribly wrong. Nasty death and the Faithful make their first morale check as Fergus Tassletail also falls to the Wolverine.


The Faithful fall back, and the Flowering regroup. The Squirrel Archer brought down the Ratlord, and the Otter archer finished him off. Too little too late though.


The Fox Archers took the Squirrel out, and forced the Otter back. Meanwhile the Wolverine and Rats closed in on the shaken remains of the Faithful. The Rats are held at bay and then fall back when another falls bring the Flowering warband to under 50%. The Wolverine, however, is completely impervious to such fripperies as dead rodents, and proceeds to deal death to the hopeless little Squirrels. A below-50% morale check for the Faithful and they rout.



Game over.

Great fun, as Songs always is.

The Squirrels aren't good in hand-to-hand, but I love the look of them, so I think they'll get another run out soon. The Otters are intriguing though - very good in hand-to-hand, so they'll definitely feature in the next warband.

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.

On the painting table

After all the words of the SSL Battle Report (and all the other wordy bits I've been posting), I thought it would be nice to demonstrate some more colouring in, wargaming, for the purposes of.

So, here's some of the current WIP.

First up is the Musketeer Miniatures early Saxons. Bill Thornhill's sculpting - bloody lovely, way above what one would reasonably expect for figures which are basically aimed at the WAB market. I've got rather a lot of these, and very slowly working through them. Great figures to paint, although I've learnt the hard way about the steel spears. One day I'll finish all 140 of them and get a Romano-British from Musketeer army to play against.


Cyning/Atheling, and his Champion - the General, basically


Armoured Cavalry - a points sink, but pretty.


Geoguth Command - veteran warriors.

Also on the table are Red Box Games adventurers.

Veteran Dwarf type... Accident with the brown ink means I'll have to redo his hands. The green came out really chalky too.


Elf Archer - really struggled with her, specifically the colour of the boots. Camera doesn't show it under this light, but the cloak is fully highlighted, as is her face.


A Njorn - again, struggling to get the palette right on this one.

Lastly we have some Splintered Light Miniatures Druid's Children Rebels - these are my mate's figures from the Batrep below. I've got fed up with playing against unpainted figs, so I've put some paint on them for him over the last two days.


A Pine Marten, and three Foxes.

Alongside this lot there is around a dozen 15mm Splintered Light Saxons, the rest of the SLM warband, a dirty great 15mm Samurai army, two 28mm Cromwell tanks, eight more commissioned tanks, etc etc.