Monday 27 March 2023

Our Hammerhead Participation Game

A bit of a late one this, but a few weeks ago we ran our participation game at the Hammerhead Show in Newark.

My extensive terrain collection was brought out and Andy's Bounty Hunting rules were used. We had a load of interest and won the Best Overall Participation Game prize. 

We also featured in a YouTube video of the event.

Here is a selection of photos from the event: 












Tuesday 21 February 2023

COGS Participation Game at Dales Wargames 26th February 2023

At Dales Wargames this coming Sunday (at the Whitworth Centre, Darley Dale), we'll be running a massive test-run of our participation game for Hammerhead.


In this game of fantasy themed bounty-hunting you will take control of a pair of hunters, a veteran and a rookie, in a quest to eliminate as many monsters and other "ner-do-wells" as possible over our 18ft x 4ft table including a dockyard, city, fortifications, countryside, mine and dungeon.

The rules are home grown and we need players to help test them This can be a case of dropping in and playing for around an hour, or more or less as you choose.

So why not pop in and play our game for a bit?















Saturday 3 December 2022

Kings of War - (Riftforged) Orcs

My first Mantic KoW army was Orcs... way back in 2014. Since then it's grown and grown... However I've not added much to it for a while.

I noticed the Riftforged Orcs list in Clash of Kings 2019 and it piqued my interest, though I didn't look more into it as I was determined to play Sylvan Kin and nothing else for a while. To concentrate on them rather than flit around like I've done in the past.

Anyway, having played Sylvan Kin consistently for a year I was looking to move onto another army. After playing Richard Miles' Riftforged Orcs at the recent TT Gaming Tournament at Element Games Sheffield, I decided to look into them again. He had a very good build, taking advantage of some special units in the new Orcs and went on to win the tournament. I worked out I actually had all the models needed to make his army, but just needed two more. 

The first is the Stormforged Shrine a floating forge with an orc hitting an anvil firing off lightning bolts. I didn't look initially for the Mantic model and instead looked for something I could 3D print. I found this island on thingiverse and decided it was a good starting point. With the addition of a Dungeon Saga Orc, 3D printed hammer heads, a 3D printed anvil and a single Hirst Arts block from my spares, I made this... I've really happy how it's come out.




The second is a unique Orc commander on a gore. Thonaar. I've had the heavy all-metal mantic model on my bench since pre-covid and never got around to painting it. I had to search for his weapon arm, but now he's finally ready.




I'll probably not play Richard's exact army, but will try using these two and the Riftforged Orc formation in a few battles. I'm actually thinking of concentrating on my Abyssals this year.

Sunday 27 November 2022

Kings of War - Succubi

It seems a very, very long time since I painted anything for my Kings of War Abyssals. These are the first batch of Succubi. I have about the same number again ready and primed. They've been that way for several years! 

It's also been quite a while since I used my photography display board and focus stacking software, but it seems I've not forgotten how to use it.



Wednesday 9 November 2022

Blücher - Spring 1813 Map Campaign - Second Campaign turns

Having finished off all of the four battles after the first few turns of campaign movement we'd been waiting for a chance to get the next campaign turn done and then play any battles immediately after. Well that just didn't happen so we decided finally to just get the campaign turns done. This we did on Monday at COGS.

We had to remind ourselves what had happened previously in the campaign and then we managed to play through two campaign turns. In the first of these turns no battles were declared. The French pulled back from the South and decided to concentrate their attacks in the North. The allies also tried to move their forces North to head them off.

A single battle was declared by the French in the North and the remaining forces jockeyed for position. Attempts were made by both sides to stop opponents reaching the battlefield.

In the end though the French have the upper hand with a 6 corps including the Imperial Guard on the table at the start and 1 corps in reserve. The allies have 4 corps, with guard forces from both Prussians and Russians, but also two weaker corps. They have also got 5 other corps of varying sizes ready to come on as reserves.


As you can see nearly all the forces are involved in that big battle. The remaining forces in the South will not be fighting this turn.


So now we need time to actually play this huge battle. We'll need a whole day. It looks like Gerald won't be able to get to the next Dales Wargames, so we'll probably have to play it my house.



Friday 14 October 2022

DBA 3.0 Beyond Rebasing - Part 3 : The City of Troy

 In the earlier Part 1 of the "DBA 3.0 Beyond Rebasing" articles I showed off a camp designed in the style of the ancient city of Troy. This was from a set of 3D prints from here. The set contains the camp and two versions of the city. I've just completed one of those two cities and I like it so much I think I may have to do the other one as well.

Of course I don't actually have the minis for the Trojan Wars, but I think this model will do quite well as a generic ancient city.

It's sized correctly for the DBA 3.0 rules, so I'll have to try it out at our next DBA session.





Also, here are some photos of the armies and terrain I've been making being used at COGS on Monday.







Monday 10 October 2022

DBA 3.0 Beyond Rebasing - Part 2 : Classical Indian Army

Back when I was playing DBM with my Bactrian Greek Army I'd started to extend it by buying additional elephants and an extra chariot. These have sat unpainted for years since then. It was time to make use of them.

So my first (almost) completely new army is Classical Indian 500BC-178AD II/3a. These can fight my Graeco-Indians, Graeco-Bactrians and Skythians, so fit in perfectly. All I needed was a couple more elephants, a chariot and a couple of bases of Cavalry.

I've just finished those in time for our DBA evening at COGS tonight.