Sunday 27 December 2015

Frostgrave - Preparation...

So for Christmas amongst many other things I got a copy of Frostgrave. I'd asked for this as I realised that with the collection of miscellaneous fantasy and medieval miniatures I have I'd have no problems at all building a warband. I'm hoping that others at COGS will follow suit!



I also already had quite a bit of terrain that I could use, though possibly not quite enough. I decided to add to it with a few laser-cut MDF buildings. These also arrived Christmas day and I've just had time to build them up and add slate roofs to a couple. The new buildings are from Stonk GamesTimeline Miniatures and Warbases. They were all chosen based on the level of detail in the kits and the good value for money (especially with Stonk Games!)

My first game of Frostgrave is booked for Sunday 3rd January. I should hope to have the new buildings finished by then.

In the pictures that follow, I've set everything up (well almost everything, there are a few more bits and bobs) to see how it all fits together and whether I have enough. Well I'm sure I have enough. The board is 4ft x 4ft and is actually the same one as I used for Necromunda. I think I may have to do a new board that has a cobble effect or similar at some point, but for the moment this will do just fine.

Of course now I have myself a medieval/fantasy city I can do a lot more than just play Frostgrave!







Internals of Stonk Games Town House.





Timeline Miniatures Market Hall:



Internals of Stonk Games Hovel





Timeline Miniatures Saxon Church... 



Top floor of Timeline Miniatures Bastle House











Thursday 10 December 2015

Man O'War Nurgle Plagueship

Well I'm not entirely sure how I managed this, but I did have a day off work and there is less detail on the Plagueship than on the Plaguecrushers, but still I'm rather pleased with myself!

No sooner have I posted the completed pictures of the Plaguecrushers than I have finished the Plagueship as well.





Next up the is Khorne Bloodship.

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Man O'War Nurgle Plaguecrushers

I've now started working on my Man O'War Chaos fleet. This will consist of a mix of ships from different Chaos powers, primarily Nurgle and Khorne for the moment.

The first ships to be completed are the Nurgle Plaguecrushers. I've gone for a slightly different colour scheme from the standard and have missed out the purple which is normally a primary colour on these ships as I don't like it much. Instead there are more muted tones, yellows and browns that I feel work with Nurgle better than the purple.




After this I'll do the Nurgle Plagueship as this will have a similar colour scheme.

Sunday 29 November 2015

Ogres and Sea Monsters

It's been a few weeks since I posted anything, sorry! This mostly because I was sent to lands far away by my work. Anyway I'm back now and am able again to post my progress.

First up are a few of the "Monsters of the Sea" for man-o-war. I'm really pleased with how these lovely little models came out. So far I've only used the Megaladon (giant shark) but I'm sure I'll be using the other three soon enough. I also extended my Empire fleet with a second Greatship, meaning that finally after 20 years I have some flexibility to my choice of Imperial ships for a 1000pt fleet.


The other thing I've been working on this month is my Ogres for Kings of War and these are another reason why I haven't got much done as I find the ogres quite a chore to paint, though I do love the results! I added a unit of shooters and a standard bearer. This is starting to look like an army...



Monday 2 November 2015

Dungeon Saga Heroes

I've had my Kickstarter copy of Dungeon Saga for almost a week now. In that time I've played 7 games and won just one of them!

The first 4 games were against my 9-year-old son and the most recent 3 against my friend Andy at COGS.

After the first few games it came apparent to me that playing with unpainted models just wasn't going to do. The was especially true with the heroes in their blue plastic. I finished painting those just in time for Andy to use them against me tonight.

Here they all are...


Along with the rest of the game they are very nice indeed. Good sculpts with good detail. Though maybe not quite as clean casts as the ones in the advertising shots. Still, I didn't have to remove any mould lines to get them in the state they are now.

You may have noticed I have re-based them. This is so that I can use them in non-dungeon based games as well.





Kings of War Big Game Hereward Wargames Show Peterborough

Another Sunday, another big Kings of War game...

This time at Hereward Wargames Show in Peterborough.

After a 2 hour drive through fog we got our 14ft by 6ft table set up and fully deployed before the public were let in. There were just over 10,000 points a side and 7 objectives to fight over.



After 5 and a bit turns Good held 5 objectives and contested the other 2. Evil had no chance to make up the difference and conceded. We'd actually run out of time to play and had to pack up.

The next game will be at Vapnartak in York on 7th February. If anyone want to help out, with or without models, then please contact me.


Friday 30 October 2015

Dwarf Steel Behemoth for Kings of War


When I first started converting my old Warhammer army over to Kings of War I saw the listing for the Steel Behemoth and thought it sounded cool. I looked around and saw many different ways to create one, from using the old Empire Steam Tank (with a new driver) right through to scratch building one. Though an option I always preferred was the steam tank range from Ironclad Miniatures.

Then I read the rules and realised that with such a speed of just 3 inches it would take ages to get into contact with the enemy and then with a Melee of 6+ it would be lucky to do any damage. I stopped even considering having one.

That was 1st Edition though and in 2nd Edition the Steel behemoth has been seriously overhauled. The Speed has been increased to 4 inches so that it can keep up with the rest of the army and it's melee has improved to 5+. Time to think again...


I've been working on every army but the dwarves recently, but when visiting Fiasco last weekend I stopped at the Ironclad stall and had chance to properly consider my options. In the end I plumped for Steam14. It fits perfectly on the required 100mm x 50mm base.

When it came around to building and painting it I realised I needed to make it look more dwarvish and less Victorian. With that in mind it was an easy choice to stick an old 80s citadel dwarf as a commander. Though cutting a 20+ year-old miniature in half did seem brutal, I consoled myself with the fact that it was a duplicate in my collection. I added the rim of a large eyelet to act as his cupola.



Then it was on to painting. I wanted to go with a more medieval scheme so painted blue and red as with some of my other dwarf units. I soon realised that there were just too many plain flat areas on the model and that some sort of decoration was required. I googled for "dwarf banners" and soon had a few designs to copy. Little did I know I'd end up covering almost the whole model with intricate brushwork.


This is by far the most decorated model I've ever painted and I'm really pleased how it's come out.

It'll be being used on the big Kings of War game at the Hereward Wargames Show in Peterborough this weekend. Why not come and say hello. 


Sunday 18 October 2015

Kings of War Big Game Sanctuary 18th October 2015

What a Day!,,,, 24,400 points of models; 18 foot long table; 8 players!

We played with 6 armies a side. On the Good side we had: Elves, Dwarves (2 armies) and Kings of Men (3 armies). On the Evil side: Orcs, Twilight Kin, Undead, Ogres and Nature (2 armies).

There were 6 objectives on the board to go for.













The battle ebbed and flowed with one side gaining the advantage and then the other. We agreed to play to 7 turns and at the end it was a draw. Each side held two objectives, one objective was contested and the remaining objective had no units near it. Another turn could have given Good a victory.






On November 1st we'll be at Hereward Wargames Show in Peterborough for a refight... Come and say hello, or if you want to help out then contact me in advance!






Friday 16 October 2015

Getting Ready for the big KoW game at Sanctuary.

We'll be playing a big game of Kings of War at Sanctuary this coming Sunday and I've been getting things ready.

All the army lists (so far) are printed... putting us at over 10,000 points (so far)... so far because there's some more to come...


... mine and Brendan's minis are packed and ready to go...



... and I've been working out terrain board layouts for two ...



... and three of the Sanctuary 12ft x 4ft tables.



 I'm hoping we can wrangle 3 of them...





Thursday 15 October 2015

Ogre Army Grows

What started out as a small force to go with Kings of Men is slowly becoming a new army for Kings of War. 

I just finished off a horde of Ogre Boomers and Grokagamok...

Next for these will be a Horde of Shooters and the Army Standard Bearer that is hovering in the rear of this photo.

Sunday 11 October 2015

Brendan's Undead Army. Ready for the Big game next weekend.


We've just finished working on two more units for my son Brendan's Undead army for Kings of War. Another 30 zombies to make the old 1st edition horde up to a 2nd edition legion, and a regiment of revenants.

This will all be ready for the big game we have planned for next weekend at Sanctuary and also the one after on 1st November at the Hereward show in Peterborough.



The Beholder was one of Brendan's birthday presents. I painted up for him with more than my usual care as I knew how much it meant to him. He came up with some rules that we have refined and will be using at the two big games. We wanted something that kept the feel of the original D&D creature. A powerful spell caster, casting multiple spells. Brendan insisted that it should be very hard to kill.



Beholder [1]                                                                       Monster
Unit Size       Sp          Me     Ra     De         At          Ne           Pts
        1             10          4+        -       5+         10         17/21      400

Special
Lightning Bolt (12), Fireball (20), Bane-chant (3), Wind Blast (10), Surge(10), Heal (5),  Multi Spell, Fly, Ensnare, Lifeleech (5), Regeneration (5+), Stealthy, Very Inspiring.                                                                            
Multi spell
The Beholder can cast up to 3 spells in a single turn. Each spell must be different.