Epic Warpath battle

Today, we played another game of Epic Warpath. 1500pts each side, my Asterians versus Ed's Plague.

The game took place in my city terrain, hot off the printer. I just finished painting last night. The STLs are from Thunderhead Studio, with the Buildings scaled up 190% and the roads scaled up 140% as they are intended for 6mm scale normally.

The game started with Ed losing his aircraft containing heavy MGs and also his tanks to the overwhelming firepower from the Asterians. He'll be more cautious in future. I took the lead holding the only active objective.

However the next turn Ed had control of all but one of the other 4 objectives putting him well into the lead. Next turn he took the objective off me with his leapers, which hid in the wood from my shooting units. I attacked the remaining objects, taking and holding them into the next turn. This brought us even. 

Turn 5 started and all Ed had to do was hold the object his leapers had control of. I tried, but falled to take it. Giving him the win.

The game was a bit different from usual. Killing units did not give victory points, which made it a lot more strategic. A great game.

Kings of War 4th Edition - New Salamander models

Kings of War 4th Edition released in December and I have been working on my Salamander army to extend it to make it usable in the new edition. The army building rules have changed a fair amount and the points values also. This has made the build that I've been using for the whole of 2025 completely unusable and so it was time to have a rethink.

Luckily Mantic has released all the Salamander sculpts as STLs over at the vault and also extended the range with new models. So I decided to concentrate on those for new stuff in my army.

First up was the new Kaisenor Lancers. These are a unit that I really wanted in 3rd edition as well, but Mantic had not made a model for the. I couldn't find anything from anyone else that looked appropriate either.

I printed 8 of the up (2 sets) with the intention of getting around 6 to a base, but they're huge, so I've only got 4 on each base. Which makes sense as Mantic sell 4 of these as a regiment.

I'm really happy with the sculpts. You can clearly see that they're based on the old "Blaine on a freeking-dinosaur" model from years ago, but scaled up as a Salamander is a lot bigger than Blaine. The salamanders appear to be conversions of the original plastic infantry and I think the heads and shield arms are the same sculpts. This does mean that conversions should be easier.

In addition something I wanted in 3rd edition was another Mage Priest, but Mantic only had one sculpt. Though absolutely one of my favourites. In 4th edition there's a new Mage Champion, Z'akke (which I pronounce as "Zak", and there's a new model for him. Again a great sculpt and this could be used for Z'akke or another generic Mage Priest.

Finally, as a bit of fun, and as an alternative, not as expensive, support choice, I've gone for the new Komdon model. It's going to be interesting having some long-range indirect shooting in my army for once. We'll just have to see whether I like it or not. Unlike the other new units, this is more of a new-thing for me.

As for more models. I must say that I'm tempted with the new Ghekkotahs. The new sculpts look excellent. But other projects will need to come first.

Great War 1914 - Big Battles Terrain - Part 3

It's really starting to come together now.

I completed all the woods (almost) and have laid out all the bits and the troops in their starting positions. A few more machine guns are needed on both sides.

I'm quite pleased with how this has come together.

The first try out of the rules and scenario will be on Monday night!

Great War 1914 - Big Battles Terrain - Part 2

Over the Easter break I managed to get further with my small scale 1914 terrain.

The fields, roads and hedges are now complete on all the boards and the town and villages are in progress.

The board is modular and can be rearranged for variety. Getting the fields to line up properly was complicated, but the result hides the regularity of the pattern quite well.

I'm undecided what to do with the edges. Certainly putting the edging strips that came with the mats helps a lot with the look. But should I just leave them as is (i.e. grey), paint them black, flock them or do half and half. I'm unsure... What do you think?

I'm tempted to just leave the edges grey.

The next stage is to add on the woods. After a bit of experimentation I think the best way is to have some black felt pieces coated with my favourite brown acrylic sealant on the upper side. I get a nice texture and the pieces conform to the terrain well.

I will be changing the trees to be just lumps of clump foliage as they are completely out of scale! Also there will be painting and other texturing added to the wood bases, they won't just be brown!

I did try thicker cotton canvas patches, but the edges curled up. The felt does not do this.

I have tried putting the 6mm minis on the boards just to see what they look like. Obviously way bigger than the towns, etc... but I think it'll work...

Since the weekend I've finished off all the town inserts, but this weekend I'm away re-enacting, so progress on the boards will recommence next week.

Great War 1914 - Big Battles Terrain - Part 1

I'm finally working towards being able to use the 6mm WWI 1914 British and German minis I painted last year. This project has been planned for quite a while, but is just starting to come together.

The main goal was to create a set of boards for doing the 1914 Retreat from Mons scenario for Bloody Big Battles. However I wanted the terrain to be usable for more than just that.

Since it's a very large area that is being portrayed on the battlefield I've scaled it up to about the same scale as I have used with the Battle of Britain game, and in fact used the same base for the terrain, EVA foam mats. However this time I'm going to town with the terrain.

I've just completed the first of the six 2ft square boards I'll need for the game.

The total plan for the board consists of 6 of these tiles; modular allowing the battlefield to be varied. To do this the roads have to go off at the same places on the tiles and there are left-hand and right-hand oriented tiles. This is the arrangement for the Mons scenario:

I've now started on the next tiles. The first job was to cut out the rivers, which I did with a soldering iron and some 3d printed templates. Breathing equipment was worn so as to avoid the horrid fumes of the melting foam.

Once that has been done it's a case of cutting out spaces for the towns and river crossings to go in. The roads marked will not be in those locations and are a rough guide. They will need to enter the removable parts in the same locations to allow the different inserts to be moved around as needed.

One of the inserts is for the fortified town of Maubeuge.

Next I fill the river beds and mark the roads using brown acrylic frame sealant, which I use a lot!

I use it so much, that I've run out again... I'll have to pop down to Screwfix again in the morning. 

And here ends this episode...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I've been painting up the excellent "Medieval Mayhem" miniatures from Hayland Terrain for quite a few years now. I'd only really dipped into the range for a couple of models. When Andy asked me to get a few more for our participation game at the upcoming Hammerhead Wargames Show I finally got the last ones I had painted and then got the bug and put a couple more orders in.

I've now completed all I have and added a few 3d prints in as well to fill in some gaps. I've still not got everything that Hayland sell, but the rest will have to wait.

To celebrate completing all these I've taken a few photos re-enacting some of the scenes from the film... 

Watch out for the bonus shot at the end...

Sir Robin, Sir Galahad, Sir Bedivere, King Arthur, Sir Launcelot, Sir Bors

None shall pass.

Burn her!  Witch!  Witch!  Burn her!

Well, now, uh, Launcelot, Galahad, and I wait until nightfall, and then leap out of the rabbit,
 taking the French by surprise

All right, all right, all right. We'll kill him first and then have tea and biscuits.

We are but eight score young blondes and brunettes, all between sixteen and nineteen and a half,
 cut off in this castle with no one to protect us!

Seek you the Bridge of Death.

We want... a shrubbery!

Well, that's no ordinary rabbit. 
That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on.

It's the legendary Black Beast of aaaargh!  Run away!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise....
Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency....
Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....
Our four...
No... amongst our weapons.... amongst our weaponry...
are such elements as fear, surprise....
I'll come in again.