tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51355179981846613872024-02-06T18:48:25.429-08:00Where the sea pours outUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-78752080697191741342023-05-31T15:57:00.007-07:002023-09-16T06:15:31.666-07:00Royal Society for the Protection of Squigs<i>The breeding season for the Lesser Moorsquig is short, and their habitat is threatened. So when spring arrives, the fanatical <b>Royal Society for the Protection of Squigs</b> leap into action to ensure a future for this most elusive of species.</i>
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<br>One of my occasional "I'm still around, honest!" posts. It's been a poor year so far with illness and work stresses, and several things have suffered, including this hobby. I've only managed to get one game in 2023 (which I'll blog about shortly) and only painted 6 miniatures... 3 of which were an obviously rushed effort to get something done for the Odds and Sods Painting Challenge, which this month was themed "fanatical lunatics". So here are mine: goblin fanatics by Aaron Howdle protecting a classic 40k Tall Squig.
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<br>Hopefully more to come soon - not least as I'm meant to be getting ready for my trip to Gloucestershire to play The Woods in the Woods in a couple of weeks time, which I'm very much looking forward to.
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<br><b>Update: I was delighted to discover that this ensemble was chosen as the Judge's favourite entry for the Odds and Sods Painting Challenge for the month of May! Many thanks to them for indulging my silliness.</b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-90462659369751781492022-12-30T15:06:00.003-08:002022-12-30T18:50:55.336-08:00Jinglehammer: The Unspeakable Terror that Stole Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtDIR5liyrAx4DC6otYtdhGaPRUatHerqc2Q1j75Cbl8GMa0kov1DarACBL12FqJN6SSdYGRKVKE0zX_KuLxwjWGCdmTO2wQh8HxYtDGb5fwGqbKZjCV3pI_U9rHqqKrSmMHfCaq9x9f4_rCamu8lVQ96CBkFN4Zzj-u6cEy-ePKqyBgVvcN4aabmg/s2048/Christmas%20trees2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtDIR5liyrAx4DC6otYtdhGaPRUatHerqc2Q1j75Cbl8GMa0kov1DarACBL12FqJN6SSdYGRKVKE0zX_KuLxwjWGCdmTO2wQh8HxYtDGb5fwGqbKZjCV3pI_U9rHqqKrSmMHfCaq9x9f4_rCamu8lVQ96CBkFN4Zzj-u6cEy-ePKqyBgVvcN4aabmg/s400/Christmas%20trees2.jpg"/></a></div>
<br><b><i>What day is it today, child? Ahhh, well you might ask, for the darkness of winter seems endless now. There are few left who remember that this time of the year was once an occasion for joy and celebration. Gather by the fire and I will tell you the story of the unspeakable terror that stole Christmas. Is there no wood left for the fire? Alas, I'm afraid we'll have to burn another of your toys, child.</b></i>
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<br>A couple of weeks ago, I had the most wonderful privilege of being hosted at the house of Paul Ede for a seasonal mini-campaign of Warhammer Fantasy Battle (5th ed) devised by Steve Han. As the only one of the three to have a blog (or so I believe), I was tasked with taking the wonderful photos the other two had taken, together with Steve's narrative, and adding my own commentary to leave a battle report online for posterity. All credit to my co-conspirators for most of the narrative and the photos here; I just played and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality! I lined up with a "nice" list (predominantly Empire), while Paul and Steve ganged up on me with a "naughty" list (predominantly Orcs and Goblins).
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<br><b><u>The background:</u></b>
<br>Chaos sorcerer, Sanity Claus, has been trying to rid the world of joy for centuries, but he has ever been thwarted by the magic of the spirits of Christmas. Direct assaults on the spirits have failed, forcing him to devise a more subtle plan. Sanity Claus has been warping reality to slowly shift Christmas forwards in time. The shift is reaching a critical moment as the citizens of the Old World unwittingly respond to and reinforce the warp by putting up decorations and playing Christmas songs ever earlier. The time is right for him to hurl Christmas to a time before the arrival of the Old Ones and so remove the protection of the spirits of Christmas. With the magic of the spirits gone, he will be free to bend the Old World to his will.
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<br><b><u>Scenario one: The spirit of Christmas past - The invention of Christmas Dinner</u></b>
<br><i>A chef working in a small halfling village is about to invent pigs in blankets, bringing untold joy for all Christmases afterwards. Sanity Claus has dispatched the Ghost of Christmas Past to prevent this.
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<br>Farmer Caleb Peerybingle went to tend his flock of geese and caught sight of the advancing force. He rushed back to let the village know. They despatched their fastest goat rider to let the duke know whilst the local militia assembled.</i>
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In this first battle, a combined force of halflings and gnomes seek to defend their village, their seasonal gifts - and, above all, the kitchen where the chef is working on a very special festive recipe.
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<br>They look out to see the raiding force that seeks to prevent this culinary achievement from ever taking place; the Ghost of Christmas Past has gathered and Orc and Goblin mob whose idea of a festive dinner is to pull halflings limb from limb like Christmas crackers before feasting on their innards.
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<br>While the combined arrows and bolts of the village defenders do a remarkable job of stalling the core of the attack - sending wolf riders fleeing and causing many greenskins to fall before they reached the village wall - the spider riders and pump wagons on the flank pose a more robust threat, relatively unperturbed by the cauldrons of stew raining down from the hotpot catapult.
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<br>Over on the other flank, a War Tortoise smashed into a unit of gnomes that had sallied forth - as the gnomes broke, the war tortoise followed up, only to crash against the village wall, upending itself and destroying the crew.
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<br>The line of defence was holding, but for how long? Seeing the impending threat, the mayor bravely rushed out to intercept a pump wagon before it reached the villagers...
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<br>...only to be charged by the goblin general in his chariot.
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<br>Still, the hafling archers in the village bravely defend behind the wall and hold their line. But can they hold much longer? Wait? What's that sound? A trumpet announces the approach of the Duke and his entourage! Reinforcements at last! Surely now the village and its kitchen are saved?
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<br>Yet the reinforcements arrive in a position where the snotling pump wagons are alert to the danger
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<br>The pump wagon crashes into the flank of the halberdiers, causing them to flee... then, as the pump wagon pursues the fleeing rabble, it crashes straight into the Empire heavy cavalry... who also flee!
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<br>The halflings curse as they see the reinforcements flee... "Bloody useless lumbering big idiots... we were doing alright on our own... all they had to do was show up. Honestly..." With the Duke flattened by a pump wagon, the hotpot eaten by spiders and the last defenders surrounded, it's all over. There will be no pigs in blankets.
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<br>The surviving Halflings try to rescue as many gifts as possible in the hope of salvaging Christmas.
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<br><br><b><u>Scenario two: The Battle for Christmas Yet to Come</u></b>
<br><i>Sanity Claus seeks to destroy the great Yule Tree at the heart of Tannenbaum. He is joined by the deathly Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come. The brave defenders of the traditions of the season are joined by the true hope that can save Christmas - jolly old Santa Claus himself with a sackful of presents for good boys and girls and a sack full of pain for Sanity Claus and his evil henchmen.</i>
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<br>Santa Claus and Sanity Claus face off in the great battle of naughty versus nice.
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<br>The defenders of Christmas approach the battle with a strategy of delaying Sanity Claus' approach to Tannenbaum, with the hope of holding back the attacking forces long enough to take up a position defending the tree.
<br>With this in mind the Satyrs take up a scouting position to bravely sacrifice themselves holding back the giant while the battle line advanced.
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<br>This plan did not go well... the Satyrs fled, the Giant's persual robbing the hapless Imperial Knights of their chance to charge. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkWSre3CmSrYbpBlgGbjeCbZRijL58ByXwEYmpCMIvFzrCaUwoGf6zzSFPQ1IQnKzPrbdcTx0w9oKA8Jr8JNnVO6TsDy6bjLiC_PmACJdAELvNuuDOuahnIM5eJQIHGbktwDQbX9FICSvyIBcAcNRNSEJR0DmRkMC6wbtFKX1xXriuuj9xpt8o983X/s2048/321770785_3037825563189550_6568515697466365454_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="500" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkWSre3CmSrYbpBlgGbjeCbZRijL58ByXwEYmpCMIvFzrCaUwoGf6zzSFPQ1IQnKzPrbdcTx0w9oKA8Jr8JNnVO6TsDy6bjLiC_PmACJdAELvNuuDOuahnIM5eJQIHGbktwDQbX9FICSvyIBcAcNRNSEJR0DmRkMC6wbtFKX1xXriuuj9xpt8o983X/s400/321770785_3037825563189550_6568515697466365454_n.jpg"/></a></div>
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<br>More effective is the effect of a Magical Blizzard cast by Santa Claus, which has the effect of holding back the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come back while the swordsmen, wardancers, and steamtank advanced into the heart of the town.
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<br>Yet a malign influence swinging in from the eastern flank... a swarm of vampire bats causing chaos in the ranks of the defenders of Christmas, causing Santa, the Duke, and their accompanying unit to retreat.
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<br>Still, with the steamtank ploughing through as the Swordsmen held the Wight Knights, the forces of light seemed to have at least some cause for hope.
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<br>Not least as the Orcs seemed to be in some disarray. The Old Big'Uns flee, get fired on by their animosity failing allies before decided to rejoin the fight. "Ere boss, dat wos a taktikal wivdrawal, but we just couldn't seem to get it togevva until de arrer Boyz stuck Hodgrod, Booger and Bollox in dere arses and we sharpened up quik smart!"
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<br>Yet it was the Vampire Bats who did most to influence the course of the battle. Defeating the Elven archers who had bravely charged to stop the bats reaching the Empire artillery, the resulting panic led ultimately to Santa Claus and his bodyguard - who had only just rallied - fleeing once again, this time away from the battlefield.
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<br>So the Battle for Christmas Yet To Come was lost. Sanity Claus had seized control of the season.
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<br><i><b>And yet hope is not lost forever, surely... while Santa Claus lives, Christmas might still be saved - if only some still survive to remember and believe. One day he will return to bring good cheer, the tidings of the season, and the gift we all hope to find under the Yule Tree; the blood of our enemies.</i></b>
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<br>I'm taking part in Snickit's "Odds and Sods Oldhammer Painting Challenge", the goal of which is to get us to tackle our leadpile and get paint on things that have been waiting for it for too long. For November the theme was <b>grandeur</b> - and the more I thought about it, the more I realised the time had come to tackle The Swan Ship by Tom Meier, a <a href="http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Limited_Editions_%28Thunderbolt_Mountain%29">Thunderbolt Mountain limited edition</a> from 1989 I believe. I bought this for my Sea Elves back in... 2014 I think? Unassembled in its box but at a very reasonable price (before the inflation really took hold of Oldhammer prices). However, at the time I was wary of painting it. I just didn't think I could do it justice. It's been with me through 3 house moves since, and every time my eldest has seen it over the past 8 years, he's asked me when I'm finally going to paint it. So he helped me out with the assembly - only fitting given that it's been sitting around in its box for the majority of his life.
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<br>Those of you familiar with the model will spot that I haven't gone with the original passenger Tom Meier sculpted for the Swan Ship. As you can see on the box here, it comes with an Elven Princess - and the boxed set includes a story by Richard S. Kerr to explain the tale of how the Swan Ship came to be and the Princess' voyage in search of true love.
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<br>I switched her out for two reasons. First, the Princess is so tiny as to be out of scale with all of the rest of my minis; secondly, I want to field the Swan Ship on the battlefield, so went for a more martial - though still suitable - captain of the Swan Ship. So I chose one of the three "Elven Kings" by Tom Meier - another Thunderbolt Mountain limited edition set (from 1988) waiting for paint - to stand on deck.
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<br>Having finally painted one, I thought it was rude not to get the other two Elven Kings in the set ready for battle, so here they are - just finished today.
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<br>Anyway, happy Christmas to everyone! I have a seasonal battle report which hopefully I'll be able to share before the end of 2022, but in the meantime, I hope everybody has a wonderful and blessed Christmas Day!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-83926577665276084092022-11-07T13:41:00.007-08:002022-11-07T13:44:43.623-08:00I'm holding out for a heroBit of a silent stretch on the blog - never got round to posting about BOYL (oops) so will have to do some retrospective posts, and been extremely busy working since then. But thought I should try and get back into the swing of things with the first mini I've painted since August.
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<br>Snickit has instituted an "Odds and Sods Oldhammer Painting Challenge" over on facebook to get us painting up some of the things that have been languishing in our leadpile. Each month there's a theme for us to paint, and the theme for the month of October was <b>heroes</b>. Now, I've got a lot of character models but for this I wanted a model that really looked the part and really had that suitably heroic feel to it. After digging through my unpainted lead I found this fantastic <a href="https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/halfling-command-group-11-p.asp">Old School Miniatures halfling sculpt by Drew Day Williams</a>. Definitely a hero for the ages!
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<br>As a young halfling, Mike's first encounter with knights was when a bunch of them, while hunting, rode their horses through the village's communal vegetable patch, destroying much of the season's harvest of cabbages. From that day forward, Mike swore he would become a knight - but one who acted with respect for even the humblest halfling, never riding through their gardens without proper care or regard. The kind of knight who would never disdain any creature as too small or common, but instead would stand ready to be a hero for the downtrodden.
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<br>A rather crude paintjob I readily admit, but I think a reasonably effective one all the same, hopefully bringing out some of the character of this true hero.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-56834312036707215172022-07-19T13:00:00.005-07:002022-07-19T13:07:06.627-07:00Multipart plastic minis, bloody hell<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DI8xuFMsqFd4Hpb-S74MC6eLyls4Vr7_ehjdUdWB3cY_IzGKiLuaIfvoh4TEU-f5rf1BcZZ__S7ukudy8Y7XYDWPJ3hMFL9YQUD9jXGZ5gtYz9zp5UJrzIr8U6NnjOkj7rNCdvbIyB77gpd2txbqF2KrdeI5wvtIDbjtz_1878GR1AEvxCGmU8q1/s4000/P1060245.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8DI8xuFMsqFd4Hpb-S74MC6eLyls4Vr7_ehjdUdWB3cY_IzGKiLuaIfvoh4TEU-f5rf1BcZZ__S7ukudy8Y7XYDWPJ3hMFL9YQUD9jXGZ5gtYz9zp5UJrzIr8U6NnjOkj7rNCdvbIyB77gpd2txbqF2KrdeI5wvtIDbjtz_1878GR1AEvxCGmU8q1/s400/P1060245.JPG"/></a></div>
Not a particularly lengthy or inspiring or helpful post today, but thought I should check in and let people know I'm still alive and getting ready for BOYL.
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<br>My big project for BOYL is to finally <a href="http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-dolgans-prepare-to-raid.html">get the Dolgan Raiders done</a> - and it's going ok, but one of the sticking points has been the archers. Years ago, I saw the Fireforge Steppe Warriors box in a model railway shop in Chester and thought "aha! Dolgan warriors on the cheap!" - which seemed like an inspired idea at the time. In the end, I'm only using them for the archers (I'm using different minis - metal minis - for the swordsmen, characters etc.) but it's my first in-depth experience with trying to assemble plastic toy soldiers, and bloody hell it sucks a lot of the joy out of things and is probably one of the reasons this whole project has taken so long.
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<br>Look, it's a really good sprue. They're nice minis. There's lots of bits and pieces, loads of options. Each mini ends up looking unique. But with legs, torso, each arm separate, the head, the quiver, and then any hat and hair still to stick on... that's a lot of cutting and gluing. Some people are probably used to it and think it's a great part of the hobby. Stop whining, you say. Fair enough, I'm just not like you, that's all! Give me a single part metal mini and that's me happy. Laziness? Maybe.
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<br>I do understand that having sprues means that you can kitbash, it's great for creativity, I get all that. I believe it. I've seen some wonderful things. And yes, the minis are cheap.
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<br>Kitbashers, I salute you. It's just a bit faffy for me. Hopefully finish these tomorrow and then I can get onto the last few metal minis for the army. I'll post everything here when it's ready and I'm not in a pre-BOYL painting flap.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-86819664179747176702022-05-22T16:42:00.013-07:002022-05-30T07:54:58.228-07:00Fimir ranges and size comparison<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMtIxszbpwkIg-yZVE5B6ku84c6hqZqpNZqCelIEcyiAcu6WA9CtIPqcCcVR833pfi82n9d7ZhxGxP4ziaeyIlJFOfFBpNPnfnTRFD0mJJE1KwTuvQ2QwK_MhvU0usaOa-5P9taRua38ZgTZWZAo3_Rz_usE3mUpROthBqCBQ5PtKmDr5kBGj-Dd29/s1996/two%20fimir.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="560" data-original-height="1204" data-original-width="1996" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMtIxszbpwkIg-yZVE5B6ku84c6hqZqpNZqCelIEcyiAcu6WA9CtIPqcCcVR833pfi82n9d7ZhxGxP4ziaeyIlJFOfFBpNPnfnTRFD0mJJE1KwTuvQ2QwK_MhvU0usaOa-5P9taRua38ZgTZWZAo3_Rz_usE3mUpROthBqCBQ5PtKmDr5kBGj-Dd29/s600/two%20fimir.jpg"/></a></div>
<br>Finally got around to photographing some fimir that I finally got around to painting last month. Two of the classic citadel fimir sculpted by Nick Bibby, along with the more recent sculpt from Diego Serrate, <a href="https://krakongames.com/product/indech-fomorian-king/">now available from Krakon Games.</a>
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<br>As I was pondering the size disparity, I thought I'd try and do something relatively useful, and photograph the different styles of 40mm based fimir I possessed together so you can see how they line up along one another.
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<br>From left to right: <a href=""></a>Demonomaniac from Krakon Games sculpted by Ross Whitehorn; Citadel 'ogre sized' fimir sculpted by Nick Bibby; Fomorian King from sculpted by Diego Serrate; another Citadel fimir from Nick Bibby; and finally a Forgeworld fimir, sculpted by Steve Whitehead.
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<br>What conclusions can we draw from this? Well, not much really; other than that the Nick Bibby fimir are somewhat squatter than many of their more recent counterparts (though Krakon games does have a variety of shapes and sizes of fimir; see below) - and that Steve Whitehead's forgeworld fimir, while atmospheric, has armour that isn't particularly in keeping with the classic feel. All of which is a bit banal. So I thought I'd take it a step further and go for a complete cataloguing of all the different kinds of fimir I have.
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<br>Because, famously, the fimir aren't all of a size to be stuck onto 40mm bases. The well known tale (technically apocryphal, though endorsed by some in the studio at the time) runs as follows (<a href="http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2014/04/07/bizarre-bestiary-fimir/">Graeme Davis, quoted on the Terminally Incoherent blog:</a>)
<br><blockquote>"The popularisation of Fimir wasn’t helped by a communications foul-up when Nick Bibby took over making the miniatures from Jes – Nick made them all Ogre-sized, compared to Jes’ and my idea that they should be Orc sized. So we had big, expensive miniatures with low game stats, and nobody bought them."</blockquote>
<br>This issue is reflected in the 3rd edition rules. The rulebook specifies rank and file fimir are on 25 x 25mm; only character models are on 40 x 40mm bases. But by the the time the Fimir list was written for Warhammer Armies, <i>all</i> fimir are on 40 x 40mm bases.
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<br>This creates a kind of strange redundancy around the smaller models citadel made - including the most ubiquitous and famous of all fimir.
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<br> So on the left we have the Citadel LE fimir sculpted by Jes Goodwin; and on the right the HeroQuest fimir (with a scibor shield).
You can see here the size disparty with the Nick Bibby models - and in my view these models would look all at sea mounted on 40mm bases, rules lawyers be damned!
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<br>So what other fimir are there that can be mounted on 25mm bases?
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<br><b><u>Blood Moon Miniatures</u></b>
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These 'bog raiders', sculpted by Nicolas Genovese, only seem to be on sale very intermittently from <a href="https://www.bloodmoonminis.com/">Blood Moon Miniatures' website</a>, but they come with a variety of weapons and are very clearly inspired by the HeroQuest fimir, while having a certain reptilian quality of their own. I do like them, but they are very... taut, I think would be the word. In fact, they look as though they've been doing a cross-fit programme; whereas I kind of imagine most fimir to have a bit of a paunch. Also, if you look at this picture of one alongside the HQ fimir and a Nick Bibby fimir, you'll see that they're quite tall - taller than the 'ogre sized' fimir!
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<br>But still (to my eye) with more of a 25mm footprint. All in all, these are models that are very hard to 'mix in' to a unit, and need to be treated very much in a stand-alone way.
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<br><b><u>Oakbound Studio</u></b>
<br><a href="https://www.oakbound.co.uk/thewoods/myeri/">Oakbound produce Myeri for their game The Woods</a> - and indeed it was Geoff Solomon-Sims' desire to produce one-eyed swamp monsters that launched the miniatures range which gave rise to the game. I bought the first set that he cast (now oop), and they're still among my favourites:
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<br>Geoff takes very clear inspiration from The Dark Crystal here. Hunched over and wide-eyed, their faces have more pathos than most fimir - less easy to pin down simply as comic-book villains - and they look great as a unit. As you'd expect from the first models commercially released, the casting raised a few logistical issues. He's since sculpted and released another range of Myeri, inspired by - and with permission to use - <a href="http://realmofzhu.blogspot.com/2014/05/origin-of-fimir-iii-alan-lees-formorian.html">Alan Lee's painting of the fomorion</a> which was indeed the initial creative impetus for the Citadel studio.
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<br>As a result, given this common conceptual origin you can see how the recent range converges with the Jes Goodwin fimir sculpt.
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<br>
<br><b><u>Krakon Games</u></b>
<br>As I noted above, <a href="https://krakongames.com/">Krakon games</a> produce fomorians in all shapes and sizes - both Nick Bibby 'ogre size', and Jes Goodwin 'orc' size. In my opinion, Ross Whitehorn's smaller sculpts are exquisite and can keep excellent company with the Jes Goodwin LE fimir and the most recent iteration of the Oakbound myeri.
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<br>Another point worth noting is that Krakon games also supply all manner of fimir 'bits' - heads, tails, etc - again in the larger and smaller sizes, for all of your conversion needs.
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<br>
<br>So that almost concludes our little tour, except for one more:
<br><b><u>Impact Miniatures</u></b>
<br>Impact Miniatures, who have a wide range Blood Bowl-style minis, provide a <a href="https://www.impactminiatures.com/index.php?option=samhaino_profile&id=LI_ARCW">the ARBBL Chaotic Warrior</a>, sculpted by Clint Staples to a designed by Melvin De Voor. If you overlook the the rugby-helmet style head protection, the fact that theres a football on the armour - as well as the fact that it's not carrying weapons - this is also a very good sculpt and ripe for conversion - as you can see I've given mine a net (from Gripping Beast) and a whip.
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<br><br>
<br>Well, that's about all I have to say/show. Here you can see all of the different types of small fimir in a row to get a sense of how they compare:
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<br>From left to right: Oakbound (1st series); Citadel LE fimir; Blood Moon; Krakon; Oakbound (2nd series); HeroQuest fimir; Impact
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<br>and finally, slightly less clearly but for the sake of completeness, the different small types in front of the different large types.
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<br>Demonomaniacs are introduced in the 1995 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay adventure <a href="https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_3549.phtml">Dying of the Light</a>, set around Marienburg. The result of the ritual experiments of a Meargh who seeks to bind demons into her warriors, demonomanics are an unstable horrors: the body of a fimir struggling - and generally failing - to control the demon that has possessed it. In Chapter 5, the party first find the mangled and mutated corpse of a Fimir who has failed in this struggle and been ripped apart by an "an extreme series of mutations". Then, deeper in the swamp they find another thing that "looks like it was once a fimir", towering and in a state of apparent confusion. (My favourite detail is in its profile, the alignment is given as "Too confused for that at the moment"). "Claw marks cover its whole body and worms now ooze from these fetid gashes." It emits gutteral noises of agony. It flails its axe and mutated scythe-claw arm in a state of wild attack.
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<br>Here is Pete Knifton's atmospheric, terrifying, and frankly disgusting image of a Demonomaniac. As you'll see, I haven't included worms with mine. I do regret not giving mine a tail that can shoot spikes. Anyway, I imagine the one I've painted to be in a slightly more stable state of possession - though only just.
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<br>This is not the only fimir I managed to get belatedly done for the month of Marsh, but I'll save the others for the next post.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-51352429101700674232022-02-20T07:57:00.002-08:002022-02-20T17:00:27.075-08:00Book Review: Trash Tokyo<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUNuT2oB0xcKhNckFnaYlu_3L_3BT32uKoDZW11bag9tZHfWaFAFHkXQJj222uAGq-oFgxVRCDpLPbB_Jve7oyQi1yFLdtAnqJsHmd7pIgYKVAXqLyY6cxIXChJhIgo2WCNCyIyJGXTgMvLn3TFmTOjijkRW3hRn0Xy7-7J6FDgKoyKbTPxHhYMzcJ=s1438" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="1438" data-original-width="996" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUNuT2oB0xcKhNckFnaYlu_3L_3BT32uKoDZW11bag9tZHfWaFAFHkXQJj222uAGq-oFgxVRCDpLPbB_Jve7oyQi1yFLdtAnqJsHmd7pIgYKVAXqLyY6cxIXChJhIgo2WCNCyIyJGXTgMvLn3TFmTOjijkRW3hRn0Xy7-7J6FDgKoyKbTPxHhYMzcJ=s400"/></a></div>
<br><b>Trash Tokyo, by John Wilson. WilsonClan Games, 1997.</b>
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<br>No idea who needs to hear about this, but I bet someone does! I reckon I would have picked this up in the wargames/rpg shop in the Liverpool Palace back in the day.
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<br>Trash Tokyo is a beer n'pretzels style wargame that enables you to simulate the classic monster movies of Japan - Godzilla, Mothra, Ghidorah and the like. It's designed for 1/300th scale figures, so lots of teeny tiny civilians getting stomped while lots of tanks try to take down a giant monster. (Just the right scale for the monster to be represented by a toy)
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<br>It's a simple set of rules (as befits a 16 page booklet). There are three types of unit: Civilians, whose "main purpose is to run, screaming, from the monsters attacking their city"; Military, including squads of soldiers, tanks, and mecha; and Monsters. Everything has movement values, defence values, and attack values for the various weapons. Buildings can and should be smashed up. There is nuance in the various types of attacks: chemical, cold, electrical, heat, impact, light, mental, radiation, and sonic. This is important because some monsters are more vulnerable to particular kinds of attacks. There are reaction tables for screaming civilians and monsters running amok.
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<br>As you'd expect the list of monsters is good fun. Consider this entry for the Giant Prehistoric Caterpillar, for example:
"A giant egg was discovered on a Pacific island where it was worshipped by the natives. When it was brought to Japan, the egg hatched and released its contents on the world. The Giant Prehistoric Caterpillar can only be controlled by the song of two tiny pixies (known as the Almond Twins). It is vulnerable to CHEMICAL attacks."
Obviously the Giant Prehistoric Caterpillar grows up in to a Giant Prehistoric Moth. Other monsters include Giant Radioactive Dinosaur, Ancient God, and Three Headed Dragon.
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<br>My favourite bit of the book when I got it as a teenager was the list of scenarios, "Revenge of the Giant Radioactive Dinosaur" (pretty self-explanatory); "From the depths" (an ancient God is awoken from its slumbers beneath the sea); "Attack of the Space Roaches" (battle against a flying saucer, alien infantry, and hover tanks...) I spent several hours thinking about how to link all of the monsters into one super-meta campaign (a nuclear weapon dropped to destroy the Giant Prehistoric Caterpillar on a pacific island awakens an Ancient God; the resultant battle attracks the attention of space aliens who are only finally seen off by Hyperguy)... but inevitably I never actually played the game.
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<br>Maybe someone with lots of 6mm stuff would like to give it a go? In fact, I discovered in the course of writing this that most of the rules are online <a href="http://www.wilsonclan.org.uk/games/trasht/intro.htm">and can be found here</a>, so there's no excuse not to! I'll bring a Robosaur...
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-2382674752781464292022-01-08T11:49:00.002-08:002022-01-08T19:44:43.630-08:00Another year over and a new one just begunFirst miniature of the year painted:
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<br>It's "Slug Eat Your Face", sculpted by Tom Meier to a concept by his son Theo Meier (the description of the design process, <a href="http://theminiaturespage.com/news/279674/">which can be read here</a>, is very amusing). This was a Christmas Present - one of a number of very well selected Christmas gifts from Ral Partha Legacy and Bad Squiddo Games. It's nice to have a family who know the weird things you like.
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<br>Last year was <a href="http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/2021/11/summer-2021-retrospective.html">a hard year</a> but in spite of that - or maybe because of it - it was my best year for painting ever. I managed to get 110 miniatures painted this year! Some of them even to a decent standard! Far and away a record for me. However... I managed to acquire 195 miniatures. So, taking into account <a href="http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/2021/06/from-marshes-into-woods-myerifimir.html">the one I destroyed for a fimir conversion</a>, that still leaves me 84 miniatures in the red.
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<br>Sometimes admitting you have a problem is the first step to fixing it... So, I have one core Oldhammer new year's resolution for 2022:
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<br><i><b>To paint more miniatures than I acquire.</b></i>
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<br>That's it. That's my one resolution. Oh aye, and to finally finish and play the Dolgan Raiders (BOYL22 will finally be the year!)... And to get on with the High Elves that have been waiting nearly 25 years now... and I have a few other ideas up my sleeve too... Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just off to have a look on ebay.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-77746512930285359692021-12-24T08:10:00.004-08:002021-12-24T15:11:31.879-08:00Looking back on Orctober: a goblin playground sceneMy review of the year past has almost caught up with the present. I just have one more completed project I thought it would be nice to share here: my contribution to Orctober. Funnily enough I've never managed to paint anything up for Orctober before... and this year was no exception, as it didn't get finished until November.
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<br>A couple of rather old Citadel fiend factory miniatures that I inherited, paired with a more recent purchase from the Foundry:
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<br><a href="http://www.solegends.com/citc46/198000gvillagers/_07A7719x-01.htm">FF65 Goblin Children crying to their FF64 Goblin Mother</a> about having been thrown off the seesaw by <a href="https://www.warmongerminiatures.com/products/orcling-playskool">Warmonger Orclings</a>! Blue sky and clouds in the background courtesy of a painting by my son James.
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<br>I've been chatting with Warlord Paul and we're thinking of having a game (probably next Night of the Living Lead) where goblins are the good guys for a change- or at least the ones we're trying to defend. He writes: "The goblins of Little Albion are having a hard time right now. Their princess has been abducted by Lord Kraust and they are being used and abused by him as he expands his power..." A good opportunity to bring out all the weird and wonderful goblin civilian and character models... but that's for next year!
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<br>In the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas Day, and I hope Father Christmas brings you lots of presents!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-80720058376580628852021-12-14T15:38:00.004-08:002021-12-14T16:16:55.370-08:00The Brotherhood of Public Sanitation<i>After the years of plague, as death washed over the land, a new threat even more virulent arose among the survivors. The Cult of the New Colossus had arisen to prey on the hopes of the people. It must be stopped.
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<br>Only the most devoted to the cause of wiping out this strange new movement could be trusted to deal with the horror. What was needed was a brotherhood: a brotherhood against all cults. Those initiated must be ever-zealous in their devotion to hunting down and wiping out new religious sects as they arose. Unflinching in the face of religious fanaticism. There was to be no corner of the land where dogmatism could take root. The purifying fire of the brotherhood would render all cultish dogmas anathema.
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<br>This was the promise of the brotherhood. After the plague, an assembly of the children of reason, determined to fight the new plague. Their faces covered, as they had been since the plague began, to show their unwavering commitment to the cause.</i>
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<br>Next in my series of posts catching up on the passing year, we move to Bring Out Your Lead 2021 - a quieter affair than usual, as it was delayed to the autumn, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as it made it a more relaxed occasion altogether.
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<br>Many of you will be aware of Steve Beales'/Thansants mastery of the Old World Army Challenge, painting an enormous, mindbending, literary Chaos army - the <a href="http://teasgettingcold.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Colossus">Cult of the New Colossus</a>. I did what any right-thinking person would do, faced with clear evidence of someone's far greater talent and work ethic: I sought to destroy it. Luckily, I was not alone - Steve had managed to inspire envy and disgust all across the Oldhammer world, and so the stage was set for an epic struggle at Bring Out Your Lead, as we all gathered our forces to stop the Cult of the New Colossus before they performed whatever horrific ritual Steve's fevered and well-read imagination could think up. Expressing the true warmth and mutual respect that is the hallmark of our Oldhammer community, the battle royale was quickly christened "Kill Beales".
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<br>I wanted to gather a new force with the specific goal of destroying this disgusting cult. An anti-cult <strike>cult</strike> assembly if you will. The key themes I decided on were:
<br>1) that the army would be entirely masked or otherwise have covered faces - a tradition of hygiene that began during the plague and has persisted as the mark of true faith among those fighting the moral plague that is <strike>Steve Beales</strike> Chaos.
<br>2) that the army would display an unhealthy fascination with the purifying force of death as the only thing that can subdue chaos.
<br>3) that the army would epitomise the principle expressed by Nietzsche but which - let's be honest - we all know from the opening of Baldur's Gate: "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster... When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you..."
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<br>The first unit to be painted were <b>the Brothers Spiritual</b> - <a href="https://fenrisgames.com/shop#!/Faceless-cultists/c/8977029/sort=nameAsc">Fenris Miniatures Plague Cultists with <a href="https://cpmodels.co.uk/product-category/28mm-ranges/28mm-night-terrors/undead/">CP Miniatures Night Terrors</a>. With this unit, I really wanted to lean into the plague mask theme, but also give a sense of the brotherhood evolving into horrors themselves...
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<br>The next unit were <b>the Brothers Militant</b> - pretty straightforward Witch Hunters really, mostly from <a href="http://whiteknightminiatureimperium.blogspot.com/search/label/Getting%20Some%20Humans">White Knight's Miniature Imperium</a>, with a couple from <a href="https://perfectsixscenics.co.uk/shop/ols/categories/28m-fantasy-miniatures">Perfect Six Miniatures</a>.
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<br>At this stage we needed some muscle to try and tackle some of the larger horrors of the Cult of the New Colossus - and so I painted up <b>Brother Pyramidhead</b>, an Ogre from <a href="https://dark-art-studios.co.uk/store/product/krell-gore-master/">Dark Art Studios</a>.
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<br>Also with some of the larger and more damage-resistant targets in mind, I decided that adding a mortar would be a good idea: enter <b>the Brothers Fulminant</b> - <a href="https://pulpfigures.com/products/view/45">evil hooded minions from Pulp Miniatures</a> tending to an OOP undead cannon from Fenryll miniatures.
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<br>And finally, some old lead: rank upon rank of <b>the Brothers of the Flensing Shame</b> (i.e. Citadel's Regiment of Renown <a href="http://www.solegends.com/citrr/1rr17flame/index.htm">Knights of the Cleansing Flame</a>) - though to fit them with my brotherhood, and to compensate for a lack of the complete command set, I added a C03 series Cleric Bishop to lead the unit, and an <a href="https://www.oakbound.co.uk/product/lords-of-the-summer/">Oakbound Mari Lwyd style figure</a> to serve as a suitably creepy substitute for a standard.
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<br>How did they fare at BOYL? Not surprisingly, even as one small part of the forces amassed against the Cult of the New Collosus, we made little inroads to stopping their foul and perverse rituals. We were just too slow in disrupting their ceremony...
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<br>The brotherhood did slightly better on a trollhunting mission the next day (winning by errrr... abducting the troll's children while directing the rest of the trolls into battle against the other forces... but that slightly shady moral tale is for another day!)
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<br>As you may recall, I'd been taking part in the <a href="http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/search/label/Monthly%20White%20Dwarf%20Painting%20Challenge">White Dwarf Monthly Painting Challenge</a> initiated by Jamie Loft - each month, a classic issue of White Dwarf was selected, and our challenge was to paint something contained within, or inspired by, its pages. Alas, Jamie's become the victim of his own success, with the growth of <a href="https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/">Old School Miniatures</a> over lockdown leaving him with not enough time, so the challenge seems to have died. However, I feel like this was a suitable note to end on!
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<br>White Dwarf 90 contained a celebratory retrospective by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, looking back on the origins of the magazine and of Games Workshop. Well, what better theme for a White Dwarf painting challenge than to paint up the founding editors of White Dwarf?
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<br>Pirate Steve Jackson (aka "the Ruffler" from the C04 thieves - although this casting is from <a href=""https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/products/cut038-captain-gibbons-flotsam>Foundry's re-release</a>) was a sculpt apparently inspired by Steve turning up to the 1984 Citadel Open Day on crutches due to a broken ankle.
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<br>Ian Livingstone is apparently a big fan of baseball and so his likeness for the White Dwarf Personalities box set ("Livingstone, the 'ed hitter") is wielding a baseball bat - but the pose itself is inspired by his cameo appearance in the artwork for his Fighting Fantasy classic Deathtrap Dungeon; wonderful artwork by Iain McCaig with a figure based on Livingstone chained up and recoiling in horror.
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<br>My 2021 gaming finally began on a beautiful early summer's day in a woodland outside Nailsworth. I had arrived at The Woods in the Woods - a chance to finally play a campaign of Geoff Solomon-Sims' fine diceless skirmish game <a href="https://www.oakbound.co.uk/thewoods/">The Woods.
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<br>I brought with me my <a href="http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/2021/06/from-marshes-into-woods-myerifimir.html">Myeri warband</a> - over the course of the day we scouted out the edges of our realm. Unwanted Huldraugur guests sought to seize a monument on our borders and had to be repelled.
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<br>We tried to avoid being seen by Bucca spies - having to finally kill their leader before he took back the secret of our location.
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<br>And we found ourselves shot at by Gnawlocks erecting their own totems in contested territory.
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<br>The day finally ended with a grand battle involving all of the forces trying to seize fae to obtain their secrets.
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<br>The setting was beautiful, the terrain flowing seamlessly into the woods beyond. I even saw a stinkhorn mushroom!
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<br>I returned home rested and refreshed. We'd been looking after my mother ever since <a href="https://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/2020/11/rip-jim-irvine.html">my father died last winter.</a> She'd been suffering from long COVID, and I wanted to get back to meet with the occupational therapist who was coming to the house to advise on how we could support her recovery. The signs were encouraging and my mother, though still very tired, was making good progress. June passed and I was full of optimism. Little did I know that within weeks, my mother too would be dead.
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<br>My next gathering for gaming, then, was in the shadow of her funeral. Bring Out Your Lead had been postponed, but resourceful gamers still hatch plans to use the accomodation they had already booked in Newark. The result was three games in three days in three counties.
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<br>First, to Nottingham and Warhammer World (my first ever visit there, in fact), to play a mini-campaign of Realms of Chaos with the insanely creative Curtis Fell.
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<br>Then on Saturday to Derbyshire for the 'main event' at Bonsall Village Hall, organised by John Ratcliffe. This was the latest installment of our Adventures in Little Albion campaign, <i>Ye Olde High Speed 2</i>
<br>John wrote up the background as follows:
<blockquote><br><i>Baron De Pfeffel (the corrupt and narcissistic ruler of southern Little Albion) and his evil Tilean advisor ‘Dominico the Rat’ have a plan to build a new high speed cart track through the ancient woodlands of central Little Albion.
De Pfeffel is selling the cart track on the basis that it will cut 5 minutes off the four day journey from the fetid, southern swamplands of Hacked-Knee Marshes to the frigid, northern moors of Mankburgh.
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<br>Why anyone would want to make this journey, in either direction, is a complete mystery.
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<br>All the foulmouthed, unwashed, cruel and spiteful creatures of Little Albion adore De Pfeffel and have flocked to his banner... As the Goblin Warlord Snagsnaffl put it: "Ee shayrz ahr valyoos, innit."</i></blockquote>
<br>I gathered together the treehuggers in my collection - elves and halflings - and placed them under the command of the inestimable Professor Tiggywingle.
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<br>You can read more about the sacrifice the creatures of the woodland and their allies made to stop Ye Olde High Speed 2 over at <a href="">Fimm McCool's (i.e. Geoff's) blog</a>... But as you can see, the battle - and especially Curtis' Tree Crushing Machine - were quite a sight to behold!
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<br>And finally on Sunday to Lincolnshire and to Foston Village Hall (many thanks to Tom Reynolds for organising!) for another game of "The Woods" - a 3 way skirmish, struggling to desecrate tombs while Geoff's Fae attempted to consecrate the land themselves, and goblins under the command of Jerome Franklin-Ryan simply tried (successfully) to trip us all up.
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<br>After all of which I needed to go back to Liverpool, to the family home, to try and reckon with the loss of my mother. As Matthew Street and myself wait in Grantham station (which contains, it should be said, a very fine micropub) ready to go our separate ways, we find the trains massively delayed. Someone had thrown themselves on the line somewhere to the south. We sat and waited and drank and spoke with the lad behind the bar about life and death and the things you wish you'd had a chance to say to people now gone.
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<br>Why do I mix up all this chat about gaming with the pain of grief? Not to try and spoil the pleasure of the games - that was very real. Nor to trivialise the loss, which still cuts deep. But that is just how life is. Darkness and light whisper sweet nothings to one another, and neither seem in any hurry to let us in on their secrets.
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<br>Well, mostly, I just wanted to write something like this: people sometimes say that playing games is all about escapism, and there's obviously truth in that. But I don't think that's all there is to it. The creativity, the laughter, the absolute joy of spending time with friends - that's not escapism. Escapism implies trying to get away from 'real life' for a brief spell; but that creativity, friendship, and joy brings you back to what real life is like, or at least what it can be like. These moments are not some mere escape, they are life at its brightest. And I am thankful to you all for making them happen.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-62674781454962346572021-11-07T13:55:00.004-08:002021-11-14T16:30:02.536-08:00Blogging and the Facebook monster<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRyUsUgI2G-GF4JU5SIkdVe-iqZ6hy9EVJivpjaETMVYtwz8HJFgV2t5SauUoVAG9L285UEjr-A3OKyWaNkCPLN2oRQiXLnYtJE2CHAOCLK6H3cW31Y1GY6sBwbmh375gWLgzj0n-b3U/s4000/P1050643+%25282%2529.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRyUsUgI2G-GF4JU5SIkdVe-iqZ6hy9EVJivpjaETMVYtwz8HJFgV2t5SauUoVAG9L285UEjr-A3OKyWaNkCPLN2oRQiXLnYtJE2CHAOCLK6H3cW31Y1GY6sBwbmh375gWLgzj0n-b3U/s400/P1050643+%25282%2529.JPG"/></a></div>
<br>Another few months of silence on this blog. Partly that's just general laziness, partly it's just the fact that life has been coming pretty thick and fast.
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<br>Of course, one of the things that makes blogging a bit more of a chore is that the energy in Oldhammer has moved away from the blogosphere and towards other forms of social media. I honestly think that's a bit of a shame. True, blogging is pretty newfangled itself compared to the lead we push around - the most appropriate medium for what we do would probably be something like a mimeographed newsletter. But still, blogging gives the time and space to record your projects, share ideas, and then for people to be able to find and look back on them in the future. Compare and contrast with facebook with its deluge of pictures and endlessly looping chatter, where anything more than a couple of days old becomes hard to find.
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<br>The thing is, Oldhammer kind of revels in being <a href="https://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/search/label/In%20praise%20of%20the%20old%20school">SLOW</a>: pottering around, beer in hand, admiring things, chatting, and occasionally pushing some toy soldiers across a table. It's about time spent enjoying life with friends, far removed from the "get a couple of games in quick" mentality that modern worklife forces our leisure into. For this reason, social media like facebook doesn't seem like a very good fit. That kind of social media is about instant gratification and short attention spans. And all too often about the kind of bad tempered reflex that comes from not taking time to reflect. Given that it's taken some of our models 40 years to see paint, you'd think we could take a little bit longer to think before we speak!
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<br>Ironically, the key reason I'm on facebook these days IS Oldhammer. It's how we plan for the next Little Albion games, think about what we'll do at BOYL, etc. And even though I much prefer <a href="http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/index.php">the old-style Oldhammer Forum</a> I do like looking at the pretty pictures. But I'm not very good on social media - it's led to some of the bigger fuck ups in my life in recent years. Even in Oldhammer my time as a moderator was a clusterfuck, and I've fallen out with some people there's been no need to fall out with.
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<br>Things change. The centre of gravity moves. But I hope there's life in blogging yet, in people being able to share ideas and not just pictures, in things that can be read years later and not lost the second you scroll past them. Let's hope there's more to Oldhammer than just feeding the facebook monster.
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<br>And did I write this just so I could show off the Scibor Facebook Monster I finally painted - <a href="https://www.beastsofwar.com/fantasy-wargaming/beware-scibor-monster-facebook/">the one they released when they reached 10,000 likes</a>, and which I got free years when I was buying some shields from them? Of course I did!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-35454735256689794532021-06-23T02:04:00.000-07:002021-06-23T02:04:02.740-07:00From the marshes, into the woods - a Myeri/Fimir warband<i>On the edges, where land becomes water and water becomes land, keeping vigil. Listening to the birds and to the reeds for shifts and changes. On guard for incursions to an ever-diminishing domain.</i>
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<br>Most of you will know of my fascination for the fens. And in particular, my fascination for those one-eyed denizens of the fens, the fimir. I've recently returned to that early enthusiasm, painting up a small warband that I can field as Myeri in <a href="https://www.oakbound.co.uk/thewoods/">Oakbound Games' The Woods</a>. Way back when, the first range Oakbound produced were some fine not-fimir, and The Woods has really grown a life of its own around that: Geoff Solomon-Sims has expanded the range with more and more creatures, a growing folkloric world. So when Geoff announced that he was holding the first Oakbound Games Day, "The Woods in the Woods" - in an atmospheric and COVID-guideline-appropriate Gloucestershire woodland venue - I decided that this was something I needed to be part of.
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<br>The first minis I painted specifically for the warband were <a href="https://www.oakbound.co.uk/thewoods/myeri/">two wonderful Oakbound miniatures from their current myeri range</a>.
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<br>Of course, fimir affecianados may well recognise that these sculpts pay direct tribute to <a href="http://realmofzhu.blogspot.com/2014/05/origin-of-fimir-iii-alan-lees-formorian.html">the very artwork that provided the inspiration for the fimir - Alan Lee's Fomorian</a>:
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<br>I then turned to <a href="https://krakongames.com/product-category/fantasy/axegrind/fomorian/">Krakon Games' Fomorian range</a> for the next recruits - Ross Whitehorn, sculptor and proprietor of Krakon Games describes these sculpts as "the sentry" and "the wayfarer".
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Alongside those, I used different bits from Krakon Games (who supply an excellent range of <strike>fimir</strike> <strike>myeri</strike> fomorian heads!) to convert a magic user (a Draoi in the world of The Woods; or a Dirach to use fimir terminology). This was a last minute panic conversion using an industrial amount of superglue, and to be honest I'm amazed it worked.
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<br>First, I cut the legs, hands, and head off of a spare <a href="https://pulpfigures.com/products/view/45">cultist-type I had from Pulp Figures</a>. Then, I gave him the staff/scythe from a current-day Games Workshop <a href="https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Sylvaneth-Branchwych">Sylvaneth Branchwych</a>, and stuck on a head, legs, and a tail from Krakon Games. I was having trouble working out what to do when painting the robes, so ended up blending purples and greens, giving him a kind of hippy tie-dye effect like he's a member of the Polyphonic Spree or something. He's accompanied by a <a href="https://www.reapermini.com/miniatures/pack/latest/02969">Raven familiar from Reaper</a>.
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<br>As always, time was running out before the big day, but there was one more model I just had to paint: Jes Goodwin's fimir prototype. One of my all time favourite miniatures.
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<br>The warband was rounded out with a couple of models I'd painted a while ago: First off, <a href="http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/2020/03/mutant-fimir-month-of-marsh-special.html">the Fimir Mutant I converted last year</a> (to be fielded as a counts-as-Kelpie).
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<br>I then I dug out and rebased an Uilleann Piper as a Scealai for my warband - <a href="http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/2014/03/reinforcements-for-clan-slea.html">one of the original range of Myeri that Geoff launced Oakbound Games with</a>, now OOP - and also a Barguest (aka one of Games Workshop's Fenrisian Wolves for their 40K Space Wolf army). Clan Slea were ready to enter the woods...
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<br>Many thanks to Geoff for the wonderful photo of the assembled warband - the terrain and painted background is all his work. And thanks to him for a wonderful day of gaming in the woods, which will be the subject of my next post...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-73210347540924145362021-05-31T12:51:00.002-07:002021-05-31T12:59:02.767-07:00Lord Blowfly among the unquiet dead<i>A place of the dead. But dry, sterile. His antennae twitched. In the sarcophagus. Not stench, not moisture, not flesh. But magic. A gift for his patron. He raised the axe aloft and struck the tomb, and again, and again, the stonework crumbling.</i>
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<br><i>From the sarcophagus, dry bones. Dry bones shifting, becoming living bones. Living bones shrieking for vengence, grasping, clenching the magic sword, ready to strike.</i>
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<br>At the moment, my table is full of unfinished/ barely begun painting for Bring Out Your Lead. But in the meantime, a small finished project: another month's entry for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/303496564193747">Jamie Loft's White Dwarf Monthly Painting Challenge</a>. This month it was WD113, which features among its contents a taster of the Lost and the Damned.
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<br>I decided to paint the classic Citadel fly-headed Champion of Nurgle that I've had in my leadpile for a while (a better executed version of which appears on page 70 of that month's White Dwarf). I then placed Lord Blowfly in an encounter from the narrative generator on page 54: <i>"The sarcophagus contains the bones of an undead Champion who immediately rises to engage those who desecrate his tomb."</i> The undead champion is a Fenryll skeleton that came spare with a recent purchase for another project and who I hadn't been intending to paint, but now I'm rather pleased I did. No idea where the shattered sarcophagus comes from, I'm afraid; I inherited it with my father's collection.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-28568727405033100812021-04-30T15:51:00.005-07:002021-04-30T16:01:54.935-07:00Lord and Lady McDeath<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgluHjnUdawhmH-qEOuZUWUVgDaM19latTv-OEIFDMCZHgP5XhKUNpnR0g64xQDLOzTQw-d_UztPlfxzp1NzBthpfQPnlnTOFmHxauk9GwTKBHzvE1q6VZtEHYNCxPau9Gz1FoNQKQbHnw/s1712/Lord+and+Lady.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="1712" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgluHjnUdawhmH-qEOuZUWUVgDaM19latTv-OEIFDMCZHgP5XhKUNpnR0g64xQDLOzTQw-d_UztPlfxzp1NzBthpfQPnlnTOFmHxauk9GwTKBHzvE1q6VZtEHYNCxPau9Gz1FoNQKQbHnw/s400/Lord+and+Lady.jpg"/></a></div>
<br>With some trepidation... I've taken the plunge and painted Lord and Lady McDeath. I've had these for a while but was waiting for the 'right time' or some special occasion to paint them. But like the quote from the film Sideways, "The day you open a ’61 Cheval Blanc, that’s the special occasion". So when Jamie Loft's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/303496564193747">White Dwarf Monthly Painting Challenge</a> asked us to paint something from or inspired by White Dwarf #76, and I found that it was the issue that contained the McDeath 'prequel' Glen Woe, I thought now was the time.
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<br>Ok, so readers of this blog have probably <a href="http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.com/2020/03/it-was-best-of-times-it-was-worst-of.html">heard enough about my hobby psychodramas</a>, but actually I found it was very hard to really enjoy painting what are basically a pair of antiques, because I felt more pressure than usual to 'do them justice'. Has anyone else had this problem? It's probably one of the problems I have with archaeogaming, too much pressure to 'do it right' rather than just to do it your own way. Anyway, they're done now and I'm glad of it.
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<br>In the scenario, King Dunco is on his way to visit Lord and Lady McDeath - but he really should have some very strong suspicions about Lord and Lady McDeath's motives based on the fact that their clothing is covered in skulls. Or maybe he just assumes they're goths? Anyway, to keep with that theme I gave the "King hereafter" a shield with a skull - it's one of the plastic Marauder Orc shields, I believe.
<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi9FrXSOf3o20Jp-Tq2RtL-45LyiVvNdex4FCtiwYcFcwGHujV3Ze2XVOCOb4KipZn4yXLtk4IPi2NQ4VvsFd3DZ1kQDQBujwt8klKHMLgvvXEF1V8RW1G_ZRnsvcRbo_6iWrlB2TY2t4/s2000/Lord+and+Lady+back.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi9FrXSOf3o20Jp-Tq2RtL-45LyiVvNdex4FCtiwYcFcwGHujV3Ze2XVOCOb4KipZn4yXLtk4IPi2NQ4VvsFd3DZ1kQDQBujwt8klKHMLgvvXEF1V8RW1G_ZRnsvcRbo_6iWrlB2TY2t4/s400/Lord+and+Lady+back.jpg"/></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-24472009828522802572021-03-17T16:10:00.000-07:002021-03-17T16:10:56.341-07:00The Bold Thady Quill vs Bungus Ness - a St Patrick's Day retrospective<br>To celebrate St Patrick's day, I thought I'd go straight for the stereotypes, and dug out the Talisman Leprechaun from the shoebox where he's been stored recently.
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<br>In fact, he forms part of what is almost certainly my favourite little warband, painted for a game at the Foundry back in 2017.
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<br>W.B. Yeats described Leprechauns and their kind as "sluttish, slouching, jeering, mischievous phantoms" (probably meaning sluttish in the earlier sense of slovenly, unless there's a side to them that I hadn't realised). Rather than the usual sword-swinging hero, I thought it would be fun to summon a warband of fairies and creatures of the woods, fighting mostly with their wits and frustrating their opponents with mischief.
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<br>Painting him in the sterotypical green (rather than going for a red jacket as per Yeats' account), I dubbed my leprechaun hero "the Bold Thady Quill" after one of my favourite Cork folk songs, and played him as an Illusionist. He's backed up with some slightly more thuggish (if still diminutive) myconids from Hasslefree. Hasslefree also sent me a "tooth fairy" miniature as a free gift and I thought that would work very nicely as a companion. Finally, rounding the group out, a sprite from the Wood Elf Glade Guard plastic sprues.
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<br>One spring morning, The Bold Thady Quill and his companions set out to teach the one-eyed warlord Bungus Ness a lesson. Why? Because Bungus Ness (in fact, <a href="http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-warhammer-bestiary-fimir.html">a Fimir painted by Orlygg</a>) couldn't take a joke. And there's nothing worse than someone who can't take a joke. Bungus Ness terrorised the nearby villagers with his annual demand that they provide him with a bride. One year, tricked into receiving a pig slathered in make up in place of one of the daughters of the valley, Bungus Ness could not see the funny side and set out on a path of destruction.
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<br>While battle raged, The Bold Thady Quill sneaked. <i>(This, and the other two photos of the game, are by Tom Reynolds.)</i>
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<br>Rather than fight Bungus Ness' henchmen, he misdirected them with illusory buildings and terrified them with visions of terrifying undead creatures. <i>(The model here is a Kelpie from Oakbound.)</i>
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<br>Bungus Ness himself was tormented by the buzzing of the sprite, distracting him so that he was unprepared for the final attack.
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<br>With Bungus Ness gone, the villagefolk could throw off the shackles of their oppressor once and for all.
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<br>To all in Little Albion who can't take a joke: beware!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-975307418999191542021-03-14T16:46:00.004-07:002021-03-14T18:07:58.333-07:00Converting Tyranids for use in Age of Sigmar is closer to the spirit of Oldhammer than fetishising old leadThese days one of the main reasons I have facebook is to keep in touch with Oldhammer people. Personally I prefer <a href="http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/index.php">the forum</a> and, of course, seeing other people's blogs - but especially in these days of lockdown there's a comfort in seeing all the cool things people have painted pop up on my screen. My ambivalence about facebook partly stems from the frustrating time I had as a moderator for the Oldhammer community, and the rather poor job I did there (mea culpa), but also from the fact that in a group of 12,500 members, with varying levels of engagement and interest, it's pretty much impossible to keep a sense of oldhammer as a creative project rather than just being "old minis".
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<br>One consequence of this is the frequent ritual of someone posting "What is Oldhammer?", a debate which rolls back and forth along predictable lines before getting locked or deleted. However, this weekend there was a rather interesting twist on the theme - a post that triggered a "What is Oldhammer?" proxy war without even posing the question.
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<br>The backstory seems straightforward enough - someone on a different facebook group bought a lot of early 90s Tyranids and is pondering how they might convert them for use in AoS. News of this was posted on the Oldhammer Community group, possibly with the mischievous idea that it would get some interesting reactions! And so it proved.
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<br>The vast majority of reactions (generally in the form of memes or "heresy detected" jokes) seemed aghast that anybody would do such a thing. Where reasons were stated these included:
<i><br>a) AoS is smelly;
<br>b) miniatures should be kept in their virgin state;
<br>c) miniatures belong to certain games and should be used for those games rather than in games for which the minis are unsuitable.</i>
<br>One respondent went so far as to say that metal conversions are "junk" - an opinion that would consign many Golden Demon winners and numerous pages of 'Eavy Metal to the bin.
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<br>Now, hobby gatekeeping is generally a twattish thing to do (and my ill-fated stint as moderator proved that I was an inept gatekeeper), but I can't help but feel these kinds of "that belongs in a museum!" type responses miss the point altogether.
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<br>So I thought I'd just spell out my opinion: <b>converting tyranids for use in AoS is Oldhammer as fuck.</b>
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<br>Oldhammer is about creativity, it's not about slavishly adhering to someone else's intellectual property. I don't know much about the world of Age of Sigmar, but if someone wants to make it their own by adding in giant bugs, then good on them!
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<br>Oldhammer is not about the purity of one particular edition of a game, nor is it about restricting yourself to miniatures from a particular era (even if it is shaped by a particular aesthetic sensibility). It's about bringing new life to old forms, whether that be playing old editions with new miniatures, playing new games with old miniatures, or anything in between.
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<br>Oldhammer is not about venerating old miniatures as some kind of 80s/early 90s relics. It's about bringing them to life, playing games and finding new stories to tell. If that means converting old lead to create something new, then I salute you.
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<br>What was that I said about gatekeeping being twattish? Ah well. Oldhammer is creativity and storytelling or it is nothing. Something like that anyway...
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<br>But wait, there's more!
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<br>Funnily enough the concept itself sent me down a corridor of nostalgia. When I was a teenager, I was pretty fanatical about coming up with new rules and concepts. And one of the ideas I was developing around the time I first dropped out of the hobby was - you guessed it - a Tyranid army list for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. A genestealer cult in the court of an Elector Count, perhaps? Spores of death falling from the skies? Ripper swarms in the sewers?
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<br>My friends shot the idea down immediately: it didn't fit with canon, I was told. And anyway, there was no way that the Warhammer World would survive such an infestation. Hormogaunts could overwhelm the planet within weeks, rapidly reproducing until there was nothing else left. Maybe they were right, but even then I kind of resented the idea that the only stories worth telling were the ones that Games Workshop had already told. Partly it was just that the absence of an insectoid race in Warhammer Fantasy seemed like a gap worth filling, but also it was the sheer apocalyptic horror of the whole thing... And such apocalyptic visions and prophecies saturate the consciousness of the medieval and renaissance societies that Warhammer plays around with.
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<br>And as Thantsants pointed out, how else would you explain what's going on in Hieronymous Bosch (take, for example, The Temptation of St Anthony)?
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<br>Look up there - death from the skies...
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<blockquote><i>"The court ministers will be as powerful as the king is weak"</i> - Simon Nicholson, Scenes from Courtly Life, White Dwarf 98</blockquote>
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<br>As I've mentioned before, one of the ways I've been encouraging myself to paint over lockdown has been <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/303496564193747">The Monthly White Dwarf Painting Challenge</a>. For February the challenge was to paint something found within - or inspired by - White Dwarf 98 from February 1988.
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<br>I've gone a bit left field this month. I'm trying to use these challenges as a reason to paint up miniatures that have been languishing in the leadpile, not an excuse to buy more - but it turns out I only own one miniature featured in this issue, and that's a dwarf. I've painted dwarfs the past 2 months so I wanted to try something different.
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<br>Reading through the issue, I really enjoyed Simon Nicholson's article "Scenes from Courtly Life - Courtly Characters for FRP", looking at struggles for power and influence around the throne. That inspired me to paint up two spare miniatures that might never have seen paint otherwise - <a href="https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/wr12-lancastrian-command-on-foot-henry-vi-prince-of-wales-somerset-oxford-buckingham-and-longstrother/">they're part of the Lancastrian Command set from Perry miniatures</a> (so at least they have the Perrys as a link to true Oldhammer greatness) and are meant to be Henry VI and the Lord High Treasurer Longstrother, though I plan to use them as a prince and his minister in a petty domain amidst the Border Princes... I figured I'd start with these miniatures and then see how the story unfolds!
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<br>Simon Nicholson's article gets us thinking about the intrigue that surrounds the throne - the messiness of human frailty and ambition. What happens when a king is old and weak? Or if a king is too strong? What role does his physician play? How do the ministers work for him or scheme against him? What goes on in his servant's chambers? Although all this is written with fantasy roleplay campaigns in mind, given that battle is so often an extension of drama at court, all of this gives narrative shape for our wargames.
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<br>Recently I've inspired by <a href="http://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/p/chronicles-of-lowenheim.html">Phil Dutré's Chronicles of Lowenheim over at the Tiny Tin Men blog</a> - he's been playing a whole solo campaign based on events generated by rolls on random charts, and it's been great reading. He's taken inspiration from Tony Bath's magisterial book <i>Setting Up a Wargames Campaign</i>, rolling on tables to generate the personalities that inhabit the town and shape its destiny. I wanted to take a leaf from the same book, but focussing on the Intrigue and Court and then seeing how that might give shape to a narrative. I decided to use the system Tony Bath devised using playing cards to develop the personalities for wargames campaigns:
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<div style="width:500px;height:270x;padding:10px;border:10px solid gray;">
<u>Tony Bath's Personality Generator, from <i>Setting Up a Wargames Campaign</i></u>
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<br>The first card determines the individual's overarching characteristic:
<br>Heart, Good Nature; Diamond, Love of Wealth; Spade, Ambition; Club, Love of War/Patriotism. The higher the card, the more intense this characteristic.
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<br>Then, deal 7 additional cards detailing the personality:
<br><b>Ace:</b> Spade or Club, a disloyal intriguer. Diamond, loyal intriguer. Heart, exceptional good nature. (A reversed ace signifies a hunchback or cripple)
<br><b>King:</b> Spade or Club, Energy. Heart or Diamond, Courage
<br><b>Queen:</b> Great lover
<br><b>Knave:</b> Spade/Club, Unreliability, oath-breaker, liar. Heart/Diamond, Merciless, revenge-prone
<br><b>Ten:</b> Loyality (Absolute loyalty in Diamonds, grading down through Hearts, Clubs, Spades.)
<br><b>Nine:</b> Physical beauty, except for Spade, which is Ugliness
<br><b>Eight</b> Spade/Club, Cruelty. Heart/Diamond, Generosity.
<br><b>Seven:</b> Spade/Club, Personality. Heart/Diamond, Jealous of Family Honour.
<br><b>Six: </b>Spade/Club, Lazyness. Heart/Diamond, Charm
<br><b>Five:</b> Spade/Club, Wisdom. Heart/Diamond, Cunning.
<br><b>Four:</b> Spade/Club, Stupidity. Heart/Diamond, Cowardice.
<br><b>Three:</b> Spade/Club, Bad Temper. Heart/Diamond, Good temper.
<br><b>Two:</b> Spade/Club, Arrogance, pride. Heart/Diamond, Merciful.
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<br>Resolve any inconsistencies using common sense!</div>
<br>
<br>I love a good random generation table, so before I started painting up my two guys, I grabbed a pack of cards:
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<br><i>So, first I deal the cards for the Prince. The card that determines the overarching characteristic is a heart - ok, so we have a good-natured ruler. Then, the other seven personality cards. Straight away, an ace of hearts - EXCEPTIONAL good nature! How lovely for his subjects! The rest of the cards: stupid, energetic, beautiful, cowardly, good temper.</i>
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<br>Alright, not sure what I can do about beautiful (as you can see, I'm not a miracle worker with a paintbrush!), but the picture is clear enough: we've got a kindly but dim man, full of ambitious plans for his people but too cowardly to venture out much beyond the castle walls.
<br>
<br><i>Now for his trusted minister. First card out is a diamond - so his overarching motivation is a love of wealth. Now let's see what the rest of the cards tell us: disloyal intriguer (!), wisdom, bad temper, cruel, unreliable/oath-breaker/liar.</i>
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<br>Wow - that's almost a pantomime bad guy! Sneaky, cruel, smart but deceitful, and with a tendency to fly into a rage!
<br>
<br>Quite a contrast between the two fellows! From here the story almost writes itself: the minister is a ruthless operator, taking advantage of a kind (but thick) prince. For his own enrichment, he has been embezzling charitable funds that had been meant for the realm's sick and poor. What terrible wickedness will the minister employ to stop his corruption from becoming public knowledge?
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<br><i>To be continued...</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-58755707718714569522021-02-18T14:56:00.003-08:002021-02-19T04:54:33.736-08:00The goblin who wanted to fly<i>Gimrod had ideas. That was the trouble with Gimrod.
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<br>There was the time he'd tried to make a steamtank out of two barrels and a bathtub looted from some fancy-pants Duke's castle. There was his idea that nests of bees might make good siege projectiles, which ended up with half his camp getting stung.
<br>
<br>But Gimrod's greatest dream was to fly. To soar like a majestic bird of prey. And today, thanks to his latest idea, he was going to achieve that dream! If only the goose he'd stolen and stuffed into a bag on his back would stop biting him.</i>
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<br>A wonderful sculpt by Michał Ziętkowski. The moment I saw this 'flying goblin' on the Oldhammer Sculpting Group I fell in love with the concept and had to get hold of one. A genius idea, and the goblin's look of steely determination is just great. Really enjoyed painting it, and thanks to Michał for sending me a cast. I'm looking forward to seeing Gimrod take flight over the battlefield in the near future!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-66751041343542165752021-02-07T08:20:00.005-08:002021-02-22T06:14:25.312-08:00Liberating the Badlands<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiiaCG_oDXn5976txlYQ4XX4sa-y2joF9x2ASGzosK6COlAQHWBnWrhdijtjLe3iIXLhoxhydddPPz4YiRsWSwj_NXEpZLzOw4qjIZchFyp6pfA3P0pzY-e_KVl7Dxl6aGaHcYz24-PLs/s670/pca-studio-craco.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="670" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiiaCG_oDXn5976txlYQ4XX4sa-y2joF9x2ASGzosK6COlAQHWBnWrhdijtjLe3iIXLhoxhydddPPz4YiRsWSwj_NXEpZLzOw4qjIZchFyp6pfA3P0pzY-e_KVl7Dxl6aGaHcYz24-PLs/s320/pca-studio-craco.jpg"/></a></div>
<div style="width:500px;height:270x;padding:10px;border:10px solid gray;"><i>"Father! Father! I bring wonderful news! We have been liberated!"
<br><br>The old blind man laughed. "Liberated, you say? Oh my dear girl, I would not be so sure."
<br>
<br>"But father, surely anything is better than being overrun and enslaved by Orcs?"
<br><br>"Before the Orcs, my girl, it was the army of the Duke. His brigands ransacked our chapel while he claimed Droit du Seigneur. And before them it was the sneering Elves. Were we anything more than slaves to them while they obsessed night and day uncovering ancient ruins? And before them, how many were driven mad by the cults of strange gods? Oh, my dear, I have seen too many liberators in my time. What is the difference between one occupying army and another?"
<br><br>The door swung open. A fat soldier with a scar across the right side of his face stood in the doorway barking. "This house is now commandeered for the army of the Emperor. Woman! My men are hungry. Bring us food and bring us ale."
<br><br>The old blind man sat and said nothing. He knew one thing: this would not be the last army to liberate their town.</i></div>
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<br>
<br>While we're all locked away at home, one of the things that keeps us going is dreaming about the games we might play in the future. Which is why I've been getting so excited about Benjamin May's planned campaign weekend using the Warhammer 5th Edition campaign rules. 5th edition was the edition I played in my youth and some of my best gaming memories are of the Southport GW summer campaign back in 1998, so this will be a nice nostalgia trip for me as and when it happens. I wrote a couple of microstories for the campaign pack, so I thought I'd stick them up here.
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<br>We'll be campaigning in the Badlands, amidst the ruins of the Kingdom of Strygos, and in search of the legendary Doomstones!
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<div style="width:500px;height:270x;padding:10px;border:10px solid gray;">
<i>He surveyed the barren lands that stretched out before him. Clotted rivers through fetid swamp. In the distance, twisted mountains. Who would lay claim to such a hellhole? But he knew these lands had secrets. Ancient monuments, forgotten temples.
<br><br>
Were the historians to be believed? If the stories were a lie, this expedition had been in vain. They had doomed themselves for nothing. But... what if the stories were true? What then? Even thinking about it made his heart race. The four stones, the four great crystals of legend. Whoever had them had the power to bend the fates to their will.
<br>
<br>Of course, he had been sent to bring the doomstones back to his patron. But once he had them in his possession, who could stand in his way? Then he would have no need to bow and grovel before any patron. All time and space would grovel before him! For a moment he sat there, staring into the distance, lost in a kind of reverie. Then, coming to his senses, he gave the signal to his troops to advance.</i></div>
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<br>In my teenage years, my only army was the High Elves, and so in returning to 5th edition, I wasn't going to miss this chance
to restore my High Elves to their former glory! The only problem is that my collection is split between my childhood home in Liverpool and my current home in Orkney, and most of my old High Elf army is down in Liverpool. And of course I want to start getting ready now... So for that reason I'm going to use the minis I have here as the heart of the army, giving me a reason to finally get some paint on them: a unit of White Lions, a handful of archers (the old Melnibonean models), and a Great Owl (counts as Great Eagle).
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<br>I'll also be able to call on support from my Sea Elves if needed, but what's a new challenge without new minis to paint! And those White Lions have been waiting for paint since 1998, which is tragic in itself...
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<br>Hopefully I'll have some painted models to show you soon enough, and I can start telling the story of this army.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-49222375897466374362021-01-18T13:08:00.003-08:002021-01-18T13:09:17.214-08:00I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole...<i>...diggy diggy hole
<br>diggy diggy hole</i>
<br>(thanks <a href="http://ernysplace.blogspot.com/">Erny</a> for getting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR7EAdPUqvQ">that song</a> stuck in my head when I played a game in his years back)
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<br>I take part in the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/303496564193747">Monthly White Dwarf Painting Challenge</a> over on facebook. Every month Jamie Loft picks a classic issue of White Dwarf from the oldhammer era, and our challenge is to paint a model featured within it or inspired by it. January's challenge has been WD #109 from January 1989 and I've kept it simple, choosing to paint one of the minis lurking in the back page diorama: a Citadel dwarf sapper sculpted by the Perry brothers.
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<br>A humble offering... but a significant one for me, as this is the 10th and final member of Arka Zargul's Dwarf Miners for when I finally get around to playing McDeath! Here's the whole Militant Tendency in their splendour:
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<br>At this stage I've now painted 24 miniatures for McDeath: the miners; the Greevant clan at the Battle of Winwood Harbour; the Monster at Loch Lorm; and Raybees the halfling. I have a handful of the character models, but given that the campaign requires 202 miniatures (I think) and it's taken me since 2014 to reach this stage, at this rate it will take me another 50 and a half years to complete the project.
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<br>So may I take this opportunity to cordially invite you all to my 89th birthday party, where we will FINALLY PLAY MCDEATH! If the lead rot hasn't got to us first...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-32578948548030991652021-01-11T15:44:00.007-08:002021-01-11T16:46:57.232-08:00Straw Bear and Molly Dancing Boggarts - Happy Plough Monday!Throughout Little Albion, the plague leaves humans cowering in their houses. Meanwhile, the boggarts come out to dance and play. In their wake lumbers the Straw Bear, the spirit of new growth...
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<br><i>Pains within and pains without
<br>If the devil's in, I'll fetch him out
<br>Rise up and fight again...</i>
<br>- Plough Monday mummers play, as remembered in Sybil Marshall's <i>Fenland Chronicle</i>
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<br>Back when I lived in East Anglia, this was my favourite time of the year. In parts of the fens, the celebration of Plough Monday - a last gasp of mischief and drunken high spirits before the start of the new agricultural year - lives on, or at least has been revived. And the boldest expression of Plough Monday's spirit of misrule is the Straw Bear who roamed the streets of Whittlesey and Ramsey.
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<br>The venerable bear even makes an appearance in Frazer's tour de force of anthropology The Golden Bough: he writes that <i>"we may confidently assume that the Straw-bear who makes his appearance at Whittlesey... represents indeed the corn-spirit. What could be more appropriate than for that beneficent being to manifest himself from house to house... after a magical ceremony had been performed to quicken the growth of the corn?"</i>
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<br>This was always the time of year when we'd set out to follow the bear... At Ramsey in recent years the local schoolchildren danced through the streets with a Straw Bear in their midst
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<br>while at Whittlesey the Straw Bear made his appearance in a riotous festival of folk dancing and pub crawling the following weekend.
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<br>This year, sadly, I'm too far away to be caught up in the path of the bear. And besides, the bear itself will have to hibernate through COVID-19. But when I saw that <a href="https://crooked-dice.co.uk/product/mummer-procession/">Crooked Dice made a mummer's procession complete with Straw Bear</a> I was compelled to purchase this great lumbering beast and bring him to life in Little Albion. But what's a Straw Bear without the surrounding chaos? Who will follow the Straw Bear through the streets spreading mischief? Once again, Geoff Solomon-Sims comes to the rescue, with his OOP Oakbound Miniatures Boggarts, dressed in suitable Molly Dancing Attire.
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<br><b>Happy Plough Monday! Happy New Year!</b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5135517998184661387.post-4403276543210604662020-12-23T16:45:00.004-08:002020-12-25T08:42:14.475-08:00Lieutenant by Jim Webster - taking inspiration from a tiny forgotten gamebookWith the arrival of a hospital bed, my mother has now moved into the room I've been using as an office. In the course of moving various books and papers out of the room, I found this tiny little gamebook that came free when I bought a copy of Miniature Wargames in (I believe) 2002. I can't remember the issue it came with and no amount of google searching has revealed anything more about it. I wonder if anyone else can shed any light on it - mine can't be the only extant copy, surely?
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<br>I don't remember ever playing it at the time, so to try and get into a more relaxed mood for Christmas I played it through a few times today.
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<br>It's set, broadly speaking, in the Napoleonic era, and you're a Lieutenant of Horse in an unspecified regiment of the English army. You allocate points to a range of abilities, spanning the range of what an "Officer and Gentleman" should do: Dancing, Horsemanship, German Language, French Language, Leadership, Long firearm, Pistol shooting, Polite Conversation, and Swordsmanship. The game mechanic is pretty simple; at certain points in the game you're asked to roll a d6 against a particular ability in order to perform tasks.
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<br>The introduction states: "Your regiment is stationed in the Low Countries, the army is besieging a town of some note and the cavalry are of course providing a screen to cover the army and detect any relieving force. Somewhere to the North there are allied forces which are supposed to be marching to your aid. Your regiment is thrust out some distance from the army and is supposed to be covering a probably axis of the enemy advance. Understrength, as always, the troop is down to a bare 50 men commanded by the Captain, able seconded (or so you like to think) by your good self. The Captain is somewhat indisposed, nothing worse than a stinking head cold, but enough to ensure that when he wants a patrol to head out on a miserable afternoon, it is your good self that will lead it. He wants you to take a Corporal of Horse and nine troopers and head South East to check that there is still no sign of enemy forces in that direction." You make a number of choices that determine the success (or not) of your mission.
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<br>Weighing in at only 16 pages and 40 paragraphs (42 if you count the introduction and end, which are properly speaking part of the game), it's a tiny gamebook. Considering this, it has remarkable replay value, as depending on the choices made, it's quite possible to have discovered very different things, to have returned to camp completely misunderstanding the situation, or ideally have achieved one or more distinct strategic objectives (or blundered through and failed miserably). It's written in such a way that you can think you've done something truly heroic - until you return to camp and discover the extent of your cock-up. Which is quite an achievement for Jim Webster to have squeezed all that into such a micro-adventure.
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<br>I actually played it 4 times through. Using the simple skill allocation system, each time I generated a distinct personality of officer to try and adopt a different mindset when making decisions.
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<i>Stephen the Scholar:</i> a young man with the benefit of a classical education, and who had been on the path towards Holy Orders until circumstances took a very different turn. A talented linguist, but cautious in the face of the enemy and even more cautious in the presence of the ladies. His caution meant that he didn't blunder and completely misunderstand the situation, but neither did he see much action.
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<br><i>Sebastian the Seducer:</i> living on charisma and not much else, he tries to talk himself into, around, or out of any concievable situation. And he managed to talk himself into his Captain's good books, just about.
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<br><i>Samson the Sportsman:</i> brash, rides like he's with the boxing day hunt. Rode straight into danger and damn near got himself killed.
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<br><i>Samuel the Sharpshooter:</i> a master of the pistol and rifle, but solitary, finding it easier to commune with his weaponry than communicate with his men. This was to be his undoing.
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<br>At the end of the 4 playthroughs I had pretty much exhausted the available pathways through. Looking at the final page which gives you the information to evaluate how well you've done, I found myself wondering whether something's broken because it seems impossible to achieve the best combination of outcomes (unless I'm very mistaken - which is quite possible - the pathway to one strategic success seems to preclude the other). But even so, there are a range of outcomes and it's an interesting opportunity to walk in the boots of a Napoleonic-era junior officer.
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<br>As somebody who enjoys the narrative and roleplaying aspect of wargames, it really got me thinking about how little I reflect on the personalities of junior officers in the games I play. It's all very well being the big general and taking a omniscient overview of the battlefield, but will the cavalry really press home their charge under the leadership of the bookish Stephen? Will Samson forget that he's not on the playing fields anymore and unwisely decide to throw caution to the wind? So this little adventure has definitely offered me some inspiration. I look forward to experimenting a bit more with unit leader's personalities in the next big game I play.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0