Trend setter? Me?

 Ive no doubt I give the impression that I am a wargamer trapped in the past. To a certain extent thats pretty accurate. Certain old ranges of wargames figures I find delightful and somehow are pleasing to my eye. It helps if they are painted well but I do love an old school army. 

  I also enjoy simple wargames rules to use with my armies. I no longer want a headache from working out factors, agonising over definitions and arguing about what the rule writer actually meant. Phil Barker was the master of confusion where definitions in wargame rules were concerned. And yet I still used the WRG rule books, but I didnt really enjoy them and when DBA was released I was really desperate to find alternative rule books.

 Thats why I enjoy Blackpowder in all its many formats. I particularly enjoy the new Hail Ceasar ancient rules which do capture the period whilst not being too onerous to use. When Never Mind the Billhooks came along and then Fantasia I really embraced their ideas. Basically common sense, simple rules that punish bad commanders ie me who dont stick to historical tactics or chance their arm with reckless manouvres.   

  And now I have Midgard. Well I will when Christmas Day arrives.Ive been waiting for these rules for several years after I had a converstaion over a pint with their author James Morris who turned up at a Bllhooks weekend. James's ideas seemed exactly what I had been wanting and he stressed that they would be simple to use.Everything Ive now read after their release seems to confirm that aim. 

                                            
So my sister is buying me the rule book plus extra stuff whilst my wife is buying me some new figures ie Trojans and Classical Greeks. I have always been fascinated by the Siege of Troy and the myths and legends around the tragedy. I know Im not the first and certainly wont be the last wargamer treading that path but I am looking forward to painting up Hector and Menelaus etc. I hope to play my first Midgard game on Thursday when John will stage a game for me. Hopefully I will enjoy the experience and not end up selling off my ancticipated Christmas presents. 

  

Some more Fantasia goodies.

I thought I should post the final units of my Never Mind the Billhooks, Fantasia army. I am nearing the comp-letion of the army which is a shame in some respects as I have enjoyed painting the figures, but I have more than enough units to fight really big battles as it is.

I attended Fiasco wargames show the other week and picked up a couple of interesting 'old school' figures from Colour Party Paints who is selling off some of his father's creations. He was a respected figure sculpter. I already have a few 25mm 12c knights but picked up two lovely 75mm figures.

The first was this lovely female executioner, unpainted. I was assured it was a one off and was never commisioned or replicated. All I had to do was refix her head and paint her. She was very enjoyable to paint and will be one of my champions.

 

I placed another order with Rob Young who sells the Garrison range. He very kindly included a couple of figures I didnt have, including this wacky chap. He reminds me of a Brughel  demon. In Fantasia you have the option of summoning either a demon or a dragon. Naturally I now have both options.

 But I still havent located a genuine Garrison dragon. 

                             I fancied a unit of wild beasts ie. tigers for my Amazonian contingent.

Rob created a 'new' Amazonian. Naked but with spears and shields. Naturally I had to have some.

Another unit of heavy cavalry. One can never have enough. These are Tauren I believe.

I picked this figure up at Fiasco. Yes he is a brand new figure, but I cannot remember which company sold them. He was too good looking to ignore.

          Another 75mm figure from Colour Party Paints. I just liked his old school look.

Rob sent me a spare wizard and I thought he was too good not to command my new archers.

So all I have left to paint, are two Amazonian maids on pegasus and a unit of Tauran heavy cavalry. Yes Ive gone over board again, but the project was a pleasure to paint and collect so it served its purpose. 

Warlord Ancient Epic Armies.

Last time I touched upon a project that helped me reconsider retiring from wargaming. That project was the release of Warlord Games Ancient Epic armies. John already had two lovely Thirty Years War epic armies and when I saw that Warlord were going to release armies for the Punic Wars I was excited for a change. 

When I say my project, can I now state I didnt paint any of the many thousands of beautiful figures that Warlord released. Both armies are entirely the work of John Reidy, a man of far greater painting talents than me. He is also very disciplined and doesnt flit about like yours truly. We split the actual ownership of the armies and John chosethe Romans. 

So these badly taken images are all the work of John and will be seen at the Battleground Wargames Show at Middlesbrough in two weeks time in splendid full colour.

Elephants! Dont think they are a battle winner because up to now they have been a very pretty chocolate fireguard. But I do like the novelty.

These images do not do them justice and sadly my command of the Cartheginians doesnt do Hannibal justice either. I just cannot find the right way to command such a disparite number of troops. But I am learning, just very slowly. I must admit the Hail Ceasar rulebook that is included in their army box is an excellent set of rules that cetainly captures the period and I think is the first set of ancient rules that captures the Roman way of fighting. The Romans are tough to break and their ability to switch units in melee is really well done without being too clumsy or to powerful.

If you want to see the rules and figures in action, pop into Battleground, its a great show,with free parking and entry and is easily accessible from the main roads and train lines.

            The new releases from Warlord, two command groups, both lovely models.  The big pink token is to show the camp was an objective in my latest defeat. I never got near the damned thing.

 

A Little Off Colour.

 

It’s been a long time since I last posted. To be very honest I didnt think I would return to posting on my blog at all.

The reason?  Well initially it was niggling ill health, nothing too serious but enough to make one realise that you are not the person you were and in fact I had simply got older and I could no longer shrug off pain and illness like I was once able to do, or I just might have become soft.

This niggling ill health brought on the old black dog which Ive fought since 1993. I know it was that year simply because it was the year I lost my mother and things unravelled a lot back then.

So, thinking of a reason to post on a computer about wargaming became a real stress riser, plus unusually I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to say about the hobby, which was a real indicator of something more serious. In fact, for a short while I felt like drawing a line through everything. 

Luckily two things happened. One was Andy Callan releasing his fantasy rules based around Never Mind the Billhooks called Fantasia. The second was Warlord releasing their Epic ancients range of figures for Hail Ceasar. 

After a couple of trail games using Andy's rules against John I was hooked. But I didnt want to just use units from my Wars of the Roses armies and once again decided to go old school.

John had been painting up random figures fro the old Garrison Sword and Sorcery range and there was my inspiration. These are a beautiful range of old figures designed by John Braithwaite and were basically based on the Tony Bath Hyboria campaign who had in turn been inspired by the Conan the Barbarian books. 

                     And there is the great man himself, painted as one of my heroes.

I’m nearly there now, with just a couple of cavalry regiments and some skirmishers left to paint, well that is until Rob Young releases some new/old Amazon infantry and cavalry. 

I must have these to add to my small amount of Amazon archers, Pegasus archers, tiger handlers and tiger riders, plus the first of my naked Pegasus units. John Braithwaite was clearly a breast man and to be honest he was very good at sculpting them.   

There are some really strange characters in the range and Rob Young very kindly sent me a couple for free. I loved painting them

There is no catapults in the range but John gave me a particularly nice plastic tou which looks great.

An Amazon general with her pet tiger, the animal is a lovely piece in its own right.

                      An Amazon general riding her tiger. What more can one say, but hurrah!

This eastern champion is a strange one for me, simply because he looks like he is in y fronts, but he s still a great figure.

                                                   We all need a fourarmed warrior.

               I love the S and S chariots, and the split personality champion is perfect.

                  

                                  An Ice giant with Bosnian archers behind him.

         Amazon archers, with replendant and historically [sic] correct right breast on show.               

                            The Grenadier giant, sadly there was no suitable Garrison giant.

        The S and S Mammoth with crew backed up by light cavalry. These are one piece masterpieces.

                                                       Armoured centaurs.

Unfortunately Rob cant produce the old Garrison dragon, and their giants arent really gigantic.

 BUT IF ANYONE KNOWS OR HAS AN OLD GARRISON DRAGON THEY WANT TO PART WITH, THEN IM YOUR MAN. Im certain we can come to an arrangement. 

So what was meant to be a small project is nearly complete. It looks bright and very pretty and makes me smile, which is good. Yes it still keeps losing but so what. The rules work well and provide a fun and simple game, interspaced with a little tension. Unfortunately my sorceror keeps failing his spells and disappearing from the board.

                   I field a lot of quality cavalry with various bright caprisions.

I mentioned the second factor, that saved my wargaming sanity. Warlord games released a beautiful range of Epic sized ancients. I intend to talk about them in a seperate post, but I will mention that John and I will be hosting a wargame using these new armies at Battleground next month. I would recommend you pop over to see the armies. I think the spectacle will see why I became re-invigorated. 

 I will also be attending Fiasco this weekend, so if you recognise me, please stop for a chat, Im the furtive looking bloke.

But anyway Im back, well certainly a bit back.