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.