Adventures on the Wargames Table

With all these nicely painted Vikings marauding around the blog, I thought it best to finish off a unit of Saxon Thegns. All Gripping Beast plastics painted in my usual way, with LBMS shield transfers. Here's a slightly closer shot. Next on my list are a unit of Thegns/Huscarls and some casualty markers, whilst She Who Must Be Obeyed is sorting out some Bondi. I'm pleased to say that the armies are starting to take shape now!

I'm delighted to report that my wonderful wife has been busy painting lots more Vikings. Here they are. All her own work, apart from the LBMS shield transfers. Another even closer shot. I'm sure by now most of you will have realised that these are exactly the fellows that are proudly displayed as my blog banner. I need to sort a banner for the unit standard. I may try to use one of the paper banners supplied with the Gripping Beast boxed set, or perhaps I'll just stick with LBMS. Anyway, plenty more on the painting work bench, along with some rather nice pieces of scenery.

Sunday 19th August saw the second of the War & Conquest gaming days, organised by Scarab Miniatures and hosted at the Iron Acton village hall. I took along my EIR to the first gaming day earlier this year, so I thought I'd give my British Celts a whirl this time. It was a 2,000pt army consisting of Warlord, Army Standard & 30 Noble Warriors Chieftain & 31 Warriors Chieftain & 31 Warriors 24 Warriors 10 Light Cavalry 11 Slingers 11 Skirmishers (javelins) 5 Chariots The day was organised in to three sessions, each with a specified deployment area and method, all drawn from the very useful "Battle Begins" section of the rulebook. For each game the players also drew specific battlefield objectives. Game 1 was against Paul's splendid looking Caesarian Roman army. Knowing that he'd be heavily outnumbered he deployed his army to one side of the field, as can be seen from the photo below. The Celts have completed turn 1 and (having won the s...

Following on from my workbench post, here's the first of what I hope will be a series of newly painted units for my Dark Ages (or "Early Medieval" if you prefer) collection. First four and Next four and These are Gripping Beast figures and they've been painted in my now familiar method of white undercoat*, block colours**, wash with AP, matt varnish then highlights. This is effectively the first 'point' for my SAGA Norman warband, but will also be useful as mercenaries for my Saxon army. Perhaps they're even the start of my Norman army!? Well, I do have a box of Conquest Games knights. * armour and weapons are undercoated black ** some areas get a highlight before being washed e.g. armour/weapons are drybrushed with chainmail, flesh gets a quick highlight of Foundry Base Sand light. Right, back to the Saxons!

As you can hopefully see in pic below, I've got quite a lot on the go! They're mostly Saxons from GB's plastic Thegns set with a few Musketeer figures. There's also a small group of GB Normans and some Vikings too. Plus some scenery, casualty markers, etc. In the short term I'll be creating my War & Conquest 'Viking-era' Saxon force, but using some of the Musketeer Early Saxon figures (i.e. Duguth & Gedriht) in order to give the army a more 'wild' and less 'Bayeux Tapestry' look. OK, there's the odd late-Roman style helmet mixed in but really, so what? This has the added bonus that the figures will be perfect for using with TooFatLardie's Dux Britanniarum rules. Although I still need to paint some more Romano-British in order to play. Hopefully an Arthurian supplement for SAGA is not too far off! Being Early Saxons they'll also make an ideal start for my War & Conquest Arthur...

Yes, I've got my copy of Too Fat Lardies latest offering, Dux Britanniarum . Here's the cover ... oooh lovely! Now, this isn't a full review as I've only had the one read through so far, I just wanted to convey my initial impressions. I had planned to wait a while before purchasing DB, so as to give me time to finish a few more Saxons, as well as paint up some Romano-British. However, when I saw that the advance order deals included the limited edition Arthur figure plus saved a few pounds on the total price of the book and card decks, I had to order it! Before I go any further I do have one slight gripe... and that was the packaging. A jiffy bag wasn't quite good enough to prevent my book and map taking a bit of a beating in the post. When I ordered SAGA, Gripping Beast sent the book and boards in a sturdy slimline box. I've sent TFL a note suggesting they offer a more robust packaging option but have yet to get a reply? Anyway, on to the book. As w...

In case you're wondering about the slightly odd title, then have a look at this clip from the award winning Children's BBC educational programme "Horrible Histories". Very amusing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmrY7AgcrqA Anyway, here's the latest figures from the painting table, kindly painted by my wife. Now I need to make sure my brave Saxon warriors can keep the plundering Vikings at bay! Lots more Dark Ages goodness in the pipeline; Saxon and Viking, figures and scenery. I've been very busy (hence the quiet blog) but much of it is still work in progress.