Miroslav returns from the right hand chamber

"The chamber to the right seems empty. It is a desserted old musty place with a mural of human figures leaving offerings to some dead armoured warrior. Hard to say whether these figures are men, elf, goblin or whatever as it is quite faded. It had the aura to me of some once holy place, although to what I cannot be sure. In the centre of the room was a stone box which I managed to open. This set off some darts which fired into me but I was protected by my stout armour HA! In the box I found this vial"

He displayed a small corked vial of some blue liquid.

"And also some gold coins of antiquity. There was about 100 of these. I was going to share these amongst the 3 of us but now we have a further arrival- Good evening sir dwarf. What say the rest of you 33 gold is more than 25 but we are in poor state and gold is a good way of bonding folk together and an even better one of alienating them if not used wisely."

Miroslav winks at the dwarf.

"The room itself seems relatively safe and clear. With just one door it may be a better spot to hole up for us than having to hold 4 doors and it remains near enough to the exit should we need to break out. What say you all? Shall we move our injured friend here there where he may be safer? Then we may be able to explore better? A 100 gold in one small box at little risk may point to more profit elsewhere in this place if it be some tomb. I do not know this as any tomb for my folk and so my gods will protect me from any evil here- that or my axe will- and gold is better used by the living than by some rotten corpse. What say you?"

A lack of focus?

Yesterday I suddenly had an urge to catalogue all the wargames rules that I owned. My idea was to review what I had and work out which rules I could focus on using this year. The result of this cataloguing process was quite startling. I only counted up the rules I had in my office, which is where I keep the rules I most want to play. I did not count all the rules in the attic or those that currently only exist as pdf files on my computer, and I did not count different editions of the same rules set as multiples thereof. I also only counted up actual wargames rules, rather than including all the boardgames that I own. It turns out that I am eager to play 68 different rules sets! Yes, sixty-eight!! Looking at this number, I realise that I am already stretching myself too thin, before I even start painting. Now, before I get all depressed at this state of affairs, many of these rules sets can be played using the same figures, so the various sci-fi skirmish rules sets can all be played with my 15mm sci-fi figures. This means that I can sample different rules if I feel the urge. However, I cannot help but feel that it would make more sense to focus on just a few rules sets, play them more and learn their subtleties better so as to enjoy a better game. I certainly think that it would make more sense to reduce the list to half a dozen rules sets and focus my painting and playing on those rules. The question really is how to take control of my butterfly mind and pin it down to just a few rules sets. If I could do that then I might well be able to focus my playing and painting properly. I think I shall have to return to the system of picking one set of figures each month to paint and focusing my painting on that, as I did when first I started this blog. At present all my painting and terrain building is focused on our Towton project. That debuts at Salute in April, so I shall be able to concentrate on other games once more from May. So, which rules and which figures should I aim to paint in May? I think it will probably be reinforcements for my 15mm Bwendi (sci-fi) army, because I have some armour that it desperately needs to support it, but then I did recently get some of the new Baccus 6mm Vikings and I am rather partial to Vikings. Oh the choices ...

Just in case you are interested, here is the full list:
5150
.45 Adventures
A Coat of Steel
Abteilung
Aeronef
Age of Blood
Battle Troll
Black Powder Battles
Blitzkrieg Commander
Chaos in Cairo
Chaos in Carpathia
Combined Arms
Command Decision
DBA
Dirtside II
Fantastic Worlds
Field of Glory
FutureWarCommander
Gloire
Glutter of Ravens
Hellfire
Hellswords and Sorcery
Hordes of the Things
Imperial Commander
Impetus
Larger than Life
Laserburn
Ludus Gladiatorius
Martian Empires
Metropolis
Montjoie
Over the Top
PBI II
Pieces of Eight
Poleaxed
Polemos: FPW Commandant de Bataille
Polemos: FPW Kommandant der Armee
Polemos: GNW
Polemos: Mythic Armies
Polemos: War of the Spanish Succession
Polemos: Wars of the Roses
Rally Round the King
Red Sand, Blue Sky
Regiment of Foote
Retinue
Rudis
Skjaldborg
Snapshot
Soldier's Companion
Song of Blades and Heroes
Square Bashing
Stargrunt II
Striker
Striker II
The Company Rules
Tusk
Urban War
Valhalla's Gate
Volley and Bayonet: Road to Glory
Wargods of Aegyptus
Warmaster Ancients
Warrior Heroes
Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures
Wastelands 3: Meltdown
Wastelands v1.2
Werod
Wings of War
Wings of War: Dawn of War

Ratatouille ... with real rat!

As thunder crashes outside, a diminutive figure steps through the main entrance to the room from the outside. The dwarf, who had introduced himself as Breccia Feldspar on the journey northwards, was soaked. It would appear that he had got separated from the group. Now that he was with you, he immediately set to helping to bandage the injured. With the casualties bandaged, he began gutting the rats to prepare food for later. Lacrimos was sorting out the fire now that he was bandaged. With the main tasks dealt with, Miroslav took his axe into hand and set off down the western corridor. A short while later, a dusty thump was heard in the distance. Soon Miroslav returned, reporting a chamber at the end of the corridor with no exits and no enemies. 

Miroslav's Diary

A dreadful night of rain. We found shelter in an old Tor. Dry at least and out of the rain. I took some time to observe the storm from the enterance way then made something of a camp. I gathered together some dry sticks and begun a fire which I warmed myself by. Pushka stood nearby looking dejected. Ha! Like she would prefer to be outside. Silly mule. I fed her then looked to feeding myself. I spoke some with my travelling companions now we were inside it was easier to hear them. Lacrimas is a smith by trade, probably travelling to find work for some reason of his own. He kept to himself in the corner. Elias played some Traladaran folk song on his flute and was good with it. Or perhaps it was more the scene Traladaran music always stirs the blood with it's melancholic melody and nod to our past glories and struggles. Makes sitting in a cave something of insignificance and trivial. It was good to hear it so far from home.

I refused his offer of a game of chance thinking it best to settle down for the night and be refreshed for travel the next day. Also I did not have much money and gambling is not a good way to gain money from little.

Rat Attack Tat!

Pulling yourselves together you quickly respond to the rats' attack. Elias draws his sword and skewers a rat. Miroslav grabs a burning brand from the fire and his axe and starts moving towards the rat pack. As he closes, he throws the burning brand but the wood falls wide of the mark, narrowly missing Elias' pack. Lacrimos draws his sword and grabs his shield before moving towards the rats. Meanwhile, the rats have swarmed all over Elias, although his armour protects him from any serious harm, but he is knocked to the floor. Elias struggles back to regain his feet but fails as the other two sprint to save him and the rats seek an opening in Elias' armour, eventually finding one (4hp damage). Elias' body ceases to struggle and goes limp under the rat horde! Both Miroslav and Lacrimos strike at the horde of rats, killing more of them. The rats turn their attention to Lacrimos and attack him instead but his armour is proof against their onslaught and he manages to stay on his feet despite the rat's swarming onto him. Lacrimos strikes at a rat crushes its skull underfoot, while Miroslav, careful to avoid hurting his ally is unable to strike a telling blow. He tries again and this time hits. The rats squirm in their fury and find gaps in Lacrimos' armour (5 damage) but Lacrimos returns the favour and another rat dies. The other rats quickly run away out of the door and into the storm. The room is still once more. 



Elias is alive but in need of urgent care or his lifeblood will leak onto the dusty floor of this ancient tor. Otherwise, once you have treated your wounds, you are free to search the area or to just bed down for the night.

It's fun to stay at the ...

Y - M - C- A

Mirholmen Death Dealers for our Talomir Tales campaign (aka fantasy Vikings from the new Baccus 6mm range). As usual click the pics for larger images.

I recently took delivery of some of the new Baccus Vikings and could not wait to put paint to lead, because these miniature beauties are just fantastic. Peter has produced a most excellent range of eleventh-century Vikings for invading England with, and he has also just released the Normans, who are also stunning. My painting efforts are currently focused on Wars of the Roses, so I decided to scratch the Viking itch with this stand of half-naked berserkir, who would be quick to paint. As naked berserkir belong in the realms of fantasy anyway, I did a base on 40mm frontage for our fantasy campaign, rather than a 60mm frontage base for the Impetus army I plan to produce. Naked berserkir are a nineteenth-century fiction that seems to be enduringly popular despite the total lack of actual evidence for them. They derive from confusion between Celtic and Norse cultures at that time.

‘Grenjuðu berserkir,
Guðr vas þeim á sinnum,
emjuðu ulfheðnar
ok ísörn dúðu.’ (1)
(Berserkers bellowed,
Battle was about to begin,
Wolfskins screamed
and shook steel.)
One emendation of the above verse reads 'ok ísörn bítu' 'and bit iron'. These Mirholmen heroes are clearly sword chewers.


(1) 'Haraldskvæði' in Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, ed. by Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson, Íslenzk fornrit, 26, 3 vols (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 2002), I 4th edn, 116.

February Update - More 6mm Wars of the Roses

This month we have mostly been building terrain for the Towton refight. My target for painting was to add two more contingents to the Lancastrian army, which I have done after a fashion. I did not paint them all myself though. Peter at Baccus kindly lent me his Warmaster Ancients army on condition that I rebased it to the 60mm x 30mm standard bases that he favours. The army was on 40mm x 20mm bases before. So, rather than spending the whole month painting, I have spent a large part of it rebasing stuff. This has actually put me ahead of schedule as I now only need to paint ten more stands to have a complete single iteration of the Lancastrian order of battle, once Steve finishes the contingent he is painting for me. With this done we should be ready to rock at Salute. I shall then get the rest of the figures I was meant to paint myself done so that we can add some extra figures to the battle when we attend Derby in October.

The Yorkist army has also benefitted from Peter's kindness to the tune of one contingent, but I forgot to photograph them when I took these other shots. This leaves just twelve stands of troops remaining for the Yorkist army. Those are currently in the capable hands of my friend John, who has promised them soon.

In addition to these figures, I have included a teaser shot of the Towton terrain at the bottom of this post. As usual click the pics for a larger version.

Here we see the whole Lancastrian command that I am working on(empty bases show what remains to be painted):


This is what I have painted this month:


And here we have some of the figures that I rebased for Peter:


Proto-Towton terrain (everything you need to build Towton properly):