Bohemian Pike & Shotte for the Thirty Years War

During my last visit to Greg's he showed me his Thirty Years War efforts using Warlord Games' 'Epic' range. As typical, his painting was fabulous, and they really looked the business all ranked up with an impressive hedge of pikes. I was so impressed by them that I wanted to give them a go myself as I was looking for any excuse to collect pike & shotte for this period. As Greg had already started in with the Imperialists, I suggested I give the Protestants a go, starting with the ill-fated Bohemians from the beginnings of the conflict.

I managed to find one of the all-in starter box sets on deep-discount, and so here are my first efforts with an infantry pike & shotte 'frame' from the range.

I like how shoulder-to-shoulder the troops are designed for each strip. I find this makes the painting of them a little easier. That being said, I thought it odd that the front rank of the pike figures are designed with a 45 degree action pose, whereas the shotte has been designed in marching, or at-rest attitudes. 

Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I started pillaging the commanded shotte portion of the frames (which are posed as loading and firing) in order to make the handgunners a little more dynamic, and thereby blending better with their active, pike-armed comrades. As this process was a little fiddly, I'll probably do this just for a few units, maybe to denote veteran status.  

I primed the strips dark brown and then drybrushed them light grey and finally white to help the Contrast paints to do their thing. I then went in with a small brush to pull-out some details and add further highlights. Similar to my other small-scale projects I only paint details on the front rank, keeping the following ranks fairly minimal from the shoulders down. I figure, there's no point painting stuff that nobody sees. I like the more desaturated look to the figures, but we'll see how the process holds up when I get more done down the road. I think I'll want around 10 of these units to make a creditable force.

As to basing, I wanted something a bit more flexible to work with different rulesets.  Warlord has their own 'Pike & Shotte' rules, which are a descendant of Rick Priestly's venerable but still excellent 'Warmaster' system. Those rules have each unit made up of four bases, allowing for various formations to be reflected depending on their arrangement. 

While this is great, our group also enjoys the 'Too the Strongest' rules (the 'For King and Parliament' variant for this period) where we've been having fun making-up single bases to depict units, allowing us to make mini-dioramas to add colour. We also have found that the single-base approach also makes gameplay a little faster, being as players only have to move one thing as opposed to several bits for a unit. Horses for Courses!

Anyhoo, as the bases that come with the box are plastic, I contacted Precision Wargame Supplies to have them cut me steel bases as replacements. I did this as I like the added weight that the steel bases provide, and they also allow me to use magnets (without messing up the polarity) for the large sabot basing I had in mind for the large single bases.

This led me to contact our friendly terrain Minion Byron (also of Northern Lights Terrain) to have him cut me a few bespoke sabot bases as a proof of concept. These sabot bases are 190 x 60, with cutouts for 3mm magnets to keep the steel-shod figures in place. I also put in a cutout for a unit label. I still have a few tweaks I want to do, but I think these will serve nicely.  

One thing about the scale of these figures. They call them 'Epic', intoning that they are around 10-12mm, like their earlier efforts for other periods, but these are actually true 15mm (foot to eye). With that being the case, I think these might mix well with other 15mm ranges such as those from Steel Fist Miniatures, Peter Pig, Naismith, etc. More on that later as I try mixing a few of these ranges in.

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt

More 10mm Reinforcements for the Empire

We've been having a good time with our 10mm Warhammer Fantasy campaign. We now have four turns tucked under out belt, with the four contesting powers battling remorselessly for supremacy of the 'Isle of Mist & Flame'. If you're interested in seeing what we're up to, please drop-in to follow the progress of the campaign here.

I find that one of the nice things about putting on a campaign like this is that it provides a great incentive to get stuff done. Peter's Empire forces needed a little more fleshing out, so here are four units that I've added to his Order of Battle: a regiment of Knights, a detachment of Handgunners, a battery of Hellblaster Volley Guns and a Steam Tank.

Of these new additions, the Empire Knights are the only old school metal miniatures from Games Workshop.

While I love many of the new models from talented 3d artists, I have to say I still have a great affection for these old metal models from the 90s - my lizard brain just loves the crispness and heft of them. Wonderful stuff.

I decided to give these guys a rather garish yellow, red and black livery. I was initially a little unsure of the colour scheme, but it's grown on me over time. 

The Handgunners are very nice 3d prints from Mini Rat Studio. Not much to say about these guys other than they're solid line-of-battle troops to bolster the Empire's general muster. 

The Volley Guns are excellent stl prints, again from Min Rat Studio. 

These do a wonderful job of capturing the look of the original 28mm models, and are much more substantial than the rather weedy original Warmaster metal castings.

Finally, the rather odd Steam Tank. 

This is a scaled-down print of a 28mm design from Double Edge Miniatures, which is a rendition of Leonardo da Vinci's famous Renaissance tank concept.

I thought it would be a great addition to the Empire's engineering park, and a fun departure from the original GW steam tank design.  I think it's pretty terrific.

For a bit of fun, I tracked down a nice little model of a Renaissance engineer which looks hauntingly similar to the Great Florentine himself. 

*Kisses popping fingers* Un bell’uomo!!

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt

First Units for my 10mm Warhammer Goblin Army

The Isle of Mist and Flame is home to numerous indigenous races. Some are fairly benign, while others are openly hostile, throwing spanners into the players' plans for conquest. Of the latter group, there are several tribes of Goblins who, along with their allies, occupy the forests, hills and mountains of the island. In campaign terms, the Goblins are not player-controlled, but rather run by the GM (me!) to sow a bit of mischief and chaos amongst the players.

So here are my first efforts in building a greenskin horde. 

Night Goblins!

I figure that if one is doing-up Goblins you need to have scad and scads of the pesky little blighters. With this in mind, I thought I'd break the duck by creating a big mob of Night Goblins in all their ball-n-chain, pointy-hat, drug-addled splendour. 

For an additional bit of fun, I have them being chivied along by some pals who are riding giant, carnivorous Squigs, as one does in these situations.

Here are the beginnings of a wolf rider force. Ultimately I want four of these units, which shouldn't be too tall of an order as they paint-up really fast. They'll be partnered up with Spider Riders, which should be fun, but more on that later.

I had my buddy Byron cut these slightly thinner, wavy-fronted bases to easily identify 'light' units on the tabletop.

I saw this groovy forest giant on MyMinFactory and thought he would be a nice addition to the force.

I like how stooped and wonderfully dolorous he is. I played around with the trees on his back and the base for a bit of fun.

Finally, I have a Goblin camp with watchtower. To the Strongest asks for each side to have a camp for their force. I found a few different files on MyMiniFactory and bodged this together.

I figured I can swap out the tower and replace it with a temple or shrine if needs be.

I like how rickety the tower is. I figure Goblins aren't big on Operational Health and Safety issues...

So there you have the start of my goblin force for Monsters & Magic. I'm working on several more units as I write this so hopefully I'll have some more progress to show soon.

Thanks for popping in for a look!

- Curt

10mm Warhammer Fantasy Campaign

Hey there!

Our gaming group has been making some use of the 10mm fantasy armies that I've been working on over the past few Painting Challenges, with us playing a small Warhammer campaign. We have four players, plus me serving behind the emerald curtain as organizer and chief bottlewasher. 

The action takes place on a mysterious fog-enshrouded volcanic island ('The Isle of Mist and Flame') which appears every few decades in different seas throughout the Old World. 

The Isle of Mist and Flame

The campaign has each player vying to see who can be the first to claim 10 areas (hexes), allowing them to tip the balance and gain control of the island. I figured that the island idea would keep things contained and would allow me to interject with some fun story hooks and other narrative shenanigans.

For the strategic rules, we are using 'Campaigns of Conquest' an excellent little set of rules initially developed as part of the Mighty Empires supplement for Warhammer Fantasy 8th ed. The rules are only 5 pages long, but do an excellent job in capturing the essentials of running a focused, but fun campaign. 

For the tabletop rules, we're using 'Monsters & Magic' a bolt-on fantasy variant to Simon Miller's excellent 'To the Strongest'. The set is particularly brilliant as it provides ready-made army lists for most of the forces found in classic Warhammer Fantasy. 

I'm using Roll20 as our campaign diary. I believe it is open for anyone to view, so feel free to visit and see what we're up to.

Next up will be some new additions to my 10mm fantasy collection.

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt 

10mm Empire Crossbowmen

I'll continue on with my gratuitous Empire schtick with a unit of plucky crossbowmen.

The original GW models for these units were designed around 2-man strips, which look great on the small Warmaster bases, but I wanted to take advantage of the larger real estate of the 'To the Strongest' style bases I'm using. These allow me to array them in a more natural looking (at least to my eye) ragged skirmish line.

Again, I found the base with just the figures on it to be a little wanting, so I quickly printed off a ruined cottage and a small field to give it some oomph. (I'm sure there are some turnips in there somewhere.)

A pic of the force as it stands now. 

Next up will be a horde unit.

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt

10mm Empire Artillery

Yes, it's me with yet another Empire entry, weee!! Today we have another support unit in the form of a battery of heavy artillery.

In the world of Warhammer, the army of the Empire is pretty much made up of regular baseline humans, so that means no troops with fancy inherent martial abilities, or huge scary monsters to fall back on. The regiments of the Empire must instead rely on iron discipline, a fatalistic faith in their cause, and lots of firepower. Lots and lots of firepower. Some of that firepower comes from the Steam Tanks, Volley Guns and Handgunners, but its the Empire's artillery park that are the long distance heavy hitters. Even an ancient dragon, a hulking giant, or a monstrous daemon is going to feel it if they get a direct hit from a 36 pounder. Guaranteed, it's gonna smart.

So, here is the first base of what will be several batteries of heavy guns for my Imperial force.

For the most part, this base is made up of old GW Warmaster castings, which I think still look great after all these years. Such fun to paint. 

I had fun with the base with the earth scorched dark by the fire of the guns.

While the gun and crew models are great, they are a bit bland just by themselves on the base. So I tarted them up by popping on an ammunition wagon, a 3D print from MinRat, and a tree from Thingiverse. 

And here is the collection to-date. Now, that's starting to look like a decent-sized detachment, or perhaps a wing of a larger army. Sure, there's more work to be done, but it's nice to see it beginning to come together.

Next we see some crossbowmen for the collection!

- Curt