Friday Night Games: Good v Evil Fantasy Game

From Feb 20th through March 5th we played out a Fantasy Game where an alliance of Good fought the hordes of Evil, both on the tabletop and below ground in dark dingy caverns.

All figures were from Rupert's collection and we used Rupert home written Fantasy Rules, Rupert acted as umpire and it was staged at his house!

Good was represented by John, Dave, Steve & Mike M, whilst teh dastardly Evil crew were Mike N, Mat plus others.

The arrayed forces of Good, mostly Humans with Elves and some others

The Evil horde, comprising of Greenskins, Undead and various other monstrosities!

Elven Imperial Foot backed up by Human Militia

An undead Mammoth, backed by skeleton Chariots and Infantry

The Great Undead Horde, who turned out to be impervious to missle fire!

Lots & Lots of Greenskins

Human Knights and Levy Foot await the Evil onslught

The forces of Good garrison the local Castle

More of the Mounted Knights!

Friday Night Games: The Grinch v Santa Fantasy Game

Friday 14th December saw the kickoff of one of our quasi-annual Christmas themed games  this year hosted and umpired by Rupert. 

The Grinch and his Goblin hordes are attacking 'Happy Valley' stealing all the villagers presents and heading to the Santa's Workshop to wreck toy production before Christmas.

The figures are an assortment from Rupert's 28mm Medieval and Fantasy collections and he was using his own Fantasy Rules.

Happy Valley at the outset of the game

On the side of light & good are Mat & Mike W, whilst arrayed against them, commanding the Goblin Hordes were Mark, Steve, Dave & John.

Santa's Workshop, defended by the local Happy Valley Militia

Close-up of the Happy Valley Militia

A villager family

The ravaging hordes of The Grinch's Goblin Army

The forces of Good, under MikeW, did a Stirling job holding up John's Goblin column on the right wing. Whilst on the left of the Good side, Mat was able to deploy forces to contest Mark's Goblins.

Goblin wagons hoping to be filled with the Happy Valley villager's presents

The alarm is raised and the villagers beginning to panic at the sight of the approaching goblins

In the centre, Dave pushed his Goblin column forwards and they set upon a small village  only to be opposed by Good forces rushing up the center of the table from Santa's workshop. Meanwhile Steve is zooming around with  a pair of dragons trying to inflict damage and then raising the dead and supplementing the forces of Evil with Skeleton hordes.

More villagers!

One of the Dragons under Steve's command

At the end of Week #1 there was all to play for...

Forces of Good on the right battling Skeleton Cavalry and a Dragon, despite heavy losses John's Evil Doers were driven off.

One of the Goblin Columns

Steve's Dragons help eliminate an Infantry unit that has mauled Mark's Goblin Column on Santa's left

A unit of Ogres force the bridge on the extreme left of Sant's front,
a bridge that is defended by a small infantry unit. 

Happy Valley Militia Archers hold the centre

The advancing Goblin Battering Ram, to their rear.

Santa's left flank is now somewhat devoid of defenders, although in the centre a big force of archers and cavalry are checking enemy movement.

AHPC X - From MikeW single 28mm Fantasy figure (35 Points)

I suddenly realised that we are rapidly heading towards the end of February and that there are only a few weeks left in this year's challenge...

Hopefully I'll make my target points this year, unlike last year when I fell short at the last hurdle!

In the spirit of Challenge Island, I thought I'd better stop playing around and cut to the chase and move to the Snow Lord's Peak - to give myself time to do whatever the fiendish Snow Lord has in wait for me there!

Sarah's Balloon from Douglas' Shallows to the Snow Lord's Peak

So to achieve this I'm calling on Sarah's Balloon to pick me up from Douglas' Shallows and take me direct to the Peak.

To earn my passage I have painted an old Warhammer Dark Elf Warrior, she's plastic and from a boxed set that I really can't remember too much about.

Dark Elf Warrior

I was never really into Elves (Light or Dark) and so never painted her, she was a welcome change to the usual figures I have been doing and will likely donate her to fellow club member Rupert, who has a wide range of Fantasy armies that she can likely take a leadership role within...

POINTS
1 x 28mm figure @ 5 Points ea = 5 Points
Sarah's Balloon Bonus = 30 Points
TOTAL = 5 + 30 = 35 Points

AHPC X - From MikeW - Various Warhammer Empire Miniatures (260 Points)

Following on from my last post I emptied out my bags of old Warhammer Empire figures on the workbench and was determined to work out how to add these in to my recently expanded Stirland State Army.

Undercoated Empire figures, Eagle-eyed readers will see one of the original figures

I did some 10 years ago being used as a reference!

Many of these figures are from the 'Classic Empire' era, but the rest are '2nd Edition'  Empire figures albeit with many of them missing arms and heads!

I spent some time building a number of new troop types, utilising parts from the spares box to achieve the results I was looking for.

First I'll cover the standard types that came to hand, there are 6 x 'Classic' Spearmen, converted to Halbardiers, as per the bulk of the figures I did in the last post, these all needed to have the halbard heads re-fixed to their poles, or new ones found.

'Classic' Empire troops with Spears replaced by Halbards, Billhooks

and sundry other unpleasant weapons!

Next are 13 x '2nd Edition' Halbardiers, from a Games Workshop boxed set that never got completed, today they are! Nothing special with these little guys, painted in Green and Yellow as per other Stirland Regiments. As previously stated I still prefer the Classic' figures, even though these came in a limited number of poses.

'2nd Edition' Halbardiers, almost straight form the box,

albeit 10-15 years late!

Returning to 'Classic' figures there are 5 x Spearmen straight out the box. You'll have noticed by now, that I do not use the shields on my Empire Figures, no real reason other than I like them better without shields.

'Classic' Empire Spearmen

Now on to the new troop types I have created - first 6 x Pikemen, built from the torso and heads form '2nd Edition' figures but with arms supplied from the recent Warlord Games Landsknecht boxed set. I purchased the Warlord set last year but floundered badly when trying to paint 'real' Landsknecht figures! However I really like the way these figures have turned out...

'2nd Edition' Pikemen, I have loads of pike arms in the spare box now

and no torsos to join them to, I feel an eBay trip coming on!

Next are 8 x Crossbowmen, five of which are built using '2nd Edition' torsos and the other three with torsos from the Warlord Games set - these are a little small and slender compared to their Games Workshop counterparts but not so bad to be a problem, especially if placed in back ranks. To each of these torsos were added crossbow arms from my spares box, these originated from an old Empire Militia boxed set or the '2nd Edition' boxed set.

Crossbowmen - it's pretty easy to spot the Warlord Games figures

There were two random Musketeers - one 'Classic' and one built in a similar manner to the Crossbowmen but using the musketeer arms from the Warlord Games set, on a '2nd Edition' torso.

'Classic' left and '2nd Edition' with Warlord arms right.

Here are 3 x Archers, one a classic figure that was missing a spear, - so bow and arrow hands were added from the Empire Militia box. The other two are in very similar poses both have Empire Militia Bow and Arrow arms - one has a '2nd Edition' torso the other has a Militia torso.

Archers - Militia figure left, '2nd Edition' right and 'Classic' in centre

.

Finally on the infantry side are three special figures, all converted from 'Classic' models with missing arms and weapons - an Officer, Drummer and Great Sword.

Converted 'Classic' Spearman - Officer with Pistol

Converted 'Classic' Musketeer- Drummer

Converted 'Classic' Spearman - Great sword man

The Officer has a pistol hand from the Militia box and a random spare left hand grafted on. The Drummer has a drum and drumstick hands from the Warlord Games set and the detail of the powder charges on the shoulder belt has been cut off, a couple of pouches and a dagger were added. Then the Great Sword has a weapon from the Militia box and another random left hand substituted for the originals - the Great Sword has had the second hand carved away.

Sneaking in at the end are three Empire Mounted Knights, these are all on barded horses and the knights are all in plate armour with a random selection of heads added to the figures. A Yellow and green pennant ties them together as Stirland Knights and one guy carries a Yellow and Green Banner.

Three Stirland Knights

So that's pretty much it on the Stirland front, I have an Army Commander in progress - so hopefully he'll see the light of day as a completed model, now that he's been brought in form the cold, dark garage!

Only danger now is I'll go and buy more figures to make more pikemen....

POINTS

6 x Pikemen @ 5 Points ea = 30 Points

3 x Archers @ 5 Points ea = 15 Points

2 x Musketeers @ 5 Points ea = 10 Points

8 x Crossbows @ 5 Points ea = 40 Points

5 x Spearmen @ 5 Points ea = 25 Points

19 x Halbardiers @ 5 Points ea = 95 Points

3 x Special Figures @ 5 Points ea = 15 Points

3 x Mounted Knights @ 10 Points ea = 30 Points

TOTAL POINTS 30 + 15 +10 + 40 +25 + 95 +15 + 30 = 260 Points

AHPC IX - From Mike W: 28mm Roman, Fantasy and 17th Century figures (115 Points)

For this second post of the week, I am concentrating on a number of other figures I have been working on, separate to my efforts on the Saxon Infantry Regiment previously posted. As ever, somewhat a mash-up of periods...

First off a group of 12 x 28mm Roman Legionaries that have been kicking around in my 'lead mountain' for several years, I bought these on a whim but can't remember now, where they came from. Remember thinking that they would look cool painted-up but  have never had time or inclination to paint these once I got them home!

The raw figures with first steel, red & flesh layers added

I'm afraid that I have forgotten who the manufacture was for these figures, but having painted these, I was right! They do look cool!

Roman Legion Cohort of 12 x 28mm figures

Due to the large amount of metal work on these figures I undercoated them black and then dry-brushed on a suitable steel colour,I wanted the figures to have a strong presence on the wargame's table so used a lot of red for tunics, shields and helmet plumes.

Officer and shield detail

The rest was simple - flesh and leather with a few details picked out in brass. I gave the chap's skin a flesh wash to add tone and the sprayed with matte varnish before basing.

It's my personal view that for most ancient armies, the key to a spectacular army, is getting the shields right, in the case of Romans  these have to be uniform and that is something I struggle to do! For these figures I used the original paper shields that I think came with the first Warlord Games plastic box set. I attached to the painted shield with PVA glue and then varnished with Army Painter matte varnish to seal them in place, job done!

Calculations; 12 x 28mm Infantry Figures @ 5 Points ea. = 60 Points.

Unpainted figure

Completed!

Next up, is an old plastic Games Workshop fantasy figure,believe this came in a small boxed set of magicians, this guy is a Egyptian type Necromancer - if I remember correctly!


I glued it to a 2 pence piece and undercoated with white paint and  layered on the colours in my usual way. I initially did his under robe in a crimson colour, but then decided I didn't like it and want to go for a classic ochre and jade blue look and feel. I think I have some old Games Workshop skeletons  up in the loft or out in the garage in those colours, this chap can join them.

Anyway, I used a thick mix of ochre paint to block out the crimson that I'd previously used and then dry brushed with Citadel Bone paint, I also highlighted his flesh with the same bone colour to make him look less healthy!

The snake on the staff was deliberately painted in bright colours, to contract the figure and the base was left largely sand, with a couple of dry grass tufts to show a more arid environment.

Calculations; 1 x 28mm Infantry Figures @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.

Raw figures, prior to undercoat

Next are 4 x 28mm 17th Century mounted officers, believe that three of these are a Front Rank and one a Riever Castings piece, I base these on 40mm round MDF bases and as usual undercoated with white.

I like painting up officers and commanders of this period as it offers a little scope to give these little fellows a slightly different take on the uniforms of the period.

Firstly - I have to say my main area of interest is the Franco-Dutch Wars in the 1670s, so pushing out to Siege of Vienna is a bit of  a stretch for these figures. Additionally a couple of these figures are actually Marlburian from the early 1700s. As such I often change the tricorns on these figures to more relaxed floppy hats of the earlier period.

However, I decided to go with tricorns on three of these figures as there is no real hard evidence as to when the fashion for pushing up three sides of the slouch hats started. I did change one figure to have a highland bonnet after cutting off it's original hat.

The figures were painted a variety of colours, the Scots officer in Government Red,whilst the other three were deliberately kept more generic to allow deployment in any army of the period.

The results are as below...

Reiver Castings Officer

Converted Scots Officer

Another Front Rank Officer

Probably my favourite of the group!

Calculations; 4 x 28mm Mounted Figures @ 10 Points ea. = 40 Points.

Rear side view of Caisson

Front side view of Caisson

Next is a second Ottoman artillery limber and horse, this time painted in a base red with metal fittings. I include two photos to give a better look at the fancy caisson / limber, once gain liberated form an old Games Workshop Galloper Gun set.


Calculations; 1 x 28mm Horse @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.
                        1 x 28mm Limber @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.
                        TOTAL 10 Points

TOTAL Points - 60 + 40 + 10 +5 =115 Points