Eureka Miniatures Chaos Army Gang for Idols of Torment!

Finally finished another "gang" for the local game Idols of Torment. We've blogged lots about this game, it's very cool, takes very few models to play, and is so atmospheric and fun. Anyway a faction is only nine models and although the creators make lots of "official" models and STLs, I really like building factions out of metal models from other random manufacturers. In this vein, I just finished painting a faction composed of models from Eureka Minatures' "Chaos Army" range, inspired by artists like Heironymous Bosch! 

A gang in Idols of Torment is composed of eight models and a totem. The models represent various archetypes and are statistically identical from faction to faction (two each of Lurkers, Slayers, and Stalkers, plus one Corrupter and one Reaper).  Lurkers are the only class of of Idol that can engage in ranged combat in the game. For one of these models I selected Blind Justice, holding a pistol.

 

The other one is Bonker, about to chuck a rock.

Slayers are the Idol class who excel at close combat. This is Harry Born Yesterday, about to bitecha!

 

Snailhead is the other Slayer. He looks like he's gonna get stabby.

Stalkers are the manouevre elements of an Idols gang. For these I picked two models mounted on starving hounds, yikes! This is Magog the Mighty and Knight of the Leash.

The Corrupter is an important member of the gang - it's the only model that can naturally bind the Lost. For this role, naturally, I picked Pope Simius.

The Reaper is kind of like the leader of an Idols gang, as the objective of most scenarios is to reap the souls of the Lost, and the Reaper is the best at it! 

This, of course, is Death Rides a Pale Snail. Super-fun model to paint.

The gang has to include a Totem as well. This model stays stationary throughout the game.

Phil the Unchastener was the natural choice here, no? Anyway that's the whole gang! The Eureka models are obviously super-fun and very suitable for Idols of Torment, I'm sure there are lots of other models from the Chaos Army that could be used in an Idols gang.

 

As a bonus, here's a freebie I got in my Skull & Crown order. I wasn't sure what to do with him, then it occurred to me that he'd make a great statue. Great use for random models and the column fits a 25mm round base to perfection!

Anyway that's it for now, see you next time!

Skull & Crown Killer Rabbits

Well you can file this under "models I may never use in a game but painted because they are super-cool."  They're "Killer Rabbits" from Skull & Crown. Once the subject of a popular Kickstarter campaign, the range is based on some pretty freaky medieval manuscript illustrations.

Here's a cavalryrabbit mounted on a lion (!)

The set I bought came with a couple of lapine musicians (piper and hornist) a leader-type with a stick, and a rabbit I converted into a standard-bearer, with handpainted flag, naturally.

There are a few sword-armed rabbits too, including one with a wicked zweihander. I painted the middle rabbit's shield with their carrot heraldry. 

The other has a bronze buckler.

There are some bow- and crossbow-armed rabbits too. How they manage to wield these weapons without opposable thumbs must be known only to the medieval monk artists.

The last bunch have clubs and spears.

These models are just so cool and were pretty fun to paint, even if it did take some time. The challenge will be finding a game to use them in. Fantasy skirmish of some kind, most likely - Otherworld Miniature Skirmish? Or maybe even Forbidden Psalm - but these little guys seem altogether too wholesome for that!

Forbidden Psalm Game! Plus Skull & Crown Skeletons!

WARNING: POST CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF SELF-HARM, HORROR, DEATH, GORE, COARSE LANGUAGE, NUDITY, SOME OF THE OLD ULTRA-VIOLENCE, AND SMOKING. 

So on Thursday Conscript Mike F. and some of the lads came over for our first crack at Forbidden Psalm, the super-grim tabletop game inspired by the Swedish RPG Mork Borg. Mike's been painting like a madman and I was really looking forward to getting a game on the table. We played the first scenario from the book - "Corpse Scavenging." Six corpses were laid out on the table and the two opposing warbands had to search them for treasure and "black fungus", a particular goodie that the Mad Wizard Vriprix would pay handsomely for. Above is Humfrid about to search a corpse. Mike had painted them and they were... horrifying.

Here's two members of Mike's warband trying to search another corpse. This one resisted all attempts to search it - seearchers had to make a Treasure Roll to successfully search, and these guys failed A LOT. Worse still, a model takes 1hp damage when they fail a search roll!

On turn 2 the Disembowelled Ghouls start to appear - these are pretty tough monsters and did for two of my warband. In the background you can see my erstwhile leader, Ulfnar, and great axe-man Karl (RIP).

Ulfnar and Mike's leader put each other out of action - we each used the Omen card that allowed maximum damage from one attack. Wow!

Karl here about to get put out of action by a skeleton summoned by Mike's scroll-user. He'd summoned him to menace my scroll-user, Astrid, but she used her own scroll to immunize herself from attacks by monsters.

This combat went on awhile - my rogue, Nils (second from right) snuck into Mike's deployment zone to mess things up. Unfortunately a Disembowelled Ghoul followed. (They are controlled by an AI formula).

Games run for six turns at most and at the end, I had three men down (one was killed) and I think Mike lost one. I got more fungus so a few more gold pieces from the Wizard. It was a fun game but took longer to play through than I'd anticipated - I felt bad that Frederick, Hugh, John and Dave didn't get to play also, but I think they had a good time kibbitzing. In any case maybe we'll play the four-player variant next time.

I'd painted this horror for Forbidden Psalm - it's the cover model for the game book - the Corpse Collector. Absolutely repulsive.

This model is a 3D print I got on Etsy, I think it came from Greece (!). This was before Mike tipped me to the guy in Quebec that's printing this stuff.

This'll give you an idea of the size of the model. In retrospect I probably should have gotten the next bigger one!

These bony dudes came in a recent order from Skull & Crown. They're super-cool obviously.

Dude carrying a brazier, he'll be the standard bearer if I ever build a unit of these guys.

The unit champion here, of course.

Skelly blowing a trumpet. Not sure how this works exactly but meh, fantasy.

I love this dude toting a huge basket of skulls and bones! Skull & Crown make some superb models and you'll see some more on the blog soon.

Well that's it for now, I hope you weren't too scarred by the Forbidden Psalm stuff :-)

Renaissance Carnage In The Med - 1/300 Galleys Clash!

Bloody action in the Mediterranean Sea with 1/300 galleys from Skull & Crown

At the end of August Byron introduced a new, naval themed project he embraced to wash out the recent experience of a Warhammer 40k tournament - some 1/300 scale renaissance warships from Skull & Crown.  While I'm not wholly certain of the "Greg twisted my arm" characterization, I will concede to some incitement on my part...I have been broadly intrigued about this period for some time, and reading through a pair of books - Pirates of The Levant by Arturo Perez-Reverte and Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay - over the summer finally prompted me to place an order with Skull & Crown.  Since then Byron has prepared some lovely Papal ships, while I have completed a small force of Ottoman vessels.

Recommended reading - although be warned, you will probably order some galleys when you are finished...

All this to say we tried our first game of "Galleys, Guns & Glory" last night at Dallas' place, and here in this post are a few pictures of our first battle in this setting!

Initial dispositions - Ottoman forces on the left, Papal forces on the right

Ottoman ships - galiot on the bottom left, with a galley just above...the red one in the middle with two masts is the sultana, the command ship

Papal galiot and the much larger lanterna - the little discs on the decks represent soldiers on board - a lot of troops on that lanterna

This was a small battle. We wanted to try and get to know the rules a bit. For a scenario, we imagined it was some time in the early 17th century.  An Italian noble, moved for reasons unspecified (piety, shame, boldness, ambition - or all of those together, who knows?) has financed a raid by a small force of Papal ships into Ottoman waters.  They are seeking to recover what are believed to be precious Christian relics, supposedly found on a small island in the Eastern Mediterranean. As they approach their goal, they are caught by a force of Ottoman ships - battle is on, and no quarter will be given!

Papal galley and galiot (in background) move towards the enemy - backs into those oars now!

Both forces (too small to call a "fleet", really) were of equal size and composition.  The Papal ships included a Lanterna as commander, three galleys and four smaller galiots.  The Ottomans brought a Sultana (big command ship - same as Lanterna), three galleys and four smaller galiots of their own.  The Ottoman command ship included some elite Janissary crew.  The Papal ships benefitted from some short-range firepower bonuses (a taste for handguns), while the Turkish ships enjoyed some small-arms-fire bonuses, reflecting their ability to fill the skies between the vessels with arrows.

Ottoman vessels close with the papal fleet - note the little ship with the die; this is a "fusta", and used to keep track of hits on the larger ships - a very cool little feature of the game

Byron placed his excellent cloth-water mat, we put a few hills on to represent islands, and it was on! Byron and Indo took command of the Papal side, while Dallas and I commanded the Ottoman forces. 

Heavy papal force moving between the islands...the little markers on the bows of the three ships indicate their cannons have been fired and need to be reloaded; these markers are laser cut and come with the models - Skull & Crown really have thought of everything...

I deliberately made things a bit tricky by having the islands as a barrier to the engagement - again, more to get a sense of the rules and see how the maneuvering etc. would go, than any certain knowledge on my part. In an actual encounter, I'm not sure the captains of galleys would go to battle in such a way...but I thought, with religious motivation in the background, perhaps both sides would put aside such judgement just rush to get at the enemy!

The ominous sultana, with its Jannissary crew...

The Ottoman flag ship has a lot of cannons on the bow and troops on board - it would hold its fire until the last possible moment

It took a couple of turns, but soon galleys were ramming, firing huge cannons at point-blank range, blazing away with small arms and charging across in ferocious boarding actions!

Contact! The Papal galiot was boarded and the crew defeated - in the process the Papal ship caught fire, so the Ottomans will leave it for the sea rather than take it as a prize...

A Papal galley looks to join the action, but the flaming galiot is in the way...

Dallas and I were able to concentrate our force on Indo's side of the Papal line, and thanks to good fortune with the dice, before long the Ottomans had burned one Papal galiot, and captured two galleys and another galiot!

The Papal lanterna has fired its big guns....

Byron was able to bring the big Lanterna into action against one of my small galiots (the crew had been overconfident), and his soldiers swarmed aboard in a fierce assault - but miraculously my galiot captain held out! This only delayed the inevitable, and Byron did capture the small ship, but this was phyrrhic triumph, as the sequence of events had bought enough time for the big sultana to show up.  Showing no mercy for their Papal adversaries, the Turkish commanders simply rammed and opened fire on the hapless captured Ottoman ship, catching the Papal boarding parties while they were still aboard! The blizzard of artillery and small arms fire, to say nothing of the ram, obliterated the little galiot - and took Byron's lanterna troops to the bottom of the sea with them...Byron's lanterna was still afloat, but was down to its last marker - the captain marker.  It didn't look good for the Papal forces...

The little Ottoman galiot on the right is a bit too close for comfort, and was not able to get away...

Contact! The boarding spur of the lanterna hits the Ottoman galiot - which has already lost a crew token to the blizzard of artillery and small arms fire coming from the lanterna

The captain marker is always the last to go, and in this case, has heroically held out in the face of a huge assault from the lanterna's troop complement...

In the final turns the surviving Papal ships tried to change the momentum somewhat by reinforcing their lanterna with troops from their last surviving galley, but by this point the Ottomans had overwhelming numbers on their side.  The Papal troops fought ferociously - the Jannissaries and warriors on the Turkish sultana were wiped out, the sultana's own captain killed, and the sultana itself only saved thanks to the arrival of reinforcements from other Ottoman galleys.  Nonetheless the end was grim for the Papal fleet. Only a single Papal galiot escaped! 

Dallas' troops swarm aboard one of Endo's galleys...the odds do not favour the Papal forces...

Another Papal galley falls to the Ottomans...ramming and point blank fire have knocked out all the troop markers...it will make a fine prize in Istanbul

Two Ottoman galiots take a Papal galiot out...

No doubt these survivors will return to Italy with a grim tale of sacrifice, while celebrations will be had in Istanbul as that sultana receives a new commanding officer...certainly a blood battle!

The laterna's boarding party ultimately captured the small galiot - only to have the big sultana come and wipe them out in return!

The little galiot is replaced with a pile of flaming wreckage...meanwhile Byron and Indo have tried to reinforce their lanterna with spare troops from another galley

The battle gets confused, as more and more ships pile in - look at the different counters fighting aboard the Ottoman sultana - that Papal force went down fighting

"Galleys, Guns & Glory" is an extremely fun and fast-playing set of rules for this sort of battle, and the 1/300 laser-cut wood models are a real treat.  While the assembly is pretty straightforward and not complex as far as ship models go, I have to say a big "thank you" to Byron who helped me figure out how to use special thread (I think it was thread?) to put some rigging on to the ships.  I won't win any modelling awards for this, but it still really adds to the look of the ships.

The final carnage...the Papal ships are spent, with only a small galiot (on the left in the middle of the photo) able to escape...

With the Skull & Crown models, you get ships, crew markers, turn dials etc all for a pretty reasonable price.  The crew markers are a very nice and simple way for players to keep track of the back-and-forth of the battle.  At one point I thought I would perhaps use some 6mm troops to make little bases of boarding parties, but I actually like the markers a little better...YMMV. Whatever your preference, if you are looking for a fun game of Renaissance period galleys, I highly recommend Skull & Crown!