KoW - Revenant Skeleton Troop

Finished basing a Mantic Undead Revanent troop of skeleton warriors to beef up my Kings of war Army.

Hope to give them a try-out on Wednesday.

IHMN: Sanders of the River

I bought a few little toys at Salute, cough - yes I know.

One of them was a Sarissa laser-cut steam launch suitable for VSF, steampunk or just colonial skirmish games.

This is a great kit and great value for money for ten of Her Majesty's Guineas.

I painted up the sides, sunshade and boilder and gave it a good coat of Army Painter tone varnish.

Pip, pip, old fruit.

Mantic Kings of War Review

The beta version of 2nd edition Kings of War is now available free on the web so I decided it was time I relearnt the game. Joe M. very kindly offered to teach it to me via a game at Rochester Models, undoubtedly the best way to learn.

I brought out my part finished Undead army of a Regiment of Ghouls, a Regiment of Zombies and a Regiment of undead knights which allowed me three wizards, a Necromancer, a Liche King and Mhorgoth the Faceless to which I added three troops of skeleton warriors. A regiment of allied Pike-men (phalangites) brought me up to 1K points.

Joe brought a human knightly army along, all cavalry and catapults with some mad monks.

The game plays incredibly smoothly. Cavatore, the designer, has a well deserved reputation for clean game systems.

This photo shows the engagement from the human board side. My knights and zombies have just got stuck in and my wizards are raining lightning down. In return the humans are raining rocks.

After a series of bloody charges and counter charges the game ended on turn six by die roll. The Mad Monks, a Catapult,  a regiment and troop of Knights - and my Phalangites, Zombies, and Skeleton Knights all had popped their clogs.

At the end of a very hard fought game that had hung in the balance to the last turn Joe won by 655 to 645 points.

I had a great time. Many thanks to Joe for his time. I heartily recommend KoW. You could fight very large games with these rules and the Armies of Men list is completely flexible. There is nothing to stop anyone downloading the rules for free and trying it out with their Warhammer or historical 28mm armies.

Apparently, Mantic intend to produce lists suitable for all the old Warhammer armies. This may be welcome as rumour insists that Warhammer is to stop being a mass battle game with many of the armies dumped.

The Old World may live again.

Sarissa Hansom Cab

The hansom cab is an iconic symbol of Victorian London and no game set in this place an era should be without one.

Sarissa now offer an inexpensive laser-cut model for £5.

I simply sprayed the model black and added a few brass highlights.

The result is pretty damn good. Of course there's no horse and driver but still excellent value for the money.

Sissinghurst

Popped over to Sissinghurst yesterday for a spot of lunch. The garden was looking great in the Spring sunshine.  climbed the tower to work of my rhubarb crumble.

Didn't have my camera but I did take a few pics on my 'phone. It had trouble coping with the high contrast but here goes.

The famous White Garden

Light through the ferns

The moat - all very Wind in the Willows

The blossom is out

The walled garden

The walk

IHMN, Royal Artillery on Mars

"Six-legged chappies, three rounds of cannister, fire..."

The model is Warlord's 7pdr from the Zulu Wars. Just right to support my Martian Rifles.

IHMN, Naval Brigade

A naval shore party to back up the Pongos in red coats.

These chaps can be relied upon to bring a bit of professionalism to a bloody encounter.
We've got some sailors and officer with a Nordenfelt mounted on a gun carriage and another officer leading a squad of Royal Marines under command of a sgt.

Pip, pip.

Shiney Toys, Shiney New Toys

My order from Warlord Games has arrived.

Mwah, ha, ha, ha.....gibber.

The idea is that now I won't be tempted to buy anything at Salute - stop snigering at the back there.

Her Majesty's Martian Rifles

The staunch defender's of Her Majesty's Dominions on Mars, the Martian Rifles.

Models from Warlord Games.

VBCW - Spode's Armoured Truck

As part of their endless war with the Chatham Soviet and the Anglian League of Canterbury, Spode's (Viscount Sidcup of Kent) Blackshorts have acquired an SDKFZ3 from German Kameraden.

This is a wheeled armoured personal carrier with firing ports but no organic weapons.

The model is supposedly 1:48 but looks larger. Mind you, the Germans have always gone in for oversized AFVs going right back to WWI.

"The British knee is strong; the British knee is muscular." Spode.

Wolf In Shadow

My recent London Urban Fantasy novel, Wolf in Shadow, is on special offer at Amazon UK for £1.80 Kindle or £1.89 paperback.

Pegasus Sale - Kings of War

Picked up some Kings of war stuff from Pegasus Games and Hobbies (Monmouth not California) who have a sale on with 50% discounts.

The book is the old one but worth buying discounted for the photos etc.

I screwed up the order form and made two seperate orders so paid postage twice. Without me asking Pegasus spotted the error and refunded me.

Great service guys!

IHMN - The Wollace & Gramit Stabilised Steam Hussar

A trooper of the 11th Hussars, the 'Cherrypickers', in a Wollace & Gramit steam-powered stabilised light cavalry armoured fighting vehicle in Martian desert camouflage.

A private from the Dorsets is shown alongside for scale.

Kings of War, the Liche King Cometh

This model was very kindly given to me by my son in law some time aqgo.

Finally, Ed, it's finished.

First Game Review - Of Gods and Mortals (Osprey)

Pallas Athena, Goddess of Military strategy, heard a whisper on the grapevine (a little owl told her) that Aries, head-banging God of Warfare, had learnt of a chalice of great power hidden in a ruined temple and had left a group of Spartan warriors to guard the place.

[a 900 pt retinue consisting of Athena, Medusa, the Nemean Lion, four Kentaurides (Lady Centaurs), and an Amazonian Heroine and Guard]

She summoned a retinue from her followers -famed throughout Hellas as the Feminista - to overcome the guardians and steal the treasure for herself.

Aphrodite, who had no particular love for Athena, warned Aries who summoned reinforcements and charged down from Mt Olympus.

[a 720 pt retinue consisting of Aries, two units of Spartan hoplites and a Hero - we were playing the Temple scenario so Aries, Shaun, had a smaller force]

The Feminista spread out to surround the Temple and its guards.

The Amazons and Kentaurides uttered prays and sacrificed several small furry animals that they happened to have about their persons to boost Athena's power and the goddess charged into the Temple slaying one of the hoplites and pushing back the others.

Meanwhile Mudusa killed the Hero with a poisoned arrow.

On Turn Two Athena continued her attack, slaying two more hoplites and pushing them out of the Temple.

Meanwhile Aries teleported in with the second warband of hoplites.

Miffed, the god was sick as a parrot to see his worshippers slaughtered.

He charged into combat unsupported as befits The Nutter of the Gods.

To be surrounded by outraged Kentaurides who accused him of being a male chauvinist pig.

Fair mad to bursting, Aries tripped over an unlaced sandal and managed to spear himself in the goolies - disappearing in a puff of smoke.

[Actually, Shaun rolled a series of 1s]

Thoroughly rattled, the remaining Spartans fled allowing Athena to recover the chalice, which turned out to be a battered FA Cup lost after being won by Wigan in a surprise result at The Emirates stadium.

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So what did I think of the game?

Well the scenario seemed somewhat unbalanced and the Temple actually had nothing to do with the victory conditions, which seemed a bit odd.

This is another 'Song of Blades' variant with the combat mechanism cleaned up a bit. It seemed a little fiddly with a plethora of special rules for all the figures but I guess that would become tractable with time. The game lasted a little over an hour but would have been over in half that time if we knew the rules.

Not the sort of thing I would play a lot, but worth getting out for a fun game or quick one night campaign. A lot would depend on players creating a good story arc and scenarios.

Salute Homeric Hero

Salute is nearly upon us so I decided to paint up one of their freebies that I have had in the unpainted bin for some years. It will do for mythology games.

On My Painting Table, Longbowmen

GW released a Warhammer edition some years ago with a collection of plastic Bretonnians, including archers that were direct copies of English longbowmen. So many of these were in circulation that they turn up for pennies on ebay. They are actually very nice models that are eminently suitable for both fantasy and medieval armies.

Kings of War - Undead

I recently hauled my largely unpainted Kings of War Undead army out of storage. I have about seven units and two leaders almost finished.

However there is more, lots more, in boxes.

Have At Thee, Varlet

I got this model free from Foundry with a batch of others that I bought. No idea what range he comes from; Baron's Wars ere, I suppose.

I think he would make a great command figure for a Hail Caesar army so I have painted him up despite the chap being a bit vertically challenged.

F.A.B

Thunderbirds are go!

Fenris Games Penthesilea - Amazon Queen

I give you Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, who fought at Troy and was killed by Achilles.

The mini is from Fenris Games who have a small selection of high quality largish 28mm (30mm) historical and fantasy models at very reasonable prices. They come with spear, shield, and high quality 30mm resin base for the princely sum of £4.

These models are ideal for HQ in Hail Caesar, Legends in Of Gods and Mortals and skirmish and RPG games.