I managed to kit bash a unit of levy Archer, so finally I have a better ranged option available!
And there we have it, the whole army is completed!
What a project it has been!
I set out with a vague idea in my mind to finally take the plunge into the world of historical miniatures and boy was it a rabbi thole. This project has been the hobby time sink since January and I have enjoyed it thoroughly!
What was used for this project?
The base of the miniatures where the 4 boxes of miniatures that I posted in an earlier post.
1 box of Hail Caesar Celtic Warriors
1 box of Hail Caesar Viking Bondi
1 Box of Hail Caesar Saxon Thegns
1 Box of Gripping Beast Dark age Warriors
These went well together and could be kit bashed to make them have different poses, weapons and heads to look coherent as a Warband.
And now I find myself in a bit of a hobby slump..What to do now? This project has been MASSIVE for the likes of normal hobbyist as me, and this has been on my mind since January. Where do I go now? The deadline for this project was the birth of our child (which is coming any day now!) as I will not have as much time anymore to do my hobby stuff as much as I want anymore.
Wait!
Didn’t I get some Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game miniatures in the mail..?
This Eastern proved fruitful, as I got a lot of hobby work done (first 4 free days in a long while).
I present to you my completed 4 point warband of Scots/Welsh.
First off I feel obligated to praise the Hail Ceasar guys for making the box of Celtic warriors I used to make this models. I really liked these! Comparing the CW box with the Saxon Thenges and Viking Bondi boxes, the CW box’s heads were a treat to paint! So much character! The bodies were so-so, as they are quite mono-pose and hard to make something unique of, but ooh boy did I like tinkering more with them than the other boxes. Something never clicked with the other two as it did with this one.
First off, we have our Warlord. As usual he is on the wrong size base, as he sits on a 25mm instead of a 40 mm base. Good news is that I finally have ordered some new parts for the 3-d printer and hope that it’ll arrive shortly.
Next up, two units of Heartguard, clad in chain-mail. These guys are modeled to be able to be distinguished as both Scot spear-men and Welsh javelineers.
Then we have our two units of Warriors, numerous and armed (mostly) with spear and javelin.
Lastly the army view, of a 4 point warband for Scots/Welsh.
BONUS!
I have also finished painting the 2 units of Levy to be added to any warband that needs them.
They turned out a bit plain looking but what can you do.
As you can see, I have started to finish the basing of the bases, and hope to have them ready soon.
Now I need to make myself some bow Levy. I hope I have enough non-armoured models still laying around to kit bash as most of the Warbands can take these units. Then I think I need some Cavalry models to boot. What’s a Warband without mounted men!?
Back again with a painting update to my saga warbands. This time the Anglo- factions.
First two units of Hearthguard, gotta say that the decals on the big round shields are atrocious.. really not a good fit, as the shield is a bit curved backwards, and the decal refuses to fit it leaving it not flat at all…
Next two units of Warriors, same problem as before, the decals for the big round shields refuses to conform to the shape and looks funky.. sigh..
Here we have a Hearthguard unit, armed with the double handed Dane axes, Usable by the Anglo-Dane faction.
Last up the Warlord, I still have them on the wrong base… I’d need to get my 3-d printer fixed to get a 40mm base to put him on.
Here we have the whole warband. This is a 4 point warband for the Anglo-Saxons, and 5 points for the Anglo-danes. This is because the Saxons can’t field a unit of Dane axes.
I’m really hoping this corona business would get under control soon. I really want to get a game in with my friends now that I have 2 full 5 point warbands to play with!
I hope you all are well during these trying times.
I have made some painting progress with my warbands for Saga and I thought I would share with you some of the progress I have made!
First off, the model I will use as my Warlord. I realized a bit too late that I had based my warlords on the wrong size base, so I will have to try somehow to correct this in the future. Fortunately the basing progress is not yet done, so I might be able to salvage it still.
Next, two units of Hearthguard. I hate how inaccurate historically the horned helmets are, but love the sculpt as it brings fun variation to the miniatures.
Third, two units of Warriors ready for a brawl!
Last but not least a unit of HeartguardBerserkers!
And there we have the Viking 5 Point Warband painted.
As you read in my last post, I finally got my core space box in the post.
And of course I had to ditch what I was doing and start ticering away with the minis (and terrain!).
Well what is this Core space you ask? Well it is a terrain pack, that comes with it’s own miniatures game bundled! Well…
Core space is a miniatures game pitching the player controlled trader crews versus other player controlled trader crews. Acting as the big omnipotent threat is the evil robots called the purge, that continuously arrive at different points on the board, trying to take down the player controlled trader crews. The goal for the players vary depending on the scenario, but basically, get in, grab loot, try to escape alive with hordes of robots pursuing you.
Lets introduce the baddies in the box!
First off we have the harvester. These are the weakest and most numerous of the the NPC:s in the box. First enemies to spawn in, and melee oriented.
Next up, the more scary robots (and live one!), From left to right: Assassin, Live one, Devastator.
The Assassin is a robot that always if able goes for the closest captain of the trader crews, if possible.
The Live one is the big baddie, with scary stats but gives you a special token if you take him down.
The Devastators are simpleminded machines, with BIG GUNS. Armored, but must take linked actions so can with a bit of smart play be avoided.
On to the crews!
The base box comes with 2 crews, the Black maria and The Ion hope, but I purchased 2 additional expansion pack crews, to be able to get more players on the table ( If I can drum up some interest in my normal playgroup..)
Ion Hope,Left to right: Arianna, Tirgarde, Roykirk and GakBlack Maria crev, left to right: Jace, Beck, Renton and LarsThe Skylark crew: MAC, Marlowe, Faye and WeaverThe Posidon Crew: Thoman, PI, Teelac and Hoskins
And there we go!
All the miniatures of the Core box and 2 expansions painted up. This is a special project for me to boot, as this is the first time I have based miniatures on clear acrylic bases! The bases are 2mm clear acrylic, but I think I should have gone with 1mm instead. As they are 2mm they stick up a bit too much fore my taste.
Been slugging along with my Saga project, trying to get some terrain done in viking area fashion!
What doesn’t define Vikings more than their iconic Longships! This is the drakkar from Thingivers (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:475672) modified a bit as it comes with oars and I din’t really think they would fit on the the table. Printed 170% scale to better get it to match 28mm.
Painted using Normal acrylic craft paint, I made a mistake and primed them black. this was not a good idea, as the craft paints really sucks painting over a black base. But you make do and learn from your mistakes!
Not the kind of people you want to see pulling up to your harbor!
Here you see a bit of scale, the landing is made from coffee stir stick by yours truly, the longship should be able to accommodate 12-15 units, so it fits:
1 Levy or
2 Warriors or
3 Hearthguard
+ warlord and single characters per boat.
Yari-ashigaru for scale to mix things up a bit!
Here we have a saxon monastery, kind of similar that should have been found at Lindisfarne when the first Vikings came looking for riches. As you can see, the roof looks a bit.. “man-made”. This is because my 3-d printer broke and had to make the shingles the tried and true way of manually cutting them out with a scissor. Interested in the file? here it is: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1791150. Printed at 130% scale if I remember correctly.
As you can see, some work done!
Other news!
The seller of the Test of honor book i had bought relented and gave me a refund when their package never arrived, I really looked forward to get the book to be able to build my cavalry units!
My Core space stuff came in… and my fingers are REALLY itching to start working with them..
You might not know it, but I love starting new projects!
This is my latest. Saga!
MOAR BOXES!
I happened to stumble on this gem, for you who are not familiar with SAGA, it is a historical wargame using simple rules for list-building and and combat. The real kicker though is the use of the battle-boards where you use dice (proprietary of course) to be able to trigger ability’s and movement of you troops. I took one look, and knew I had to play this!
So starting with this project I went with the usual route:
Check out the rules -> Check out models -> Check out terrain.
The rules that I will be using at first is the first edition rules, then I’ll transition to the second edition. As this is Saga, there are different time periods to choose between. For me it is the Age of Viking that peaked my interest.
With this in mind, I started picking apart the different factions and the requirements for their models. I found that the selections of cheap boxes that I found could easily make units for the Vikings, Jomsvikings, Anglo-saxons and Anglo-Danes, Scots and Welsh!
The logic in making them was: Celtic warriors depict the Scots and welsh. They need a lot of spear and javelin armed soldiers. This needed a bit of kitbashing, as the most of them came with swords already molded to the bodies. Thankfully the other boxes had a lot to spare. The saxon thengs and viking bondi boxes works for both the viking anglo factions, as historically they kind of had similar kind of clothing. The differentiating factor becomes the head as the boxes comes with nice sculpted heads, for the factions appropriate. The dark age box makes the peasant rabble armed with slings and javelins for the factions, to be shared.
There we have it!
Bonus Norman Crossbowmen! (bonus kitbash, Oathmark elves heads on 2 of them)Some kitbashes and mods, left to right. Celtic head on dark age body, Celtic arm reposition, Fireforge sergeant arms on Bondi body, Oathmark elves heads on fireforge sergant body and bondi head on dark age bodyLeft to right, Celt with anglo head, bondi with fireforge sergeant arms, Theng with sergeant arms, Anglo with sergeant arms and kitbashed Dane axe, celt with dark age warrior armSize comparison. left to right. Saxon Thegn, Celtic warrior, Viking bondi, Fireforge Sergeant, Celtic warrior, Dark age warrior.
As you can see, fairly lot of stuff done, and they fit together scale-wise pretty well. If anything, the only visible thing that does not fit all to well is using the Celts for kit-bashes. The heads they have are really too small ( they only fit the dark age warriors without green stuffing the neck area).
As you can see, all the teams have at least 5 point war-bands to create. Added to that, all the factions have a single warlord model that they take for free.
And there we have it!
Now comes the task of basing and priming, never primed this many models before. I really need to go buy a fresh can of rattelprimer for this one!
I hope the new year has been treating you well. We finally played the last scenario of the wrath of the lich lord campaign, and what a scenario it was!
As you can see, the setup is pretty simple. There was one armoured skelly, and one death cultist mob on the board. Unfortunately none of us had AOE spells, which would have been terrific.
I opened aggressively by jumping the fence, trying to get a good shot off with my coachman trying to leverage the AOE affect he has.Managed to get a great shot off… that faild to deal damage to the 12 armour of the skeleton. This failed spectacularly by never beating the armour of 12 of the 4 other skellys that were hit.
This set the tone of the first third of the game. Me never really getting steam, losing hp and troops to the skellys by rolling horrendously. All the while my opponent was having a stroll in the park, killing the 3 skellys that shuffled towards him and also managing to snipe off some the cultist that came barreling towards me.
Luckily my opponent was helping me, because i was getting thumped BIG TIME.
He proceeded to take some potshots while moving towards the big LL, taking his time and buffing the troops for the confrontation.
After defeating the walls of undead and cultist (while taking elemental bolts from the damn lich dude, who was equally crappy at making damage to stick) I too rushed foreward, luring the wraithknigt near me and charging him with my monk, captain and apprentice. He fell in one mighty hit from my captain, buffed with a magical weapon, +3 buff from his ability and +4 from the allies.
My opponent had got some problems with his wraithknight, proving a mighty opponent with his double damage characteristic, losing some men in the process
After we got the Lich Lord torn to pieces, beeing the tanky dude he is, we got bogged down in melee with each other. My duelist got charged and managed to beat back one treasure hunter and one man-at-arms, stalling them both long enough for my wizard to finish them off. Sadly he perished in the melee.
Whittling down each other and securing 3 treasures each, there was only my wizard, apprentice and captain remaining against his wizard, apprentice and rangifer. My captain got a severe hit from the rangifer, and was finished of by an elemental bolt to the face. Meanwhile my apprentice killed his rangifer in vengeance, and my wizard charged and managed to roll a nat 20, adding to his +5 fighting stat and his +2 magic weapon, the apprentice never stood a chance.
This left me trying to get to the enemy wizard. Him getting the initiative, elemental bolted my wizard to oblivion. I then charged my apprentice (which had only 1hp remaining, against his 5) and hoped to get the initiative for the what would be the last round.
I got the initiative, and attacked him. totaling up our dice, both arrived at 19. That meant that we whacked each other to death and our campaign interestingly ended with no one standing. This campaign was a long process, but ultimately I super fun one.
This concludes our Frostgrave campaign, as we will now transition to Frostgrave second edition (probably, if I get to ordering it instead of procrastinating). I hope you liked it!
Once more I had the chance to play Frostgrave, the ninth scenario of the lich lord campaign. In this scenario, there is a center wheel that has 6 treasure tokens “hanging” from it, and spinning every round.
One interesting detail was that setup was from the corners, definitely an interesting touch!
Got lucky and succeed with my reveal secret spell before we started, easy treasure for the taking!
Always start with a defensive wall if you opponent has ranged superiority. This enable me to go and try to get forward positions up the board.
Slogging in melee while my other troops advance to get treasure!
My opponent saw through me and counter flanked with a captain and treasure hunter, and managed to catch my duelist hiding behind a column.
The great escape!
My opponent got shafted by a banshee early on, and had trouble dealing with it. I got lucky and had a magic sword on my captain. He made short work of it, and then ran interference on the zombies that shuffled into battle. My opponent unfortunately could not catch me, and final score was 4-3 in my favor in treasures.
An interesting scenario! My opponent played too defensively and relied on his shooting. Unfortunately for him, his dice where ICE COLD the whole game and got nothing done. The only ranged attack that got through was a elemental bolt on my apprentice, wich only managed to deal 6 damge.
One scenario remaining!
Our last battle will be against the lich, who knows how that will go..
I recently had a period of great motivation for painting after finishing my box of magnetized Genestealer cult box of Neophyte Hybrids. I wondered what kind of models I might have still laying around unpainted when it hit me!
Star wars armada is basically the miniature game that really got me into tabletop gaming, and my squadrons where still on their flight stands, unpainted. Beeing the oldest miniature game I have, and having my friend that likes armada coming to town for Christmas, I had a golden opportunity to finally paint them.
Loving the tie fighter and Imperial in general, this is where I stared. Imperials being super easy to paint with a limited pallet of colour, paiting them was a breeze. The bounty hunters where a bit more difficult, but still relatively easy.
Next up, the whole fleet of x-wings. These I did’t like that much. The details were shallow, and non existent like the cockpit, so I had a hard time to get them to look halfway decent..
The other rebel squadrons are a definite step up from the x-wings, having good details for being so small.
And there we have it! completed squadrons for the coming games with my friend, a definite step up from the unpainted ones!
Good Enough Hobbies 