Lion Rampant – It's Here!

I'm lucky to have been a play tester for the medieval large scale skirmish game Lion Rampant by Dan Mersey, of Dux Bellorum fame. I have now received my complimentary copy and had quick skim through the book. This is the first time I have my name in print in a wargames book, which of course is very flattering indeed. I had to show it to my fiancée who was suitably impressed (or at least pretended to be).

Lion Rampant has the usual high production values of Osprey's Wargames series – the layout is the same used in the other books in the series and it's filled with a smattering of gorgeous illustrations taken from their regular reference volumes, together with some really nice pictures of painted models and terrain used both as illustrative examples and as pure eye candy.

We've played a fair number of games of Lion Rampant by now, in various iterations, and the rules give a fast and fun experience – highly recommended for a club night or similar. You can find a bunch of AARs from our games on the excellent blog of Dalauppror. He has been even more involved in the development of the game than me and have a couple of picture of his stunning minis in the book – very well-deserved if you ask me.

A standard 24 points retinue, as the armies are called, numbers around something like 40–50 models, depending on how you choose to organize it. This means it's pretty easy to get into the game, as you don't have to paint up droves and droves of models. My own retinue – the medieval host of the Novgorod prince Alexander Nevskij – is 42 models strong, with a mix of mounted and foot troops.

The book is out now, and well worth checking out.

Novgorodians 9

I've completed the final 6 models for the Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project. Oh yes, it's always a nice feeling when a project is finished.

Here they are in all their splendour:

Another angle:

The models are all from Gripping Beast.

And finally, here is a shot of the two city militia forces as I will field them, armed with a mix of spears and missile weapons:

We had our first game featuring the Novgorodians last night – an ambush on a Swedish baggage train of sledges – and they performed surprisingly well. This was also an opportunity to take some pictures of the whole force with some nice looking terrain in the background. An AAR should eventually appear on Dalauppror's blog. Meanwhile, here is a teaser pic of the table from the Novgorodian starting table edge:

In the upper right corner, you can see the Swedish force, just visible behind the woods.

Hopefully some of the pictures will make into the finished game when it's published by Osprey sometime next year.

As a result of this project being completed, there is now a serious dent in the lead mountain. But fear not! I've already ordered more models to restore the mountain to its former glory – and then some – for future projects.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Novgorodians 8

These past weeks have been quite hectic at work and the Midsummer celebration this week didn't help much either. I've managed to get some good hobby time in-between, but I'm a bit behind taking pictures and updating the blog.

Anyway, here are the first 6 finished models for the final unit of city milita for the Novgorod force.

The miniatures are once again from Gripping Beast.

Another picture of the shooty gang:

Now it's on to the bases of the final 6 models and then they are finished. Should be fairly easy as my fiancee and son are gone for the whole week, leaving plenty of time for hobby stuff in the evenings.

Have a great week everyone!

Novgorodians 7 – WIP

I've been making some progress on the final city militia unit for the Novgorod force, but not as much as I had hoped. Thus, this week it's another WIP-update, this time of some archers:

The miniatures are all from Gripping Beast. As you may have noticed, I'm using some duplicate models also used in the skirmish unit. Normally I'm not very fond of this (especially not in skirmish games) but the range is fairly limited when it comes to missile troops. However, I'm painting the city militia models in brighter colours, and adding some patterns to the clothes, to make these models stand out from their "copies".

We have a game of Lion Rampant planned for the 24th, were the Novgorodians will make their debut on the battlefield. I'm very much looking forward to this, and to finish this project. As usual, I'm finding it a bit hard to focus in the end of a project  – I'm itching to get started on the next one! – but I'm confident the whole force will be done in time for our game.

Finally, a warm welcome to the new follower cash1204. I hope you will like the blog and find some inspirational stuff here.

'Til next time everyone!

Novgorodians 6

As I had hoped, I managed to finish the rest of the first city militia unit for my Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project during the week. So that's six more models for a total of 12 in the unit.

Here is another picture of the second batch – hopefully a view the enemy never gets to see!

The miniatures are from Gripping Beast and the shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios.

I mentioned in an earlier post that this range, Early Russians, are a bit hit-and-miss. Well, most of the "misses" are on these models. Overall I like them, but some parts/details are not that great to be honest – maybe they are beginning to show their age? Anyway that's enough of my whining for now.

Taking pictures was a bit tricky today because the sun made some parts too bright and others too dark, but I think they came out all right after bit of work in Photoshop. So here are some pictures of the whole unit:

That just leaves one more unit before I'm done with the starter force for this project: another unit of 12 city militia, this time mostly shooters. In games I'll combine these to get two mixed units with both close combat and shooting abilities. Hopefully a recipe for success ...

Finally, a warm welcome to my new follower Rosbif. Thanks for joining up, I hope you will like the blog and find much of interest here.

Novgorodians 5

The first half of the first unit of city militia for the Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project is now finished.

Not much to add really, except I've decided to wait until the whole unit is finished before I do the bases. Hopefully they should be done during next week.

And here are some pictures, more to come when the unit is finished and I've added the snow to the bases:

 

The miniatures are from Gripping Beast and the barely noticeable shield transfer is from Little Big Men Studios.

Finally a welcome to the new follower Johan Qvarfordt. Thanks for joining up, I hope you'll like the blog!

Novgorodians 4 – WIP

The final units for my initial Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project will be two units of city militia, each of 12 men. They will be armed with a mix of spears/hand weapons and bows/crossbows to get me some shooting power – apparently the Russians were greatly feared for this, something I'm of course hoping to re-create!

I'm doing all the models armed with spears and hand weapons first and here is a WIP picture of the first batch of those:

All the miniatures are from Gripping Beast's Early Russians range. Unfortunately, this part of the range is a bit hit-and-miss: some models are very nice while some not so. Also, they are quite slim, or perhaps I should say more "realistically" proportioned? Apparently the Beasties are "re-jigging" this range (I suspect it has something to do with one of the newly released factions for Saga) and it remains to been seen what comes of that.

Anyway, my plan is to use the archers and crossbowmen from the chunkier Medieval range. The match between these ranges is not that great, but I think it will look OK in the end – at least if I hide the shooters in the back ...

Finally, a warm welcome to the new follower Don Hans. I hope you'll like the blog and find something of interest here.

Novgorodians 3

These bow armed skirmishers is the first infantry unit for my Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project. I imagine they are wood cutters or farmers, at home in the rough terrain, who have been drafted in service for the mighty Republic of Novgorod. As such they were painted in muted tones to contrast them against the very colourful druzhina.

Some more pictures:

The miniatures are all from Gripping Beast's Medieval Russians range and slightly stocky. Despite, or perhaps because of, this they're very easy to paint up. Of course, it helps that you only need 6 of them for a full unit ...

Finally, a warm welcome to the new followers ghalgor and Millsy. I hope you'll enjoy the blog and find something interesting here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Novgorodians 2

Here is the second unit of mounted druzhina for my Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project. This time it's a lesser prince – the guy with the nice red fur hat – and his retinue.

The miniatures are once again from Gripping Beast, and the flag and shield transfers are from LBMS.

Some more pictures:

That's all the Novgorod cavalry for now. I might do some steppe riders later, but I've had enough of horses for a while so next I will focus on getting some infantry painted up.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Novgorodians 1

Here is the first unit of my Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project – a unit of mounted Novgorodian druzhina led by their Prince. (Or maybe it's the druzhina of a lesser Prince sworn to Novgorod, I haven't decided yet.)

The druzhinas were the medieval Rus/Russian Princes' retinue. They were in some aspects similar to the western knights, and in some very different: e.g. they were influenced by the Mongols and other steppe warriors, and were sometimes equipped with bows when mounted (although they probably didn't use the traditional "hit and run" tactics usually associated with mounted bow units). They were also free to leave the service of the Prince and seek new employment.

Sometimes I just seem to struggle with certain miniatures, redoing and repainting all of or parts of them again and again. I have no idea why, but these mounted druhzina were definitely some of these. I think I've redone most steps on most of them – basing, posing, painting – until I was happy with them. Consequently they have taken a long time to finish. Of course, being cavalry it's like painting two models in one which also adds to the time.

Originally I was going to do them using my prefered "big army" painting method of base coat, wash and using the base coat as a highlight. However, I thought the models looked too dark (ages) and so I added another highlight to make them look a bit brighter. After this, they came out all right I think. I would have liked some more kite shields, to again make them look less dark ages, but I ran out of suitable transfers.

Despite my thorough testing of techniques for doing snow bases, thanks to Dalauppror's good advice I ended up using the much simpler method of applying a good splash of wood/carpenter's glue in patches on the bases and then just dunking them in the snow flock. Great result with a minimum of work – what more could you want?

Anyway, here are some more pictures:

The miniatures are all from Gripping Beast's Early Russ range, but with some models mounted on barded horsed from their Medieval Russians range to show their status as "senior druzhina". The shield transfers and flag are from Little Big Men Studios.

As we're using this project as an opportunity to playtest the upcoming Lion Rampant rules by Dan Mersey, due to be published by Osprey next year, unit sizes are from these rules: Mounted units are composed of 6 models, and most foot units are 12 models strong.

I'm working on the second unit of druzhina for my initial force, and it should be finished some time next week.

Finally I would like to welcome a new follower: David Brits. Thanks for joining, I hope you'll like the blog

Thanks all for reading!

Snow Bases

Right now I'm working on the first unit for my Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project. Yes, they've been a long time coming for sure. As Dalauppror has already done both his armies with winter bases, of course I'm going to do the same.

There are a lot of tutorials out there for snow bases, as a quick search will show you, but most are variations of a few different recipies. Having never done a snow themed army, I wanted to test a couple of techniques and find the one that suited me best in terms of minimal work (I'm lazy ...) and best look (... but also want my army to look good).

So, armed with some glue and Army Painter's snow flock I set to work. I decided to try out 5 different techniques, and in the picture below you can see the results (click for a bigger view).

The "recipies" for the bases were:
A: Snow flock sprinkled over Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement.
B: Carpenter's glue and snow flock, mixed 1-1.
C: Carpenter's glue, snow flock and water, mixed 1-1-0,5.
D: Carptenter's glue, snow flock, water and light grey paint (Foundry Arctic Grey A). When dry drybrushed with white.
E: Carpenter's glue and snow flock, mixed 1-1. When still wet, snow flock was sprinkled on top.

Here you can see some close ups of the bases (click for even bigger close ups).

The verdicts?

A: This is great for that light, freshly fallen snow look. However, as the flock is not secured it will fall/rub off easily. A drop or two of Scenic Cement will take care of that though.
B: Looks good with a slightly "icy" look. It was a bit hard to apply the mix, as it would rather stay stuck to the cocktail stick I used than stick to the base.
C: Looks a lot like B, but maybe a bit less "icy". The addition of water made it easier to apply than B.
D: This one didn't come out the way I thought – it doesn't look like snow! Also, it's the most time consuming method of the ones I tried. Not a winner.
E: This is perhaps my favourite. It combines the best bits from A and B – it looks convincingly like a thick carpet of freshly fallen snow. Nice.

My idea for the look of the army, was that the novgorodians are on a campaign in the middle of the winter, and so the bases should have lots of snow and not much (if any) vegetation. Thus I will probably use the E variant, but will add some water to make the mix a little easier to apply and also secure the top snow with a drop of Scenic Cement.

Hopefully the first novgorodian unit will be finished soon, and I can post some pictures of it here.

Finally, a warm welcome to my new followers Christopher(aka Axebreaker) and Sean. I hope you'll like the blog!

Have a great weekend everybody, especially those of you going to Salute! I'm not at all jealous of you, oh no ...