Greetings all,
Quick update to say that I am still alive! I'm even doing a little hobby stuff!
A few weeks ago I received an email from Dan (TMWWBK, The 'Rampants', etc) Mersey asking if I'd like to help playtest a new thing he's working on, which is essentially a Sci-Fi skirmish thing along the lines of 'The Rampants'. Well, having play tested TMWWBK and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I decided straight away to say 'yes'. Trouble is, I had no models as I'd sold off all my 40K stuff yonks ago when I realised that those rules are simply not my cup of Darjeeling at all. So I went online and had a quick look around. 40K stuff was an obvious option, but it's very expensive and I couldn't be bothered with buying and stripping splodged plastics from EBAY, so I dug around and found Mantic's Warpath ranges. I fancied a kinda Imperial Guard sort of thing and their GCPS range fit the bill, so I bought their starter set. £60 for 25 plastic marine/ranger infantry, a walker, an armoured car and 4 metal support weapon teams, plus a leader in metal. About half the price of the GW equivalent. You can find it HERE:
Anyway, I've glued some of it together and started painting. The models are great on first look, although the walker was a bugger to put together, but the detailing on the infantry is a tad too shallow, so when I blasted them with Army painter Desert Yellow undercoat spray, some of the detail became a bit obscured. Anyway, I've opted for a 'speed paint' approach - you know, base colours, dip and matt varnish and I'm hoping the dip covers up some of the sins in the painting. for the first time ever, I'm really going for a 'good enough if you look at them from 20 feet away and actually close your eyes' approach! Pictures over the next few days once I've got a unit done...
In other news, I'm back onto my Ancient Italy variant of Lion/Dragon Rampant. I've been doing some writing and have even started highlighting up the hastati I base coated and dipped in September last year.
There's also a new set of rules coming later this year called 'Clash of Spears' which I'm looking forward to (I may end pop not needing my adapted Dragon rampant if they are as good as I suspect they'll be) - it's a small unit action set intended for ancients in raid-style scenarios. Initial looks at the rule book and some basic mechanisms look very encouraging. You can read about it HERE: You can also look a video about it HERE:
I've also been reading 'Early Roman Warfare - The Regal Period to the First Punic war' by Jeremy Armstrong, which basically turns the traditional narrative of the development of the Roman Army's manipular system on its head by very convincingly claiming that Rome never used a phalanx and that the manipular system came from a need to bring together the various clan-based war bands and city levy unit maniples into a coherent functional system during the 4th century rather than breaking an already organised phalanx up into smaller maniples. Give it a read - it's very, very good and very convincing! Find it HERE: Accordingly, I'm making a mid 4th Century BC Roman force in the first instance, with enough troops to also morph it into an early 3rd century force. This means only bronze-armoured troops for the earlier force and even some guys still using round hoplite shields, with the later force having all scutums and a handful of triarii with mail. More on all that once I get some more paint on some figures, which I'm hoping will happen once I move house, hopefully in about 3 weeks!
Well, all this is still small steps, but I am back...I think!! Catch you in a week or so, with first Sci-Fi pics (hopefully)
Showing posts with label Future Plans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Future Plans. Show all posts
Thursday, 23 May 2019
Monday, 13 April 2015
New Project for 2015/16
I am very pleased to be able to announce that I have decided on a brand new project for 2015/16. By that, I mean something to get my teeth into that I might actually finish and that I will actually game (as opposed to all the nice things that I have models for 'cos I like them, but currently have little chance of gaming, e.g Wars of the Roses, French Indian War).
This will be an Indian Mutiny project for The Men Who Would Be Kings. The aim is to have two sizeable forces completed by the time the rules are officially released in August 2016.
The forces will comprise a mixture of units from Mutineer Miniatures and the upcoming range from Iron Duke Miniatures as sold by Empress Miniatures. This means that I will be able to use models from two of my favourite sculptors, Paul Hicks (whose marvellous Empress British Colonial infantry are the 'Suffolk Regt' in my NW Frontier Games) and Mike Owen.
Using the two ranges means I will get the best of both worlds, as Mike Owen is a master of characterful 'character' models and the 'at the ready' and 'march attack' type poses (although IMHO, his firing poses are never quite right) and Paul seems to just have a fabulous eye for great poses - his 'firing pose' figures are superb (check out my 'Suffolks' for proof of that) and he also produces some great models in other poses too. Check out the (currently small) gallery on the Iron Duke website here for initial releases in the range. Also, check out the workbench here...those Sikhs!!! Wow!!
The 'backstory' for my forces is a British Field Force attempting to overthrow the Rani of Rhanjipur (a fictional personage and locality not so loosely based on the real Rani of Jhansi in the Mutiny...look her up) in late 1857/early 1858. This means that all my British troops can be armed with the Enfield Rifle and, as the campaign starts in the 'cold season', I can have a wide range of uniform colours for the Brits, including at least one red coated unit (whereas a summer campaign would see them all in white/dyed various early khaki shades). The story is that rebel fugitives from Delhi have persuaded the (hitherto undecided) garrison regiments in Rhanjipur to rebel. The rebellious Sepoys look to the Rhani for leadership, as they know that she harbours a deep dislike of the British as she has been ill-treated by them since the demise of her husband and, being a woman of remarkable temper and blessed with the personality of command, she is a natural choice to lead...
I have been interested in this period since I was a teenager but have never been able to find a reason to game it. TMWWBK is giving me an excellent excuse to finally put together the forces and have a bash and these new ranges are 'the dog's flopsy bits!!!' (err...that means they area a 'bit good' for those of you to whom English is not a first language or to whom such imagery is unfamiliar!!)
The first order has just gone to Mutineer Miniatures for a bunch of rebellious Sepoys, The Rani and friends and a few of her own private army of matchlock men...
Exciting times!! I will also continue to work on the later Colonials as I still need to get more stuff on the table for that. British artillery and more Pathan Swordsmen will hopefully be complete early next week if not before...
This will be an Indian Mutiny project for The Men Who Would Be Kings. The aim is to have two sizeable forces completed by the time the rules are officially released in August 2016.
The forces will comprise a mixture of units from Mutineer Miniatures and the upcoming range from Iron Duke Miniatures as sold by Empress Miniatures. This means that I will be able to use models from two of my favourite sculptors, Paul Hicks (whose marvellous Empress British Colonial infantry are the 'Suffolk Regt' in my NW Frontier Games) and Mike Owen.
Using the two ranges means I will get the best of both worlds, as Mike Owen is a master of characterful 'character' models and the 'at the ready' and 'march attack' type poses (although IMHO, his firing poses are never quite right) and Paul seems to just have a fabulous eye for great poses - his 'firing pose' figures are superb (check out my 'Suffolks' for proof of that) and he also produces some great models in other poses too. Check out the (currently small) gallery on the Iron Duke website here for initial releases in the range. Also, check out the workbench here...those Sikhs!!! Wow!!
The 'backstory' for my forces is a British Field Force attempting to overthrow the Rani of Rhanjipur (a fictional personage and locality not so loosely based on the real Rani of Jhansi in the Mutiny...look her up) in late 1857/early 1858. This means that all my British troops can be armed with the Enfield Rifle and, as the campaign starts in the 'cold season', I can have a wide range of uniform colours for the Brits, including at least one red coated unit (whereas a summer campaign would see them all in white/dyed various early khaki shades). The story is that rebel fugitives from Delhi have persuaded the (hitherto undecided) garrison regiments in Rhanjipur to rebel. The rebellious Sepoys look to the Rhani for leadership, as they know that she harbours a deep dislike of the British as she has been ill-treated by them since the demise of her husband and, being a woman of remarkable temper and blessed with the personality of command, she is a natural choice to lead...
I have been interested in this period since I was a teenager but have never been able to find a reason to game it. TMWWBK is giving me an excellent excuse to finally put together the forces and have a bash and these new ranges are 'the dog's flopsy bits!!!' (err...that means they area a 'bit good' for those of you to whom English is not a first language or to whom such imagery is unfamiliar!!)
The first order has just gone to Mutineer Miniatures for a bunch of rebellious Sepoys, The Rani and friends and a few of her own private army of matchlock men...
Exciting times!! I will also continue to work on the later Colonials as I still need to get more stuff on the table for that. British artillery and more Pathan Swordsmen will hopefully be complete early next week if not before...
Wednesday, 31 December 2014
Happy New Year!!! Plans for 2015...
As I am out later gigging with my current bunch of ageing rockers known as Sidewynder, I thought I'd post quickly now, as I'll be in no fit state tomorrow.
2014 has been an interesting year. I have suffered major problems with my painting mojo this year and have actually achieved very little. On the plus side, I have made decent inroads into my Colonial collection and the LoTR forces continue to grow at snail's pace. Aside from that, very little. This is a shame as I have a lot of French Indian war/AWI skirmish stuff I want to start gaming and I had hoped too have got somewhere with that, but to no avail.
On the plus side, 2014 has seen a major new gaming interest: Rob Broom's War & Conquest. This has pretty much replaced WAB as my ancients/dark ages game of choice, although I still enjoy Dux Britanniarum and Dux Bellorum. I also enjoyed trying out Lion Rampant and hope to play more of that in 2015.
Plans for 2015 as follows:
1. Continue to expand the NW Frontier collection. I need to finish highlighting & basing 12 Gurkhas in the short term, then move onto a Mountain gun and about 60 more tribesmen, of which 30 have been started. I do have a couple of chaps at the club keen to do a bit of gaming with these.
2. Continue with the LoTR collection. I have decided that my recent 'scour EBAY for painted Orcs to tidy up' is the best way to build up the evil forces. It's not cheap, but it might mean that I get a few games in this side of 2020!!! The Elves, well, we'll keep on with those as and when. I do want to get 12 more and a hero done in the short term, as that'll give me enough for a few LoTR SBG games with son and heir.
3. Finish the Saxon characters I am painting for Andy M at the club...he asked me to do these in September and I have thus far got them undercoated!! Good job he ain't desperate for 'em!!!
4. THE BIG ONE!!!! Complete the late Roman/Arthurian/Early Byzantine/5th-6th century barbarian army lists I am drafting for War & Conquest. I have submitted Romano-British, Early Saxon and Patrician Late Roman (Aetius, et al) to Rob already and am in the middle of Belisarian Byzantines. This latter list is important because Andy MacTaggart and I have plans to do a demo game at our club's planned wargame show in November based on a battle during the Ostrogothic Siege of Rome during Belisarius' Gothic wars in the 6th Century. I will be the Byzantines and Andy the Goths. I therefore need to paint 3 more cavalry units for this (regular Roman horse archers, Roman Bucellarii and Hun mercenaries) and finish the army lists. This could be quite an exciting project and I am about to order the final 12 models from Footsore Miniatures who have taken over the Musketeer miniature ranges. The rest of my army will be composed from my current huge force of late Roman/Arthurian models as they are more than adequate for the army of Belisarius in Italy in the 6th century. This will be a tall order, as 36 cavalry is a lot to paint! To be fair, I can get away with doing 24 and leaving the Huns, so we'll see... Also, 'dip & highlight' is a much more speedy method, so it's not an impossible task. I also have to design the scenario and write a Goth army list. I can see lots of play tests for this taking up most of my gaming time this year...
5. Paint enough models for a Songs of Drums and Tomahawks war band. I have enough Indians for half a war band already but want to paint some AWI American riflemen to go with them. The latter are undercoated and the faces are base coated, so they are under way. You only need 10 models or so, so it's not impossible. They would make a good break from the Byzantines!!
I realise there's a lot to do there. I probably won't get anywhere near most of it, although I am slowly coming out of my painting slump. My New Year resolution is to spend less time on the laptop in the evenings trawling the internet and more time painting and list writing (and playing guitar, as I have a reunion with my old band 9 Lives coming up in Spring/Summer.) If I can manage to use my time more effectively, most of the projects above might get at least some progress in 2015.
Whatever you plan to do in 2015, I hope that it's a very happy, healthy and prosperous year for you.
Please keep looking back at my blog, as I will try to get updates going a little more regularly next year, especially as I get more models painted.
2014 has been an interesting year. I have suffered major problems with my painting mojo this year and have actually achieved very little. On the plus side, I have made decent inroads into my Colonial collection and the LoTR forces continue to grow at snail's pace. Aside from that, very little. This is a shame as I have a lot of French Indian war/AWI skirmish stuff I want to start gaming and I had hoped too have got somewhere with that, but to no avail.
On the plus side, 2014 has seen a major new gaming interest: Rob Broom's War & Conquest. This has pretty much replaced WAB as my ancients/dark ages game of choice, although I still enjoy Dux Britanniarum and Dux Bellorum. I also enjoyed trying out Lion Rampant and hope to play more of that in 2015.
Plans for 2015 as follows:
1. Continue to expand the NW Frontier collection. I need to finish highlighting & basing 12 Gurkhas in the short term, then move onto a Mountain gun and about 60 more tribesmen, of which 30 have been started. I do have a couple of chaps at the club keen to do a bit of gaming with these.
2. Continue with the LoTR collection. I have decided that my recent 'scour EBAY for painted Orcs to tidy up' is the best way to build up the evil forces. It's not cheap, but it might mean that I get a few games in this side of 2020!!! The Elves, well, we'll keep on with those as and when. I do want to get 12 more and a hero done in the short term, as that'll give me enough for a few LoTR SBG games with son and heir.
3. Finish the Saxon characters I am painting for Andy M at the club...he asked me to do these in September and I have thus far got them undercoated!! Good job he ain't desperate for 'em!!!
4. THE BIG ONE!!!! Complete the late Roman/Arthurian/Early Byzantine/5th-6th century barbarian army lists I am drafting for War & Conquest. I have submitted Romano-British, Early Saxon and Patrician Late Roman (Aetius, et al) to Rob already and am in the middle of Belisarian Byzantines. This latter list is important because Andy MacTaggart and I have plans to do a demo game at our club's planned wargame show in November based on a battle during the Ostrogothic Siege of Rome during Belisarius' Gothic wars in the 6th Century. I will be the Byzantines and Andy the Goths. I therefore need to paint 3 more cavalry units for this (regular Roman horse archers, Roman Bucellarii and Hun mercenaries) and finish the army lists. This could be quite an exciting project and I am about to order the final 12 models from Footsore Miniatures who have taken over the Musketeer miniature ranges. The rest of my army will be composed from my current huge force of late Roman/Arthurian models as they are more than adequate for the army of Belisarius in Italy in the 6th century. This will be a tall order, as 36 cavalry is a lot to paint! To be fair, I can get away with doing 24 and leaving the Huns, so we'll see... Also, 'dip & highlight' is a much more speedy method, so it's not an impossible task. I also have to design the scenario and write a Goth army list. I can see lots of play tests for this taking up most of my gaming time this year...
5. Paint enough models for a Songs of Drums and Tomahawks war band. I have enough Indians for half a war band already but want to paint some AWI American riflemen to go with them. The latter are undercoated and the faces are base coated, so they are under way. You only need 10 models or so, so it's not impossible. They would make a good break from the Byzantines!!
I realise there's a lot to do there. I probably won't get anywhere near most of it, although I am slowly coming out of my painting slump. My New Year resolution is to spend less time on the laptop in the evenings trawling the internet and more time painting and list writing (and playing guitar, as I have a reunion with my old band 9 Lives coming up in Spring/Summer.) If I can manage to use my time more effectively, most of the projects above might get at least some progress in 2015.
Whatever you plan to do in 2015, I hope that it's a very happy, healthy and prosperous year for you.
Please keep looking back at my blog, as I will try to get updates going a little more regularly next year, especially as I get more models painted.
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Quick Review of 2012...and plans for 2013.
So, what were the standout gaming moments of 2012 at Geetarhero Towerz?
Well, standing proud at number one is...(drum roll...)
DUX BRITANNIARUM, the fabulous Arthurian wargame and campaign rules from Too Fat Lardies. I truly haven't had this much fun wargaming since WAB's Age of Arthur supplement came out!! Hats off to Rich Clarke and co for a set of rules that is at once both simple yet tactically interesting and that has never-ending 'replay' value. For example, Mike and I have played the 'Village Raid' scenario 3 times now and each game has been completely and utterly different. Brilliant set of rules that I will be playing a LOT more of, as the campaign for Linnius continues. We hope to do a club campaign once the multi-player version is out and we are also eagerly awaiting the Northern supplement with Picts, etc, in it!!. Watch this space for some ideas for migrating it to Middle Earth as well...
Standing a (very) short distance behind at number two is...
The Battle of Catraeth!! This was the Hail Caesar mega game designed by James Morris and including 'the Dark Age crew' from across the country (but primarily Nottingham way...) Playing this game was a joy and a pleasure both when we originally did it for the Wargames Illustrated 300 article and when we re-ran it Partizan in September! Great bunch of guys, great fun all round and a grand job with the article, Mr Morris (and Mr Faulconbridge on the photos!)
Following up behind in no particular order...
The Age of Arthur and El Cid days in Mansfield organised by Scrivs and Tom. Top days out with top chaps..grand stuff all round!
Our own Age of Arthur day in Peterborough. As co-organiser and MC for the day, it was a pleasure to see people enjoying themselves so much with something I'd had a hand in organising. More of the same sort of thing coming in 2013 I hope...
Getting my models on the cover of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine along with an accompanying article. I really enjoyed that whole experience and would certainly have another bash at some point if they wanted me to do it! Also, my models getting into Deus Vult and Dux Bellorum was VERY nice, plus of course, War and Conquest (or was that 2011? Memory going now!!)
ECW campaign and BIG battle at the club. A new period for me. I quite enjoyed it and the big battle was a hoot...Pike and Shotte is a good rule set!
Saga...continues to be very enjoyable, although my brief foray into a Norman warband sucked...I'm better with Welsh!!
Just getting down to the wargames club regularly!!! After a few years of 'on-off' attendance, I have really enjoyed playing regularly. A lot of that is finding great games to play with great people and I would particularly like to thank Mike, Grahame and Carl for being regular and always splendid opponents across a variety of rule sets this year, plus thanks to Reuben our club chairman, who does a bloody great job organising an... erm... 'interesting' bunch of gamers such as we are. I think we have a great club with a good range of different games going on. It has gone from strength to strength recently and I'm very pleased and proud to be part of it!
Coming up in 2013...
Lots and lots more Arthurian Dux Brit...Mike and I hope to take a game to The Other Partizan, so that'll need some thought and some work...luckily Mike seems to be becoming a bit of a terrain builder expert, so that'll be helpful!!
Dux Bellorum (finally!)
Painting Tolkien stuff....Elves initially (using the silver colour scheme (thanks to all who responded to my recent post!!), then Orcs if I can manage it. I may play LOTR SBG and am going to have a go at using Dux Brit mechanisms to create army profiles and some scenarios set around the part of the 3rd Age pre-the Hobbit, so raids from Angmar into Arnor, Rivendell and Lindon, plus raids from the Misty Mountains, Mordor and East the into Rohan, Gondor, the Dwarf Realms and Lorien/Mirkwood. I reckon that'll be fun to try and hopefully a few folk can be encouraged to give it a whirl at the club...
Maybe painting some more Late Roman/Arthurian era models
Maybe painting Colonials and French Indian War models...maybe actually play a bit of Muskets and Tomahawks...
Hopefully a bit of Hail Caesar.
Organising another WAB day, possibly with a different period/theme...
We'll see how that lot goes this time next year then!!!!! :-)
Well, standing proud at number one is...(drum roll...)
DUX BRITANNIARUM, the fabulous Arthurian wargame and campaign rules from Too Fat Lardies. I truly haven't had this much fun wargaming since WAB's Age of Arthur supplement came out!! Hats off to Rich Clarke and co for a set of rules that is at once both simple yet tactically interesting and that has never-ending 'replay' value. For example, Mike and I have played the 'Village Raid' scenario 3 times now and each game has been completely and utterly different. Brilliant set of rules that I will be playing a LOT more of, as the campaign for Linnius continues. We hope to do a club campaign once the multi-player version is out and we are also eagerly awaiting the Northern supplement with Picts, etc, in it!!. Watch this space for some ideas for migrating it to Middle Earth as well...
Standing a (very) short distance behind at number two is...
The Battle of Catraeth!! This was the Hail Caesar mega game designed by James Morris and including 'the Dark Age crew' from across the country (but primarily Nottingham way...) Playing this game was a joy and a pleasure both when we originally did it for the Wargames Illustrated 300 article and when we re-ran it Partizan in September! Great bunch of guys, great fun all round and a grand job with the article, Mr Morris (and Mr Faulconbridge on the photos!)
Following up behind in no particular order...
The Age of Arthur and El Cid days in Mansfield organised by Scrivs and Tom. Top days out with top chaps..grand stuff all round!
Our own Age of Arthur day in Peterborough. As co-organiser and MC for the day, it was a pleasure to see people enjoying themselves so much with something I'd had a hand in organising. More of the same sort of thing coming in 2013 I hope...
Getting my models on the cover of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine along with an accompanying article. I really enjoyed that whole experience and would certainly have another bash at some point if they wanted me to do it! Also, my models getting into Deus Vult and Dux Bellorum was VERY nice, plus of course, War and Conquest (or was that 2011? Memory going now!!)
ECW campaign and BIG battle at the club. A new period for me. I quite enjoyed it and the big battle was a hoot...Pike and Shotte is a good rule set!
Saga...continues to be very enjoyable, although my brief foray into a Norman warband sucked...I'm better with Welsh!!
Just getting down to the wargames club regularly!!! After a few years of 'on-off' attendance, I have really enjoyed playing regularly. A lot of that is finding great games to play with great people and I would particularly like to thank Mike, Grahame and Carl for being regular and always splendid opponents across a variety of rule sets this year, plus thanks to Reuben our club chairman, who does a bloody great job organising an... erm... 'interesting' bunch of gamers such as we are. I think we have a great club with a good range of different games going on. It has gone from strength to strength recently and I'm very pleased and proud to be part of it!
Coming up in 2013...
Lots and lots more Arthurian Dux Brit...Mike and I hope to take a game to The Other Partizan, so that'll need some thought and some work...luckily Mike seems to be becoming a bit of a terrain builder expert, so that'll be helpful!!
Dux Bellorum (finally!)
Painting Tolkien stuff....Elves initially (using the silver colour scheme (thanks to all who responded to my recent post!!), then Orcs if I can manage it. I may play LOTR SBG and am going to have a go at using Dux Brit mechanisms to create army profiles and some scenarios set around the part of the 3rd Age pre-the Hobbit, so raids from Angmar into Arnor, Rivendell and Lindon, plus raids from the Misty Mountains, Mordor and East the into Rohan, Gondor, the Dwarf Realms and Lorien/Mirkwood. I reckon that'll be fun to try and hopefully a few folk can be encouraged to give it a whirl at the club...
Maybe painting some more Late Roman/Arthurian era models
Maybe painting Colonials and French Indian War models...maybe actually play a bit of Muskets and Tomahawks...
Hopefully a bit of Hail Caesar.
Organising another WAB day, possibly with a different period/theme...
We'll see how that lot goes this time next year then!!!!! :-)
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