2025 in review

Happy New Year! As is tradition, it’s time to look back at the year just gone, and lament the fact that I didn’t suddenly develop hyper focus and stick to just one project. I say this with tongue firmly in cheek though, as despite my claims to my wife that this blog is my second job, I’m not actually getting paid to do it so I’d much rather paint things as they take my fancy rather than trying to paint in a ‘businesslike’ way. Spoilers for later in this post - it’s probably only going to get worse this year…

Tally

Having managed to squeak in a House Stark dog handler (although in hindsight, House Bolton probably makes more sense) before the end of the year, the Tally ended up at 52 vs 309 = -257. I’ve just realised - the blog has been running for 15 years now! I know the internet has changed, and blogs aren’t the thing any more, but I think I’ll keep posting even if it ends up being only Suber reading all of the surviving blogs.  So, 15 years of stats:

2025: -257 (52 painted)

2024: -142 (62 painted)

2023: -194 (33 painted)

2022: 0 (85 painted)

2021: +16 (52 painted)

2020: -100 (47 painted)

2019: +3 (46 painted)

2018: +52 (52 painted)

2017: -14 (47 painted)

2016: -287 (56 painted)

2015: -96 (59 painted)

2014: 0 (80 painted)

2013: -416 (25 painted)

2012: -103 (68 painted)

2011: -173 (122 painted)

And as always, a graph:

It’s always slightly surreal seeing other people’s end of year posts where they say ‘unfortunately due to various issues I was only able to paint 763 28mm this year, as well as a variety of vehicles, terrain pieces, and one 1:1 scale battleship’. Around 50 is a standard year for me, and 100 would be a bumper year!

Posts

31 posts last year, which is on the lower side of average. It was an odd year - no posts in February, as I was busy enjoying my new ps5, and then the lull over the summer caused by having to find somewhere new to live not leaving much time for painting miniatures. Once we were settled in, I got cracking with Zomtober and doubled the number of miniatures I had painted so far for the year, and things were looking up. Then I got signed off from work the day before Halloween, and I suddenly found myself with time to play some games. 10 posts in December too, which  nearly a third of the entire year’s output. So the secret is to not go to work, noted. Not really a sustainable plan in the long term though, especially since I’ve already started back at work… 

Last Year’s Challenge

• Finish at least one playable force for a game

I did not in fact do this. This year though Gadget, this year…

• Play at least 4 games in 2025

This I actually managed, playing 5 games of Frostgrave, but it was enabled by getting signed off of work for 2 months which left me a lot more time for games than I usually have… next year I’ll have to try and get games in more regularly throughout the year!

• Prep all the monkeys in the monkey box

I was actually tempted to try and get this done this year when I found myself with more free time than anticipated (the box is actually next to me as I type this), but got sidetracked by things like playing games. Admittedly, I did buy the first three modern Apes movies on DVD after finding them in the charity shops between Christmas and New Year’s, so never say never…

• Convert at least one miniature

Quite a few kitbashes this year, including my Knight of the Order of St Lazarus, an in hindsight unnecessary Man at Arms for Frostgrave, and a bevy of zombies for Zomtober.

• Add to the Monstrous Alphabet project

Only one addition this year, and not a huge one as it was a pair of tiny Intellect Devourers. I actually had a dig through the Monster Manual recently to have a look at what options I have for letters that I haven’t hit yet, but anything that I want to paint that would be useful for the family D&D game I’d need to buy, whereas anything I already have a suitable mini for I didn’t really fancy. 

• Do Zomtober posts

Always! I love a themed post, and this year’s Zomtober actually managed to double the number of minis I’d been able to paint YTD, and set me up to aim for hitting the one mini a week average by the end of the year…

• Do a May the Fourth post

These themed posts are good for getting me to focus, if only briefly with a Mandalorian painted this year. I keep being tempted to pick up my Star Wars project again for more than just one day a year - maybe of we ever get around to watching Andor season 2 I’ll be more motivated to.

• Do a Festive post

Krampus!

• Average at least a miniatures week (so at least 52 completed miniatures)

It was right, but managed it st the eleventh hour

• Finish more miniatures than I did in 2024 (so at least 63)

The drought in the middle of the year from getting evicted and having to find somewhere new to live didn’t help with this, to be fair

• End the year with the Tally in the positive (hey, I’m an optimist, what can I say)

I mean, I have managed it in the past, but on the other hand, damn those historical manufacturers for including so many miniatures for a reasonable price in their boxes!

Projects (according to the last end of year post)

Board games

My first finished mini this year was from the Umbrella Academy board game, but I couldn’t keep motivated after that. Which is odd, as it’s so much nicer playing with painted pieces, and there are a couple of other games that I’ve recently been eyeing on our games shelf with a thought to getting them painted. I wonder if we’d won the last game of Umbrella Academy id have been more motivated to paint the next lot of enemies…

Frostgrave

Unusually, I did in fact do the things I said I would in last year’s post - I finished off the Mausoleum, and even played through a three scenario mini campaign after playing through the two scenarios I had originally planned to!

Acolyte

The Acolyte is converted, and has some base coats applied, but despite basically living on my painting tile he never manages to be the most attractive mini there, so there he has stayed. 

The Silver Bayonet

Foolishly, I tried to paint the last member of the Unit that I needed to be able to start the solo campaign during my end of year rush to get my numbers up, and he ended up looking a bit French, so I felt like I should use him in a different unit. Probably not helped by having bought the pack of special edition Silver Bayonet minis from North Star, so I’m potentially subconsciously sabotaging myself so that I can paint one of them instead.

Zombies

Still no sign of the Evolutions expansion for Last Days getting a legal rerelease, so my zombie work this year was limited to Zomtober. I say limited, I converted and painted ten more than I do most years…

Star Wars

As mentioned in the Challenge section, I did in fact do a May the Fourth post, but didn’t watch Andor so didn’t get motivated to do more than that. At one point my plan for next year was a relaunched Star Wars project, but as you’ll find out later that rapidly mutated int9 something else.

Cowboys and The Alamo

The closest I came was painting a zombie cowboy last year! My Mexicans remain unpainted, although I did prep the nice metal command for them that my Brother in Law got me from Boot Hill miniatures…

Superheroes

5 miscellaneous X-Men and X-Villains added to the painted total this year, but not any of the ‘proper’ X-Men finished. This may or may not have to do with how much yellow there is to paint on them, which I usually find quite tricky to get a finish that I’m happy with on…

Cyberpunk

I finished the videogame recently, but that doesn’t really count for this. A bunch of the minis that I dug out for this project have actually gotten folded into another project that is reappearing on the list this year…

Back burner:

Warhammer, Rangers, Battletech

Nothing really happened with these, unless you count me painting the tents that I had bought for the next Rangers of Shadow Deep scenario. I also bought a bridge for the same reason, although I haven’t even cracked the shrink wrap on that yet…

2026 Projects

Warriors of Athena

This comes out in February, so I’ll be grabbing both books as soon as I can. I’ve accrued a bunch of Greek sprues, so the plan is to grab some pals, stick on Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans and kitbash warbands. I suspect as per Rangers though I’ll need some specific monsters and scenery, which will likely be the biggest hurdle to getting it on the table. 

Firefly

So, funny story. I saw someone over on the LAF was running a series of Star Wars games that were a mashup between Stargrave and another system, and thought brilliant, I could do that, I’ve got a bunch of painted scavengers and Stormtroopers that would do for a couple of enemy types, I could run an Andor like squad of special operatives, and all the scenarios work by just filing off the word ‘Pirate’ and saying ‘Empire’ instead. Then I thought about it a bit more, and thought that actually I could dig out my old long back burnered Firefly project, and run a crew of ne’erdowells doing moves in the ‘verse, and all the scenarios work by just filing off the word ‘Pirate’ and saying ‘Alliance’ instead… it’s not going to be strictly canon though, as there are no aliens in Firefly and I don’t want to limit myself to just fighting human enemies.

The problem with me starting a sci-fi project though is that while I do have some minis that can get press-ganged (scientists and security guards from my 7tv box will work just as well in space, as do more Cyberpunk minis) I’m going to need to build some terrain. Whereas any new fantasy project I start, I’ve now built up enough suitable scenery that it’s a much lower barrier to entry (and I know, I can do sci-fi games in the wastelands fighting over rocks, but I’d like some thematic stuff!)

Barons War

I got the starter set for Christmas, because I am now of an age that I’m interested in historical gaming, and knights are cool! I might even see if I can build a retinue with a local history twist, or see if there were any Barons with the same surname as me. On the other hand, I have also been tempted to make a bunch of buff bishops with bare muscular arms, so we’ll see how that goes.

Side note - it’s entirely possible I’ll end up starting a Robin Hood project too using these rules. Or the Third Crusade. Or:

A Song of Ice and Fire

When finding out about Barons War, I was struck by inspiration that it might actually be the perfect rule set to use with my Game of Thrones minis that were largely painted about twelve years ago and never actually got to take part in a game (apart from some of the zombies, admittedly). Which is a shame, as I really enjoyed kitbashing these, and painting small batches to add bits here and there is much more likely to get finished than me trying to paint a big army. Barons War also has a fantasy spinoff called Warhost, which I might have to have a nose at to see if I can lift things - presumably there are monsters, so I could use the Mountain as some sort of troll…the only thing not covered I think would be pikes, but I can probably just count them as spears I guess.

So, vague plans - get the Lannisters and Starks up to 500 point retinues. Try to avoid getting sidetracked into starting new Houses # I’ve already planned what sprues I’d need to make some House Tully troops, but I feel like the sensible thing to do would be to actually finish the Starks first before I start expanding them…

Outremer

My interest in the Third Crusade (with it’s snazzy Templars, leprous knights et al) led me to buy Outremer Faith and Blood, a small scale skirmish game that it would be nice to build a band or two for. Rumour is that the Barons War Outremer expansion is going to get updated to Second Edition in the near future too, so if they run a kickstarter for that I might be tempted to pick up a few bits and bobs…

Silver Bayonet

One more mini and I have a playable Unit! I have a vague idea that I’d like to play through the Krampus mini campaign that Goonhammer published next Festive season, which is apparently suitable for more experienced Units, so in a world where this was my only project I’d play through a few solo scenarios to prep for that…

Frostgrave

No definitive plans for the further adventures of Tim the Necromancer, but the good thing about Frostgrave is that I’ve got what I need to play a variety of scenarios if the fancy takes me. Knowing my luck though, I’ll get it into my head that I want to play a scenario that needs specific monsters and terrain painting, so we shall see…

Alamo

The vague plan has always been to play through a connected set of scenarios, with the Alamo siege itself being a series of separate scenarios the results of each will affect the final battle, and then doing the battle of San Jacinto. I’ve got ten years until the two hundredth anniversary of the Texas Revolution, so I figure if I paint at lest one unit a year between now and then I should have enough. That’s doable right?

Zombies

I’ll do Zomtober next year, as always. I haven’t decided on a theme yet - will I go back to adding to my Zombieslayer Warhammer zombies? Will there be space zombies? Or will I go back t9 my original love as per the header of this blog?

Star Wars

I’ll do May the Fourth, but I can’t commit to any more than that. The previously mentioned idea to do Star Wars Stargrave isn’t off the table though…

This is definitively too many projects. But I am excited and enthusiastic about so many things, even as my rational brain points out that I can’t really do all of them…

Back Burner:

The usual suspects, Doctor Who, Warhammer, Battletech, Acolyte, Superheroes etc. they’re not my main focus, but if the fancy takes me…

As it’s the fifteenth anniversary of the blog, I thought I’d take a quick look back at the projects from my very first blog post and see what fifteen years of progress looks like:

Primary Projects:

Zombies

Although I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as my main project these days, I painted a bunch more stuff and actually played some games. I had originally planned to use my own rules, but then found Last Days which did the things I was planning on doing but better, with the benefit of also being able to buy whole rather than having to develop myself!

Three Kingdoms

I have painted a single mini for this project twelve years ago. There’s I think 32 in various states of basecoat though, as if that makes it any better…

Firefly/Serenity

I painted about half dozen minis for this project here and there. But next year it’s back on the agenda!

Strange Aeons

I actually painted a useable Threshold team, and a few monsters, but not enough to ever get a game of it in. Some of the monsters painted for this are actually being used by em4 on their website, and in their marketing emails sent out in the last month though, so that’s nice.

Doctor Who

Always on the back burner, but never fully off it, I’ve added bits here and there. My plan recently was to watch the series with my children and then use that as an on-ramp to some miniature gaming, but they found it too scary so that’s on pause. I’ve been converting some Torchwood troopers with the hopes of having enough to be able to play through the old Crooked Dice Canary Wharf booklet though, so if I can get some more beret wearing heads you may see more here in the future…

Secondary projects:

VSF

The “whole bunch of converted ministures” mentioned in that original post are in fact still in that same drawer. I’ve gone off the brits a bit though, they were converted from Wargames Factory Zulu war brits which were frankly shonky, no matter how nice the head from Ramshackle Games I stuck on top (and to be fair, my attempt at VSF-ing their rifles using pins and tiny beads doesn’t look great). I actually quite like my Martian conversions though, so maybe one day they’ll see the paint tile…

AEWWII

Nothing painted since I launched the blog. I actually found my box of unbuilt minis for this the other day…

Warmachine

I’ve painted some mercenaries, but no actual faction models. I do occasionally buy them though… they brought the game back, which is of little interest to me, as I was always more into the old lore and they blew up the world (but in a narratively sensible way, as it had been leading to that for something like nineteen real years, as opposed to the Warhammer Fantasy way).

Anima Tactics

I painted a single mini in 2011. I did steal some hefty inspiration from the rules for this game for the energy mechanic I use in the Gundam game that I play with my kids though…

Evil Genius/7TV

I’ve added bits here and there, but nothing since 2018 - I did buy Evil Genius 2 in the PlayStation Christmas sale though, which had me digging through my drawers of miniature and lovingly eyeing those Copplestone sculpted guards in hard hats…

Marvel Superheroes

Probably the project that actually gets the most regular love, whilst still being quite irregular. Being able to add a model here and there as it takes my fancy seems to be the key to success (as shown by me having stalled a bit trying to get too many X-Men prepped at once). I’ve played some games of Super Mission Force with my children using these, and there are also a bunch of Batman minis painted too that could probably get a run out using the same rules…



GW:

Hmmm, well. The biggest takeaway in the last fifteen years is that I realised that I’m not the target market for modern GW, and I’m fine with that. I still have vague plans for Mordheim, classic Warhammer Fantasy etc, but they’re so far on the back burner you can only see them with a sufficiently powerful microscope.

Fantasy

• Night Goblins - I think I painted a single mini? I struggled getting a skin tone that I liked, which has slowed progress somewhat…
• Skaven - the plan was to play some 500 point Eighth Edition, but it turns out I’m not a huge fan of batch painting. I painted an entire unit of slaves over the course of a month, which was a pain but did in fact result in me having a finished unit, as opposed to trying to paint clanrats half dozen at a time, which has not.
• Dwarves - Gotrek is a dwarf, that counts right? Another project that mostly lives in boxes…
• Mordheim - I still have the boxed game and enough miniatures for three plus warbands. My plan at the start of Covid lockdown in 2020 was to crack on with these - I wrote out warband lists, planned some conversions, and then a buddy introduced me to Rangers of Shadow Deep…

40k

• Witch hunters - a couple of inquisitorial henchmen, which may one day see use if I ever finish my Acolyte…
• Chaos - my Huron Blackheart mini has been undercoated for so long they’ve actually gone and produced a new sculpt…
• Space Marines - I actually made a start on getting a small playable force of Space Marines painted. Then Primaris became a thing. Also, I think I’ve lost interest in 40K a bit as they’ve revamped the rules so much, whereas for several previous editions the core was basically the same so I could trick myself into thinking that I could jump back in at any time…
• Orks - I did not in fact come back to these, and sold them on eBay. Occasionally I regret this, largely when thinking ‘boy I should start a Gorkamorka project’, but luckily these thoughts are usually easily squashed back down where they belong.
• Blood Pact - those conversions are still in a box. Every now and then I’m tempted to go back and start Gaunt’s Ghosts from the start again, which would probably make me want to revisit these, but the conversions are pretty wonky even for me…

So overall, it looks like I’ve not really done anything on the things that I was planning to do when this blog started!how have I managed over 500 posts then? By constantly starting new projects I guess… I’ve actually managed to play some games with my toys in recent years though, so I’ll call that a success!

2026 Challenge

So, here is the challenge for the coming year:

• Finish at least one playable force for a game
• Finish at least one unit for the Alamo project
• Play at least 4 games in 2026
• Prep all the monkeys in the monkey box
• Convert at least one miniature
• Add to the Monstrous Alphabet project
• Do Zomtober posts
• Do a May the Fourth post
• Do a Festive post
• Average at least a miniatures week (so at least 52 completed miniatures)
• Finish more miniatures than I did in 20245 (so at least 53)
• End the year with the Tally in the positive (hey, I’m an optimist, what can I say)

Some will succeed, some will fail (again, finishing a unit for the Silver Bayonet involves painting one miniature!), but we shall see - and as ever, these are going to be something to hopefully give me some structure or drive inspiration for things to do, rather than being a chain to best myself with…

Hair of the dog

Hey, I’m on a deadline, not every punny post title is going to be a winner.

Seeing as how I keep rolling wild dogs in Frostgrave, keep poking speculatively into my Song of Ice and Fire project box, and they are mostly fur so could be drybrushed quickly, this pack of dogs and their hirsute handler got launched up the painting queue to get my finished numbers up before the end of year Tally reset:

Apologies for the terrible pictures again, I was basing them this morning when I noticed a couple of spots that needed touching up, and I didn’t then get a chance to do that until after my children were abed, at which point there wasn’t any natural light available to take nicer pictures.

Fun fact - while adding the greenery to the dogs bases I zoned out and accidentally applied the same pattern of flock and grass to all of them (flock on the right in the centre, grass to their left), which I only noticed about three quarters of the way through and had to quickly try and jazz it up a little so that they would look less uniform.

Finishing these brings the Tally to:

52 vs 309 = -257

So, I’m unlikely to get it back in the black by the end of the year, but I have at least dragged my average back up to at least one mini a week!

Ex-terminate!

 …wait, wrong franchise.

So, I watched the first Terminator movie while wrapping presents last week, and watched T2 while prepping veg on Christmas Eve, and so I dug out these minis to get my numbers up by the end of the year:

Terrible pictures, unfortunately, as I didn’t manage to get pictures dome while there was still natural light available. 

These were great fun to paint, and look great after just a base coat and a dark wash, let alone going back to add some scrubby highlights! I actually messaged a pal that I know has a Necron army asking if painting them was as much fun as this…

These were originally part of a bit lot of old Grenadier minis that I acquired many years ago (potentially the first time the Tally got absolutely wrecked) and were in pretty shaky shape - one guy had a missing arm, that I cunningly disguised as battle damage by the addition of some paperclip hydraulics, whereas another two were actually snapped off at the feet and needed some very careful drilling and pinning to get them back on their feet as it were.

Quite a few of them got skulls on their bases too, as one of the most iconic images from the franchise is the human skull being crushed by a robotic foot (and apparently the future is absolutely littered with them).

Theoretically I should have stuck these on 30mm bases, if I was going to use them with my post-apocalyptic survivors, but I went with 25mm rounds instead as they’re most likely to actually see play in Stargrave as generic robots. ‘Wait, Stargrave?’ I hear you ask - you’ll have to wait for a future post that talks about projects for next year…

Finishing these 8 brings the Tally to:

47 vs wait it’s been Christmas, I got the Barons War starter set:

Which is chock full of little knights and whatnot, so the Tally actuslly stands at:

47 vs 309 = -262

What’s next? At least 5 more finished minis before New Year’s Eve I hope to hit that Challenge!

Ho Ho Ho, Hairy Christmas

 I know, I know, that’s a terrible (barely even a) pun, but here we are nevertheless.

This year’s festive offering is North Star’s limited edition Krampus miniature:

He came in a pack of Silver Bayonet minis, although there aren’t officially any scenarios featuring Krampus. I did stumble on some unofficial scenarios over on Goonhammer though, so maybe next year I could play through those at Christmas (assuming I ever actually finish my Silver Bayonet unit - I’ve started painting the last member, but think he looks a little French so might have to replace him).

He’s quite difficult to photograph, being so dark. Except for his hooves, which I took inspiration from the official paint job for and provide a nice little pop of colour.

My son saw that I was painting this, and asked if I could include it in the family D&D game so he could fight him to save Santa. I wasn’t going to be able to finish it in time for the scheduled day, so had planned something else (involving Frosty the Snowman and a Paindeer). Then on the scheduled game day, the other half of the family spent the day throwing up, so we've had to postpone… maybe I’ll add him at the end to foreshadow next year’s festive session! 

As of writing this draft, the Tally stands at:

39 vs 255 = -216

But I’m writing it the day before, and I suspect I will have opened some 28mm scale presents by the time you’re reading this…

The adventures of Tim the Necromancer: House of the Golem

Potentially for the last time this year, I was able to take Tim for another spin in the frozen city to finish off the Hunt for the Golem mini campaign. Having studied the rampaging Golem, Tim has decided it’s time to steal it - and if he can’t (which is entirely possible, as it has now been responsible for many deaths), he could probably try to reverse engineer it from it’s smouldering corpse…

I set up the board as best I could to look like a ruined factory, with multiple rooms that have been smashed through. I rolled for random monsters, adding one result to each table edge and treasure token, coming up with a boar, Small Construct, Minor Demon and 5 zombies on the board:

The Golem, as per the scenario, was placed 10” from the centre in a random direction, ending up behind a wall on the left hand side.

Team Speedy (also known as ‘Team Have Bows’) set up first on the right hand side of their table edge, planning to hopefully pick off the relatively weak zombies on that side before swooping in to clear out the treasure.

Tim sets up on the far left with the Knight, Barbarian and Apothecary - with a Boar, Minor Demon and the Golem clustered just ahead of them, it was likely that this corner of the board was going to feature the bloodiest fighting! Because of this, Team Apprentice sets up just to their right, and consists of the Apprentice, Thug, Man at Arms and Warhound, hoping to be close enough to cast spells on the Golem, as it’s likely that taking control of it could be key to success!

Tim and the Apprentice cast their pre-game spells, and Tim excitingly gets a critical success raising a zombie, which means that the gang gets to add a Ghoul instead (better, faster, stronger). He then follows this up by failing to cast Brew Potion, but the Apprentice succeeds in making a Healing Potion, which he gives to Tim to replace the one he used last game.

To kick things off, Tim starts strong by successfully casting Control Construct on the Golem, bumping the total to 18 using his Staff and Ring of Power, but despite this the Golem succeeds in resisting his control. At this point, I stop and ponder - if I had been successful, I could have just run it straight off the table next turn to immediately ‘win’, and I decided that would be no fun so no doing that for at least a couple of turns.

The raised zombie/ghoul, Knight and Barbarian cautiously advance, positioning themselves just outside of the charge range of the boar’s fearsome tusks, and also hiding just behind the ghoul to avoid someone that isn’t instantly replaceable getting blatted by a thrown rock from the Golem!

As expected, the Golem hoys a rock, but due to poor rolls the raised ghoul ‘lives’ on to fight another day. That other day may come sooner than expected though, as the Golem then stomps over to loom over it…

In the Apprentice Phase, the Apprentice considers also trying to cast Control Construct, but settles for casting Strength on the Knight instead. The Warhound charges in to engage the Golem, and everyone else piles in to hide behind a low wall from the Minor Demon behind the Golem, ready to pounce on the Golem next turn. 

Looks like most of this game is going to take place in about one square foot of the board…

The monsters all start making their way towards the gang, and I realise that I’ve messed up, and left the Warhound within charge range of the boar, and so it does! Luckily for the Warhound, it rolls very badly and the Warhound bites it down to 1 Health.

I’ve on the right, the Captain zips off an arrow at an approaching zombie, dropping it to 1 Health - I’ve had this (almost but not quite taking monsters out) happen quite a few times in the last few games. Maybe I need to track down some items that buff everyone up to do at least one more point of damage! The Tracker tries to finish it off with an arrow of his own, but missed, so Team Speedy huddle by a low wall of their own hoping that the zombies won’t notice them and will wander off. Tactics!

Unfortunately for them, a Giant Rat appears just behind them at the end of the turn:

As the new turn begins, Tim attempts to cast Control Construct again, but fails so badly that exerting to make it a success would cost him more than half of his Health. He briefly considers it (that’s what Healing Potions are for after all) but decides that it’s just too risky with when there is also a Boar and Minor Demon rushing at him (and anyway, he rolled a 2, so maybe worth it next time with a less terrible roll). Then, it’s a case of trying to work out who to activate, and in what order - the Warhound activates first and finishes off the Boar, leaving him unopposed to support the Knight who runs in to chop at the Golem with his magic sword and Strength spell enhanced muscles (although he does move around the Warhound to attack, in order to leave a gap for the Barbarian to have a go at the Golem if all that isn’t enough). The combination of an above average roll and the aforementioned magic sword and magic muscles (and a bevy of supporting companions) result in him dealing it an impressive 11 points of damage, dropping it to only 5 Health. The Barbarian then dashes into the gap left by the Knight to finish it off, and also manages to deal 11 points of damage, chopping it down and claiming the Script of the Golem for Tim! I guess Tim gave up on trying to capture it, and figured it was safer to study it while it wasn’t actively attempting to murder him and his employees…

There’s still treasure to gather though, so the Apprentice sends the Ghoul/zombie forward to fight the Minor Demon, figuring that it’s better to try to pin it in place so that everyone else can bundle it later, rather than letting it assassinate whichever lone character it can get its hands (tendrils?) on. The zombie gets smashed for 4 damage, but survives to fight on. The Apprentice then tries to cast Control Undead on a wild zombie loitering behind the Minor Demon, in the hopes of setting up a flanking situation, but suffers a critical fail on the casting roll, meaning he can’t try to cast that spell on this particular zombie for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately the Man at Arms (who is a better fighter) is just slightly too far away to be able to fight the Minor Demon this turn, so the Thug who is slightly closer steps up to fight alongside the gang’s ghoul/zombie, but loses the fight and suffers 2 points of damage. The Man at Arms dutifully runs in to join them, hoping that next turn some better fighters will be able to get there to relieve them!

In the Monster Phase, the Minor Demon rips apart the already damaged ghoul/zombie with ease, and all the other monsters on the board menacingly close on the bundle of juicy targets clumped together on the left hand side of the board. Over on the right, two zombies can no longer see Team Speedy - one shuffles off in the wrong direction, but the other continues forward, towards Team Speedy’s hiding place:

The Giant Rat that recently appeared charges in to attack the hiding Tracker, and crits, which is enough to take the Tracker out of action in one bite. Seeing this, the Captain quickly puts an arrow in it, then she and the Thief charge into the zombie that is between them and the nearest Treasure Token, and although the Thief is able to land some pretty solid hits she isn’t able to finish it off, and they remain locked in combat.

To add insult to injury, a randomly determined piece of terrain collapses, so a chunk of ruin behind Tim and the Apprentice crumbles to nothing. On the other hand, no more monsters appear, so maybe my luck is turning…

Tim cuts to successfully cast Control Undead on the zombie behind the Minor Demon, before sending the Barbarian in who manages to strip the Demon of half of it’s Health. He then shuffles forwards a bit, as last turn he lagged too far behind to be able to activate the Knight in the Wizard Phase. Next, he sends the Warhound in to finish off the Minor Demon, but unfortunately the Demon gets a crit and takes the hound out of the game.

After Tim has finished activating his group, the Apprentice cuts to successfully cast Control Undead on a different zombie to the one he crit failed against previously, planning to send it back across to the right hand side of the board to assist Team Speedy. And that’s it, as he has also lagged behind, and doesn’t have anyone near enough to activate in the Apprentice Phase.

In the Monster Phase, both monsters in combat attack, but in a change of fate both lose their fights and are taken out of action by Tim’s gang, the zombie by the Thief and the Minor Demon by the lowly Thug!

Buoyed by this sudden victory, the Captain looses an arrow at the zombie that they had previously wounded and crits it, leaving the right hand side of the board now suddenly clear of enemies, so she and the Thief dash ahead to secure a pair of Treasure Tokens. As the Thief grabs the central Treasure Token, 4 Giant Rats scurry onto the board just ahead of them…

While the Apprentice controlled zombie attacks the last uncontrolled zombie (doing 2 points of damage) Tim’s controlled zombie attacks the Small Construct that has been slowly but surely closing on the gang cutting it down to 5 Health, and it seems like the dice are definitely favouring me this turn.

Writing that down obviously tempted fate a little too hard though, as my next roll is absolutely terrible and the Thug is wounded by the Small Construct when he charges in to fight it. As is the Man at Arms when he also joins the fray. Dammit.

The Knight also stomps over to join in, but it takes both of his actions to actually get into combat so righteous violence will have to wait until next turn.

As the turn ends, a skeleton enters the board on the right hand table edge, next to the group of Giant Rats - which is less than ideal, as all of the fighty types are over on the left, and threats seem to be massing on the right around the Thief and Captain!

On the aforementioned left, the Barbarian bundles in to join the combat and manages to pull down the Small Construct, freeing up the 4 other models that were surrounding it.

Tim then marches up and joins them, casting Leap on the Barbarian and sending her flying off to land at the feet of the Thief. The Apprentice suddenly remembers that he has Gloves of Casting, and so probably could have had a crack at casting Control Construct on the Golem earlier. Probably best not to mention that to Tim, he mutters under his breath as he starts heading off towards the right side of the board too. He pauses briefly to lob a Grenade over the head of the zombie in combat with his controlled zombie - and only goes and kills it, in a wildly out of character move!

Ahead of him, the swarm of rats and skeleton boil across the ruins towards the Captain, surrounding the Treasure Token that she was heading towards:

Using the proper encumbrance rules for the first time, the Thief makes a much slower than usual rush towards the north most table edge with a Treasure Token, hoping that no monsters spawn there and ruin her day.

With the Small Construct destroyed, the Knight starts making his slow way over to the right, where the Captain looks fairly imperilled, while the Thug grabs the nearest Treasure Token. Tim had originally planned to raise a new zombie to do the fetching and carrying, but got the Thug to grab it instead lest he embarrass him by failing to cast the spell. As the Thug hoists the treasure under their arm, another Small Construct wanders onto the board, just behind him, so Tim has his controlled zombie lumber over to screen the Thug from it. Unfortunately, the controlled zombie is immediately cut down by the Small Construct (in hindsight, I shouldn’t have made it fight!) so the Man at Arms redirects, and also loses the fight, getting cut down to 4 Health and becoming Wounded!

The turn ends, and an Ice Spider scuttles in on the right hand board edge, making things look even hairier over there…

Tim and the Apothecary both charge in to rescue the wounded Man at Arms - although he does love magic, Tim is actually pretty hench and smashes the construct to pieces with his staff, allowing the wounded Man at Arms to limp off of the board to safety. 

The Apprentice, meanwhile, moves forward to get in Grenade range of the sea of Giant Rats ahead of the Captain, succeeding via a combination of his Gloves of Casting and spending Health, destroying the two closest. The wandering skeleton then moves to attack the Apprentice’s controlled zombie (as it was just closer than the Captain thankfully) and is destroyed. The now reduced swarm of rats manage to make it into contact with the Captain, but exhausted from scrambling through the rubble and ruins aren’t able to attack this turn. Seizing the initiative, the Barbarian charges in and easily cuts one down - the Captain tries to slice the other, but loses the fight (although luckily does not lose any Health). The rest of the gang either head for the Captain if they’re not carrying treasure, or trudge towards the edge of the board if they are. 

At the end of the turn, 2 zombies appear and immediately attack Tim and the Apothecary (maybe I should start having things appear at a random point on the board rather than in the centre to avoid this sort of thing happening). Tim tries to brain one of them with his staff, but even with the Apothecary supporting him gets hit for 6 points of damage, leaving him on 10 Health - this is what people mean when they say Frostgrave can be really swingy - so Tim cracks his Healing Potion. The Apothecary then manages to win a fight against the same zombie, but isn’t able to do any damage to it, and with Tim in the other side of it isn’t even able to push it away from him!

Hearing this scuffle the Apprentice swings across to get line of sight on the zombies attacking Tim, shooting the nearest one with a Bone Dart but due to a good roll from the zombie isn’t able to damage it. Frustratingly, both parties rolled 19, and the defender wins draws when it comes to shooting - one point more and the Appentice would have blown it away!

Back on the right, the rat bites the Captain who uses her Dodge skill to reduce the damage to zero, and the Ice Spider manages to get into biting range of the Apprentice’s controlled zombie. On the left, the two zombies attack the Apothecary, who thumps them both with his staff and pushes one back out of the combat.

While this is going on, the Thief finally manages to make it off of the board with her Treasure Token, and the Knight bundles in to attack the rat currently trying to bite the Captain’s face off. Despite rolling a 1, all of his bonuses still added up to enough to beat the rat’s 10, which wouldn’t do anything to most monsters, but is enough to kill the rat! 

Behind them, the Barbarian dashes forward to attack the Ice Spider, but gets poisoned. Free of the rat, the Captain grabs the last Treasure Token and as she does so a Ghoul wanders onto the board behind the Apothecary - I guess my luck has dried up over on the left… 

At the end of the turn, 2 wild dogs appear on the board, entering on the northern edge. I still haven’t painted any dogs, so they look like weird mushroom creatures today:

Tim, fearing losing a chunk of Health to another bad roll in combat elects to Raise a Zombie instead to bolster his numbers. The Apothecary attempts to take out the zombie between himself and Tim, but loses the fight and 1 Health. 

The Apprentice, feeling like the right flank has things under control heads back towards Tim, exerting for 2 to cast Bone Dart again and this time successfully destroys the zombie. 1 down, 1 to go!

The right flank does indeed turn out to be under control, as the Ice Spider attacks the controlled zombie and is cut down, leaving the entire right hand side of the board suddenly clear of threats. For now, tha5nis, as the mushroom men/dogs rush towards the Knight:

Back on the left side, the Ghoul surprisingly loses its fight against the Apothecary, but due to being armed with a staff he isn’t actually able to do any damage to it but does manage to push it back. The zombie then attacks the Apothecary, who again wins narrowly enough that he isn’t able to deal any damage. Maybe I need to find him a magic staff or something that means he causes more damage, based on how often he seems to end up in combat!

The Captain looses an arrow off at the approaching mushroom men/dogs before heading towards the edge of the board with her Treasure Token, as the Knight charges in to see if he will have more luck in taking it out. He doesn’t, and a crit from the mushroom drops him straight to zero Health in one fell swoop… seeing this, the poisoned Barbarian uses her single action to put herself between the mushrooms and the treasure carrying Captain, as does the Apprentice’s controlled zombie. Luckily, when the end of the turn rolls around no more monsters enter the fray.

Feeling like things are entering the endgame, Tim orders his newly raised zombie to attack the wild zombie next to him, but despite outnumbering it 3 to 1 his zombie is immediately destroyed. I realise at this point that Tim shouldn’t actually have been able to cast that spell last turn due to being in combat, but it achieving literally nothing makes me feel less bad about that. Biting the bullet, Tim swings with his staff again but due to the staff’s inherent damage reduction rule is only able to drop the zombie to 1 Health. The Apothecary tries to finish it off, but unfortunately can’t seem to get a decent blow in, as often seems to be the case. The Apprentice casts Bone Dart on the Ghoul near the Apothecary, but isn’t able to stop it from attacking the Apothecary. Both roll terribly though, leaving the zombie to attack the Apothecary instead - he manages to crit and take it out, leaving Tim now unengaged. Over on the right the wild mushroom/dogs attack the Apprentice’s controlled zombie, chipping away at its Health, but at the end of the phase it is still standing.

At the end of the turn, the Captain escapes with the last Treasure Token, and the Barbarian joins the controlled zombie in fighting the mushroom/dogs, giving it enough of an advantage to be able to pull one down. 

Having failed to take the Ghoul out by combat or shooting, Tim then fails to remove it as a threat by casting Control Undead. The Apprentice steps up and is more successful, and that’s it for the game bar the Barbarian making a fighting retreat while the Apprentice’s controlled zombie is left fighting the lone remaining mushroom/dog…

Post-game:

The Warhound and the Knight survive with no negative effects, but unfortunately the Tracker is Badly Wounded and has to miss the next game.

The Captain gains 30XP, not enough to gain a level again. She does loads in every game, but doesn’t actually seem to be getting many kills, which is where the bulk of her XP would come from…

Tim would have gained 421XP, which caps at 300, enough for him to gain 3 levels. He learns a Flourish to the spell Bone Dart that makes it more effective against Constructs and the Undead, gains a point of Will, and makes Grenade easier to cast, as it’s the spell that probably gets cast the most by the gang (as they always seem to be getting mobbed by groups of enemies).

For treasure, as well as the Script of the Golem gained for destroying the Golem all 3 tokens get rolled on the scenario specific table (as there’s no other time we’ll get to see most of these items) and Tim ends up walking away with a barrel of Construct Oil (which Tim already had), a Book of the Golem and a Mind Wrench, which Tim equips to make future attempts at stealing a golems easier. The Treasury generates 7GC, reduced to 6 after the Captain takes her cut. Not the most profitable result the gang has ever had, but this scenario was more about Tim wanting to learn about making his own mechanised weapons of destruction rather than mere profit.

What’s next? I think I’m going to take a pause in the adventures of Tim to focus on other projects in the New Year, but that’s not the end of him - he might nip back to the library to see if he can find a book about how to animate rather than just steal constructs (or venture into the Necromancy section, to see about learning the flourish that lets him summon a controlled skull using Animate Skull). Or carry on with the solo campaign in Perilous Dark. Plus, his Mortal Enemy might have something to say about his plans - and at this point, I realise that I forgot to roll for his Mortal Enemy at the start of this scenario! I roll now and she wouldn’t have turned up anyway, so we’ll retcon and pretend that I remembered…

One addendum that I forgot to include in my last post - the Tally took a little hit:

I ordered a bunch of bases, and couldn’t resist a lovely Westfalia Amazon on Clearance (as previously mentioned, a mini for a pound is almost irresistible to me) for my Warriors of Athena project. I had some issues with the website I was ordering from, which meant I had to re-place the order a couple, of weeks after my first attempt, and in the interim discovered that the do their own line of bits, so I ordered a few things - a banner pole (because all else failing, I’m sure I’ve always got a need for a rod), a couple of round shields (to see if they would be the right size to replace the now unavailable Hasslefree Hoplite shields that I have used on my House Stark conversions), and some knight helmets with Bishop hats (because the second I saw them I was struck by inspiration, and am tempted to make a unit of battlin’ bishops for Barons War).

Only one actual mini in there though, so the Tally now looks like:

38 vs 255 = -217

What’s next? It’s Christmas, so my painting time is limited in favour of wrapping presents and making space in the fridge for a turkey. I’m not going to get the Tally back in the black (do I ever?), but I could probably finish off 14 minis in the next 9 days to get the annual average up to one a week, right?