I first heard of Bloody Miniatures on The Lardy Oddcast, when Richard Clark waxed lyrical about them and how they had inspired him to write a set of rules for ECW skirmishes. The English or British Civil Wars, or the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, have never really caught my attention for wargaming but I was intrigued by how Rich raved about the quality of these figures, so I popped over to their website. After all, there's no harm in looking is there?
Well, I was floored by what I saw. Even allowing for the fact that Richard (the owner of Bloody Miniatures) is an amazing painter, the figures are stunning. The sculpts are full of individual character, as befits a range intended for recreating the myriad of small skirmishes, sieges and raids that characterised the bulk of the fighting. The figures are large 28mm, having been designed to match the figures released by Bicorne and the now-defunct Renegade Miniatures. There are some useful shots comparing Bloody Miniatures with other manufacturers, and they are appreciably bulkier than some e.g. Warlord and Perry. This doesn't bother me too much, as I don't intend to get many (famous last words!), so Bloody Miniatures and Bicorne Miniatures should provide everything I need for some small-scale ECW skirmish gaming.
Richard also produces an excellent painting guide which I found very helpful, even if I am nowhere near as good a painter as he is.
I have bought several packs - Richard does several deals where you get a discount if you buy several packs, so that's what I did! I actually finished the first of these a month or so ago but hadn't got around to posting them.
First up we have an intrepid lady, ready to defend her manor against rapacious Roundheads, or cowardly Cavaliers! She is escorted by her bodyguard of dismounted Cuirassiers, their hefty armour provides good protection but they won't be going anywhere in a hurry. The female figure is from 'The Gallant Ladies' pack and the bodyguard unsurprisingly is from 'The Unhorsed Cuirassiers'.
Next up we have a detachment of dismounted troopers, armed and armoured with back and breast-plates, pistols and carbines. Richard is a big fan of carrying out small conversions and to this end he produces two sets of heads and weapons to use with his figures. He argues that with a simple hand or head swap you can effectively produce a new figure, and he has numerous examples on his FB page. I have to agree - the figure raising his sword 3rd from right in the picture is actually from 'The Pistoleers' pack and has had his original floppy hat replaced with a lobster-tailed helmet. The figure on the right is also from 'The Pistoleers' pack and the others are all from 'The Dismounted Troopers'.
The light wasn't great when I took these pictures, so I think they are a bit washed-out - I tried adjusting the colour saturation on this photo but perhaps it has gone too far teh other way! Heigh-ho.
The last group is probably my favourite so far and represents an aggressive forlorn hope. Jacket colours in the ECW are a contentious issue, and at the end of the day the evidence one way or the other is often inconclusive or non-existent. Having said that, one of the attractions of the period is the colour - and having looked at the beautiful pictures in the gallery on the Bloody Miniature's website, I was set upon some snazzy jackets, so I have made my choice happy in the knowledge that it looks good to me (even if it might be wrong)! These men are meant to be from Waller's Regiment of Foote and are wearing their yellow jackets with pride!
I have several more packs to go, including muskets and pikes and some devout Scots Covenanters, which I hope to get done over the course of the annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge which I have signed up to for the first time in a few years.
Finally, if you are looking for some suitable ECW reading material, I can thoroughly recommend The Siege of Loyalty House by Jessie Childs, which is full of ideas for scenarios, as well as being an absolutely cracking read.
I was on the Modern Miniature Warfare FB the other day and got chatting about 20mm moderns. The OP was asking about how it looked versus 28mm, so I offered to take some pics of a few of my models. Taking advantage of today's sunshine (a bit too bright but given the pretty grim 'summer' weather thus far, I'm not complaining!), I had a quick photoshoot and here they are. Backdrops are from John Hodgson's Sci-Fi backdrops book.
First up I set up a Chechnya scene, with Russian troops advancing through the ruins of Grozny. All figures are from Liberation Miniatures, which sadly seems to have ceased trading. This is a real shame. Not only was Rolf's modern range enormous and very competitively priced, he was a really nice guy to do business with. The figures are meant to represent an MVD (Interior Ministry) unit - pictures from the time show soldiers in a real mish-mash of uniforms, so the figures are painted up in various different approximations of the camo suits worn at the time. The BTR80s are also Liberation Miniatures, cast in resin with metal turrets. Two are armed with the standard 14.5mm MG turret and one is a BTR80A with a 30mm cannon.
Street-level view of the head of the column
Overhead view of the Command element
Lead APC and section with Command element to the left
Rear section and APC coming up behind the Command element
The whole unit - probably wondering where the Chechen 'wolf-packs' are!
Drone feed of the advancing column!
Next up is a die-cast T80 with ERA. Can't remember who made this - I know I got it online and that it only cost about £5! Not as detailed as a plastic kit, but at that price and from a couple of feet on the table, it more than does the job. The infantry are again Liberation Miniatures, this time two Motor Rifle infantry. The tank commander is also from Liberation Miniatures.
As it was a sunny day I also thought I should take a couple of snaps of my Afghan British. The vehicle in the rear is a Mastiff MRAP - a real beast of a machine! It is a resin model originally produced by Britannia and now available from Grubby Tanks. The Warrior MICV is a plastic Revell kit with a Liberation Miniatures commander. Whilst a lovely kit the barrel of the Rarden cannon is very thin and broke off some time ago. It has been replaced by a metal cannon that comes with Grubby Tanks' Warrior kit - Andy very kindly sold me just a the barrel to replace the broken one. It is noticeably thicker, but significantly more robust.
The figures 2nd and 4th from left in the first picture are both Britannia Miniatures British infantry, again now sold by Grubby Tanks. They are most suitable for the early years of Operation Enduring Freedom and they work very well with Liberation Miniatures in terms of size and style. In this picture they are next to two SOF figures from Elheim Miniatures. They work well enough together; I would say the Elheim figures are a bit slimmer and more detailed, crisper casts, but the Britannia Miniatures do have a certain old-school charm!
You can really see the size of the Mastiff in this picture
Finally, I set up a VIP security detail - figures are all Elheim once again and the cars are re-painted toy cars from Poundland - one of the joys of gaming in 20mm!
Well, as mentioned in a previous post, real life makes for an erratic posting schedule! However, as I am now on a bit of a break, I can start catching up and posting on here.
These are all various Dark Ages figures in 28mm that were actually completed a while ago but never posted, so here they are. Backdrops as ever from John Hodgson.
Firstly, we have some Roman-British by Footsore Miniatures - lovely figures that really capture that sub-Roman society on the wane feeling! I have been a fan of the Arthurian 'period' ever since I read Bernard Cromwell's Warlord Chronicles, but for me these figures are more reminiscent of the figures in Patrick McCormack's novels. These books are a fantastic read (sadly the third in the series was never published but is available as a free download), set in a Britain several decades after the calamitous battle of Camlann, with clashes between Picts, Britons and Irish Raiders. It combines these with flashbacks to the time of Arthur, a golden age full of promise that ultimately went unfulfilled. Well worth the asking price! For gaming this period I use the Dux Britanniarum rules from Too Fat Lardies.
My favourite figure in the range and arguably, one of my favourite figures in any period, full stop! He represents Bedwyr, the last of Arthur's Companions. In McCormack's novels he is a fearsome fighter, and for me this figure projects a real sense of menace and barely restrained violence! In Dux Britanniarum he will be a Champion.
Six Romano-British Warriors. In Dux Britanniarum, they will be Elite Comanipulares, but in bigger games they will probably become leaders of other groups of Warriors.
And here they are joined by Bedwyr
Finally a picture of the leaders of the Warband. From L to R we have Cei 'The Long Man', the Lady Gwenhwyvar, Bedwyr, and Derfel Cadarn 'The Mighty'
Next up are Vikings from Gripping Beast. These are some of the oldest miniatures in my collection, having been bought decades ago when Gripping Beast had a shop in Richmond (I think?) and WHAB Shield Wall was first released. As such, they needed a bit of a spruce up, so I have re-based them and in several cases re-done the paint job. Not my finest work but they look alright on the tabletop from a couple of feet!
These Vikings are represent Jomsvikings, warrior-monks cum mercenaries who were probably an apocryphal creation of the Sagas! Still they look cool, and who doesn't like a bunch of tooled up mercs masquerading as monks.
As an indication of how old these are, they are all on square bases for Warhammer Ancient Battles. They have been put on a Warbases sabot skirmish base
More Jomsvikings
Both groups of Jomsvikings facing off against 'ordinary' Vikings
Same two groups in front of a different backdrop. Obviously they have just come ashore for some kind of religious retreat!
A close up of the Command group
I also have some 'ordinary' Vikings, also by Gripping Beast and bought at the same time as the Jomsviking figures.
A repeat of the pic above, this time with the focus on the group of Vikings in the foreground. Banners and shields are all transfers from LBMS
The same group as above from the front
A second group, this time with some Dane-axe wielding Vikings and a Raven banner, in front of two different John Hodgson backdrops
I am building up some forces for a campaign set in early Third Age Arnor in The Lord of the Rings. At this time, Arnor as a realm still exists (although it is failing), but is beset by the Evil forces of Angmar. In my head this is reminiscent of post-Roman Britain, with the forces of Arnor a pale shadow of the former might of the kingdom, fighting valiantly but ultimately in vain to halt the encroaching darkness of Angmar.
I have lots of Orcs for the foot soldiers of Angmar, but was looking for something to represent the more unusual, spectral elements of the Witch King's army. GW does produce 'Spectres' - undead soldiers reanimated in the service of the Lord of the Nazgul. However, there are only three available poses, and at £11 for three figures, not particularly great value. However, my favourite 3d sculptor - Medbury Miniatures - came to the rescue with a very timely release: Ghostly Gauls.
MM has so far released a good variety of figures armed with axes, spears, pikes and swords. There are also archers, cavalry and a command set with a kingly leader, horn blower and a couple of standard bearers; plenty for skirmishing in Arnor!
One nice feature is spears come as a separate piece with a hand 'cast' on, making assembly less fiddly. It is also very easy to snip off the spear, drill out the hand and put in a more robust wire spear if preferred. The shot below shows the lovely detail on the miniatures.
These will form the undead warband of a long-dead king. I imagine them having been buried in their armour, alongside their favoured weapons. As such I went for a subdued colour palette, that hinted at their ethereal status but that was less 'ghostly' than the Army of the Dead in the LOTR movies. Armour was dulled with age (a heavy wash of Agraax Earthshade over all metal betails like chainmail, helmets, torcs and shield bosses). Flesh was GW Contrast Aethermantic Blue over a white basecoat, and hair was a GW Contrast Apothecary White wash over the white basecoat. This contrasted nicely with the duller armour and clothes and helped the figures pop a little.
Here are the first three, all armed with axes and shields. Much of the fine detail is obscured by the shields but you can how good that detail is on the figure on the left. As always, the background is from John Hodgson's backdrop book.
This shot shows the cloaks, basically just various GW Contrast paints over a white basecoat.
Medbury have also released some 'Rangers', similar in style to GW's Rangers of Middle Earth. So far there are 2 sets of archers and 1 set armed with spears, as well as a set of 4 Ranger Characters; it is this latter set that I have printed out and painted.
I absolutely love these figures! They ooze character, and although they are relatively 'simple' sculpts, they are perfect for leaders in a warband. I have painted these in earthy, wilderness tones - lots of greens and browns basically. GW Contrast Snakebite Leather, Wyldwood and Gore Grunta Fur over an Army Painter Skeleton Bone basecoat are perfect for worn leather belts, clothing, boots and quivers. However for the cloaks I wasn't happy with how the Contrast paint looked and so reverted to normal acrylic paints, in this case AK Medium Green, highlighted up with AK Medium Green mixed with increasing amounts of AK Green Grey. Once again, al the figures are pictured in front of John Hodgson backdrops.
First up we have a hornblower, summoning his Rangers for the charge! I painted the fletching on his arrows red as apparently this is a common practice to help archers see where their arrows hit and so adjust their aim. His cloak highlights are a bit stark compared to the others - I might go back and tone these down, but I doubt it!
Next is a commander signalling to his Rangers, either to hold fast or move up (stealthily of course!). On all of these figures I tried to push my technique for painting faces - normally I just paint the skin and wash it with Reikland Fleshshade from GW. With these I followed the tips for painting faces by Richard Lloyd in his guide on the Bloody Miniatures website. Although meant for painting English Civil War miniatures, there is plenty of good advice for painting 28mm figures. Anyway, I am quite pleased with how this figure turned out and his face certainly stands out! I envisaged him as an older veteran of the wars against Angmar, so painted his hair whitish-gray, which helps him stand out nicely.
This next character I see as the overall leader, and so I painted him slightly differently to help him stand out on the battlefield. I basically swapped around some of the colours - green for his tunic, a darker brown for his cloak (GW Contrast Wyldwood) and Snakebite Leather for his boots - so that he would look different but still coherent with the rest of the characters. I really like this pose - a guardian watching in the wilds of Arnor.
Finally, we have my favourite character in the set - very reminiscent of a certain fantasy movie character! Now although a figure smoking a pipe is going to look pretty incongruous in most (all!) combat situations, the sculpt is just so characterful. It really captures the look of a wizened, weather-beaten Ranger, his worn tunic patched, taking a moment's respite yet still maintaining a watchful presence. I particularly like how the backdrop in this photo adds to the atmosphere, as a shaft of light breaks through the clouds over the moors and hills of Arnor.
And here are a couple of group shots. You can see here that although the leader's clothing is painted differently to the others, keeping to the same colour palette keeps the group looking unified.
All of the Rangers are based using the Gamer's Grass Highland tufts set - perfect for the wilds of Arnor.
Having been bitten by the RPG bug after having read Beowulf: Age of Heroes, I was looking for a solo RPG. Several reviews mentioned Ironsworn and so I headed over to the Ironsworn site to check it out.
First thing to mention is that the entire rulebook is available as a a free-to-download pdf, as well as a print-on-demand book (hard- or softback) from DriveThruRPG! Given that the rulebook is 270 pages long, this is pretty amazing. The rulebook is a high quality, B&W product, with crisp photography and graphics. The pdf version can also be easily navigated by hyperlinks, both from the contents page and embedded within the text. Having bought many rulebooks over the years, I have to say this is one of the best-written and laid out set of rules I have come across. The language is very clear, the mechanics are pretty easy to grasp, and there are several detailed examples of gameplay (which for a total RPG newcomer like me was perfect and really helpful). In addition, the prose is very engaging and quickly draws you into the setting.
Set in the Ironlands, Ironsworn combines a fairly harsh Dark Ages setting with several fantasy elements. However, this setting is fairly loosely defined - just enough detail to get you going, but still leaving plenty of room for you to customise it to fit your own vision of the world. So you can have magic, sorcerers, dragons and elves if you want, or can pare these elements right back and focus more on grim human warriors fulfilling perilous quests. There is a whole chapter in the rulebook that guides you through the process of defining your world, which doesn't take long but is great fun!
A fan-made map of the Ironlands. Ironsworn has a thriving community who produce lots of additional resources for the RPG
This process is really helped by the images in the book. Although all the photos are B&W, they really help you envision your setting. A nice touch (as can be seen in the images below) is that they feature men and women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, further enhancing the accessibility and diversity of the setting.
Probably my favourite picture in the whole rulebook!
The key game mechanic is making a Move - this covers a wide range of situations eg if you are travelling you 'Undertake a Journey', if you want to inflict a potentially devastating blow in combat you 'Strike', you can try and 'Heal' a wound and so on. Although there are a lot of Moves, they all work the same way - you envision the situation, decide on the Move you want to make and roll the dice - 1d6 and 2d10. Your character has certain stats (only 5 so very easy to keep track of) which you can add to the d6 roll to improve your chances of success There are three possible results. First, a Strong Hit where your d6 + stats score exceeds BOTH d10 scores and means you achieve what you want (usually with some small mechanical gain as well). Or you get a Weak Hit where your d6 + stats score only exceeds ONE of the d10 scores; this means your success is limited in scope or there may even be a small negative impact. Finally, you can get a Miss where BOTH d10 scores are equal to or greater than your d6 + stats score and you fail in what you were trying to achieve and there is usually a greater negative consequence on top of that failure.
Shawn Tomkin, the writer of Ironsworn, really emphasises that the RPG should be driven by the fiction, rather than the mechanics. Initially, this was something I found rather daunting - what if I couldn't think of how the narrative should develop? What if I couldn't envision the unfolding story? Wouldn't I just feel silly talking to myself? If I was the 'author' of the fiction, how would I be able to keep a sense of surprise and stop myself from knowing what was going to happen next? I have to say that in the games I have played so far, none of these have been an issue whatsoever. The Strong Hit/Weak Hit/Miss mechanic means you can never be certain of the outcome. Because of this the game can and does branch off in totally unexpected ways. Shawn also provides a whole series of 'Oracles' - tables for generating random events/encounters/characters/locations, which provide further unpredictability.
Shawn also provides lots of other resources to support the game, like Asset cards which give a wide range of additional ways of customising your character - are they a hard-bitten Veteran warrior, a Mystic magic-wielder? Are they accompanied by a faithful animal Companion? Are they a Swordmaster or a Herbalist? There is a POD supplement called 'Delve', which adds rules for quests into the "deepest, darkest reaches of the Ironlands" such as underground caverns, icebound wastes or ancient ruins.
Perhaps most useful of all is 'Lodestar', a 34-page quick reference guide which contains all the core information that you need to get playing, and for only a couple of pounds/bucks on DriveThruRPG it is incredibly good value and an indispensable playing aid.
The front cover of Lodestar. The contents are all B&W
So how does it play? Well, for someone who had never played an RPG, I have to say I am hooked! It is very easy to get going, and any sense of self-consciousness soon faded away as I quickly became immersed in the quest of Einar Ingemarsson and his small warband as they set out to find out what happened to their chief's nephew and hopefully bring him back to safety. Above all, it is just great fun and I am thoroughly enjoying the experience of playing Ironsworn - testament to the excellence of the game Shawn Tomkin has produced. I can heartily recommend it to anyone, whether they have played RPGs or not (Ironsworn can also be played as a traditional RPG with GM and players, or as a Co-Op RPG).
Finally, if you want to get a flavour of what Ironsworn is like, Shawn Tomkin hosts the Ironsworn podcast, where he runs through a Co-Op adventure with his son and explains many of the rules along the way. I also highly recommend the Me, Myself & Die YouTube show, where voice actor Trevor Devall covers all sorts of solo RPG material, including an interview with Shawn Tomkin and an entire Ironsworn campaign (Episode 1/18 below):
Despite playing wargames - both miniatures and boardgames - for many years, I have never played RPGs of any kind. I always thought you needed a DM/GM, so as a mainly solo wargamer I thought they were not something that would work for me in my context. However, this has changed over the last few months.
It all started with an RPG called Beowulf: Age of Heroes by Handiwork Games, an RPG designed to work with 5th Edition Dungeon and Dragons rules. This RPG is specifically designed to work with 1 player and 1 GM, although you can play it with more players. It is written and illustrated by John Hodgson, whose artwork also featured in many of the Warhammer Ancient Battles books and who also produces the backdrops you will see in many of the photos on this blog. Indeed, it was John's artwork that first caught my eye, as Beowulf is beautifully illustrated. Now, I like the whole Dark Ages period anyway, so the thought of playing games rooted in post-migration era Europe but with a fantastical, monster-hunting element really appealed. Even if I never played the RPG itself, I felt that there would be lots of ideas that I could use in my games.
So I ordered both the rulebook and the first supplement, The Trials of the Twin Seas. They are both gorgeous, hardback books packed full of really atmospheric artwork that evokes the period wonderfully and serves as inspiration before you have even read a word.
Obviously, Beowulf; Age of Heroes contains all the rules needed to play the RPG, but it also contains plenty of other useful information about the setting. There is a chapter describing the setting; the information here can readily be transported into a miniatures game to give your game plenty of period flavour. The rules for the RPG also contain lots of ideas that can transfer across - whether it is generating random encounters as your ship travels the Whale Road, coming up with particular characteristics or abilities for characters in a game, types of monsters you might face or generating random period names or the type of treasure you have found in the monster's lair.
The supplement, Trials of the Twin Seas, contains six RPG adventures. With a bit of tweaking, most of these could easily form the basis of scenarios for a wargame, the great thing being that they will not require much in the way of figures (not that that has stopped me from buying new models like the Vendel Era models from Medbury Miniatures, which are just perfect for representing warriors and heroes in the era of Beowulf. They even do models for the man himself!). The book also contains battlemaps for the various locations, which can be used with miniatures in the RPG game to resolve combat, but which also show you the features you might need to recreate the scenario as a wargame on the tabletop. Another interesting feature is the inclusion of flow-charts showing the various stages in the RPG adventure. They provide a very useful framework for converting an RPG adventure to a tabletop wargaming scenario and I have been toying with how this idea can be applied more widely in wargaming scenario design.
Handiwork Games produces various accessories for the game, like the Story Cards pictured above. These are quite a clever way of inspiring an adventure with prompts tailored to the themes of Beowulf. The way they work is that one side contains artwork with numbers where jewels might appear on an artefact. These numbers appear in different sequences on each card eg 1, 2, 3, 4 or 2, 1, 4, 4, 3. On the reverse are 4 prompts; so you draw cards and use the prompts that correspond to the number sequence on the first card eg if the sequence was 1, 2, 3, 4, you would draw a card and use the first prompt, then draw another card and use the second prompt, and so on until you had four (or more) prompts which you can put together in any order to set your adventure off. I thought these cards would also be an excellent resource for generating ideas for a scenario, so I got a pack!
As I said above, Beowulf: Age of Heroes is designed for 1 player and 1 GM, and so in that sense isn't really suitable for me as a solo wargamer. Having said that, the books are packed full of inspiration and ideas, so I have enjoyed reading them just for that and the lovely artwork they contain. Nevertheless, reading Beowulf: Age of Heroes did make me want to play it as an RPG, taking the part of a warrior battling monsters in the dark corners of the world! This got me to thinking whether there was such a thing as an RPG that could be played by just one person without the need for a GM. So I popped 'solo RPGs' into Google and discovered that solo RPGs are a booming part of the genre. Enthused, I saw that one solo RPG in particular called Ironsworn seemed to have lots of favourable reviews, so I decided to investigate further; what I found will form the basis of 'RPGs Part II (SPOILER ALERT: It's really good!).
