Little Green Men finished!.

 Despite a  short delay due to a back injury ( I'm going to burn that blummin' Kama Sutra) I managed to finish off my little Orc army for "Fantasy Warriors"

I laid them out on the table in front of the Dwarves for a few photos.

I really enjoyed painting these little beggars.

To make leaders for the archers I just added a shield and a fancier bow.

I copied the bad moon image off the internet and made it into a flag.

Wolf Riders.

A bunch of Trolls may give the army some more hitting power.

And a catapult may add to the fun.

I had a lot of fun chopping bits off and gluing bits on from the spares box.

I didn't know what to use to make a musician and found it very amusing to stick a muckle big bell in his hand. I must get out more!.

I repainted my 1/72 scale Dark Alliance trolls with grey skin instead of the European skin colours and I think they look better.

The wee Dwarves better look out!.

The Dwarf Chieftain points the way to battle.

What an enjoyable project, not too ambitious and a lot of fun converting the figures. The models are mainly em4 with some Oathmark plastics for characters, Perry foot knights, Dark Alliance Trolls and a WizKids pre primed catapult.

Hopefully I'll get them into action in the next few days, bad back permitting.

Fantasy Warriors: Dwarves painted.

I managed to get all of my little Dwarf army finished tonight so I hoyed them on the table and took a few photos.

A unit of spearmen, I converted the standard bearer and gave the leader some horns on his helmet.

A unit of eight axemen with some easy conversions, hammerheads and bits from my bits box.

More axemen, I like the sheep horns on the leaders helmet.

The crossbow leaders got a white plume to differentiate them from the rank and file.

Human allies, Perry foot knights.

The Dwarf General and his bannerman.

Before my order from em4 arrived I painted these Oathmark Goblin wolf riders as Orc wolf riders.

Next up for painting are my em4 Orcs, I had a lot of fun adding bits and pieces to make musicians and standard bearers and officers. I am really looking forward to painting them.

More progress on my Fantasy Warriors project.

 I assembled and painted my Oathmark Goblin sprue as Orc characters for Fantasy Warriors. I managed to make a Warchief, two Battleleaders, a Hero and a Wizard from the single sprue.

The Oathmark Goblins with my converted wizard on the left.

Little green men, eh.

The em4 Orcs that I painted recently were intended to crew a catapult.  

Here they are with their machine.

Come on lads, line up for a photo with the catapult.

Sizewise the Oathmark Goblins are a good fit for the em4/Grenadier plastic Orcs and I think the style is near enough for me.

The Warchief with one of the boys.

I am now waiting for the rank and file to arrive and I can get stuck in.

A new project, an old set of rules, Fantasy Warriors.

 A few years back while I was taking a break from blogging I downloaded the "Fantasy Warriors" rules by Nick Lund. I enjoyed the games but my collection didn't really fit the army lists so I only explored the game so far.

I never completely forgot about the game though and recently decided to build a modest collection to explore the rules properly.

 The rules are available as a free download from em4 here. The original Orc and Dwarf monopose plastic figures are also available from em4 at a keen price too. I bought a sample of one of each years ago but I wasn't too impressed until I painted them a couple of weeks ago.

So I've jumped in and ordered some Orcs and Dwarves and I eagerly await their arrival. There is a bloke on YouTube does a great painting tutorial here which shows how nice the figures can turn out.

You do need more than just the monopose models for characters and the original metal ranges are still available here and here. Being a tight sod I bought some single sprues of Oathmark plastics to make my own. They may not be an exact size match but the styles are similar in my opinion.

The em4 Dwarves have the blue trim.

The game itself has some really nice ideas such as day and night being good or bad light for the different species in the game ie, the Orcs suffer penalties in daylight as the Humans suffer in the darkness. Really neat!.

From the single Oathmark sprue I made a Warchief, two Battle Leaders, a Hero and a War Banner.

There is a threat phase too in which the wilder unit types can attempt to intimidate their enemies. This can backfire too as threatened units can counter-threaten. Neat.

I got myself a sprue of six Perry plastic knights to act as allies for the Dwarfs.

Another neat idea is that your missile troops have a limited number of volleys but may also "darken the sky" by shooting multiple volleys at once. This uses up your ammunition quickly but could be quite devastating for the enemy. Did I say neat!.

An em4 Orc joins the line up.

My Oathmark Goblins are on the painting table now and will give me five Orc characters.

I am really looking forward to getting this little project onto the table.

One Page Rules, Age of Fantasy: Regiments.

 Although I have had a lot of fun playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles in recent weeks the rules can be rather fiddly. I fancied a change so tried out One Page Rules, Age of Fantasy: Regiments. This is a free set among others to be found Here. 

These rules are actually seventeen pages long and the free army lists are two or three pages long. Simple and easy to learn the basic scenario has you fighting over a number of objectives for only four turns.

I got out my Bretonnians and Orcs and had a go...

The game uses alternate unit activations.

The units have just two main stats, Quality and Defence with a bunch of special rules/traits to round them out.

Ugly cussers!.

5+ to hit, not bad shooting.

One objective controlled.

Knights roll over the orc archers.

Crunch! as the chariot smashes home.

Orcy boys getting stuck in.

By turn three the table is looking sparse, units can die very quickly.

The orcs take the last objective from the blue longbowmen.

By then end of turn three the Bretonnians are down to the commander and one man.

A fun game, as this was my second run out for the rules I put a magic user on the table which added to the fun without adding much complexity.

Here is a link to a YouTube play example. Stonehorse Gaming

And a link to the rules themselves Here

I will definitely explore the game further.

Warhammer in Tilea. Siege: the assault part two.

 The assault on Castello Vincezzo continues...

The ghouls are attacking the brave halberdiers.

More foul necromancy as a new unit of skeletons rises from the battlefield.

Skeletons and zombies are begining to overwhelm the defenders on this wall, no wonder with hands that big!.

More and more undead climb onto the ramparts.

The gates are smashed apart!.

Malvolio is wounded but still fights on.

The struggle for the other wall continues.

But it's only going one way.

Skeletons pour through the smashed gates (the model gate got broken by the bairns years ago and had to be glued shut, my own fault for letting 5 year olds play with it).

Escaping to a tower, Malvolio and a couple of handgunners fight on.

A desperate battle for another tower.

Skeletons reach the courtyard.

More skeletons outflank the spearmen defending the gate.

Somebody's knocking at the door. Somebody's ringin' the bell.

The Count and Bruno Funesto arrive to claim the castle.

Massacre.

The Count was victorious and the scourge of undeath if unchecked would soon spread over the lands of the Principality of Pavona.

Guido del Monte and a handful of survivors escaped through a secret tunnel and gained refuge with the Priests of Morr.

Would the Merchant Princes of Tilea wake up to the threat presented by the Count of Monte Drago?.