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Saw your review... Holy balls! Those claw fingers look like they were quite the hassle and the extra 3-D wing bits too. Other than that, I'm glad you found them to be pretty solid overall. I've been eye balling the Zyklone drones to use as proxy oblits.
http://hitechminiatures.com/9/product/info/136
You've gave me a little more confidence in Hi-Tech's stuff. Now I have to track down a size comparison on those drones.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks, mate!

@Nafarious: Thank you, glad you liked it. No worries, I'll see that I can get something Privateer-like done within the next months.

@Moltar: Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, there were some fiddly things involved, mostly getting those claws to look remotely right. HiTech's site usually is pretty good with giving actual sizes of the models. It says 65mm in total which is pretty darned tall. Not cheap either but oh well.


I'm a bad man and this is why there's no update on the Blood Angel tonight but instead we're back to boring old stuff:



Here we got British Commandos, still WIP, for an upcoming review (yeah, bought those because they were lying around at my LGS and nobody ever pays attention to them).

In other news, I'll finally get a game of Dux Britanniarum in tonight! Very much looking forward to that, I'm rather hyped about this one. Should be good old fun times.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

So, I finally got to play Dux Britanniarum tonight!

Here are a few pictures of this first clash of Romano-British and my mighty early Saxons (still pagan then). [units usually consist of 6 models, missile troops of 4 models]


The Romano-British centre set up (black and white shields indicate Elite warriors, darker shields are levy)


A closer look. In the left you can see the Romano-British warlord (donning the purple cloak of course)


...and the right flank (red and white shields indicate regular warriors), with a small group of slingers between them



...across the table the Saxon raiders were set up:

Bowmen and a group of warriors led by Wodewig (cloak and horn) on the left


The middle, led by Radekarl (red cloak, pointing a handaxe forward) and accompanied by Lord Hersten's champion Kunigrim (in the far left in the picture, purple cloak, axe and sword) the Ambitious, two units of elite Hearthguard. On the right flank thhere are two more units of Saxon warriors, commanded by the Saxon Lord himself (yellow shield and sword, in the back)

The first thing that happened was the Saxon core force of a large formation of two units of Hearthguard advancing. Some defiant British boy had nothing better to do than not only sling a rock at them but actually killing one of the elite warriors outright! [this is HIGHLY unlikely so it was a bit of a bad omen]. Essentially, the two armies trotted towards each other, forming lines. Some missile fire was exchanged on the flanks, the British advanced in Shieldwall formation right from the start (which slowed them down but gives formidable defence). [units move up to 3d6" per turn. The number in pips you roll you MUST move, unless you give them an order about where to stop before you roll like "move up in line with unit X". In Shieldwall formation, which only the British are able to do, they may only move 2d6"].

At some point the Saxon Warlord just told the centre to charge. [I was lucky I rolled just enough to get into close combat, played three Fate cards to get as many bonusses out of this vital close combat as possible and nothing much happened. The shieldwall held, there was only one casualty per side so immediately another turn of close combat was fought]

...after the shoving and hacking was over, one unit of British Levy as well as the British elite warriors were routing and the Saxons claimed victory because it was getting late. :-p








This game was mainly for us to learn the rules mechanisms. I'm very impressed. It's fast and gives credible results. Other than with SAGA, there actually are formations, flanks, Command&Control and all of that. Activation is card-based by leader, so there's a deck of cards in the middle of the table, one card for each of the Lords and nobles on the table plus one card for the missile troops on either side to reflect them working on their own.

Once a Noble is activated, he may spend his Initiative Points (which are based on his level) on activating units under his command, rallying troops, order his troops to change formations and so on. He also may spend his Initiative Points on "buying" new Fate Cards for the player. Each player is dealt a hand of five Fate Cards at the beginning of the game which he may use as little kickers to add more punch to a charge or something like that. They are a little bit like SAGA's Saga abilities but not as central to the game. However, they do play a role.

All in all, these rules speak to me a lot more than Saga does. I can't wait for the next game and trying the very clever campaign system that's built into the game.

Hey guys, here's something different again:



Finished Blood Angels character from HiTech Miniatures' Mortimer! At the model about 90% finished I had a chat with the client and we agreed that I'd give a face swap a try. If you recall, the original model is pretty much a Nurgle character (Mortarion even) so the face looks like it just had a peek into the Ark of the Covenant. This of course isn't fitting for a Blood Angel who are very careful about having pretty faces so I did a face swap.









Here's a size comparison shot just to remind us all about how big these guys are:



Hope you like him.

I agree about the oblit proxies from hi tech. The size I could maybe deal with, but too pricey.

Anyway.... DUX looks pretty fun and those minis really bring the table top to life, Siggy. The hi tech mini looks great too. Beautiful reds and lovely blues to contrast. I also like the look of the black wings with just a few red ones. That was a good call.

An amazing paint job on an equally amazing figure. The blue/white bits on the weapon really counterpoint the red and black nicely.

Looks great, great job!

@Moltar: Thanks for the comment! The few red feathers amongst the black ones were actually the client's idea so I can't really claim that one for myself but thanks anyway. The red was fun to paint. Worked out some new stuff too so yay! Dux Britanniarum is pretty darned nice, yup. Actually, my gaming nemesis and I agreed to have another game right away this week which is saying something as we usually play something entirely different every week.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks! I gave it my best to make this normally nurgly character look as Blood Angel like as possible. I also largely avoided golden trimming around armour parts.

@Nafarious: Cheers.

Nicely executed Siggy, he looks excellent, the head swap worked well too! as Gits said the small additions of blue glow on the weapon is a small yet powerful trick to give him some character and spark! makes you look longer at the model trying to get it all in how nice it is :-) I really like the Hitech stuff, yes, it's pricey but hey, so's GW and if you're just doing a special character then it's nice as something different to paint, I used the Terrorizers as Oblits and they are a great size to use on flat bases.

Amazing figure. love the lighting effect you do. The back is especially good!

@nerdfest09: Thanks very much. Yeah, there really is no problem with replacing the high display bases with flat ones for gaming. Pricewise I think they're along the lines of GW/FW, yup.

@Solar_lion: Cheers, thanks for the comment!



So today I did a bunch of terrain-making done. GW modular hill, three magnetic bases for forests as well as 20+ trees on washers and Renedra's Ramshackle Barn (released on Salute this year):



Terrain for gaming/making army shots prettier altogether mostly. Very simple but I hope effective. More pictures to follow. Oh, and my first few boxes of Perrys plastic ACW stuff arrived.

Nice looking barn, Siggy - plastic, or laser-cut MDF?

Very nice looking barn. Great job.

Yeah that is a very nicely painted barn, never thought I'd say that lol

@Dysartes: It's a plastic kit.

@Dr H: Cheers!

@GiraffeX: I know what you mean. I guess I always try to push the diversity in my plog.


Surprise, Sigur's getting into a new period in historical wargaming!


Codex: Confederaceh

So what's this all about then? Early this year I had an amazing game of 28mm scale American Civil War stuffs. Hundreds of figures per side, huge, beautiful table. A real shame I didn't have my camera with me. Anyways, this was the first time I got into touch with wargaming the ACW. I have to admit that it did look really good. However, to be honest it's a period that never really grasped my attention and I'm still trying to work up a real enthusiastic interest in the conflict. No all that dashing uniforms, no all that exotic formations, hardly any proper cavalry, one side seemingly overwhelmingly superior in morality, manpower, equipment and infrastructure. Have I mentioned that I'll collect a Confederate army? All that being said, I'm reading stuff, researching stuff and so on. Things are starting to get more interesting.


Throwing Rocks

Why did I start the whole project then? Well, a bunch of the local historical wargaming guys are getting something ACW set up in 28mm. There is an overabundance of Union troops around already so the rebels needed some support which is where I came into play. And it's not like I'd turn down an opportunity to buy new toys.

The rules sets of choice will be Foundry's Bull Run to Gettysburg and the recently released Longstreet by Sam Mustafa. The first one we used with the one ACW game I had and it works rather well. Longstreet I haven't even glanced at so far but the rulebook is on the way. I haven't read any reviews yet so I can make up my own mind while reading the rules but as far as I know the ruleset has been hailed as being tip top. Very much looking forward to getting the book.

The arrival of the first slew of models also helped the enthusiasm for the whole project a fair amount:



Of course I'm going with the Perry plastics because if you get the option you got with Perrys. Unless it's Napoleonics, in that case Victrix are worth a look of course. Anyway, I got two boxes of their generic ACW infantry and two boxes of their ACW cavalry, starting out slow for starters. I got those rather cheaply second-hand which is nice. That's also the reason why I went for the generic ACW infantry rather than the Confederate infantry box. Dismounted cavalry I'll look if I can convert from plastics or I'll just get the Perry metals for that. Speaking of metals, commanders and maybe some unit command figures I'll get from the perrys as well and hope for the plastic ACW artillery to be released soon. Last I know of that box is that it's in tooling but there is no release date yet. I'm hoping for "before Christmas".

And here's the first unit finished:





...well, mostly. They still need basing obviously. 40 by 40mm, four models per base, five bases per unit. The weird thing is that all these boxes came with bases that are essentially 40mm by 45mm. Kind of annoying but oh well. I guess I'll just cut them up. If I just use the slightly larger bases I KNOW I'll regret it.

Oh, and I think I'll have to replace that banner pole with a metal one. The one on the model is made of plastic and kind of flimsy.

I planned to use my initial impetus for painting very rag-tag looking regiment (every unit will represent a different regiment I thought) so that's the first unit I'll do. Hope you like them so far. It's a bit problematic that I get a bit less than two units out of each box of generic ACW infantry so maybe from the second box I'll build one more unit, then get a box of Confederate infantry and mix and match three units out of that and the remaining figures from the generic boxes. I've been discouraged to go for mixing the ACW infantry box and Confederates infantry box models but I guess I can't resist getting one box of Confederate infantry, just for testing. Oh, and I'll need Zouaves.

So yup, that's the plan. I hope to finish the first two units this weekend, stay tuned! Oh, and let me know if there's a specific unit you'd like to see in this army or if you have any info on interesting formations or something in the Confederate army. Thanks and see you soon!

Jeez sigur I don't know why but I always really like the look of your blues. In fact most of the colors you use just seem to look 90% better.

Good Lord man... the finish on the clothing is just spectacular!

American Civil War dudes look great Siggy! The unit is full of character and you have done them justice.

@Nafarious: Thanks very much!

@Gitsplitta: Cheers!

@Moltar: Thanks for the positive feedback!


Today I painted on the second unit but as hours rush past me I get them impression that things look grim for my plans to finish the unit tonight:

I really like the way you paint fabric, the way the light catches it. I can see how you do it; highlighting up to much lighter than the "base" colour over larger areas than just edges (as most of us do when you're used to hard edges), but it's mind-blowing how well you do it.

Good luck getting them done.

@Dr H: Yup, that's pretty much how it's done. And thanks very much. I appreciate the feedback.

Phew, I think I'll call them finished for now. There still are some spots to do properly but I'll delay that to the point in time at which I'll base the whole lot and do their shoes.




It's funny, when I saw the unit set up for the photo like that I had to think of the figure of speech "fine body of men, Sir". Guess I spent way too much time with toy soldiers this weekend.

And now excuse me, I'll see if I manage to put together a unit of cavalry before I collapse.

Try not to be as uniform when painting confederates as they were fairly rag tag. Otherwise not to shabby.

 Empchild wrote:
Try not to be as uniform when painting confederates as they were fairly rag tag. Otherwise not to shabby.

He did to an extent with his initial batch, he might be trying to create character within different units. So far so good Sigur, can't wait to see a batrep with them in it!

Tech Guard got it spot on. Those were my intentions.

Ha, fate acknowledged that I was a good boy and painted lots of ACW minis over the weekend and made it so that on Monday, my Longstreet rulebook and cards arrived!



I hope too that I can get a game in some time soon but then I still need to do a lot of painting. Realistically, I wouldn't expect to play any time before Christmas/early next year. We only play with painted models of course. And I love it.

What are the cards used for in the game, Sigur?

Haven't really read the rules much yet but here's what I think I picked up so far: There are Biography Cards (basically character traits for your commander in campaign play), Terrain Cards (to work out terrain if you don't have a set scenario), Campaign cards which indicade stuff happening between battles during campaigns (mostly troops becoming veterans, reinforcements for your battalion, but also stuff like Sabotage and such) and Action Cards which pretty much are the bread and butter cards of the game. Here's an example of an Action Card:



They always come with a number in the top left, a title and an effect. (some of them are restricted to either Union or Confederate forces or to certain time periods as well).

Each player has a hand of usually six Action Cards which for the active player (the player who's turn it is) to initiate phases like movement, combat or firing, to modify those phases by playing the cards for their effect (the text on the card. Stuff like "your dudes move way better this turn"). The passive player may also intervene by throwing in a card for its effect, hampering the efforts of the active player (migth be things like "forests are more dense than anticipated and count as more difficult terrain than usual"). However, if you take losses from either firing or combat you can use up to X such Action Cards from your hand for their morale value (the number in the upper left). In that case the effect doesn't come to bear but you can reduce casualties your unit would take from being shot at/having fought in combat). So you have to be economical about a.) how many cards you use during your active phase, b.) how many you use for their effect and c.) how many you choose to keep to reduce casualties this turn.

At least that's what I worked out so far. But be sure that I'll write a whole lot more about the system once I gave it a try.

Okay, last night we had the second game of Dux Britanniarum and to get this out of the way right away: I think we made at least one big mistake. We activated groups to move multiple times a turn. I KNEW it wasn't possible and we played it like that last time but this time I hadn't read the player's notes and we couldn't find anything in the rulebook to indicate that a unit could only move once per turn. Kind of annoying.

Rules questions, just in case you happen to be good with the rules:
.) Do groups have to be fully in a house to start rolling loot tests?
.) Do groups get to move right away once they made some loot in a house the same way they would if they picked up dropped loot or do they have to wait for the next activation to get moving?
.) How do Fate Card played during the opponent's activation work? We played it basically like "one unsuited cards may be played during an opposing Noble/Lord's activation". So for instance I got the card that lets you retreat from an enemy charge the same amount of dice the opposing group rolls to attack. This I played the moment my opponent declared his group to attack. Was that correct? As another example from last night: We turned the next activation card upside, it said "Saxon Lord". This instant, the British player played the Fate Card that lets you activate any Noble or Lord, effectively superseding my activation with his. Is that correctly played as well?

Anyway, to the pictures!

So we played a proper scenario this time, a raid on a little village. The Saxons got three turns of movement before the Brits would arrive and basically ended up scattered across the table:



Two units of hearthguard advancing together on the left, the Lord, along with a unit of warriors in the middle chose to climb over the fence (which is a mental image that kept us amused throughout the game), one group basically being without leader, thus deciding not to do squat and move really slowly while the archers (in the small field) and especially the group of warriors led by the short but athletic Radekarl advanced at pretty nice speeds, the latter basically starting in the village.



Not much time to get to looting though as the core of the defenders' army arrived instantly (british lord, british leader, a unit of elites, two units of warriors):


Looting proved to take a lot of time. First the Saxon Missile troops lunged into the closest house and start tearing up things (they're just lying on their sides to indicate that they're in the hut). In the meantime, a bunch of levy (probably the inhabitants of the village) and the British missile troops showed up while the core of the British army avoided getting into the town itself where on the square the Saxon Hearthguard hat set up a battle line. Instead the British moved beyond the village to cut off Saxon lines of retreat.

Speaking of which, after a few activations the Saxons had a very lucky turn and managed to really get loot out of two houses. I immediately - possibly a bit too hastily - started my retreat towards my friendly table edge.



Then something bad happened. I underestimated the rage that builds up in people if you take away the little they own. Two units of Levy sped, faster than anticipated by their commander even, towards their village and actually cought one of the Saxon hearthguard groups in the back (worse even, it was one of the groups with loot)...



and massacred them, sending the panicking two survivors with eight shock straight through two other Saxon groups, causing them to get six shock each. Ouch. That way any plans of turning, giving the Levy a fine thrashing and getting our rightfully stolen goods back was out of the question. I decided that one bit of loot is good enough and continued retreating on the far left side towards my friendly table edge.

In the meantime the levy decided to line up at the fence and hurl horse manure and insults towards the Saxons.


There still was the British Elite and warriors (plus Lord and a Noble) who didn't look like they'd do all that much (after having killed most of the Saxon warriors who had stayed behind and at least harassed the British Elite for a turn or two).



Still, I hoped to get something (a good, climatic fight between the Lords and their retinue at least. On a hill nonetheless.) out of charging them with my remaining Saxon Hearthguard unit, along with my Lord Hersten, Noble Wodewig and the Champion Kunigrim with them in tow (and a bunch of Fate cards). The Shield wall, along with fighting uphill, proved to be a bit of a hinderance, still the Saxons performed really well, keeping up the combat, causing a bunch of casualties and causing a nice amount of shock without taking too much damage in return.

The next turn started, the card of my Lord was drawn and I was all too eager to rush into combat again, if only to cause some more casualties, maybe take some lord hostage and for general bloodlust. Before I could do anything with my Lord though my opponent played a non-suited Fate card that lets you activate any leader you like. So he basically cancelled out my Lord's activation, we fought another turn on which I came out slightly on top (literally, as the British formation was pushed off the hill). After that it was decided that it was late and we packed up, deciding that the Saxons would get away with one sack of loot. Post-Game things would be done at a later date.


Well, and that's that. The British ended up with seven casualties (there would have been more if we had allowed for my Lord to activate after my opponent intervened with his Fate card. Not that I'm vengeful, I'm just pointing out :p ), the Saxons with about 10 and one sack of loot, retreating over their own board edge.


Let's see what the post game phase brings. I'm not sure if we'll count this as part of the campaign already, I guess we'll decide on that next time. I'm kind of miffed with how we got the "move only once per turn" rule wrong but we really couldn't find anything saying otherwise in the rules even though I was almost sure it wasn't possible. Oh well. It looked very nice as always, it was bags of fun and I dig the rules set. Hope you liked the little AAR and the pictures.

That looks & sounds like a really fun game Sigur.

Good news for the Saxons... less people to have to split the loot up with!

@Gitsplitta: Hey, that's very true. Haven't viewed it that way yet!

Update on a small in-between project - Van Saar Gang!



I meant to post WIPs earlier but things kept on proceeding so the later WIPs looked more interesting to post right away. Also working on some other stuff but I'm not allowed to talk about it once again. :( (just so you don't think I'm all too lazy these days)

Hope you like the Van Saars. Coolest thing is that they were sent to me in their original packaging:



...which when i saw it made me actually say "aw, how cool is that?" out loud. It's been quite a while since I last had a box of those in my hands. Seriously good stuff and in my highly subjective opinion GW at its best (modelwise).


Oh, and bad news on the Dux Britanniarum front: This week's game has been cancelled again. :( BUT once we got the campaign started properly (a.k.a. next time) we're planning to maybe set up a blog about it which should be a very cool thing.

I just love what you did on the Leader's Plasma Pistol !!

That effect is oustanding !

Those van saar are painted so well, it makes up for how poorly they (and most necromunda minis) were sculpted. Package is pretty amazing though. I think somwhere I still have the original Orlock gang box.