Birds of a Feather…

Well 2009 is rapidly drawing to a close. I keep looking at that total over on the left there and thinking “dang… didn’t quite make 1000…” Then I realize I’m looking at the foot and totally discounting the 148 MOUNTED I painted as well… I thought I’d actually end up painting more than I purchased this year – and very nearly did it before I went on this little spending spree over the last four weeks. Ah well…

Anyway, more on that in another post – here’s the latest…


Here are two Phoenix Clan samurai (the figures are from Perry Miniatures)


These are Crane Clan Samurai – one is another Perry Mini the other two are Kenshinzen from AEG’s L5R/clan war line.


…and then not really related to birds at all we have a Unicorn Clan shugenja (Iushi Takaai, I think… also from AEG) and another converted West Wind vampire (she’s flying… birds fly…?).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A look back at 2009 – it really has been an extraordinary year…

Scorpions, Phoenix, Dragons and Lions…

The other night I finished up a handful of assorted figures for our upcoming Legends of the Five Rings Campaign on Savage Saturday Night.


These are actually from Perry Miniatures - the first of a few I recently ordered to check them out. They’re very nice. I picked up two daimyo command groups to use as general’s/camp follower stands to sit in my Samurai DBA camps. I also picked up these – a pack of samurai with swords in everyday clothes and some villagers and townspeople.

The rest are from AEG’s L5R/clan war line.


A Scorpion diplomat and two Phoenix Shukenja. The Phoenix shukenja are Isawa Uona and Isawa Tadaka.


I ended up with two packs of Uona and Tadaka – and I may have yet ANOTHER on the way (when you pick these up in lots of 4-6 packs… sometimes you get doubles… or triples…). So I thought I’d paint a second pair of them to make a magician stand for Hordes of the Things.

I think I’m going to try and put together a couple Rokugan HOTT armies. I have enough Unicorn already, and almost enough Naga. The Generic Samurai armies for DBA that I’m working on I’ll paint in the colours of the Rokugan clans… I haven’t entirely worked out what the make up of the armies will be just yet but here’s what I’m thinking for a couple of them so far:

The Phoenix
I get the impresson that the Phoenix are thought of as relatively weak militarily but strong in magic – so this would be a good army to sport a triple-wizard-combo. I’m thinking something like:

3x Magicians - Shukenja
1x Blade – Samurai Foot
2x shooters – Samurai Archers
2x Spear – Ashigaru Spear
1x Rider – Mounted Samurai

Alternatively I could replace one or more of the Shugenja with something else big and nasty that the Phoenix could summon to do their bidding… not sure what… Dragons? “gods”(Oni or powerful Kami)? Or maybe I should field a Cleric (defensive magician/monks). They also have some funky units like Isawa Inquisitors and Void Guard… I’m not sure what I’d classify these as – if I was even able to track down a pack or two of them…

The Unicorn

I more or less have all the elements ready to be painted. I got a Unicorn Army Expansion box and then picked up a few other hero types here and there. The army will look something like this:

1x Hero – Daimyo and personal guard or perhaps a unit of Battle Maidens – if ever I could find some
1x Magician – Mounted Shukenja – Iuchi Daiyu
8x Riders – Mounted Samurai

Alternatively I guess I could field some archers as shooters. It might be a good idea as this army would have a really, really tough time dealing with bad going otherwise… Some Knights, perhaps, as I have a few figures with fully barded horses.

The Naga
Between the Army expansion box set and two other lots I have nearly enough to field an entire army of these as well. I know very little about them however. I need to do some more reading. My initial thoughts are to call them ALL Beast (perhaps with a magician and/or hero). They are fast moving and move swiftly through bad-going – not super-powerful and hate other mounted… sounds like Beasts to me…

Shadowlands
I have a few Oni already and a pile more on the way… I have enough appropriate looking Orc Wolf riders to field an entire army of them alone… and if all that weren’t enough I have a PILE of clan war goblins on the way (another couple ebay lots) I will probably be able to field TWO commands of shadowlands baddies. I’m just not sure what to filed the host of wildly different Oni as… have to do some more reading and thinking about it…

The Other Clans – Lion, Dragon, Crab, Crane, Scorpion, etc
These would more or less be modeled on DBA Early Samurai army – perhaps with a Hero and/or Magician thrown in. Parhaps the Crab could have some Warband… I’m not sure… I’ll have to do some more reading of the background fluff…

Anyway, that’s my initial ideas – if anyone out there is very familiar with the Legends of the Five Rings – particularly Clan War – and have any suggestions, I’m all ears!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More o'the same...

Scorpion Magistrate

No jolly Saint Nick here - he's dressed in red, but if he's sneaking into your house late at night on Xmas eve it's not to leave presents - It'd be to drag you out into the street and behead you - for the good of Emerald Empire!


This is a Scorpion Magistrate from (from AEG’s) Legend of the Five Rings. I did the background of the mon in green because I hope someone will be playing this guy as an Emerald or Jade Magistrate on Savage Saturday night.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

MORE L5R/Feudal Japanese! I’ve still mostly been working on organizing and prepping figures that have been arriving over the last few days. Some samurai Cavalry arrived today… adding to the absurdly huge pile o’stuff I already have to paint – and there’s more still on the way!

DBA in December

For the first three Tuesdays of December I’ve had a pretty regular DBA night going on. On the seventh Gary showed up with his snazzy Vikings and Christian stopped by to hammer on them with my Vikings. On the fourteenth Rick and Jackson showed up and played a couple of Normans versus Anglo-Danish games. Finally , this past Tuesday, the twenty-first, Rick and Jackson and Simon (Jackson’s cousin) showed up and Rick and Jackson gave simon a bit of an introduction to wargaming!

WEEK ONE

I can’t even remember what happened… I’ll have to guess based on the photos… maybe Christian or Gary can post a comment clarifying the situation…?

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Gary’s Vikings. Gary was defending against the Norman invasion of Scandinavia. I think he might have even been using a Liedang army…? Yeah, it looks like there’s multiple bow AND a warband there – so it couldn’t have been a regular Viking army!


The devout Normans lead by Christian – come to convert their heathen cousins…


Gary actually asked to play against Normans because he’s curious to find a way for a Norse army to defeat (or at least survive) them. Here he’s tried to use terrain to funnel the Normans into a gap.

Did they play one or two games…? I can’t remember. There only seems to be one terrain set up, but maybe they played two quick games over the same terrain… or maybe I’m thinking of a night in November….? Ah well…


Whatever the case it seems Christian didn’t fall for it and tried to force his way around the flank and ride for the camp… or just kill all the flank pickets…


Norman Knights thundering around the flank – some of them veerig through woods no less!


Three down…


…and then they tried to take the camp.


Apparently that didn’t work so well as there’s at least three different pics here with that same stand of Norman Knights trying to ride into the Vikings’ camp.


…if at first you don’t succeed…


WEEK TWO

The next week Rick and Jackson showed up. Rick was also keen to try and figure out a way to defeat the power-house Normans and Jackson likes the Knighs and has no issues with handing crushing defeats to his dad time and time again while he tries to figure out new cagey stratagems.


Here are the Normans (played by Jackson) gathering speed to ride down the Anglo-Danish across the field. I think the Anglo-Danish were actually invading Normandy here…!? Must have been BEFORE they planted all those hedge-rows!


This was a very short game. The Norman line wheeled to meet the Anglo detatchemtn on the flank and utterly destroyed them. Game over.


In Game Two Rick got to defend and decided to try a river…


Jackson tried to force his way across the ford but was unable to get there firstest with the mostest…


It turned into a bit of a slog-fest.


Eventually the Anglos took down the Norman general and that was it… No crushing defeat for the Anglos this time! HUZZAH!


WEEK THREE

I didn’t take any pictures…

In game one Simon – who has never played any miniatures games before, chose to have DBA his first game (a sensible young fellow). He even chose DBA over Hordes of the Things! Who says the youth of today have no interest in history!? Not these lads!

Simon took the Normans this time and defended Normandy against some attacking Vikings. Must have been a large raiding party that got a bit cocky! It was short and nasty. Normans lined up. Vikings lined up opposite them. Normans galloped up and rode down the Vikings.

In game #2 Simon again took the Normans and for a second time tried to defend Normandy against another invasion of Vikings. These Vikings were a little cleverer, however, and employed cagey stratagems. I think a couple knights were lost due to unlucky rolls, a couple more were lost because, lacking any real knowledge of the rules – let alone “tactics”, Simon allowed a couple to be taken in the flank and destroyed… he seemed keen for more and as He and Jackson were off school for the Christmas break there were ready for more – but I was tired and gave them the punt!

I was hoping I might get some gaming in over the holidaze but it seems like most of the locals are doing stuff with family… Perhaps that might be another avenue for opponents – my own family! Amanda’s been known to play some Hordes of the Things and there is no convincing required to get the kids to come downstairs and play with “dad’s little men”… Also my friend John should be in town visiting from Calgary so hopefully I’ll be able to get a game or two in with him!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I finished up painting a Scorpion magistrate figure this evening – just have to finish the base and take a picture tomorrow. I have a LOT of Samurai and such on the workbench…

Elves and a Unicorn

Well… some Elvish Spearmen and and a Unicorn Clan Samurai-ko

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


As I mentioned before I’m working on finishing off all my Games Workshop plastic Elves (and eventually Dwarves) so I can dispose of them (through trade or sale) as complete HOTT armies.

Now this may seem odd – considering I want to get rid of them – but I just won a GW High Elf archmage on ebay… The thing is I have no GW mages for my elves and it would seem wrong to sell or trade away a “complete” HOTT Elf army without a single magician stand…!?


This is a female samurai from Hasslefree Miniatures painted up in Unicorn Clan colours as I have a feeling Amanda may play a Unicorn Battle Maiden in our Savage Worlds Legend of the Five Rings campaign I’ll be starting in the new year.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Two piles of goodies arrived in the mail today… an order of Samurai from Perry Miniatures and some METAL Elvish Knights…. Too many really… I bid on two lots hoping I might win one, but expecting that I wouldn’t win either let alone BOTH!!

One lot is ten old-old-old citadel High Elf Illyrian reavers (like, so old that not only are the horses are metal, but the shields and spears are metal and cast on as part of the rider figure himself!?).

The other lot is eight old Grenadier Elvish Knights – these are GREAT figures – I’m just not sure whether I should base them two or three to a base. They’re not so absurdly huge as the GW knights so I probably COULD easily fit three on a base…. Of course I have eight… not a multiple of three… I could just do two stands, make the odd one a hero with a little converting. I’m not all that fond of Knights in HOTT anyway…

The “Illyrian Reavers” look a little less High Elf-ish… they might all get based two to a base and become the core of a Wood Elf-ish mounted contingent (for a future Wood Elf army…?). Thus they will likely be based two to a base…

Oh in one of the other lots that arrives last week I picked up some Ral Partha Elvish Horse Archers – to be riders for my High Elf army…

So many elfie things to paint…. (sigh)

More Ashigaru

I’m having a hard time getting motivated to paint those damn Irish… I don’t know why… it’s not like they’re HARD to paint or anything. Actually I’ve had a few evenings where I just haven’t felt like painting at all!? Kind of tired… maybe it’s the short days…

The last couple nights I did get a bit of painting done and finished up a few more Japanese/Rokuganese…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


A stand of Ashigaru (auxiliary Light Infantry) done up in pseudo Lion Clan-ish colours. The figures are from Old Glory


A single Ashigaru (as above) and a Crane Clan Kenshinzen (from AEG).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I seem to have a lot of Japanese/Rokuganese crowding the workbench these days… and some Elves (ELVES!? Yep… Elves…). I got it in my head that I want to get rid of the GW Warhammer plastic Elves and Dwarves. I have enough for a HOTT army of each and I figured it would be easier to get rid of complete painted armies than a couple painted stands and a pile of half-painted figures…

Lion Samaurai

It’s been a slow week. Maybe it’s the cold. Maybe it’s been the ridiculous amount of figures arriving – putting me beyond hope of painting more than I’ve purchased this year… and I was doing so good… Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of prepping and not a lot of finishing up. So all I’ve got for today is the one below and no others looking like they’re going to be done any time soon…


This is a Lion’s Pride Samurai from the Legend of the Five Rings.

The picture was taken indoors as it was -30°C with a windchill of about -45°C for most of the day… Oh, and it’s been dark since about 4PM… so…

More Japanese

..or Rokuganese…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


GAH!!! NOTHING irritates me more (when taking pictures of miniatures) than getting inside, downloading photos only to discovered there’s static grass stuck so someone’s head – Especially when it’s -40°C (because there’s just no way I’m going back out there to do another shoot!)

Anyway these, and the ones immediately below are from Old Glory. The above are from the “Villagers” pack.


Ashigaru - from respective archer and spear packs. The spears are home made from paperclips – hammering one end flat then filing to a point. Woorks pretty nice – better than sticking big chunky cast spear tips on to narrower steel rod…


A Crane Kenshinzen from AEG’s Legend of the Five Rings.


This fellow is a Keltos figure. The sword he came with was of absurd proportions so I replaced it with something a little more "reasonable" from my bitz box... It might be a GW Bit. Hopefully I won't get a C&D letter from their lawyers telling me I must remove the sword from the barbarians had as it is a violation of their intellectual property rights....

Damn... it looks like I forgot to paint a couple of his fingers!? (Almost as annoying as static grass on the head!?)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Irish… no... really….

Or maybe a battle report from tonight’s game (which will NOT involve Irish…).

The Fightin’ Irish!

Here we go – back to the Dark Ages of Europe! Most of the figures are from Gripping Beast (except for one tucked in the back of one of the Blade Stands which is from Old Glory).

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are optional two stands of Blade for my Norse Irish DBA army. I’m not sure if they’re Irish that have fashioned themselves after the invaders… or Vikings “gone native”… or just Viking Mercenaries…. Whatever the case theere’s some definite scandahoovian influence there!


Some Spare Norman foot. In this case spare = not-so-useful-for-DBA as all the Norman foot for DBA are Spears or Bow or Psiloi and these guys are none of the above... I kept them aside and based them for individual skirmishers…


A Viking merchant and his wife and child…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Can I stick to the Dark Ages for a bit…? Finish off the Irish…? We shall see…!

Kuni Witch Hunters

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are some “Kuni Witch Hunters” from AEG’s Legend of the Five Rings. The Kuni, I believe, are part of the Crab Clan – and so only one is painted in “proper” colours (the one in blue, brown, and red). I’ll probably just use these as generic Monk/Shugenja types in our Savage Saturday campaign.


This is an old Citadel (I think…?) orc that I recently stripped and repainted…

Wow I’m really going to have to step up production over the next couple weeks if I want to reach that goal of painting more than I’ve purchased. I really shot myself in the foot this week when I bid on three lots of Mega Miniatures. To be brutally honest they’re terrible figures… and I don’t REALLY have any need for them… but for about $16 I got 64 metal figures (haven’t even added them to the purchased total yet as they haven’t arrived)!? I’m just a sucker for a “good deal”. I guess I could just melt them down… Or slate them as “gifts” to give away… then they wouldn’t really “count” towards purchases for myself, right…?!

Ugh… I’m such a moron…

I did finish up enough Irish last night to complete the two optional Blade stands – just basing them today – pics tomorrow…. This brings me to six stands (having already completed four Psiloi) and the army is half way to being fieldable - six Auxilia to go. Not “finished”, mind you – I’d need an additional two Auxilia for that! Let’s see if I can finish off these Irish in the next week…. or at least have enough of them for a battle!

Dragon Warrior!

Just one today…

The “purchased” total has been starting to creep up again… faster than I’m painting at the present… doh!!


This is a hero from the Dragon Clan of Rokugan! The figure is a Clan War figure from AEG… or WOTC… or Hasbero…!? Or whoever owned the rights to the Legends of the Five Rings when this was produced…!?

The problem with finishing up single figures is that I end up taking pretty close up pictures – which end up being bigger on the computer screen than they actually are – thus affording me the opportunity to torture myself with observations of all the mistakes I’ve made – that would have otherwise never been noticed by ANYONE!?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Slowly chugging away on some Irish and more L5R/Samurai stuff… I should actually get to have a decent painting night tonight – for the first time in a week…? Or two…? It seems like it!

Wow… December… I have almost a hundred figures to paint to keep the purchased versus painted totals at least even… assuming I purchase no more figures this year… which, given the spree I’ve been on the last week or two seems unlikely. In fact I know there’s at least another 21 foot and 30 mounted on the way – and a few more that I’m bidding on!? Yikes!!

Campaign for Kümer – Year Four Autumn

The Map

In the south the army of the Sapphic League of Unity and Togetherness Finally having subdued the Isle of Anasterele sailed across to Dyladele. They had less trouble with this crossing but were unable to subdue the Island before the chill of winter forced them to return to their warm southern homes…

The Armies of Ronarok held in their newly captured stronghold of Wienglenn content to loot and pillage therein for the balance of the year.

The Dwarves retired to their capitol of Ghillebrae, expecting that the Ronarokings would come. But they did not.

The Army of Valishog retired to their capitol of Brashog for one final stand against the elves which pursued hot on their heels…

The Battle of Brasog

(Remember; click on the pics to see a bigger version)


The Elves advance towards the fortress of Brashog.


And advance….


…and advance…


Finally close enough for shooting the elves darken the skies above the orcish line.


Vladimead and his bodyguard are driven back, the unit of archers annihilated…


The lines clash!


The Orc heavy infantry is driven back!


Then things started to go south for the Elves…. Vladimead returned to the battle and wiped out a unot of Elvish archers and the Orc General’s unit destroyed the Elvish infantry to their front!


The the elite Elvish outriders – distinguished so many times in this campaign - made a desperate bid to capture the orcs stronghold behind them.


…and were never heard from again…


Orcs were thrown back in the main line and the battle became a confused melee


Expliting the hole in the center Vladimead and the orc general poured into the game and turned the exposed flanks of the Elves


It worked out for Vadimead and his guard. They destroyed another unit of Archers.

Not so much for the Orc General – his host was driven back and destroyed in the confusion… not that it mattered much the wearied Elves were obliged to retire and begin their long march back to the sea and their home…


…and that’s it! We’re calling it quits! Just about everyone seems sick of the campaign (including me) so now is as good a place as any to stop…. I would have liked it if the Elves could have wiped out the orcs to have SOME sort of conclusion in terms of the narrative (sorry Vlad)… but it just weren’t in the dice, so to speak.

I think that’s it for email campaigns on the whole. It was fun for a bit… then it dragged… people started losing interest… I had to hassle people to get them to send in movement orders… There were some problems with the rules… meh….

I had thought I’d compile all the diplomatic messages that went back and forth and post them, but that seems like it’d be more work than I care to do at the moment… maybe over the holidaze.

On the bright side, for a good chunk of the fall I had a few guys showing up regularly enough to play these battles that I got to thinking I might just run a campaign on Tuesday evenings involving them in the New Year.

I am also still pretty stoked about the Dark Ages DBA Campaign in February (though the date my yet change and be the first weekend in March…) and running a second HOTT Summer Campaign in June. Stay tuned for more info about those in the coming weeks.



Country: Tria Nomina (Vassal of the Ilferien)
Race: Humans
Head(s) of State: Aculeo Bibaculus Mediocrito, Imperator of Tria Nomina
Commander of the Field Army:
Capitol: Praenomen
Other Cities: Nomen, Agnomen
Location of Field Army: Praenomen
Prestige Points: 11
Army Size: 24AP

Country: The Sapphic League of Unity and Togetherness
Race: Mixed – WOMEN!!
Head(s) of State: Myrah the Mighty, Chairperson of the Council of Empowerment of the Sapphic League of Unity and Togetherness.
Commander of the Field Army: General Libby
Capitol: Thatcherton
Other Cities: Bhutto, Beauvoir, Otisburg, Marrow, Crudd, Anasterele
Location of Field Army: Anasterele
Prestige Points: 24
Army Size: 12AP

Country: The Ilferien
Race: Ilferien (Elves)
Head(s) of State: Consul Rhalasa
Commander of the Field Army: Consul Sundiasen
Capitol: Melitele
Other Cities: Wynstrele, Dyladele, Cognomen,
Location of Field Army: Dolj
Prestige Points: 16
Army Size: 8AP

Country: Toctland (Vassal of The Ilferien)
Race: Dwarves
Head(s) of State: King Malaius MacDoogleg
Commander of the Field Army: General Gilgidi MacAuslin
Capitol: Ghillebrae
Other Cities: Toctglenn, Dolj
Location of Field Army: Toctglenn
Prestige Points: 2
Army Size: 10AP

Country: Ronarok
Race: Humans
Head(s) of State: King Claudius Hrosskellsen
Commander of the Field Army: Jarl Thorvald Skardsen
Capitol: Ludharn
Other Cities: Skohln, Marhan, Weinglenn,
Location of Field Army: Weinglenn
Prestige Points: 14
Army Size: 22AP

Country: Transil-Valishog-Atania
Race: Orcs
Head(s) of State: Vladimeag Votostogish (Vlad the Kinslayer)
Commander of the Field Army:
Capitol: Brasog
Other Cities: Gorj,
Location of Field Army: Retiring to Brasog
Prestige Points: 12
Army Size: 8AP

Country: Grummsh
Race: Orcs
Head of State: Bolg Skullcrusher
Capitol:
Other Cities:
Location of Field Army: Disbanded
Prestige Points: 8
Army Size: Disbanded