I'm Alive! I'm Alive!

Or Maybe...

I've had a long sabbatical away from wargaming (about 18 months at a guess). I completely lost my mojo and retreated into music. As a result I wrote, rehearsed and recorded an album of original songs, to which I'm currently putting the finishing touches. It will will be out in a few weeks. If you want you can listen to a single right here: Atom Bomb by The Voodoo Dudes.

Anyway, enough of my carry on... I'm back at the modelling workbench and gearing up to get myself back to the wargaming table. I initially started with a continuation of my 10mm War of Spanish Succession but soon reverted to a project that I left sitting around when I stopped dead! And that project was basing my Army of The Dead for Midgard. This was a project that totally baffled me when I started so many months ago. However, looking at it with fresh eyes made the whole project fall into place.

These figures are a collection of anything that fits the theme. There's a whole bunch of cheap Warhammer skellington things, Oathmark revenants, Mantic figures made from that horrible plastic stuff that they use, el-cheapo Wizkids D&D figures, Reaper Miniatures, and other bits.

This army is large enough that it can be reasonably be considered to be called an army. On the wing are the Ghost Riders (but they're not in the sky). I'm pretty certain that these are from the Mantic, Kings of War range. For what they are they're pretty good but they don't have tails and that make them look odd. I need to rebase the commander on a round/oval base.

These ghostly skeleton guys are GW. I got a couple of cheap sprues of them at a swap-meet along with the rider and other matching figures. A few years back GW released a magazine that came with a sprue of these critters for $5.00. So I bought a whole bunch of them. I still have a couple of sprues waiting to be made.

More from Mantic - The army has a lovely swarm of graveyard rats to act as a skirmish screen. I'm not sure if I'll give them a pseudo shooting attack or just make them fast and worthless just for the purpose of swamping the enemy to cause manoeuvrability problems.

For big hitters I have a giant skellington which came in the same swap-meet bundle mentioned above. It's a cheap toy but it painted up okay and works with the army. The Bone Dragon is a Reaper Bones figure. Looks good and intimidating.

The figures at the front are Reaper Bones. I think they are wights or maybe Death Knights(?)... I can't recall. As it is these are my Not-Ringwraiths. They came in two 3-packs. The figure at the centre, I made into a leader/general by adding a big sword and mounting it taller. The others will be heroes or lesser command figures. The ghosts behind where the next release by GW and came with another magazine. I think they're supposed to be banshees, but I'm just calling them ghosts. Very nice figures.

Oathmark Revenants are great undead figures. I have another box waiting to be made up. The two bases of archers at the front were made by kitbashing with bows and bits from the plastic Wargames Atlantic Goblin set. I want to make at least two more bases of these. I only made 12 so each base has an axe weilder as a stand in for the time being.

The army has a flying contingent made up of gargoyles. These too are Mantic. Nice figures with a lot of character. Three bases of these creatures swooping down should be enough to intimidate most enemies. In the photo below is another aspect of the flying corps (pun intended). A bat swarm. I'm pretty certain that these are Reaper bones. Sort of a flying version of the rat swarms.

Undead knights. I don't know where came from. If you know please tell me in the comments because I'd like to get more. Great looking figures.

Two of my commanders. The skeleton knight is a great figure and is large and intimidating enough to make a great general. He came in the swap-meet deal. The figure next to him (below) is a resin figure that I found at another swap-meet. I don't know where this figure comes from. It looks good though.

A mood shot. This is how the whole army should appear. Dark and frightening...

Their opponents will just have to use their imaginations in order to scare themselves.

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And that's it for my first post-sabbatical blog post. I hope to start posting a regularly again. I think I need to play a couple of games and then do a battle report sometime in the near future. 

Thanks for reading.

And Now... A Walk In The Black Forest!

Cue the music...

It has taken me a while to get back to my rebasing project and this time it's The Army of Forest Folk. The reason for taking so long is not that this was a difficult task but the fact that I've lost a huge amount of enthusiasm for wargaming. I no longer have a club that I like to attend and, as a result, I have no real need to create vast armies. Having said that I will start playing solo games as soon as the weather cools down and the heat in my upstairs hobby room becomes tolerable.

This is an unusual army and it's made up of figures from all over which I'll detail as we go. The army is very colourful and looks spectacular in the flesh. It has a lot of light troops in the form of fauns and centaurs. But it also has a tough core of Tree-Folk and some other big hitting creatures. I don't know how effective it will be in battle but they look impressive.

Okay... Starting on the left in the centaur cavalry. This wing is made up of light skirmisher riders and heavy rider cavalry. Although, as heavy cavalry they lack armour, I thought that being half horse, centaurs would have a better, natural, agility than riders and this could account for their prowess as "mounted" warriors. I added a unicorn as a champion/hero but I think I'll change that and try to find a better option.

The centaurs are from Eureka Miniatures. I modified a few of these sculpts for Eureka a few years back in order to expand the range. I can't remember which ones except for the king with the laurel crown. The unicorn is a Reaper Bones figure. I have two bases of mounted skirmish archers and three bases of heavy riders lead by the centaur king.

Here's the first of the big hitters - A mountain troll. He's big and if you look at the photo above you see how he towers over the centaurs.  I like this figure. He looks tough and grumpy.

I'm a bit confused as to the generalship of this army. I've included a troll as the army commander here, but I think this will change and he'll become a champion or maybe another big-hitter troll. Same with Luna the Moon Ogress. I was going to use her as the army's spell caster but I think I found a better option after I finished taking the pics. I have another army that I think she would be better suited to. The troll is from Reaper Bones and the ogress is another from Eureka Miniatures.

The Treefolk ~ These make up the heavy infantry core of the army. They are made up of GW Dryads, and Treekin from Mantic's, Kings of War range. Both sets of figures are fantastic. The dryads are one GW's best kits as far as I'm concerned. I saw a painting tutorial on youtube on how to paint the dryads to resemble Japanese cherry blossoms. I liked it; so that's what I did. The dryads will be heavy warriors with some traits to toughen them up. The treekin will be an elite type of unit so I want them to be very tough.

And then there's this guy, Greennuts the Ent. I sculpted this figure years ago when I had my own miniature business. I sold a few of him around the world but this is the original. He's made of several parts and towers over every other model on the table. I made another of these about 20 years back and I'll add a pic below if I can find one. The Treekin are spectacular models. I should get another set of them.

Here's another of my favourite models: The Jabberwock! It's another Reaper Bones figure and I think it looks fantastic. This was a difficult figure to do and it required special treatment (click here to see what was needed to put this figure together). Okay... now that I've said all that, I might remove this figure from this army. I think it fits well but I now have a better idea of where it will fit in even better.

The right wing is made up of fauns (satyrs). These units are all light infantry. The archers are obviously skirmish troops but the spearmen are going to be light infantry with good melee capability. There are six bases of each and they're produced by Eureka Miniatures. Once again I modified a few of these figures for Eureka several years back to help expand the range. 

This figure below is a Reaper miniature and, after taking these pics and having a rethink I believe that this figure would make a better general than the troll. I think what I'll do is; I'll make up a sabot base with a standard bearer and a musician and insert him onto the base like I did with my Elf King. He just looks so much more commanding than the troll. The troll can replace the Jabberwock

Three champions: The Faun commander, A beast headed warrior and the would-be new king/general, (And yes that is what you think it is on the faun commander ~ Be careful or he'll have your eye out!).

Two views: Right to left and left to right.

A top down view to show how the army fits on to a 6x4 table. They make quite a footprint although there are a lot of light troops and not many heavy warriors. The idea is to make the tree folk very tough and hope that the lighter flanks are capable of harassing, slowing and reducing the enemy by evading and attacking on their own terms. I don't know if this will work.

After taking the photos I remembered this figure and thought: "Oh yes. She's supposed to be the spell caster." So she might end up replacing Luna a Moon Ogress. Or maybe not.

As promised above: here are some pics of the original treeman I sculpted about 20 odd years back for my Warhammer Wood Elves. I sold the army and have regretted it ever since. I never played Warhammer but I use to like creating WH armies and painting the figures. I built several of them and sold them all. (Wish I hadn't)

Anglo ~ Saxons & Some Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders

The rebasing continues and this time it's my Anglo-Saxons (or generic Dark Ages if you prefer). Once again these figures were all on individual bases which made them difficult to use in large battle games. Even when put onto sabot bases mass amounts of singe figures are hard to manage as far as I'm concerned and I think they'll be much easier to manage as they are now based.

I also rebased my "Somewhat Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders." Until such time as I increase their numbers they should work well with the Anglo-Saxons to create a pseudo-dark age fantasy host.

There are 14 bases of heavy warriors: 7 bases of armoured thegns, 6 of fyrd and one of huscarls. There are also two bases of javelin armed light infantry (allied Welsh or Irish) and three skirmish bases armed with bows. This isn't a huge army but it is made up of about 200+ figures. The host is deployed with the thegns in the front line and supported by the fyrd in the rear. The kings' huscarls are also to the front, armed with Dane axes and supported by the kings own household thegns. 

To lead the host is King Ætholguy the Seeker, the heroes Ælefroth and Wilfred. There is also a priest and a handful of lesser heroes (see below). Ætholguy the Seeker features throughout this blog and is a name I chose for the very first warlord when I played Saga many years back. He has lead many warbands and fought larger battles over the years and it's about time he got elevated to the throne. Long live King Ætholguy the Seeker!

This is the right of the shieldwall. You can see the front rank of thegns and the fryd at the rear nice and clear. This host has only a few missile troops deployed as skirmishers. Their main strength lay in a solid shieldwall and little else. I have been thinking what kind of fantastic elements I can add to the army to create a fantasy version but I haven't come up with anything suitable at this stage.

You can see the kings' axe wielding huscarls standing right behind him in the image above. I actually had 14 Dane-axe figures so I decided to put all of them onto the base. It makes the unit look very big, heavy and tough.

The left of the shieldwall with the light infantry allies. I decided to keep these lighter troops on single bases and use sabot unit bases as I did with both my elves and orcs. If I want I can put only 4 figures onto a sabot and create another 4 figure unit is needed, but I prefer the 6 figure look. These figures are actually Wargames Atlantic Irish. 

Whilst on the subject of figures: the figures used here are from all over. The main bulk of figures are Gripping Beast but there are many figures from all over including, Eureka Miniatures, Footsore, Saxon (now defunct), and others.

Some extra heroes to add to the mix, and to go where they may be needed.

And here are the "Somewhat Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders," that might or might not hail from the lands of Rohan. These are my cheap-o "I'm not paying out a fortune to GW" fantasy rider. They are actually Goth Noble Riders from Gripping Beast. They look the part but they have a very limited range of poses (as do all Gripping Beast cavalry).

Visually they don't really fit with the Anglo Saxons but for the sake of creating a nice big host they can work together until I make something better. This is two  boxes so another couple of boxes would double their number an look pretty impressive. I think the Wargames Atlantic Gothic infantry would make good foot troops to supplement the horse.

One thing I don't have is Rider Leaders and I'm finding it difficult to find any suitable figures. These riders are 100% fantasy and bare very little resemblance to the historical Goths, so they need suitably impressive leaders and heroes to command them. I'm even considering GW options!!! (Gasp!)

You may note that I only put 4 riders to a base and that these bases are not as deep as my other cavalry units. I did this because I intend to make them heavy cavalry but not as strong as the armoured elf knights or orc boar riders. Heavy riders more in the vein of Roman equites.

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And that's it for this post. I'm contemplating which army to do next. I'm looking at either my woodland forces or undead. I'm undecided at this time. I also need to play a game of Midgard. But finding the time is proving difficult at the moment.

Thanks for reading,

IanKH