Titch'ammer

  Look.....CONTENT!!!!!!!!

  After almost a month of bugger all gaming bobbins due to a massive lack of inspiration of any kind i'm back with another stupid idea!. But first:

lovely, lovely System of a down!.

So, whats this dumb idea then?. I have to begin with a sort of account of someone browsing a specialist sort of website, namely Irregular Miniatures (what did you think i was going to say?). Upon entering the website said person, looking to scan through the 2mm section did scroll to the scale menu at the bottom of the fine boutiques page. However being a sausage fingered dolt he clicked on the wrong scale, clicking 6mm by mistake. Now I have read some...well..should I say negative stuff about the irregular 6mm range but I have to say I thought they were pretty interesting. The pictures on the website could better showcase the minis but I was put in mind of those pre-slotta citadel minis from the very early Warhammer editions, stuff like:

(All images from http://www.solegends.com/)

They are very old school in look and as fantasy ranges go very complete.....complete enough for me to go and order some to see how they look in the flesh. And I have to say they are kind of rough as bare metal but once you begin to paint them the character comes through. Here are some I painted earlier:.

The gang, as a whole.

Some 'imperial' types

 Half orcs

Conquistadore types

Viking bowmen and some nice chaos warrior sorts

Aztec troops I couldn't resist painting up as Slann Jaguar warriors.

I know what your thinking 'buying and painting a few 6mm minis is not really a stupid idea Sprinks'. You are correct, but as I was painting the wee critters my mind went back to those old sculpts and the early Warhammer editions and I started thinking wether or not it would be possible to collect some forces that could capture that old school fantasy feel that hooked me into this hobby way back when. Then I got to wondering if the irregular range would be good for building forces from those races and nations that fell out of favour in later editions, Slann, Estillia, Araby, Nippon, Fimir etc. I reckon it could be fun....so I ordered some more!. Guess I'd better get some rules together!.....

.......'till next time....

It's all in my head (sadly)

So, January went rattling by, all creativity and fun, even a game or two!. Then February came along and...well...

....but first:

 

Nice.

 So why no posts for the last few weeks?. Well my last post hinted I may be looking into some sci-fi gaming, I even went as far as ordering some 6mm tanks and gubbins from brigade models, the idea being to build a couple of forces and play some games using a hybrid G.W epic/ Dirtside rules I have been bodging. I was aiming to expand on my last posts ramblings to create a kind of battle as a corporate sponsored sport type thing with a league set up, a commentary team to add the narrative bits and  all that type of stuff. However I have hit the wall for now when it comes to painting them. I have never really painted 6mm minis and I am finding them a little boring if I'm honest. Hopefully I will be dragged back to them soon but for now they have sat unloved in the painting 'zone' (it's a corner of a table!) looking at me with a 'why don't you love us?' look about them.

   This is far from the first time this has happened with a project, it's pretty common for me to just abandon a good idea, my brain tends to switch gears at random taking off to wholly different places on its own accord. At the moment my brain is lurching between:

1) The next battle in my

  Campaign, everything is ready to go (except my lazy backside apparently).

2) A crazy idea for a elaborate and expansive multiplayer campaign (involving much map based political skulduggery) set in:

With my 12mm forces, this is pretty tempting but my record for seeing something through at the moment is holding me back somewhat!.

3) A whole new project involving my much abused 1/72 stuff in an unhinged fantasy setting based around a renaissance era war galley being sucked into a whirlpool somewhere and ending up in a freakishly odd world populated by mutant indigenous tribes, stranded cultists from the order of world builders, undead knights that believe they are in the afterlife and whatever other bobbins I can dream up, basically high fantasy skirmish stuff without the normal high fantasy trappings.

4) An attempt at some kind of podcast with this Rapscallion that I can't seem to put the technical side together very well for. Still sounds like fun but my lack of technical anything is holding it back.

So as you can see, lots of ideas as ever, just the normal state of too many things jostling for my attention to focus on one!. Hopefully I will have some kind of post about stuff I have actually done next time out.....

....'till next time....

Best not look forward....

 Guess what, i met a time traveler, he told me he had been to the future and seen what goes on an' that (i did, stop laughing at the back). I thought it was best to record his words here for later generations to see and heed his words (and i would do some gaming based on it to ensure it lives on in a visual type of way):

 'In the year 2087 mankind will finally settle on another planet, actually a belt of 4 planets not dissimilar to our own, the one on the far right smells a little of petrol and the middle one (left middle) wont ever produce a decent crop of chickpeas but otherwise pretty darn close. It will all begin with the discovery of said planets by a tired and slightly depressed astrology student forced to stay late completing an overdue paper in the observatory at the university of Swindon. Upon the news braking the human governments of the world will as one jump into action to grab themselves some prime space real estate before 'those other bastards' grab it for themselves. This will lead to the near collapse of the global economy as nations switch massive chunks of their budgets to do so. National debts are called in, lending is suspended, taxation goes through the roof so some rocks in deep space can get a flag stuck in them. With the global markets in free fall the 'exploration' projects will be thrown out to the highest bidder and be promptly grabbed by some major corporate bodies who are now the only organisations left on earth capable of funding such an undertaking. Thus many joint probes of just a few hundred thousand hastily designed and assembled fully laden inter-stellar war ships will set out on their missions to bring peace to this new unspoiled corner of space. After many a (pretty cool and quite cinematic) space battle the victors (or if you like the survivors) will settle on these new utopias, claiming them in the name of their parent company. While this is going on earth will have gone into proper full scale meltdown, the economy buggered, people fighting over puddles in the street, gangs of odd looking folk driving modified muscle cars in desert wastelands, the whole nine yards. The collapse of order on earth will prevent the carbon offsetting the population have been doing so well with up to this point leading to almost one hundred years of climate based armageddon and the slow death of all living things on the planet. This will cause a mass panic led migration of those still just about rich enough to afford it to the newly settled worlds. Now alone, the populations of the four 'new Earths' will stand alone in the cosmos, the final bastions of humanity. After about thirty years of sorting themselves out and organizing their new homes the ruling corporations of the New Earths will do what all corporate leaders tend to do and look to move into new markets, probably aggressively. As lines begin to be crossed there will come a visitation, a fleet of strange and alien craft will touch down on each of the planets to spread a message of peace. The envoys of the Greater Galactic Assembly of peaceful and progressive beings (made up of the whole rest of the living beings in the galaxy....except humanity) shall deliver the decree that reads thus:

'We have watched you from afar, gathered an expansive body of data and evidence of your good and peaceful civilizations and have come to give this message of love to you. IF YOU BLOODY WAR MONGERING PRIMATES EVER TRY TO LEAVE THESE PLANETS YOU SHALL ALL BE VAPORIZED YOU VIOLENT, STUPID BACKWARDS ARGUMENTATIVE PRIMITIVES!!!'. They will then draw attention to the fact that a 'laser wall' has been thrown up all around the borders of the New Earths that will turn any craft that attempts to travel through it into very thin chips. And so it will be, humanity shall war over their new homes to secure the important human needs of social networking, faster food and more elaborate and expensive ways to market coffee while the rest of the galaxy looks on, tutting.

  This message was delivered to me by the great voyager 'Cosmic' Stu, on a bench in Bute Park Weston Super Mare, lunchtime, Jan 30 2020.

 Question is does this say 6mm mass battle or 15mm Platoon level to you?....



.....'till next time....

Thar be movements ahoy!.

I thought it may be high time to return to my 2mm 'punk n' shot' campaign:

 Having failed to oust a Tuttinghammeshire advanced force from the town of Brickage the forces of Crivenshire have regrouped and decided to take the attack to the enemy....but a surprise awaits!...


...but first...

Rites of Spring, the sound of the revolution summer!.

  So, as i was waffling, i decided to dive into turn two of my Pike and steampunk bobbins, first the positions at the end of the last turn:

  The situation as the turn begins, Tuttinghammeshire forces are established over the Crivenshire border (circled). I decided to change things around a bit and make all moves at the same time to prevent the attack/ reaction cycle of last turn. To that end both Tuttinghamme and Crivenshire make their moves together:

To which end both forces pushed on in the east, actually moving past each other!. Crivenshire decided to contain the invading forces where they were and go on the attack at the border to try to catch them off guard. For their part Tuttinghammeshire also pushed on over the eastern border only further east, attacking the town of Whiffy in order to split the Crivenshire defensive forces. Why they chose to do this can be explained by what happened next:

Berkshire rises and declares support for Tuttinghammeshire!!

  Thats right the third shire to come to arms are Berkshire, adding to the forces of the north!, things look bleak for Crivenshire!. Berkshire waste no time in joining in the attack on Whiffy, meaning the next battle will be a two on one affair!.

 While i was up and at it i decided to draw some F.F.S cards for the upcoming battle, getting the following:

Crivenshire scouting seems to be going well for once, they get choice of deployment area, while a lucky trooper in the Tutinghammeshire force has found a spell scroll ready to use in the battle. For their part Berkshire scouts are very familiar with the battlefield, meaning they get to rejig it a bit before setting up!.

 The battle should be done soon, but you know me and my glacial pace when it comes to hobby stuff. I have decided this year i am going to go with the flow a little more, playing games and painting stuff as the mood takes, so this campaign will probably ebb and flow throughout the year. It will be nice to have something bubbling away that i can dip into when i want. It also means i can flit between projects without getting frustrated when i move away from things to something else, nothing is ever unfinished, just set aside ready to come back to later. Which is handy because i got a copy of this in the post yesterday:

Which has got me thinking about some 6mm Sci-fi stuff i could do......

......'till next time....

3 day army.

Hi all, having just had some minor surgery (nothing major, just a procedure i had put off for too long) i found myself under the 'for the sake of all things holy, don't do ANYTHING!!!!!' type of recovery period. Now if you are anything like me sitting still for days on end is a struggle and a half, so after half a day (it may have been half an hour to be fair) i was bored...so i set myself a challenge.......

.....but before that:

never too early for some early rage i find!.

  So as i was waffling, i decided i would do something that required the stillest of sitting....painting!, and better yet, i had received a couple of armies worth of minis from the splendid kallistra i had ordered to boost the forces of 

and i had three whole days worth of stillishness to look forward too so i elected to set myself the task of painting a whole army in that time. Guess what?, from prepping to basing i just about managed it!. This post is the proof!:

    THE MIGHTY HORDE OF AAGARAXX THE REALLY VERY NAUGHTY, MASTER OF PRICKISHNESS AND DEEDS OF AN EVIL AND FRANKLY COCKISH NATURE

Wrong 'uns,  the whole lot of 'em

 The Forces commanders. Front right is Aagraxx himself, rightful prince of Generica and aspiring usurper of King Pharrus with his personal banner bearer Kevin the skeleton (known as 'bony Kev'). To his left is his apprentice and moody spotty teenage nephew Cwispin, who styles himself as 'the Dark Fury', much to his masters amusement. Behind them is Aagaraxx's best general and long suffering right hand man Susan.

 A selection of the Evil ones foot troops, mostly Darklands contractors looking for steady employment in the wrongdoing sector. At the front are a unit of Aagraxx's highly trained personal bodyguard known only as 'the black shields'. Being a stylish type Aagraxx has introduced a retro 'dark age chic' themed uniform for his troops, Norman is very 'in' this season.

 The forces fast attack section, made up of some horsemen and a couple of packs of the dangerous and rightly feared Githounds.

 Missile support is provided by some armoured and some rabble archers as well as Aggarax's own  skirmishers, the shifty black clad 'shadow Bastards'

Being an all round nasty evil type Aagraxx would never be seen without some undead types shuffling along with him, to this end he has summoned some Skeletons and some brown stride inducing specters!.

  The force is speed painted to my not so high standards as per the rest of my 12mm stuff but for a quick job i reckon they will do. As far as using them i have a crazy and highly involved plan that may require some volunteers, more of which in a future post.

Aagraxx personally leads an attack on a northern stronghold.

....'till next time....

Blood at the Sentinals pt2

As usual i have taken a flippin' age to post the 2nd part of this game report. I'm not angry with myself....just disappointed......

Good 'ol pixies!!!!

    Right, on with the report, you can read the first part  Here:

BLOOD AT THE SENTINALS PT2:

  Mallagor could move when he needed to, despite his great age he ran faster than the rest of the line of troops muttering 'ohshitohshitohshit' repeatedly under his breath as he did so, but when a wizards library of ancient arcane texts and spell books are in danger it turns out he will move heaven and earth to protect it. He reached the shadow of the first ruined watchtower before even the scouts could get there, the tower (one of a pair known locally as the Sentinals, once joined by a fortified wall several miles long in ages past) loomed large and mercenary free before him. he stopped and pressed his back against the cold stone, trying to catch his breath. Sargent Caprill rode up to him moments later. ''Well you can shift my lord' he giggled 'i never saw a man out run a cavalry squadron before'. 'Well...good..sir..' Panted the mage '....at least...we...got here...first..' he tried to continue. 'What?, before them?' asked Caprill pointing to the far tower. Mallagor peered around the wall only to be met with the sight of a black and white clad horde of mean looking soldiers advancing in the distance....then he threw up.

To battle!. For this game i used my modified version of 'One Hour Wargames' by Neil Thomas with a few extra ideas i wanted to try out as well:

  The turn sequence was changed to a combined activation phase where each player takes turns to move or shoot with a unit, innitutive was rolled each turn. If a unit with a commander is activating any friendly unit within 6'' can also activate.  

  Combat was rolled for by both sides in the combat phase, my morale rules were used meaning the lowest scoring side in a combat was required to test at the end of the phase.

Magic can only be used by wizards who roll 1d3+1 spells before battle.

The forces:

Mallagors 'oi you, put that scroll back'.....errr.....force

It consisted of:

Mallagor, a wizard,

Sargent Caprill and his herald Sir Barry,

1 Unit of Knights, 1 Unit of Foot Knights, 2 Units of Leve, 1 Unit of Men at Arms, 2 Units of Cavalry, 1 Unit of Archers and 1 Unit of Skirmishers.

The Black Rats Magic book liberation squad:

They had:

C.C. Bathion, leader of the Black rats,

Gavin the Grey, wizard of incredible dullness,

2x Units of Men at Arms, 2x Units of Archers, 1 Unit of Knights, 1 Unit of Cavalry,  1 Unit of Skirmishers and Clive the Ogre.

The Battlefield, the towers are the titular Sentinals, ruined watchtowers under which lies Mallagors no longer hidden magical library!. They are the objective of the game, both sides need to control the towers to win.

Both sides had control of one of the towers at the start of the battle.

 The Black Rats set up with their horse ready to attack the oppositions tower, crossbows in support.

 Their center consisted of the Sentinal protected on both sides by Men at Arms and Clive.

This force was supported by Archers and Skirmishers.

 Mallagor ordered his Knights and Cavalry to the left with Skirmishers to their flank.

 The center was held by Mallagor and the Leve with crossbow support.

The right was held by The foot knights (the purple palace guard no less!) supported by Men at arms and more Cavalry.

 The battle began with the Black Rats advancing, only the crossbows on the hill held position.

 Mallagor held back the Leve but had the Right advance towards the far tower.

The following turn started with a bang as the Horse of the Black Rats slammed into the Opposing horse, supported by Clive who was transported by a 'Swarthy Stevens Spell of unusually swift swiftness!'

 Breaking the Knights!!.

 In reply the royal troops attacked the Black Rats at the tower.

 The Black Rats Crossbows engaged the Skirmishers in the woods in an archery duel, causing the skirmishers to bolt!.

 Having chased off the Knights Clive and his horse riding mates turned their attentions on Mallagor and the Leve.

 With predictable results.

 At the other tower the Royal forces made a breakthrough

But so did the Rats!.

 Causing a scrum between the remaining troops....

 Which the archers lost....spectacularly!!!!.

 C.C Bathions Knights finally saw off the royal horse.

 The situation at the end of the battle.

 One tower remained in the balance.....

....while the other was firmly under the Black Rats control.

  So a marginal win for the worlds most vile and twattish mercenaries, looks like Mallagor will need to buy his library back!. All the minis are from kallistra, i like them a lot.......

......'till next time......