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......

Blood at the sentinals pt 1

I decided to kick off the new year with a battle report. I still have my 2mm campaign going on (more of this soon) but decided on a change of pace this time out. I have recently been fleshing out my 12mm medieval fantasy forces so decided to give them a run out for a change. It also let me change the setting for a mo, i decided it was time to visit

 As i made this header about a year ago and have done nothing with it since!. Its also a good excuse to try out some of my mods for One Hour Wargames. As far as the setting goes i have no fixed plans as yet but think it would work for the 12mm stuff and also let me draw some of my previous narratives and ideas into one place (sort of consolidating my many fantasy bits into one easy to manage setting).....but first......

Kind of like the MC5 fronted by a really angry Tina Turner!.

BLOOD AT THE SENTINALS, PT 1

   'What in the name of the gods can he want now?' thought Mallagor as he approached the gigantic, highly polished gold doors that lead to the Kings throne room. The guards nodded to him as he passed, giving the signal for the doors to be opened. With a dramatic THUNK the locking mechanism was disengaged and the doors swung open in an improbably smooth motion. As Mallagor entered the room, beginning the long walk along the opulent purple carpet that marked the path to the base of the dias upon which stood the massive and frankly over the bloody top golden jewel encrusted throne. As he passed many footmen, courtiers, knights and purple clad guards the page of clear announcements (actual job title) read aloud the prepared list of accomplishments attributed to Mallagor as an introduction to the court. 'HERE WALKS MALLAGOR THE WISE, KEEPER OF THE KINGS MAGICS, COMPILER OF OCCULT ITEMS, PROTECTOR OF THE REALM, CURATOR OF THE LIBRARY OF THE UNKNOWN WRITINGS, LORD OF THE WESTERNMARK, ADVISER TO THE CROWN, HEAD OF THE ORDER OF ROYAL MAGICS, FAILED MAMMOTH HUNTER AND ALL ROUND BEARDED TIT....' The last bits caused a titter of laughter around the room from the more prominent nobles, Mallagor cursed himself as he reddened as he always did at this point, he sped up to try to get to the throne. 'Mallagor, finally pulled yourself away from your potions to grace us with your presence i see!' Boomed king Pharrus from his royal seat as the wizard bowed before him. Mallagor rose and looked up at the king who he noted was still as large as ever, as red faced as ever, as stupidly overdressed as ever and...well thats new, the King had a visible smirk playing across his not so tiny cheeks. 'We are being probed Mallagor' boomed king Pharrus, 'Probed sire?' replied the wizard. 'Invaded' offered the King by way of explanation, the smirk still playing across his face. 'Invaded my liege?, but who would dare?' answered Mallagor. 'Its those vile currs the  Black Rats, they are as we speak making headway into the west, they burned several of our boarder villages on the way in and are' the king was almost holding back a chuckle 'we think headed towards the Sentinals as we speak'. As he finished the King put his hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh. Mallagor stood confused for a moment. He answered 'But do we know why sire?, the black rats are mercenaries, who could be behind this attack?, who would dare invade in such a brazen fashion?'. 'We..' the King tried not to laugh 'we....don't..(another stifle)...we don't......know Mallagor'. The Wizard became aware that there were audible snorts and small chortles among the courtiers as the King spoke, as he looked back at the King he could see him shaking, like a child trying to hold back a fit of the giggles. 'Could it be Aagraxx up to his tricks again your highness?, maybe its Lord Yanic and those troublesome northmen, perhaps it may be...' Malagors musings were interrupted by a huge snort from the king who finally could hold back no longer and collapsed into a fit of  laughter. 'NO MALLAGOR' the king exclaimed between laughs 'IT WAS ME! I HIRED THEM!'. The rest of the court exploded into laughter as Mallagors head swam. 'What?, he said trying to make himself heard, 'why would you do that, the Black Rats are mean, dangerous and all together....well....complete bastards sire!, why would you hire them...and to attack....to attack..did you say the west?' Mallagors face fell '...i'm Lord of the West...what the hell is going on?'. The king tried to pull himself together, he sort of almost succeeded 'You know how you said you were worried in case we were invaded, you know, you thought the troops were getting lazy, not battle ready and all that what with it being so quiet?'. 'Yes' replied Mallagor, dreading where this was going. 'Well we dec..(the giggles returned to the King)...'we decided to help out and stage kind of...what would you call it...a kind of training exercise if you like.(snort..) I...(chortle)..I hired the Rats anonymously you see...(giggle)..told them your library could be reached through (chuckle) a secret door under one of the Sentinals...thought it would (snort, chuckle...giggle..)...would give you a chance to get your troops up to speed in case anything should actually happen...you know...for real'. Concern overcame Mallagor. 'But sire, my Library CAN be reached through a secret door under one of the Sentinals, i told you that not two weeks ago!. 'Ah, thats where that came from, knew it rang a bell' laughed the king and the rest of the court, who were now in hysterics. 'You better run along and see nothing happens then Mallagor...off you pop, take some Palace guard with you if you like' said the king to the back of the wizard who was already half way out the door. The king rose to address the court who were now in uproar 'Well he could have said thank you at least.......you just cant please some people........'

 Report to follow.......'till next time......

The bi-hourly turning of the head

  Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But first......

Scuzzy!

 So, i have, or more accurately am supposed to have a campaign on the go in a new setting i am putting together, i have done a bit of background and this time I EVEN PAINTED 2 FORCES FOR F*CK SAKE!!. So with that in mind have a guess what my brain is doing to me, go on, its likely you have an active interest in gaming if you are reading this so you may well know the answer so go on, have a quick guess.

    If you answered 'why Sprinks, your mind is pondering how to get the best out of the project you are focused on, i imagine you have played a few games and has come up with more material to really bring it to life'.  You are wrong, hopelessly, hopelessly wrong. 

    If you answered 'NEW PROJECTS, LOTS OF NEW PROJECTS!!!!!!', you my friend are 100% bang on (sadly!).

My head has been turned by some very silly things, in fact my head has not been turned, its almost done the full 'Linda Blair'!

  Now i am aware this is not a new thing among us hobby types, many a blog contain stories of forgotten projects cast aside to make way for the latest new and shiny gubbins to come along. But the things attempting to lure me away with their frankly bloody odd siren song are not new or even very shiny. So to hopefully get them out of my brain i will splurge them on the page to hopefully exercise them for good!.

Odd project the 1st:

 I am a fantasy gaming type. You may have noticed this. However i like a 'low' level of fantasy. A bit of magic, maybe dueling tech levels but human centered and defo no bloody elves!. Im more Martin than Tolken if you will.........

But........

.......images like these have been nagging at me to do something in their spirit:

 Something a bit more balls out 80s metal style fantasy!, evolutionary impossible monsters, proper evil bastards up to proper evil stuff and furry pant wearing mentalists probably riding mechtigers or some such. And my brain has been telling me i have just about everything i need to do it in my 1/72 collection!. Thanks brain...thanks!.

Odd project the 2nd:

    Can you remember another prematurely aborted project i was doing last year?

This one.

 Well i have been thinking maybe 1/72 was the wrong scale to tackle it in if i am going to paint upwards of 6 factions for it. So, my brain is telling me maybe 6mm would work best. Which means that my brain is not considering 6mm for this, oh no, its going for this: scale! 

Picture taken from the irregular miniatures website.

  I think the project is begging for the sort of grand sweep of the smaller scale and the mass effect of a table full of these (plus large monsters, steam tanks and zombie hordes) would bring. A nationwide multiple sided civil war needs to be BIG and the best way to go that style of BIG is to 'zoom out' so the table gives a larger area, villages and towns on the same table, mighty rivers and rolling hills, sieges of whole cities.....er.....etc. The painting would be a challenge but thats o.k. and it could look really different compared to my normal bobbins!.

 Right thats my head emptied (my normal state!) so im going to get back to my current project completely distraction free........yeah right!.

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

Quite the find!

Things have taken quite an amazing turn here at Chez Sprinks and have honestly got me bouncing around the place (more than normal) with pure excitement!!. Before i get into whats causing all the glee i suppose i should do:

                                                    So thats what an estimated 1.6 million strong crowd looks like!!!.


   Now on to the good stuff!. As some of you may remember aside from mucking about the gaff with toy soldiers i also do a spot of delving into this nations fictional history, particularly the forgotten battles of the period between 1010 and 1604 that had not actually taken place and the lives of those fabricated protagonists that, errr.... protaginized them. As a member of the non accredited fictional historian club and a keen delver into the non historical i could not believe my luck when i was contacted by a dear friend and fellow histspurian  the esteemed Cedric Hamilton-Kidway (yes, the man that lifted the lid on the wool makers rebellion and the resulting 1801 sacking of Gilford no less!) who said he was sending me some newly unearthed materials dating from 1454 that had been found in Spilfington Abby on the non existent isle of Epplidge!. Now i am sure you dear reader are asking the same question i was, were these in fact the missing accounts of the so called 'Epplidge unrest', a period in nonhistory that has eluded the delvers of the mists of not time for so long?.  Well it is with great excitement i can reveal to you all that yes, they are an almost complete set of writings of the time by one Jude, a priest of the Abby who was tasked with recording the annals of the war of 1454!. The writings are very detailed giving a good idea from a non source of the whos, wheres and whens events did not occur!. I have looked through the writings in fine detail and have  had them non varified  by some of the best in the non historical community and it is my pleasure to announce to you all it has been agreed that i, with the aid of the Wronghammer plastic re-enactment  society (Wincanton mini metal chapter), can serialize the events of the 'unrest' on these pages with an aim to publishing the collected materials in book form when complete!.

 So to begin i thought i would look into the wider picture that led up to the events of 1454 as not detailed by the good Jude, a Priest. His first entry in the annals is as follows:

   'Dear diariee, 
it has beene a difficulte day here upon thee Abby, a fowle did crapee upon ones cassock  this morn when the collecting of egges was being completed, causing myselfe to steppe southwards onto a discarded rake, said implemente did swing upwards in comedic fashion and twatte ye goode Friar Bullridge betwixt yonder eyes, killing him upon the instant. The Abbot wase muchly pissed offe at such a happenstance and dothe punish myselfe fore my mishappe by forcing me to travele hither ande twine upone this goode isle to regarde ande recorde upone the unrestte emerging betwixt the goode Lordes of the mighty houses of this fair isle reguarding the publicatione of a booke containing much elicit and unsettling materials. Thee goode Abbot assures me the path aheade wille be thwart withe dangers moste real and that i am to be unswerving in my hunte fore only the truthe as it reveals itself, even to deathe most unpleasent if required. He seemed most animated on this point i doth think he dislikes me.
I hate being a priest.

This first entry in the annals gives some small clues into the reason for the friction that would not develop later in the year. The mention of a book gives a clear indication that it was not just a simple border dispute or tit for tat raid or two. This mystery text opened up a can of worms indeed, what book could cause such large scale conflict on such a semi peaceful isle such as Epplidge?. After a ruddy good delve two texts emerged as front runners, namely 'House Stones are a bunch of girly, girly swots' by famed academic Sir Norbet Collicton and 'I wish all of house T'head would die in an imaginative and painful way such as a barn fire or some such' by Mr Bitton Farrage. Both seemed fairly insulting to the Two most powerful houses on the isle and were written by members of the other house. I discussed this at length with respected members of the non history community but opinion was split. I then stumbled upon a line of text scrawled on the back of a loose leaf of writing paper wedged between the writings given to me by Hamilton-Kidway. It simply said:

DAMNE YE MRS ENTWHISTLE!'

  This was indeed a turn up. Delving into the name Mrs Entwhistle soon revealed the spark that started the trouble!. As any expert on 15th century Epplidge knows Mrs Entwistle was an author and proto-domestic godess of the time, sort of a fore runner to Mrs Beeton, Fanny Craddock, Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver. Looking into her published works (of which there are over 300!) i finally managed to pin down a likely source of the issue:

    To give this some context i must fill in some culinary nothistory. The above text refers to the most revered of British snack foods, the humble pasty. It is often wrongly believed that this dish was invented in Cornwall, this however is not the case. Its true origin goes back to 10th century Epplidge.

Further to this, its true make up is a much disputed issue that can inflame passions like no other!. The Eastern Houses claim the Pasty was invented in the town of Cluntingham. In the west they are convinced it came from Ruckingham. Further to this the pasties produced in the East of the isle are still produced in the image of the original (as the locals see it), sealing the pastry with the method known as the Cluntingham Crimp:

 The Cluntingham Crimp

  However in the rest of the isle they only ever seal the pastry along the top edge using a method known as the Ruckingham Ridgeback:

The Ruckingham Ridgeback.

 Oh and a small section swear by the Falligthorpe flatty but they are regarded to be a load of wrong 'uns by all!

move along!.....

  This may seem like an innocent passage to the modern reader but to a man of Epplidge it is either a true validation of fact from the greatest source of the period or a kick in the pastry based nethers and no mistake!.  A further passage from Jude, a Priest seems to agree:

 Dear Diaryeee,

    It has alle gone and hitte ye yonder fanne!, Mrs Entwhistle has refused to have the offending passage removed from her lateste tome and has gonne as far as stating 'you Westerners are a laode of cattle leavings withe eyes thate are too close together and eye brows that do not rightly part betwixt a meeting!, come and have a goe if ye believes ye to be hard enough!'. House T'Head have called thier banners in the west and demanded her head, Lorde Maurice of thee house has demanded it by the nexte moone moste full!. Lord Roland of House Stones has said he speekes for the easte and house T'Head can 'shove it youner!'. Oh lummy diaree, i hate being a priest!. 

  So i am sure you will agree this is quite the exciting turn up!. Next time out i will delve into the first clash of the wars, the battle of Nippletons Knowle, Also i have had a mock up of the potental book cover back from the work experience lad at the printers:

Im not sure he got the grasp of old english!?.

.....'till next time