Just a very quick update to point you fine people in the direction of my new Stuff I don't need anymore page . Feel free to have a gander, as stated on the page its not about trying to make a ton of cash but to move on minis i have always told myself i will find a use for but never have that others will actually use.
Also i had a fun few hours playing a game set up and run by Sprinkling three: the Revenge!. He used all his own minis and came up with the rules himself. It was loads of fun and very encouraging to see him getting so stuck in to it!. Heres the only photo i remembered to take:
Another game report....i know, i'm as amazed as you guys!. But first:
Lets all have some noisy punk shall we?.
I decided to give the new rules another try but this time to use them for a narrative scenario. While i was setting up Sprinkling three: the revenge stuck his head around the corner with the immortal phrase 'Daddy can i play?'. Ah i thought, an excuse to introduce him to the wonderful world of narrative gaming! (since he kicked my behind last time!). So yes, yes he could indeed play. We had loads of fun developing characters and a story as the game went on, not playing one side to win but playing both sides to see what happens. It was great and judging by his ideas and reaction to the game i think he might fancy another go. But enough blathering from me, On with the story!.
AN AMBUSH AT KEEPITTA WAY, or the timely interception of Lord Nesway Coddestrappe.
Lord Arbour was sweating, panic written large on his face. He hated dealing with this class of 'people', he hated the thought of the noose more.'So you see my problem Sir, and the need for haste' he asked the grim faced scarred individuals seated across the vast polished oak table. 'If that report reaches the King my goose and the geese of my whole estate will be well and truly plucked, stuffed and burnt to a bloody crisp!' he finished, dabbing his sodden silk handkerchief across his face for the upteenth time since lord Coddestrappe, the kings auditeer had left that morning. The large grey haired man in the middle of the three sat opposite exhaled loudly and relaxed in his chair with his arms folded. 'We can help' he boomed, 'But you will need to understand this service wont come cheep'. 'Yes yes' replied Arbour 'we need to hurry this along they will be miles from here by now'. 'Thats why i insist on the gold package for this particular task. I assume you want no one left alive?' He gestured to the young man at his left who grabbed a slate and started to write notes and figures. 'You also need to get the job done before they can get to the castle. You need this to be done with no evidence to link this to you and you need a 'report' is it?' he looked to Arbour for conformation 'Yes, a tax audit he called it' the Lord replied. 'And you want that brought back here not burned or destroyed in the battle?'. 'Yes i wont rest until it is in my hand'. 'Right well that will be extra...with manpower required, wear and tear on the horses, upkeep of weapons, miles covered and an assurance of our silence that will be....oh....he looked at the slate that was now filled with a dizzying amount of figures...say with a this day discount its one thousand gold coins. In advance'. Lord Arbour turned a special shade of purple 'A THOUSAND GOLD PIECES....ONE THOUSAND ARE YOU...' he trailed off as the two younger men flanking the grizzled mercenary bristled and made to stand up with malice of forethought. 'I mean...its a little outside the figure i was thinking' he finished meekly. 'Thats fine sir' laughed the older man in an alarmingly friendly manor 'there will always be room for negotiation'. Lord Arbour relaxed 'oh good, how about..' 'fifteen hundred' interrupted the mercenary. 'wha..fift..err..wha...' stumbled Arbour. 'It was a thousand a moment ago'. 'Yes sir that was our introductory offer, that has expired and now we are on to the normal pricing plan'. He smiled at Arbour with a shark like grin. 'Arbour began sweating again. Well cant we negotiate downwards?, is'nt that how it works?' 'The young man with the slate lent over to the older man a whispered in his ear, the older mans grin widened. 'Always room for movement sir, always room'. he stated in a calm manor 'for example it has been brought to my attention that we are being asked to deal with a royal agent...the errr...auditeer you called him, thats an extra five hundred and now we have more ground to make up as they are further away than when we started this meeting so we need to chuck in another two hundred for that'. Lord Arbour sprang to his feet 'Now you just look here my good man, i am employing you to..' The mercenary also stood and leaned towards Arbour, his knuckles planted on the table. ''You are employing us to murder an entire party of royal troops and a royal official and to make sure it never gets back to you correct?' he demanded through gritted teeth. Arbour cowered before him 'yes' he managed. 'And we are the only men close enough beside your own, who you cant use in case they bollocks it up and let survivors get back to the king that can get to the target within the time am i right?'. 'Well yes' managed Arbour. 'And we know all about your plan to kill this Auditeer and cover up your years of tax avoidance and can just as well take your miserable hide to the palace and claim whatever bounty the King deems your sorry sniveling behind to be worth'. The mercenary let the last statement hang in the air before he continued 'so that will be an even four thousand in advance if you please sir'. He spat on his hand and offered it to Arbour who had now turned white and shrunk into his chair. He spat weakly on his own hand and slowly gripped the offered hand. 'With of course five hundred extra for admin costs, pleasure doing business with you sir, just leave it to us, we will leave not a single witness or my names not C.C.Bathion'.
The battle takes place along the secluded road of Keepitta Way, Lord Nesway Coddestrappe, high Auditeer of the king is making his way back to the castle having gone through the records of the Arbour estate with a fine tooth comb and found some very interesting evidence of tax avoidance. Little does he know that the infamous Black Rats mercenary company (royal tax operative interception task force) lay in ambush....
A nice tranquil picture of the royal tax auditeer and his company of royal bodyguards making their way along the road ay Keepitta Way. Suddenly the trap is sprung!.
From the rear of the line skirmishers burst forth from the trees arrows flying!.
The dread mercenary captain C.C Bathion leads his knights and horsemen on the attack.
Bow armed mercs block the road to close the trap!.
Royal horse archers spring into action, sniping from the saddle at a group of brigands.
Wiping them out to a man!.
Further up the road at the head of the column the horse charge headlong at the emerging crossbows.
While a force is dispatched to intercept the charge of the ambushing horse.
At the rear of the royal position the horse archers continue to snipe at the skirmishers, who loose their cool and charge headlong into combat!.
Operation 'contain the ambushing horsemen' begins as it all kicks off!.
But more mercenary horsemen enter from the opposite side, was the first attack just a rouse?.
The charge of the Black Rats lancers breaks the royal foot.
While the giant has more luck in forcing the enemy horse to retire.
However the royal line of defense has been broken and the Black rats form up for the charge!.
The royal troops prepare to face the charge, will they stand?.
The first charge hits home...
Followed by the rest of the horse roaring in!.
Lord Coddestrappe sees a chance to turn the tide and charges into a distracted C.C.Bathion!.
The effects of the charge begin to be felt as the royal foot break.
And the royal taxation office foot Knights retire to lick their wounds.
Leading to a massed mele kicking off lead by the forces leaders!.
Who will loose their nerve first?.
Victory!, Lord Coddestrappe turns to run and is cut down by the evil Bathion!.
Sprinkling three: The revenge gives his opinion of the game.
Well that was fun, the story really came through while we played and both of us had fun trying to roll play the opposing forces. The rules also kept things nice and smooth, one thing that stood out is that Sprinkling three: the revenge remembered most of them from last time out which is one of my 'design objectives' (to coin a very wanky phrase) well and truly met, which is to make them quick to learn. Will we be doing this again?, i think so, he is even taking about setting up his own game with his troops (he always comes and begs any spare minis i may have left over from various projects) which sounds like fun......
It's been a beautiful sunny day here in that deepest, darkest West country and with little to do during the lock down I decided to set up a quick game to try out the new rules again. Then Sprinkling three: the revenge popped in to see what I was up to.' Ooh daddy, can I play?' he asked innocently. 'Of course' I replied thinking this was a great opportunity to try out the simple nature of the rules, you know, to see if Sprinkling 3: the revenge picks them up quickly or if he finds the whole thing too much. But before I go into that:
Let's all have a classic.
It's worth pointing out that the sight that greeted Sprinkling 3:the revenge was this:
I know my set up is less than pro level ( and that's being pretty generous) but there is something wonderful about being greeted by the sight of a table set up, deployed and ready to go. So I gave him the choice of forces and we got down to it.
He picked the ' army of darkness' (his words, good lad!):
Leaving me with the human defenders:
So the question is can I beat an 8 year old using a set of rules I wrote myself?......in a word, nope!
Below are some pictures that tell the sorry tale of my forces unpicking at the hands of a boy 33 years my junior!.
It started with my crossbows running when some skeletons looked at them funny....
Clemont Flatley my Giant was meant to charge in and pulverize his specter Phil, that went not so well....
My right flank being turned into a killing ground!!.....
My knights failing yet again to make headway!.....
The plan was to hit his center hard while defending the right....not the best decision in hindsight as i have designed the undead to be hard to dislodge, not very powerful in combat but not likely to die anytime soon....
A portrait of my leaders in peril!...
While still his center held!....
While his Githounds went through the defenders on the right like buzz saws!!.....
A Giant, very much outnumbered!....
As was the case to my rear too!....
One final sad piicture of my 'shock troops' retiring to lick their wounds!.
I have to say the game was a really great laugh and for his age the lad played very well. He hit me with a classic flank attack and ignored the temptation to send troops into the stalemate in the center. The rules were easy for him to pick up, he got the turn sequence and combat procedure down after the first turn and felt confident in moving and activating his troops. The 'pips' system gave both of us plenty to think about and leveled the playing field rather well. So a hearty well done to my youngest, a game very much enjoyed. I still think it was down to my masterful deployment mind....
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Yep the title of the post is actually representative of what i am about to cover, my force for the:
.....thing is painted!. This is a bit of a milestone for me as not only is it my first completely painted force since i relapsed back into daubing earlier on in the year but it is the first fully painted army ever!!!!. I feel almost proud of myself!. Here are the last two units for the army:
The Forces heavy cavalry made up of C.C. Bathions' illegitimate sons known affectionately as 'the Rat Bastards'.
Their reputation for cruelty in battle is well known and often its the Bastards presence that sways the choice to hire the Black Rats over other merc companies.
The Black Rat himself leads out his Bastard sons with the dirty rats lending support!.
The forces 2nd in command and the leader of the rabble Sgt Christophe 'the cleaver' Grunel, the hardest, coldest officer to ever drive the fear of god into a gaggle of fresh recruits!. To say the Sarge rules the ranks by fear is the understatement of the millennia!.
'OW MANY NECKS DO I 'AVE TO BREAK TO GET YOU SCUM TA 'OLD THIS BLOODY LINE?!!'
So yeah, with them done the force is complete:
The Black Rats mercenary company arrayed!.
The force comprises of : 2x command bases, 3x units of spearmen, 1x unit of Bowmen, 2x units of Skirmishers, 1x unit of Knights, 1x unit of Light horse and 1x unit of Ogers.
Not too bad for 2 months worth of work and rather gratifying to see in a group photo regardless of the imperfections contained within!.
Also to reflect on the challenge as a whole it has been great to explore the idea of building an army on a tight budget and to prove that the Games Workshop (and others) pricing structure is not representative of the entire industry. Its also been great to see a few others take up the gauntlet and have a go using other scales and mediums to build some great looking forces, pretty much all cheeper than the force above!. Check out Peters paper forces in action here, Mr Maudlin Jack Tars old school 10mm Bretonians here and Springinsfelds' fine rabble of plastic orcs over here. Great work Sirs!, if anyone else is having a crack at the challenge please feel free to let me know in the comments and i will link to it, it will be great see what you have been up to.
On the subject of the price limit the total cost of the force is as follows:
1.5 packs of kallistra 12mm Scottish pike @ £9.00,
1 Pack of Kallistra 12mm 100 years war bowmen @ £6.00,
0.5 Pack of Kallistra 12mm 100 years war mounted men at arms @ £3.00,
0.5 Pack of Kallistra 12mm 100 years war Hobilars @ £3.00
1x Kallistra 12mm 100 years war foot command @ 60p
1x Kallistra 12mm 100 years war mounted command @ free samples!.
Total cost = £22.40!.
I also learned to mix my own Low cost paint set during the course of the task which was fun and highly recommended!.
As well as finishing that lot I have also been working on some 20mm stuff this week, namely these chaps:
What do you get if you mix Pike.....
....and shot?.....
Pike and Shot of course!!.
The above are all A Call to Arms ECW minis which i have to say are a pleasure to paint. They are the start of a summer hols gaming project with the Sprinklings loosely based on old(ish)hammer forces in the best scale known to man or beast using my Blood, Guts and severed heads simple rules. The above are the foot sloggers for the 'empireish' force. More on this to follow soon!.
All that remains for today is to welcome this blogs latest vict...err, follower, Mr Stephen Beales, a hearty welcome to you sir!. I f you have a blog of your own please pop a link in the comments so us rabble over here can have a peek (we will remove our shoes and wash our hands have no fear!).
