A bevy of bellicose Burgundians bravely bearing blades (possibly before bolting!)

 I have spent my last few painty sessions primitively  daubing the first few units for my late 15th century Burgundian Ordonnance force to face my Swiss. Do you want to see them?...

Here you go:

 Just my little (historically accurate) wee joke. Here they really are:

Two pike units and some archers.

Pikes the first, as with the Swiss all the minis are 10mm pendraken.

2nd pike. I have to admit to being rather fast and loose with the banners. I struggled to find much info on what each one represents and who should be carrying what so I have just gone for what looks good.

Archers.

The brave Burgundian line prepares to turn back the Swiss steamroller...or (more likely) die trying!.

...till next time...

More pikes!

 I managed to get two more Swiss pike units done over the last few days:

As with the last lot they are all 10mm minis from Pendraken and are really nice (not to mention quick) to paint.

They are intended to be fielded against a planned Burgundian Ordonnance army I'm also going to be knocking up over the next few months.

I'm planning on using Kings of war as far as rules go and will also have a go with Neil Thomas' Ancient and medieval wargaming rules, both use unit sizes that are compatible so I can do either.

Here's a picture of the force so far:

In the Neil Thomas rules the Swiss may combine 2 pike units to make one huge wall of spikey death, on the table that would be something like this:

Which makes me extremely happy!.

Speaking of things making me extremely happy:

Till next time...

The boys from Bern

 Just a very quick post to show off my first painted unit for my 15th century Swiss force. 

The minis are 10mm pendraken and are really nice to paint, which is handy because I have another 5 pike units to do!.

Dug up and dusted down

 Rain lashed down on the hunched figures as a flash of lightning crashed across the dark night sky, the ground sodden, now turned into a quagmire of mud and filth. somewhere in the distance a lone wolf howled half heartedly, almost awhere of the horror trope it was playing into. If you listened with great care you would swear you could hear ominous organ music being carried on the wind...

The figures toiled, each man waist deep in an open grave digging with poorly maintained shovels, oblivious to the sheets of rain intent on filling the hole they were standing in. a single lantern stood on the edge of the grave, pathetically attempting to push back the nights darkness. The hunched figures grunted as they worked. Suddenly they heard a dull 'clunk' as spade hit wood, they glanced at each other with trepidation, had they reached what they were looking for?. As water ran down their faces each man scraped away the dirt from the lid of the coffin. The larger of the two moved over to the edge of the hole to fetch a rusted crowbar. With the deliberate movements of a true evil henchman he found the rim of the coffin lid and began to work it loose. Both men stood back and covered their mouths and noses with stained filthy hankercheifs as another crack of lightning split the sky. The lid was thrown back, the putrid stench of death filling the air.  'Shit' exclaimed the larger man in frustration, 'wrong one'.  

 And thus the blog was reborn... well dug up and left to limp about the place banging into stuff while bits of it fall off needing to be stapled back on but still I reckon it counts!.

 As you are no doubt awhere the above is a poor attempt to resurrect this once dead den of gaming related bollocks once more, maybe it never really died, who can tell?. I do know I have regained some kind of  motivation and focus to get back on the (stinking and flogged half to death) scabby horse that is this blog. my last post was a staggering seven months ago (I have been piddling about over here off and on) and it feels like high time I got to doing some other game related stuff.

 So, what have I been up to in all the time I have not been blogging?, well, I have been doing alot of reading, mostly getting stuck into a lot of Osprey historical titles mostly focusing on the late medieval period and Italian wars although I have been also skirting around the Dark ages too. This has been rather good (if not rather too grown up) and has given me a desire to do some more historical based gaming (shock horror!!). Now most of you know I tend to only very loosly touch on history on this blog with most of my previous projects being fantasy based,,,and a bit stupid. So why the change?, Well in a word...dunno. 

 I have been planning and working towards some projects based on my current facination with historical stuff, namely some 'after 1066' Norman and Saxon forces I intend to use for some skirmishy games based just after the conquest focusing on William trying to consoladate his hold on his new lands. I think it would be a good backdrop for some localised rebellions and uprisings and other similar stuff. I have been using some 15mm minis from forged in battle to represent the forces which I have really enjoyed painting.

Normans

Saxons

 I decided to experiment with my painting style by only using base coats (so no highlighting or shading). This was partly to improve my speed and brushwork forcing me to be more tidy as I had no wash to hide my normal slap happy methods!. Also I was attempting to create a sort of 'toy soldier' style, crisp bright colours to make the troops look kind of cartoony and unrealistic just to see what I would get. I have to say I have been a little untidy in places but for the most part  am quite pleased with them. Heres a closer look at the Normans:

Norman Horse

Norman foot

Lowly Norman archers

Norman Leaders

A bunch of saxons loyal (willing or otherwise) to the Norman overlords.

And heres the Saxon forces:

Saxon Huscarles

The Fyrd ready for some fyrding!

The Saxon leadership.

Saxon archers

Extra Huscarles? I had loads in this pose so may use them as the leaders bodyguard depending on the rules im using.

 One reason I decided to base them individually is because I realised I actually dont have any full forces based this way, everything else is multibased so these will let me use a bunch of other rules such as the Rampants and Oathmark and such.

 On top of these I also have a hankering to play some other larger scale games and became quite interested in the Swiss vs Burgundian wars of the 15th century so have decided to put together the opposing forces to do some battles using either

 

or

Whichever way I go the basing will work for both so no problem either way!. To this end I have ordered a metric fu*ktonne of 10mm troops to represent the armies from the always great pendraken which turned up this morning!

A fu*ktonne of yay!!.

I have also painted a few Swiss pike to get a feel for what I want to do with all this, heres what I have so far:

They are pretty tiny but as always with Pendraken they are really nice to paint. I will be using 40 man pike units so still some way to go before i base my first unit!.

  Hopefully I will have more of an update to err... update you all with soon. 

'till next time....

2mm 'Medieval' battle

 Hi all, just a quickie to direct you to a really rather smashing battle over on my new blog. Feel free to pop on over for a squiz. Here are some pictures to wet your whistle:

Wronghammer is dead?

 It is with a heavy heart that i deliver the following post......but first:

Fuddy Muckers.

 So yes, Wronghammer as we know is dead....when i say dead i mean on its last legs, you know life support....when i say life support i mean at least limping a bit.....

 What im trying to say is that i have been taking stock of the way i have 'hobbied' since getting back into this toy bothering thing and i have realised the following:

1: I lack focus, pinballing around projects and abandoning things i have yet to properly even start.

2: I lack focu....err the bits i really enjoy are the world and narrative building and as of last year building and painting armies. I have less and less time to game and only tend to do so if i have a solid situational framework and scenario in mind.

3: When i try to do too much (narrativly speaking) i tend to burn out on an idea quickly. This leads to periods of inactivity where i cant get motivated to do anything at all.

4: I only really have a few limited periods that can hold my interest for any amount of time ( fantasy late medieval, Pike and shot and steam punk, often at the same time!!) and cant be bothered with learning countless sets of rules to support new periods. I tend to gravitate towards the same simple rules.

 So with these things in mind i have decided to follow my muse (the good one, not the one that tries to tempt me with a million new things) and stick to one setting, the only one that i keep coming back to that on review most of my battles seem to be set in:

Olde Albilande

  Now i realise this setting in this form has only been present in my gaming for about 2 years but if you go by the tone and feel of earlier battle reports they could be ( and i would bet subconsciously are) set here, just in a different historical period. So what i have decided to do is......

                                      MOVE HOME!!!!!!!!!

Packed up an' fuckin on!!

  So i will be doing the majority of my blogging on my shiney new blog Ye olde Crivenshire Masticator which you can check out by clicking on the link. This will focus on building a single setting using projects based on different periods in the settings history, allowing me to world build and errr narrative write to my little hearts content while keeping a narrower focus. Also i feel a clean slate is needed as Wronghammer has been fun to document my baby steps back into gaming but i think i now am ready to do something with a more 'mature' outlook (who an i kidding?). I may still pop over here from time to time and will not be deleting this den of garbled bollocks but will be mostly focusing on decorating the new gaff.

 So a huge thank you to everyone that has popped by over the years, given encouragement, had a giggle in the comments and otherwise supported my general twattishness. Please treat the new place as your own and feel free to continue in the same vein over there, your support and input is always greatly appreciated.......

.......'till??........

One down....

Just one of those quick posts to show you what I have been mucking about with. But first (as is customary in these parts):

Is it grunge?, Is it hardcore?, Is it doom?...

First up I finally got my proverbial finger out and finished my 2mm medieval armies for my 

Campaign:

Ridgers and crimpers in perfect harmony (it won't last!)

 Ridgers arrayed to fight for the 'upper crust'!.

Crimpers ready to defend the 'side of crusts everywhere'!.

I have colour coded the armies and units to make them easy to distinguish on the table (they are bloody small). I can tell them apart due to the arrangement of the bases but if I'm doing battle reports I think the coding will help. I will explain all when I write up the first game (soon....honest!).

Also I received a nice new bunch of shiny miniatures for another planned campaign. 

It's a shiny wonderland!!!!

It's a 'small' pile of 10mm Pendracken renaissance miniatures...I may have plans. I decided I could run my pastry based campaign while painting the above so I can seamlessly bounce from the conclusion of one to the start of the next....what could possibly go wrong?. Here's my first attempt at painting some of the above:

The flags are my first attempt at hand painted banners, I think they turned out ok (also you can hide mistakes by rippling them the right way to hide them!). Hopefully I will have some more units done for my next post......

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