Frenzied Brush

 I thought I'd get one last post in before the New Year and try and say an end to 2020 in my own way. Been working on an odd mix of stuff the past few days; getting stuff done before Xmas, receiving extra bits in the post and working through some commissions have helped to keep me busy during lockdown and I thought I'd drop a bunch of pictures to wrap up this year.

The last few bits for my Turnip28 Bannermen turned up just after Xmas. These little lads will get finished soon to finish all my Turnip28 stuff (I've said this before, but rules updates and weak wills lead to more troops... Cavalry has been talked about in the community recently)

My house mate and I even got a quick game in with them using the new cult rules and really got into it. I'll post up a full report in the new year, but for now, here's a over view of the game before we started. That's TWO full Turnip armies built and painted since March. What a year and that's before I mention all the other stuff I got done.

The other grand under taking this year has been a commission for a mate of mine. This was a last minute thing and I owed his after he helped me out with some important house work. I'm about half way through the army, but here's what I have so far for his Stormcast Army.

I'm currently chipping away at some extra monsters for our continuing Rangers of the Shadow Deep campaign as well as more Stormcast and some illustrations for some RPG books. All in all I've got plenty to keep me going into the New Year, here's hoping it gets better for everyone.

Happy New Year everyone!

Ranger's Return

 The house hold and I picked up Rangers of the Shadow Deep again just before Xmas. We played through part 1 of the first mission HERE and now we sought to complete our quest. We hoped to rid the forest of the giant spiders and try to save a few hapless peasants while we were at it. 

Following the last game, none of our band had suffered any injuries and between the groups on-the-board actions and some lucky treasure rolls, we were able to level up the rangers for the next stage of the mission. Some expert tracking from Ranger Sam saw us arrive before the spiders could amass fully so we were able to remove one of the spiders before the game began.

We had 2 main objectives for this game. Check the 5 cocoons for survivors and burn the nests at the far end of the forest. To add some more flavour to this game I added an extra beasty as a bit of a boss monster. Let's hope I haven't over-estimated our teams abilities...

The Rangers and their companions advance into the cursed wood. Bobby and Garth come across a cocoon, only to be set upon giant spiders.

Cas and Charlie the Archer attempt to enter the ruins and search for survivors, finding spider instead.

After dealing with the spiders, Bobby cuts open the cocoon and discovers a zombie. So far, none of the party have been able to find any survivors.

The Death of so many giant spiders summons the Spider Hag from her lair.

The Hag pounces from the woods and throws Garth into a tree, knocking out cold.

Dean athe Ranger attempts to get a clear shot, but Bobby too close to The Hag.

Cas and Charlie have had some good fortune, finding a survivor. With the villager told to stay low, Charlie attempts to shoot The Hag through the trees, Cas heads deeper into the woods to search out and burn the nests.

Bobby becomes poisoned by the Hag, but is lucky to put some damage to it and stay on his feet. Sam and Dean rush in to slay the monster, but their impetuous charge does not go as planned. Sam is also poisoned and Dean is struck down. His fate is unclear in the chaos of melee.

Cas continues to burn his way through the nests, slowly working his way towards his comrades. Despite their wounds and the numbing effects of The Spider Hag's poison, Sam and Bobby fight on. Finally, Bobby gains an opening and strikes a killing blow to The Hag.

Taking stock of their wounded, the party have completed their mission. Garth will make a full recovery and Dean is weakened by the venom, but he will live. Two survivors were rescued and are escorted back to safer territories. An all round success.

That is the first mission from the Rangers of the Shadow Deep rulebook completed. We still have some time expected before we go back to work due to Lockdown part 3 2021 edition. Hopefully the new year bring brighter times. Stay safe everyone.

Back to Playing In the Mud

Last one before Xmas. 

Some more Turnip28 this time. The final rendition of the rules have been put out and it's sparked my desire to get both of my Turnip force (The Gleebland Wanderers & Reekfield Free Company) up to a standard game size. Or to give them the proper terminology, make them 3 Snob forces. Here's the WIP to start...

To complete the Wanderers, I've kept the army's mobile nature in mind and added some light skirmishers. A bunch of mutant snipers and their equally hideous leader.

To round off the Reekfield lot, I only need to add a single model. That being a suitable Toady to act as a gunnery captain to the Reekfield's cannon crew.

 Also been messing about with my bits box so here's some WIP shots of my Sisters of Sigmar for Mordheim. No real reason behind these, I just fancied playing around with the Frostgrave Warrior 2 sprues and some extra bits. Everything sort of fell in behind them then.

That's all for now. I'll be back in the New Year with more stuff. 

Creepy Crawlies

 Been surprisingly productive this week. I finished off my Atlantic Wargames Spiders and an extra piece to really spice things up.

The Giant Spider kits are absolutly wonderful, if a bit fiddly to put together with all the legs. That very minor gripe aside, SO much potential for conversions, a few cool extras for sci-fi spider critters, but my favourite little extras has to be the bound victims. I painted these up for Rangers of the Shadow Deep and the victims will really complete the table.

Finally, a model that has been collecting dust in a box since I bought it. From Bears Head Minis The Spider Hag. I got her as a cool alternative to what tends to be a running trend with "Sexy Spider Queen" types. I tried to paint the robes to look like collected webs and then painted the Hag in the same style as the spiders. In games she'll get a variety of uses, but for now I'm going to use here as a Spider Matriarch in the next Rangers game we play.

A final note on the real world. I know, for a lot of people this year, Xmas is going to be a bit of an odd affair. I'm grateful that my colleagues and I are covered by the furlough so for the first time in 7 years we won't be getting buried under the hospitality's equivalent of the D-Day landings that is endless Xmas bookings and catering to office Xmas parties. The missus, my housemate and I will be having a decent meal at least, making the best of things and without the added noise of the extended family. Rather looking forward to it. I hope you all are able to look after each other and I wish all the best to everyone this time of year.

A Tale of Many Things...

...Mostly lame excuses. 

Not a lot going on this week. Real life has kicked tings into high gear in work so that's been eating a lot of my free time, but I have tried to remain a little productive. Mainly through painting a big ol' bunch of Stormcast for a friend. I'm not the biggest fan of shiny, uniformed armies, but thankfully he asked for a dark colour scheme so I had some relief in that department. Here's what I have so far...

...and here's what I have left to do.

I'm hoping to get everything back to him after Xmas if I can.

I also found time to play around with some of Wargames Atlantic's giant spider kits. A bit fiddly, but they look great. I can't wait to get these on the table for a few games of Frostgrave or Rangers.

Roots Muddy Roots

 Well I made it this far without making that pun, but it seems I finally ran out of title ideas. Onto the content!

With the Lockdown in Wales coming to an end and the Xmas chaos of work looming (In some fashion) on the horizon, My house mate and I decided to give the Turnip28 Beta rules a go. We set up some objectives, had a quick discussion over any obvious ambiguities and grabbed some dice.

I took command of the Reekfield Free Company. Deploying the brute sections and the Toff behind the covering walls and hill.

The fodder hid amongst the ruins.

Abe commanded the Gleebland Wanderers. Setting bother regiments of Fodder around the center and then using the Chapel to hold the flank. (The Chapel doesn't have any rules that fit at this stage of development so we treated it as a unit of Fodder with close combat weapons.) 

The Reekfielders advanced in the shelter of the hill. grabbing the first objective and awaited a sign of their foes.

The looming presence of The Chapel is dragged into view of the Reekfielder's rifles.

Through the exchanges of gunfire and harsh words, The Reekfield Brutes take exception to the Wanderer's presence on the field and charge against the mob. Their better skills and fuller bellies winning out against the Geeblander numbers.

The Chapel is also charged by the Reekfielders. The mighty structure is forced back before being shredded by gunfire.#

The Brutes find their celebrations cut short as the rest of the Gleebland rifles come to bare, hidden in the ruins and protecting an objective of their own. 

The Toady Priest tries to defend The Chapel, but only ends up getting trampled by the draft animals as it flees. The central objective is claimed by the Reekfield infantry.

Enraged by the loss of The Chapel, the Gleebland Wanderers open fire on the Reekfield Fodder and obliterate them. A lone Reekfielder is spotted through the smoke fleeing the battle, leaving the objective open in the final stages.

A final desperate brawl breaks out over the last objectives. The battered Gleebland Fodder return to try and regain some dignity only to once more face the vicious Brutes of Reekfield in combat.

The smoke clears and the Reekfield Free Company hold two objectives to one. Though both Abe and I agreed that a further turn would change the out come of the game drastically. I only had a single unit left and my officers were left dangerously exposed. Meanwhile, Abe had an unmolested unit of rifles primed and ready that could easily remove my meagre claims to the central objective. 

In the end, I took the victory, but mostly I really wanted to see how the game played. (Especially as it is very WIP) It is a lot of fun and having been hooked on the themes and modeling aspects since April I was glad to have a set of rules working with them. It is still early days for the development and I know Max is working hard to get stuff finalized, but when it's done I will probably be adding so much more to these armies. 

A final note, during this game, Abe and I misinterpreted the rule regarding orders. We ended up giving the same unit multiple commands from different officers to effectively alpha strike in certain turns. Though we don't think this broke the game in anyway, we are hoping to get a chance to try out the game again correctly. It was an interesting take though.