Warlord for my SAGA force

While it has been a long time in the creation, I have finally finished my Warlord and his Huscarls for my SAGA Anglo-Danish force, meaning I now have a small force of hairy men.
I bought the Gripping Beasts at the Wolverhampton Show last year without any real plans to use them for anything in particular. When the nice (if slightly odd) folks at Gripping Beasts brought out their new SAGA rule I knew I had to have a warband-two actually, as I am starting my Viking one next.
SAGA's rather elegent points based system lets me field either 4 Huscarls, 8 Warriors or 12 Levey for each point. I have a four point warband (4-8 points per side is recommend) consisting of my warlord, Four Huscarls with Dane Axes, Four Huscales with swords, and Two bands of eight Warrioirs with spears.

Here is my Anglo-Danish warlord and the Huscarls with dane axes. The horn blower is my West Wind, but the other figures are by Gripping Beasts. To my my warlord stand out a bit I have mounted him onto a 40mm square base with a horn blower/spear carrier as a companion. The horn blower will not add anything to the game, but looks cool. I am going to do the same for my viking warlord too.
These were my Lead Painters League entry for the last round- I didn't win, but I didn't do badly.

Defending the Shire

Yet another LPL entry- Many of you who are on Lead Adventure Forum will have already seen this entry, but for those of you who missed it, here is the 'Defending of the Shire'.

The theme for the round was The World of Tolkein. I went for Games Workshop figures just because I had some hanging around for years waiting to be painted. The Moria Goblins are my son Charlies- he's lucky because he gets five more goblins finished. Gandalf and the Hobbits will from the nucleus of my LotR army- basically lost of Hobbits, some rangers, Aragorn and Gandalf. This is very much an on going project-I haven't painted any for years until LPL. Odds are it will be next years LPL before I paint any more too.

Selling a Kroot Army

I don't normally bother reporting what I have to sell on eBay on my blog, but then again I don't normally sell an entire army. In order to raise funds for Salute 2012, I have decided to sell off one of my 40K armies, army a Kroot Mercenaries army I painted for the Grand Tournament. I am very proud of this army, as many of the figures have been converted into the unique troop types found in the Kroot list. All in all, it is 104 figures, of which no less than 32 have had at least some minor conversion or sculpting.

Here's a few pictures to show case them, and to give me something to remember them by.

My success at the Grand Tournament has never been that impressive, and I never qualified, but that despite that I have always had a soft spot for these hungry blue carnivores. It is with reluctance that I have decided to sell them, but I haven't played 40K for years, so perhaps it is time they went to someone who might get more out of them than I ever did.

Here's a link the the eBay sale, if you are interested. Kroot on eBay!

The People's Resistance Army of Zugando

Colonel Peter Umpanawana (shown here with his bodyguards) is a high ranking member of the People's Resistance Army, a neo-communist militia in fighting against the government of the Democratic Republic of Zugando, in West Africa. The PRA have been accused by the UN and human rights groups of committing acts of atrocity against the ethnic Matandi population and against supporters of the President, Edmund Mudanawanga. Colonel Umpanawana is wanted for various war crimes and acts of atrocity against civilians. He is currently being hunted by Special Forces, including SAS and Delta Force, as part of the I-COZ peace keeping mission.



All of the above 'fluff' is part of the background for my Force on Force campaign set in an entirely fictional West African country of Zugano. Perhaps Colonel Umpanawana will become something of a reoccurring villain, if he manages to avoid the special forces hunting him down.
These figures were painted for the Lead Painters League and the first of the FOF fire teams I have finished. As an 'elite' part of the PRA (and I use that term very loosely) they are wearing more 'uniform' than the rank and file soldiers. This batch of figures is made my The Assault Group, who have quite a large range of modern miniatures. They are well sculpted, with some nice details on the 'character' models. The Colonel has a pet monkey on his shoulder, which is quite a cool detail to set him apart from his peers.

Even More Spies for KKBB

Fredrick Ramsbottom is a man out of his depth- really just an analyst working for a minor government department, he has the misfortune of closely resembling one of the KGB's top agents. danger is never far away for the perpetually worried Mr Ramsbottom.



Yuri is a KGB enforcer. No subtlety or intrigue needed: He just break the bones of whoever he is told to. His loyalty to his shadowy masters is beyond question, as is his ability to cause terrible pain to his foes.

Some more KKBB spies for your amusement, again painted as part of my Lead Painters League competition entry. They did well for me, and I won my round.

Two more KKBB Spies.

Lord Montgomery Highborne is one of the worlds most deadly assassin- and is correspondingly expensive. He is a cold-blooded hunter who has progressed from hunting endangered species to that most rarefied of foes, Man. His preferred weapon is a custom-made platinum pistol. Those who can afford his exorbitant fees sleep safe in the knowledge that their foes are as good as dead.


Mr Mathew Brown is not what he seems- he looks like a mild-mannered British businessman, perhaps commuting to his office. In truth, he is one of the KGB's deep cover agent, playing cat and mouse with MI6.

Two more Kiss Kiss Bang Bang figures for the collation. I pained these for the Lead Painters League and they were a pleasure. I have some more to follow shortly.

VBCW: Battle for Alverley

We got another game of Very British Civil War in last week, featuring a British Union of Fascists assault on the sleepy Cheshire village of Alverley. There was a lot at stake for the BUF, because Alverley Cricket Club is an ideal position for the Royalist artillery to set up to pound the defences of the Socialist stronghold Helsby Hill.

There is a full report on The Gentleman's Wargames Parlor. Here's a few pictures of the action. I think it will suffice to say that some rather lucky dice, some heroic actions, and some dastardly cowardice meant a Red victory was assured.

More Chester Local Defence Force

He's a picture of the rest of my VBCW Chester Local Defence Force (the Duke's Own Groundsmen). These are the one's who never made it into my LPL entry, but which I painted up anyway, in preparation for a VBCW game this week. I ended up not using them, but never the less, I am sure they will see action soon enough!

They are, from left to right, Gripping Beasts, Iron Clad, Gripping Beasts, Warlord Games/Bolt Action and another Gripping Beasts.

Chester LDF- The Duke's Own Groundsmen

This is my latest Company for my Very British Civil War (VBCW) army: The Chester Defence Force. It is the brave men of the Dukes Own Groundsmen Militia. Drawn exclusively from the groundsmen, foresters, grooms and tenant farmers of the Duke of Farnham's estates, they are directly under the command of his nephew, Captain Hon. Robert G Grover. They are all skilled outdoorsmen, and are handy with a 12 bore shotgun. They will from the nucleus of what the Duke hopes will become a battalion of 'The Dukes Own Household Troops'- essentially a feudal force answerable only to him.

These figures were painted for my LPL entry. They are all Gripping Beasts, but will be joined by figures from Iron Clad and Warlord to make a unit of 10. I have plans to expand them further.

West Midlands Millitary Show 2012

I went to the West Midlands Military Show with my son Charlie. It is a medium sized historic war gaming show in Wolverhampton. It's been around for years, but this is only the second time I have been, an Charlie's first. There were a lot of retailers there, and I fished up a few bargains and came across a few games and retailers that were new to me. I also had a chance to see some stunning table tops. Here's a pile of pictures of some of the best. I apologies that I never wrote the name of the individuals and groups who created these masterpieces. If you recognise any of them and want to credit their creators properly please post a comment at the end of this entry.

This was a lovely 28mm cowboy town, apparently under attack by a large number of bandits. The scenery was great, as were the minis. I thought it was a bit too busy, but impressive nether the less.

Here a couple of shots of a Victorian city-scape for a horror skirmish game. Jaw droppingly good scenery! The majority of the buildings were scratch built!

As always at these kind of shows there were a number of re-enactment groups. We thought the guy running the WW2 table was very friendly and knowledgeable. Charlie was impressed with the Bren Gun- but damn those things are heavy. I wouldn't fancy lugging one from here to Berlin!

Charlie enjoyed a game of Pike and Shot, using a homegrown rules set. It was a lot of fun and easy to pick up. The group running it , the Sir Gilbert Hoghton's Company of Foote, were very friendly and welcoming.

Another spectacular board from (I think) the Shewsbury Wargaming Society. This one is a pirate themed battle, featuring a large number of none-combatant villagers. The shear number and range of civilians was remarkable- and every were I looked there were amusing details like the string quartet and the man proposing to the goat herdess.

My own extravagant purchases included (but were not restricted to) a couple of Britannia Miniatures 'Technicals' and a crashed Black Hawk helicopters for my African board, a new laser cut MDF house from 4 Ground, some sailors for VBCW, and some 28mm sheep.

Overall, we had a great day out. I spent too much money, and so now I am going to have to put some stuff on eBay to pay form Salute next month.