Oathmark Test Game August 30, 2026

Goblins and Orcs versus Undead First Oathmark Game

This was a 1,000 point test game of Oathmark held at my friend Sherman's place on the afternoon of August 30, 2026.  This was my first time playing the Oathmark game rules and Sherman's second time.  Sherman had an Orc and Goblin army that fought against my Undead army. As we were still learning the rules it ran a little slower than expected but the pace picked up as we moved along and got a grasp on the rules. Basing is on 125mm frontage trays with ranks of 5.   As usual once I got stuck into the game I missed taking pictures at all the critical points in the middle of the game, thanks to Sherman for adding a few of his pictures and for hosting.  

Defend the Pass October 5, 2025

 This was a Fantastic Battles Defend the Pass Scenario held at my local games club on October 5, 2025. I provided the Dwarf and Dark Elf Miniatures and Morgan provided the Vikings that he played.   The Dwarfs played by Morley were the defenders and the Dark Elves and Vikings were the attackers.  I played the Dark Elves.

 

Initial deployment turn 1

 

WIP Dwarf Rangers

After a recent Fantastic Battles game on October 5, 2025 at my local games club I decided it was time to upgrade my Dwarf Long Beard unit from eM4 (Originally made by Grenadier) and make them Foresters.   The Dwarfs were defending a pass against Dark Elf and Viking attackers.  The Long Beards looked a lot like Rangers in the rough terrain area with their axes and brown trim on their chainmail so I decided to make them Rangers.  The leader in particular (back of formation) needed some repainting and the bases need work.

 Dwarf Rangers in combat with Witch Elves and Vikings

 

Ship Battle - "Pirates 3rd Edition" by Flagship Games from 2016

I was going through some images from back in January 2016 and found these naval combat pictures from a Naval Fantasy Skirmish game called "Pirates: Miniature Battles on the High Seas, 3rd Ed. by Flagship Games (sold by Scale Creep Miniatures SCM-FGP3)  that covers the period from 1400 to 1650 for historical and fantasy battles. The game was introduced to me by my friend John who contributed two ships and some of the figures, I contributed two ships plus figures, the sea mat and hosted the game.

Here is a link to the rules and to Scale Creep where they can be purchased:

 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17220/pirates-miniature-battles-on-the-high-seas?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1LBM4x8F00OiYcZqGCfj-OHsaWdceVnlM-5UFvAfDa6jBxsOK-1ut7eME_aem_mryZddjEyVZ3Gp4cvFXAXg

 https://scalecreep.com/product_info.php?products_id=10000

As I recall this particular game involved ship to ship combat, boarding and finding a treasure chest on an Island.

 

Aft end of my Skeleton ship

Cards for Fantastic Battles

Here are some of the Fantastic Battle cards I have created for relics, spells and strategies, in order to help players avoid having to flip through the rule book to find them.  They have proved useful over the last two year or so.  You may have noted some of them in my AARs.  I also have made some company cards for various races but will post those another time.  Although you can see some of the cards (including some of these relic cards) in use in my earlier blog entitled "Fantastic Battles Dwarfs versus High Elves August 1, 2022."plus other later blogs.

Disclaimer: I found these images through an online searches and was unable to determine if they were copyrighted. No copyright infringement is intended and if I am informed that this is the case I will remove them from this blog.

Relic cards

Fantastic Battles Convoy Ambush December 27, 2024

 This was our annual Christmas holiday game, using Fantastic Battles mass combat rules set this year and its  Ambush the Convoy Scenario, a 3 player scenario. It features a dwarf convoy attempting to exit the board with ambushing forces on either flank, made up of Dark Elf and Undead armies, all in 28mm scale.

 

The three armies overseen by Joey

In keeping with the season I used my tundra mat and snowy pine forests. I played the Dwarf army.

Fantastic Battles Game at the Centre Point Public Library 15 December, 2024

 I have run a fair number of Fantastic Battles Games, but it has been about 9 months since the last one and this was the first one I have run at the Ottawa Centre Point Public Library. The game ran fairly smoothly, other than a minor hiccups, involving refreshing my memory on some rules. 

Overview Turn 2

Prep for Cangames 2024 the Shakespeare Code - Doctor Who

This years Cangames game (May 19, 2024) will be another Doctor Who game, based on the TV episode the Shakespeare Code.   The game will be set in London England in 1599 with the Tenth Doctor, Martha and a variety of Elizabethan characters attempting to foil or expedite the scheme of six witch-like Carrionites to rewrite the ending Shakespeare’s play Love's Labour's Won rewording it to cast a spell to free the rest of the Carrionite race from imprisonment bring destruction to the world. The scenario is based on  a two player scenario created for the Doctor Who the Miniature Games Rules (DWMG).

Unlike previous years when I used the DWMG rules, this time I plan to use Pulp Alley rules as I think these rules are better suited to represent this multi-player scenario.  Those of you who have read some of my earlier blogs will know I have used these rules for other genres in the past. A short introductory video on the rules by the author Dave, can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBraL7mwXgM

Those of you who just watched the video will have heard Dave say that the rules are designed for up to four players and I will likely have 5 to 7 players, so some adjustments will have to be made. This includes drawing coloured tiles to determine who moves to speed up the game. Additionally I have kept the leagues small, 3 figures per player.  

This will be an "evergreen" post as it will get updated as I progress preparing.

Promo picture from TV episode the Shakespeare Code.

Some of the potential figures I may use in the game from my existing collection as of  March 1, 2024.

Fantastic Battles Game St. Patrick's Day game March 17, 2024, at OMG - Undead versus Wood Elves.

On March 17, 2024 (St. Patrick's Day) at the Ottawa Miniatures Game Club Nick and I had our first Fantastic Battles mass fantasy battle game, with 1,000 points per side with his UNDEAD versus my WOOD ELVES  in 28mm scale.

Overview

Happy New Year

 Happy New Year Everyone, all the best in 2024

Making slow but steady progress getting my 28mm sailors in white tropical / Pacific uniforms painted, including two versions of Vera Lynn, all for Menelduir's the Pulp Alley China Station campaign.  Along with them some RN sailors in blue (Atlantic) uniforms and a Humber Scout Car, all for Bolt Action.

Figures by Warlord, Pulp Figures and Bad Squido

 

Belated 2023 Halloween Post

Sadly no Halloween game this year, but recently I did receive Tim Prow's The Battle For Black Mere kick-starter set of 28mm skeleton figures.  

 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diehardminiatures/the-battle-for-black-mere-undead-faction

These pictures are from the Kick-starter project and not my work, I have yet to paint my figures. These are by no means all the figures available in the kick-starter, just the ones I ordered.

Die Hard Black Mere Skeleton Pikemen

Activation Tiles for Fantastic Battles

 

Below is a picture of the activation tiles / counters I use for Fantastic Battles 1.2.  I bought them from the Dollar Tree, they costed only $1 plus tax for a packet of 26 in 4  colours (medium royal blue, green, purple, fuchsia) and measure 20mm x 18mm x 5mm.. They are marketed by Craft Medley and I have also seen them in black and white.. I add number stickers to them to keep track of the number on the table but this is not essential.  You can of course paint them, and I have painted some of the fushia counters dark red.   Sadly I did not see any on my last visit to the Dollar Tree, but they may have just been put in storage to make room for seasonal decorations.

 https://www.dollartreecanada.com/

However  if you can't find them at the Dollar Tree  you can buy  a pack of 100 from Amazon for a higher price, but with a different mix of colours (red, orange, white, green and light blue), see link the below.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B09MZGVSRB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Tiles by Craft Medly from the Dollar Tree

Tiles sold by Amazon

Merry Christams 2022 & Happy New Year 2023

 A belated Merry Christmas and best wishes for a Happy New Year - 2023.

Picture above of part of my SAGA Age of Magic (AoM) Warband, I will be posting an AAR of the 4 player Christmas SAGA AoM game we played on December 27, 2022 soon.

Overview turn 1 SAGA AoM

Christmas Game 2022: SAGA Age of Magic - Battle Royale

 SAGA Age of Magic: Battle Royal  December 27, 2022

This Christmas  I hosted a 4 player game of SAGA age of Magic n December 27, 2022 with our forth playing being  John was visiting over the holiday. This is something we had not done since John's departure and the onset of the pandemic.  Once again I used the SAGA AoM Battle Royal scenario.  

 

Fantasy Miniatures Campaign Ideas

 As a follow on from my discussion about a Kings of War (KoW) campaign (see blog entry) and discussions with friends in June 2020 I had been thinking of setting up a SAGA Age of Magic campaign using the Might Empires (ME) campaign rules.   However more recently (2022) I think an even better rule set to use for this would be Fantastic Battles (FB) l.2, and it has its own campaign rules.

 Alternatively the Mighty Empires campaign  rules can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L_5kUsTuwlADt99VXN5-hD3MxPejhbHS/view?fbclid=IwAR36QepvlSigFF_IgO3NDWuEexC98iCewMythS2dmjZOiBGe6YzCXfc8Vbc

The campaign I envisage will be for 4 to 6 players as anything larger has the potential to breakdown if players don't contribute in a timely manner.  .

This will be an "evergreen" document as it gets updated with new ideas and modifications.

Potential Campaign maps.

 

From the old Avalon Hill board game Wizard Quest

 

The above map would work for up to 9 players in FB 1.2 as you need 4 regions per player, although it is set up for 6 players. I have 9 races I could use: Undead, Tomb Kings, High Elves, Wood Elves, Dark Elves, Dwarfs, Bretonnian / Human, Orcs, and Chaos.

Possible race distribution on the Wizard's Quest map's 6 regions:

 

1. Golden Dunes = Tomb Kings or Dark Elves

2. Whispery Meadows = High Elf or Bretonnian / Human

3. Misty Forest = Orcs or Dark Elves

4. Fields of the Fallen = Gothic Undead and or Tomb Kings

5. Ancient Woods = Wood Elves and or High Elves

6. Crystal Mountains = Dwarfs
 

Dollarama Find - Egyptian Monolith

 I found this a plaster Egyptian monolith for $4 at a local Dollarama store. It looks similar to the statues that would be found in the Valley of the Kings.  It should work well as Egyptian themed background in a Pulp game set in Egypt.  

Egyptian monolith with two 28mm Dark Fable Egyptian figures

It will  need some painting, possibly with the Woodland Scenics Yellow Ocher stain that will create a naturalistic sand stone look.

Woodland Scenics Yellow Ocher stain

Spears and Impalers

 I have had bout 17 of these OOP Wizkids Horror Clix Vlad the Impaler 32mm figures sitting around since I bought them some years ago at the local Comic Book Store in a bin sale.   I had been planning to convert them to Impalers for a Vampire based fantasy army by replacing the end of the spear with just a point rather than an impaled victim, as a regiment of 16 would just look too weird, one victim as a standard is sufficient.

 

Wizkids HorrorClix Vlad the Impaler

Accordingly I cut off the victim on all but 1 figure and planned to put spear tips on the end of the poles.  After the figures sat around for a few years I finally got around to it yesterday. This was partly inspired by the new Fantastic Battles 1.2 rules that has a Night Stalker army list that will work perfectly for my Vampire War figures and these Impalers. They will be an elite Regiment called Vlad's Carpathian Impalers with 3 companies with the traits: Feast, Pikes, Highlanders and Doughty.

 Below are some of the various spear options I experimented with:

Flying Saucer

 Picked up this Flying Saucer based on the one in Plan 9 from Outer Space at my favourite Hobby Shop in Ottawa, Hobby House.  I hesitated to buy it at first as there was no scale on the box and I figured it was likely 1/72, but some online research revealed it is 1/48. This means it should fit in with my heroic scale 28/32mm Martians from the Mars Attacks game.

 

Polar Lights Plan 9 Saucer kit 1/48

 

I believe this was originally a Linberg kit and was reissued by various companies including Atlantis and Polar Lights.

 

Halloween 2022

If I do have a Halloween themed game this year it will be a post Halloween game in mid November as other activities prevented a game this past weekend.   In the meantime here are some Work in Progress pictures of possible figures for a Fantastic Battles Halloween themed game.

Tomb King's Army

 

Fantastic Battles Dwarfs versus High Elves August 1, 2022

 After many delays due to scheduling conflicts and weather we finally got another 28mm game of Fantastic Battle, this time with my newly based Dwarf Army fighting the High Elves.   While some of the Dwarfs need further painting I think they are battlefield ready.  This was my 8th game of Fantastic Battles that we played over two days, August 1st and 12th.  I still need to do AARs of some of the earlier games,  although they are outlined briefly in an earlier blog.

 

Turn 4 action

 The High Elves were a confident force having defeated the Undead in their last battle, but they were now facing an entirely different enemy, not the slow Undead with primitive weapons, but the Dwarfs and their technology.