Sacred Ground for SAGA Age of Magic

 After my last game of SAGA Age of Magic in  December 2021 (AAR pending)  I realized I need proper Sacred Ground markers so I have been built one for my Wood Elf (Lords of the Wild) and have almost finished one for my Undead  (The Undead Legions) warband. 

On the left for the Wood Elf Sacred ground I used 2 standing sacred stones and a totem from the Wizkids 4D Jungle Shrine set on a base flocked with brown ballast and light green grass flock.  For the Undead I have used 4 skull pillars / death columns by RAFM plus a sarcophagus / crypt by Mega Miniatures (OOP) and I plan to flock it with brown ballast and dead yellowish static grass. The Scared Ground markers are the regulation  4" in diameter.  For now I am not gluing the miniatures to the bases for ease of transport and flexibility.

Grenadier eM4 Dwarf warriors with spears and sheilds

Back in January 2020 I bought, from eM4 miniatures, a 48 piece set of 28mm  plastic Dwarf Warriors which included  16 warriors with spears (as shown below) with the remainder being warriors armed with axes and crossbows, and it only cost  £7.70  which works out to about 27 cents Cnd a figure (the 25 round plastic shield to go with them was only £1.50 extra)! These are former Grenadier dwarf figures sculpted by Mark Coppleston from the early 1990s,  but they are still very serviceable for rank and file troops. As you can see in the picture they have built in bases.

eM4 Spear armed plastic Dwarf

Spears are an ideal weapon for Dwarf warriors especially in Fantastic Battles when they have to deal with enemy cavalry!  Too bad they are hard to find among GW products, but I really like the Dwarf figures produced by Grenadier Fantasy Warriors in the 1990s, sadly Grenadier is no more but the figures are still available from companies like Mirliton, Forlorn Hope and eM4.  That being said I believe the new plastic Dwarf infantry set for Oathmark by North Star has a spear option.

https://www.giggrowth.shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=304022

They Oathmark dwarf infantry require assembly, the old Grenadier plastic dwarf figures do not other than attaching the shield, this limits the variety of poses but it speeds things up.

Dr. John Murray Clearwater

I received the sad news today that  my good friend and scholar Dr. John Murray Clearwater had passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer.  Some may remember my post from April 19, 2019 regarding the Casablanca film version of Lockheed 10 Electra model aircraft kit  that he kindly built for me.

Lockheed 10 Electra  1/53 scale

 

https://lordofwesternkeep.blogspot.com/2019/04/casablanca-lockheed-electra.html#more

John with some model loot he scored at a sale

John was a member of the International Plastic Modelers Society (IPMS) Ottawa branch. He had the ability to build an impressive number of models per year, all to a high standard.  You can see his impressive and eclectic output of plastic models here:

http://clearwatermodels.blogspot.com/

He was much more than just a plastic modeler, he was also a gifted scholar / historian specializing in post war nuclear policy, a classic British car collector, world traveler, cat lover and a good friend.

http://web.ncf.ca/da710/

Happy New Year 2022 and Fantastic Battles Project

 Happy New Year 2022

A project I was working on to create Resolution tracker counters for Fantastic Battles (FB).   These are 20mm MDF bases spray painted green with self adhesive 5/8" Roman numerals designed for clocks.  Sadly not a lot else to do on New Years Eve thanks to Covid-19, so watched TV movies and made counters.

 New Roman number counters

OMG Christmas Stargrave game December , 2021

 Stargrave Game at OMG December 17, 2021

This was the club's annual 2021 Christmas game with the usual delicious Indian feast. This was my second attempt a Stargrave, a Sci-Fi skirmish game, basically Frostgrave in space!  In this scenario my Santa's Elves fought Jeff's space Orcs on an alien planet. The 3D printed  terrain provided by Jeff.

I will let the pictures tell the story.

SAGA AoM Halloween Game October / November 2021

 Some pictures and a brief AoR from two SAGA Age of Magic game we played over 2021  Halloween and the following weekend.  It features my Undead warband (Undead Legion board) versus Ted's Iroquois Warband (Lords of the Wild board).

Classic Citadel Undead Command

Above are  some recently painted Citadel Undead Command figures including from left to right: a Liche General (later renamed a Necromancer) a Witch King (later renamed a Liche Lord) and a lance cavalry figure called "the Dead Man of Dunharrow".

Black Knight Cavalry and a Necromancer far right

SAGA Age of Magic September 17, 2021 Undead versus Tomb Kings

 SAGA Age of Magic September 2021

 This was one of the first post-pandemic lock-down SAGA Age of Magic games that featured my Gothic Undead versus Jeff's Tomb Kings or Egyptian Undead held at the Ottawa Miniatures Games Club on September 17, 2021. It featured Jeff's 3-D printed Camels and Egyptian  scenery.

 I will let the pictures tell the story.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 

D-Day Canada House Juno Beach 15mm and 6mm

Trying to find it in 15mm and 6mm

It seems appropriate to post this today on June 6, 2019, the 75th anniversary of D-Day.  I plan to run a 6mm and later a 15mm D-Day game this year.   Towards that effort I want to find a reasonable facsimile of "Canada House" the first building liberated by Canadian Troops on Juno Beach.

Canada House Juno Beach June 1944

Canada House Today

Second World War Wargame Rules for 6mm or 1/285 scale

 One of the games I listed to hopefully play in 2021 was 6mm 1/285  (Micro Armour) Second World War.  The question is which rule set.  First I will present some pictures of past games before briefly reviewing various rule sets I have played or considered.

 Operation Charnwood July 8, 1944

D-Day June 1944 in 15mm

Some pictures from two 15mm D-Day games I have helped run, many have my beach mat shown below.

 

Spearhead in 15mm: France 1940 and Eastern front

Another game report from some years back in late November 2012 when I experimented with using my favorite 6mm Second World War rules for 15mm scale.  The advantages of Spearhead are it plays fast and produces reasonably accurate historical results.  There are some abstractions (city fighting) and modification needed for games with less than 3 formations (battalions for 6mm, companies for 15mm). The rules have a ground scale of 1" = 100 yards and a figure scale of one base = a platoon for 6mm.  The ground scale definitely needs to be altered for 15mm (1" - 50 yards) and an option for 1:1 play is a good idea.  I have started to write up 15mm rules.   Here are some pictures of a game set in France in the spring of 1940  pitting French and German armour against each other.

German Pz IVd and 38t tanks versus French S-35 tanks