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| Tomb King's Army |
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.
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| Turn 4 action |
In my 2022 New Year's message I had mentioned I was very interested in and had started playing the Fantastic Battles (FB) rules system by Nicholas Wright, for mass battles for both historical and Fantasy genre for a range of scales (2mm-28mm). The rules allow you to customize and build armies based on a tool kit approach of different traits added to company types including: Elite, Formed Irregular, Fantastic Beast, Vehicle and Giant. There is a separate system for characters that makes them significant but not exaggerated in power. FB is also well supported by the author and members on the Fantastic Battles Face Book Page.
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| Cover |
This is an old Undead catapult produced by Grenadier and re-released by Mirliton that I have been working on for some time and finally got the base ready in time for a game in Halloween 2019. This catapult and the skeleton giant I was working on at the same time will be used in an upcoming SAGA Age of Magic game at my local club. These figures will work well for a variety of rule systems:
Old Hammer (WFB 3rd or 6th Edition)
Fantastic Battles
SAGA Age of Magic
HOTT
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| Front - Side view |
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.
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.
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| 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.
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.
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| Lockheed 10 Electra 1/53 scale |
https://lordofwesternkeep.blogspot.com/2019/04/casablanca-lockheed-electra.html#more
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| 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.
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.
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| New Roman number counters |
I will let the pictures tell the story.
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).
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| 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".
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| Black Knight Cavalry and a Necromancer far right |
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.
