Conversions #2

Two Kaliad shield and swordsmen. Kaliad is south of Runssia, a land of warring clans and Runissian colonies, i will post the map when done.

The right hand man wears a Runissian style helmet and camail, while the left wears a Venden sallet. The Vendens are the 'romans' of Runissia, they came many years ago and now are all gone after decades of colonisation. The remains of this empire are to the south of Kaliad, fighting to survive.

The Kaliad fight in clan bands with a variety of weapons, such as spears, pikes, axes and glaives. Southern clans, living nearer the Venden lands, use more pikes and more better drilled. In game terms, these schiltrons are big, slow and stubborn.

Here is a WIP of a Runissian noble wearing the latest fashion; breastplate and chain mail hauberk, and long sleeveless mantle. He will carry a kite shield like the other man (see first post on conversions).

And here we have a close up of his helm. It is a perry one with added visor, not extremly neat but should look good from the gaming table.

Conversions WIP

Decided to take the plunge and convert some figures for my fantasy setting, Runissia.

I planned to create some figures for A song of Ice and Fire, but it lost steam (although i now have some pikemen, usable for scots, burgandians or Kaliads for my setting). I had some good ideas however, and decided to put them to use.

First i made a nobleman. I didn't want a typical fantasy look, 'knights in shining armour', i want a more early medieval/ feudal look, so less plate. I will post some drawings i've done if i have the scanner out some time.

I used a wargames factory chain mail body, perry knights arms and a perry head, alde into a full helm with miliput. The shield is thin plasticard.

Can't only have nobles, so i also made a spearman, all wargames factory parts except the head which is perry with added camail (a chain mail hood that hung from the helmet, used a lot in the 14th centurt and looks nice). Pretty simple pose, but i needed something simple to start with.

Basecoated. The left hand man is a champion first created for Ice and Fire, but looks right for Runissia. He will carry a wargames factory viking shield.

Painting in progress, just left hand breeches and right hand sleeves, plus one or two other things.

Shields attatched. 

Posing time! All lined up...

Bright colours, simple, i like this one a lot!

Right arm is a firing bowman, left is a billman arm with the hand turned around. Helmet like the first man's, will get some close ups sometime.

The noble. Around his neck he has a necklace in the shape of a stag's head, showing his devotion to Stagaar, lord of beasts and creator of the First Forest.

I have just ordered more perry plastics, getting 15% off because of moving stock. I got two mercenary boxes, and some will become Runissians. In my setting, there is another land to the east, Kindarr, and i will used some perries with crossbows and horsemen to represent them, more in the future. Look at my Runissia page at the top for a map of my land.

Right, time for more gluing!

The green and red of Hanbury

Not a huge post, just pictures of the Walker retinue as it stands.



Drikilvarr and the Saga of 6 families

What's this?

Well, to be honest, it's an idea i had one night; i woke up randomly in the middle of the night and the first thing i thought was "dark age style campaign on an island". Bizarre, or a moment of inspiration? Who knows...

Anyway, i decided to draw something in my notebook and added towns and other names.At first i had the idea of doing a small channel island under attack from Viking raiders, but then i decided to do it in my Runissia setting. And so, i present you with the island of Drikilvarr!

Other than the fact that i like drawing maps, i plan to use this as the setting for a small story driven campaign over summer. Not sure how long i'll go, or even if i'll finish it, so we'll see how long i stay hooked!

The island, although situated near the Runissian mainland, is not ruled by the Runissian kings and instead life here goes on like it is a world of it's own (a bit like Iceland in a very loose way). There are 6 noble families on the island: Aeborths of Evensill, masters of the island, Hrodals of Dorval, Ulfarns of Wolf Cave, Night Swords of Valfar, Salt Bloods of Salt Bite and Elards of Sea Hall. More information in another post.

And so, i present you will a small prologue to the Saga of 6 Families...

   Breeve on a rock by the cold river that gushed down towards Deep Fjord and the sea beyond, a handful of rune stones scattered before him. With milky eyes and a shaky hand he traced the star constellations made by the stones, finding the bow of Nia, goddess of the hunt and the flower, commonly associated with prosperity. At Nia’s arrow point three runes lay in a perfect line, the outer two facing inwards and the last hiding it’s face from view. Breeve sat back and pushed a wisp of snow-white hair from his eyes.

   “Why can’t we see it?” A young had indicated towards the hidden rune.

   “The gods do not mean us to see it.” Breeve replied slowly.

   “We could turn it over.” When the youth made a move to flip over the stone Breeve shot out a hand, not touching the youth but startling him enough to make him stop.

   “Never interfere with the works of the gods, Daras. They have their plans, we are not to meddle with them.”

   “But…”

   “Never.” Daras sat back and watched Breeve as he sat and thought. “You are not at all wise, Daras Aeborth, for saying your father is master and warlord. Perhaps it is your wound that clouds your mind?”

   “My wound effects my hand, not my mind.” Daras retorted.

   “Pain affects all, and so does the knowledge that you will never use it again.”

   “I will use it, it just needs to heal.”

   “That’s not what the runes say.” Daras’ breathe shot from him and he gazed at the seer dumbly.

   “No…”

   “The gods have decided.”

   “That bastard Falfanar did, it has nothing to do with the gods.”

   “You know what a bastard is?” Daras looked at him irritably. “Falfanar the Younger is legitimate, therefore no bastard.”

   “It was an insult.”

   “Well try and control yourself then. If the gods wanted you with a left hand they would have it healed, but since they have decided to leave it crippled it will stay that way.” Daras was red, blood flooding his cheeks, but he held himself in check.

   “What else do they say?”

   “There will be a hunt, in the northern forest.” He gestured to one of the two runes that lay on their side. “The rune of Stagaar, lord of beasts.” He moved his bony finger to the other. “The rune of power, Malaan’s arm.” He moved slowly to the hidden rune and Daras found himself holding his breath. “In the darkness, the gods turn away. There will be death and blood, and the gods will have no part in this hunt. We will be our own judges.”

   Daras quickly analysed the signs; power, could that mean his father? And Stagaar is the master of nature, perhaps there is some beast in the forest. Or… his crippled hand twitched, a loose nerve making his palm itch terribly. The Ulfarns…

SAGA battle

Slight change of pace...

Having seen many postive reviews of SAGA and a number of battle reports, i thought i'd give them a go using my late medievcal figures. I found the battle boards from a SAGA forum and made a french and english force for the hundred years war.

I ran a little playtest to see how the rules worked with 3 points a side. This ran well so i dived into a 4 point game with terrain and a full table.

The english had two units of warriors with bows, one unit of warriors and a unit of hearthguard, as well as the warlord. They deployed in a defensive formation, with archers on the flanks and a solid core of combat troops.

The French force contained three units of hearthguard, two mounted, and a unit of warriors. They planned to hook around the english left and roll them up.



Valmont overlooks his force as ordinannce pikemen march into position.

Nobles form two lines to shatter the weak english. The richly painted nobles shove their way to the front rank.

The English commander helpfully shows his men where the french are.

The nobles canter off through the village and past the toll house.

Using an ability to shoot further, the archers kill two knights with accurate fire. The french charge in nevertheless, only to be unhorsed and cut down.

On the right, the foot knights attack the archers. Bow fire causes not casualties and the charge goes in. The shields represent fatigue.

Another unit of mounted knights charges the archers while the pikemen face the massed english infantry.

Combat on the right flank!

The poor archers are ridden down...

...but the foot knights are driven back with casualties!

In the centre, bill meets pike and a bloody melee evolves.

Seeing his archers fall, the english warlord steps forward and kill three knights. The last one pulls away, crying 'that's what you get for not being painted!'

the pikemen are decimated and the french warlord makes a last bid to evade defeat. The french battleboard piled with abilities.

Pour la France! he cries, his mighty steed crushing a soldier. He gets 7 attacks, will it be enough?

Valmont hits five times, the bill men three, all he needs to do is make two saves...

Despite the warriors being all but cut down, the brave valmont is unhorsed and butchered, despite the orders from the knights to keep him alive (three hits, three fails!).

Impressions? Fun, i love the battle boards even when solo! The game has flavour and each faction definatly has it's own style. The only problem is, do i play this or LOTR? I think both, SAGA for 'big' battles, and LOTR for small bashes, sieges or when lots of heroes are involved.

Now i need to paint more cavalry, since the french can have all hearthguard and warriors mounted. Maybe an all mounted warband in the future?

Montage

A little montage, some converted foot and a better picture of the Italian armoured knight.

I may have got a friend of mine to play a game with me tomorrow. I played one the other day but we didn't use figures (didn't want them to damaged at lycée) but tomorrow i'm going to try and take a handful. Using LOTR rules, i hope i make a new enemy :p

More paint, more cavalry

First off, based the knight from the other day. I plan to do more 'added bits' to the cavalry bases, seeing as they're bigger.

This rider is the first member of my new retinue, led by Nicolas Walker :). It's an invented livery and the badge is supposed to be a halo. There is nothing historical with the colours, i just liked them.

Another view:

Here is a body swap i did, creating a mounted officer. I think i will paint him in black armour.

When i seperated the body from the legs i damaged the belt, which i resculpted in miliput. I added feathers to make him look more interesting.

With the spare body i stuck it on the legs, creating a noble looking foot soldier looking for someone to bash at.

I plan to create several invented retinues, since evidence is scare and i feel like inventing some new liveries. I have ideas for a Yorkist leader, dressed in blue and possibly with a white cross since i've done a couple like that already. Nicolas will also have some French mercenaries, and i had an idea to create an Italian, Marco el Martello.

The cavalry's arrived

Pictures!

Cameras back and i present you with some painted perry mounted men at arms...

Click on the image for a full size view.

First up a man in German gothic plate with an axe. It was the first i assembled and painted, the head comes from the WOTR foot command sprue.

Next, a rich dandy in Italian armour. I added gold gilding to the edges of some armour plates, hope you can see them on this not so excellent picture. The pennon is paper, painted and stuck with glue.

Light cavalry are always interesting. Here, i took a livery covered body, cut off the left arm (and my finger -.- ) and replaced both arms with archers arms with added sword. The head is from the mounted sprue with added beard.

I quite like this figure, even if the shading on the white parts of the horse are too dark.

Here's a couple of foot, converted with various parts. The right hand knight is straight from the box, using the standard holding left arm with a cavalry armet in the other, while the left one is a more involved conversion where i took two right arms and made one a left (more details on another post). Two weapons and a deep sallet finish off this brutal looking mercenary.

 More pictures to follow...