"You won't get me, I'm part of the Shrew-nion"

Hello again.

With all due apologies to The Strawbs for abusing one of their songs for the title of this post, I felt it was time to add a few extras to my burgeoning crew of animal pirates for "Burrows & Badgers". The game features a number of "lesser creatures", the sort of thing that seems to get a short deal in the real animal world, comprising mice, rats, shrews and the like. I went with the shrew option for my first, lowly crew members.

This figure just had to feature in my pirate crew. He might only be small, but the sartorial elegance and obvious attitude won me over!

And he is almost as menacing from the back!

This figure too has obvious pirate heritage, veritably screaming "Mary Reade" at the camera.

A nice line in throwing daggers is a bonus too. Missile troops are a bit thin on the ground so far in my piratical assembly.

This figure is marketed simply as a "Shrew-zerker" by Oathsworn, but again the obvious attitude and more than borderline Napoleon syndrome on display meant he was "in" as well.

As you may have noticed, I have kept the beach theme running through the bases. This chap gets a mooring post and lengthy of rope for company, simply made with a scrap of MDF from a Commission Figurines storage tray and a length of suitable cotton.

One of the usual perks of fantasy games, and "Burrows & Badgers" is no exception, is the inclusion of magic. Here we have a Shrew Shaman trying his best to look menacing despite his small stature.

One of the treats of this project has been to paint fur again, surely one of the easiest paint jobs to make a reasonable show of. The strange, grey spike at the bottom right of his base is another piece of driftwood courtesy of the Woodland Scenics plastic tree armatures.

Finally, we have Gnarls, who features in a set with a sort of Badger Pit-fighter called "Thug". He looks rather older than his crewmates, but the metal barb on that whip must surely hurt anyone unlucky enough to be on the end of it...

 

And the obligatory (?) rear view shot.

This will not be the end for the crew of the good ship, "Blackberry", as I have several other figures already that would be suitable to join the crew and ring some changes in eventual games. Some much-needed muscle to accompany all the tiny shrews would not go amiss and maybe some more mid-ranged potential as provided by another weasel, a ferret, perhaps even a rogue otter, would blend in nicely.

When I started this project, the old cogs started whirring about different warband options, story threads and the like. Whilst I freely admit that this sort of set up is not to everyone's taste by any stretch of the imagination, I would also argue that neither are Napoleonics or World War 2, that broad range of options being an oft-quoted boon of this marvellous hobby of ours. For me, some decent-looking figures on a decent-looking table, a decent set of rules and a good scenario/ story are the optimum, regardless of period. Finally, even though I favour bigger games with armies rather than bands, my work/ life balance and other factors mean I am very firmly in the "bands territory" for the foreseeable. Whilst I will obviously try and build up my bigger forces when the mood takes me (FIW, Crimean War, some of the GW stuff I have waiting for me, for example), this little diversion will more than satisfy my need to apply paint to metal or plastic for a while yet!

G