I Actually Played A Game!

Hello again.

Time for a post on a wargamer's blog about something that most wargamers do a lot, but I hardly ever get around to. Yes, today, Wednesday, 27th February, 2019, actually saw me setting up some terrain, rolling some dice, moving some figures and playing a game!!!

Of course, it had to be "Burrows & Badgers" and it had to be against Nephew Nick. Now, he played a crafty one and did NOT bring the Florentines! Oh No! He did, however, bring a dirty, great badger with heavy armour and a two-handed club!!!

I, on the other hand, in a most definitely uncrafty way, chose a selection of figures that had mostly not taken to the tabletop before. I had created two options for myself and selected the first of those options, entirely oblivious to Nick's cheating by choosing something entirely new himself...

It was a bloody affair that swung firstly Nick's way, then mine, then very nearly back to Nick again before I scraped the victory with just 5 wounds left across my two surviving characters. If you do not know the game at all, each figure gets 16 wounds and you lose effectiveness the more you take, meaning you get weaker and weaker with your attacks, defences, attempts to dodge, etc. I was seriously wounded by the time Nick was beaten at last!

Nick took as badger, a hare with heavy armour as his second in command and three mice, two knightly types and an archer. I took a wildcat with two swords and heavy armour as my leader, seconded by a ferret with light armour, a sword and throwing daggers, a pug with light armour and a two handed club, a weasel with sword and light armour and a rabbit archer. Only the Wildcat and weasel made it out alive on my side!





The setting, with my forces stage right and Nick's to the left.

The Renegades line up, with Percy "One-Eye" closest to camera, then ferret, wildcat, weasel and finally rabbit.

Nick's blatant attempt at cheating. Badgers are rock hard and rightly feared in games of "Burrows & Badgers", especially when tooled up like this one!

Into the game, and the ferret has taken one for the team by guarding the wildcat's flank and getting taken down by a tough hare character. The weasel was able to pin both the hare and mouse in place, however, though he was starting to take some punishment. Both sacrifices, though of different sorts, enabled the main event to occur - badger vs wildcat, to the death!

A sideshow, though crucial later in the game, was the pug squaring off against the mouse knight to stop it entering the wildcat/ badger fight. The pug ultimately bludgeoned poor Mickey into the dirt. He then headed to the main event and took the place of the beaten ferret, using his last ounce of strength to call a self-sacrificing assault on the hare which took him down, at the cost of the pug's own consciousness.

Before that, however, a wildcat down to its last wound successfully toppled the brute that cheating Nick had brought to the table! It was oh so tempting to squeeze that sauce bottle and dump some tomatoey goodness onto the table to show exactly what this fight would have looked like!!!

And so, with the badger toppled and the pug charging in to give his life to topple the hare, despite a last attempt to shoot the last wound off the wildcat for a draw, Nick had narrowly lost this bloodfest. He had a wounded mouse knight and a completely healthy mouse archer, but no one to command them, so they fled. I had a wildcat on the verge of bleeding to death and a weasel who was barely any better off, but the day was mine!

 

I just hope neither of them stubbed a toe on a rock as they limped back to base or they will not have made it home!

 

A great game that went down to the wire! Go Wildcats!!!

 

G

Sir Robert de Leveret

Hello again.

Those of you who have stayed the course through my various ramblings, or have at least checked out some of my older projects, will know that I like knights. The splendour of all that heraldry, which, curiously, I do not actually mind painting (so long as it is fancy animals and not all geometric stuff, because straight lines are a nightmare to paint on a flowing caparison), is a big attraction for me. Even flags in later conflicts appeal, though they do tend to be a lot more geometrically inclined I find. It is for this reason, the love of heraldry that is, that I am the proud owner of four medieval armies - English, Scots, Burgundians and Swiss. I have plans to add that well-known (in my head) Condottiere Gariglio Tipuomo and his force to that list at some point too.

Therefore, it was probably not going to be long before I dipped my "Burrows & Badgers" toe into the military arm of my Order of the Lavender Garden, having previously done the Inquisitorial part with my witch hunters. Now, you will not find that particular order in a list of Masonic or Catholic charters, as I created them specifically so I could theme some of my "B&B" purchases, but they now exist in my little, anthropomorphic world as fighters as well as hunters of dark sorcery. Part of the delay was my desire to paint several different warbands for the game, so something had to go towards the back of the ever-growing queue. The other part of the delay was Nephew Nick and his "Florentines", who basically use the figures I wanted to paint!

The first of the Military Order of the Knights of the Lavender Garden is now here, however. Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you...

Sir Robert de Leveret, a hare with a sword, a shield bearing the purple lily badge of the order on a white field, heavy armour...and a crossbow. I really do not know why the sculptors decided to give the knights in my little set up crossbows (a very un-knightly weapon to be sure!), but there it is, strapped to his back with various blanket rolls and baggage.

The determined-looking Sir Robert de Leveret.

And that crossbow...

And a big coil of rope to tie up captured baddies, thereby proving it is not all about slaying unbelievers.

I have a game against Nephew Nick arranged for tomorrow morning, so it will be interesting to see if Sir Robert takes to the table. He can ally with my Witch Hunters and lead them against whatever Nick brings with him (probably the Florentines!), or I can just use my Witch Hunters as before, or I cam dig out the pirates or dredge up the Strath Clotans or, lastly, create something entirely different. Whatever I choose, I am sure of one thing. Nephew Nick will bring his jammy dice!

G

If the K'Hiff are united...

Hello again.

Forty-odd years ago, Jimmy Percy and Sham69 blurted out those immortal lyrics:

"If the kids are united,
They will never be divided."

I very much doubt they realised that, those four decades later, yours truly would corrupt their lyric to provide a suitable title for a post on a wargaming blog!

I had long desired some additions to my total K'Hiff count of eight whole figures, purchased from Denizen Miniatures probably thirty years ago, and painted several years ago also. That early January outing to the Penkridge Tabletop Sale saw me walk through the door and, not a minute later, spy 20 of the dog-faced tribesfolk for a paltry £4. First purchase later, a paint job and voila - a veritable platoon of 28 of the long-snouted ones, including a few specialists.

Time to drag out the "Stargrunt 2" rules, methinks, or whatever passes for quick play, down and dirty sci-fi rules nowadays...

I loved these figures the moment I saw them  all those years ago. I do not remember where I saw them, but suspect some now defunct magazine entry or similar was responsible. As is often my way, I tried creating a backstory for them, but lost touch with the notions I had created in my head as other things took over - they often do, I am sure you realise!

I see the K'Hiff as part Afghan tribesmen, part Boers, part Plains Indian. The lack of heavier weapons is not to be concerned about, as the scale and nature of game I want to use them in is not one requiring wall to wall tanks like a Sci-Fi Flames of War outing. I see them cattle rustling, settler annoying, outpost butchering, supply dump raiding, convoy ambushing, burial ground protecting - in fact, any sort of small scale 20 figures a side skirmish they can get involved with really. Casualties would be a problem for them, so no suicidal charges or fighting to the last dog, but good shots, loyal to their family or clan grouping, fierce close up, fast moving and stealthy.

The whole 28 figures, including the original eight I painted years ago. It was a concern whether I could successfully blend painting styles and bases, but I think I pulled it off.

Squad One consists of 7 figures with rifle, a squad automatic weapon, a RPG and a blooper, 10 figures in all but able to split into two fire teams as necessary.

Squad Two consists of 7 figures with carbine and sword for close combat, a SAW, RPG and Blooper again. This is more of an assault squad.

The Command Squad is a mix of what I had spare! A commander, of course, together with a SAW and blooper, and two figures armed with some sort of power weapon - plasma rifle, lasgun, something like that.

 

And finally, three snipers to act as independents characters keeping the enemy heads down whilst their colleagues manoeuvre.

And that is that. Now I just have to dig out some settlers, colonial marines and similar types and I might actually get a game or two in!

G

Puss (without boots)

Hello again.

The picture below is of one of my all-time favourite figures.

Now, you may baulk at the cost (but you have to remember that this is a niche genre, that you only need half a dozen figures for a warband, that the "standard" 24 figure French 1812 line battalion would cost you five times as much and take you far longer to paint, etc), but this figure is an absolute champion of the figure sculptor's art for me. Who would not want an Otter Landsknecht Doppelsoldier in heavy armour? He is kknown on the Oathsworn Miniatures website as "Von Wodr" (geddit? "From water"? In a sort of Prusso-Dutch language at any rate).

But he is still somewhat problematic for a guy like me who likes the fluff behind his projects. He could be hired as a bodyguard for some other character I suppose, but why not build a Landsknecht band and go the whole German 16th Century mercenary hog? Well, because Oathsworn only do three figures in this garb...

So I need a leader or some reinforcement to bulk out the trio available of otter, hedgehog and mouse. That is where "Puss" came in, or so I initially thought.

Wildcats ROCK!!!

And two weapons is an absolute killer in "Burrows & Badgers"!

 

I was going to call him "Otto von Pusmarck", but then something struck me. He is simply not a Landsknecht. I also had it in mind that he might do for my Strath Clotans, but probably not in hindsight, especially with "Mad Morag" on the horizon via the latest Kickstarter.

 

He is sporting a scimitar and curved dagger, which surely makes him of eastern origin or someone who perhaps crusaded there...His armour is a mix of Western European plate and Eastern scale.

 

Let's go with the crusader theme perhaps and call him "Jean Pawrisot de la Valette" in honour if the leader of the Knights of Saint John who defended Malta in 1565 from the Turks. "Richard the LIONheart" would be an obvious alternative. Or perhaps just a lowly crusading knight from Northymbra by the name of "Felix of Catterick"? Perhaps he could lead a darker sort of knightly order who learned a few too many secrets during their time in the east...

 

Or how about Byzantine, that curious mix of East and West? How about having him as some dignitary from the Varangian Guard and call him "Harald Pawdrada"??? Yes, I like that one.

 

But, like Von Wodr before him, the range lacks suitably themed accompaniment. I love the figure, had a blast painting him, but may struggle to use him in context for a little while. But wildcats do ROCK and I will get him to the table soon. Woe betide anyone who crosses this black cat's path!!!

 

 

G