Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Burrows and Badgers

I have, in the past year, discovered the awesome Burrows and Badgers from Osprey Games. The game is a combination of Mordheim and Frostgrave and features anthropomorphic woodland creatures with absolutely awesome miniatures from Oathsworn miniatures. The sculpts are dynamic and crisp and feature a range of critters, large and small, to paint and use in your warband. As this is not a rules review, I will not delve too deeply into the rules; this post is mostly to showcase the great miniatures. If you want more information on the game, go here:

https://burrowsandbadgers.com/

I haven't had this much fun painting miniatures in quite a while. 


The smallest I have for the game: a pissed off mouse with a sword. The smaller the critter, the less damage they do, but there is always the chance of critical hit by anyone on the board. At first I wasn't crazy about that particular game mechanic but I have grown to realize it showcases the idea that anything can happen in a fight. make one error and...


Not too many chances to use pink when painting vikings or US airborne.


Mouse again. Sort of a ranger pose.


I like him.


Mice with bows? OK, I'll buy that.


Great pose.


A surly squirrel. It's good for the little guys to have ranged weapons. They can get squished in hand to hand.


Little feller.


The next size up. A rat. I wish the focus was better on this shot but there is next to no light in our house.


What kind of fur would a rat wear? See 'squirrel' above.


Stand and deliver! Adam Ant would be proud.


Since were pretending these critters have lives like humans, I wanted this guy to look like an ex-soldier, a deserter maybe? He is a weasel after all.


Another rat. I tried to paint the end of his looking glass like a big eye like in the cartoons, but it looked like shit.


Guns are finicky, rules wise, but, oh do they pack a wallop when they work.


A red fox highwayman. I agonized over what colors to use for his jacket and finally decided on what you see here. Then I noticed the one in the rule book is almost identical. Must have been some subconscious thought but I'm not smart enough to figure that out.


I still like the coat. This, BTW, is the next size up. The bigger the model, the more it costs to have in your warband.


A landsknecht stoat.


It was actually the slit/slash clothes, and this model in particular, that caught my eye and got me interested in the game.


I'm a wizard, mind you. Tried to do a whiteish otter here.


Just another great model in a whole line of great models.


Another otter and maybe my favorite model I own. I just love the detail and the pose.


Cool, right?


Not happy with this border collie. I just don't like the colors, maybe too much of the same. She's definitely going to get a re-paint when I get the chance. These last two are the biggest size in the game.


Maybe red and black on one of the sleeves? Any suggestions? Tell me in the comments section.


The first model I painted and another one I don't like.


It's hard to tell  in this shitty picture but I think maybe it needs more highlight. I tried to highlight with dark blue but you can't really see it. Plus the jewel sucks too. I was never good at painting jewels like some people.

I still have two more models to paint: one very large badger and small shrew. I should have taken a picture of the four different sizes side by side so you could see but I didn't. BTW, when I say 'size' I am referring to the size of their bases. I should have said that at the top.

So those are the models I can game with and I want to reiterate what a great game it is. Players create warbands and gain experience and skills the more fights they have and survive. each warband picks a type of den; there are several factions, from royalists to outlaws and a few in between. Great game.

The End.

 

Monday, October 25, 2021

Vikings/Anglo-Saxons

I've been painting a lot of vikings lately and realized I had a whole bunch of them. I like Dark Ages gaming and these guys are pretty much the norm for a few hundred years in northern Europe in terms of arms and armor. Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Wends, Swedes, Danes, Frisians... whatever you want, in that time period and locale this is pretty much what you are going to get. For my own ease, these guys are going to be called vikings for the rest of this post.

Turns out I have 142 vikings ready to go. (And 24 on order.) I just like painting them. Each guy is an individual so they are a great break from painting any army where they have uniforms and you just paint the same thing over and over. I painted these guy in small batches or even one at a time to clean my palate, so to speak, when I had done too many WW2 uniforms. I like to envision which guys are wealthy and which guys are not; which guys are willing to grab a shield and spear and which guys are not and let the paint flow. Some have better clothes and equipment than others.

Unfortunately I live in a house with no light and I'm a lousy photographer so the pictures suck pretty much. They really don't do justice to the figures. Sorry for that.

They are a mix of Gripping Beast plastics and, I think, Artizan metal figs. The seller doesn't say where they come from. Whatever, as long as he keeps me supplied. My paint jobs are utilitarian at best. They are good for the table, not the display case.

I like to play Saga (1st Ed.) but my favorite Dark Ages game is Pig Wars. I also have the rules for the period in Warhammer Ancient Battles, which I am anxious to play again, Lion Rampant, A Glutter of Ravens and a few more games too. Like one I haven't mentioned? Let me know.
 


The whole shebang. The boat is a Revell model, almost the exact scale. At $35 it was a no brainer. There may be more in my future.


Some javelin men.


Take my wife, please.


Command of sorts. I like the arrows in the guy's shield. I cut those out of the quiver of other GB dudes and glued them on. No idea where the priest came from. Looks like maybe a GW fig.


2 handed axes. The guy in the front left is rich.


Unarmored spear men from GB. These were among the first guys I painted.


Unarmored blades.


Armored spears. Overall I hand painted almost all of the shields. There's  maybe 5 or 6 guys with transfers in this whole lot.


Armored blades. These are mostly metal. The flags/standards are from LBM Studios. The usual beautiful  products.


Armored spear men. Again, I like the guy front left.


Bows on a boat. Worse than snakes on a plane.


Some blurry swordsmen. I also base them in groups, each different from the last group. That way, when they are all together there is a mix of bases. This isn't a great illustration of that, you'll just have to trust me.


Another shitty picture of the javelin men. I tried to make it look like they were throwing one but had another stuck in the ground at their feet. Did I succeed? You be the judge.


There's a couple fat guys in there. I like that.


Vikings looking for a fight. The guy with two swords is cool. Can you find him? Dark Age 'Where's Waldo'.


As mentioned, one of my favorite Dark Ages games is Pig Wars where it matters what models are armed with. 2 handed axes are bad news, which I suppose is not far from the mark.


I post this picture because it is the perfect example of my inability to get the closest figure in focus. Even in Super-Macro.


More blurry spears. I actually really like these guys in real life.


The End.

 

Monday, February 1, 2021


Ral Partha LotR 'wood' Elves, circa 1976.

I have recently had a conversation with some gamers who doubted my tales of collecting the old Ral Partha Lord of the Rings figures, in their little cardboard boxes, circa 1976.

'Surely, you are mistaken, for Ral Partha never had such a line'."I don't remember any such figures, perhaps you are mis-remembering?' "I bought my Ral Partha figures in blisters.' 'You must be thinking of Heritage models.'

But no, I am thinking of the old RAL PARTHA LotR figures. We had (have) them by the hundreds, and still play with them to this day. People started getting me to doubt my own memory, but then I snapped out of it. Here are just some of the figures, there are many more:


Riders of Rohan


Mina Tirith Citadel Guard with Gondor's White Tree and seven stars heraldry on their shields. Coincidence?


Dwarves of Moria with the anvil and hammer symbol on their shields.


Men of Harad.


Goblins.


Orcs of the Red Eye.


Orcs of the White Hand.


Warg Riders. Shame Peter Jackson turned them into hyenas.

Anyway, I hope you now see that I wasn't dreaming; there WAS a Ral Partha LotR line of figures in the 70's.

The End.