All City Kings- N Guage style

 ALL CITY

I visited an old friend a few weeks ago, and he was showing off his cool N Guage train and set up he had. I painted this up to sneak onto his track next time I visit. :)

I really had a blast with this one night project: lots of good weathering practice and getting my old Graf chops back. I could totally do more of these! 

Warmaster: Romans are not quite Legion

I've totally forgotten which legion shield I did here...

10mm Romans

So... I actually bought these beautiful minis from Steve Barber when he came to an Origins show in California, around the time my son was 2. This month my son turns 11... ahem... and started painting this particular unit around that time.

After finishing up a few cars for Mad Maximilian I was looking for another 1 weekend and done king of project. Browsing the Face books, I saw Saxon Dog was back to painting Romans, and my mind clicked.  I'll finally restart doing my Warmaster ancients armies!

Legionary and Auxillia that I painted in... October? 

These will be used with Warmaster, which should surprise no one that has read my blog. I'm basing them a bit differently; instead of traditional 20 x 40mm bases, I'm using 30 x 40mm. This allows me to be a bit more "diorama" with the models. Romans will be more ranked up, whereas my Briton/Celts will have a more open horde look.

Bases are color coded for clarity.

I really love painting these Steve Barber minis- they have way too much detail for 10mm figures, and I am compelled to match the work that the sculptor put into them.

Next on my painting table are two units of Celts, for parity. Eghad 10mm tartan!

Cheers!

Warmaster: Empire Halberdiers

Middenheim lads

Unit close ups: Halberdiers, the Empire's backbone

 Any good Warmaster Empire army has a minimum requirement of halberdiers. This is fine as they are pretty decent troops with a save of 6, and not too pricey, being found all over the Empire.

Boys of Hochland

The sculpts themselves (I wish I could remember who sculptor was) are really clean with lots of personality.

Altdorf- they have to fight over their name a lot!

Talabecland. My most decorated of halberdier units.

Warmaster is my one go to game that I enjoy playing over and over with different armies and lots of folks. It has spectacle, tactics, some skill, and a push your luck system that makes for a good game.

Altdforf halberds with Nordland crossbow

Do you play Warmaster? If so, what armies?

Warmaster Siege: Towers and Mantlets prototypes

siege tower prototype and mantlets

For our next upcoming warmaster siege, I am thinking some towers and mantlets would be a big help. Especially since I will be the attacker...
These are first pass WIP pattern cuts to get shape, size, and thoughts on assembly. 

Scale is based on the Original Warmaster siege tower of which I have one, but scaled up a bit to fit the castle walls made by Michael, at Supreme little Designs. I also widened it a bit since it never made sense to me that the 40mm base was too big for the tower. 

Erm- pay no attention to the rest of my painting table...

wheels look right. They will be glued onto a solid "strip" of wheels for strength

Gonna make the gang plank door much longer, going to the top of the tower.

 This has a long ways to go, but it shows promise. If this works out well, I will be able to offer these up for sale. 
 Lemme know what you think? 

Warmaster Siege: the Butcher's Bill

MVP unit!

Warmaster Siege Day 4 and final count: After three more turns of assaulting the castle and obliterating the rest of the Empire troops that sallied out (to their doom), the Orc commander decided to leave off the siege when he realized that 4 goblin units and 2 orc units were all that were left, half of which were missing at least one stand. To top that off the Balrog (giant) was critically wounded and would have at least one cannon trained on him next turn. It was a great game, and although we didn't count up official army points the butchers bill was 23 orc units and one officer down, Empire was 10 units (mostly cav) and an officer.

Hand gunners watch the last of the sally force go down

 MVP went to the crossbow unit over the main gate who slaughtered one unit of orcs, drove back several goblin units and did 3 wounds to the Balrog! 

The butcher's bill, Empire

This is a shot of the whole Orc army. It lost about half again these numbers

Now we set up again, and I get to be the attacking force. Time to make some siege towers... :)

Warmaster: the Great Siege- Day 3

Orc Army's Right flank attacks

The Great Siege-Day 3 (turns 9-11) 

The Orcs and goblins managed to make it to the south walls, while the balrog pounded at the door trying in vain to smash it in- and losing half it's hit points to wizardry, crossbows and handguns. On the north side of the castle the ever ensmallening sally force takes the brunt of the attack. Their only hope is to weaken enough units before going down, AND bring them into firing range from the castle walls.

The Balrog beats at the door, and takes 4 wounds for his troubles

Goblins storm the walls but are repelled twice!

The few units left in the castle get ready for the balrog

 9 dice worth of attempts to bring down the castle wall via stone throwers and magic from the wizards tower fail each turn (whew!)

Repelled goblins. the line is getting thinner

Commanders do the stare down thaang

At this point in the siege the invading force still has enough to take the castle, especially if the giant and the orcs get in. Another day and we should have a final outcome. 

Warmaster Siege

Bolt the Gates! 

This wee I got to rope a friend at work into trying out our first siege in Warmaster, using my new shiny castle. Opening shots of the battle here show my Empire knights supporting a relief force of some halberds and pistoleer light cavalry who were trying to get as many of the 10 wagons into the castle with supplies before the Orc Horde came a knocking. Somewhere in the realm of 4,000 points worth, give or take a goblin unit or two...

 

Wagons in, Knights out!

These guys feel totally safe...

Warmaster rules have been my go to favorite table top game since it came out. I have planed hundreds of battles using the rules and have even made variants of the rules to play Napoleonics in 6mm, and Wars of the Imagination with my 54mm woodens. Grats to Mr. Rick Priestly for making such a fun and eloquent rules set.

Wanting only the best, I had my castle assembled and painted by the talented and handsome Darrrell Empey- you can see more about it on his blog http://a28mmbrain.blogspot.com/2017/08/10mm-castle.html
The castle itself is the fine creation (and are for sale) of my pal Michael, at Supreme little Designs.
http://www.supremelittleness.co.uk/

More on the Siege as the battle continues...

Shadow and Flame- and Warmaster

Balrog!

So, I summoned up a Balrog from Ebay and got it painted up.
Been looking for this guy for a looooong time. Using him as a giant in our latest siege for a warmaster game. such a great model, but like many of the older casts, a bit fiddly to pin together.

I had originally painted him up with a lot more orange and reds, as he was technically a "fire Demon" in the old 80's Citadel catalogue, but he didn't look right, so I went back to a "Weta" Balrog grey with lighting highlights from the flaming sword and cat-o- nine tails whip.

 He's a bit tipsy on the warmaster base, but in his first outing managed to go head to head with two units of heavy knights- taking out one of the stands before they were both bounced. We'll see what happens next, but the knights are none too happy about having to charge him next turn...

Epic stand off between Empire knights and the Balrog

Sauron makes the Balrog fetch

No matter how cool Weta Balrog is, I still hold a fondness in my heart for the first Balrog I ever encountered, in my Hildebrandt calendar as a middle schooler.

 More picture of the siege and the awesome castle I'm using as soon as I can take some decent pics.
Cheers!

Wagons Ho!

 Wagon Wagon - Cart!

Thanks again for all those of you who participated in the "Great Wagoning" of 2016.  All (updated Mk III version) wagon sets are shipped and plodding towards the winners, and I look forward to feedback and seeing them painted and on your wargaming tables!

This was so much fun, that I'll no doubt be doing more of these give away's in the future.

Cheers!

Warmaster: 10mm Wagons

" Gotta dream boy - Gotta song - Paint your wagon - and come along."  ~Lee Marvin

Dogs-of-War pike step aside to allow the baggage train through.

Early prototypes. Still playing around with side boards or not.

10mm Wagons

So, I play Warmaster more often than any other table top system. It has a certain elegance to it, and I enjoy the command and control- plus the fact that at any moment your flank can be sucking wind - which means you have to come up with a new plan to deal with it. It supports and rewards both daring and conservative gameplay styles, but only to a point.

A general inspects his "IKEA" baggage train set.

  For those who've never played Warmaster, here's a blurb from Wikipedia:

Warmaster is a ruleset for tabletop wargames written by Rick Priestley, published by Specialist Games (a division of Games Workshop), and set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. It is different from Warhammer Fantasy Battles in both appearance and gameplay. It is intended for 10 –12 mm miniatures.^[1] Basic troops are based on stands, of which typically three make a unit. Generals, Heroes and Wizards are mounted individually or with their retinue.
Gameplay focuses on command and control. While magic is used in the game, its effects on the game are limited. The game is designed to focus on the general's ability to command rather than just the armies ability to fight."

 This is a totally gratuitous shot of one of my Warmaster pike blocks.

Some folks don't like the randomness of its game style, but I think that is what makes it the most challenging - the most "real", if you will. How many histories have we read where a division or even a corps didn't show up ("Where is Grouchy!")  Or an impetuous and glorious charge that, after hacking down a couple of crossbow units, leaves you kinda stranded next to your esteemed opponents organ guns...

Aside from the "classic" fantasy Warmaster, I also play a variant of Napoleonics that I've cobbled together. If I ever get my armies painted, I'm ready to do Romans and Britons.

Unpainted and painted sprues.

What's This Got To Do With Wagons?

Back to the point of this blog: while playing with my friend Simon this last month, we were getting too used to each others' tactics to go head-to-head, so started playing the scenarios found in the back of the rule book. One of those scenarios is to protect the wagon train.

Well, neither of us had any wagons, so I made some. After work that night I sat down and did some quick mock-ups, ran them on the laser cutter, painted them and had them back on the table (replacing the dice markers) for Simon to find when we resumed our battle at lunch. As it was my orcs raiding the wagons, it was especially sweet capturing them. **

As a big convention was coming up (Dundercon), I cleaned up the model, sprued it and then passed them out to my pals.

Unpainted and painted wagons.

Just an exacto and a bit of wood glue and you are ready to go!

Wagon Design

The design is a simple cart, where you can leave the front and back off it you want. The base is a standard 20 x 40mm Warmaster base, and the horse is scaled to suit 10mm. I did the first drafts on some old mat board I had and really liked the thickness and how it all came together - plus super easy to paint. No reason to make these out of wood, so I'm now sticking with the quality mat board.

It still needs a bit of finalizing, like the horse's base sticks out too much, making him crowd the wagon a bit, and I might put tabs in wagon bed for the side boards, but otherwise it's ready to go.

Okay, I just wanted to show off my crossbowmen in this shot...

How can you get some? I'm glad you asked!

 UPDATE- ALL WAGON'S HAVE BEEN CLAIMED- 

Thanks so very much for the great feedback and emails.
For those of you who didn't make it this time, I'll be doing more of these giveaways. Why? Because I love seeing folks play with my toys. Simple as that!

Eventually I'll put these and a few other 10mm bits and bobs up on my webstore, but for now
I've got 20 wagons sitting here waiting for good homes. I'll post out 2 wagons to 10 of my beloved bloggy-readers; I only need your address. Yes, even you in Tasmania! You can either add your address to the comments, or email me at woodenwars1815@gmail.com, just put "10mm wagons" in the subject.

Great Swords look to plunder Wagons. Models are Warmonger miniatures.

Pike and great swords form a tercio. All Warmonger miniatures.

** Side note. Most all of my gaming buddies are one-uppers. That is to say, you bring an orc biplane with crossbows on the wings to a game and the next time they bring an elephant with a ballista and call it a PAK gun. I love that rivalry - it brings out the best in us all.