Breaking Lances: Dundracon Tournaments

A few knights getting in warm up passes before the tournament

Tournaments Ho!

All the knights ready for action.

This past Saturday I ran a 10 person tournament using my somewhat soon to be published Breaking Lances rules at Dundracon game convention. It was well attended with over 18 players signing up! This is a real coup, as DDC is mostly a role playing and board game con, with lots of LARPing going on around and in between.

Folks from the Society of Creative Anachronism in garb playing- Cool!

A grand shot of all the ponies!

A shot with yours truly explaining the rules

Great shot of knight, Plotting shield, and Tilting tray for tracking "won" dice

With the amount of players I kept the first rounds single elimination, with a couple of players held back for bi rounds and outlyers. Everyone got the rules in the first course of their jousts, and I think fun was had by all.

Our Tournament winner! 

I totally forgot to get the name of the winning knight- no doubt some noble that was slumming at my tourney, but remember he won with a score of 6 points higher over all than the 2nd place opponent.

Sunday's Tourney

As Saturday's tournament went so well, and there were many that did not get to play, I opened up the lists for Sunday as well. This table had 3 jousting runs, and cycled through 12 players in all.

Sir Brion- Sunday's tournament winner

When can I play Breaking Lances?

Good question!  This tournament weekend proved to me that not only are the rules working, and the added layers of complexity (such as the optional "flourish" rule) can be added or subtracted with  no hitches, but that folks actually want their own knights and set ups. The only changes that came from the weekend was a clarification on a "Favor" you can win, and upping the crit severity when you get really bonked on the head.  Yay!

I had a lot of folks as if I was going to make this a kick starter. That would make a lot of sense and get good press, but I think that I'm for now just going to get it ready for launch on my webstore. The rules are now in the hands of my editors, and I have enough toys to take good pictures for the rules, so now it's really a matter of time on getting all the ducks in a row. Luckily most of this part is out of my hands, as my Triumph of Death Kickstarter coming out soon, causing a bit of juggling of my time

So, stay tuned, if you really can't wait for a release I'm happy to sell you sets of Breaking Lances ( I sold 11 "pre-launch" sets at Dundracon), send you a beta version layout of the rules  and post you the real set when they come out. just ping me and let me know.


More Pictures of Dundracon!

For lots more pictures of Dundracon, including more of my game and an awesome refight of Pickett's charge, swing on over to my pal Jay's Wargaming Madness Blog


As always, I look forward to your feedback
Cheers

Breaking Lances: Pavilion WIP

 

 

 

 Pavilion WIP

With my first official Breaking Lances tournament happening this weekend at Dundracon game convention, I'm frantically creating some "set dressing". I drew up and cut this pavilion last night and seeing how they paint up tonight. Based on a couple of period manuscript pieces.

Very rough WIP shots, and some of the inspiration.

 Since I know me pretty well, I imagine I'll be doing some variations. 

Back to painting...

 

Breaking Lances: The French Connection

Hot Fleur on Fleur Action!

French Knights

As I get closer to having my Breaking Lances rules finalized (I both bless and curse editors) I've been working towards getting more variety in the choices of knights that will be available. These two are prototypes that will merge into the final model.

A three quarter view shows how challenging it is to make contact.

 

 Le Chevalier Azure

This design is actually a coat of arms of my good friend Stanislas. I've changed the colors of the charge to protect the innocent. (and in case he owes anyone groats).

Blue on blue was a fun challenge.

The inspiration for this knight's colors came from the Fantastic mind of the late Angus McBride
(in other words, I stole it from this painting)

Le Chevalier Blanc et Noir

This fine fellow is closer to what the final model will look like. I strengthened the Fleur- de- lys and simplified the design some, to make it easier to read and paint. The color scheme is from the Codex Manesse, but I couldn't find the source page to show you.

After looking at the pictures I'm going to bump up the contrast on the white caparison and mantle.

Both knights will be in a grand tournament I'm running at Dundracon Game Convention in February. Come by and show your jousting skills if you can!

Breaking Lances: Knights WIP

I generally paint the arms then assemble, but you don't have to.

 A Day for Knights

Busy holiday week, but I did find some time to redesign the tilting fences and then start work on a few more knights.

I didn't get a shot of the fences yet, but they fit together better with easy set up and take down. More on that in the next blog.

The blue fellow in the above pic is inspired by this page out of the Codex Manesse.  I'm working on a few more helmet crest and shield variants, and will have 12- 15 ready at launch.

 For those of you with the decerning eye, you can see some actual metal and resin minis lamenting in the wings. In particular some fantastic Halfmen goat knights from Westfalia Miniatures, and a couple of awesome French foot knights from Claymore Castings.  Highly recommend both!

Breaking Lances: More Knights for Tournament

  Two more knights for the tournament

Got these guys painted up over the week. Playing with new colors and patterning. One fellow is based off of a page from the Manesse Manuscript, the other a challenge of colors from my own imagination.

The models are a real treat to paint, and I'm keen on getting the rules and models out to you'ze guys soon.

That leads me to a few of questions:
Should I put the models up for sale now, and keep working on the jousting rules (set)  or wait till they are all complete?
Would anyone out there be interested in the knights coming with a sheet of color printed shield patterns and decorations for the barding, that you could cut out and glue on?
Thinking of making the knight a mounted dismounted set that you buy together. Does this appeal to folks or would you just like to get them separately? 

This design was out of my own head, and not historical (that I know of)

Using a mix of GW and scale color for the NMM golds.

Inspiration for the next fellow.

Fun challenge of colors. Need to work on that Heraldry a bit.

 Thanks- That's all for this week. Next time- actual non wooden minis !

Cheers
Ths