Fogou Models asked me to draw up a logo for their Battle at the Farm wargaming scenery Kickstarter, based on two carrots crossed behind a shield. After some persuasion I did it and so the Krunchy Karröts of Khaös have been unleashed onto the unsuspecting world.
Fogou Models Kickstarter Socmed Flyer Modles by Curis
Fogou Battle at the Farm Terrain Models by Captain Blood
Fogou Battle at the Farm Terrain Models by Asslessman
The set itself is based on the Battle at the Farm scenario from Rogue Trader and would make perfect scenery to play out that scenario. While the Battle at the Farm takes place on a Jadeberry Farm on the Crimson Fists homeworld, not a root-vegetable in sight, it has a massive variety of uses beyond that single scenario perhaps some Burrows & Badgers or WRG Ancients or well, anything really, you can't get much more generic and useful than a derelict set of stone walls.
Battle at the Farm logo by [ZHU]
Fun drawing something slightly more normal. It was tough resisting the urge to over-do it and put gurning demon faces all over the carrots that would have distracted from the dilapidated agricultural outhouse for all seasons theme, and keep the whole thing reasonably handcrafted healthy and organic.
Original Pen and Ink drawing before type was added on the computer
An unboxing of the Halfing t-shirt I designed for Games Sesh's range of Fantasy RPG Shirts
Myserious Green Package (address label removed)
It seems standard practice to send soft materials like clothing in tough plastic bags these days, and although the parcel looked like it might have been carried by rabid winged monkeys to Zhu Towers the parcel was still intact with no rips or tears. Opening cutting through a folded over bag end, with a pair of kitchen scissors. Inside...
Another layer of wrapping and a funky flyer
...was another layer of packaging. Thinner transparent that keeps the shirt clean and protects it a bit more. Also a flyer advertising the other Fantasy RPG T-shirts I've designed for Games Sesh (I didn't do the flyer, but yay 35 degrees!) the internal bag had a weakly glued flap so easy to open.
t-shirt unfolded
The t-shirt - Gildan brand 100% cotton, black, nice quality. The silkscreen print is smooth, not overly thick and holds the detail of my drawing really well, I think the print guys did a top job on that. Apologies to the Kender girl on the left as her face is a bit folded up in the photo. It's a definite non-iron wash inside-out, dry on a hanger job like most printed shirts.
Black D20
And there's a handy black D20 dice included ready to roll up yet another Halfling character and send them off on an adventure!
Halfing drawing [ZHU] 2018
The Halfling shirt along with Elves, Half-Elves, Fighters, Barbarians and rest of the Fantasy RPG T-shirts can be seen at Games Sesh
Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô is an 1862 work of historical fiction, set in Carthage between the Punic Wars. There are scenes of a temple raid that reads a little like something out of Howards Conan the Barbarian saga, or a Dungeons & Dragons game,scenes of strange exotic ritual centred on the titular priestess of Tanit and vicereal bloodletting, battlefield carnage and baroque siege tactics. It's very nearly only the use of familiar place-names from Old Earth and lack of overt supernatural special effects that prevent it from being, perhaps, the first fantasy novel.
Also of interest is a brief paragraph that seems to describe a wargame being played in preparation for battle:
"The four chiefs met together every evening in Matho’s tent, and squatting round a shield, attentively moved backwards and forwards the little wooden figures invented by Pyrrhus for the representation of manouvres. Spendius would demonstrate Hamilcar’s resources, and with oaths by all the gods entreat that the opportunity should not be wasted. Matho would walk about angry and gesticulating. The war against Carthage was his own personal affair; he was indignant that the others should interfere in it without being willing to obey him. Autaritus would divine his speech from his countenance and applaud. Narr’ Havas would elevate his chin to mark his disdain; there was not a measure he did not consider fatal; and he had ceased to smile. Sighs would escape him as though he were thrusting back sorrow for an impossible dream, despair for an abortive enterprise."
While the origins of Chess go back to 6th Century India, Georg Leopold von Reisswitz's Representation of Tactical Maneuvers under the Guise of a Wargame formulated in 1812 for King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, is recognised as the first modern wargame, insofar as it attempts to imaginatively simulate warfare, including practical manoeuvres rather than rely on abstract grid-based tactics as Chess.
The passage in Flaubert's Salammbô appears to be an account of Kriegspiel by a Frenchman some 8 years prior to the Franco-Prussian War and the subsequent popularising of von Reisswits Kriegspiel on the international stage. There is some irony in this, as Flauberts house was occupied by the Prussians during the conflict, which presumably had been suggested by military simulation, but I can find no particular evidence of Flaubert's interest in Prussian military matters before this unfortunate turn of events in his letters or biographies to explain the appearance of such a wargame in his novel.
Flauberts imaginary Kriegspiel was not intended to be contemporary, but is rather projected back to The Mercenary War in Carthage, between 240 BC – 238 BC. Flauberts main historical source for Salammbô was Polybius' Histories (circa 150 BC) specifically Book I, ch. 65–88. It makes no mention of a game being played. Any archeological evidence Flaubert may have drawn upon in order to have Matho, Spendius, Narr'Havas and Autaritus studying strategy and practicing tactical manoeuvres also seems elusive, perhaps the figurines overlooked by archeologists as toys or religious fetishes, or were non-representational, beads or other such items, or simply all destroyed by the Romans when Carthage fell. Certainly Flauberts evocative image of men hunched around a shield suggests a certain level of improvised tabletop action.
Flauberts text plainly attributes the invention of the game to a certain Pyrrhus of Epirus (318–272 BC) the Greek King and General from who we derive the idiom Phyrric victory - that is a victory in which the losses for the victor are greater than the losses of the vanquished. This allusion might certainly explain the despondency of Flauberts game-playing mercenary generals. Unfortunately Pyrrhus writings - treatises on military matters, presumably including his wargaming rules and memoirs are lost to history. However Aelius Donatus (circa. 400AD - 600 years after Carthage fell) observes in his fragmentary, partially reconstructed and incomplete Commentary on the Roman playwright Terence, that Pyrrhus "invented a sort of game, like that of Chess, to represent the different ways of making attacks, and drawing up armies in battles" (according to Symons, Universal History, 1738 - I cannot find a translation of Donatus Commentaries, perhaps a passing Classics scholar might shine a light here), and it may be that Flaubert is following Donatus himself, or other later sources that draw on him in his description of The Pyrrhus Game being played out in Matho’s tent, predating the emergence of Chess in India by some 800 years.
But unless there is a full set of rules buried in Donatus Commentaries, what The Pyrrhus Game was actually like, how Chess-like (abstract) or Kriegspiel-like (simulationist) it was, and if it even existed at all, is anyones guess.
Music this time comes courtesy of the VHS vaults. If you really like Stu Phillips soundtrack to the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica TV series you'll really like Lee Holdridges soundtrack to the 1982 Swords & Sorcery adventure movie The Beastmaster, starring Marc Singer of Vfame and very loosely based on an Andre Norton novel I've never read.
The Battle of the River Tengin
Apologies for the blurry photographs - the final one in this sequence isn't so bad.
The Empire army positions are dictated by the scenario, while the Chaos player can position her army wherever she likes within the first two hexes at the north of the River Tengin, or is that Kwell?
Initial Depositions
As the crimson orb rose from behind the hillsides, the first watchman of the west fell - the breying hordes of chaos drawing first blood, breaking the hastily defenses of the lands of Men. The great lumbering war ogre clambered through the central pass gnawing at the feeble manflesh and ignored the volleys of arrows and crossbow bolts like gnats on a aged donkeys fetid hind.
the battle rages on
The infernal mechanical deity jerked and shuddered forward vomitting forth its hideous alchemical metorite into the iron cased flesh of the Mistress of Darkness. Errupting in flame and despair, her eldritch soul blasted back into the eddying dust from which it had spawned. Yet still the great hordes of Darkness held strong, slaughtering the Knights at the Eastern Ford, their rusted iron turning the river Tengin red with the blood of Men.
EVIL VICTORIOUS!
slightly less blurry photo
Slowly the denizens of darkness wore down the weary manflesh with axe and sword and spear, until finally only the great iron demigod, bringer of thunder and devourer of the Daughter of Hel remained. Yet the gods of war smiled not upon that idol, and despite it's lurching and roaring, not one of its sulpherous projectiles reached the remaining emissaries of darkness. In disarray and despondency the cult of iron surrendered, abandoning their infernal engine. The forces of reason once again vanquished before the gibbering hordes of Chaos.
---
Commentary
The game took 1 hour 20 minutes, and after an initial fun start was somewhat of a grind, not helped by the fact the Beastmaster soundtrack is quite short, and extremely repetitive.
Again luck dominated the game with the Canon making only one hit - albeit in a narratively satisfying one, utterly destroying Gorefist.
The terrain bottlenecking combat, while perfectly reasonable, especially at river fords, when combined with infrequently activated units (looking at you, Orcs) in the strategic spaces really made this game drag. As a sidenote, I have a feeling that many players responding to this phenomenon would decide the game was broken and should be rewritten to fix this problem - perhaps friendly units could pass through each other, or Orcs could activate more often. Of course, it isn't the game systems fault, it's not broken at all, it's just a tactical error by the player that would have been lessened by placing a more mobile unit in that critical space. The difficulties of manoeuvring large bodies of troops through terrain is a large part of what ancient/medieval historical and fantasy wargaming is really about, and I'm really happy that Battle Masters, despite all its simplicity retains some aspect of that.
So it is definitely worth taking note of which units get to move most frequently and ensuring they don't get in the way of other units, so by counting cards we can get an idea of how mobile the forces are...
Army
Name
Activations
Frequency
Empire
Cannon
4
9%
Empire
Crossbowmen
5
11%
Empire
Men-at-Arms
6
13%
Empire
Archers
8
17%
Empire
Lord Knights
11
24%
Empire
Knights
12
26%
Chaos
Bowmen
5
7%
Chaos
Ogre
5
7%
Chaos
Beastmen
6
9%
Chaos
Warriors
6
9%
Chaos
Orcs
7
10%
Chaos
Goblins
11
16%
Chaos
Wolf Riders
14
21%
Chaos
Champions
14
21%
Activations is the number of times the unit appears on the Battle Cards that are drawn for troop activation, and Frequency is that number as a percentage of all that armies moves - so each turn has that percentage chance of that unit moving. As an update to Battle Masters: Pocket Edition I might put the frequency stat on the Unit token as a reminder of how often the unit gets to move and/or attack.
Also found that the Empire Man-at-Arms unit icon and the Empire Crossbowman unit icon are too visually similar at small sizes and after a few ales and battle casualties which icon represents the Chaos Lord and which are the Chaos Champions are not particularly memorable. It doesn't make the game impossible, just creates a bit of dithering and narrative uncertainty that could be ironed out with some more expressive graphics - "feather hat guy facing left" and "feather hat guy facing front" don't really communicate "archer" or "crossbowman" very well either.
Keep thinking the Ogre is a War Elephant in Middle-earth Drag, and the Chaos Archers are effectively slingers and the whole thing is like something out of the Punic Wars. But that's probably just some external reading bleeding in rather than the designers inspiration or intent, but an interesting direction nontheless.
Strategically, positioning cavalry, supported by ranged troops positioned behind then at the fords would have created a much more effective meat-grinder. Notably this is very similar to the only real strategy involved in Battle Masters predecessor Heroquest, where doorways are used to bottleneck the onslaught of dungeon dwellers.
Thinking a little about developing Battle Masters Pocket Advanced into a richer Fantasy Battle Game, adding magic such as healing or an additional attack dice within range of a spellcaster could be interesting, as could some kind of Morale mechanic, as otherwise the loss of the Lords isn't as dramatic as it could be - this could be a frenzy, perhaps a Full Army move with +1 attack dice for the Chaos side, followed by a -1 attack dice to represent them subsequently falling into disarray. Perhaps the Empire would have to roll before activating to reflect the lack of command, or if we go with the hand of cards idea mooted earlier, perhaps drawing a limited number of cards.
Another note for Battle Masters Pocket Advanced would be implementing a saving throw differential, so perhaps troops that don't have shield icons don't have a saving throw, and perhaps there's a 5+ save as well for heavily armoured troops.
Playing the first scenario in the Battlemasters campaign...
To set the atmosphere, we decided against the cheesy Mars from Holst the Planets suite used in the Battle Masters advert, and instead put on Yes keyboardist Rick Wakemans 2001 prog-synth opus 'Songs of Middle Earth' which effortlessly blends new-age pseudo-medieval electronica with rambling ambient cinematic up-beat pop-funk that occasionally verges on a kind of folksy dungeonsynth. Well it makes a change...
Scenario 1: Battle of the Borderlands
The scenario is straight-forward, the Empire player must defend the Ancient Tower, while the Chaos player must take the Ancient Tower. Having printed and cut out the Battle Masters: Pocket Edition Prototype and persuaded Mrs Zhu to sit down and throw some dice, everything was set up and ready to commence the epic battle of good and evil...
Depositions
The Gods of Chaos smiled down upon the arrayed army of evil. Goblins, Orcs, Beastmen, Knights of Chaos and Mohawked Archers. The Ruinous Powers deigned to lend strength and speed to the Wolves, who rushed forward and devoured the great iron ball vomiting war-machine of mortal Men, before falling to the arrows and spears of their foes, their bellies full of iron and sulpherous black powders.
The Battle Rages On
Enraged at the loss of their mechanical contrivance, their faith in alchemy and delusions of mechanical superiority broken before the onslaught of pure ravenous animal hatred, the Knights of the Empire and their Lord sallied forth with grim determinance, cleaving swathes through ranks of goblins and orcs, the great hero of the Empire single-handedly destroying many of the foul beastmen, but alas for the fates of Man, ultimately trampled into the blood-soaked soil by the tramp of cloven hoof.
The Tower Falls to Chaos
The Knights too succumbed to the cruel blades and fangs of the Orcs, leaving only the stalwart men-at-arms and archers to face the hordes of chaos. Too few were they, too far spread out, too ill equipped. for the indomitable Gorefist marched towards the besieged Tower to claim her destiny.
As the laughter of mad gods echoed through the valley, storm clouds gather across the eastern marches of the Empire...
Commentary
The game took around 45 minutes to play, and overall an enjoyable time was had.
We were plagued with unlucky dice-rolls when saving, only 1 hit was saved during the entire game, which is highly unlikely, but there it is. The game is very luck based - with both completely random movement and combat dice rolls meaning that the amount of tactical play is minimal. If we consider Battle Masters as a wargame - in some way as a way of thinking about battle, and not simply an abstract game of dice rolling like Snakes & Ladders, the command and control capabilities of both armies are nearly zero.
While the player might plan an overall strategy, once in the field the random unit activation makes this almost impossible to implement, putting the player in a very reactive role, not only against the other player but against the uncertainty of the action of his own forces. Perhaps Battle Masters: Pocket Advanced might see the player draw a hand of 5 or so cards and decide which one to play, giving greater control, but still having a level of uncertainty to represent the miscommunication, morale and fog of war.
I was a little overconfident and decided we should abandon the rulebook and play from memory, subsequently we played the Ogre wrong - you have to draw his attack/move cards randomly, and we stopped if he couldn't make his attack rather than continue to draw all the cards, which made him sightly less fearsome than he might have otherwise been.
Tracking wounds was a bit fiddly with the little bits of red card. It's interesting that in the original game, each unit has several miniatures, these are not removed from the stand to reflect falling unit strength. It's almost as if the principle was considered, but then abandoned, logically it would have required more Cavalry models per stand (assuming cavalry should be harder to kill than infantry) and so been more expensive to produce.
A similar reductive mechanism could be to stack 3 unit markers per type and remove them until gone, which would be a more satisfying way to keep track of damage, although this would undermines the principal of having minimal physical requirements to play the game and a longer set-up time required, so perhaps just less fiddly wound markers. An alternative could be unit identifiers and a separate tally sheet, but I think this would obscure the information and detract from the board-map as focal point although it adds a fog of war element in not knowing the enemies strength at a glance.
It's notable how directly the simplified iconography alters the emergent narrative in play. The Goblin Wolf Riders just became "Wolves", and the Empire Lords and Chaos Champions just became the single characters - icons representing Gorefist and Ferdinand rather than a unit.
Bluetacking terrain to the board is a must, else it gets knocked around when moving units.
Empire player decided strategy was wrong and should have played much more defensively, using the Knights to block movement at the fords as quickly as possible and then wear down the enemy using archers, rather than riding out to meet them. Chaos player disappointed with not being able to get her Archers into the fray, but was pleased enough with claiming the first victory.
Meanwhile, down at the fungal oasis...
-
*"An oasis lies amidst rolling crimson dunes of rusty ore; a sump of sludge
and slime surrounded by weird fungal palms and spore-retching
bracken-bushes....
A hopeful monster
-
Want to see something genuinely original? There's a small catch: it's not a
spectator sport, you have to join in to make it work.
Still interested? Then ...
Hex Crawl 23 #249: Slaves of Uketta
-
Three hexes southwest, nine northwest of Alakran.
Uketta is a settlement, but not one that formed organically. It is a
project of the previous civili...
A Taxonomy of Fantastic Lands
-
Thinking about the phylogenetic connection between the Lost Worlds of
Victorian adventure fiction and the planetary romances of last century led
me to a...
Retrospective: World of Greyhawk
-
Longtime readers may object that I've *already* done a Retrospective post
on *The World of Greyhawk. *Pedantic as ever, I must reply that, while it's
true...
My Weekly Game
-
My weekly game with the neighborhood kids. They just completed the good old
Sunless Citadel. They limped out into the sunlight with their pockets full
of...
More Minfigs gnolls
-
Here are a couple more Minifigs gnolls to go with the one I painted up
last week. The new ones are from the 80s (?) Greyhawk range rather than the
70s ...
WHAT'S GOING ON?
-
Just a roundup of things that have been happening.
It was Colours at Newbury Racecourse yesterday, and I took Broadsword
Miniatures to add to the Oakbo...
Stargrave family party
-
Hey all ! So with summer over, painting can start again and I've finally
managed to finish the first part of a challenge started at the beginning of
...
Où est la Bibliography?
-
This is as much for me as anyone else, as I've sort of lost track of what
I've done over the years. If you think of anything I've forgotten, or got
wrong, ...
The Spiral of Horror - A Campaign Frame
-
*I don't think this has anything to do with mermaids*
I've been playing World of Horror, which officially releases next month
(and which you should grab b...
Seventh son
-
Seventh son of a seventh son. Thirteenth of his name… It has been a while
here since last introductory post. As recently inaugurated seventh member
of Iron...
Citadel Dragons - December 1992 and other bits...
-
Just picked up an old Citadel flyer for Dragons... as the title suggests!
Most of these were released well before this however advertising is
advertisin...
The Doomed
-
I got home from a fun few days of playing Warcry last weekend, and found a
copy of The Doomed waiting for me. The Doomed is a miniatures agnostic,
post-apo...
Rise of The Risers.
-
After eight years my old riser is looking a bit worse for wear. Me too,
riser, me too.
It got me thinking about making some new risers to improve my sh...
World Eaters : Possessed Marines
-
Hey everyone! A quick post before leaving home for two weeks of vacations.
I hesitated during a long time before working on a Possessed Marines unit.
The...
Planet 28 Papertech Gaming
-
Hi!
Just a quick post today as we're heading out for the day.
I've managed to play a couple of games of Planet 28 using my standees and
following a bi...
Going Viral...
-
*Onwards they marched, tracking the Chaos deviant through the dead lands. A
litany of woe and a trail of ruin marked the passage of the Cult they still
h...
ON RAVEN WINGS: THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE MARVELOUS
-
As soon as their ending was determined, the Middle Ages have caused no end
of trouble. It is the first age named since Hesiod postulated the Greek’s
fall ...
On the OSR Christmas in July
-
Isn't it disappointing that only digital files are on sale at DTRPG?
So I've dropped the prices of print copies of my books!
Bestial Encounters Caused By...
Rogue Trader Adventurers: Part 5... Stargrave
-
I've always loved Rogue Trader, but the impetus for my recent push to paint
all of Citadel's RT601 Adventurers was the publication of Joseph
McCullogh's...
Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea (2023)
-
* Beyond the Sea* is the third episode of the sixth series of the
anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator Charlie
Brooker.
...
Monster Stat Concept: Disposition
-
Yesterday, I introduced the concept of monster Motivations as a way to help
understand how to use that monster when designing encounters, or what they
mi...
Black Pudding Issue 7 Kickstarter is Live!
-
The Kickstarter for Black Pudding Issue 7 and The Black Pudding Adventure
Journal is now live. I launched it with minimal fanfare on Sunday afternoon
and...
What is the Moon Good For?
-
So, I recently discovered that the world upon which The City State of the
Invincible Overlord (CSIO) is situated has two moons, according to the
Necroma...
Attilan Rough Rider
-
Traditional rough rider units ride the Terran horse. That is fine and
everything but what about sticking them on some traditional space lizards
instead. To...
The Talented Mr. Carroll
-
Issue #39 of White Dwarf saw the introduction of Dave Langford’s Critical
Mass book review column. While other columns came and went over the years,
Critic...
Autoborg Robot Warrior
-
[image: Autoborg Robot Warrior]Back when I was a kid, you could broadly
divide robots into two types – the Transformers toys you wanted,
Shadow of the Giants
-
*taps microphone*
This thing on? Hello? Is there anybody out there?
It's been a while since the last post on Ye Olde Fighting Dantasy.
How olde? Olde...
Player’s Camp Scenery Tokens
-
7 scenery tokens for player or encounter camp sites. This is a print and
cut-out product with PNG graphics files included for importing into virtual
tablet...
The Battle of Thráya
-
I recently succeeded in luring Michael Lung over to the house for a
miniatures battle and discussion of Tékumel. If you haven’t heard of
Michael, he is on...
History of the List
-
I've been meaning to make this post for a while now. I did a couple
interviews over the past few years where I discussed the history of the
blog, how I c...
It's been a decade, now...
-
This is a tough time of year for me. So, with your indulgence, here's this
link to a post I did a decade ago... EDIT: I have no idea why it didn't
take. S...
The Power of “No!”
-
I finally reviewed the contract Justin LaNasa (JL) wants me to sign. That’s
when I took a stand and gave my answer: “I prefer not to be directly
involved i...
Battle Report: The Vampyr of the Riding: Turn 4
-
*GAME NAVIGATOR*
Narrative & Army Lists
Deployment
Turn 1
Turn 2
Turn 3
Turn 4
***
Turn 4: Undead
As you no doubt know, the common skeleton can muster ...
Happy Orctober once more.
-
Evening all. Just a quick one as it's BOYL tomorrow and I have to get to
bed but wanted to make this a proper Orctober this year so here is a couple
of ...
Oakfell Vale Out Now
-
My long-awaited adventure for old-school D&D and NGR is available now at
DriveThru RPG. Here is the link!
Available Here Oakfell Vale is a secluded, heavily...
O.G.R.E. RPG
-
A rough collection of notes, lists and scribbles of ideas is slowly taking
some sort of shape. O.G.R.E. stands for Occultists, Grunts, Rogues and
Eccl...
eBay: THE Citadel Giant, 2021 edition
-
Holy Deep Pockets, Batman! Someone shelled out $1,600 GBP ($2,270.64 USD)
for this complete in box copy of THE Citadel Giant. I mean, just look at
it. A...
The Spine of Night Premiering at SXSW Tonight!
-
*The Spine of Night* will be premiering tonight at *SXSW*. I am extremely
excited about this one! If the past output from Morgan King/Gorgonaut has
been ...
The Best of the Journal: The Pettigrew Selections
-
Mark Pettigrew wrote the delightful swashbuckling role-playing game,
Flashing Blades. He also wrote two Tekumel adventures, A Jakallan Intrigue
and The Tom...
While the Toys Were Out
-
Straying from the orc theme, but in the spirit of Halloween, here's my
Undead army...
Currently they weigh in around 1750 points. I've got enough zombie...
Oldhammer Fun: My "Citadel Colour" Paints
-
*My private little collection of Citadel Colour paints is all I need. Well,
that and a few good brushes.*
Warning: This is another frothy Oldhammer Blog p...
Gardens of Hecate Studio
-
*D*ear readers,
You are looking at the final post of this blog. It's been going for more
than eight years, and time has come for it to shut down... Because...
Citadel Ad&d Gnolls Part I
-
Here’s my taken on the Citadel Ad&d Gnolls, c.1985 I did the Halberders
first in honour of Gary Gygax. Next up, the battle-axers.
Blood Sundown Review
-
I've actually been running games recently! Bully for me. I decided that
I'd start reviewing the products I actually use - this was my first review
on Driv...
Trial by Dice – Crush the Demoniac
-
Has your life felt empty and worthless since last years Trial By Dice
tournament? Have things not been quite the same since you last heard the
ring of batt...
We've Moved
-
Hey all, just to update you guys The Duke has officially moved to be part
of my other site Unboxed the Board Game Blog. You can continue to follow me
over ...
[chapter 2]
-
The children’s names were Abdan and Mershi. Preteens, traumatized. Everyone
helped, but Mazi turned out to be surprisingly good with them. Jase started
tea...
Bestiary of the Fabled Occident
-
A long time ago I started to put together a bestiary. I've pursued various
other projects in the time since but I still have a fair bit of material
I'd lik...
Dernier article
-
Hé oui, c'est le fin de Chaotica Cloaquis, sur Canalblog.
En effet, après dix ans de bons et loyaux services, je vais quitter cette
plateforme pour Blogg...
Game Testing a Simple 40k Ruleset for Epic
-
I've got a nice little set of Epic sized space marines. They're basically
painted up as Space Wolves and Emperor's Children. Since my last post on
the to...
Iain Lovecraft, 3D Sculptor
-
Nope, it's got nothing to do with Cthulhu. I just did a video conversation
with Iain Lovecraft, who designs 3D miniatures and terrain. If you're not
doi...
Averaigne royal family
-
Every kingdom has a royal family. In the case of my campaign setting of
Averaigne, it's a fairly young kingdom but they are still on their eleventh
king in...
TV remote Landspeeder
-
It has been a long while since I updated, as I've had my hands full with
work. However, I took a few hours off last weekend to participate in
July's "T...
Long Time No Blog: Purchases At Carronade
-
It's been a long time since I posted, I know, but the following video about
my purchases at the Carronade show in Falkirk will hopefully assure you all
tha...
The Orchid Club
-
Bral caters to almost every vice, from grand scale corruption, via most
types of imaginable gambling, to lotus addiction, with each sin having its
own v...
Citadel Spectres and Skeletons
-
I - III [remastered] by Spectral Kingdom
FEAR not loyal reader, the prolonged absence since my last post is not
indicative of a weakening resolve regarding ...
Citadel Spectres and Skeletons
-
I - III [remastered] by Spectral Kingdom
FEAR not loyal reader, the prolonged absence since my last post is not
indicative of a weakening resolve regarding ...
Can I have too much stuff, I don't need?
-
Well, today has turned into a day of not doing particularly anything due to
snow which fell over night and continues to fall. So, I find myself with
time t...
-
This is the entry for Harry Scott (age 10) for the Monster Man monster
design contest...
*WERETIGER-SHARK*
Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1
Armour ...
Empire of the Petal Throne!
-
The new hardcover and softcover editions of Empire of the Petal Throne
arrived and are available now at DriveThruRPG.com! Here’s a link:
http://www.driveth...
Portfolio Images from an old CD from a while ago
-
This one contains some game art, a few 3d images I created from 3d CAD
models, some 2d line art drawings etc. Again, fun work!
Air Warrior pilot wing...
Interesting, Extended Review of WFRP1e
-
So, I'm not on this blog much. Or blogging much at all, neither here or on
my main blog. I've been running some Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2e - The
Warlock...
A solitary Heroquest fimir
-
The handsome fellows over on the Scale Creep blog invited me to join their
Heroquest Hero Quest and I could hardly turn them down. After all, I
had already...
long awaited Aequatherium scenario.
-
I must admit that I've had this one sitting around for a while but have had
other distractions to contend with. The rules for the figures can be found
on t...
Our bags are packed for the Pacific Northwest
-
The summer seems to be rushing by. I think it feels like that because we
haven’t really had any summer yet. I know, I know, some of you have been
having R...
Paper Experiments
-
I tried playing with a limited color palatte and a reduced number of images
today. Everything else was open to whatever I wanted to do; I just couldn't
use...
Challenger and IT Terrain.
-
Odd how things coalesced, and one day can define years to come...
Occasionally in this Life in Miniature, I 'be been around successful
protects, at GW lat...
-
Prohibition has ended and so has the shortage of AFS back issues! While
supplies last all 6 issues are available as I recently did a re-print run,
had thes...
-
Not going to be maintaining the FF blog on Google anymore. Mainly because
of this which seems to be the thin end of the wedge.
http://www.theguardian.co...
ECHOLALIACS
-
*Number Appearing:* 2-8
*Size:* 10' to peak of cone
*Armor:* Rolls of thick, dense hide as plate armor
*Resilience:* As 8 human warriors
*Intelligence:* S...
What Happened to VHS Archive?!
-
Some of you may have been wondering, and some of you may not have even
noticed, but VHS Archive has pretty much ceased to operate. I live in
Seattle where ...
I'M BACK!!!
-
Hello everyone I'm back, I am actually still alive and able to paint. Sorry
for the huge absence, last year was fairly shitty and since then I've
completel...
¡Otro dragón en Birmingham!
-
El 5 de Septiembre de 1981 Ian será el encargado de oficiar como maestro de
ceremonias en la apertura de la tercera tienda oficial de Games Worksho...
DIY Paint Station/Hobby Board.
-
Yay! Finally got something done to post about. My old board that I use to
paint and construct my miniatures on started life as a sort of temporary
coffee t...
A Ruined Castle of Aventurien
-
Another map courtesy of *Das Schwarze Auge*, in this case, a ruined keep on
the water. I imagine the keep above plagued by skeletons and the ghosts,
rat...
Interesting Places: Tomb of Yekelil
-
Today's map is dedicated to all my Internet friends who hate blue maps.
This map revisits last year's map of the Tomb of Yekelil, one of the many
levels w...