Tag Archives: tabletop wargames

Dragon Rampant: Old School Fantasy – Evil

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Here’s my third attempt at a Dragon Rampant force. This time… the complete army is done! Previous attempts stalled because a) I switched scales and b) I didn’t wanna paint all orcs. 

I took inspiration from the “Old School Fantasy” lists in the Lion Rampant books. I might not wanna paint 50 orcs, but I’ll paint 12. The thought of getting to play and paint with the different Oathmark models appealed. Most of these figs are from that line with a few Reaper and a Gripping Beast. I also added a few extra models so I could use these with the LR ruleset as well.

I’ve always liked this old cover to Dragon Magazine, and along with the Old School Fantasy lists in LR having each unit be a separate race, I was finally able settle on my DR force. And like I mentioned, painting several different creature units seemed more fun than a whole army of the same creature.

As a regular reader of Dragon Magazine in the 80s, I felt like I saw a hundred Clyde Caldwell paintings of a female character of some flavor with a small dragon familiar nearby. Maybe there weren’t as many as I thought, but they seemed to have stood out. I’ve also always wanted to do a larger base for a SMU leader or hero, so that was the approach I took with the leader of this warband.

In my head cannon, I envision the sorceress being to MotU’s Skeletor as the unit leaders are to Beastman, merman, evil Lynn, and the like. That’s why they’re all different skin colors, like Skeletor’s lackeys. Unified in a muted scheme but also clearly their own unique creature. It’s not an obvious nod, but part of the inspiration when I created the force, and why I arranged them around her in the first photo.

I painted up 7 or 13 models for each of the normal human sized units so I can pull the leaders of each out into an elite foot leader group in Lion Rampant (in place of the SMU sorceress) while still having 6/12 models in each unit. Now… let’s look at these units.

Dire boar SMU – lesser warbeast maybe with hatred or cunning

Stone Trolls RMU – bellicose foot

Goblin wolf riders – heavy or light riders

Gnolls – scouts maybe with fearful

Night orcs – scouts

Orcs – heavy foot with offensive

Skeletons – light foot with undead

This is all over 24pts, but still fits in a single Really Useful Box. Since taking these photos, I’ve received my copy of Dragon Rampant 2nd edition which greatly expands the Fantastical Upgrade a Spell Lists. The new book increases the standard game to 30pts, but 24 is still viable. So, after spending a little time with this new tome of wonder, I’ll need to revise the units here. But that part is easy, the hard part…putting paint to models…is done. This is a big relief and I’m pleased with the result.

What are your thoughts of this Old School Evil army of mixed units?

Roswell ‘98: Sliggs and Squarg

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Added another touch to my Alien Invader faction, this time some reptilians and a thing that should not be. All three are part of the Reaper “Sliggs and Squarg” blister. With a brainy Martian, greys, and now reptilians, (and human collaborators) this faction has all the elements of a 90s ufo conspiracy.

Roswell ‘98: Moar Ninja

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Painted up a few loose figs for my Ninja-type faction. They are from L to R: a red ninja from the Dark Alliance Stalker set, an Elheim survivor, a street samurai troll from the old Ral Partha Shadowrun line (as an Oni), and one of the Citadel Dark Future street warrior models as a stylin’ Yakuza boss. These characters flesh out the rest of my models to make a full Xenos Rampant Detachment. I might make the Oni character one of the rare Elite Units in my collection. It seems that might make sense with the range and melee weapons he’s packing plus oni magicks. In hindsight, I wish I had painted all my ninja models red. Oh, well.

Roswell ’98: Southwestern Cryptids

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One of the things I appreciate about games like Dracula’s America is the inclusion of North American creatures (or cryptids as some may consider them). I have a single posse for that game, but I don’t have a table or group for it, so haven’t gone all in on the creatures. With my Roswell Post Apocalyptic setting, I do have players and terrain. So, looking over a list of Southwestern cryptids and what’s suitable for 1/72, I landed on Skinwalkers, a Thunderbird, and a Pale Rider.

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Burrows & Badgers: Necromancer and Ghasts

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I’ve wanted to try Burrows & Badgers out for awhile, and with the Second Edition incoming local interest has picked up enough to make it happen. I placed a fairly large order with Oathsworn a few weeks ago…more than I needed after double checking the rules… now I’ve got plenty. Maybe more than enough to weather me through the coming increased expenses.

To start with, I’ve got a Black Rat Necromancer Leader (though painted white), her Stable Ghast minion (in the back), and four summonable Mists Ghasts. In the game, a necromancer casts an Invocation spell to see how many points of Mists Ghasts they can summon that game. I’ve painted four of various sizes, but as mentioned, I’ve got several others I can paint up if I find I need em. The Bat Assassin is the warband “Second” at the moment. In headcanon, he’s the one who “unalives” marked warriors for the Necromancer to raise.

I’ve got a few Thralls to paint up then this warband will be ready to hit the table prior to the delivery of that Second Edition Book.

Ronin: Kappa Buntai

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I’ve had five of these Khurasan Kappa models painted for a while using them as either villagers or as an independent force as suggested in the Mythical Creatures document: https://www.ospreypublishing.com/media/qzvnud5q/ronin-mythical-creatures.pdf

I went ahead and picked up the Daimyo model so the group has a proper leader. Using the Osprey Ronin points calculator (https://www.ospreypublishing.com/media/by3dcjby/ronin-points-calculator.pdf) I made a Daimyo character so this unit could have a proper Buntai at 125points… the point value I’ve been playing Ronin at.

I’ve also attempted a “Spill the Sara” optional rule to better tie the unit into Japanese folklore. Essentially, opponents can make a Disarm attempt and if successful the model is Routed and must Run to the nearest water feature or table edge, where they are removed from the table. in the End Phase of the following turn they can appear along the edge of the water feature or same table edge they fled from. It may make the unit a bit more chaotic, but again, optional rule.

Kappa Buntai Roster:

Buntai Roster – KappaDownload

Dragon Rampant: Dire Boar

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A third post in under a week! Both of the blog’s readers are eating well! 😉 Seriously though, last week I took a few days off work to spend time with the kids on Spring Break and I was also able to get quite a bit of painting done. Don’t expect this many posts as the new regular. ha.

Anyway, here we have a Reduced Model Unit Lesser Warbeast, a Reaper Dire Boar. They had this fella down at the local game shop and I thought he’d be a good, cheap addition to the warband. I think he cost about $5. An ornery Dire Boar seemed like the sort of ill-tempered creature to fit in an orc warband. I’ll probably give it the Hatred Fantastical Rule. If I remember correctly, there was a dire boar of sorts causing mayhem in Arthurian legend? He just needs a terror-inducing name like that ram in LotR, Grond. I think I’m gonna go with Morthog unless something else comes up. I’m open to better suggestions if you’ve got ’em.

This was three quick-to-paint units putting me at about 12 points. Half the warband already! But where are the orcs in this orc warband?!

Dragon Rampant: Orc Shaman

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Had a little momentum, so painted up the next Orc Warband unit, The Orc Shaman. I’m thinking this is going to be a Light Foot Unit with the Wizardlings fantasy option added, so a 5 point unit. This gives the unit three spells, which’ll probably be Power Bolt!, Befuddle Thee! and Heal Thee!. A range attack, a spell that batters a unit, and a healing spell. Pretty generic but probably the most flexible.

I’ve modeled this Light Foot unit with only two models. The Orc Shaman and a “summoned’ Bog Beast. The summoned part is just for Rule of Cool, I’m not going with the Summoner ability. This unit of 2 models will be 6 ST points each. Clearly, that Bog Beast can soak some damage, and the shaman has…”magicks”.

I painted up the Bog Beast with the same technique I do terrain. I recently acquired a pot of Dirty Down’s Moss Effect which is great, but I wonder if that sort of technical paint makes it visually too different from the orc models. Well, it’s also a Meirce Miniature that I had kicking around the bits box for awhile and the sculpts on those are a bit more detailed than my preferred style which lies closer to the Oathmark Orc Shaman from Northstar. I hope the duo fit together though.

Silver Bayonet: Bandits and Deserters

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One of the big three blocks of units I need for Silver Bayonet are bandits.  According to the worst-case scenario I need a total of 13 of these scallywags to handle any of the scenarios in the core rule book. With the addition of Silver Bayonet: Canada and Egypt, I decided to go outside of the box and select some banditos that would work in multiple theaters of conflicts. Continue reading →