Novgorodians 9

I've completed the final 6 models for the Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project. Oh yes, it's always a nice feeling when a project is finished.

Here they are in all their splendour:

Another angle:

The models are all from Gripping Beast.

And finally, here is a shot of the two city militia forces as I will field them, armed with a mix of spears and missile weapons:

We had our first game featuring the Novgorodians last night – an ambush on a Swedish baggage train of sledges – and they performed surprisingly well. This was also an opportunity to take some pictures of the whole force with some nice looking terrain in the background. An AAR should eventually appear on Dalauppror's blog. Meanwhile, here is a teaser pic of the table from the Novgorodian starting table edge:

In the upper right corner, you can see the Swedish force, just visible behind the woods.

Hopefully some of the pictures will make into the finished game when it's published by Osprey sometime next year.

As a result of this project being completed, there is now a serious dent in the lead mountain. But fear not! I've already ordered more models to restore the mountain to its former glory – and then some – for future projects.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Novgorodians 8

These past weeks have been quite hectic at work and the Midsummer celebration this week didn't help much either. I've managed to get some good hobby time in-between, but I'm a bit behind taking pictures and updating the blog.

Anyway, here are the first 6 finished models for the final unit of city milita for the Novgorod force.

The miniatures are once again from Gripping Beast.

Another picture of the shooty gang:

Now it's on to the bases of the final 6 models and then they are finished. Should be fairly easy as my fiancee and son are gone for the whole week, leaving plenty of time for hobby stuff in the evenings.

Have a great week everyone!

A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict

The guys down at the club have been working on a fun little project called "A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict". It's more or less a Swedish version of "A Very British Civil War", were the Ådalen shootings serves as a starting point for a civil war. But being Swedish, it's of course a more "lagom" conflict, and not all out war.

It's a great project, loads of fun in the AVBCW spirit, and the guys have worked hard to get all the bits into place: Dalauppror has built some great terrain and tweaked some rules to use, Ulf and Matts have written a background complete with an alternative timeline, and Björn has even commissioned his own range for the project. Very cool indeed!

Last night was the first game of the project, and naturally I tagged along to join in on the fun. And fun it was! We were 9 players in total, plus our very patient umpire Dalauppror – with this many players I imagine it was somewhat like herding cats.

The scenario revolved around an attack by the Reds on a filling station (fuel being in short supply, both sides wanted to have control of this) while the Whites (or the Army in this case) tried to hold them off. Dice were thrown, laughs were had, and men fell on both sides (but mostly on the Red).

In the end, despite receiving reinforcements and even taking out the army's tank, the Reds had taken such a beating that they found it best to retreat and fight another day. Or as they said, "To root out the bourgeois traitors in our ranks".

You can find an excellent AAR on Dalauppror's blog – do check it out.

I played on the Red team, and although we lost the game, I haven't had this much fun in good while. So ... I'm now seriously pondering taking the leap and paint up some Red militia types in the form of anarcho-syndicalists. A group of 6 models and a leader should be enough to get me started – especially if we're doing more multi-player games.

Now, to find some suitable models ...

Novgorodians 7 – WIP

I've been making some progress on the final city militia unit for the Novgorod force, but not as much as I had hoped. Thus, this week it's another WIP-update, this time of some archers:

The miniatures are all from Gripping Beast. As you may have noticed, I'm using some duplicate models also used in the skirmish unit. Normally I'm not very fond of this (especially not in skirmish games) but the range is fairly limited when it comes to missile troops. However, I'm painting the city militia models in brighter colours, and adding some patterns to the clothes, to make these models stand out from their "copies".

We have a game of Lion Rampant planned for the 24th, were the Novgorodians will make their debut on the battlefield. I'm very much looking forward to this, and to finish this project. As usual, I'm finding it a bit hard to focus in the end of a project  – I'm itching to get started on the next one! – but I'm confident the whole force will be done in time for our game.

Finally, a warm welcome to the new follower cash1204. I hope you will like the blog and find some inspirational stuff here.

'Til next time everyone!

Alternatives to Google Reader?

Hey, I was just reminded that Google Reader will disappear in less than a month. What do you people use, or plan to use, as an alternative?

I quite like the simple UI of Google Reader and preferably want something in the same, clean style. Of course, I need to be able to import my old feeds into the new reader.

All tips are greatly appreciated!

Novgorodians 6

As I had hoped, I managed to finish the rest of the first city militia unit for my Novgorod force for the Baltic Crusades project during the week. So that's six more models for a total of 12 in the unit.

Here is another picture of the second batch – hopefully a view the enemy never gets to see!

The miniatures are from Gripping Beast and the shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios.

I mentioned in an earlier post that this range, Early Russians, are a bit hit-and-miss. Well, most of the "misses" are on these models. Overall I like them, but some parts/details are not that great to be honest – maybe they are beginning to show their age? Anyway that's enough of my whining for now.

Taking pictures was a bit tricky today because the sun made some parts too bright and others too dark, but I think they came out all right after bit of work in Photoshop. So here are some pictures of the whole unit:

That just leaves one more unit before I'm done with the starter force for this project: another unit of 12 city militia, this time mostly shooters. In games I'll combine these to get two mixed units with both close combat and shooting abilities. Hopefully a recipe for success ...

Finally, a warm welcome to my new follower Rosbif. Thanks for joining up, I hope you will like the blog and find much of interest here.