Too Fat Lardies Summer Special 2012

Too Fat Lardies Summer Special for 2012 is now available from their webstore. I bought the pdf this afternoon, and as usual it's packed with articles and scenarios for the Lardies' games. Of special interest to me this time were of course the ones for the newly published Dux Britanniarum:

• Migrating Dux – Ideas for using the game in other settings. The example is Franks raiding the Romano-Belgae in Gallia Belgica. Gave me a couple of ideas for possible future projects (like I need more of those!).
• On a Saxon Shore – A bonus raid scenario, with the Saxons raiding from the sea.
• Meaty Dux – More details for the campaign system, particulary resources for kingdoms.

I've just had time for a quick read, but they all look very good; the Lardies' Specials always being worth to purchase (at least if you're interested in their rules).

On a related note I received my pre-order pdf of Dux Brit on Tuesday, but still haven't managed to finish reading it. I will post some thoughts when I do.

Fatigue/Casualty Markers

Inspired by Sidney Roundwood (pop over to his blog, it really is excellent) I knocked together a couple of quick Fatigue markers for SAGA. Of course, they can also be used as casualty markers for other games.

The miniatures are Gripping Beast casualties. The sculpts are a little rough but certainly adequate for this job. I glued them to 40 mm round MDF bases from the great people at Warbases, and then carved the dice holders out of pink styrofoam. After this photo was taken I realised I had used a big 12 mm dice as a template instead of the micro 7 mm I intended. It was however very easy to shave off the styrofoam and start over.

I used Windsor & Newton mineral texture gel to blend the styrofoam holders into the bases. This stuff smells absolutely vile, kind of like ammonia, and is a quite fiddly to get into the hard to reach spots (eg near the miniatures). It turned out just "OK" in the end, with some visible gaps around the figures, and it don't think I will use the gel for this kind of work in the future.

After the basing gel was dry I undercoated the markers black and painted them in my usual way. Finally I applied a coat of gloss and then matt varnish, before finishing them off with some grass tufts.

Here is a close up of some of the markers. For easier identification, I painted four of then red and four of them blue. The micro dice are from The Dice Shop – great prices and very fast shipping.

As always, thanks for reading!

Two Dux in a Row

 It surely is great time to be a Dark Ages player these days. Not only does SAGA continue to be much played and talked about, but there are two upcoming rules for the time period slightly before the one SAGA covers (the so called "Age of Arthur") – Dux Britanniarum by Too Fat Lardies and Osprey's Dux Bellorum.


I really liked my first game of SAGA, but at times it felt somewhat "abstract" (which is both a good thing and a bad thing depending on my particular mood). The more detailed, roleplaying elements of Dux Brit intrigues me, as does the campaign system – something I find sorely missing in SAGA.

Dux Bellorum on the other hand, is aimed at larger battles than both SAGA and Dux Brit handles (both of them being large scale skirmish games) which is also something I'm keen to try out.

I have preordered both of these rules and look forward to get some more Dark Ages gaming going. Of course I have to (yes, yes I know) paint up a new army as my vikings and anglo-saxons are for a later time period, but I have devised a cunning plan that will get me a force to use in all the three games mentioned above. More on this later ...

I'm a Painting Machine

Unfortunately it's just the walls in our apartment I'm painting at the moment ...

There's no way around this, I have to come clean and say: I've been a bad blogger, a bad bad blogger. Sorry for not updating for a whole three months!

The original plan was to update once a week, but as you can see that plan hasn't exactly been working out. However, I have been very productive (by my standards anyway) during my blogging-absence, and as I've received some not so gentle prodding from one of my two (!) followers I have prepared a couple of posts for the coming weeks to get me back in the game.

Speaking of games, last month I finally got to try out SAGA. It was a very close fought 4 points vikings vs anglo-saxon game, using the Homeland scenario. Despite losing (I played the defending saxons) I had a blast, as did my victorious opponent. I managed to snap some shots that will be in the short AAR I'm planning.

Thanks for reading!

Not Gone 2

Wow, has it really been that long since I last posted something? Well, I've been busy, busy what with being on paternity leave and trying to get me and the baby into our new routines.

However, I've also managed to get some serious hobby time in-between (although sadly still no gaming) and have finished some new terrain pieces for SAGA as well as starting on the Old West posses. Stay tuned for pictures and more detailed updates.

No SAGA, But More Warbands

As it turns out I will have to wait another week or so for my first taste of SAGA as the game planned for this coming Sunday has to be postponed. Oh well, it gives me time to prepare some more terrain I guess.

As most of you are aware, "Northern Fury", the first supplement for SAGA, are up for pre-order everywhere on the Internet (or so it seems). I realized my newly finished anglo-danish warband could easily be morphed into an anglo-saxon one. And say what you will about the anglo-danish, but in my opinion the anglo-saxons are a bit more ... iconic.

Doing some easy counting, there are only nine miniatures to be painted, as the warriors could be used in both warbands: two units of four thegns each and a new warlord. Great!

Fortunately, I have a box of Gripping Beast's plastic thegns, which means I don't have to buy any new miniatures. Again, great, as I'm off on paternity leave in just one day and trying hard not to spend more money than necessary.

Yet more work to fill the my time in waiting for that first game of SAGA!

Anglo-Danish Warband

Last weekend I finally managed to finish my anglo-danish warband for SAGA and today I took the time to snap some shots of them. I'm the first to admit I'm not a very good painter. My miniatures look OK on the tabletop but terrible in close-ups were you can see all the mistakes and short cuts. You have been warned ...

The anglo-danes were painted using simple block colours and Army Painter strong tone dip. To add some depth to the models a single highlight was added to the skintones before brushing on the dip. Afterwards I also added highlights to the wood areas on the huscarls (the shafts of spears and axes, and the back of shields) to make them stand out a bit more.

Here are some closer shots of the different units. First off we have the huscarls with the mighty dane-axes.

Here is the second unit of huscarls, more traditionally armed but still sporting fabulous facial-hair.

Enough with the fancy stuff, here is the first unit of the hard working warriors.

And here is the second unit of warriors. Salt o' the earth types one and all.

Finally, the man behind it all – the mighty (and hopefully victorious) warlord. He has had his axe swapped for a bigger one – size really does matter as we all know. I spent a little more time painting him, using the traditional 3–4 layer technique (and/or some washes) instead of the dip

Figures by Gripping Beast and transfers by Little Big Men Studios.

Next up for a photoshoot are the vikings, which I actually finished before these guys. 

Oh, and if everything goes to plan, fingers crossed, I will get my first game of SAGA next weekend ...

Empire of the Dead

West Wind is now taking pre-orders for their upcoming steampunk-horror skirmish game Empire of the Dead. I'm a big fan of all things Victorian and was looking forward to this release, but I must confess this first batch of miniatures leaves me a bit cold. Too "rural looking" and not enough of the dirty and desperate smog feeling I was after. Well, maybe future releases will be more to my liking.

As to the game, I wasn't particulary impressed by the  free taster scenario available from their website. Obviously there's more to the game than that, but for now I will hold off investing in this game and see what others are saying first.

Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Issue 59

The new issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy was waiting for me when I got home yesterday evening. I've been subscribing since September or so last year, and very much enjoyed every issue this far. I find the articles less "opaque" than those in Wargames Illustrated (to which I am also subscribing), with more focus on actual gaming and less on history.

I just had the time for a quick flick through the magazine, but it looked good as usual. This issue's theme is "Viking Invasion", which is good timing indeed as I'm nearing the end of the startup phase of my SAGA project. I'm especially interested in the article about SAGA campaigns. Hopefully it will give me some nice ideas.

Customer Service

So two examples of great customer service:

1. Gripping Beast. I ordered my anglo-danish warband from Maelstrom Games but discovered one of the huscarls with daneaxe was missing in the pack (I got an ordinary hurcarl instead). I could have contacted Maelstrom Games and sorted something out, but reasoning it would probably be easier I e-mailed Gripping Beast and asked if it would be possible to buy just a single miniature from them. They very kindly responded and offered to send the missing figure free of charge and it arrived within a week.

Here he is, waiting for the glue to dry on the base before I attach the axe and undercoat him.

Service such as this should of course be encouraged, and I now ponder what to order from GB ...

2. Black Scorpion. I managed to snatch up a couple of miniatures during their recent metal sale. The popularity of the sale must have caught them somewhat on guard however, because when I received the package one of the miniatures was a resin version. Obviously the metal version was sold out, but rather than refunding me a sending out my order without the miniature they included the resin version at the same price. Nice!

Here are the miniatures I ordered – all to be used in my Old West project (well, except the pirate of course) – and the resin Pat Garrett.