Everything is going according to my plan...

...not to have any plans!

That's right, new metal toys have arrived, and I'm going down a new rabbit hole... or Badger burrow... or something.

Next month Osprey are releasing a rulebook called Burrows and Badgers which utilises the wonderful miniatures made by Oathsworn. These are anthropomorphic animals, fighting bitter wars in the Kingdom of Northymbra (which looks suspiciously like Northumbria) with a skirmish ruleset that includes a detailed progressive campaign system.

Needless to say, as soon as I discovered Oathsworn and the B&B rules, I was hooked. Warbands are between 6 and 10 models, so not a difficult force to paint and collect, and Mike was hooked as easily as I was. Between us we bought two starter forces, and they arrived yesterday. With in 5 hours i had painted the first 2 figures.

A Shrew-zerker and Warrior Sparrow. Both are classified as small animals.

I'm no used to lipped bases, so I will probably touch these up with some drybrushing.

I love the tartan on the sparrow, and green will be my warband themed colour.

So who else is in my fighting menagerie?

Photographed in the raw, seconds after opening.

 My warband is led by a Wildcat, backed up by a Squirrel mage, a Mole mercenary, a Mouse skirmisher, and of course the above painted Shrew-zerker and Sparrow Warrior.

These really are beautiful figures

Mike's troupe is led by an Otter mercenary, and his followers include a Fennic fox, Weasel rogue, Rabbit archer, Mouse knight and Black Rat mage. I've said I'll paint these guys for him so we can get into some gaming when the rules arrive next month.

It is amazing how something so completely different can be so inspiring.

Mike and I also used the airbrush in the weekend to prep his Team Yankee Brits, and he is finishing those off as I type. I've also offered to paint his infantry to get them on the table in the next couple of weeks, so they are coming up alongside Craig's Soviet Heavy Weapons, which took a back seat last night when the Oathsworn minis turned up! The aim is to have 4 painted Team Yankee forces by the 15 April when Craig is scheduled to come up for a mini tournament. This also means that we need to have a working bee over Easter to get John's US troops ready.

Finally, this arrived a couple of weeks ago:

Note the smoke alarm - I had to uninstall it due to all the burning T-72s from the last game of team Yankee.

These are the Peninsular War armies that replace the Seven Years War collections. The more I read about Songs of Drums and Shakos Large Battles, the more I am certain that they are right rules for me. But as you can see, it will be a little while before I have forces ready to test them out.

Busy times. Hopefully it means some more photos of painted goodies soon.

Nate