Star Wars Legion, Games night and other sundry items

Craig is playing Star Wars Legion at NICon as I type, using an Imperial army that I finished painting on Monday for him.

The AT-ST is so big he doesn't fit my backdrop...

The full Imperial force, consisting of two starter sets and and AT-ST

Craig was finishing the basing off on these. In this photo it is masked for the airbrush.

I still have the rebels to paint for him, which I'll get to relatively soon. In the meantime I have a parcel of goodies to paint for Geoff - just a couple of dozen figures which I've already undercoated and done some prep on. They should appear on here over the next couple of weeks. In return he sent me a spare copy of the Trafalgar Warhammer rules.

A blast from the past. I got rid of my old copy a couple of years ago when Dan and shifted and plans to do a few ships evaporated.

Because I've just invested in these:

1:2400 Napoleonic ships from Tumbling Dice. This is the Victory, and it is tiny. There's another 15 ships where this came from, but Napoleonics is next year's project.

I also found time to finish off a unit of the British 43rd Foot for Muskets and Tomahawks.

My shiny toy soldiers

The French Indian War project is all going to be painted in glossy toy soldier style. I love the aesthetic, and there is something very pleasing about handling gloss varnished figures that I can't really explain.

I was sick for a couple of days this week, and couldn't get any painting done, but when I came out of my malaise I was able to finish off a few bits and pieces, including the ACW naval elements.

The Union fleet of the Chickatachee river campaign (yes, that is made up).

The two timberclads

The USS Choctaw repurposed for this campaign. Big and ugly. I love these boats!

Adding to the preparations for the Chickatachee campaign, I finished a few artillery pieces and some cavalry (mounted and dismounted). At the same time my order turned up from Hovels.

A farm set, two buildings which will be able to represent a town, and a timber mill. Yes, I intend that there will be trouble at t'mill... (full marks if you get the reference).

 And Geoff also supplied me with this Spartan Games Uncharted Seas fortress. It's a bit over the top, and in smaller scale than the other buildings, but I still plan to use it on the same table - just like I'm using 1/600 boats with 15mm figures. It's all represnetative.

This'll be a hard nut to crack.

So last night was Games night, and saw Mike and I have our first game of Burrows and Badgers. It took  along time to play, not because the rules are difficult, but because, as always, it was very easy to get distracted with food, drink and conversation. But we did get there in the end.
Mike was rather underprepared, but his Rogues warband was drawn up and put in the field against my Wildbeasts in an Open Battle scenario.

 

The first moves of the game saw my animals move forward to try and secure the centre of the board.

Mike deployed his leader, Arnold von Schwartzenotter and his Weasel (unnamed), in the centre of the board. The rest of the rogues had to make their way up from their deployment area.

The view from the position of Angry McAngus, the Shrew-zerker. He was chomping at his axe (literally) to get over that hedge and into combat.

Otter and Weasel move into combat with wildcat and sparrow. The combat in the centre heats up. Hunny Bunny the archeress slips around the side and puts an arrow into Hamish McFeatherface's (the sparrow if you hadn't worked that out) behind. Wee Wullie the dormouse takes aim at her with his sling, but fails to gain vengeance.

The Rogues are not rolling the greatest and being held up by terrain.

In one turn things begin to turn. Fiona McAcorn, the Squirrel Witch, casts a curse on von Schwartzenotter, rolling a perfect dice to do so. Then Hamish attacks the otter with another perfect roll. The Rogue leader is struck down! In his place the Fennec fox charges forward.

At the same time Hunny Bunny is attacked and removed by Tam the mole and Angus the shrew.

Despite a small victory over Hamish by the Mouse knight, Gordon McWhiskas the Wildcat seals the game with a devastating blow on his Weasel opponent.

Burrows and Badgers is a cool game, and led to much mirth as we played. It is unpredictable, and the lowliest shrew can take out a large character with luck and good use of combinations. Mike is off to revamp his rogues warband - he didn't get a chance to read the magic rules before making decisions last night, and this wasn't a campaign game as a result, just a chance to try out the rules. Everyone loved the figures, which are beautifully sculpted, and a joy to paint. There is more that we need to learn to use properly - like hiding for one - but by and large I'd recommend anyone to invest in Badgers and Burrows if you are the remotest bit keen.

Next to us on the table Paul, Terry, and John were playing a 28mm Napoleonic game with Black Powder. The distances were shortened to accommodate the fact that we use a normal 4' wide table. John started by charging with his cavalry - just for a change. They had a lot of fun, although at times they found the Black Powder rules (which we haven't played in years) more than a little counter-intuitive. Below are random pictures of the battle.

There was time at the end of the evening to have a game of Shadespire which Adam had brought along. unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of his nicely painted figures because I was too busy trying to climb the steep learning curve, but by the end of the game I had the hang of it (I think). It was a cool little game, and well worth playing if you get the chance.
Shane and Jeremy had a small 500 point 40K skirmish, that was pretty much completed before we got Burrows and Badgers set up, so I didn't get any photos of that either.
Overall it was a great night, with lots of laughter, food, banter, drink and a lovely single malt that I couldn't partake of because I was driving.

Nate