Updates and Christmas

Many apologies for the distinct lack of updates recently, this is mostly due to the time of year and some lax enthusiasm for painting and gaming as a whole. During the new year I hope to get some more work done on Aristeia, including figures and terrain as well as a few battle reports once the rule set is in a place that I am happy with.

In terms of Christmas (and Birthday) gifts I received a copy of the new Blood Bowl box set. I have to say it is rather nice. The box art is lovely, the quality of the figures is very good as are the printed elements (cards, and pitches etc). The rulebook has some problems with some day one errata but that is not a large problem as others have reported on it already and I have already played quite a lot of Blood Bowl. I already have a Human team (the 2004 version) that I recently stripped as I was not happy with the paint job I had given them so the Orcs will be assembled first. I am a little disappointed in that you only get 2 Blitzers and 2 Black Orcs. There seems to be no way to purchase extra positionals at this moment and no other figures match the more modern style of these Orcs. It appears that I will have to wait to create a 'proper' team.

In terms of Christmas gaming that has taken place I played a 1000pt game of Warhammer Fantasy (8th Edition) with my Wood Elves vs Skaven. I am not the biggest fan on 8th edition, generally preferring earlier versions, but it was a fun a game nonetheless. I hope to get a little after action report together in regards to the game as some of the results during it were rather amusing.

Finally I ran a one-shot game of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (2nd edition) set in Norsca. The group was comprised of some more experienced players and a few new comers to RPGs (although all are veteran board and wargamers with knowledge of Warhammer Fantasy). It went down quite well I believe, considering that most of the game was made up on the fly outside of the general premise. It was a combination of Beowulf and some sort of Skaven incursion/plot dealing with abductions in a Norse village and the local Jarl under so e political pressure. It ended with the party finding the captured villagers working as slaves in Dwarven ruins for the Skaven's foul desires. The slaves were freed and were transported back to the village however the game ended with the alarm bell of the village ringing to announce the Skaven hordes approaching. It was quite light hearted and good fun to run, it didn't take itself too seriously and had a few references to fantasy stories and other epics.Hopefully I'll get the chance to run some more games in the future as it has been a very long time since I have had the chance to run/take part in an sort of Pen and Paper gaming.

I hope everyone reading this had a lovely Christmas and hopefully there will be a more regular update schedule in the New Year.

High Elf Blood Bowl Team Complete

Finally, after several years languishing in the lead pile my High Elf team is finally painted! I went for the classic blue and white strip but with a more muted gold/bronze colouring than is normally seen. I do not tend to paint overly bright miniatures and my favouritism for more drab or muted tones reflects this.

The entire team, all eleven players.

The team was converted using mostly the White Lion and Phoenix Guard kits. The White Lions taking the lion's (heh) share of the pieces used. This was mostly in the legs and torsos, especially on the Thrower and Catchers, due to the more animated poses and 'practical' armour for a sports game. The vast majority of helmets also used were provided by the White Lion set as a well.The Phoenix Guard provided the cloaks and (some) of the arms seen on the Linelves and Blitzers. The newer Shadow Warriors set supplied the high boots as seen on the two catchers, this came about during a revision to the team design during conversion, where I wished to differentiate the AV8 and AV7 pieces better.

The positionals, 2 catchers, 2 blitzers and thrower.

The linelves

Overall I am quite happy with how the team turned out in terms of the conversions (especially the positionals) and the painting I think is acceptable. I look forward to hopefully using them around Christmas time in a local league.

For those who wish to know the team is TV1000 and consists of:

2x Blitzers

2x Catchers

1x Thrower

6x Linemen

2 Re-rolls

This comes in at 990TV. The spare 10k is generally used for 1 Fan Factor but it could be saved. The lack of an early Apothecary or third reroll is a problem (the apo especially) but I enjoy the passing game, both thematically and game wise, to no take 2 catchers. I've had some success with the team and with similar High Elf teams in the online environments.

Work is still continuing with the Romano-British levies and I should hopefully get the shield designs ordered relatively soon in time for them to be ready by Christmas. I have also done a little more to the LoTRSBG Athurian adaptation, this along with Aristeia I would very much like to play over the holiday period. This is in combination with me finishing off two other Blood Bowl teams that require painting, my Dwarf and Chaos. These are the Black Scorpion figures and while i rarely play these teams I liked the models so picked some up at SALUTE a few years ago.

Romano-British 12 and Blood Bowl

Apologies for the lack of updates recently my ability to concentrate on painting and associated tasks has been quite limited.

I have done some more work on the Romano British levies with two groups almost done. The first group of Heavy Cavalry is also almost complete with only a few more highlights required. This, however, brings up and important issue; what to do with the shields? I would like for the cavalry to all have the same design as befitting my general/magister's comitatus while the levies to have, relatively) different designs.The images below show a selection of the Little Big Men transfers that I have considered for the Levies. I am still undecided on the cavalry designs but I am considering a white field with red Chi Rho but standardised rather than differing.

As well as the Romano British some small steps have been taken with my Blood Bowl teams. My High Elves have finally been all converted for a TV1000 team, I still need to make a few spare Linemen. This has involved finishing off the kit bash and sculpting the hands for the Catchers. I think they look rather serviceable and hopefully will be finished soon. I would like to try and organise a small league around the Christmas holidays (whether local or online remains to be seen). Below is a work in progress shot of the whole team. It consists of 2 Blitzers, 2 Catchers, 1 Thrower and 6 Linemen.

Romano British 11

So I am just under half way through painting my Dux Britainniarum army (I have, however, painted more comanipulares than is required at this stage). This means I have 18 infantry split into three groups of six. One of comanipulares and two of milites/warriors. These are all finished, photographs of the, now based, warriors should hopefully be taken relatively soon. This leaves the three groups of levies, the group of skirmishers and the characters of which three remain (two lesser nobles and the champion). One group of levies is almost done and just requires a few highlights and another has had some base colours blocked in. They have been painted in a non-uniform manner using a limited palette of colours that are found on the other figures but without much added detail. Basically they do not have Late Roman style uniforms but average 'dark age' clothing. In addition to this I have almost finished the first group of four heavy cavalry, these are not for game purposes but more just general completion and enjoyment.

With the release of Blood Bowl 2016 edition I have been inspired my to actually take a few of my teams out and finish painting/converting them. I have five teams: Humans, High Elves, Pro Elves, Dwarfs and Chaos. I favour Humans or High Elves and prefer a more passing style of play as opposed to that of the 'bash'. I am currently working on painting my High Elf team and converting the last few pieces. The figures are a kit bash of the newer High Elf multi-part kits namely White Lions, Shadow Warriors and Phoenix Guard. I will hopefully get a few pictures of the my teams up in the near future.