Horrendous Gaming

  So, as I have started getting into FKPS, I felt it was about time for some horsemen.  Enter yet another NorthStar boxed set, Oathmark Human Cavalry. FKPS uses units of six with one figure clearly the unit leader.  So, above we have Shock Troops, and below Archers, and in both cases the leader has an uncovered head and in fact a different set of clothing, but that won’t show much in those photos. There’s 15 in a box with three different horses and three different clothing, plus a myriad of heads.  So there was enough to also field a mounted Captain, Herald, and Hero. The nice thing about these Oathmark kits is there’s plenty of options for kitbashing between them, so the eagle-eyed amongst you may have have realised you have seen that Captain before 😀

  I played FKPS last weekend (see previous post) and a couple more turns of my 5LB campaign today (see Gunnar’s Diary) but I’ve also been doing some painting. Above is an Owlbear and the Incubus and Succubus miniatures from Wizkids done for someone else, while below are the remaining two figures from the Human Light Infantry box set (earlier post) I held back for 5LB heroes, followed by a new mini for Spreet in Gunnar’s gang, as the previous mini has proven to be too fragile to  actually game with, having been broken three times already! Then just because they were hanging around, I did the other three Viking Ship Crew from Gripping Beast.

This time we’ll introduce some higher value troops (both sides have one Veteran and one Elite unit), add Power Sources to the Individuals (both Captains get Leadership and both Fighters are turned into Heroes and get Might) and the game has been set up as an Objective battle using the Skirmish Creator. It seems the Northmen have encroached on the forest homeland of the Fey and the occasional skirmish is inevitable.  The Northmen are looking to secure the roadway leading to the bridge while the Fey have their sights set on killing the Northman Captain.  However while both sides were making their way through the forest they have become Scattered. The game will last a maximum of 7 turns. First though, lets meet the protagonists.  The Northmen are lead by their Captain and have a heroic shieldmaiden, a scout, and a Herald to lead units of Levy, Missile, sling armed Skirmishers, Veteran Shields, and Elite Fanatics. Facing them are an Elven Captain, a Tiefling Hero, a Goblin Sc...

Another little side job as the guys I did the Cthulhu figures for were happy with them and asked me to do the six from one of the expansion sets for them. The two new Investigators were fun, and once again I couldn’t bring myself to paint up the four badguys the same.  I think my favourite of the mutated arms is the one where it looks like the flesh tone is trying to reassert itself.

It’s amazing what you can do with a 30 part kit of Oathmark Light Human Infantry from North Star and the spare parts you invariably have after making other kits.  Again these are for 5LB and between two different threat lists I needed quite a range of missile weapons, but still had enough for two sets of melee troops, and five different leaders/personalities.  There are even two more left (not painted yet) I will use for my next Warband!   The group above are as they come from the sprues, as are the leaders below and the archers later on. These shields are in the kit too but as 5LB assumes most melee enemy don’t have shields, I ony use them on leaders (to remind me they can parry). These spears were added though as I like some variety in the melee troops, plus Knyghte, Pyke and Sworde uses units of six, so these will be flexible for that. The hooded heads are on the sprues and I only needed three for archers, so I just had to use them. As per the Gnolls, the slinger ...

  I’ve started working on some sections of dungeon/paved streets.  Sculpey polymer clay rolled out to 5mm thick, cut to sizes that are multiples of 25mm (my preferred size for bases), then rolled with contoured rollers purchased from a seller on Etsy, cooked, and painted with Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 Ashen Stone.  Not looking too bad for a few hours effort, but might do some dry brushing, I will ponder before spraying with varnish.

Today I tabled a force from my Viking army against a Reptile army using a playtest version of the Fantasy rules Knyghte, Pyke and Sworde by Ivan Sorensen. The two forces were balanced (five units of six figures) and for this first game kept as simple as possible with all troops at the basic level and with just a Captain and two Fighters as the leaders.  I’ll be introducing more elements of the rules in each game, but this first run was to look at the missile, melee, and bravery rules. Vikings: Shield Troops - Viking Hirdmen  Missile Troops - Archers Skirmisher Troops - Slingers Levy Troops - Bondi Fanatic Troops - Berserkers   Reptiles: Missile Troops - Snakemen Archers Skirmisher - Reptile Archers Charger - Big Lizards Levy - Snakemen Great Weapons - Tortles+Crocs Turns 1 and 2 were spent moving and getting used to each side taking an action in turn rather than the whole army acting together. Turn 3 though and all hell breaks loose.   It started with the V...