Heroes & Heroines...

...separated though they are by the centuries. Two small additions to two of my ongoing collections: a Saxon Hero for the Age of Arthur; and a Victorian Heroine taking tea, no something stronger surely, to stiffen her resolve in the face of perils unknown in The Heart of Darkness collection. In truth they were all I found in the Lead Pimple ready to face the Brush of Doom!

The Saxon hero comes from one of Gripping Beast's character packs for the Early Saxons. You can just make out the head he's resting his foot on, another luckless Post-Roman came off a poor second!

The Honourable Alice Malaband and her trusty manservant in camp. She is anxiously awaiting a spot of tiffin it seems, or perhaps a something a tad stronger. A gal needs a nip of Dutch courage now and then out here in the Heart of Darkness... The figures are from Wargames Foundry, well over 30 years old but still excellent figures to work on.

I've no further figures underway as we are off Oop North for a few days R&R soonish. Next up should be a baggage wagon set by Perry Miniatures for the Wars of the Roses project. I cleaned it up and assembled it yesterday and spray undercoated it this afternoon, so that will occupy a week I'd think later this month. Then I hope to make a start on the first figures for a new project...

Another of those Friparies!

Well, actually three of them, but let's not be picky. You may have noticed that it was a tad warm last week, almost warm enough to tempt you to take off your vest perhaps? Not the sort of weather here in GHQ conducive to painting much, even less for cleaning up new figures and such? A good job then that rifling through the old Lead Pimple I found these bits ready for the Brush of Doom. Six mantlets from Wargames Foundry and three figures from Perry Miniatures which I have wrangled into three bases I can use in Italian Wars or Wars of the Roses games to afford some cover for the smaller guns, or combined with Chevaux des frise to provide defences in a seige game ~

Not as striking as those which come as a part of Perry Miniatures large bombard set - which you might recall I bought by accident - but a useful addition to the tabletop battlefield ephemera of two wargames collections ~

I thought that I should add some closer pictures of each base/set just for completion ~

I think the figures are sufficiently generic to pass in both collections. We just need an excuse to get one or other of them out on the tabletop battlefield here in GHQ for a game in the coming weeks...

The Lost Remnants!

A while back now Phil gifted me a few Gripping Beast Late Romans, which had originally been passed to him by Norm! They are well travelled! I put them to one side until I had finally painted all the figures for The Heart of Darkness project. It's fair to say that the recent heatwave temperatures hereabouts have not been conducive to long sessions wielding the Brush of Doom, but working in short early morning sessions I have managed to complete them! As there were a dozen of them I've opted to base them on a single 60 x 80mm base, as I have previously done with Hearthguard or Warband bases. I see them as descendants of the remnants of a Roman unit who somehow were left behind when Roman units were withdrawn in the early C5th. Perhaps their orders never reached them? Or perhaps they simply chose to stay behind? Their backstory and basing choice are sufficiently loose to allow me to field them as a small Warband or as a Warlords Hearthguard. Enough blathering on, here is the Lost Remnant of Rome ~

As an interesting aside, the spears are plastic, a free gift sprue in an order from North Star a while ago.

The shield transfers are from LBMS via Victrix as is the vexillium device. The latter is from a Helenistic sheet, but it will do for me in this instance!

These are venerable figures, their design easily predating the arrival of LBMS shield transfers I'd guess. The transfer sheet option here 'fits' the large shields on Gripping Beast figures. If you look carefully that is rather more accurate for the rank and file figures' shields. In the case of the two officers figures from the Command pack that is not so, as you can clearly see on the lead figure and the officer on the far right. Its a minor irritation, but with cast on shields there is little you can do to ameliorate the effect. In a game though I'd venture few would notice, or care?

As with The Heart of Darkness project there are no more figures remaining in the old Lead Pimple to add, so I need to order up a couple of units to boost the Post-Roman element of the collection. A unit of infantry from Crusader/Artizan via North Star, and some Light Cavalry, either from 1st Corps or from Gripping Beast. Not forgetting they have no archers as yet! These will needs wait though until next month as we will be off Oop North for a few days in early July taking in the sights along Hadrian's Wall and hopefully various castles and Abbeys too!

The Queen's Justice

After the recent weeks employed on refurbishing older figures and painting those newly acquired, I felt we might give the Heart of Darkness collection a run out on the tabletop battlefield here in GHQ. Back in the day when our original collections hit the table we would have used Chris Peers' Death in a Dark Continent rules. But as in many other areas our hobby has moved on and so we are giving our Frankenrules, first seen a couple of months ago in a game with Paul, a second run out. Phil as our rules junkie in residence will no doubt have something to say about the experiment in due course...

On to the game then! In the opening scenario it seems King Bykalaizii m'Tuubi has been somewhat abusing his position as the dominant influence on neighbouring native tribes, fermenting unrest and interfering with the local commerce of the British SCEA Company! 'Robinson of the River' has determined the errant monarch shall feel the force of the Queen's justice!

To that end he has gathered his force, lead by the fearsome Askaris of the Queen's Own SCEA Rifles and the famed Sikhs of the Jalfrezi Rifles, fresh from triumphs on the NW Frontier in Rhanzlistan. Accompanied by two mountain guns this formidable array of Imperial might should soon put old Bykalaizii in his place!

The peaceful and tranquil abode of King Bykalaizii m'Tuubi and the P'Doki, totally unaware of what the wrath of Robinson of the River is about to unleash on them.

Activation and movement rates are borrowed from Bolt Action. Each side has 12 elements in the game, so 12 dice, with a Red End of Turn dice added for jeopardy. In addition at the start of each turn until every unit is on the table the arrival point of the Natives is determined by a three sided dice, each number corresponding with three tiles on the tabletop battlefield. 

All units in this run through are designated as Regular units as defined by Black Powder Mk2. Most Colonial units are of 6 figures, some native units are up to 12 figures and could be Large in future games? The Jalfrezi Rifles are charges here by a unit of P'Doki warriors. We add Closing Fire casualties into the total when determining the outcome of Hand-to-hand fighting. [Having used Hail Ceasar Clash and Sustained in the first trial of the Frankenrules we used the Black Powder rules' version today.] The P'Doki came off worst in this instance...

The second unit of the Jalfrezi Rifles catches the Pygmies in the open with a devastating volley! Phil suggested rather tongue in cheek that perhaps they should be a Small Target!

The Sikhs bring their mountain gun into action to further inconvenience the Pygmies! They become Shaken with excess casualties and fall back Disordered on failing their Morale roll.

The P'Doki attack is supported not just by the Pygmies but also the famous Lion Guard. The violence of the attack sees the Sikhs Shaken by losses and they must take a Morale test.

Unsurprisingly they fail and Rout. Our House Rule will allow two chances to Rally when their Order Dice is drawn.

While the Jalfrezi Rifles are engaged on his left flank Robinson has thrown three units of irregular Askari forward towards the King's Kraal. The leading element is surprised by P'Doki warriors who burst from cover. Although their Closing Fire is desoltary they are made of steam stuff and beat the Warriors in Hand-to-hand combat.

The Jalfrezi Rifles and their supporting Mountain Gun have blunted the attacks from the P'Doki Warriors and their Pygmy allies. This flank has seen several Turns of heavy fighting with fortunes ebbing and flowing.

While much attention has focused so far on the Left flank of Robinson's forces he has taken advantage of the scattering of Bykalaizii m'Tuubi's main forces by the random entry dice to advance largely unapposed on the King's Kraal. 

More P'Doki Warriors appear on the flank ofvthiscadvance rushing forward to engage our hero and his entourage. They ate greeting by a volley which Disorders them and leaves them Shaken! Oh, its those damned 'dice gods' again...

Morale check duly failed of course! The Warriors flee in Rout ~ remember the two Rally chances though!

Two units of the Queen's Own SCEA Rifles drive off more P'Doki Warriors opening the way to the King's Kraal and possible victory!

Finding the King's Kraal largely undefended, the irregular Askari waste no time in putting the huts to the flame! By now Bykalaizii's army is Broken. The remnants skulk away back into the forests to regroup and heal their wounds. The King's Kraal will be rebuilt and Bykalaizii m'Tuubi will wreak his vengeance on Robinson of the River!

A thoroughly entertaining game for both players. The game threw up one or two ideas which we incorporated as we went along. The red End of Turn dice introduced degrees of jeopardy in early turns, but then seemed to hide at the bottom of the dice bag! Some modifications were trialed to the Firing and the Hand-to-hand stats for Robinson's group and for the Europeans leading the Irregular Askari which we felt reflected rather better their attributes. Certainly handling the Natives after the early interrupted Turns (red dice effect) proved challenging and allowed Phil's more disciplined units to steal a march on Bykalaizii! We will reflect on the game experience over the next couple of weeks and perhaps try another run through.

Keep Right On...

...to the End of the Road, or in this case to the end of the newly acquired figures from Wargames Foundry and North Star Africa for The Heart of Darkness project. With these figures added to the collection there should be enough for occasional games with a variety of scenarios inspired by history and fiction ~

I am quietly confident that baring the occasional woke gamer who might drift here casually most readers will clearly understand this and others in the series are of their time. Today's values and opinions have significantly evolved, for the better in most cases, but Wallace's novels set in Colonial West Africa can provide lots of ideas for scenarios, as can the Tarzan series by Edgar Rice Burrows. Enough of that now though, back to showing the last figures for the project ~

The tribal drummer, drum, witch doctor and heap of skulls from the Congo King set sold by North Star.

I really disliked the witch doctor pose, but I'd bought it so I painted it. Its just a dark blob really! The skulls were much easier!

Probably the most controversial element of the project, carefully labelled by North Star as 'Captives' and without an illustration on the website. They are of course slaves, lets not beat about the bush; no political correctness here abouts and a highly necessary component in games featuring the Arab Slavers faction, or indeed inter-tribal conflicts. Four figures in walking and standing poses and two slave yolks in each pack. I mounted six figures yolked in pairs and two others individually for a bit of variety.

Finally, six more P'Doki Warriors to add to the tribal faction. These are from the Wargames Foundry figures I purchased at 'Ommer'ead back in the early Spring! The Lead Pimple is now devoid of any figures for The Heart of Darkness project I can report, so time to clean up and spray undercoat something else to cleanse and reinvigorate the old mojo...

Added Firepower

While browsing the Wargames Foundry stand at Partizan last month I came across this Askari gun & crew pack featuring a mountain gun and four crew. I must have had this set before at some point, because the crouching figure is already amongst my remaining figures from the original collection based along with some small statuettes. The bugler comes from the Askari Characters pack I also got at Partizan. He will muster into the ranks of the Queen's Own SCEA Rifles in due course.

Phil and I are planning a trial game next Tuesday across the tabletop battlefield here in GHQ. Hopefully he will bring his collection along too, once he's swept the cobwebs off it, to swell the numbers. We'll be using our 'Frankenrules' I first tried out with Paul earlier in the year. They combine Bolt Action Order Dice and Movement rates with Black Powder Firing and Hail Caesar Hand-to-Hand combat. We used the Stamina checks from Black Powder, along with Disorder and Shaken for Morale status. Paul and I thought they worked really well for a first try so I think that I might add in some Special Abilities for the second run through. More on all this I'd hope towards the end of next week after Tuesday's game. 

King Bykalaizii m'Tuubi & entourage

 

I have been beavering away off and on painting various figures for my In the Heart of Darkness project. As I've now completed enough to warrant a post I thought that I would take time to share the latest additions with you. First up naturally is the principle native figure, King Bykalaizii m'Tuubi of the P'Doki. While he figures on a large base with wives/daughters and a witch-doctor I thought we needed a fighting version too. Here he is then, represented by a single figure from the North Star Africa range, Congo Chieftain figure pack ~

As you may recall from a game report posted earlier, he is protected by his close bodyguard unit, the Maiden Guard. I thought there should be a male equivalent and so the Wargames Foundry pack of masked warriors were pressed into service as his Devil Guard, joined by a chieftain figure from North Star's Africa range. The shield pattern matches that of the Maiden Guard to help them stand out on the tabletop battlefield here in GHQ ~

King Bykalaizii m'Tuubi, famed more for his low cunning than martial spirit, is not above seeking an unexpected advantage against any and all enemies. To that end renegade W'Tzoni warriors are recruited as needed for his Lion Guards ~

Strangely, or perhaps not on reflection, these warriors do not seem to enjoy a long career. Perhaps their charge has something to do with that when hunger strikes...?

There remain in the Lead Pimple just a few figures to round off the project, for now at any rate, comprising: six more warriors to swell the P'Doki ranks; a witch-doctor and war drummer for the W'Tzoni faction; and a handful of other figures to serve as objectives or table dressing in future games. Hopefully they will be finished in the coming days, then it will be back to Post-Roman Britain and some armoured infantry Phil has passed to me.