Lizardmen!

Another cloudy summer morning here in London. Apparently the definition of summer is different in the British Isles.

I finally put the last touches yesterday on the Splintered Light 20mm Lizardmen set (despite the 20mm label, they work just fine with other 15mm miniatures). It's been sitting on the lead pile for a few years now, and I decided to finally paint it, as a warband for Song of Blades and Heroes. Point-wise and figure-wise, it's closer to two or three warbands, so it's excellent value in that respect. For $25 you get 21 figures; all of them excellent castings, with good detail and minimal clean-up required. While being in the lead pile, a couple of small bits and pieces broke and I had to pin and glue them in place. Nothing difficult and the repairs are not visible.

So what do you get in the lizardman set? First of all, a command set with a Leader (or Champion if you prefer), a stanadard bearer, a musician (who can very well substitute as a Leader) and a Shaman. All are have stats in the main SOBH book, so there is no need to use the Warband Calculator in the Ganesha Games site. You get two lizards that look like komodo dragons and are quite hefty. There are 8 warriors armed with stone swords (flint or obsidian, your choice) and turtle or tortoise-shell shields. Ranged combat capability is supplied in the form of  3 figures armed with longbows and 4 armed with shortbows. These are the only ones not outlined in the rulebook. I decided to call the shortbow-armed lizardmen "scouts" and give them Q3+, C2, Amphibious, Tailslap, Shooter (Medium) and Stealth for 46 points. The ones armed with logbows will be straight shooters with Q3+, C3, Amphbious, Tailslap and Shooter (long) for 56 points. Total points for all 21 figures (using the profiles in the book and those listed above) is 1114 points, quite sufficient for 3 300-point warbands. I consider roughly $8 per warband a pretty good investment.

 I decided to go for an old-school scheme. In my view, these look very much like swamp- or lake-dwelling lizardmen, so I went for greens and yellows. Painting was done with the Army Painter colours and inks. Basing them was also simple and old-school; brown base with green flock. And with that, on to the actual miniatures. The pictures are not perfect as I am used to using more natural light; good luck with that in the UK.

 Command 

 Lizards

 Shaman

 Scouts

Long Bows

Lizardman Warriors

All in all, pleasant figures to work with, another project completed. At some point I will order the mounted lizardmen from the same series, just for completeness' sake. Splintered Light is one of the best miniature manufacturers in 15mm and well worth their money.

The family is back from our yearly vacation in the lovely island of Sifnos and as work has not started yet for the neither SWMBO or myself I still have some free time left.Here's some pics of my orc and goblin warband for the Song of Blades and Heroes system. I think I'll be using the stats straight from the books for most of the minis but I still haven't settled down as to what I'll do with the warg.

All the miniatures come from Splintered Light. If you haven't looked them up, please do. They have some of the best 15mm fantasy miniatures available and they are very pleasant to deal with. There are several packs in the orc and goblin range, but I started off with the basic stuff (command, warriors, goblin scouts, warg and troll).Here is the command element. The Orc chieftain is an exquisite fig with plenty of available detail. So is the standard bearer. The shaman gave me a bit of trouble because I think I sprayed the primer on too thick. Still I think it came out OK. My only problem is the lack of a musician, but that's not a great problem. I think that a musician is available in the savage orc command pack.
The orc warriors and goblin scouts are pretty straightforward figs but they are exceptionally sculpted, with plenty of available detail. A pack of heavy orc infantry and another of orc archers have become available recently and they'll be in my shopping list for my next order (probably around Xmas).
Here is the best figure of the whole range in my honest opinion; the warg. Now, this is what a warg should look like. Big, bad and bone-chillingly frightening. If you are into 15mm fantasy BUY THIS MINI! I cannot recommend it enough. The amount of detail is amazing and the size is spot on for what is supposed to be a giant wolf that eats people with a single bite.

And here is the troll. There are two trolls available in the line and I'll be getting the other one at some time too. I'm not sure that this is close to my idea of a troll, but it is pleasantly big and mean-looking.

Eventually I'll add more options to my available figs for the orc and goblin warband. Savage orcs, goblins, orc slave master, savage hyena cavalry and so on and so forth. The options are practically endless.

That's all for now from windy Athens. Have a great night y'all.

My Lionman Warband

I really like the Song of Blades and Heroes game system. I've started off with the basic rule book and expanded with most of the supplements available. If you are into fantasy skirmish wargaming I highly recommend it. If you are into other periods, they offer a Napoleonics and a Modern version as well. I've gotten both (it's hard to resist at the prices Andrea is charging) but I haven't had a chance to playtest them yet.

Initially I tried to game with 20mm figures. Unfortunately the amount of figures available for 20mm fantasy wargaming is rather low. Lots of humans are available, but the amount of non-human races and monsters available is anywhere between low and pathetic. So I decided to try 15mm-scale figs. After window-shopping and asking around at The Miniatures Page, I settled down to ordering some figs from Splintered Light Miniatures. They offer some skirmish packs, I guess for Song of Blades and Heroes (although you can stat any miniature, SoBH has some lists in every book). I ordered some singles from the excellent Archer Collection, a big troll and the Leonine Blood Pride Warband. Ten figs of Lion men including a Lion Hero and a Lion Centaur Hero, 2 Lion Warriors, 2 Lion Centaurs and 2 Smilodon Warriors. The figures arrived in little time and needless to say I was highly impressed with what I saw. Crisp sculpting and excellent casting with very little flash. In no time they were primed and painting commenced.

Now, when I was thinking of a scale other than 20mm for fantasy wargaming, folks were dead-set against 15mm for skirmish wargaming and RPG use. The figures are too small, they are difficult to distinguish on the table and so on and so forth. Apparently, these aren't. I went for simple bold colours and simple patterns, a wash and highlighting. The results are great for a pack that costs less than many 28mm single figs.

Here are my Lion Centaurs

Here is my my Lion Hero with one of the Centaurs

All in all, great figs for a very very good price. The pack gives you close to 500 points, quite a bit considering the average SoBH is 300 points. The figures are all good solid melee fighters, with high mobility (in the Centaurs) and hard-hitting power (the Smilodons). Ranged firepower is missing, but I'm thinking of getting the Leonine Dark Pride Warband as well. This will provide me with some adversaries for my Leonines (in the form of the "evil", at least in my mind, panthers) and some lions for harassment.

I'll try them out against my dwarven warband when I get the chance (and the gaming table cleaned up). That's all for now from unseasonably warm Athens.