We are the Law!

Back to science fiction again, and this time with a very British subject; Judge Dredd.  He's been a seminal character of the British comic book scene, and although he is well represented in 28mm, his first appearance in wargaming was in 15mm. Back in the day, Laserburn included some not-Judges in their miniature line. These are still available from 15mm.co.uk and, despite the age of the sculpts, they are rather nice figures. I got some of them a while back, more on a whim than a desire to wargaming the conflicts of MegaCity One. I painted them and found the, to be excellent figures, full of character, so I ordered some more and now I have a pretty complete little force. I will probably get some Judges on motorcycles with my next order plus a few more codes to round out things out.

Here is my force as it stands now. In the foreground are four troops in a riot police load out. Shields (with some weird projection in the front which could be anything from a tear gas nozzle to a static field projector), batons, sidearms and body armour. 

Following them are police officers with grenade launchers. These can be used for anything ranging from teargas, non-lethal rounds for crowd control or plain old grenades or shotgun pellets. Some are dressed as the riot police squad (I think these are the sergeants, but you can use them as plain old riot cops) and some have partially open face shields and no body armour.

The final row includes a cyber mastiff and a figure I use as its handler,  and two more miniatures armed with sidearms. These I plan to use as a force commander and a sergeant.

As I said, these are very good miniatures, especially when you consider their age. They need some cleaning up (the riot police in particular),the detail is not as refined as the newer stuff and they may look a little anaemic and short when compared with newer offerings. However, their detail is great for table top standards, they paint up like a dream, and I never pay too much attention in size discrepancies. At any rate, if you hunker for some 15mm Judge Dredd action, it's all you're gone get. 

That's all from foggy London and the Greeg Geek workbench.

The Yellow Boys

It's funny how we end up starting projects. Last year's visit to the Imperial War Museum cured me of historical wargaming for quite some time. Their WWI exhibit is a sobering experienced and so is the stamp collection on the Falkland's dead. I could not bring myself to paint anything historical after that.

A couple of months back, I picked up a book on the First Afghan War, more on a whim than anything else. It was 3 quid, hardly a sum to break the bank and the conflict did offer some minor interest. The book was "The Return of a King" by William Darlymple and it offered a very exciting glimpse into India and Afghanistan of the 1830s and 1840s. The description of one of the cavalry regiments, Skinner's Horse with its commanding officer Sikander Sahib (James Skinner) was particularly evocative. 

Yellow tunics, red belts and turbans, lances and matchlocks, what's not to like? I spent sometime debating whether I really needed to start collecting miniatures from another time period (seriously?) and after some debate, I spent roughly ten pounds to order three packs of Skinner's Horse from Lancashire Games. These are for the Sikh Wars where the regiment also fought, so they were close enough to what I wanted. 

Needless to say, unpainted they don't look like much, especially the horses. But the detail was there and these are aimed to mass combats, not skirmishes. Whatever faults would be hidden by the mandatory three feet of distance and the unit itself.

Not wanting to spend more time or money than necessary, I did not order an Osprey Book on the Honorable East India Company or the Sikh Wars, I looked around on the web. Lots of images around, including some from a reenactment group. Google them, they are spectacular. This however, from, the Army Museum if I am not mistaken is breathtaking.

These are probably of Skinner's Horse at the time of the Afghanistan invasion. Needless to say, the figures I have did not look like that exactly. However this has never been a problem in the past, nor will it be in the future. After about a week of work, I had my unit.

As you can see, they fall into that much maligned wargaming category; they paint up well. However, they will more than look the part on the gaming table. I am not sure I did justice to the regiment's original colours (the yellow does not look close enough to the one in the paintings but it looks closer to the one the reenactors use). The white trousers are barely visible, but these are one piece castings, and reaching all the details was not easy. I painted the saddle blankets red, yellow and white, having seen all colours used.

I like the end result. Painting Indian skin tones was an interesting exercise. So was manoeuvring my brush to reach all crevices. Will I paint more First Afghan War miniatures? Yes, they are very colourful and the unit histories are fascinating. I ordered some Bengal Horse Artillery (whose uniforms have to be seen to be believed) and some Sepoys. Will I game them? Maybe. I am thinking about getting either Colonial Adventures by Two Hour Games or Larry Brom's The Sword and the Flame. My units will be based so that they can be used with both of these systems.

That's all from the Greek Geek workbench and London.

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.

"And they shall know no fear"

Wow! It's been a year since I have last written here. Long time. Well, life has been interesting. New country (England), new city (London), new girlfriend (this one is sane), new workplace (still drilling teeth though). My addiction to lead and plastic miniatures is still the same, and unfortunately, I am in a country where you can get almost anything you want. Most of my collection is back in Greece, so I had to get some new miniatures.

One of the things I really liked about British wargaming, was Games Workshop. Seriously. Their fluff is excellent, they had some very interesting games (Warhammer Ancients is still an excellent system in my book, and who can forget Man O War and Blood Bowl?). Unfortunately, their prices and incistence to make only 28mm miniatures put them out of my league. But wait, there is always a solution. What if I buy 15mm proxy miniatures? And use rule systems that are better suited to skirmish games, like Flying Lead and Song of Blades and Heroes and In The Emperor's Name? Would that work? Why the heck not?

There are quite a few 15mm proxies for Space Marines out there. Which is surprising, as GW smites with Cease and Desist orders anything that comes close to infringing their copyright. Thankfully, they can't do that to the game that was one of the inspirations for Warhammer 40K; Laserburn. Laserburn is still around and the rules and miniatures can be bought from www.15mm.co.uk.

When it comes to Space Marines, I really like the Ultramarines, because of their blue and white uniform and their plain simple vanilla Space Marine flavour. So I got me a bunch of Imperial troopers and started painting them. This is the first batch: 

 Space Marine in Dreadnought armour. Armed with rocket launcer, storm bolter, flamer and grenade launcher.

 Space Marine in Terminator armor carrying a plasma gun.

 Space Marine in Terminator armor armed with Heavy Bolter.

Space Marine Sergeant with Terminator armor. Armed with Storm Bolter(s)

As you can see, they are not really GW Space Marines. On the other hand, as GW borrowed heavily from the Laserburn fluff, they are not that different either. Khurasan has some that are pretty close to the originals, but I just felt like going old-skool here and I can't say I am disappointed. I also have some of their Imperial Troopers to use as Space Marines in normal power armor and some Disciples of the Redemption to use as Chaos Space Marines. Those last ones are next on the bench, so I guess you'll see what they look like by next weekend.

Until then, keep on painting and gaming! Goodnight from London.

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.