Meanwhile, back in Bridgeton

 When last we left our friendly denizens of Outlandisha, Count William had just seen off the Earl's attempt to retake the village of Bridgeton.  3 weeks have passed (time moves strangely in Outlandisha) and the troops grow restless.  To refresh your memory visit No Cheese for You

 

Count William surveyed the construction work as a mix of low walls, gabions, and earthworks were being constructed on the East and South sides of Bridgeton.  Turning to his trusted lackey Curt he said “In another two days the wall should be far enough along to allow a small garrison to hold the Village.  I want scouts sent out tomorrow to sweep the East and South for any signs of the Earl’s forces – although I imagine they are still running as fast as they can.  Assuming the Scouts report no contacts, we’ll take the bulk of the army and move south in 3 days.  I hear the Village of Muscato has a nice Vineyard and Winery and would provide a nice increase in our tax revenue.  Some of the Earl’s Wine would go quite well with all of this cheese as well.  With any luck the Earl hasn’t had time to rally his forces.”  With that Curt  bobbed his head up and down repeatedly saying, “Yes Billy… I mean yes Count, as you command.  I live to serve.”  

 

At the Drunken Dragon Tavern, newly promoted Grand Captain Cuss-a-lot was regaling the wenches with tales of his daring exploits that broke the back of the Earl’s attack.  “With all the heavy armor and barding we recovered from the remains of the Earl’s heavy cavalry, I could almost raise a new unit… once we pound all of the dents out of it”, he chuckled out loud.

 

Meanwhile, back at Earlstown…   a surprisingly sober Earl was overseeing the frantic training of his recent recruits.  He had ordered the garrisons striped in Southtown and Swillville, and had even parted with enough gold to hire a couple of bargin priced units of Northern Barbarian mercenaries (fear for your life will make even the biggest skinflint part with gold).  He turned to face his staff, his blood shot eye glowing like some demon out of legend and bellowed “I want the Cavalry North of the intersection of Muscato and Bridgeton road by tomorrow noon.  We need to be in position to block any advance on Earlstown.  I know how the twisted mind of that old fraud Billy works, and I’m sure he’s coming to Earlstown to kill me and raze the town.”

 

And thus the pieces are set in motion for a meeting engagement.

 

*******

 

I’ve also managed to complete a rough map, I'll eventually finish one that looks a little less childish, but hey, when you use crayons for color, what do you expect.  At the start of the adventure everything North of the River belonged to Count William and everything South to The Earl D’Greer.  The Count’s villages/towns are in Red including Bridgeton which appears to be firmly in his hands at least for this campaign season.  The Earls’ holdings are in purple.  

 

 

Now I just need to paint up some more figures.   Hmmm… maybe dig out a unit or two of Pict spearmen to serve as mercenaries, they haven’t’ been on the table in a long time.   

 

So much lead, so little time

Romans

 The second army I started after getting back into the hobby was Imperial Romans.  My Pict forces that I started way back when in College needed somebody to fight, after all, and Romans are the logical opponent.  Unfortunately, I was apparently still under the impression in the early 2000’s that you needed to paint eyes.  Fortunately somewhere along the way I figured it out and stoped that foolishness.

 

These figures are a mix of Old Glory, Black Tree Design and one other manufacturer who’s name I can’t recall.  There may also be one or two old 1980’s RalPartha figure mixed in as well.  For some reason in my cloudy memory I thought I had more troops than this.  Oh well, that’s the purpose of this exercise to get them all out and see what’s there.  I know I saw more Black Tree Design Roman’s in the lead pile, maybe they need to get a little attention next?

The morning light through the game room windows seems to cause some issues with the photos.  Live and learn I guess.

First up, the obligatory unit of Javelin skirmishers.

Unfortunately I don't recall who the manufacturer is

And a unit of Archers.  These are Black Tree Design.

And of course, Cavalry.  Unfortunately I have no idea who the manufacturer is, I picked these up at my first Historicon from one of the vendors.

And a couple of units of old school artillery.

I think these are from the 1980's.  Probably Ral-Partha??  

Onager and crew from Black Tree Designs.

And next the Infantry

3 units of Auxiliaries.  I think these are Old Glory, with a few command figures from the 1980's thrown in to round them out.  I thought I had 5 or 6 units of these... so much for my memory.  I guess that just means I need to paint more.

And a Testudo, again Black Tree Design figures.  Impractical for games?  Maybe, but I just like the way it looks.

Old Glory Legionaries with a couple of command figures from the 1980's.

More Old Glory Legionaries

And some Black Tree Design Legionaries.  The lighting really doesn't do them justice.

More Black Tree Design

That's a pretty paltry selection actually.  I really thought I had more than that.  The photo's also really make me think I need to go back over these and hit them with a wash as well.  My painting style (if you can call it a style) has changed a little in the last 20 years.

Up next, some Outlandish Tales if all goes according to plan.

So much lead, so little time.

More French

 Just a quick post.  I managed to knock out another unit of French in great coats over the weekend.  I still have one more great coat unit primed and sitting on the painting table, but I think it may have to wait.  I need to get back to painting units for the next battle in the Outlandishian Chroniceles (thanks again Joe).

I'm not sure what was up with the Camera but these aren't the greatest photos I've ever taken.  

They look better in the lead, honest.  And now I see I have some issues with the magic wash pooling on the bottom of the coats.  Sigh.

Until next time

So much lead, so little time.

40K Imperial Guard

 I realized the other day that I’m not entirely sure exactly what I have for various troops/armies laying around in various boxes, piles, and bags I thought the best way to sort them out would be to do a quick post with some photos and rambling comments.  Turns out in this case I had a lot more Infantry than I thought I did.

I decided to start with my long dormant GW Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard troops.  This was the first army I did when I ‘got back into’ wargaming sometime around 2000.  When I left the active duty Army in 1988 I figured my war gaming days were through.  Fortunately, at one of my Son’s Scout meetings they did a little something with war gaming figures (as I recall, the first exposure I had to formal rules with toy soldiers was through the Scout magazine, Boy’s Life I think it was called at the time).  Unfortunately, that launched him, and my credit card, onto the money draining path of Games Workshop in the late 1990’s.  On a positive, it was through the GW White Dwarf magazine that I saw an advertisement for a HMGS convention, (I think it was a joint convention in MD, but I don’t recall exactly - it didn't work out with my schedule) and the rest, is history.

 

In any event I have fond memories of helping him assemble and paint his Space Marines, and then his Lord of the Rings Orcs, and Drwaves.  Somewhere along the way I was seduced and end up buying a few Imperial Guard troops, and then a few more.  And then he gave me a Sentinel for Christmas.  And from there it snow balled.  But all good memories of quality time with my Son.  In fact the last time we talked part of the discussion was around his Tau forces.

 

As I said, I had just gotten back into the hobby when I painted these, so their a little rough, and for some strange reason I thought you should paint eyes… maybe because they were so much bigger than the 15mm Napoleonics I had last played with?  Honestly, WTH was I thinking trying to paint on eyes.  

 

Unless noted, all of the Infantry figures are the ‘old’ GW Cadian lead figures.  When they went to plastics, and changed the rules for the umptenth  time, I called it quits.  Maybe someday I'll find a new SciFi rule set and these will get out on the table again.

 

 First up, the crew served weapons.

A couple of Lascannons

Heavy Bolters

Mortars

Missile Launchers

And some Vehicles

Sentinels

Chimera APC

Basilisk Artillery

Leman Russ Tank

Elite Troops

Storm Troopers

Heavy Weapons

Plasma Guns

Melta Gun (I think)

Grenade Launchers

Infantry

Commanders/Leaders

Beauty first

with those crazy eyes you can be excused for looking at her chest or that sliver of leg she's showing instead of looking at her face

It can't be 40K without a chain sword

And the mandatory power fist

Radiomen

Odds and ends

Plastic missile launcher

Flamer armed Infantry, a couple of leaders, and another grenade launcher, all lead.  I found these after the photo shoot was done

More plastics 

That's it for the Sci-Fi Troops

Up next, Romans.

I had started this post in the 3^rd Quarter of 2020 and was finishing up the photos, when I received a phone call that no Parent should ever have to receive and I sincerely hope no one reading this ever does.  Given the memories that I associate with these figures I just couldn’t force myself to finish it at the time.  I’m now far enough along the healing process that the memories are welcome.  

 

1988 – 2020

 

You will always be my little boy

 

 

So much lead, so little time.

 

 

More unboxing

As I continue to work my way through some of the boxes I’ve been dragging around for decades, I find the occasion gem.  While the below rules are no where near a gem, what is a gem is what I found inside them.   Tucked away on some 5 x 7 index cards, were the ramblings of a college student outlining his plan for a modern day (at least at the time) ImagiNation, set somewhere on the West Coast of Africa.  

 

I had completely forgotten about ever doing this, but reading the notes brought a smile to my face.  I may just dust this off and take a ‘formal’ go at it.  Will see.  But as a teaser below are the nation names), and we have:  Wilhelmsland (the good pro West guys),  Gardenstan (pro East guys), and Rubbishlandia (evil Soviet lackey).

 

And speaking of Rubbish, as I recall, that’s what the below rules were.  But they served as a good protective cover for the early 1980’s ramblings of my first ImagiNation exercise.  Maybe it will finally come to fruition 40 years later… maybe.

 

So much lead, so little time.

Good Riddance 2020

 And don’t the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

 

I can honestly say this has been the worst year of my life.  More on that once I finish processing all of it.

Fortunately, the Czarina being the wonderful person she is, decided we both needed a break.  So this year we took a little different vacation for her birthday.

 

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone from Antigua and Barbuda!  I hope Santa brought you all the lead goodies you asked for.

 

 

And a Happy New year from Maine.  Somehow the pool doesn't look nearly as nice here as it did there.  And the 50+ degree difference in temperature is going to take a bit to readjust to.

The irregularly scheduled posting will resume at some point.

 

So much lead, so little time.