A very small army

This evening is the last chance I'll get before BOYL to do anything other than pack figures, rulebooks and scenery, so what you see in the photos is what I'll be bringing to the defence of Avalone and I couldn't resist sharing. I shall have time to put some thought into a back story like those included for the sample armies from Ravening Hordes so I should be all narratively equipped for some oldhammering.

The force at arms of Baron Gilbert de Corbin is as follows:

The Baron his-self, and his loyal standard bearer

Chico Challenge - Heraldry

I love a multi-use miniature. In fact, I love any kind of multi-purpose thing that I make or have to spend time on, maximum return for expended effort etc. Which is why, when I saw that the theme for this week's Chico Challenge was Heraldry, it seemed daft not to, especially as the preparations I still need to make for BOYL14 are:

1. Drybrush bases and add "grass"
2. Paint three banners

I need a banner for my foot knights, my unit of billmen, and for my nascent force as its army standard (even if "army" is a touch out of scale with the reality!). The army standard seemed the most urgent, and would involve two different heraldic designs, one for the standard bearer and a different one for the banner. The (as yet unnamed) banner bearer has a simple coat of arms (per pale, azure and argent), but he carries the banner of his liege lord, the Duke de Corbin (paly of four, vert and or, a chief sable with three bezants, argent). Check out that spirally striped lance! Everything is freehand (as if it's not blatantly obvious...).

Alright, here are MY top ten

All the cool kids are at it, posting their top ten favourite figures, and I'm a sucker for a sudden trend; it's why I'm into this newfangled Oldhammer lark... Anyway, here are the nostalgia-winning ten that I first thought of for this list and therefore probably deserve their place here.

"We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune"

Fantasy tropes of the 80s (book and film), cod-medievalism and Monty Python's Holy Grail form the backbone of the way this project is developing. And how can there be such a project without some self-opinionated peasants?



Impossible! So here they are:

The Baron himself

Every army needs a commander, even an army as small as mine will be in August, and no-one takes a knight seriously unless he's on a horse. So here's my first horse, with his lordship proudly astride.

This is my boomstick

Got a castle wall that needs knocking down? Horde of enemies you need to whittle down to size? Got a city or narrow valley to secure? Then recruit Alexandre Sauveur, Master Gunner to the Baron Gilbert de Corbin. 

His two sons, Eric and Xavier, are twins but totally different in character. Eric is bright but lazy, Xavier is more than a touch simple but labours day and night. Only Eric is allowed to mock Xavier, though - anyone else is likely to face the combined wrath of the pair of brothers, formidable bar-room brawlers both!

One more little group ready for BOYL. I've already accepted that my modest plans are being scaled back a little, but this lot (apart from a drybrush and some grass on the bases) are ready for action.

Rab

A gigantic giant

Several months back, MarkH (or MeierElfFanatic, depending on which forum you know him through) was having one of his collection refocusing sales and I snapped up some ex-Citadel Foundry handgunners, ten of whom will be seeing action in defence of Thantsant's and Erny's town walls in the BOYL siege in August. Having repeatedly missed out on the Marauder giant on ebay, I also picked up from him a wonderful Larry Elmore giant produced by Darksword miniatures, still sealed in its box... where it remained until today.

Look at that - signed and numbered! Does that make it more valuable/desirable? No idea!

The great cattle raid

All was quiet in the early evening mist of late summer around the village of Frith. Birds were singing lazily, the cattle were lowing gently as they ambled back towards the safety of their barn, and even the metronomic thock-thock-thock of Jerome the woodcutter's axe had lapsed into an irregular beat before stopping. In fact there he was, running from the woods, straight to the Seigneur's house and barging in through the door. A pause..... then shouting, lots of shouting, and the tolling of the bell.

The monsters had returned, and they were hungry....

As a break from the normal order of things, mini-Rab #1 (CJ) and #2 (EM) took on the role of the "baddies" today, using the models from my Tzeentch warband to raid Frith for cattle. I had to hastily assemble a force of peasants, and hopefully a hunter or two or even a questing knight would be attracted by the  and come to their aid. Without their cattle the winter ahead would be a hungry one!

We used Song of Blades and Heroes, without any consideration of balanced forces (except roughly in my head). To take control of a cow, a model had to move adjacent to it and use a success to grab it, with any extra successes to move the mobile burgers along. An uncontrolled cow would, at the start of the villagers' turn, move directly away from the nearest model on an even number or remain stock still on an odd number.

Would right prevail, or would the spawny dice of my children leave the village a smoking, desolate and cow-free ruin? Place your bets now!

It begins - EM charges in headlong to snatch a cow before the villagers can react

Stuff from the interwebz #3 - Trees from the green man

First off, for those following the ongoing saga in glorious, high-definition bloggovision, the consensus is to stick with the etched dice, even if it means the BOYL dice arrive after BOYL. The best of a less-than-satisfactory set of options, I feel.

With that out of the way, here's the post I want to share with you. El Senyor Verde of blogging and G+ and doubtless other online outlets has posted a rather snazzy way of producing good-looking trees for wargaming with. Now, I have buildings, a modular river, and even a hill or two but I am seriously lacking in arboricultural terrain around which and through which all manner of derring-do and dastardly villainy can take place in my own pretendy-fun-time elf-games. What I particularly like about this method is that it fits an aesthetic that appeals to me, one which drew me into the slightly over-enthusiastically goat-themed arms of the Oldhammer sphere. Something that looks top notch, but also one which I can imagine being able to achieve. Even more important to me is my hope that my proto-gamer progeny could play an active part in constructing them! Childcare and geeking in one easy package - result!

Here's a picture of the trees:

Houston, we may have a problem

A problem with our dice. The BOYL dice (goats and so on) that are on order have hit a snag in that the laser engraving machine they were due to be engraved on has, well, blown up. Or broken. Something that can't be fixed by turning it off and on again. The replacement machine, even with us bumped to the head of the queue wouldn't be able to churn them out for us until mid/late August. Too late! They can print the image rather than engrave it, and at a few pennies per dice cheaper, but that may not be what the fine folks who placed an order will want.

If you are a dice orderer for the BOYL 2014 dice, please go to this thread on the Oldhammer forum to let me know how I should sort this out.

Thanks and sorry!

Rab