Deadcember the 23rd

I had this strange idea that I'd have more time when I started my Christmas holiday to get on and finish my skeletal painting for Deadcember. Ha! How naive I was... Nevertheless, I've finished painting the rank and file figures and am bulk painting the shields. The command figures are a little behind.

That's not the reason for this post, though, my self-selected Christmas present is:

I nearly bought Lion Rampant any number of times but held off when I heard this fantasy version was coming out. A quick flick through (before handing it over to an older relative to wrap) has me pretty excited about this. I think it will be a good, solid, large-skirmish game which will be simple enough for my two proto-gamers to enjoy, but subtle enough for my usual (I won't claim regular, we all have too many other commitments) gaming partners. In particular I think it will fill that niche between the Inquisimunda/Mordheim/RoC sized game, where every figure is basically a character, and >2000pts battles. Apparently its historical predecessor, Lion Rampant, worked well as a multi-player game, and scaled up to larger conflicts as well. But that's getting ahead of myself.

Sticking with the Deadcember theme, I quickly put together a 24pt list of dead things for Dragon Rampant to guide my continuing painting. Entries in purple are already painted, or near as dammit.

The Barrows Men

• Necromancer [Heavy Missiles] - Spellcaster, Single Model Unit, Leader @8pts
• Skeleton spearmen [Light Foot] - Undead (No feelings) @3pts
• Skeleton spearmen [Light Foot] - Undead (No feelings) @3pts
• Skeletal Ogres [Heavy Foot] - Undead (No feelings), Fear, Reduced Model Unit (2) @6pts
• Barrow Guardians [Scouts] - Undead (No feelings), Fear @4pts

That gives me two missile units (the Necromancer and the Barrow Guardians), two line units, and some heavies. Seems balanced to a not-yet-played-the-game fellow like me! I shall use a mix of Black Tree Design spectres...

Catalogue image

... and classic Citadel Wights, like the fellow below...

Image stolen from ebay

as my Barrow Guardians.

That gives me a warband of thirty-three figures, twenty-five of which are done or nearly done. Cool, huh?

As I'm unlikely to post again before New Year (when I'll inflict the compulsory "review of the year" post on you), I hope you have a joyful Christmas,

Rab