Pastures new...

It's been a little quiet around here lately - too quiet.

There have been reasons though - big boring real life reasons. Well actually they've been quite exciting at times and very boring and frustrating at others.

Yep we've finally moved house from York to the Lake District for some well earned peace and quiet,

 time to get re-acquainted with the family

and generally enjoy the rural idyll.

Well I say we...

Yep - managed to break my left fibula when I had a disagreement with a plastic bag (which I suspect the wife accidentally dropped) whilst carrying several large boxes down the stairs as we were packing things up in our old house in York earlier this week.

The culprit...

However, frustrating as it is, there are certain fringe benefits...

The possibilities of getting some painting done as I spend 12 weeks in plaster has also not escaped me!

Nothing much to show so far, although I have been busy painting some Epic scale Chaos stuff that now needs basing - pics to come.

Which brings me on to some New Year Resolutions.

1. Paint lots of Epic! 

I managed to procure both Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine 1st ed. before Christmas and am planning some big Horus Heresy era games once I've got everything painted up. 

In fact I'm hoping to run an Adeptus Titanicus game at BOYL 2016, providing all the minis needed with interchangeable magnetised weapons so players can make their own force up, as well as a large ruined city board to play on.

I've also managed to amass a large quantity of Space Marines, Rhinos and Landraiders and plan to paint them up as various Loyalist and Traitor Chapters...

2. Stay in touch with my gaming buddies!

One of the down sides of moving out to the sticks is that I've left behind an active and great little gaming group. We've been hooking up for games at various locations up and down the M1 between York and Newark on a semi-monthly basis. I've just got a bit further to go now!

Mind you, having said that, I have just had a great game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd ed., with a bit of Siege thrown in for good measure, via Facebook with Warlord Paul, as part of the Mighty Empires game he's running for us at the moment.

3. Re-establish the Man Cave

One of the pre-requisites I had in mind back when we were house-hunting (as well as being easily defendable from Zombies and well away from any flood plains) was a room I could dedicate to my hobby. Luckily I have just that in the form of a fourth attic room in which we're getting a loft conversion done. I fear I may be living out of boxes for a while longer but I'm sure it'll be worth the wait...

Think that'll do for now  apologies for the meme overload! Hopefully next time I should have some painted miniatures to share...

BOYL 2015: A Journey to the East

So - better late than never eh?!

My excuse - Unfortunately the months after BOYL 2015 saw my spare time  and the amount of energy I had for what spare time was left sorely lacking. Back then we were busy juggling every day life with trying to sell our house in York, buy one in the Lake District and work out how we were going to earn a living.

Anyhow - more of that in another post as I have all sorts of news to share. For now I'm just going to knock this report on the head and give you a brief account of the game so I can clear the decks for 2016.

 I inherited this particular game from fellow Oldhammerer Richard, who decided that just playing a game set in the endless steppes of the Warhammer world wasn't enough - he buggered off to Mongolia to experience it for himself and even get some wargaming in there too!

As I was now in charge I came up with a bit of a back story that fitted in around my Hobgoblin army and as that army was getting pretty big, I decided to make it one big objective for the other players to tackle how they saw fit.

Unfortunately as it's been so long I'm a bit hazy on several of the players names (apologies - if you read this feel free to enlighten me in my ignorance in the comments below!).

The warbands included an Ogre Warlord (sorry - forgot your name!) hot in pursuit of a treacherous former lackey who had upped and left for the East, taking with him the boss's favourite cleaver! They were reinforced by some Steppe Horsemen - kindly provided by Golgfag.

The Trolltooth Wars: Strongarms and Legionaries

As has now become a traditional part in the preparations for BOYL, I was extremely rushed in finishing things off for the big weekend (despite having had a year to get ready!) and not everything was 100% finished in the end! Added to that was the dearth of blog posts charting each unit or army I had finished as I was busy furiously painting.

In my defence I would cite the pressures of my job - the Summer term in particular is horribly busy in terms of SATs tests and all the follow up and analysis, report writing and all the other pleasures of wrapping up another academic year. Added to that was our preparations (lots of sorting out, tidying up and redecorating!) for selling up in York and moving out to the wilds of Cumbria later in the year...

Anyhow, enough prevaricating!

I spent some time searching for suitable minis to represent the Strongarm mercenaries. Somehow a lot of the old Citadel Men-at-Arms and Fighters I already had didn't feel right - too tied in to a particular period or pseudo-historical vibe. The same went for War of the Roses era Perry or Front Rank stuff - too recognisable as something from the real world.

I needed something with a whiff of Allansia - some fantasy style henchmen. Hmm, where would I find an abundance of henchmen who weren't directly inspired by a specific historical period...

So I went on a mission to gather together 36 Advance Heroquest henchmen!

BOYL 2015 - The Trolltooth Wars Have Begun!

 It started with an ambush. When Balthus Dire's bloodlusting Hill Goblins mount their raid on the Strongarm caravan, little do they realise what dramatic consequences their actions will have. For that caravan carries Cunnelwort, a mystical herb from Eastern Allansia, destined for none other than the evil srceror, Zharradan Marr!

War - between two forces well-matched for evil - is soon to ensue...

(Steve Jackson, The Trolltooth Wars. 1989)

Fast forward twenty six years and the dramatic events that unfold in what has to be one of my favourite fantasy novels of all time have finally made it to the table top!

Illustration - Russ Nicholson

Long have I muttered about playing out the action described in The Trolltooth Wars with my good friend Warlord Paul and we finally got the ball rolling in style on the first day of BOYL 2015.

A Face to Launch a Single Ship...

Yikes, BOYL 2015 is nearly here and there's still plenty to do! It didn't help that I pulled an all nighter on Saturday, supporting my Brother who ran the Lakeland 100 - a 105 mile run up, down and through most of the Lake District.

I'm definitely on catch-up now but have had a very productive morning bulking up the Giant's head with milliput.

Lots of milliput!

It Khan be done!

If you put your mind to it...

As BOYL 2015 approaches ever nearer, I look upon my pile of primed (and in some cases - bare lead) miniatures and despair. There is rather a lot to do before the big weekend but all is not lost.

Thank God for the Summer holidays!

As I am now a man of leisure, I have been able to lavish a considerably larger amount of time on painting this past week and these are the results - most of my Hobgoblin army!

First off is a small unit of Hobyars - the elite of the Hobgoblin army, they are made of Nomadic nobles and their retainers.

Broad in the Beam

The ship building rolls ever onwards and my ship nears completion. I'll have a full naming ceremony and backstory when she's ready to launch!