Elf Game Heartbreaker

I'm developing a B/X derived miniatures skirmish game as a hobby project.

Tone setting image by Jakub Rebelka, one of my favourite current illustrators.

A little while ago, my wife told me two things:

• She doesn't realistically think she'll be able to play RPGs until the baby is significantly older. Like in maybe in a year.
• Looking at the roleplaying games we've played in the past - various iterations of D&D basically - she really enjoyed using miniatures.

... and thus, this post about roleplaying games on my miniatures blog. I'm starting (and hopefully continuing) a project to borrow, modify, and/ or develop a whole bunch of OSR B/X based houserules to make my very own Elf Game Heartbreaker narrative tabletop skirmish game.

Wait... what? What does that mean?

It means that I'm taking an old and fairly simple edition of D&D (B/X), modifying it to make a game to suit my particular needs and aesthetic inclinations. This is something lots of people are already doing in what's collectively known as the Old School Revival (OSR) movement in D&D. And now I'm doing it too.

So what am I aiming for?

Another cool Jakub Rebelka image.

So here is my current thinking about my Elf Game Heartbreaker:

• Combat will be resolved on the tabletop, using miniatures and terrain and all that. This has a number of implications:
• I'll be adding and tweaking terrain and combat rules to provide a decent table top skirmish experience.
• The setting is going to be mostly reflective of the miniatures I own and/ or am likely to buy. I'll have time to do some painting between now and then, but it's looking like it will be centred around a bunch of viking and other dark age types (historical or not), a not insignificant number of elves, some orcs and goblins, some beastmen, and various monsters.
• I'll be leaning fairly heavily into the morale rules, followers, and adding some friction. Combined with what I hope are effective incentives for taking captives and holding them for ransim, it will rarely be "combat to the last drop of blood." But you can still get maimed or die in a gruesome fashion.
• I intend to anchor the PCs in the setting and the community, somewhat akin to what you see in the Great Pendragon Campaign and the One Ring.
• This means the ideal pace of adventures are something like "one every year or two," and - similar to Pendragon - adventures can be failed or abandoned and consequences will accrue in the game
• It also means slow healing and lingering wounds.
• The flavour of the game is going to be somewhat Dark Ages and pre-Christian Europe. This means no gun powder, no analogue to the Church and clerics, and no steam-punk mechanical robots, gonzo ray-guns and that sort of thing.
• I expect there to be more cattle raiding and kidnapping than dungeon delving.
• In spite of the name, the game will initially be human-centric.
• If no one except me and my players like it that's cool. If my players don't like it either, maybe I'll try to develop some solo play rules.

... that's what I'm thinking right now. Now I just have follow through. I'm pretty stoked about it, and I have about a year. So it just might happen.

An illustration of the Battle of Brávellir by Christian Højgaard (a Danish book illustrator).
Not completely sure about the historicity of the chariot pulled by the massive horses there.

No rights asserted, claimed, nor implied for any images shown in this post. They will be removed on request by rights holder.

GW has announced that the old world is coming back, with square bases no less. That sounds like Warhammer Fantasy Battle (my first love) to me.

It is several years in the future, apparently, leaving plenty of time of for idle speculation. With that in mind, here is my 100% purely speculative, utterly unfounded prediction: the new game is going to be in 15-18 mm scale!

Why? New models for everyone (sales), less competition from 3rd party manufacturers (except the old Demonworld range), bigger units, unit price will stay the same but more figures will make buyers feel they are getting value, and GW can use their existing digital files to make the minis.

There you have it, I've gone on the record. Let's see what happens.

From the Dark Ages

I painted another handful (12) of spear wielding Gripping Beast plastic dark age warrior types. I figure they can do duty as a fairly wide range of early medieval North West European fyrd or levy type warriors, as well as generic warriors, tribesfolk, and/ or angry local farmers in various fantasy settings.

This time I went for a much more muted palette, attempting to represent warriors of more modest means dressed in humble homespun fabric. Again, these lads were painted mostly using contrast paints.

Charging across a white, featureless plain.

The shield designs are entirely speculative.

Granny and the Boys

I finished a few more viking types, including Granny. I'm in the process of planning my first Dragon Rampant game and Granny is going to feature in it - as are her two friends, most likely.

I picture Granny as being a local force, both due to her tendency towards sorcery (real in fantasy games, less real in historical games) and sheer force of personality. The miniatures themselves are (L to R) Citadel, Citadel (I think), Wargames Foundry.

Vikings Muster

A little while ago I posted some pictures of a batch of vikings that were "in progress". Well, I actually legitimately finished some of them. So here they are.

First up a pair of berserkers who've kept their pants on:

These fellows (Citadel) look to me like they've both just about had it.

I'm pretty happy with how that red and white shield came out.

Next up, a set of three berserkers who in terms of clothing seem to own an eye-patch, two shoes, and a belt between them. I'm not sure if they share...

That line from Dirty Old Town comes to mind: "I'm going make me a big sharp axe, shining steel tempered in the fire, I'll chop you down, like an old dead tree...."

The lesson here seems to be that a belt and a pouch will make your butt seem just a little juicier. These are Wargames Foundry miniatures.

Also, a handful of more regular viking types. They're a bit fancier than the shieldwall types I posted earlier. In the interest of transparency I should disclose that I finished the lass miniature a while ago (in fact you might recognize her from earlier posts), I just redid her shield.

Here they are coming towards the viewer...

... and here they are, moving away. The fellow second from the left is an old Citadel mini, the rest are Wargames Foundry.

And last but not least here's a cute viking couple and their kid. I hope they all stay out of trouble.

Hands on hips lady looks like she is not going to put up with any nonsense...

... that is, if she can locate the nonsense. The man is a Citadel mini and I think the woman is too. If not, she's from Wargames Foundry.

Actually Painted Miniatures: Celtos Gaels

Actually Painted Miniatures are posts where I show miniatures I painted "a while ago".

Here are some Celtos Gaels. The blue is supposed to be woad, but that one guy looks a bit like an angry Smurf.

These six have seen service in many a D&D game as wild tribesfolk, henchmen, and occasionally as individual player characers.

I'm working on a few more Celtos Gaels to keep them company (meaning that I have some unfinished Gaels in the started-but-not-done pile).

Five Leagues From the Borderlands

I just purchased Five Leagues from the Borderlands by Nordic Weasel Games. The cover looks like this:

It's a fantasy skirmish campaign type thingie, designed for solo play. I gave it a quick read today and it looks pretty cool. I'm going to roll up a party and maybe, just maybe, play a game or two. If I do, I will report back here.

We will see.

Four-legged Sharp-toothed Creatures

This morning, the early hours, I saw something disturbing down at the old barn. You know, the one at the edge of the woods. The one only used by vagabonds and crows seeking shelter from the rain.

This morning I saw three wolves, running as if possessed. They did not stop when they saw me. They did not stop by the carcass of the deer I had brought down. Not for a moment. They just kept running. I wondered at that.

Some old school wolves. I think Reaper (?)

I put it out of mind and set about to dress the deer. This would help us through the coming winter. Less than half an hour passed before I saw wherefore the pack had fled. Behind the wolves, following their tracks, was a pack of hideous creatures easily twice the size of a grown man. Multicoloured and behorned, tentacled and slavering, beholden to no mortal taxonomy - they were beasts of chaos. Hounds of some sort, I would call them.

This winter will bring tears, I reckon.

GW Chaos Warhounds, mounted on 25 x 50 mm bases because I recently decided that I'll be sticking to WFB basing for my minis.

The Chaos Hounds were painted mostly using contrast paint. Some of the colours are really good. Some of them are quite poor, in my eyes. And different shades have very different use cases, it seems. Still, a good addition to the toolbox and they do help get projects started for me so that's a definite plus.

Twelve More For the Shield Wall

Here are twelve dark age warrior types. I'll most likely use them as viking javelin hurlers or Saxon fyrd. In any case, their only armour is their shields and their bloody minded determination to return home to their farms and families after the fight. These are not the social elite of their societies, nor are they the cream of the crop of the battle field. They'll have to rely on strength in numbers and the skills of their leaders to prevail in battle.

They'll probably also do some duty as bandits, minions, and retainers in D&D and other rpgs as the opportunity arises.

In any case, here are the lads...

... bravely charging across a muddy field, out of a humble cottage. As an aside, I think the middle fellow has a bit of a Jeremy Corbyn cast to his facial features.

And here they are, bravely charging at the humble cottage, presumably because the enemy is hiding inside.

These were primarily painted using the new Citadel contrast paints. Some of them were pretty good, shaving significant time off with the "paint and shade in one go" capability. However, the results vary greatly between shades, with some being too watery and faint for the alleged colour, and others coming out too solid in my opinion. The paints aren't a one stop solution across the board, but some of them offer useful features depending on the colour and what you're after.

As for the minis themselves, they're the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors in plastic.

For my part, I'm mostly happy to actually finishing a few more minis.

Actually Painted Miniatures: Adventurers Ready For Adventure!

Actually Painted Miniatures are posts where I show miniatures I painted "a while ago".

You probably can't quite see it in this picture, but the Bretonnian damsel (second from the left) got an undershirt courtesy of yours truly. The original model is quite committed to showing cleavage and apparently - at the time I painted her - I thought it was a bit much and applied some green stuff.

The watery looking lady on the left is from Reaper, as is the middle lass in red, and the one with the staff (second from the right). The aforementioned damsel is from GW (and still current, I believe), while the prophetess on the right is a Citadel mini for their Talisman board game, back in the day.

Five magic-uses in one party. Let's hope they're well past the first level.

These are all Citadel minis of varying vintage - some lead, some pewter - except the halfling (second from the left) who's a reaper mini.

Looks to me like three fighters (dwarf, elf, human), two thieves (halfling, elf), a ranger (human), and a magic-user (human).

Four of these lovelies are minis for the original Talisman game - the witch, the druid, the rogue, and the wizard. Last guy is an old GW Elf back when they were a bit more fierce.

I feel like the party balance is less than ideal, but I suppose two magic-users, a druid, a thief, and one fighter could be okay if they pick their adventures with care.

Actually Painted Miniatures: More High Elves

Actually Painted Miniatures are posts where I show miniatures I painted "a while ago".

The cavalry unit was supposed to be High Elf Dragon Princes, back when Warhammer Fantasy was a going concern. They're kitbashed from GW parts - the steeds are the most recent Silver Helm horses, while the riders are Dark Elf Cold One Knights, with the most dark elfy stuff removed.

I did manage to use them in a few games and they did kill some enemies here and there.

The infantry standard bearer is from Wargames Foundry, with the banner pole placed into the hand with the help of a drill and some good will. The cavalry standard bearer is an old lead Dark Elf Cold One rider by GW, from who knows how long ago. I shaved off a crossbow and made a (not very good and thankfully out of view on this photo) cloak out of green stuff.

The images on the banners are lifted from the art of Kay Nielsen.

Two brave banner bearers. One with an unfinished base, but to make up for it her shield is magnetized.

Rangers of Shadow Deep

I just purchased Rangers of Shadow Deep.

It is - based on what I've seen on the internet (and therefore categorically believable) - a solo or co-op miniature skirmish game. From what I've seen on the Facebook group, it seems pretty interesting.

It's by the same Joseph McCullough fellow who's behind Frostgrave, Ghost Archipelago, and the forthcoming Oathmark games.

Here's what the cover of the book looks like:

Very atmospheric, no?

I'm going to read it to see whether it's suitable to introduce to the wife and a few friends. I might even review it.