Lockdown purchases

Always the way, you wait ages for a lockdown order of toy soldiers to arrive then three arrive at the same time!

To be fair I wasn't waiting *ages* for any of these - especially considering the state of the real world at the moment. But I did order them a bit spaced out, so for them all to arrive within a week of one another (two on the same day) caused the current Mrs Tom's Toy Soldiers to raise her eyebrows more than somewhat.

First to arrive from Pendraken is an 8th Army starter set. 

I've long had a hankering to do large scale WW2 desert warfare and finishing off my DAK for Chain of Command persuaded me the time was right to actually order an army and crack on.

I'm intending to use Blitzkreig Commander - I played one game of the second edition may years ago and am familiar with the Warmaster rules on which it's loosely based - but I'm going to get the forces painted before I get the rulebook.

Next up a selection of Greek Gods from SHQ.

I've already got a few of these for Of Gods and Mortals and I like 'em, they're chunky and "fantasy" style.

The chap behind SHQ is retiring for health reasons, so I thought I'd better grab some before that happened. Just as well that I did as they don't appear in the new SHQ website. 

I got the pack containing Hades as I have plenty of dead things for OGAM and one with Hephastos and others, just because.

Finally, a big box from Northstar.

I was waiting for the Wargames Atlantic Afghans to come in to stock as they look ideal for my NWF TMWWBK games. 

Then I saw the Fauns plastic set and decided to add some of those to the order.

And then I thought I might as well get some Artizan Sikh lancers for the Afghans to fight.

And while I was at it a few more Crusader blisters for my Early War British - a Vickers and enough men to finish another squad.

I also got some Renedra plastic bases for the Pendraken WW2 project.

So, quite a haul in the end.

In my defence I'd ordinarily have been going to Partizan this weekend, so a big load of unpainted metal and plastic was always likely to arrive in my shed at around this time.

And speaking of Partizan. Tomorrow is Partizan in The Cloud, an online version of the show. James has written a guest blog about the game he was planning to take and that will appear on this blog at 10 am tomorrow morning.

In addition James is hoping to go "live" on Facebook at 1pm tomorrow to talk about the game, models, rules and scenario.

Sellswords and Spellslingers - Wolf Hunt

I decided to try a little mini scenario of my own devising for Sellswords and Spellslingers.

In this case the party would flee down a valley pursued by a pack of howling wolves.

Someone on the Song of Blades and Heroes Facebook page had already devised cards for wolves and  big boss wold so I used those.

The party simply has to exit the far end of the board without ending up as wolf meat.

The valley of death!

Very quickly the first pack of wolves attack Dilberry

But, in an unlikely display of martial prowess he sees them off.

Zank Frappa deploys fireballs to deal with a new set of minions 

But still they come and Wensleydale finds himself the object of lupine attention

Dwarf to the rescue!

Wensleydale wisely makes himself scarce

Leaving the dwarf to deal with things

Then Dilberry gets the pack treatment

Just as escape seems likely Frappa falls into a bear trap.

The wolf pack begins to close in.

But with a might heave the wizard limps off, leaving the elf to taunt the pursuing pack.

A fun little diversion.

I think the wolves started a bit far away (the leader wolf never saw combat) but as the reinforcements began to recycle and pour on it got a bit nervy for a while...

I think I'll make some tweaks and run it again a coupe of times.

Sellswords and Spellslingers - Defend the Village

I decide on another game of Sellswords and Spellslingers. Looking through the scenarios defend the village seemed like another good low level scenario to play.
As written the scenario calls for you to draw a random monster to attack the village, however I decided that I'd continue the narrative from the previous game and have the Minotaur they fled from (with the healer) as the evil protagonist.

The peaceful village of Runny Bottom.

Suddenly the silence is shattered by some pretty loud mooing! (the random roll for the monster stuck him right next to the wizard! Stealthy, these Minotaurs)

Zank Frappa immediately backed off and hurled fire. To no real effect.

Suddenly a door swung open and a goblin leaped at Wensleydale. Fortunately the halfling chopped him down without too much effort.

Dilberry peppered the partially bovine brute to not much effect.

Frappa did manage to roast some beef, but then he said the words wrong and forgot ho to do spells any more.

Wensleydale went bravely a long way round from the Minotaur to rescue the grumpy little girl.

However Dilberry dropped his arrows, which made the Minotaur finally get moving - toward the nearby halfling.

Meanwhile Frappa had caught sight of something shiny amid the beer barrels.

Just in time the Dwarf came to the halfling's aid

The sound of battle attracted some goblins (and scared the girl off)

And then my camera ran out of power...

However the dwarf had cut down the rampaging Minotaur (Frappa and the elf both claimed to have weakened it first) and despite a sneaky ambush on Wensleydale the party were able to chase off the goblins and secure the village.
Hurrah!

A fun but quite quick game. the cards were kind and the Minotaur largely stood still and took a load of fireballs in the face.

The scenario doesn't detail which minions or wandering monsters you should use. i went with the goblins the party had fought in previous games, though I suppose bandits would have served the same purpose.

Starting to think I might need to write some adventures of my own...

Perry plastic British Rifles

I think I may have shown these before, but anyway they needed their bases finishing and a couple of touch ups

Some metal command are under way.

Perry Plastic Voltigeurs

From the Perry French plastic Napoleonic infantry set, some skirmishing light troops

I appear to have taken more  pictures than necessary.

It's a pity there's only really two poses of these, might have to attempt some minor conversions with the next lot.

BEF for Chain of Command (4)

I finished the starter set I bought from Northstar
This gives me the infantry I need for a basic platoon plus a few spares.

 Junior Leader 

Senior Leader

Really enjoyed painting these, lovely models.

Now need to do the support weapons.