Woodland Indians

 The recent games of Rebels and Patriots got me excited about French and Indian wars again. Chum Matt was also having a bit of a clear out and very generously gifted me a few First Nations warriors to add to the small group I painted about seen years ago.

I'm not sure which range they're from, I don't *think* they're Crusader but I could be wrong. Anyway they're a good match for the previous batch.

Forest Goblin Spider Riders

These are from the old Battle for Skull Pass starter set, so they'e been in the plastic pile for 17 or so years now...

These go well with the other unit I painted just the thirteen or so years ago...

Still more for Glorantha

Another pair of kitbashed adventurers for Glorantha

Made with bodies from the Wargames Atlantic Irish frame with heads and shields and weapons from the bits box.

A crafty Sherman

General Ballroom and I are planning to play 29 Let's Go! the Chain of Command Pint Sized campaign.

Most of the time the Americans will have at least one, probably two and sometimes even three Sherman tanks. So I dug this one out of the stash and did a quick bish bash bosh paint job

As Stephen said "it's quite quick and easy to get an OK paint job on a tank. It's bloody hard work to get a really good one" I am very satisfied with "OK"

A resin 1/48 kit from Blitzkrieg which is a good match for the Hobby Boss kit I put together some years ago

Warmaster Knights of the Blazing Sun

Whilst delving into the depths of the lead...errr...lake I found some Empire Knights that weren't like the other Empire knights. On closer inspection I realised they were the rare Knights of the Blazing Sun released by the Fanatic team. In fact, as they were blacked up with Tamiya smoke for photography I'm pretty sure they were literally the models that appeared in the pages of Warmaster Magazine at the time of release. The chaps in Fanatic knew I liked Warmaster so occasionally gifted me stuff they didn't need.

Anyway after a bath in Dettol to remove the Tamiya paint and then consulting the Empire uniform guide book I painted them up in gold armour with shiny blackened horse armour.

Lovely little models. I want to paint more Empire Knights now.

More Glorantha models

Some more kitbashed Glorantha Orlanthi

Really need to do some Lunars now for them to fight

Warmaster Revolution: Empire v. Beastmen

Back in May at Wormaster I played an excellent game against lovely chap Neil and his very nice Chaos Dwarf army.  You can read the report here.

Over the course of the game we discovered Neil lived near to some of the places I sometimes visit with work and so I suggested if I was ever in the area I'd see if he was available for a game. Last week the stars aligned and I spend a very hot day to the south of Birmingham and once work was out of the way travelled a short distance to Neil's house for a game of Warmaster.

Neil offered me a choice of armies to play and I told him I'd never faced Beastmen, so that's what he chose. I decided my Empire were due a spin out.

I was using a new camera to me and it didn't entirely play ball - mostly by only having a very narrow depth of field which means some of the following pictures aren't great - user error I'm sure.

The Empire artillery assemble.

The whole field of battle

My right flank was full of knights. Opposite fields. Something of an error.

I was planning to use the hill and tower to anchor my left flank.

Loadsabeasts.

Two units of these big lads. I was quite scared.

The game started badly for the Empire with the entire left flank stalling.

Though the general did manage to get the woods secured.

Interesting exercise in focus and depth f field coming up...

Beastmen crest the hill in the distance.

The artillery stand ready.

My metal models kept sliding down the hills.

The cavalry occupied the wheat field.

On turn two I unleashed a charge against the chariots - and threw in the character.

The other cavalry watched things unfold...

I'd managed to get the heavy metal models up onto the level surface.

The knights bounced of the chariots - I'd blunted them, but left myself in a mess.

The cannon confused and drove back some of the beasts.

The Dragon Ogres took advantage of my rashness.

Nom, nom, nom, tasty knights.

One survived and lined up the remaining chariot.

There was something of a face off on the left - weird enchantment had stymied the Minotaurs.

Then some ambushers appeared. Exactly like Andy's ones hadn't in the game last week.

At this stage my right appeared to be being eaten by Dragon Ogres while my left was about to be overrun.

The DO's tried the second unit of Knights.

As the Gors crashed into the Thin Blue line.

And the Minos raced up the hill.

The Dragon Ogre attack was rebuffed and one unit destroyed - but another remained and I was still worried.

Over on the left the missile troops did rather more damage than I expected. Before dying.

The Mino's found uphill fighting tough going.

Desperately I ordered the cannon around.

The dealt with the flankers, but surely the Minos would plough through the handguns and onto the vulnerable artillery?

In the centre both sides threw forward their reserves.

Against all the odds the handgunners held on.

The fight on the hill ended in a drawer. In other action not captured on film the remaining knights with the assistance of the pistoliers destroyed the second unit of Dragon Ogres. The Beastemen were a single unit away from breaking and with the last stand of Minotaurs the closest target to the Empire artillery we deiced to call it there for a narrow and unexpected Empire victory.

A really good game - I'd forgotten how resilient the Empire army is - it's quite a grind though to win with them - they lack a bit of punch!

Neil was a splendid host and it wa great to encounter Beastmen for the first time.

Already looking forward to another visit down to that part of the world