Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar - El Cid

A few extra shots I took of my El Cid model this morning.

Again, as mentioned in my previous post today, this sculpt is the Bee's knees. Can't wait to storm the tabletop and roll horribly with this guy leading the charge..

Pretty sure Im done painting and sporadically posting for the year so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Cheers to all who've stopped by to check things out this year and all the best for 2017.

Saga Spanish Update #3 - 4 Points Complete!

Done! 4 Points Spanish Warband ready for SAGA: Crescent and Cross

I've hit my amended target to get these guys ready for the tabletop before Christmas. As a little bonus I added in the amazing El Cid figure from Gripping Beast. Its an amazing sculpt by Angel Terol, and is easily one of the best historical miniatures I've had the pleasure of throwing paint at.

The Warband consists of;

Warlord 

8 Caballeros

8 Mounted Jinetes

12 Levies w/ bow.

So here we are, the full 4 points following the mighty Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar into battle!

El Cid.

Jinetes

Keen as a bean to get some games in with these guys while I'm on holidays.

Cheers.

Saga Spanish Project Update #2

Here we are! Back with another update on my Spanish Saga Warband project. Well, things didnt exactly go to plan. I was hoping to smash out atleast a unit every week or so but as usual, life does life and wargaming went to the back of the line. Anyway, I'm on holidays now and have managed to finish off 8 Mounted Caballeros (hearthguard). I had started these sometime in November so they didnt take too much more to get over the line.

 As usual with Gripping Beast, nice clean sculpts make for easy work.

I've now just got 8 Mounted Jinetes (warriors) and the Warlord to go. I've already started the horses so will hopefully have the whole 4 points tabletop ready by Christmas!

SAGA Pagan Priest!

My Spanish project went on hold yesterday as I really wanted to get this awesome model finished up in time for my games this weekend.  The figure is sculpted by Bob Naismith and is one helluva model! 

I really dig this figure. It's full of character and I've been looking forward to getting it tabletop ready since I purchased it a few weeks ago from War and Peace Games. A sweet addition to my Dark Age collection! Cheers.

Saga Spanish Project Update #1.

So after winning a 4pt Spanish starter set at the QNK's premier event's Saga tournament I thought i might as well pull my finger out and throw some paint at 'em!  I'll try and get the whole 4 points complete over the next few weeks. This is no easy task at my place with full time work, spending time with Wifey, and full time Dad duty to 4 kids (quite happily) taking up the bulk of my time. Nontheless I'm determined to get this little project done in a timely manner. 

I've got a couple of tournaments coming up in the next few months so this will give me another Warband to add to my repertoire. Though i'll probably have to grab a couple more figures to round it out to 6 or 7 points worth.. More choice is always a good thing!

 I've taken the easy road and started out with the 12 Levy Archers. Pretty clean sculpts and nice and easy to pop the bow in place. The rest of the Warband from the box comes mounted so i'll have to get my horse painting cap on from way back when i painted up some mounted figures to add to my Welsh. Should be fun.

Infinity Update - More Caledonians!

A quick update of my Ariadna Sectorial force. My Caledonian Highlanders have been on and off the painting table for a fair while now, and I'm slowly giving myself more options so as not to field the same army list each game. I forgot to post the latest additions when i finished them a little while back so figured i'd pop em up now.

I've now added William Wallace, 4 Wulvers and a 112 Emergency Service support troop.

Excuse the pic quality, they're just taken on my android.

 William Wallace

 The 'new guys'

 112 Emergency Service!

 The force so far 

And another.

There we have it, just a brief update today. Enjoy the week all.

Cheers.

Queensland Northern Knight's: VETR'S SAGA! 6 Point Saga tournament.

Today I went along to Queensland Northern Knights Premier Event for 2016. A fantastic,challenging and fun filled weekend of wargaming. Many systems are at the event such as Kings of War, Warmahordes, Bolt Action, Infinity and of course, Saga! Again, such great event run by the boys at QNK and supported by numerous suppliers across Oz.

As suggested in the title I entered into the 6 Point Saga tournament and took along my Pagan Rus.

The one-day event consisted of three  2 hour rounds.  Each win and each draw having points up for grabs. In case of a tie breaker the lads had a casualty point tracker which ran for the duration of the day.

I managed to battle my way through all 3 rounds undefeated and won the day! I went away with a lovely trophy, and a brand new 4pt Spanish Warband provided by War and Peace Games (thanks guys!)

The victorius Rus with their trophy and prize!

A brief run-down of my games;

In round1 I faced a formidable opponent in Tom, playing a rather intimidating Irish warband in the Sacred Ground scenario. In a tough battle that was slipping away, it was around turn 4 when I used Cold Winds on his brick of shooty Hearthguard, promptly followed with Endless Wastes that turned the tide.

In round 2 I faced (for the first time ever would you believe) a very fast moving Norman army helmed by Peter from QNK In "Clash of the Warlords". I played very defensively using The Great Winter a number of times to get myself into a position to counter-attack his Warlord and Hearthguard who were harrasing my right flank. After clearing his Hearthguard with a unit of Warriors I slammed into his Warlord with a side by side taking the win.

In the 3rd round I faced off with Phoenix and his wall of Anglo-Saxons, again, in the Sacred Ground scenario (roll of for scenarios in rnd 3) After weathering the advance of the Saxons I sent my Hearthguard in side by side with my warlord and chewed through 2 of his big units of warriors. It was then I got out of reach in victory points and took the win,

Here's a few more shots of some of the games today. Thanks again to QNK, War and Peace, and in particular Wayne for being a fantastic T.O.

Cheers for stopping by, Happy Gaming!

INFINITY: OPERATION FLAMESTRIKE - Sagres Orbital Tracking Station; Caledonian Highlanders vs Combined Army 300pts

I played my first full game of Infinity yesterday against my Brothers Combined Army force. It was part of the current online worldwide campaign; Operation Flamestrike. We played the Seize the Antennas mission at 300pts.

 The Cameronian lays down some smoke and cover fire as the 45th Highlanders surge forward!

 My Brothers Combined Army taking up position. I would manage to render this flank useless with some great shooting from my Sniper and Wulver.

 Again on the East, his forces took up position against the Highlanders.

 The full link team of Scots Guard proved too much for the Alien menace as they mowed down another victim, fire squad style!

 A desperate Umbra charges forward into the link team in a last ditch effort to swing the battle into his favor. While he did take out the Missile Launcher Scot it was too little too late as the rest of the link team took him down with swift vengeance.

An overview of our deployment. Ariadna up top and Combined Army down below.

In the end the Caledonian Highlanders would pull through Victorious! 

The final tally of points remaining being;

Caledonian Highlanders - 243

Combined Army - 85

With th Highlanders taking 6 Objective points to the Combined Armies 1.

Fantastic game that ran pretty smoothly. Cant wait for the next one!

(Cheers to the Bro for the pics. I got too into the game and forgot!)

Thanks for looking, happy gaming.

Last efforts of 2015

Happy new year! Just thought I'd share a few bits and pieces from the last few weeks of 2015.

I'm very excited to now be painting some Infinity models as I want to get more games in and possibly a tournament this year. I find the models fantastically detailed and a pleasure to paint. I purchased this box of Highlanders a few months ago now, but they had been left behind while I pushed ahead to get most of my Pagan Rus stuff for Saga painted. Plus I wasn't too confident in taking on the kilts at the time but after the stripy goodness of the Rus and some practice runs  random warhammer mini's I figured I'd give it a crack.


I'm pretty happy with the kilts, I'll definitely get better as I get more of the figures done. I'm onto the starter box next (have already started the SAS model) so will be practicing my camouflage as well!

 45th Highlander Rifles

 Conner MacLeod, Stephan, Ramirez and Rob Roy!

I placed an order with War and Peace for a unit of Joms and a Character figure for Saga. The latter of which was a gift to my Brother. I'll have to sort a photo out of the finished product with him as I've already given it to him for Christmas. The Joms will fit nicely into my Pagan Rus warband as a warrior unit. They are pretty much complete and have seen a few battles already, I just have to highlight the pants and will put a photo up with my next post. 

This dude looks like a beast! He will be a worthy opponent for any Warlord who dares cross his path!

 We squeezed in a few more practice games of Saga before our little family/friend Christmas Saga Bash. This feast for Crows was a fun and bloody match up with a heap of laughs and crazy dice rolls!

 I would end up leading my Pagan Rus to victory in the end of year tourney in what was a fun day and one of the best Christmas get togethers I can remember.

Cheers all, thanks for the inspiring blog posts you all shared in 2015!

Happy gaming!