Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: ace67 on September 16, 2008, 11:19:52 AM
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i have just orderd broadsword and from the talk around the forum
its based slightly on conan, i know very little about the chap
so any help to do with books to read and figure companies that might have the
right looking figs would be appreaciated
ace67
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Watch the films with Arnie in, they give a good idea............
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I guess it depends on which Conan you want to know more about. You certainly have options.
1. Go to your local bookstore and purchase The Coming of Conan by Robert E. Howard, the original author.
2. Rent a copy of Conan the Barbarian, it really is not a bad movie, and still holds up fairly well almost twenty five years after release. The second film is very much rubbish, but watch it for completeness, perhaps.
3. Pick up a couple of issues some of the comics, currently, Dark Horse is doing a Conan series which a lot of folks like a great deal. You can probably find some old issues of Savage Sword of Conan or Conan Saga, both from Marvel, in used book stores for not much.
4. While at the used book store, check for Conan pastiches. A pastiche is a story told by a different author than the original. For example, The Hound of the Baskervilles was written by Doyle, whereas the Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula book(maybe books) was written by another author. For a Conan example, REH wrote Beyond the Black River and Robert Jordan wrote Conan the Destroyer.
5. Check out the Mongoose Games Conan RPG for some background, no need to buy it, really, you can probably just give it an extensive thumbing through at the game store. I think when the first edition was released, I paid $50 for it, and that was and is a lot for one book.
Any of the above suggestions would be a fine introduction to Conan, however, I cannot resist inserting my own opinion, so here goes with that. Take suggestion 1. and get the other two books (The Conquering Sword of Conan and The Bloody Crown of Conan) and read them through first. Once you have read Howard, the other stuff just is not the same.
You might also check out this website
www.rehupa.com
RWF
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I donīt really think the Conan movies are an accurate adaption of the novels, although the first one is rather nice entertainment.
You can find a lot of the stories over on Project Gutenberg of Australia, and over here in Germany, Heyne books (iirc) recently published a softcover collection of the stories in chronological order - I assume those collections (three thick books, if Iīm not mistaken) are available in english as well.
In addition, the new comic adaptation is rather nice. I was given one of the books as a birthday gift last year, and they are very nicely done - note though that I am usually a rather vociferous critic of the current (ie 1975-now) American style of comics.
On miniatures, Rackham have a superb miniature of a "movie-ish Conan" in their Celts range:
(http://www.displacedminiatures.com/resize.php?img=/images/img.1189939292330.jpg&h=1000&w=1000)
I got mine very cheap at a clearance sale, so you might look out for those as well.
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Keep in mind that BA isn't about Conan in particular. Gaming the Hyborian Age (Conan's "world", which is meant to be a prehistoric era of our own world) is just a choice some of us here on the forum are making. That said, BA is definitely about Conan-style gaming so the Conan stories are a great place to start. Robert E. Howard was the creator of Conan, so I'd say his original stories weigh the heaviest. And don't stop at his Conan stories, there's also King Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Turlogh Dubh O'Brien etc. These are all Swords & Sorcery stories with more or less the same basic formula, set in different eras of the same continuity (King Kull's Thurian Age was the age preceding the Hyborian one, Bran Mak Morn was a Pict contemporary to the ancient Romans, Turlogh Dubh was an 11th century Irishman who fought the Vikings, and so on).
Many of Howard's stories are available for free at the Australian Project Gutenberg site, go to http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#letterH (http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#letterH) and scroll down.
I think the first Conan movie is a good one. Sadly it mauls the original Conan mythology, but it tells a good story and sets such a great mood, heightened by the awesome soundtrack, that I like it anyway. I agree about the sequel being crap, but it might be worth watching for completeness. Same goes for the Red Sonja movie (which is supposed to be set in the same world, except they didn't get the license so they just changed some names around).
I'm quite unfamiliar with the comics. I've read a handful of chapters of the new Dark Horse one and it too egresses from the original mythology quite a lot, but visually it looks great and seems to capture the savage mood quite well. I suggest you stay away from the Conan RPG sourcebooks from Mongoose Games. I've just borrowed a few and have been reading through them, and they just don't seem right to me. They're almost turning the Hyborian Age into a "plain vanilla" fantasy world, which won't do at all. The cover art is about the only thing in the books that really captures the right mood, and that can be viewed for free on the Mongoose Games website. Much better RPG source material (if you're looking for that kind of stuff) can be found at http://hyboria.xoth.net/ (http://hyboria.xoth.net/). It's a good resource even for those of us who don't play RPGs.
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For minis I suggest some Reaper minis. Actually I'm about to finish a Conan figure today. Maybe I'll just post a picture. Bought him for less than 2 Euro at a clearance sale.
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I agree that the first movie was far better than the sequel. Just try to ignore the fact that Thulsa Doom was Kull's nemesis and you'll be fine. My biggest quibble was, why didn't they give him black hair? That's one of his defining features! Watch the second movie, though, to see how much Arnie's sword-handling skills have improved. He's very impressive!
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Oh right, got so carried away talking about source material that I forgot about the miniatures ;D
An exhaustive list of suitable miniatures is going to be absurdly long, largely because in the Hyborian Age, most if not all of the world's pre-gunpowder cultures are represented. So aside from the fantasy ranges, you'll also want to check out all the more flairful historical ones. Best is to choose one part of the Conan world where to start gaming your adventures, and get the miniatures for that before moving on to another part. I've largely figured out what miniatures I want to use for each specific culture, but so far it's all just in my head.
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em4 Miniatures (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Infantry.html (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Infantry.html))also stock a reasonable set of suitable barbarians and at GBP1.25 each you can't go far wrong. But the wonderful thing about BA is that you're allowed to use your imagination so I've just finished a group of Eureka's wonderful Frogmen who will be appearing in my first BA scenario.
I'll hopefully get a photo of them up later this evening.
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em4 Miniatures (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Infantry.html (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Infantry.html))also stock a reasonable set of suitable barbarians
Which, AFAIK, are the same Grenadier barbarians which are also produced by Mirliton (http://www.mirliton.it/index.php?cName=fantasy-2528mm-barbarians). They have many more, although mostly in packs of 5 infantry or 1-2 cav whereas eM sells individual models. Remember to take a look at the usual gallery (http://witchhunter.net/gallery_norsemans.html). Several sections there have fine barbarians from a multitude of manufacturers. That's where I got plenty of ideas for my barbarian army.
Black Tree has some Kev White barbarians for bargain prices. West Wind's Nordvolk are nice, simple miniatures with an appropriate low-tech approach. I think those together will already give you a wide selection of fine models for broadswording and battleaxing.
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well i would just like to thank you for all the comments
its been most enlightning, i have sent of for the chronicles of conan
which looks very interesting if the write ups are anything to go by
as for figures i will look into those that have been mentioned.
again thanks very much
ace67
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The best thing about Howard's work is that his descriptions of cultures are very similar to their, much later, historical versions...ie...you can use historical miniatures for many of the societies you will want to represent. Vikings for Aesir and Vanir...the list goes on and on and on.
Figure out where in Hyboria you want to game and then take a good look at the source materials mentioned above, then look around at some historical miniatures, especially for everyday average models.
RWF
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KeyanSark has a great thread here, concerning his quest to game Hyboria:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=159.0
It should give you plenty of ideas for figures etc :)
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And I feel obliged to inform my fellow lead-adventurers that this topic has evolved into a dense article that will see the light in the nov-dec issue of Cargad (an spanish e-zine). Even if you can't read spanish, the pictures and the manufacturer's name will need no more explanation. I will keep you informed about this.
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Let's not get too hung up on fur-clad northern barbarians though. In most of the Conan stories there's nothing of the sort. Even Conan himself typically dresses not in furs but after the fashion of whatever part of the world he's in at the time (which is usually the exotic lands to the south and east).
I'm just meaning to say that, equally relevant as your Celtic and Germanic barbarians, are your veiled Arabian dervishes, mysterious Far Eastern sorcerers and hideously masked African tribesmen.
BTW, looking forward to that Cargad article.
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And I feel obliged to inform my fellow lead-adventurers that this topic has evolved into a dense article that will see the light in the nov-dec issue of Cargad (an spanish e-zine). Even if you can't read spanish, the pictures and the manufacturer's name will need no more explanation. I will keep you informed about this.
Excellent :D
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On the subject of minis, I find GW's Lord of the Rings range excellent for some of the 'races' in Conan. The best fits for me are these guys: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat1110097
Great for Nords!
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On the subject of minis, I find GW's Lord of the Rings range excellent for some of the 'races' in Conan. The best fits for me are these guys: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat1110097
Great for Nords!
I'm afraid your link doesn't work. That's GW for ya. What figures were you talking about?
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Link works A O K. :-)
Grimm
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Not for me, I get to the "choose country" screen.
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Choose country screen for me to.
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Now how did i know this was going to be the reason you all said it dont work.
Now to leave my a-hole nature aside. Guys, LOL just pick a country and your there. DOH! :-)
Grimm
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Now how did i know this was going to be the reason you all said it dont work.
Now to leave my a-hole nature aside. Guys, LOL just pick a country and your there. DOH! :-)
Grimm
Upon choosing a country, I get to the main page. Don't see what's so "LOL" about it.
Anyway, I just tried choosing US, and that seems to work (it brings me to the Dunland section of the webstore, which I presume is what Psyberwyche was linking to), but why would I normally choose a country I live over 5000 kilometers from and that GW is not based in?
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Sorry guys, didn't mean to spark an argument.
I was indeed referring to their Dunlending Warriors, particularly the Chieftain.
As for the problems with the websites, I think it's because half the countries haven't switched over to the new site yet. See if this works:
http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.uk?do=Individual&code=99061464107&orignav=16
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Upon choosing a country, I get to the main page. Don't see what's so "LOL" about it.
Anyway, I just tried choosing US, and that seems to work (it brings me to the Dunland section of the webstore, which I presume is what Psyberwyche was linking to), but why would I normally choose a country I live over 5000 kilometers from and that GW is not based in?
The "LOL" is warranted. There are people on this list that can put together a complex list of whatevers into works of art, but when a screen comes up, to accommodate you in the proper language, people are just stumped. That is ironic, funny and by some considered possibly sad. It wouldn't not have been any big thing to pick a country, whose language you can read, just to see what would happen or to explain why the direct link didn't work.
This is how GW has set up their web site. They have interests all over the world, in many countries with many different languages. Each link is for a country they have a major interests in. So that for each link is the appropriate language for the country link you get. I choose the US link cause I live in the US and speak English. If there is no link for your country, and I am sure there are more than a couple, you choose one that you can read. I personally think it is a nice change to see a company website with more than one language option. You simply choose a country link so you can understand what you are reading.
Grimm
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Well, I am following this discussion since the beginning with great interest...
The link does not work for me, so 'choosing the obvious' is no option at least for Germans, seems like it works the same for Scandinavians.
Don't see what's so "LOL" about it.
Here is the second one who simply does not get it, not even the warranted
LOL.
I was just trying to write something about the a-hole side
of Grimnar's bold comments, but probably it's not worth the bother. ;)
EDIT: I just set the quotes right... :)
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Let's just drop it. Clearly neither of us thinks we've done anything wrong so arguing will get us nowhere.