Famine, Sword, & Fire (TurnStyle Games) Battle Report, page 21

[Elbows]

Lol, there's a dead simple logic to it : what emblem can I paint easily and repeatedly on shields?  I just scribbled a few in a notebook, and chose the bird one.  Then, decided to get some dice for them, and then though "Well, hell...just make it the game emblem?" So it just snow-balled from a scribble.

Eventually I'll have some units which are not tied to this army and will be mercenaries with some different shields/etc.

[Elbows]

A few pictures from another playtest.

[Chimpfoot]

Your stuff is always such a treat 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[levied troop]

Very interesting thread - I’m tempted by a medieval/fantasy mash up myself and you’re making temptation harder to resist.

[Elbows]

No painting or gaming in the past few weeks - I've been busy building stupid MDF terrain for other projects.  However, I did receive some more test materials in the mail.

The test neoprene mat for tracking victory points, agents, and seasons and stuff.


Some mini-decks for randomized commanders and generals.


A sample of unit commanders (which generally boost or penalize command and loyalty values of the units they're leading)


Generals include two additional values; diplomacy and strategy --- used for starting the game and for campaign stuff(?)

[plessiez]

Interesting seeing this coming together. Are you playtesting solo?

You have a good visual eye, I'm guessing you have a graphic design background in some way? You've made nice choices in your layout, fonts, and icon design.

I would say though that I think "Famine, Fire and Sword" rolls off the tongue better than "Famine, Sword, and Fire"

[Old Hob]

This is all looking very tasty, Elbows. Following with interest.

I would say though that I think "Famine, Fire and Sword" rolls off the tongue better than "Famine, Sword, and Fire"

I had the exact same thought. However, on checking:

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment.

Henry V (prologue)

Not sure I'm qualified to take issue with Bill Shakespeare's verse.

[**GS**]

I would say though that I think "Famine, Fire and Sword" rolls off the tongue better than "Famine, Sword, and Fire"

As a German I'm fine with "Famine, Sword, and Fire". And we Germans aren't famous for our pronounciation skills when it comes to speaking english.

And it's not bad to quote Shakespeare

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Inspirational as ever!

[Elbows]

Thanks, and yep...straight from ole' Bill's mouth, .  Also...FSF is slightly less amusing than FFS as an acronym

I'm play testing with a handful of local guys.  This game is likely not going to be commercial, so we're just slow rollin' and having fun.  Sadly don't get to game nearly enough to have consistent/solid playtesting nowdays.

No graphical design background, etc.  Just slowly self-teaching on stuff like GIMP (free fake photoshop).  I definitely enjoy it though.

[Elbows]

Another small unit of light cavalry has been finished, as well as some pics of the army (some came out blurry, sadly).













I have several more bags of Victrix minis to do...so this army is still not near completion.

[Marine0846]

This is a really cool thread.
Love your figures.
May I ask, is there a reason you mounted them three to a stand?
Great looking card and other game playing aids.
Thanks for sharing.

[Pattus Magnus]

Those look excellent! Your original plan to put together a force that will work in a variety fantasy and ancient games is definitely successful, I would say. These guys seem like they would work really well for Dunlendings in Middle-Earth inspired games, for example.

[Elbows]

They're mounted three to a stand for a very simple reason; that's all that comfortable fits on a 40mm base without massive overhangs.  In addition, I get more bases out of my minis that way (same reason the "skirmisher" archers are two to a base).  In this game your units consist of between 1-10 bases, which makes the game scale agnostic (other than perhaps needing to reduce the ranges if you were to play on a small scale).

Also if we're being really picky...whenever possible, all of the minis are placed on a base so that there is no overhang - no arms/swords/legs/shields/etc. to get snagged when moving the base.  It can't be helped with cavalry, but if you look at my infantry top-down, almost nothing hangs out over the 40mm base itself.

The number of figures on the base is immaterial and entirely up to the player.  Likewise if both opponents wanted to adopt some slightly weird basing size/shape, it wouldn't make a different.  A base is a base.  So, these 40mm squares could hold 3-4 28mm figures, or 10-20 smaller figures - the game still plays the same.  So if someone desired a more realistic unit size (you can see my "army" is only an army by 'gaming' standards, ala Warhammer, etc.) they could use smaller miniatures but still use the same rules.

If you went to 6/10/15mm for a game like this you'd probably want to cut ranges in half or reduce inches to centimeters.

Pattus; thanks.  Yeah this force is very generic fake-ancients.  Could be used (with a stretch) in a Warhammer setting, a GoT setting, a Middle Earth setting, a Hyborean setting, etc.   In a pinch some of the units could even (gasp) be used in an actual historical setting, though I think the button-counters would have a fit.

[Elbows]

I had two leftover cavalry from an earlier box - so I painted them up as heroes and/or couriers.