Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (Frostgrave undead and construct)

[Hobgoblin]

can't wait to see the gorgon! What do you think of the FiB sculpts?

They're great - nicely uncluttered and very "sympathetic". I'll try to finish off the gorgon tonight if I make sufficient progress with the Halloween masks ...

I'd be interested to know what you think if you check out squad Hammer - I've been inspired by it in a way I haven't by rules sets in a long time.

I'm just reading through it now. Very interesting - and many thanks for the tip-off! I really the like the consensus approach; despite always enjoying competitive sport, I can't get my head around competitive gaming: for me, tabletop games are storytelling engines.

I also like the firefight rule - that seems a very simple and elegant way of avoiding the worst IGOUGO traps. And I can see my son relishing the mega-unit rule; he's always looking for any excuse to get the crude but massive Godzilla I made for him on the table.

[Jagannath]

Can't wait!

Yeah it's a retry simple ruleset but seems really well focussed. That Godzilla's brilliant! I'm with your son - I'd always choose the '3 massive monsters' side to play against an army!

As a little note on Warbases - I swear by them, they'll make basically anything you ask for if you drop them an email.

[DivisMal]

Oh that Godzilla is really cute!

I've also received a mail with the news about Squad Hammer. I haven't yet decided whether to buy them or not, though.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks! Godzilla's only featured in Mighty Monsters and OGAM so far, but he's clearly got a role to play in Squad Hammer. He'll add plenty of punch in 15mm.

Here's the miniature Jaganath most kindly sent me in answer to my plea for 15mm gorgon suggestions. She's perfect for a subtle RPG gorgon, because the players are unlikely to suspect her (despite her exotic garden statuary) until she throws her hood back. She'll also make a great alien civilian or psychic in sf games.

She's accompanied by an old Traveller space marine (or D&D automaton). I've got a few of these fellows; they're quite rough castings, but the variety in their armour and armament works quite well, giving the sense that they're occupying ancient, battle-damaged armour rather than new plasteel or whatever.

(I should add that the gorgon's face shows up much better if you click through to the photo and enlarge.)

[Severian]

Very nice! Good to see the old Traveller stuff, too; very fond of them, though as you say they're not the shiniest castings.

[Jagannath]

Yay! She looks brill, great lizard skin effect.

I really like those Traveller power armour suits - I wish they were ~5mm taller, they'd be perfect then. I like power armour that feels like it needs 'piloting' (as opposed to say 'super-reactive' armour like a Space Marine). Talking of which - love this blending of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, works really well.

[DivisMal]

Awesome! The gorgon is really nice.

Same opinion here about the PA trooper. A little bit bigger and it would fit really well with my collection.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, all!

Here's some progress on the 15mm HOTT army - a couple of orcish hordes. Very quickly done: I based them before painting for speed. I want to get at least four more done before the tournament.

The army's currently on 12 AP, so half done. But two more behemoths are just about there, which would take it to 20 out of 24. Four more hordes would finish it off.

I'd prefer, though, to just use two behemoths and add either some beasts or some more warbands. The HOTT rules suggest that wolfriders should be beasts, although the army list at the back has them as riders. I think beasts are a better fit, given movement through bad going and effects on cavalry. So, if I have time, I'll add an element or two of those. I think two behemoths, four warbands, six hordes and a beast element would have a nice balance of numbers, power and versatility.

Also, these two horde bases make up a unit of light or bellicose foot in Dragon Rampant. I'd probably split the 12 similar goblins I've based on pennies for D&D between them, though, to give two units. That gives scope for adding more archers for mixed-weapon light foot, or more axemen and burly types for offensive light foot or bellicose foot.

[beefcake]

Great group there. I really like them.

[jambo1]

Lovely work!!! Nice looking units.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, both!

The army's now on 20 AP with the three behemoths done. The one with the axe was 'blooded' today in a four-way game of Song of Blades, where he was Q4, C4, Tough, Savage and Big - but he'll be a lot bigger in 15mm.

If I had to get the army ready by tomorrow, I've got some dinosaur riders that could be quickly rebased and I could use my 10mm wolfriders as beasts. So I'm just about there for a week on Tuesday, barring a stronghold. But I hope to have time to add a good few more hordes, at least one more warband and perhaps some beasts.

[Severian]

Great stuff - they look very good all together. The range of flesh tones works very well; and the behemoths are nicely various. Well done indeed.

[swiftnick]

Looking good! Wonderful painting in such a short space of time.

[Hobgoblin]

Not exactly miniatures, but not full-sized yet ...

Happy Halloween!

[von Lucky]

love it.