Something Hissing This Way Comes

I feel like I'm between projects at the moment, with nothing I urgently need to get painted. Which means a dip in productivity. But my lead pile has been well bolstered this year, so I'm taking the chance to finish off some oddments.

This pair of giant snakes join my Minoans for Aegeus. The game has a number of summon-able creatures and what better than a couple of massive snakes. I was stuck for ages for how to paint them, I'm a bit of a stickler for colour themes across a force, but the Minoans had come out in bright of turquoise and blue. These are mythological creatures, which gives some room for imagination, but I didn't think either the blue or turquoise would work. Then it struck me that I could have two themes - colourful humans but the mythological creatures with a more subdued palette.

Manufacturer is Otherworld miniatures - very fine sculpts but a tad pricey at £11 for both if I recall.

Uh-oh, of all the places for an Ophidiophobe to end up

What happened to Aegeus, you ask? Well, not a huge amount over the summer unfortunately. A bit much real life in the way. But I'm sure Gharak and I will get a bit more play testing this autumn. (he's been prodding me to paint something for it, anyway).

Plenty of other stuff on the painting table, a few bits for BKC, more for Aegeus, SciFi vehicles etc. I even put some paint on some Napoleonic cavalry, shock horror.

Minoan Raiders; Weeping Angel; CLWC

First up this weekend, my finished Minoan Raider infantry. These are converted Wargames Factory Greeks, I whipped off the torsos and replaced them with naked ones from the WF Zulu frames. They all have wicked curved swords and the horsehair on their helmets got a trim too, to further differentiate them from Gharak's Athenians.

These Minoan Raiders are the mainstay of roving Minoan warbands, lightly armed and armoured but swift infantry. They just need shield transfers to finish them off. I also tried photographing on a blue background, borrowing some of the missus' card making card. Seemed to work well.


For a bit of variety, I spent this afternoon painting this small 'terrain feature', courtesy of Crooked Dice:

*Blink*

Scary, eh?

She was a cinch to paint. The base was GW Adeptus Battlegrey mixed with black, highlighted with the same mixed with Fortress Grey. I dry brushed carefully and used black wash to tidy up any errors and give more definition in the recesses. I tried to highlight more on the face and arms to really bring them out. Then I used watered Devlan mud (always seems to feature these days!), gryphonne sepia and heavily watered catachan green to add faint shades of colour to the flat grey. Especially so around the head and arms, I was trying to give that faint hint that she just could be alive....

I actually enjoyed the chance to paint a miniature all in one colour, like a very simplistic version of Curt's impressive Greyscale project.

Painting aside, I had the pleasure of joining Central London Wargames Club (CLWC) for a few small games of Saga on Thursday. They were a friendly and welcoming bunch (cheers Tamsin!) and its always nice to get some games in. Saga seems to have really taken off among those 'Saga Louts' so I hope to dust off my Vikings and join them on a regular basis.

Not looking good for my Vikings, fighting as usual under their Crow banner

Launch of the Aegeus the Game Blog!

As I've mentioned before, my brother (Gharak here on Blogger and elsewhere) and I have started playtesting a skirmish game set in mythical ancient Greece. The game will be called 'Aegeus: Age of Mythical Battles'. The idea is to create a set of rules for heroic combat between opposing warbands as well as to all you to play scenario-based games from Greek Mythology.

Gharak has started a Blog to spread word about the game and share concepts, sculpts and some design notes. Check it out here:
http://aegeusthegame.blogspot.co.uk/

While we've been playtesting with miniatures we picked up from various manufacturers, but Gharak intends to have a line of miniatures sculpted for the game and has already had some awesome concept art done. He is looking at hiring some excellent sculptors for the line.

Check out the concept for Theseus:

And a generic Athenian hero:

All images are Copyright Aegeus the Game 2012

Roar!

Or should that be 'Mooooo!'

As trailed recently, I've been finishing off my Minoan Minotaur for Aegeus this week. A lovely miniature from Otherworld miniatures, he stands at an impressive 45mm tall, I liked how he was tall but more like a gangly human, rather than GW-style muscled beast. I did slightly convert him have a cloth tunic rather than chain mail, with Mythological Greece not being well known for their chain mail.

He looks upset. Thorn in his toe perhaps?

Priced at £9 he wasn't cheap, but not too expensive either for such a fine miniature. With two new projects I seem to be in a buying phase at the moment: a small Otherworld order arrived today, two harpies and two giant snakes, more mythological assistance for my Minoan raiders. Each pack being the same price as the Minotaur they seemed a bit more of a luxury purchase, but the miniatures are very fine.

The skin didn't quite come out right here, the shade is a tad too grey - I wanted him to look quite human but with a very pallid flesh tone. As am afterthought I carefully lined the ubiquitous devlan mud over the grey, which improved matters somewhat. I am a lot happier with his face and snout, transitioning from black to pink flesh.

With a kneeling Redoubt miniature for scale.

I did get distracted by the Trooping of the Colour on TV yesterday, which inspired (well, distracted) me to finally fix up the rest of the Colours I picked up at Salute. It took a while longer than expected as I'm repainting the finials to suit my style. Here is a work in progress, I've still some touching-up to do from my cack-handed removal of the previous poles. The Guerilla standard bearer came out nicely, a custom design from Flag Dude

Image of the Virgin Mary on one side. The other reads 'Dios, Patria, Rey'.

After the Trooping of the Colour there was a flypast for the Queen's birthday, I managed to snap this view of the Red Arrows.

Not sure what'll have finished next, either my Minoan raider infantry or a small batch of Khurasan Command infantry for 15mm SciFi.

Found it!; Minor update

I posted the other week about needing a few things for the Aegeus 28mm Greek Mythology project. Well, after much hunting, I've found one of them - a just about suitable double-headed axe, and in plastic too.

Here it is, bottom-left on this sprue of orcs from Wargame Factory. Problem is, I need literally three of them and I've almost no use for anything else in the box (though I have a possible use for the smaller axe and curved daggers) so would prefer not to fork out 20 quid for a whole box. I can't seem to find any single sprues on eBay either.

I know it is a really long shot, but I don't suppose any of my readers have bought a box of these for any reason and might have some spares bits left over? I'd be endlessly appreciative. (I imagine not, with you mostly being historical gamers...). I'll put a plea on the WF forums too, when they deem me worthy of an account.

In other hobby activity, I've nearly finished my Minotaur, I just need a trip out to my LGS for some new bronze metallics. He does look pretty awesome if I do say so myself, looking forward to posting some pics of him. But an LGS visit will inevitably wait for this darned weather to clear up.
I've also been fiddling around re-doing some of the basing on my 15mm SciFi, after getting some 12mm washers to standardise the basing. An annoying task to spend hobby time on, but hope it will be worth it.

More Minoans; 100 posts

Another hours or so's work, another batch of Minoans finished. I would say I'm on a roll, but they were nearly done a few weeks ago, before the heatwave struck. Six archers, the manufacturer is Redoubt again. I like these sculpts, though they are a little on the small size, the have well-defined bodies in a mix of great poses. My only gripe is the very thin bows which bend easily.

Only man-boobs to be found here.

I picked three main colours for the Minoans, all intended to be colours found on surviving Minoan artefacts and frescoes. Hence the burnt orange (GW Bestial brown highlighted to Macharius orange), royal blue (GW Regal blue to Vallejo Magic blue) and jade (Vallejo Scurvy green, Jade green with GW Bleached bone highlights). I'm not totally satisfied with the latter as I was after more of a teal colour, but it is quite striking so I'm coming to quite like it (perhaps it is realistic and the frescoes faded!) The blue will be saved for elite units.

Next up, a minotaur and six infantry converted from Wargames Factory plastics.

In other news, I also another milestone this week, 100 blog posts. I actually passed 100 posts without noticing, so this is my 101st post. Still, I feel it is worth noting, I reckon that averages at one post every 4 days for over a year, not bad. I'm creeping up to 50 followers too, I seem to recall offering prizes once I made that milestone. I'd better dig out some goodies!

.---- ----- .----
Phil

Making amends: Minoan Snake Priestess

So, having played a bunch of games of Aegeus with unpainted figures, which I hate doing, I returned to the painting table as soon as I got home. I managed to finish my Minoan Snake Priestess off, a non-combat hero.

Slightly NSFW (dressed in the 'Minoan style') photo for you. The jade is a bit shiny, but Dullcote should sort that out.

In the alternate world of Aegeus, the Minoans are one of the shadier factions, raiders across the sea who maintain blood sacrifices to appease Poseidon. His power over the seas has staved off the downfall off their civilisation. The Snake Priestesses are the Minoan oracles and witches, whose dark powers include summoning mythological allies.

EDIT: and a credit for the manufacturer - she is in fact Helen of Troy from Redoubt's Trojan wars range. Face that launched a thousand ships, is what they say. Definitely the face.

Also a couple more snaps from out sixth(!)* play test, switching sides with me playing Athenians. Here, an entire Athenian force spectacularly bounces off a lone Minotaur. Blame the dice for that one. After which the centaurs go off in search of easier pickings!

*curiously, I don't remember us managing to six games in one weekend in recent memory. The game time is coming in nicely at 60-90 minutes, albeit with small forces and on small tables.

A slightly different scenario...

This time, using Aegeus for a true skirmish scenario, Theseus and the Minotaur.

Played on a 2' by 2' labyrinth board, the minotaur must kill the Athenian citizens given as offerings and lose Theseus In the twisting maze. Theseus' objective - kill the beast and save his compatriots!

Here, Theseus corners and slays the minotaur, as his honour guard wander lost in the endless labyrinth.

Also, can anyone help me source some fairly specific miniatures? Firstly my Bull Leapers/Taureadors, highly acrobatic Minoan warriors. Think acrobat crossed with a matador. Im after an unarmoured, loincloth only human in a very dynamic pose.

Also, I'm after some double handed axes in this shape for my Royal Guard:

Aegeus - First playtests

Visiting Gharak, our aim this weekend was to get a few playtests of our work in progress ruleset, under the working title 'Aegeus'. As previously mentioned, we're designing a heroic skirmish game in a world heavily inspired by a Greek Mythology. Over the past few months we've bandied quite a few ideas around and felt we'd worked up a viable and fun ruleset.

I won't go into all the detail (that's for Gharak), but the core concepts are:
-Randomly-drawn command tokens to activate units
-Alternating activation of units/heroes
-Special D6 to determine combat hits, followed by a 2D6 vs armour
-Custom-designed heroes
-Scope to handle everything from hoplites and skirmishers to legendary heroes and a menangerie of mythological beasts, with five factions currently drafted.
-Core rules capable of both skirmish clashes between warbands and Heroic scenarios like Theseus and the Minotaur.

I've started with Minoans, but to my shame, I only managed the paint one single batch of archers, and even they aren't quite finished. Gharak had his Athenians all nicely painted, and very spiffing they looked too. Minoans are designed to be lightly armoured, fast and pull lots of tricks, but weaker in combat. Except of course the Minotaur! Athenians are more about discipline, solid combat characteristics and powerful allies like centaurs.

Game 1 - Minoans vs Athenians
The Minotaur threatens some centaurs, while Minoan archers on the left force the Athenian hoplites back.
You can see the custom dice on the table, made from blank dice. The bronze-coloured tokens are the orders assigned to each unit, with options including move, attack, move and attack, rally, defensive stance and so on. Each race will have a slightly different pool of order tokens, with Minoans having more movement options, for example.

Game 1 - Much later
The wounded Minotaur's rampage continues, he sees off the Athenian infantry on the top right. Meanwhile, a Athenian hero threatens my archers.

Game 2 - Final turn
For the second test game, we added a 'heroic challenge' action, where heroes are able to call each other out in single combat. This is the only combat which is resolved by face-to-face rolls, with a gambling element where on side can opt to bow out after the first (to great shame and VP loss) or could maintain the challenge but risk further wounds. Risky, but I found this 'mini-game' added drama to heroic combat which was fitting for the heroic era we're trying to evoke. Here, the Minoan commander takes a hammering and falls...

I'm happy to report that after four games, we feel it works really well, though we're tweaking things as we go. The command system has a nice mix of randomness and tactical depth and the combat system works nicely. Of course, we would say that, given we've designed exactly the game we both want to play. it remains to be seen if anyone else agrees with us!

Next up, more playtesting, including a very different scenario...

The Projects

It's time for a list. After considering my Salute purchases (as well as the pre-Salute purchases and post-Salute purchases), I thought it fitting to document my current hobby projects and predict where they're going this year.

I'll start with a Pie chart. Unfortunately it doesn't illustrate anything except that I'm balancing limited hobby time across a number of projects. But I do like pie charts (and it adds a splash of colour to what could have been a long rambling post).

1). 28mm Napoleonics
Definitely in a consolidation phase. After two years I've a fair amount painted up and while I do have plenty more minis and terrain to paint up I intend to take a break from the most of it. I will get the Colours sorted on all of my painted units before setting it aside completely. I think next year Gharak and I will come back to gaming Napoleonics and I'll be enthused to pick up the brushes again.

2). 28mm Vikings for Saga
Six point force painted, one point left to finish. In an ideal world I'd buy one more unit of Bondi as an eighth point for maximum flexibility. But I can always add that later, for now I'm content that it is mostly finished and is something I might actually get a game of every now and then with people who aren't Gharak.

3). 28mm Pulp
This will rumble on (especially as Gharak and I are mid-adventure). After my early 2012 drive we've plenty of encounters to play with perhaps just the odd extra miniature required. As a varied project means it is great to drop Pulp figures into a separate painting project to mix things up a little. It also doesn't need much buying for it at the moment. Happily it will get gamed again this year: we need at least one more session this summer to get our heroes out of their current pickle!

4). 10mm WWII British
Was finished (!) as a platoon plus support, then I picked up a few more bits at Salute but they should be quick to paint up. I'm in a bit of a quandary with rules, but those purchases should give me a small Blitzkrieg Commander-sized force. At some point I'll buy BKC and twist Gharak's arm into a game or two or grab a game in my local area.

5). New project 1: 28mm Greek Mythology
Gharak is in the driving seat for this one, creating a complete skirmish game with fluff, rules and sometime down the road it's own miniature range. Ambitious as always, my brother. The game will be a skirmish scale with suitably heroic combat, set in an alternate world taking its inspiration from Greek Mythology. And my role? A mix of advisor, rules collaborator, playtester, painter and who knows what else! We're working on test forces for each faction, so I've the start of a Minoan force on my paint table, Minotaur and all.

6). New project 2: 15mm SciFi
While I didn't really need a new scale (or a new project right now!), I've been tempted to dabble in 15mm SciFi by Samulus. I've an order in with Ground Zero Games for a platoon of infantry and I'll grab my pick of cool vehicles and air support to face his Autosentia. Ive set on a colour scheme and written some fluff for my faction, which was a fun way to spend an hour. Again, not set on any rules as yet, but 15mm seems popular for SciFi, so I've no doubt we'll find something fun.

7). Resurrected project: 28mm Wild West
One on the horizon, after backing Blackwater Gulch with 20 of my hard-earned pounds. Resurrected because a few years back Gharak and I bought a bunch of cowboys and Legends of the Old West. Gharak built some terrain and I got some erm...half-built. We played a few games and set it aside. Once BG is released in the autumn I'll paint some cowboys and finish my terrain.

In summary, seven projects, four of them current. Eep, plenty to be getting on with...