Final AHPC Post - The Shelf Soup Post

 Last weekend of the Challenge and time to clear off anything on the workbench that is close to done. It's kinda like shelf soup or leftover day, a mix of everything.

First up a trip of nominally 28mm Wizkids monsters for my Beowulf RPG.  These have been sitting around finished or nearly so in some cases since January, but weren't as satisfactory as some of my other beowulf baddies.  We have a troll, an earth elemental and a Sea Hag,

I tried to get a different green effect on this troll from his skinnier compadre posted earlier. I'm not quite happy with the results but he's big green and ugly, and I'm pretty sure I've seen him pushing Chaos Space Marines around a 40K battlefield.  The earth elemental is a nice figure but I kinda whiffed on my attempted morph into a elemental from the sea bed for a Beowulf adventure.  I had ambitions of sculpting the base with modelling gel so that the broken rocks looked more wave like but in the end went for a paint conversion.  I gave him a green wash to represent marine growths and overdid the gloss medium applied over top.  The Se Hag came in the same pack as the Bheur Hag posted earlier.  Unlike her sister (which has a Disney villainous vibe) the Sea Hag lacks character and has more of a Zombie Luau dancer vibe. 

Next up a set of 28mm Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 ATA members with rifles, and an NCO from attached to a Highland regiment.  They are great figures, but not as colourful as the other packs in the Kickstarter I back (i.e Lumberjills and Pig ladies).  I am not sure of the uniform colours but am unlikely to ever field them on table and they look ok.

And finally a Wizkids 28mm well and Bad Suiddo Land Girls Rat catcher.  Yes she is proudly showing off her collection of dead rats which have been strung together and are draped over her shoulders.  I am not sure what to make of a woman who smiles so broadly while wearing a lei of dead rodents, but this sculpt is based on a period photo.  Lots of character but kind of disturbing, particularly as in the Miss Marple rural England universe she might be your Great Aunt Sally or Mrs Jones from down the lane.

So that's 7 regular 28mm figures (the 6 Bad Squiddo ladies and the Hag) for 35 points plus the well (5 points as being about the size of a 28mm figure or maybe 1-2 points as terrain.) and 2 two bigger figures.  My previous troll was counted as a 54mm figure so I suggest the same for these two.   The hag, troll and elemental would count towards the fantasy duel.

AHPC Forest and Swamp Fauna

 After an unexpected two weeks of painting at the start of the Challenge due to canceled travel plans, I promptly lost two weeks after coming down with COVID.  I am just getting back at the paint brushes now and banged to finish off some bits and bobs that were 95% finished three weeks ago.  I have a bunch of 28mm critters from Wizkids aimed mainly at TTG based on my Beowulf RPG campaign.

A Troll, a bear, a stag and two boars walk into a clearing.

First up is the Troll.  Like my goblins, I left his basework rocky and without greenery so that he could operate underground.

He really should see a Dermatologist about those warts.

 For variety, I used some autumn foliage as well as green to represent the fact that some bushes aren't as healthy and turn colour earlier than others.  I'm not sure I am sold on it.

One of my players decided it would be a good idea to pick a fight with a sleeping bear in a barrow so he could get the treasure.  Results were predictable.

Boars are a pretty iconic Dark Age challenge, and are tasty eating too.  

There's some pretty good detail on these Wizkids sculpts and I am quite pleased with how the Stag turned out.

I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole checking colouration on Red Deer.

l have been quite pleased with the Wizkids sculpts, good detail and many of them paint up nicely.  The regular forest fauna will do double duty on TTG RPGs and for historical games.  I like to use animals as dummy markers.  "Captain those suspected French dragoons turned out to be a deer and a couple of boars".  Points wise it's always a bit of a challenge with non-human figures.  I'd suggest treating the Troll as a 54mm foot figure (he is about that tall) and the others as 28mm foot figures, but will accept the Snowlord's judgement.  No location points on this lot as I've completely lost the plot on that front and don't want to do a Ray fitting a round peg in a square hole.  The Troll would count towards the Fantasy duel. 

AHPC XII: Little Red Riding Hood for Perelandra

 This post went Live on the Challenge Blog on January 16th, so my time references are a bit off.  The got the test on the 10th, and result on the 11th.

I have a small post for this week as I've been down with COVID.  I woke up Monday feeling absolutely wretched and got my self off to the drive thru testing centre and got my positive result Tuesday evening.  I've been a much bigger than normal waste of space since then but had these minis pretty much done before hand.

One of the tags for Perelandra is temptation and that's what the Big Bad Wolf offered Red traditionally.

My version is a little twisted as Red is another female goblin.  I am not sure i want to know what's in that satchel of goods that she has for Grandma.  She was originally going to feature a drab cloak like the rest of her goblin gang, but I was working on the Winter Wolf at the same time and had a "you know..." moment.

I think in this case that Red is mischievous enough that the danger from temptation might be for the wolf.  A milk bone and a belly rub might be the long slippery evolutionary slope downhill to a Pug that can't get up on the couch without help and gets dressed in a new costume very holiday.

Both figures are 28mm and from Wizkds. Curt has been scoring the goblins as 20mms for 4 points but I don't know how to score the Winter Wolf, who is one big puppy.  Perhaps as a  equivalent to a 28mm cavalryman?  The base points can be added to my FantasySide Duel score.

Finally I thought I'd share a bit of my family lore about protecting your daughters.  In the mid-1950s my grandfather was English Department Head at Dalhousie University with two daughters (my mum and aunt) at home and finishing degrees.  As Head he hosted visiting guest authors and poets, including the likes of Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen (who was just starting out).  The works of these two were considered so scandalous that the two daughters were banished from the house the night that Irving and Leonard came to dinner.   

AHPC XII: Ruins at Arda

The planet Arda carries a Fantasy theme, so I've gone with this Giant attacking a tower in 28mm.  Just for fun note that the top two levels of the tower are removable allowing me to do this.

In an homage to this classic DnD module...

Ok let's break down the components here.  

First up is the Giant, who is a Wizkids Stone Giant in 28mm scale.  I will note that the figure is about 90mm from sole of foot to top of head and that the tower he's standing next to is 6" high (152mm) for comparison.  I will leave scoring him up to the Snowlord.  In the Beowulf adventures Giants are more generic than straight DnD, but I tried to keep to the Stone Giant Theme.  It's a nice sculpt with facial features midway between an Easter Island Moai and Grace Jones.

Backside view as I am thinking that's the view my adventurers want to see!

Next up are the human foes who are from the Gipping Beast Arthurian (mostly) and other ranges.  I painted the fighters up to represent the Comitatus of a local Warlord, using the red tunics and shields with double headed dragons to provide a unit theme.
.  

I will come back and touch ups he shields but wanted to get these posted today.

The seventh figure is the Merlin figure who has a lot of the age old mystery to him. I love the metal bird on his staff, is it the Eagle of the Ninth?  Seven 28mm figures is 35 points.

These are good solid Beastie boy figures, lots of individual differences.  They can serve in Beowulf adventures as friends, foes or neutrals as required.  I my also do some Sub-Roman Britain skirmish games using Lion Rampant or Dux B.   

Finally we have the Ruins which I am revealing in full glory below.  This is a Sarissa Ruined City set consisting of 8 modular bases that can be rearranged as suits the scenario or decided in to smaller ruins.  I figure it can serve as a Roman ruin in Beowulf, or a generic ruin for other RPGs os Moonstone for later period historical games.  The total set covers an area 8" by 16", and is mostly 3" tall except for the tower which is 6' tall.  My math makes this exactly 2 cubes of terrain for 40 points.

Arrangement 1

Arrangment 2

Arrangement 3

Points wise I cout up

• 35 points for the humans
• 40 points for the 2 cubes of ruin
• ? points for the Giant
• 20 points for the Arda location
• Merlin and the Giant should count against the forlorn hope of the Challenge Duel

Having completed four planets on the Outer Ring, I am ready to explore the Middle Ring and all step on one of the Warp Maelstorms either side of Arda to see where I end up. 

Female Goblin

 This female goblin archer wishes to book a trip on the Star Yacht arriving at planet Arda.

This is another pointy eared goblin figure from Wizkids.  There are lots of little details packed into these little sculpts.  This figure was being photographed last week to go live when I realized that she had a mail shoulder cape and needed to go back to the work bench.  It turns out that my iPad camera has sharper eyes than I do. 

I kept with the same muted tones and stony basing as with the other goblins.  Challengers in the know might have figured out that Wizkids packs these figures two per blister and that there may be another female goblin looking for passage late on..

That's 4 points for the 20mm figure plus 20 bonus points for the Star Yacht.  The 4 base points counts towards the fantasy duel not that it's going to help against Curt's paint bombs.  My journey through the system looks like this so far.

AHPC X11 Pointy Eared Goblins

 

I am continuing a clockwise orbit round the outer rim with a stop at Vulcan, with he brief of something logical or pointy ears.  Well nothing logical about this crew but lots of pointy ears.

I have 4 28mm scale Goblins from Wizkids.  These have a real old school feel to them and delightfully mischievous faces.  I kept the paint schemes muted and minimalist but there is a fair amount of detail on these little charmers.  They wouldn't pose a serious opposition to an adventuring party in an open fight, but they are not likely to get into to fair fight are they? They could be a major pain in the tuccus sniping from behind rocks or in a forest.

Normally I put some foliage clumps on my bases but this lot might just as easily be found in caverns or dungeons as on the surface so went for plain rocky effects.  They are sold as 28mm figures but are vertically challenged, so I'll look to the Snowlord for points (maybe treat them as 15s?  he counted them as 28s)

Here's a shot of them surrounded Father Padraig to give an idea of scale.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

if we treat them as 15s, this is 8 points for 4 goblins plus 20 for Vulcan making a total of 28 points.  The 8 base points should count for the fantasy side duel.  That's four posts in the first 10 days of the Challenge, when I am normally hard pressed to get one in- a combination fo cancelled travel plans, frigid weather and staying healthy over the Holidays.

More Photos from The Battle With Sea Serpent!

 These are courtesy of Curt, and better quality than mine.

Battle in Orkness Harbour

 We fought the conclusion of our latest Beowulf adventure on table last night.  Pictures from the game are below.  Spoiler alert if any one cares to play the Seven Stones adventure.

Thigmund the Thee Therpent swims into the harbour for this full moon’s  sacrifice.

The sea serpent is a 3D print from MyMinifactory printed off by local gamer Jeremy.

The sea serpent and the town.

The town buildings and long ship are MDF kits from Sarissa Precision sold as a Viking Town set along with a dock.

Instead of the town’s sacrifice, the raft carries Alys with a torch and  a barrel of pitch and oil

Alys narrowly avoided becoming gravlaks and substituted the flaming barrel.

The serpent took its revenge with a couple of nasty tail attacks as Alys swims for shore.  Duncan the Old Ways spiritual leader comes to her aid and is killed in her stead.

The final action between the sea serpent and the adventuring party plus followers.  The figures are mostly Gripping Beast except for the four heroes on hexagonal bases. 

The four heroes are by Handiwork games, publishers of the Beowulf RPG, and 3D printed by Curt.

Sea Serpent for Beowulf Adventure

It's been nearly two months since my last post.  I've been doing games with our local group almost every week, but not much in the way of painting.  Fall is never prime painting time for me as its always a busy time with a lot to get done before the snow comes.

We've been chugging away at the Beowulf adventures and are now onto our fourth in the series.  To date my crew of adventurers has defeated a troll, a revenant and a giant adder all of which were unbeatable until they discovered their secret weakness.  No PC deaths yet, but there have been some close calls and deaths among their followers.  

Prior adventures had been done virtually using Zoom and Roll20, but we are able to game face to face so I want to fight the final battle for the current adventure on table top.  It features a giant sea serpent and I found some time to paint one up.

It's a 3D print sold by MyMiniFactory and printed off by gaming buddy Jeremy.  We'll see how the serpent fares net week/

Beowulf Adventure 1. The Hermit’s Sanctuary

 

My new bookmark fits the theme nicely!

The first Beowulf Adventure is the Hermit's Sanctuary, which Handiwork made available as a free download on Drive Thru RPG.  You get some pre-generated characters, a lite version of the rules and a very nice scenario.  This was created as a teaser for their kickstarter and like everything else connected with the game was nicely produced.

This adventure is a bit Agatha Christie with Trolls.  You hero (or in our case party of heroes0 goes to the aid of an isolated island sanctuary beset my a recently appearing monster.  The party had great fun working though what is essentially a looked room mystery.  The socail interactions with NOCs are nicely thought out.  For instance the order that you approach the NOCt matters  as success with one chaacter may lead to a better (or wrse) chance of success with another.  They had to peice together bits of the mystery from the NPC's stories, ancient standing stones and other evidence.

 This was my first experience as DM in 40 years, and my first  experience with DnD 5e so I was rusty and made lots of errors.  I was too easy on my party, but it was fun with a good end result.  They solved the mystery, killed the Monster, sorted out a few things with the NPCs and sailed away.  Another weekends work for the Dark Age adventurer!

What I Played During Lockdown

Our group did a number of Zoom games during the lockdowns over the last year.  One of the games was an RPG campaign DMed by me using Handiwork Games Beowulf game.  We had a lot of fun with this very well put together and thematic RPG.  It is based on early medieval epics such as the Anglo Saxon Beowulf, although there’s room for Danish, Slavic and Celtic heroes and even Irish Saints.

Beowulf is by Handiwork Games and is best described as a DnD 5e hack.  They took the core 5e mechanism, hacked out a few bits and added different stuff.  Gone are magic using PCs, DnD alignments, and character classes.  Every PC is a hero, essentially a beefed up fighter and the only magic is run by the DM or NPCs.  They have really bought into the early medieval theme and the world created holds up very well.Beowulf was designed to be run in tandem play, one DM and one Heroic PC with a number of NPC followers representing the heroes’ followers.  However, we’ve run it using a party of up to four PCs and it’s worked very well.  I just scaled back the follower NPCs and scaled up the bad guys as required