End of 2016 Sumup

 About time I did this before we get into 2018 right?  Well first up is those miniatures you didn't see but which I did paint up in 2016 but did not post because I was tired/lazy/unreliable (delete as appropriate).
  First up is a unit of Not-UNIT which will find themselves fighting off Daleks and Cybermen in a Doctor Who game soon. A pity a lot of Crooked Dice Miniatures' Not Doctor Who range is disappearing under the watchful eye of BBC lawyers, in the advent of the official Doctor Who game from Warlord (if it ever comes...)

Next up some miniatures needed for a Mordheim game at Warhammer World this weekend. Some for the random encounters table; the big guy for my own warband.

The ogre is from the Attack of the Ogre Horde Heroquest Expansion. Because the best thing about Heroquest is it's figures here he is with every other Heroquest figure I have that is painted (wizard not painted by me by the way)

I did have some Judge Dredd and a Sea Devil photographed too but I messed up the focus. Like I said   - unreliable.

127 models painted this year compared to 73 last year. Wowsers (yep I'm gonna use that word). I put it down to the challenges I put myself under. The Four Gamers and my own challenge to paint a Blood Axe warband certainly kept me going. I'm not particularly motivated by quantity - if I painted one fabulous Greater Spined Dragon all year I'd be happy - but it's a good measure of my painting speed and my commitment.

Gaming highlight of the year. This monster! - http://littleleadpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/bring-out-your-lead-epic-warhammer.html

OTT, slow, insane and all consuming - I needed to go home after it. But a mind blowing gaming spectacle I'm likely not to experience again anytime soon. Thanks to Snickit, Garth and everyone else's name who I have already forgot for the experience. Incidentally it was also my post with the highest views this year. Over 600.

Release of the year - Blood Bowl. Yes I know it's not a new game and really the tinsy number of changes GW have made to the league rules and Gutter Runners are over-powered or insignificant but it's back and thousands of people are playing  across the world who have never played it before.

It's a fantastic game (in my humble GW's best game) and it always has been and it's great to see that passion for it back among so many even if the core of the game has not changed one jot. And it means I can get games of it without travelling on a train to Rotherham or Doncaster which can only be a good thing.

On top of that I admin'ed the Oldhammer Facebook groups for a while which was hard and in the end too hard (started to feel like kinda like a job). They're great groups but as with that type of forum there's a lot of crap which is unrewarding that comes with it. Shout out to Warlord Paul, thansants, Steve Casey,  James Taylor, Steve Klatcheff, James Armstead and Chris Sabick for protecting the community from the spammers and monsters.

Image courtesy of Realm of Chaos 80s blog

Other highlights included finding an amiable bunch of gamers spread thin but wide around the North of England ( a few of which are Oldhammer admins or were at some point) but play like minded old games but sometimes D&D and sometimes less common fare like Pulp Alley.

2016 was a great year for gaming. Next year more GM'ing, more scenery, finish the Four Gamers challenge, more focus ( I have a project spreadsheet!) and a MASSIVE Doctor Who game in March co-GM'ed with thansants (more on that later). On top of that I'm getting married. Peace.

Chaotic Villager - The Flasher

Over at the Oldhammer forum Axiom has been running a challenge to convert/paint a collection of models who form an imaginary C49 Chaotic Villagers range - a nice twisted parallel cousin to the classic Citadel C46 Villagers range (which followers of this blog would know I'm a big fan of).

I've ummed and ah'ed for months now about what I would contribute. Having nothing that could be used as it is, I knew I would have to convert something. I came up with a couple of ideas that were eventually dispensed with until I found a very plastic modelI got with a third party Blood Bowl vendor.

Originally this fella had a nappy where his mutation now sits. I shaved it off with a modelling knife and sculpted the eyeball on with greenstuff. After it set I then finished off by modelling his eyelid and tentacles.

 It was a doddle to paint although the model is lacking somewhat in detail.

There were are - Heinrich the villager flasher. Best avoid the bulge under his coat.

Bring Out Your Lead - Epic Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition 'Rise of Morcar'

Over at the Oldhammer forum some ambitious types had the idea of running a game based around the idea of a massive Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition battle based around on the attempt of the Forces of Evil to summon the Ultimate Dark Lord from Heroquest Morcar. The idea was for this to be the ultimate battle between Good and Evil with literally no limits to the types and number of troops.

   Ambitious? Maybe. Foolhardy? Definitely. Fun? Hell yes.

  Luckily we had weazil on hand to try and interject some kind of order into this chaos and set some objectives and GM this spectacle. One one side were the forces of Good (Men, Elfs (High and Wood) and Dwarves) and on the side of the forces of Evil were Chaos, Orcs, Goblins, Fimir, Undead, Skaven, Chaos Dwarfs.....I think almost all races from the Old World were represented although I'm not sure if there were any Dark Elves or Nippon (but I may be wrong!).

The game started with the Fimir force in the centre of the table with Bran the Blessed and the Wizards of Morcar at a standing stone attempting to summon the Dark Lord. Realising this the Forces of Good came onto one side of the table to thwart this while to rescue Evil came in on the other. Other  standing stones were there and were needed to be erected and used to power the ritual at the main one. It was Good's job to demolish them or stop them being erected.

The Fimir in the centre got torn apart by the invading forces while the Evil Hero Bran the Blessed fell. Two other standing stones eventually fell, the Elven forces managing to hold off the Chaos and Undead on one flank.

Meanwhile another stone had little chance due to the departure of the Orcs and the dastardly but inevitable treachery of the Skaven. (The Skaven general was heard to snicker 'We only got included in Advanced Heroquest ...' in the dying embers of the battle). Meanwhile dragons turned up to slay two of the Wizards of Morcar while the other two used to magic to fly away away from the main stone which was looking increasingly under threat as an Earth Elemental appeared to knock it down in the final moments of the battle which saw the death of Morcar's sorcerers. It still stood but as a testament to Evil's shocking defeat.


Sorry if it all sounds a bit vague it probably is but as you can imagine with a game that took 8 hours and approximately 5000 troops it was quite hard to keep track of the forces I was commanding let alone the bigger picture. But it was still a thing of outstanding spectacle ( "glorious chaos").

I'm on a mission to try and find all the pictures of this battle (of which these are just a taster) that there are and I have done a good job of collating a lot from Facebook and people's blogs. Would be great to hear from you if you have some!

 If I get enough and can discern went I may even set up a more detailed report and summary if possible but will certainly seek to find a way to publish them all!

On a parting note here were the objectives passed to me by weazil which made me chuckle. They ring true on some many levels ;)

  

Ma latest boootay….

Sometimes it just feels proud to boast and I just wanted to show off my latest 'haul' as a number of orders as all came in at the same time.

  I recently got myself a bunch of imperial guard I acquired across a couple of lots - mid to late nineties metal and a horde of plastic. Recently did a trade for stuff a lot more characterful and closer to my tastes - selection of metal including Gaunt's Ghosts, Last Chancers, Escher, an Underhive Scum for Necromunda and a broken plague bearer. I am a happy bunny :)

Next bunch I bought was from an Australian war gamer trading forum. On the face of it I bought a bunch of Mordheim cultists but I wasn't annoyed when I noticed a couple weren't and are probably far older. I may use the guy in the KKK hat in my chaos cultist squad…Just stick an auto pistol on him and voila!

Number three is of the book variety rather than lead. I have been hunting for the Mordheim book for aaaages finally I bought it with Town Cryer from Ricky Hartley on the Oldhammer Trading forum for a very reasonable price (along with a free Mordheim coin). Top guy.

And lastly not Citadel or GW related at all but I recently participated in the Kickstarter for Johnny Lauck's Salvage Crew miniatures. They have a real Oldhammer feel to him and could be happily used as inquisitor acolytes, cultists, necromunda gangers or general rogue trader types. The personality really shines through in the sculpts even if some of the gun sculpts are a bit dodgy but can't really complain. I even have sentry droids :)

Full pictures for the (unfortunately expired) Kickstarter are here….

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/967512676/salvage-crew-28mm-humans

And now back to that knight I promised to paint…….

Many hands make light work...

Just a funny picture of my zombie's attempts to mug Crooks' mutant during our most recent Mordheim game. She has more hands than there are zombies. The mini is Deschala I believe...