Knights in Shining Armor

My most favorite gaming period is anything to do with armored knights, and I include the Normans of Italy and 1066 fame in this bunch. Hey, their First Crusade!  In any case I have a batch of Third Crusade knights to run one of these days, not only the armored foot and horse but crossbows and peasants.  Gotta have the bootless and unhorsed in there somewhere. Up to when Columbus was claiming real estate for Spain and slightly beyond there were armored knights on the battlefields of Europe.  They had counterparts in Asia and Africa also, but we're are going to focus on Europe this post.

One of my first armies was a Third Crusade army, mostly done up as Hospitalers and Templars with a few Knights of St. Lazarus and a smattering of Lay Knights for color and flavor.  Masses of crossbows and infantry, a few turcopoles, usually a nice mix. That army was sold off 40 years ago.  Better figures were produced, and to buy them I had to sell what I already had.  The "new" Hinchcliff figures hung around for many years, until someone offered me lots of money for them, and off they went.  The current bunch of figures are Old Glory and others.  I have never been a they-must-be-all-from-the-same-line sort of gamer; I see a figure I like, I buy it.  I drive OCD gamers to distraction.

I like the big cavalry charge as well as the next guy, but I like to maneuver on the table also.  When fighting Arabs and Tartars you need to be able to move about.  Solid blocks of infantry are a slow but sure way to do this, and adding a few knights on foot is more than just window dressing.  They add a hard edge to the mix.  When you use them together they work pretty well.

For about 400 years of history or so, I get to paint cool figures and push knights around.  It works for me.

Images to follow

A Review: Tekumel Figures, the Shen

Shen Figures for Tekumel

I am a longtime fan of RPG's,  White Box veteran here.  Tekumel was a also a favorite game even if we never pronounced a name right.  We had fun.  So over the years I have collected and lost a number of figures for roleplaying and wargaming.  The above photo is a group of figures I have used for gaming the Tekumel world.  Some are actual Petal Throne figures and some are not.

I recently got a bunch of the NEW Tekumel figs, the ones from Howard Green up in Canada.  They are pretty--unlike my camera shots.  White metal? pewter.  Little or no flash and fast clean-up, almost none, as a mater of fact.

Group one is civilians and ambassadors, merchants, and what is going to be a fighter.  Two of the figures are bearer types so I will have to make a couple of hand carts.  The ambassador is in a feathered cloak with staff of office.  I see a MU there, maybe a priest type.  The weapons and shield are parts I had lying around.  On Tekumel the weapons are animal hide stiffened to almost steel strength.  Tekumel is a metal-poor planet, lots of jagged edges; we used to call them "Don't pull out the sword, I'll just bleed to death" type of weapon.

Next are a couple of pole arms, an officer, and a standard bearer.  I made the standard from parts out of the stuff I have underfoot.  Lots of feathers and stuff kinda like Aztecs, which when painted will be glorious.

Next pic is the sword-axe and shield men with two unarmored berserkers, at least in my army.  The sword-axe is again a "just let me die" style of weapon.  It is the Shen national weapon.

Weapon and shield Shen with officer and standard bearer.  Please note Shen also have a mace tail body weapon to add into the melee.

This is another unit that will be either polearms or weapon and shield. The standard bearer is factory provided and very cool.

I'm looking forward to getting this group of figures painted.  In Tekumel canon the Shen are almost black green, but my troops are lighter colored, mostly to show detail.  I have lots of stuff in line ahead of this group of figures, but I might jump them forward.

Another small problem is rules for this world. There are no workable Tekumel rules.  You find a set you like and change them to fit your needs.  My current favorite rules are the FUBAR rules, one-page rules where you write up the details of your era, or in this case world, and away you go.  I may have to find the army lists I have somewhere and convert them to FUBAR,  I'll share if I do.  Enjoy life and don't do anything I wouldn't do . . . .

This Is Not a Test: Swamp Town

So one of the favorite games right now is "This Is Not a Test" Post-Apocalyptic Skirmish Rules.

They are great. Mutant charts are the best I have seen, the system is quick and simple.  Most of the group I play with picked it up in 2 turns.  Great game.

The above picture is the Mutant town, in the swamp section of the home-grown campaign in Flatbush.  The setting is after your grandfather's grandfather's time.  The swamp set-up is a mat with a yucky river running through it and spots to add "ponds" for various denizens of the Swamp Town.

The various parts are 30 years in the making.  The building in the foreground is a birdhouse from Michael's I got 30 years ago, the forest cloth is 10-15 years old from Geo-Hex, the Mutant tree stand I made up from $1 store parts this last winter.  The aquarium tree is a thrift store find for less than $5; I put some clumsy platforms on the piece for the game.  The regular lines next to the tree are one of the industries of the town, wine-making; the more ragged lines beyond the river line are the other industry, opium.  As a pharmaceutical, all the junkies died off long time ago.

One of these days I'll post some of the players/figures used in the game.

Opening Day

This is a new sort of thing for me. I'm going to try to write something new here on a regular basis, I just don't know what that is yet.

I intend to write about my 44 years of wargaming, starting with Chainmail and White Box D&D, then a home-grown (not my home) set of rules for Napoleonic games probably based on CLS, although at this stage I couldn't actually say.  WRG 3rd edition was my first Ancients rules.

I still love skirmish games, have played every version of D&D, and have a couple of Napoleonic armies in two scales.  I have written a number of home-grown rules which the local boys have liked.  We change eras so much that the group I play with we all have a lot of figures, in a lot of eras.  But the good part of that is I get new figures all the time, like I need more.  

I have a couple of the first figures I painted and they keep me humble, sort of, kinda (not at all).  I paint using a lot of drybrushing styles, with some block painting and staining as needed.  People like the way I paint, 'cause when I get tired of an army it sells. 

I hope to have a download section for the rules I have written.

I hope to review figures I get or have and may show off how I have painted the figures I have.  I may tell stories of magnificent victories and defeats on the gaming table.  More of one than the other.  In any, case let me know if you like what you see.  

Later, Hugh