July WIP

WIP Italian Pike

Just a few WIP shots this time with the first being some Italian Pike which should be multi-functional for my Hungarians and French Italian Wars Armies plus various other possible applications. The figures are obviously the ubiquitouis Perry's with a few of their European heads mixed in, the heads are generally chosen for the south of the alps feel. Should be fun painting.


Next up on the workbench, is a couple of things for my Empire Army. First the Army Standard Bearer on foot;

Empire Standard Bearer WIP

The 6th edition Greatsword commander fig with a couple of simple conversions. This figure is again a Perry's designed figure from GW and is a great basis for all sorts of conversions with fantasy and historical applications.


The next is your ever favourite Flaggellants;

Empre Flaggellants WIP

A mixture of 4th and 6th Edition Flaggellants with again a couple of minor conversions. These have been kicking about on the workbench for a while and indeed have been used in the recent WHFB campaign at the club so thought they aught to be on the painting production line for next month.


I have decided to set myself a target for August, my painting tally the last couple of months has, for a variety of reasons, been pretty pitiful so I thought I would try to get some of the foregoing figures painted, to a gaming standard by the end of August, aiming for at least thirty figures which is just one a day. Wish me luck on my endeavour....I'll probably need it.


On a different note, welcome to the Warblog is due to Vladdd309 whose musings on recent figure and rule releases is worth checking out.

Awake! Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake!

The defence of Almsburg

With the penultimate battle of our Warhammer campaign now complete and the Dark Elves have managed to reach the town of Almsburg and the Baron and the remnants of his army attempt to defend the beleaguered town with the help of the town militia, the game was a run of the rulebook scenario 'Raze and Ruin' with the Empire defending with 1125pts against the Kev's Dark Elves 1500pts.

The batlle started out initially pretty good for the Empire with the mortar being particularly effective and scoring three bulls-eye's in a row on the DE crossbow and generals corsairs and the handgunner's shooting taking out a fair number of the corsairs too. However once the witches got into the town taking down the flaggellant speed bump and soon after a unit militia and the dark riders running through the woods to take out the mortar it began to quickly fall apart.

In the end, like all good stories, the Empire troops went down fighting, the Baron leading the remnants of the militia to their doom and they charged the now captured tower and were cut down to a man by the DE general and sorceress and a hail of bolts from the bolt throwers, leaving at the end the lone survivor, the mage, to slip away and tell the tale. All good stuff.

Good showing for the Empire and they stood up better than expected. Next time the Margrave will show them what's what. Fancy a final 'final' game Kev, with the Dark Elves doing a breakthrough scenario against the Margrave and his 'relief force' to escape with their ill gotten gains?

Dunstan - In Memoriam - 1999-2011

Dunstan 1999 - 2011

Great companion, faithful and trusting, a dog of distinction, simply the best. You'll be missed.

ALBA World Map in Colour

Alba World Map

First trial on the Alba Mapping project is completed. Getting to know photoshop has taken up most of the time but certainly picked up the basics now and I'm now trying to get to know some of the more advanced skills. The colour rendition for printing and the internet display is one I'll need to master soon as the first effort here looks a bit garish but we'll persevere, mainly need to tone down the blue. I'm pleased with my efforts though even if there is room for some pretty major improvements.

Next up on this is to tone the map down and finish it off so I'm happy with it then on to picking up a couple of the smaller scale maps and bring them up to date, probably in a simpler style.

Lizard for tea...anyone?

As an aside to my wargames related activities, I've just got back from being over to see my Mum for the weekend and doing a bit of lumberjacking with my number 2 son. On the way over we stopped up from Rhunahaorine (the site of a minor battle in 1647 between Leslie's Covenanters and Alastair MacCollas' Irish and Scots Royalist troops retreating to Dunaverty) mainly due to the very nice sunset which we watched unfold.

Jura from Kintyre

The scenery and the drive got me thinking (again with the thinking) about the Lords of the Isles and early medieval Scotland. Might be picking up on the Scots medieval army again, MacBeth sort of period maybe or maybe something a bit later like a Isles and Highland army circa the Battle of Harlaw. The early period has always been a period of interest in Scots history for me and seeing some nice period armies recently and indeed the trip down to Kintyre has given me some inspiration so maybe yet another project on the way. Maybe need to finish one of my ongoing ones first. ........ Na!


This week, my game was a friendly against Dave B and his Lizardmen army for WHFBs. This army is Daves latest army for Warhammer and has only had maybe one game with it and was keen to give it another outing so my Empire was wheeled out again to oblige.

Initial deployment

About the game, probably the less said the better other than to say commiserations to Dave who had one of the worst night of dice throwing I've seen. Thanks for the game Dave.

On a different note, I picked up a copy of Cossacks 2 out of the bargain box at the local Game Shop for the PC.

Note usually a great Napoleonic gaming fan but for a couple of quid worth picking up, and since I did like the first game in the series many years ago, thought it might be interesting. Lead up to 10,000 men to victory at the battles of the Leipzig, Borodino and Waterloo, could be fun with a bit of a light entertainment on the cards when invading Russia.

Change...The Universal Constant

Just a wee change to the look of the blog since I noted that it had been running for the best part of a year now and as I'm an avid tinkerer with dashboards, wallpapers and the like I thought I'd spruce up the blog with a new look. As we used to say in our D&D gaming group 'The Lords of Entropy' many moons ago..."a change is as good as it gets...".


On a different note a welcome to the Warblog to Willie Anderson. His blog features lots of Nineteenth Century goodness. I particularly like the pics of Khartoum game.