Sunday, December 23, 2018

Walls from Games of War

A few months ago, Games of War released some Spanish-style walls as the latest addition to their pirate buildings range. I finished painting my lot this weekend to show them off just in time as my last painting project for the year.


I have been loving the products from Games of War for years now - not only their nice pirate buildings, but more so the fantastic ships and boats, such as the British cutter, the longboats and small ships. With the release of these walls they have expanded their buildings range which should be interesting not only for pirate games such as Blood & Plunder but for a variety of other settings as well.

Friday, December 7, 2018

Animal tokens

For a long time I have been wanting to do some animal tokens. Now I finally had the time to do some.

The basic idea is to have a number of "empty" bases that accompany my normal miniatures. Obviously, they have to be the same bases as usual so they are, as always, from Fenris Games:

Over the years I have collected a number of animals. These are the ones I used:




So what to do with these bases? In a number of scenarios that we play, the characters can move across the board unseen. Sometimes they hide as civilians, sometimes they move as shadows or street animals. For each of my pirate crew members I have one respective character marker on a 25mm round plywood base. These markers are secretly placed under Civilian models or under these new animal tokens.

Character markers for my pirate crew members


Sunday, November 25, 2018

Battery by Slug Industries

In this post I take a look at the battery terrain piece which was produced by Slug Industries as part of a kickstarter project for their Spanish Fort.

In my recent review of the 28mm Spanish Fort I already mentioned that I also got the battery piece that was funded via the kickstarter project. The battery is a solid piece of resin. Aside from the main piece there is a planking piece, similar to the one that was provided with the Spanish Fort, and an MDF kit for a ladder - again, same as with the fort. So, beside filing off a few sharp edges and assembling the ladder, there is no further assembly required.

The battery, the planking (right) and the ladder kit (bottom right)


Friday, November 23, 2018

Pirates of Treasure Island

In August this year, there was a kickstarter campaign for releasing a range of 28mm pirates of Treasure Island. I'm not only going to say that these are really nice miniatures. But I have also been waiting for almost ten years for them to be released.

Mr. O'Brien from the
Pirates of Treasure Island range
It was back in December 2008 when I first blogged about this range of pirates. At the time, Legends of the High Seas was slowing growing to become my skirmish game of choice after having played Mordheim for many many years. Wargames Foundry and Black Scorpion Miniatures were the pirate manufacturers of the time.

Through a Polish forum I got to know sculptor Flis Wojtek, who had been working for Black Tree Design and Warlord Games. He had shared photos of greens of a lot of characterful pirate miniatures that were supposed to be released through Black Hat Miniatures. However, that never happened, until ...

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Personalized Movement Gauge from LITKO

While I was browsing the LITKO website recently I came across their offer for personalized movement gauges. With its lengths of 1/2", 1", 3" and 6" this is a very handy tool, not only for Age of Sigmar. The surface can be customized with your own logo and text. The gauge will be very useful in our games of Dogs Ahoy. I would have liked to use the free space for a summary of the turn order or some other quick reference notes. However, since the rules are still work in progress I chose not to and only went with the Dogs Ahoy logo.

Two movement gauges from LITKO with the Dogs Ahoy logo

Since I was ordering anyway, I chose to also get some flame markers. There are a few scenarios in Dogs Ahoy where crews set a ship or building on fire and these work quite nicely.


Friday, November 9, 2018

Spanish Fort by Slug Industries

The Spanish Fort by Slug Industries is a terrain piece modeled after the actual Fort Matanzas and successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. In this article I take a closer look at the model and present my painted version as well as some gaming ideas for the fort.



Saturday, August 11, 2018

Night Watchmen

After I have been gathering a number of highwaymen and other 17th-18th century scoundrel over the last years it is time to bring some appropriate opponents for these criminals to the table. I always found night watchmen to be equally stylish and characterful and here they are at last!

Night Watchmen are a great faction for 17th to 18th century games. Be it highwaymen, pirates or other criminals, watchmen are a great group of non-player models that players need to avoid during their nightly operations. For missions at daytime they can serve as guards or militia. Because of this, I found it all the more surprising that there are almost no suitable models available. While collecting highwaymen and robbers is relatively easy - mostly thanks to the excellent range from Outpost Wargames Services - this is not the case for night watchmen. The one true night watch model that I had known for some time is Squire Mortimer Bush from Foundry's Smugglers set (CIV007) from the 18th Century Civilians range. This is very much the prototype of what I was looking for: A model in a greatcoat, wearing a tricorne and carrying a lantern.

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Longboats from Games of War and Firelock Games

In this blog post I take a look at the longboats from Games of War and Firelock Games.

Longboats from Games of War

As I had already bought some of the other boats (tenders and jolly boats) from Games of War as well as their bigger ships (such as the Cutter) I knew what to expect in terms of quality and detail. To my mind, their boats and ships are unmatched when it comes to the lightweight resin and the high level of detail and textures. Painting up the three longboats was easy and straightforward.

Three longboats from Games of War

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Walls from Empress Miniatures

To complement my Caribbean pirate town I recently painted up a set of walls that I ordered together with the Spanish Church from Empress Miniatures.

Simple walls like these can be used in a variety of settings. With the pantile roof of the gateway these walls fit nicely into a Caribbean piratical setting. Empress offers all the various sections and posts individually so you can order the pieces that best suit your specific needs. I went for nine wall sections, four corner posts and four intermediate posts.


Friday, May 11, 2018

British Unrated Cutter from Games of War

The British Unrated Cutter "Fly" 1763 from Games of War is the latest addition to my shipyard. In this blog post I describe the painting and building process of the vessel, its sails and other accessories.



Saturday, April 28, 2018

Gangs of Rome: Blood on the Aventine

One of the new games that I have been following with keen interest recently is Gangs of Rome by War Banner. Since I prefer small scale skirmish gaming with a focus on the individual fighter and great terrain, Gangs of Rome appears to be just right. As a member of the Gangs of Rome Facebook community I was super lucky to win a copy of the newly released starter box set "Blood on the Aventine". So now is the time to take a closer look at the game and boxed set.

Ever since the first photos of Gangs of Rome surfaced on the web, I got increasingly interested in the game. Granted, ancient Rome hasn't been one of my preferred eras for wargaming (yet), but the photos of small groups of fighters roaming the streets of an ancient Roman city look so cool that it's hard to not want to try this out.

Gangs fighting it out in the streets of Rome

Roman fighters in front of a mighty temple


The new box set "Blood on the Aventine" is the perfect way to get into the game. For only £35 you get a lot of stuff: 7 miniatures, an MDF temple under construction terrain piece, a rulebook for Gangs of Rome, dice and lots of other accessories. Check out the full list of contents in the product description in their online store.

The "Blood on the Aventine" starter box set (front)

The "Blood on the Aventine" starter box set (back)

Photo of the box's contents

Close-up of the miniatures

One really has to point out how much value this is: the temple set by Sarissa Precision alone would be worth the price. Speaking of Sarissa, I am very impressed by the terrain range they created for Gangs of Rome. In general, I am not a fan of MDF terrain. I prefer the higher detail of resin models. However, the Streets of Rome range features a huge variety of nice buildings and other terrain pieces: different buildings, walls, cranes, a temple, a fountain, a bridge and a giant amphitheatre. I especially like the many "under construction" buildings - something you rarely see in other terrain ranges and a nice "trick" to create accessible terrain pieces without going the usual "ruined building" route.

The impressive amphitheatre (source)
The raw amphitheatre with miniatures for reference
(photo taken from the Gangs of Rome Facebook group)


So far I had only had a quick look at the rules when the game was first released (the rulebook is available as a free PDF download from their website!). Now, with a printed copy of the rules and everything else at hand, I can't wait to run my first game of Gangs of Rome.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Spanish Style Church from Empress Miniatures

No village is complete without a church. To complement my Caribbean pirate buildings I got the Spanish style church from Empress Miniatures.



I had been tempted to buy the Church from Empress Miniatures for quite some time. Then, while I was painting the pirate buildings from Games of War, I decided that those few houses would not be enough to form the nice little pirate settlement that I had in mind. The church would be the perfect addition to the lot.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Spanish Pirate Buildings from Games of War

A pirate gaming table for the Caribbean is made up of more than jungle and a beach. Interesting games require buildings so I got me some Spanish-style pirate buildings for my Caribbean pirate table.

Captain Blackbeard raids a Caribbean town

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Aquarium Decoration Plants for Jungle Terrain

Aquarium decoration is a great source for all sorts of wargaming jungle terrain. I recently showed off some very nice ruins, today I want to share some useful plastic plants.

Plants form the core of any jungle-themed gaming board. The occasional palm tree is nice but what you really want is dense vegetation made up of many many plants. The best source of affordable and nicely sized plants is aquarium decoration supplies. I used a few aquarium plants for the jungle terrain sections that I finished recently. Now I found some very nice products on Amazon: Plant Mats from the "Hobby" range by Dohse Aquaristik. They come in four different versions:

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Aquarium Decoration Jungle Ruins

Decor Brick Gate from
Europet Bernina (234-105382)
In preparation of some upcoming pirate gaming on tropical treasure islands I purchased a few aquarium decoration pieces to enhance my jungle gaming board.

I bought the first aquarium deco piece years ago when I first started pirate gaming: the Decor Brick Gate from Europet Bernina (234-105382).  I saw this item and a few others put to great use as 28mm scale terrain on the old website of Alex Bews (aka Witchhunter, which is sadly no longer online). For the base of my jungle board I got myself the beautiful 4x6 Beach wargaming mat from Deep-Cut Studio and now I need terrain to fill it. So aside from some jungle terrain sections I dediced to get some more aquarium terrain. Here it is!

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Jungle Terrain Sections Finished

Many years ago, I built some jungle terrain sections which I never finished. Now, as I am focusing on my Caribbean jungle board, I took them out again and finished them.

The first step was to paint the bases and stones. Then, I ordered some aquarium plastic plants from amazon for some simple additional vegetation.

The jungle section after painting without additional vegetation

Aquarium decoration plastic plants


Some aquarium plants and simple grass is obviously not enough so I ordered some more stuff from PK-PRO: A box of Ground Detail Jungle Forest from Reality in Scale and various laser-cut paper plants by MIG.

Jungle scenery from MIG

Laser-cut paper plants from MIG


Finished Terrain Sections

Below are photos of the terrain sections with the various scenery and vegetation applied. I am quite happy with the result and will probably do a few more pieces like these.






Saturday, February 10, 2018

Dice Bag with Compartments

Something I wanted to share quickly: My girl-friend made this dice bag with compartments for me. It is especially useful since I use quite a number of markers and counters for my Dogs Ahoy game. I am super happy with it.








Sunday, January 7, 2018

My Wargaming Goals for 2018

The beginning of a new year is always a good occasion for recapitulation and contemplation. However, I don't want to look back but ahead: What do I want to do in 2018 in terms of tabletop wargaming hobby activities?

Firstly, I have to say that I am not the type for new year's resolutions. But I must admit that I have been posting less and less on the blog, which is mostly due to the large number of in-progress works and projects. It is easy to get lost and carried away in the many wonderful facets of the hobby (hence the lead mountain syndrome, which is more a "resin mountain" in my case). I think that if I prioritize the little and big projects that I am working on and articulate some goals, that I will find it easier to work on them with a bit of discipline. Granted, this is all still hobby in the end, but I do find it satisfying to complete things - be it the painting of a building, the building of a terrain piece or the definition of the rules for a certain scenario. Throughout the year, the following will hopefully help me remind myself which projects I really need to finish, or at least make some progress, instead of switching to another project that tickles my fancy.
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