The Silver Bayonet - British Warband and an assortment of monsters

 I finally got around to playing my first few games of The Silver Bayonet by Osprey Games.  For those not familiar The Silver Bayonet is a skirmish level wargame set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.

Although the mechanics of the rules are different than Frostgrave the structure of the game and it's scenarios are very similar.  To that end I'm planning on painting all the monsters needed for the 14 scenarios in the game as well as a few odds and ends from the random encounter table.  This will also be the kickoff for my plan to start building a collection of historic based/themed fantasy figures not only for The Silver Bayonet but for an assortment of other games and scenarios I'm planning on playing this year.

First up my Silver Bayonet Warband is led by Lt Archibald Tavington III.  Archie is a proper gentleman on loan from the 95th rifle regiment.

Along with their Lieutenant four rifleman have been seconded to the unit to explore and battle the unknown.  Two of the riflemen are by Warlord Games and two of them are from Perry Miniatures.

Accompanying the chosen men of the 95th is Doctor Theodore Theopolis.  The good doctor is proper soldier and in addition to his medical skills is not afraid to use his pistol to see off any hobgoblins that might be found harassing the countryside.

Lastly Angus McHaggis is a highlander from Scotland.  Angus keeps to the old ways and carries a great claymore to mete out the king's justice to the forces of the unnatural.

For my first batch of baddies I painted a bunch of Dark Wolves.  For these models I used the WizKids wolves.  The thing I like best about these wolves is that they scale properly with 28mm figures as they are the size of a large dog, and not the size of a horse that could be ridden by a man-sized figure.

Next up are the goblins.  I used the Hobbit Escape From Goblintown goblins which are some of my favourite goblin figures EVER.  I have used these for a bunch of other projects and I'm sure I'll continue finding more uses for these excellent figures.

No horror game set in this era would be complete without ghosts.  Again WizKids had the perfect ghosts.  These are great transparent figures that fit the theme of the game perfectly.  I particularly like the ghost lady carrying her severed head and floating through the headstone.

One of the figures I struggled with the most was the Hobgoblin.  The description of the Hobgoblin in The Silver Bayonet doesn't really match the design or aesthetic of any of the hobgoblin miniatures I am aware of.  I decided to ignore the names on packages and actually landed on a Reaper orc that seemed like a perfect fit for the description in the game.  I'm really happy with how this figure turned out and could see adding more of these style orcs down the road.

One of the other models I struggled with was finding an appropriately scaled Scarecrow.  Surprisingly (to me at least) most of the Scarecrow miniatures on the market are surprisingly large and over-scaled compare to man-sized figures.  Once again WizKids had a model that was both a great size and had a nice look to it.

I'm off to a pretty good start.  I have a few more packs/units of monsters to add as well as a bunch more single figure entries to be completely ready for the full campaign.  I'm hoping to get at least another dozen miniatures done this week, and then I might switch gears to scenery next week just to change things up.

And as always remember The Silver Bayonet and all the miniatures I've painted here are available from your friendly local game store.

Thanks for checking in,

-Jay

Now I lay me down to sleep

Although I'm finally getting around to getting an assortment of scatter terrain done a fair bit of it is stuff I've collected over the past few years.  Quite awhile back when I started playing This Is Not A Test I bought these Reaper Bones beds, they're intended for fantasy games, but I thought their ramshackle appearance would fit in with the look of post apocalyptic games.

As it turns out I found something else that will work better for This Is Not A Test and Fallout that you'll hopefully be seeing in a few days.  But having said that it's still nice to have these and they should work as set dressing in a variety of games.

I got these Reaper beds as well as many of my other miniatures and games from my Friendly Local Game Store.

-Jay

More odds and ends for Dungeons & Dragons

My painting has been fairly focused on actual (rather than theoretical) games that I have upcoming but last night I finished up a few odd figures for no particular reason.

First up is an awesome looking human paladin with a flaming sword by WizKids.

This figure was included in a two-pack with the figure I used for Sir Donnegal.  So although I had no immediate use for the figure the pack was open and sitting on my desk so I decided to slap some paint on him.  He's a fairly classic looking heroic holy fighter type and I'm sure I'll have a use for him in a game at some point in the future.  He also feels like he'll mix well with the small collection of paladins and clerics I've painted this year.

In the same vein I had gotten WizKids Imp & Quasit because I needed an Imp and ended up with the Quasit sitting on my desk waiting for paint.

I don't think I've ever used a Quasit in a game as the Imp has always seemed more iconic to me but it's nice to add another classic monster to my collection.  The Quasit is actually a really nice miniature (that I had a hard time photographing) with quite a lot of detail for a figure of it's tiny size.

Unlike the first two models I actually got this Reaper Halfling model with the intention of using it the next time I decide to play a halfling in a game.

I have a fair number of Lord Of The Rings hobbit miniatures but I can never get past the idea that they are the named character they represent.  I was really happy to find a halfling model that blended really well with the hobbit miniatures but was none-the-less not a unique character.  I seldom play halflings but when I saw this featured as one of the new Reaper Bones models I knew I wanted it for the next time I play one.

Well that's it for now, I will probably be painting one miniature for a holiday themed game before the weekend and then back to Ravenloft for some small scenery bits.

-Jay

A Forlorn Hope Part 1 of ?

I've begun work on my series of Ravenloft one-shots kicking off on YouTube in 2020.

In my case "work" means writing, mapping, and plotting but also painting and building.

The adventures will kick off with our characters freshly escaped from the lands of Barovia and seeking a way through or out of the mists of Ravenloft.  This should allow for a variety of quests looking for key items and clues to help the characters move through various locations with the eventual goal of escaping from the domains of dread.  (Think Quantum Leap if it was directed by George Romero).

For our first of three planned adventures the group will find itself in the haunted lands of Forfar, the Ravenloft domain originally detailed in the outstanding Castles Forlorn by Lisa Smedman.

I've gotten my models done for 2 NPCs the group might meet in their first adventure, as well as 2 NPCs they will definitely meet.  Also some monsters, because; what's D&D without monsters?

The guide.

Bondi is survivor living off the lands in Forfar that the group will definitely encounter early on.  Her primary role will be to set the group on their path as well as potentially providing some knowledge about the area and depending on how the group relates to her being a useful ally further down the road.

The mysterious stranger.

This fellow will have yet more information for the PCs but the group will likely be left wondering what master he serves.  The stranger may or may not have a larger role to play as the narrative develops but regardless will not lose interest in the PCs.  He will also somehow seem to have eyes and ears throughout the land.

The warrior.

Michael is engaged on a quest of his own, unrelated but potentially running parallel to the group's goals.  Whether he will be an ally or an enemy will depend highly on the choices the group makes.

The knight.

Sir Donnegal will be encountered by the group near the end of the first session.  Is he a stranger, or have they met before?  Sir Donnegal may be the answer to some of the players' questions, but he will likewise be the starting point for many new questions.

The Goblyns.

I needed some Ravenloft Goblyns for this and my third adventure and once more my Escape From Goblintown goblins seemed fit for the job!

That's my first batch of hobbying for this project.  Another batch of scenery making lies ahead and then in January I'll update with DMsGuild and YouTube links for where you can find more Forlorn Hope content.

-Jay

A new warrior!

A fiend of mine is getting ready to run a Dungeon Crawl Classics one-shot for Halloween and I needed to create a new 3rd level character.  I think as far as Dungeon Crawl Classics is concerned I've only ever had one character legitimately 'earn' his way up to 3rd level so a one-shot is my best chance to play a mid to high level character.

Oddly enough even though in D&D I regularly play fairly vanilla human fighters I've never played a simple warrior in DCC.  That is until now.  Meet Fergal:

Fergal is a Reaper Bones human paladin miniature that I got to try something new on.  Originally I planned to go with the same blue shield and tabbard as my last few fantasy figures again with an eye towards eventually re-purposing them as a warband but then I took a slight turn.  I've always liked the idea of white clothes for fantasy holy warriors but I've never been able to do an even passable job painting white on miniatures.  This time out I decided to try the new Citadel Contrast Apothecary White paint.  I'm fairly happy with how it turned out and I may try it again on another model soon.

Anyway Fergal's got; his sword, his board and he's ready to lay waste to some monsters.  Either that or meet the fate of most DCC characters and go to the graveyard or ripped up character sheets.

-Jay

And now for something completely different

When it comes to Dungeons & Dragons I DM a lot of games but don't get to play as a Player Character all that often.  What this always seems to lead to for me is that when I'm told I'm going to actually play in a game I end up making tons of different characters in the run up to the game until I actually decide which one I'm going to play.  This is effective a new chapter one in the latest version of that story.

I'm currently prepping to run Ravenloft II: The House On Gryphon Hill as a 5e adventure for a group of friends but after we conclude that adventure my buddy Darren is running a group of us through Tales Of The Old Margreve by Kobold Press.  I've never played a game set in Midgard before so initially I assumed I'd just be making a character out of the Player's Handbook but once I got my hands on the Midgard Heroes Handbook and the Margreve Player's Guide I realised there were tons of character options that are unique to the setting and would let me play something I'd never played before.  I'm currently juggling between three character choices but while I'm deciding I started painting and got my first potential character done.

In D&D I usually play a human character as most of the other PC races don't really interest me all that much, but in Midgard you can play a humanoid bear...YOU CAN PLAY A HUMANOID BEAR!  In addition in the Margreve book there are some additional Barbarian options specifically for Bearfolk Barbarians (Bearbarians?).  On top of all that the Midgard book also has improved rules for great-axes.  So just to be clear, I can play a raging humanoid bearman with an axe that can cleave through my opponents weapons.
The strangest part of this whole thing might be that not only does Reaper make a miniature for that, but as it turns out I already had one sitting waiting to be painted.  For the life of me I can't remember what I ever would have gotten this for in the first place.

So this might be my Margreve character but amazingly there are a few other options that are just as unique and interesting so this guy may sit on a shelf if I decide on a different concept.

-Jay

Let the descent into Avernus begin!

As I write this last weekend Wizards Of The Coast broadcast their D&D Live 2019 "The Descent" event and it was the first time since those events began I watched and kept up (more-or-less) live.  Although a number of cool new products were teased and previewed the centrepiece of the event was the new book; Baldur's Gate Descent Into Avernus.  This book looks like another D&D hardcover combo adventure/campaign book and blends a descent into the first level of the nine hells with some Mad Max diesel-punk elements.  For me personally this is great!  

When I think back nostalgically on my early adventures in D&D in the early 80s a lot of the real fun came from blending different elements into 'classic' fantasy backgrounds to give players a truly different experience.  Expedition To The Barrier Peaks (sci-fi) and Ravenloft (horror) are fondly remembered by most players of that era in spite of (or perhaps because of) their break from traditional western Tolkien-esque fantasy.  I got immediately excited when it seemed like WoTC was going to do something truly thematically different, and I can't wait for September to get here.

So I won't.

Watching the four main table streams from the event gave me some ideas for miniatures I'm going to need for the adventures and I decided to start working on them right away.

Before the first adventure of the event had even concluded I'd pulled out 2 Reaper Bones Vrock models I'd purchased with the intent of using for Curse Of Strahd and based them up and started painting.  The Vrocks are a pretty good starting point because although they are a classic D&D fiend, they don't look like most classically devilish or demonic fiends.  Vrocks are basically hellish vulture monsters that depending on party level can be either a real nuisance or a huge threat.

The Reaper Bones Vrock has a great pose that emphasises both it's large size and bestial ferocity.

I've got a pair of them because when I initially got them two was how many I needed for my initial intended purpose.

I also wanted to show them next to a traditional man-sized figure to again make note of their size.

I've got a few more fiends to paint up to get the ball rolling and then I think I might dig into my Games Workshop bitz to start creating some infernal warmachines.  In a perfect world I'd wait to start scratch building until I saw some rules but the world isn't perfect and I'm not the most patient modeller :)

-Jay

   

Catching up on fantasy RPG figures

Today was a bit of an assortment of figures for three different fantasy RPGs in currently playing-in/running but I've also got an eye to their utility for Frostgrave and Rangers Of Shadow Deep.  Its always nice to get a few different things done as even if its only three figures it feels like three entire projects.

First up I'm playing my second game of the new/current Warhammer Fantasy Role Play tonight and I muddled through without a miniature for my character last week.  Meet Jurgen the Grave Robber.

Jurgen is a Reaper miniature.  Surprisingly it's very difficult to quickly find miniatures for a lot of the character options in Warhammer Fantasy Role Play.  I suspect I need to build up a pool of WFRP figures as well as Dungeon Crawl Classic funnel miniatures, basically rough around the edges lower class fantasy civilians.  Aside from the figure I have to say the current version of WFRP is (in my opinion) the best version of the game to date.  I always liked the idea of the original but the system, especially character advancement, was so crunchy it always felt like more work than it was worth.  The current version maintains a lot of that old-school Games Workshop feel including some of the core ideas behind character advancement but simplifies it to a far more manageable level.  Hopefully Jurgen has a long future of murder-hoboing ahead of him.  Jurgen will also work really well as a PC or NPC for my Ravenloft games.

Next up is my (temporary) updated Garkas miniature.  Garkas has hit third level and I chose Pact Of The Blade, so now he is armed with an ethereal magical battleaxe.  I also added some hair in preparation to transition to another miniature after my next session or two.  I've already approved kind of a weird idea with my DM that will require replacing the entire figure when I hit level four.

This is really just a bit of fresh paint on my existing figure.  I redid his axe and added some hair.  I still really like this miniature but I'm excited about the next step in Garkas' evolution. 

Lastly is a figure I'm not ready to be very specific about yet.  She's an NPC for an upcoming adventure.  More on this shortly.  In the interim she will probably also be joining my warband for Rangers Of Shadow Deep.

The only downside with this miniature is it's the latest victim of me trying to paint eyes while I've got a minor hand strain.  The figure is one of the new Frostgrave plastic Soldiers.  I absolutely love these miniatures for a multitude of reasons:
1.  They're plastic
2.  Multi-part with most D&D weapon options
3.  Female figures that don't fall into "chainmail bikini" territory
4.  They fit really well with winter themed adventures

That's it for now.

-Jay

Zoe's World - Skeleton

After another brief sabbatical from the hobby Zoe asked me about painting some more figures from out of the blue last week.  At the conclusion of her last batch of painting I had her pick out another group of models so I could prep them ahead of time and this worked out great!  It meant as soon as she felt like painting I already had 5 models based and primed and ready for her her to go.

Zoe's painting options were; Human Female War Cleric, Griff-hound, Medusa, Orc or Skeleton.  She chose to start with the Skeleton but she did manage to make a bit of progress on the Medusa as well.

The skeleton is a Reaper Bones model and I have to say for a small very inexpensive figure it was really good.  All the depth of detail was fully realised and in spite of multiple small-narrow points on the model there was virtually no bending out of the package.

Although the Skeleton is a far simpler more basic model than a lot of what Zoe has painted in the past painting it actually show a tremendous amount of growth and learning on her part.  She drybrushed the Skeleton proper and for her first time did not go overly heavy on the paint during a drybrush.  She also chose a light pink colour for the shield which required multiple (four or five, I can't remember) thin layers of paint to get a consistent colour.  Compared to her previous pastel coloured Unicorn you can really see improvement in her technique which yielded a smoother crisper result.

She's going to have quite the eclectic model collection if she ever decides to jump in and start playing miniature games.

-Jay
 

Labyrinth Of Thorns (contains encounter spoilers)

This past Monday (Family Day here in Canada) I got together and ran a group of friends through Ashley Warren's excellent adventure; Labyrinth Of Thorns.

I'm playing in a couple of semi-regular D&D games but this particular group has basically been getting together to play holiday themed one-offs.  We started coming out of Christmas playing Winter's Splendor (also by Ashley Warren) and after thoroughly enjoying it and looking for a Valentine's themed adventure we were all super-happy to find a suitable Valentine adventure written by the same author.

If I can get slightly review-y for a minute I'd just like to start off by saying that Labyrinth Of Thorns is an excellent adventure.  It's contained to a specific fixed area which keeps players from going too far afield from their central goal, has a fantastic villain with cleared defined motives, and has really vivid flavour text and descriptions that make it easy and rewarding for both DMs and players to immerse themselves in the story.
I would wholeheartedly recommend Labyrinth Of Thorns to anyone looking for a terrific and rewarding adventure that mixes puzzles and problem solving with some challenging combat encounters.  It's available on DMs Guild.

Now on to the figures (because I'm me and that's my thing).  Obviously I can't show figures without potentially spoiling some of the encounters so.....spoilers ahead.

First up we have our intrepid band of adventurers.

I didn't paint most of these models, and unfortunately Kim's Gnome Sorcerer got a bit washed out by my flash but as you can pretty much figure out this was a pretty motley collection of "heroes". 

As an aside the funniest moment for me when the characters introduced themselves was that I was suddenly struck by the fact that my friend Jay's half-orc Ranger was pretty much Dan Harmon's character from HarmonQuest, which was only made more funny when Jay told us he didn't watch HarmonQuest and really wasn't familiar with the characters on it.

One of the first encounters was with a group of Vine Blights.

I'm super excited about WizKids doing Blight models as I have needed them forever for Curse Of Strahd and forgot how prominently they featured in The Sunless Citadel as well.  I basically painted the models brown, then green washed them, then gave them a drybrush of their original brown colour.  Simple but effective and really quick to get done.

One of the next encounters was with a Harpy.

I really struggled with this one  as I generally paint miniatures with an eye to using them in games with my daughter so  prefer more of a PG look and vibe to my figures but the Harpy choices available on short notice were this Reaper miniature or basically nothing.  I'm happy with how she turned out but if I was going to run this adventure again I would probably invest some time into replacing this miniature.

One of my favourite encounters and some of my favourite models to paint for this adventure were the 3 Spectres.

For the Spectres I used some of my Age Of Sigmar miniatures along with the technical paints Games Workshop produced specifically for painting ethereal miniatures.  Not only do I really like the look and feel of these miniatures, it was a great reminder that I should go back and paint some more ghost-pants for my Age Of Sigmar games.

Not every encounter in the adventure is meant to be hostile and the players were able to enlist the help of a sympathetic ghost named Ophira.

Ophira showed up with the intention of warning the group off from their encounter with the Spectres but one of them jumped the gun and they started mixing it up right away.  She was however able to help the group in their final battle before unceremoniously meeting her end.

And finally the adventure's big-bad(s); Rafael The Paladin and his pet Chimera.

These were also really fun and rewarding miniatures to paint and are from Reaper's Bones line.  Rafael is a really cool sword-and-board style warrior and instead of the colour choices listed in the text of the adventure I chose to paint him to match my cleric and paladin of Trithereon with the thought that I could possibly use them as the core of a warband in another game down the road.

The Chimera was another 'classic' D&D monster I didn't have in my collection so it felt great to finally get one done.  This figure was a bit of a surprise for me because when I looked at it in the pack the detail looked a little soft but as soon as I started to get paint on it I realised it actually had a lot of deep texture on it.  I'm really glad to add the Chimera to my repertoire of D&D monsters.

And there you have it.  A well written adventure, populated by some pretty cool miniatures enjoyed by a  great group of players.  That just simply felt like D&D done right!

Now I guess this means I need to start looking for an Easter themed adventure?

-Jay