The Daemon's Claw

Alan, Richard, Thomas and I are going to play a mini-campaign of Ghost Archipelago at the Warlords annual convention Call to Arms. We will play a pair of linked scenarios over the two days. As part of these scenarios we will need some extras. Everyone needs a 500 point tribal force selected from the rules on page 9 of Gods of Fire. In addition everyone will need some boats to take their party down the rivers. I have made a tribe from Warlord Games American Indians. They are lead by their shaman who is a Gripping Beast Pagan Priest. Here are my tribe standing next to a aquarium statue and some fingers for the Lost Colossus campaign. These models could also become another Saga Army, there are version 2 rules for Skraelings. I think I will need a few more to do a full Saga army because Skraelings don't use hearthguard, so that's a minimum of 48 infantry plus the warlords. I could use them as an Age of Magic army which would allow me to add in some monsters or animals a...

Russell, Alan, Richard and I played a couple of games today at the club. I tried out my new Pagan Rus army and my new dice cup. Here is my new dice cup whispering of things to come. This photo makes it look like the dice cup is chewing the table. Here is my army back from the wars. I used the 4Ground snow flock for the snow. This has an interesting appearance, it looks like small balls or clumps. This actually looks like snow and it goes well on the grass tufts. In the front are my levy with Javelins they proved to be a very useful unit. First up was Richard and his Anglo Danes. This is Richard's first game of Saga. The Anglo Danes are attacking and they are emerging from the forests. My guys are all off having picnics or foraging for truffles because everyone is separated from each other. Richard rolls several rares and turns his 3 dice into about 7. Richards Heartguard and warlord have spied my pub (the Dragons End) and decided they fancy a quick pint. My Warrior...

Alan introduced my to Alliexpress. This is effectively all the cheap things on Amazon. I bought some aquarium pieces to make into terrain. A base and a new coat of paint, along with some flock and its ready to go. I also got a bridge, an Easter Island statue and some Greek pillars.  I am also making a new army for our next Saga group melee next meeting. I am making Pagan Rus, these were Norwegians and Swedes that sailed down the big rivers into what is now western Russia and Ukraine. There was a lot of trading between different groups. The Vikings often ended up being asked to be peace keepers so became the de-facto rulers of the area. This gives me a force that uses the Viking rune dice and so is heavily into close combat rather than dancing around and shooting like the Last Romans. My new dice cup also arrived along with my Saga Age of Magic supplement. Its not quite drinking the blood of my enemies but its good for a bit of fun.

Alan, Richard Thomas and I got in a game of Ghost Archipelago down at the club today. We rolled up the Abandoned Watchtower scenario. This has the crews racing to get to the top of an abandoned watch tower. Everyone got a corner and got their crews set up. In traditional Wargamer style we all chose the corner we were nearest.  Here are my crew securing the treasures  Richard's crew start collecting their treasures  Thomas's Crew start splashing towards the central island and collecting their treasures My Heritor is sneaking towards the central objective. All the crews are exchanging missile fire. Alan's crew are advancing towards their treasures and the ruined watch tower. The heads come from a local supplier who has started making some of their own items. Three Heritors are almost at the base of the tower, Thomas's crew have to stop to deal with one of the guardian snakes and the howler Monkey. The Monkey puts the bite on Thomas's Heritor  ...

With the upcoming Badab War campaign I got excited about making another Kill Team. Its rather addictive. One a mad crazy impulse I bought a box of Grey Hunters and a box of scouts from Mighty Ape. With a 15% sale the price differential wasn't too bad. They arrived in a couple of days which I can't get from the UK. Ordering a Tactical box makes for a Kill Team and a whole number of alternatives and spares. So I now have a decent number of models to make up a Tiger Claws kill team. Using the Space Wolf models gives the team a rather barbaric look with a large number of totems and strings of claws. These could just as easily be a feline totem animal trophy rather than a canine one. I made some bases using the roller I got from Scott Bowman so I have some cobbled texture. I mixed in some spare standard marine parts (who doesn't have plenty of those?) to make them look a bit less wolfy. Looking at the photo makes me realise how much barrel drilling out I need to do. ...

Alan, Richard and I have decided to get in some more games of Kill Team using chapters from the Badab War. We will start playing this after Call to Arms. Using Kill Team makes it really easy to get into the game. Alan is going to make some Characaradons, I have the Executioners and Richard is making the Astral Claws. The Badab War chapters come in two flavours, original from the 1980s and new recipe from the recent Imperial Armour books ~2010. There is plenty of opportunity for painting and modelling. The club also has a Salamanders army. The Salamanders were also part of the Badab War so someone can use those if they want to join in. Using the same armies gets away from the mismatches where 5 marines are trying to corral 20 Hormagaunts. This is especially true if we are using the Arena rules where its a great advantage to have a large number of bodies to block up the objectives. We will be looking for additional players to join our narrative campaign.