Cross One Off The List!

Well, I can cross one of my "to do" items for 2010 off of the list...I finished up my Uruk-hai Scout Army up for Lord of the Rings. It also has some Dunland Allies with it. I was actually done a few weeks ago, but was under the weather and finally got around to takeing some quick pictures. So, here they are:

Sharku, some Orcs (for dismounted Warg riders), and some scouts

Some Feral Uruks, more Warg riders and scouts

Scouts and Warriors of Dunland
Lurtz, Ugluk, Vrasku, and Dunland Command

The Army

Now, there is over 600 points here and I have a few different list options that I've come up with. I have tested one list and I have a game scheduled tomorrow with Tim K and I'll try another one then. I still have some time to figure out how to configure the army, so that's good. I do feel that, like last year when I ran my all mounted Rohan force, I'm bringing a knife to a gun fight.

A New Year - 2010 resolutions?

Well, the New Year and New Decade is here and though I haven't been updating this blog much I have actually been doing some gaming related activities. I had a target date of December 31st to finish off my Uruk-Hai scout army for LOTR, but I'm going to be a little behind on that...maybe this weekend...the reason I'm mostly behind is that I decided to do up another box of Warg Riders that I won at the Gathering In the Desert Primer event. So here's my "plan" (subject to change at any time, of course!) for 2010:

1-Finish the Uruk scouts for LOTR: I plan on taking pics and posting them next weekend.

2-Do a bunch of buildings from Old Glory and JR Miniatures, along with some accessories from Pegasus and a piece from Hirst Arts; I want to get this done by the end of January or so because I'll need this stuff for a couple of tables I'm supplying for the Gathering in the Desert.

3-Touch up and rebase a bunch of 15mm Napoleonics I got in a trade. I traded off a 25mm Early Imperial Roman army for these troops since some of the local guys have started playing Napoleon's Battles and Shako II. I'll likely trade/sell off the Russians I got so I can expand the French and Poles I have.

4-Finish up the 15mm DAK trucks for my FOW army.

5-Finally finish up the chariots for my 25mm Mitanni army for WAB.

6-Get some figures suitable for 40k Stormtroopers to add to my Daemonhunter Army.

7-Start on a Warhammer Fantasy Army: I have a large number of Dwarf Wars figures that I can proxy as either an Orc army or an Empire army based on how they are armed, but lately I've been thinking of starting either a Skaven or a Dark Elf army instead.

8-Start on another 40k army: I have my Grey Knights and I think I will start off by adding IGuard and Space Marine allies with possibly expanding these to full blown armies in the future. I'm also interested in Eldar and Dark Eldar though too...

9-Finish off and base up a 15mm Marian Roman army that was painted by Philgreg painters in Sri Lanka. This is for Might of Arms...a good game which I hope to play more of this year.

10-Commit to one "new" game...I'm thinking this will be Uncharted Seas, but we'll see.

That's all for now...hopefully I'll have the time (once my son's basketball season is over with at least) to update the blog more frequently.

Happy New Year!
Tom

More DAK and "What's Next?"

OK, so here are some more (poor) pictures of my 15mm DAK Flames of War army. It's playable; I just have to finish up the detailing on all of the softskin transports. Infantry are Battlefront, Tanks are Old Glory and the guns are from both manufacturers.

So, now that I'm pretty much done with that, "what's next?" Well, I'm working on another Lord of the Rings army that I'll be using in the February Gathering in the Desert (pictures of that when I get further in the project). I also want to do some terrain for the event; I like having deadlines in some cases because it motivates me. I've also started collecting up models for a 40k Space Marine Army I want to do.

Until next time...hopefully it won't be 7 months!

Busy, but not dead...

So it's been forever since I posted to this blog...I've just been busy with "real life" for the most part. Work has been "interesting" since April when I got a "temporary" promotion due to a manager leaving; after doing the job for 3 months I had to interview for it and luckily I got it...promotions from people leaving are the only way people working for the State of Arizona are going to get raises in the forseeable future. I also had a busy summer due to my oldest son playing on a club basketball team, including a trip to Vegas.

In addition to "real life" time commitments, I've strayed into another hobby and started collecting sports cards again. Right now I'm working on some sets and also collecting players from the teams I follow (Red Sox, Falcons, Suns and Syracuse). That "hobby" certainly has changed since I was a kid and there was only Topps to deal with, that's for sure!

As for gaming, I had the wind knocked out of my sails in the spring when it was announced that Warhammer Historicals editor Rob Broom was made "redundant" WHW would become part of Forgeworld. At the time WAB 2.0 was looking good and was on trackI thought; since then...well, nothing. From what I understand from talking to various authors and testers that were working on various WHW projects non-communication from the new powers that be is the new "norm". I don't know when, or if, 2.0 will see the light of day, and even if it does if there will be any follow-on supplements released. I am helping a friend on some ACW rules that are supposed to be done by WHW, but that's the extent of my involvement. The saddest part of this is that after years of no real releases and all of this crap going on, WAB, a game that I really enjoy and a game I've supported with endless hours of testing, emailing, proof-reading, and defacto editing is pretty much dead locally and even if 2.0 come out I'm not sure it will ever get back to where it was. I'm even looking at other rule sets now so I can use my 25mm armies and have some opponents.

Well, enough about the negative...time to focus on the positive...I have managed to finish up most of my 15mm Afrika Korps army for Flames of War (tanks are from Old Glory and infantry from Battlefront):

DONE!!!!!!!

Well, I can FINALLY say it...MY ROHAN ARMY IS DONE!!!! (actually shouted it...sorry!). I've been working on this army for a while now with the aim of getting the entire army done in time for the Gathering in the Desert Lord of the Rings tournament which is this upcoming weekend. I took some time on this army with some extra highlighting that I normally don't do when I'm painting "assembly line" style. I also didn't just do the figures that I needed for the tournament...I did every single Rohan model I had, including extras that I won't be using this weekend, so that's good. Oh, and I did up a small display board which blends in with the figure bases and I can use to carry the army from table to table with. Each of the mounted models in the entire force has a dismounted figure...some of the shields are not the same, but the entire force comes out to be: Theoden, Gamling, Eomer, Eowyn, Captain, Standard, 6 royal guard, 10 bow armed riders, and 20 throwing spear armed riders (again, all of these have dismounts...oh, and I have a dismounted Merry too).

Sneak Peak of my GITD Tournament Army:

Another view of my GITD Tournament army:

Yet another view of my GITD Tournament army:

The entire Rohan Army:


It feels good to "finish" something...as with all projects, I'm only done with them until the urge hits me to add more to them!

Late Roman Infantry

OK, so here are the Late Roman infantry for my WAB army. I haven't had good success with the army as it's hard to be successful with it without using the Warlord list from the Fall of the West book; a straight up Late Roman army as I use it just doesn't pack too much of a punch. That said, that makes the victories that much sweeter!

Late Roman Infantry - Mixed Pedes and Archers

Another Mixed unit of Pedes and Archers

Armored Infantry Unit

Another Armored Infantry Unit

General and Army Standard Bearer

Well, that's it for now...take it easy...

Excuses, babbling, and Late Romans...

Well, if I want to average one topic posting a week for 2009 I better get to it. I've been busy painting and had a slight distraction with the Superbowl (and all of the cooking for the mandatory party of course...pulled pork, brats and wings!) and eventhough I'm a Falcons fan I was rooting for the hometown team...it was a great game! To top it off I'm also getting into a good painting groove working on finishing up my Rohan for the Gathering in the Desert which gives me 17 days to finish the army up!

That said, I haven't had a chance to take any good pictures of stuff, so here's an army that I've had done for a number of years, my Late Romans for WAB.

Roman Cavalry and Infantry Command Figures: Gripping Beast
Hun Cavalry and Infantry Archer Figures: Old Glory
Roman Spearmen: Wargames Foundry
Shield/Standard Decals: Dark Age Design
Painting: Tom O.
Basing: John G.

I put this army together after getting a good deal on some Foundry Late Roman Spearmen. Though not the best supplement for WAB IMO, I used the Fall of the West army list to create this army. The mixture of figures from Foundry, Gripping Beast and Old Glory fit together nicely, even within units. And kudos to Darren at Gripping Beast in the UK who allowed me to mix and match packs in the Late Roman Cavalry package to get the mixture I wanted…great company to do business with and I highly recommend them.
I also have to give high praise to Dark Age Design for their shield decals. They look great...too bad they are no longer available... And lastly, thanks to John G. for doing the basing...I hate to base figures as I find it tedious so I bribed John to do it for me as he does a great job.
The army consists of: 10 skirmishing infantry, 2 units of 24 infantry (18 spear, 6 bow), 2 units of 16 infantry (I usually upgrade these to light armor, drilled, and heavy throwing spears as the Veterans are too expensive IMO), 2 units of 12 archers, 10 Hunnic light cavalry, 10 Roman horse archers, 10 Roman light cavalry, 10 Roman heavy cavalry, 12 Roman Cataphracts, a General, and an Army Standard Bearer.

Late Roman Heavy Cavalry

Late Roman Cataphracts

Hun Light Cavalry

Roman Light Cavalry screening the Heavies

Roman Horse Archers screening the Cataphracts

Next post will be the Infantry...