Ahhhh! M' Heartyies!

 At Salute this year I bought 8 Dwarf Pirates from Black Scorpion. 4 have been put somewhere safe and I Cannot find them. I know they have not been thrown out though.... well I think I know!

But here are the other 4. They have already been on the Analogue Painting challenge so if you follow that you will have seen the crew before. These have been the first Resin figures I have painted (I have done vehicles before) and I did find the details just a little soft. Nothing so bad as to stop me buying more just a little soft.

After years and years and years of not liking Dwarfs in games I am finally coming round to them and enjoying them.

I kept the bases as simple as possible. Just sandy beach for a finish. This would give them a versatile finish and let them be anywhere in the world. Well anywhere with sand so any beach or desert.

They were painted to help out my "Enchanter" in Frostgrave, but Frostgrave seems to have fizzled out at the club. It may start again, but it gets less likely with each passing week, which is a shame as it was a good game and in the campaign I was not last. (I know that makes a change!)

But anyway I hope you can enjoy the figures and If I do find the other four they will be painted for the Challenge and will turn up here in due course.

Have a good few days and another post on Wednesday.

Cheers From Clint

Don't open the Box!

My last daily post for a few days at least.

So as requested here is a group shot of them all together. You know who they all are. So just a group shot to finish the series off until I get the next batch painted.







I have painted something for myself. (Shock horror!) You may recall that I had some loot or swag or freebies from the club last time. One Person (Relfie) generously gave me 3 resin chests to act as frost grave treasure tokens. They were purchased from The Dice Bag Lady £6 for 12 chests. As there are 4 Frostgrave Players at the club Relfie VERY generously gave 3 to each of us. And here are my three painted.

The central chest has my attempt at Verdgis (copper corrosion) applied and while I was doing it was my least favourite, now seeing it with fresh eyes I think I have to say my most favourite.

All in all while not a taxing paint they will add something to the board. I went for grass as opposed to snow bases just to make them more versatile and be able to use them in many more games than just Frost grave. Pirate games, Fantasy games, 3 musketeer games, horror games and so on.

Following the Dad's army figures last week it may take me a few days to get back in the swing so I cannot give a set day for the next post just to say it will be soon. And I am beginning to prep figures and models for Curts Analogue Painting Challenge now, and will be sending out both my secret Santa gifts as well probably this week.

All the best to you all. Have a good few days Clint

Club games yesterday.

I have very mixed feelings about the 2 games of Frostgrave I played at the club yesterday. While I did enjoy both there is something that just does not sit right with me! I played 2 games against Kev who is a really nice guy. I played my Enchanter and crew while Kev had to start from scratch and selected an Elementalist.

In the Pics all the Hedges and walls are book shelves as we were in the "Library". It is also worth saying that any "Fog" I cast is orange in colour (It's actually Hamster bedding from Wilko's for any who want cheap flames.  I am just saying.)


My tactics and the whole reason I had selected the spell at the beginning of the campaign were to get the loot quick and get out quick with the least confrontation.

Game 1. I got in quick and snagged 2 loot counters threw up some fog to cut down on the vicious elementalist range spells

 Kev kept advancing and killing any wildlife on the way (4 Giant Rats if I remember correctly). So I threw up more fog and used leap and telekinesis to get loot off of the table.











My tactics are working and I get 2 loot counters of the table. I also exit my Wizard and apprentice and most of my soldiers.






Kev keeps pushing forward and I exit the last soldiers to be told that they had changed the rules in the last game and any loot left on the table would go to the opponent. Last game we played if all your troops exited the board  then the game would end. (To me at this point the goal post did not just seem to move but to be on elastic.) So Kev got all the remaining loot. I did feel a little aggrieved but it was not the end of the world.

I did snag 2 grimoires and some coin and had lost no one and had gotten experience so it really could have been far worse.

A couple of advances and no losses. I would have hoped that Kev got less loot as that was what my tactics were about.


 Game 2.
The second game again against Kev. was the Mausaleum scenario. And the dice were not in Kevs favour. He did roll a lot of 1's on a d20 including 3 in a row. Additionally ALL the Skeletons exited the mausoleum on 2 faces closes to his troops.

Typically I started with as much "Fog" as I could to cut down on his very aggressive range attack spells.

The Fog stops my archers shooting but they can carry loot away as fast as anyone else.

I move my soldies and constructs up and into hand to hand with his apprentice. Who does well and drops one of my constructs but my infantryman with 2 handed weapons manages to take Ke's apprentice out of the game and then move on towards one of Kev's Crossbowmen.

The damage is being done though and my soldiers are being killed one by one.

Kev does manage to fry my apprentice with his wizard just as I jump the wizard with another construct and a bowman. The Bowman dies quickly and I just have my wizard and my  construct left active enough to put up a fight.

Kev is also retreating as most of his soldierscarry loot to his table edge.

My Construct now on 4 health drops Kevs Wizard so Kev can only activate in the soldier phase. Having learnt from last time and as Kev only has soldiers I exit my wizard from the board as he is on low health and as soon as the fog dissipates be a pin cushion to Kevs archers/crossbow men. I leave the wounded Construct on in order to contest any un gathered loot.

But the plan did not work and the construct fell.

We then rolled for injuries. I have 1 bowman and one light/small construct ready to miss the next game

Kev does less well and his wizard rolls another 1 on a d20. A terrible run of luck means that he has lost 2 wizards killed in 3 games. Both dead and he will need to start again from scratch.

I come away with a good amount of coins and 2 magical items ( a staff of Power [3] and a stone of fate.) I buy another potion of healing And will consider buying a Marksman or ranger to replace my wounded bowman. I will not Worry about the construct as I will get 2 chances to make a new one before the next game (Wizard and apprentice pre game spells)

As Mentioned overall mixed feelings but I will continue and try my best to win the Campaign although Ian is a long way in front at present and Relfie is about 20 xp ahead of me. Poor Kev is last having been forced to start again now twice.


The very good news is that I have scored some free swag at the club (and we all like free swag).

Firstly Thank you Relfie for printing out a set of spell cards for me after I pointed them out on Panzer kaput's blog. He also gave me 3 chests to use as my very own loot tokens so you may expect to see them painted very soon.

Secondly a thank you to Tim (who owns Front line Wargaming) for giving me some samples of his new range of figures. Oh shinies, yes free pre release shinies. I will not say any more about them just yet as I will paint and show them as part of the "Analogue Painting Challenge" in about 1 months time.

Thanks for reading today all the best from Clint

The chink in the wall

Mostly I have been painting things I cannot talk about. Today for example I will photograph the finished model for Secret Santa and send some Pics to Chris (Blog link) who is running it. To be honest the figure has come out very well and a long as he says so I will put it away for a month and then send it out. So Obviously I cannot talk about that.

I am also painting up some Cavalry for Peter in the wargames club, but they had  been painted at least 3 times BEFORE I even saw them, They are also not the best castings and Peter told me they were the wrong figures historically (they are Tartars I think and not Turkish Cavalry.... which meant a whole waste of research)  so getting them right has been a pain. I could talk about them, but my comments would not be positive so I choose not to.

So Instead here are some improvised walls for Frostgrave.  Yes they are the wrong size, but they do look the part so I will let that slide. They are only 4 inches wide and not 6" But I had the 2mm mdf bases already pre-cut. They are also 4" tall and not 3" but I just do not care, they will do and loot the part and mostly the gaps between terrain are not as wide as 6 inches so putting one in place will serve that purpose.  You can see they are carved polystyrene painted with a couple of coats of white emulsion and given a blue low-light just to make them look cold. Or at least colder. Quick easy and effective even if not exactly the right size. But to my mind they will do good enough for now.

Right back to painting these tartars and dreaming of starting a new project.....

All the best for now Clint

The demon's name is....?

This figure has waited very patiently on my painting table for about 10-14 years. So Long in fact that I have forgotten why I bought it in the first place.  The Harpy is a foundry Harpy and only included as a size comparison, and nothing more.

No Fran it is not called Raymond. No Ray it is not called Francis! But If I need 2 imps I have an idea what they will be called. And it is far to big to be called "Postie!"


There is nothing clever about the painting, except that it was done with a single GW "Tank" brush, except the eyes, teeth and claws. I just picked up the single brush and never put it down. All the colours are the obvious colours and required no deep thought at all. Yet they all seem to wok just fine.

He probably will be used for Frostdave and as my wizard is called Dave and my apprentice is Nigel (or Nige for short) I needed a suitable name for this creature (should I ever summon a major demon.


 I think I have settled on a name having tried a few out. Derek is currently my favourite but maybe you have a better idea. Maybe you do not.

But what should I call him? I do not want a fantasy name, but something more like Derek, Bernard, Colin, Russell or Phillip. Other names are of course available so feel free to help it get a name. but nothing too fancy. Just an honest British first name that is a little old fashioned but not biblical in nature. So NO Ezekiel's or Jedidiah's. Your help is appreciated!

Frostgrave campaign start.

Well it was 2 weeks since our start and will be at least a month before the next game of Frostgrave, but we are now up and running. 4 of us are all playing on the same board at the same time! Ian (Witch) Relfie (Necromancer) Kev (Elementalist) and myself as an enchanter. In fact the same types of mages we played in the pre-campaign. We had all changed spells a few times though having seen how goo or bad our first selection was. Mostly for convenience I stuck to almost the same retinue as last time just swapping an infantryman for an archer. Spell wise I decided on the following:

• Animate Construct (8+)
• Grenade (10+)
• Telekinisis (8+)
• Elemental bold (14+ Aligned)
• Absorb Knowledge (10+ Aligned)
• Fog (10+ Aligned)
• Leap (12+Neutral)
• Heal (12+ Neutral)

And only a slight change in my retinue 4 archers and 2 Infantrymen (as opposed to 3 of each)

Pregame spells were cast and I got a single Medium construct, my apprentice Called Nigel) missed getting another medium construct by 1. So I was just a little under strength from last time, but not greatly.

We played on a board that Kev had made for nothing or next to nothing. Which really did look very good indeed and even better when you knew what it was and what it cost. needles to say not all the terrain fitted in exactly but we do not generally worry about that too much. The first turn saw a group activation from me and my wizard cast Telekinesis to get the treasure close enough for an archer to pick up. And in the Apprentice phase the archer and loot counter were leaped from the table but the apprentice did have to empower the spell by 3 points to secure my first loot counter on my first turn. There was voiced concern from the other players both at me taking the damage from empowering the spell and also if this was allowable in the rules as the archer had already been activated and the Leap spell would mean that he could do nothing else that turn. But as he was then off of the table I had no further plans for him. Kev Cat a wall (the beige building on the right.) and Ian cast Fog all to stop me getting more loot. Their plans worked! No More loot in turn 1 for me, not that I would have been able to anyway, but both spells did force me to change my plans! (The rotters) Relfie did pick up some loot as well, but Kev had his crossbow man shoot the thug. Which then shuffled of his mortal coil and passed into eternal night. But picking up the loot had bought on 2 skeletons right behind kevs front line. While me picking up the loot had not generated anything!

Turn Two. Ian was getting happy with the Fog and laid down 2 more strips (one from wizard the other from apprentice. I used another archer to move and pick up another loot counter. Which Kev then shot with another crossbowman. Again straight out of the game in a single hit. So I moved another archer to pick it up. Again my apprentice did manage to cast leap spell and the loot was finally moved from the board.. But there were no more easy loot counters to snaffle up. The closet was to Ian but behind the fog so my archers were useless being unable to see and shoot beyond this curtain. Ian's tactics were working well. This did generate a random monster (an Ice spider) right behind me.  (Yeak!).Ian was battling another random monster (a wolf) and snaffling up as much loot as he could while Relfie and Kev were deep in battle with each other and doing physical damage to each others wizards through spells arrows and knowing them harsh (but friendly) banter. The Ice spider badly wounds my infantry that was sent to kill it while my other one just seems to provoke it more. I gernerally move up using the Wall Kev created as cover and get my construct close to Kevs apprentice. Next turn I will strike!

Well again my plans did change as I did manage to kill one ice spider but then another appeared in exactly the same place. I have come to hate Ice spider.

Turn 3 my construct engages Kevs apprentice in melee . Kev and Relfie continue the wizard battle and both take serious wounds. Ian Gets 2 loot counters from the board while Both Kev and Relfie manage to bag one each. I don't get any this turn  but do move an archer ready to pick up another one just before Kev sends an infantryman to attack him. So we both stand over it and neither of us can pick it up as they are fighting. Ian continues to cast fog and cuts all lines of sight and while he does try to move an archer to shoot my Wizard (who is called Dave!) the fog is too high and he cannot see over it despit3 his elevation. But He can shoot at one of Relfie's, so he does do that instead. There is a little sparing between the archers of mine and Kev's but it is mostly indecisive.

The battle with the Ice spider continues to rage and I do loose an infantryman and have another seriously wounded. These two ice spiders have cost me dear in terms of both men and time. But eventually they do both die. but have cost me 1 dead infantryman and one severely wounded (2 HP left) and have kept them out of the fight in the game so far.

Turn 4.Kev's wizard is badly wounded and takes the very wise choice of getting out of the way and out of line of sight. Seeing how badly battered I am Ian takes the fight to Relfie and picks up another loot counter. It does generate a mosnster (Wild dog) and guess where. Yep right behind my wizard. The places are all rolled randomly, it just does not feel like it sometimes!

Some of the fog starts to disappear, as does The wall I am using for cover. leaving my wizard and apprentice in the open. Both severley wounded and both only on one action. I scurry them both into cover out of sight as best I can. Kiev still gets a crossbow shot at my wiz but the dice gods smile and he misses.

My construct also has some favourable dice and puts Kev's Apprentice out of the game. Things are not good for Kev as his Wizard is also hit and put out of the game by Relfies Necromancer (I think he used a "Steal life "spell). But Relfie is also in a bad way as well and taking his second loot counter moves his wizard of table.

Turn 5. I am down to my last few men and everything is wounded. Kev is able to pepper my construct with arrows and crossbow bolts and it goes out of action. I have one wounded archer one wounded infantryman as well as both my enchanter and apprentice on 4 hits or less. With his single action the enchanter kills the wild dog. While the single action of the apprentice fails to cast a spell and instead takes a single wound leaving him but 1 left. At this stage Relfie runs his final figure from the board and the game ends.

Aftermath:
Ian ended on 290 Exp and 3 loot
Relfie on 270 exp and 2 loot
I was on 200 exp and 2 loot
Kev's wounded Wizard failed to recover from his wounds and will be starting again from zero in a months time.

Loot wise managed to replace my losses (except the construct which rolled a natural 1. Kev must have hit a vital component and I will have to make another one before the next game. I also scored a ring of power (1) which I sold and bought 2 healing potions. And I also had a Grimoire with the "beauty" spell. We did have a brief discussion and decided that the effect of the Beauty spell would be on all forms of attacks including spell casting and arrow fire so for one of my 2 advances I did learn the spell. My second advance was fight +1. This is because it is used in both melee and  shooting and also the apprentice also benefits.

So with two healing potions and 30gc in the bank I start the next game also being able to cast beauty. I also have a nice cosy laboratory as my base.

Overall a good fun game and at several points I had different options which may have changed the balance of the game. I have learnt a lot more about how to play and when to use certain spells as I am sure the other players have,

Thanks for reading, I know it was a long read . And may your dice roll high.

Something nasty in the woodshed!

Yes I finished these early so no blog post tomorrow so the next one on Monday.

so here are two constructs for Frostgrave. They are of course two Corndolls by Crooked Dice 7TV range. Totally suitable for Dr Who or 7TV or Frostgrave or C'thulhu or strange aeons or one of a dozen other games. But if I was not playing Frostgrave I would probably not have got them. But I am happy I did though.

These are my first figures from the SELWG show to get painted, not that I pushed the boat out very far at all. Very few figures purchased. Although I did have a very good chat with a few people including Karl of Crooked dice who does like an idea I have for a zombie scenario and is encouraging me to complete it. There was even the very slim possibility of them making a figure for it..... but that really is VERY unlikely just a pipedream.

 So waffling aside here are 2 28mm horror figures. I did think of painting the bases to be snow covered, but instead went for green grass finish as I do not see scarecrows in the snow where crops do not flourish!

Makes a change from BUF, these two were painted purely for my fun and not for anyone else. And yes I did enjoy them.

That's it for now hope to check in and post an AAR on Monday. Until then remember not all the monsters are in the woodshed some live under your bed!

All the best Clint (yes it is still raining)





















Let's just see if this snap came out better?

SELWG LOOT

Sorry for the lack of posts. They have been because I was doing something I cannot tell you about. Ok OK I'll spill! I was asked to paint a figure for someone and not tell anyone what it might be. As they will receive next weekend I will very likely post pics then or soon thereafter.

Well the picture says it all. Here is what I got. But most importantly the physical side is not as important as the joy of meeting other bloggers and other people in the wargames community. You can expect blogs of the show from the following bloggers, Tamsin (Link to blog!), Ray (Link to Blog) , Big Lee of the sore shins (Link to his blog ) Whispering Al (You guessed it another blog link.) as well as many more as well and I am sure they will do a very good show report.

So what did I buy, from top left to bottom right-

• 4 28mm Collie Dogs. you can never have enough dogs in a game. From Col Bill stand.
• 1 belt fed miniature that I am painting for Louise.... but she wants no pics just yet! Again from Colonel Bills.
• 1 20mm Huey medevac crew from Grubby tanks You may recall that I picked up a spare Huey at the Skirmish show. Now you know what it will be!
• 1 20mm Sampan again for my Vietnam collection as I have no brown water stuff at all (until now) Again from Grubby tanks.
• 2 28mm scare crows from Crooked Dice. Part impulse buy, part frostgrave constructs. I may not have another enchanter!

So as you can see quite a small haul. But after paying for fuel entrance and food and drinks (OK fizzy pop and sweets!) not much change from £45.

I did not take many pics of the day, but will put them up tomorrow.
Cheers for now Clint

Frostgrave -1

Before I start, first let me apologise for the very bright figures, they were painted about 15 years ago when I was into bright colours!

At the club yesterday 4 of us sat down to play Frostgrave.

Ian who had to make his warband and wizard on the day, played a "Witch".

Relfy who purchased the rules Played a Necromancer.

Kev who read the rules Played an Elementalist

While I played an Enchanter. I have yet to read the rules but I have watched a few youtube games so I did have a clue.

Firstly let me say I did get lucky on the starting out of game spell casting, And did manage to summon a medium and a small construct (Wizard and apprentice each rolled high, so my starting force was. (all seen in the first picture, and all from other games mostly from my "Empire" Army, dressed in the red and Blue of Altdorf!)

• 1 Wizard (Enchanter) With the feather.
• 1 Apprentice Holding a scroll
• 3 Infantry each with a halberd (2 handed weapon)
• 3 Archers (bows and daggers)
• 1 Medium construct (the Warmachine chicken robot!)
• 1 Small construct. (The chest)

One of my pregame decisions was to go for spells that were easy to cast. In fact I went for the following: (Enchanter)- Animate Construct- enchant armour- Telekinesis, (Witch) Poison dart.
(Elementalist) Wall. (Sigilist) Absorb Knowledge. And "Leap" and "Heal" from neutral schools. This would mean that no spell would be more than 14+ (d20) even for an apprentice so I should be able to get most of them cast IF I chose to enhance them.

I was informed we were starting the campaign so my tactics were to just grab the loot and leap the soldiers off of the board. At the end of the game though they all decided that the campaign would start next time!!! (In Fairness to Ian he wanted that from the very start, but Kev and Relfie.... not so much!) That's my little gripe over but I would have played the game differently if I had n
known from the start. Still I can see the logic  of a pre-campaign game to get us used to it so not really too much of an issue!

WE all played on 1/2 a table tennis table, each on one side but no figure could be targeted if they had not been activated. The terrain was a real mix and match, a little of everything, So while it may not look all that good it did serve it's purpose very well by breaking up the board. All the shots were taken from where I sat, with Relfie on the left, Ian Opposite and Kev on my right. Relfie usually attacks me in games like this, but he said on this day he would not and true to his word he did not at all, the closet he came was lining up a crossbow but not firing it at me. But I can never trust another player to do what they say so I did expect him to attack me and I am sure he will in the future, probably the next game!


As we were all learning the rules the game was slow as we checked things each time. (Thank goodness I had watched Youtube!) But in the first few turns Kevin used "Telekinesis" to move a purple treasure gem closer to himself. And As I activated after him I cast the same (useful spell) to move it back. He did it again with his Apprentice. But I failed. (Kev's warband shown to the right) .

Relfie and Ian both moved up and we all manouvered about a bit. While I was trying to do group activations my warband with constructs was too big so I would always have spare soldiers to activate at the end of the turn. So in the second turn having failed to move the purple gem (loot maker) I got my wizard to cast wall instead The blue gem on the laying down wall representing the magically cast wall. This blocked the line of sight so he could not cast telekinesis on the game this turn. So instead He targeted Ian's wizard with an Elemental bolt. Which did a lot of damage. I learnt from this. Wizards in the open are a good choice of target. As Ian did not have a heal spell I also learnt ALWAYS have a heal spell! Ian did try casting steal health, but failed and did not have enough health left to enhance it!

Turn 3 was pretty much rinse and repeat. Kev got initiative cast the spell again and Ian was minus his wizard for the rest of the game. Relfy was also attacking Ian (who had supplies  of biscuits but not of sufficient quality to stop anyone attacking him.) Ian's and Relfy's foot soldiers were having their own private war so far across the table as to have no impact on me. kev was also piling on the pressure with Ians troops as well as well as me (to a much lesser extent) Which did allow me to het a loot counter off of the table. (I  got 4 in all and was going for my 5th when the game ended but more of that later!)

I managed to cast another wall cutting Kevs Wizard off from both retreat and his apprentice. Some random "wandering" monsters appeared close to my archer (2 zombies), but far enough away that I would not attract them.

I was then able to send an infantry man to attack Kevs mage. The Third thing to learn is that 2 handed weapons hurt. As I inflicted 7 points on the elementalist. I rolled badly in the constructs battle and he took 5 damage and was pushed back! The fourth thing I learnt was that even if you start hand to hand you can still loose, take damage and get pushed back if you roll badly no matter how powerful you may think you are.
I cast enhance armoutr on the infantryman attacking the wizard and while it did work the variation of d20's is so large +1 is of little real value! My Construct and Infantryman died quickly hereafter. But My infantryman had weakened the mage sufficiently that my archer managed to plug him between the eyes and that was the second wizard out of the game.

The game was winding up so by casting "Leap" from my wizaed on the guy carrying the loot and once more by my apprentice I was able to run two figures carrying loot of of the table and leap a third all in one turn. F0r a total of 4 counters as well as move one of my last figure adjacent to another loot counter but not to pick it up.

Both Ian and kev also lost their apprentice very soon after but that was the other end of the board and I was on a loo break! The game ended when Kev lost his final crossbow man who was trying to escape of of the board with loot.

COINCLUSION> Well I will claim a win for me, as I did manage to cat 10 spells in all (wizard and apprentice) as well as get 4 "loot counters" off of the board. I managed exactly 300 exp, 280 gold, two Grimours (Control Construct and Draining word) and two magic weapons (both +1 fight)

No other wizard was within 100 exp of me or with so much loot. So Like I said I count it as a win. No figure died in the entire game one (Ians Apprentice I think) was wounded and would miss the next game.) But generally a very low leathality rate or maybe we all just got good dice rolls (I know mine were)

But most importantly here is what I learnt!

1. Do not leave a wizard in the open to be attacked.
2. Always have a way of healing (Spell, potion etc!)
3. 2 Handed weapons cause damage!
4. Do not try to fight 2 opponents at once. (I did not but Kev id and Ian had to)
5. Enchant armour is no substitute for a bad or good dice roll
6. Archers can kill wizard!
7. Wizards killing soldiers with spells  is good EXP. (exp for the Kill and EXP for the spell.)
8. Constructs are not that powerful, BUT can carry loot

Generally my tactics did work, but I am not sure I will pick an enchanter for the campaign. I do like them, but the enchant weapon and enchant armour spells are not terribly good (+1 on D20)  but they would allow you to attack magical creatures. And Constructs are also on the so-so side and not super powerful which are the main reason to play them.

As to what I will play I have little idea at this stage but you will get told as and when it happens.