Operation Unthinkable: Muskets & Tomahawks

Another month, another target met. I'm doing quite well with all this.

This month I set myself the target painting all of the Woodland Indians I'd originally bought to play Musket & Tomahawks, but later got co-opted into my perpetually stalled War of 1812 project. 20 Warriors, 2 Chiefs and 5 Villagers stood in my way.

At the beginning of the year, when I began Operation Unthinkable, I'd mentally earmarked these miniatures as destined for eBay, but the timely intervention of Dave, from the Spider Web of History blog, inspired me to save the tribe from this ignominious fate and get them done.

To celebrate this feat, I decided to do a little photo shoot of the tribe launching an attack on a small group of settlers in their farmstead. The settlers are putting up a fight, but are hopelessly outnumbered and regretting their decision to not bother with any fences (I need to make some of them). Their fate looks sealed.

I'm quite pleased with what I've done, and along with my settlers, I clearly have the makings of a scenario. However, what I don't have is an opponent for Muskets & Tomahawks. Matt has said he'd give it a go, but that would require him to add to his massive total of seven British infantry, whic have so far taken him four years.

What's more likely is that later in the year, I'll set myself the goal of painting up my War of 1812 Americans and use them for a couple of games.

I'm guessing that this qualifies for another Joker from 6MMRPC, but I've no plans to spend yet.

August is hopefully going to be a big month. As I'm not at work, I'm going to take the opportunity to take a chunk out of my Batman backlog (hereafter to be known at 'the Batlog'), which should include at least a dozen models, three buildings and numerous other pieces of scenery. As ever with the Batman stuff, nothing is being got rid of if I don't get it all done, but if I succeed, I might be burning a few of my Jokers restocking.

Head-To-Head: The Batman Crew

It's been a while since I added anything to this series of articles, mainly because work got in the way and then I was out of the Batman mood. Then, today, on the Arkham City Limits Facebook group, it was mentioned that shorter comparisons of the duplicate characters in the game would be useful for folks who are new to the Batman Miniatures Game and I was inspired to do just that.

I'm going to try to organise these articles according to the different crews, just to keep things clear and prevent the post becoming too massive. I also intend to come back and update articles as and when new models are released.

First up, the big one, the Batman Crew. This features no less than seven different models for the big man himself, and three different Robins - although one of these is actually a different character.

BATMAN

Batman (Arkham City) - Rep: 130, Cost: $0
The first model ever release for the game is you basic Batman. AC Batman has a strong profile, with some of the best stats in the game which makes him more than capable in a fight. Yes, there are faster, tougher, stealthier and more dangerous models in the game, but none that combine all these qualities into such a neat package. Attack 5 and Reinforced Gloves allow him to pack a significant punch that can't be blocked if you make use of Sneak Attack. Remote Batarangs combined with Total Vision literally allows him to shoot around corners. Defence 5, Bat Armour and Counter Attack make attacking him difficult and dangerous, and Bat-Claw and Bat Cape give him excellent maneuverability. Finally, Explosive Gel allows you to take out lampposts to provide some degree of protection from enemy guns, and Detective which increases your chance of scoring points from Riddle objectives. Basically, this Batman can do whatever you want him too.

Batman (Arkham Origins) - Rep: 144, Cost: $0
For just 14 more Reputation points, AO Batman comes with all the tools available to Arkham City Batman but has an extra point of Endurance and two extra weapons which provide a little more flexibility. Remote Claw presents to opportunity to knock a tough enemy down from a distance to help Batman's weaker allies (although this doesn't work against Large models) and Shock Gloves offer the potential to rob an opponent of their ability to act later in the turn (although this is a nice bonus rather than something to rely on). AO Batman offers a little more combat capability that AC Batman.

Batman (Arkham Knight) - Rep: 150, Cost $0
AK Batman is cut from the same cloth as AC Batman, but is a little less maneuverable (Movement 2), doesn't have Counter Attack and swaps Total Vision, for the slightly less good Night Vision. However, Master Fighter makes him more likely to hit in combat, and his Bat-Armour adds a nasty crowd control element to his Sneak Attack, making him better at tackling swarm gangs. What's more, Disruptor gives a hard counter to enemy shooting and Teamwork offers the potential to conveniently trade Action Counters with certain nearby colleagues (this only applies to Arkham Knight Robin currently). AK Batman is a much more direct version of the character, best suited to being thrown into the middle of the fight.

Batman (Frank Miller) - Rep: 109, Cost: $0
Significantly cheaper than the previous three, FM Batman is based on the aging version of the Batman seen in the Dark Knight Returns and so has a weaker stat line. He also lacks technology seen in the Arkham games, and so misses out on Explosive Gel, Total Vision (he has Night Vision), and Remote Batarangs (normal Batarangs instead) and like AK Batman he loses Counter Attack. However, he does have Combo which allows you to spend fewer action counters to gain more attacks than the more expensive models, giving him a higher potential damage output. FM Batman is a bruiser, designed to be used in combat with very little trickery. A good 'beginner' Batman.

Batman (Dark Knight Rises) - Rep: 120, Cost: $0
Based on the Batman seen in the recent Dark Knight trilogy, DK Batman is very similar to FM Batman, but has a higher Movement and Defence. His Bat-Armour is actually less effective than the other models, but the pay off for this is that he has Stealth, which makes more difficult to shoot at and also makes his Sneak Attack much less circumstantial. Crucially, this version of the Batman has Arrest, which means that he doesn't need to have Police Officers to remove enemies he's beaten into unconsciousness. This Batman suits ambushing isolated individuals and taking them out quickly.

Batman (Adam West) - Rep: 75, Cost: $0
This is Batman from the sixties TV series, and his profile shows it. With a stat line weaker than FM Batman and none of the attacking and defensive capabilities of the other models, this Batman will not last long by himself. Fortunately, his reduced reputation means you can bring a bigger crew, and Millionaire allows you to fully equip your henchmen, and that means you shouldn't skimp on guns. Veteran allows AW Batman some flexibility on his turn and Shark Repellent (seriously) offers the chance to reduce the enemy's ability to act. AW Batman also has Arrest, which points the fact that this is more of a team player,

Batpod - Rep: 150, Cost: $0
The Batpod is not so much a model by itself, but more of a 30 rep upgrade to DK Batman. The Batpod sacrifices Batman's usual maneuverability and close-combat capability for speed and ranged weaponry. A basic move of 30cm, Movement 5 and Fast means that the Batpod can pretty much guarantee a clear shot on an enemy model, and it's EMP rule and Bat-Armour offer it ample protection from return fire. Once you've emptied the stun cannons, it's time to get off the Batpod and bring DK Batman into play to Arrest the downed opponents. The Batpod offers a formidable alpha strike capability to DK Batman.

ROBIN

Robin (Tim Drake) - Rep: 68, Cost $200
TD Robin is an odd character. His Defence 4, Bat-Claw and Detective traits imply that he could be used to operate alone, solving Riddles and grab hold of hard-to-reach objectives, whilst his Follow Me trait and Flash Grenades indicate that he might be best used in support of the crew's Henchmen, the Police. Additionally, Attack 3 and a Bo Staff, mean that whilst capable in combat, he won't be taking on any big hitters. In fact, given that he's a Free Agent, combat is probably the last place that you want him, and he should be focused on your wider strategy, something his Search trait supports.

Robin (Arkham Knight) - Rep: 78, Cost $0
Whereas TD Robin is probably better in a Henchman heavy crew, AK Robin actively promotes the use of other heroes; Charismatic increases the amount of Free Agents you can use and as a Sidekick, he doesn't take up a Free Agent slot, what's more Teamwork allows him to work cooperatively with others with the same trait. This is also much more of a combat character, his Combo and Shielded Bo make him better both offensively and defensively. Undercover even gets him closer to the action from the get go. AK Robin is everything TD Robin is not - he's all about fighting alongside the Bat-Family.

Robin (Damian Wayne) - Rep: 50, Cost $0
Firstly, we need to be clear the DW Robin, as a different person, can be used in the same crew as either of the other two Robins (in fact, at 50 rep, he's exactly the sort of character to make use of AK Robin's Charismatic trait). Like AK Robin, DW Robin is a combat character. Master Fighter makes him more likely to hit and Technique offers the chance to knock the enemy down, Martial Artist prevents him being ganged up on, and Acrobat offers maneuverability and a degree of protection against shooting. Use him carefully, probably against enemy Henchmen, as his Endurance 5 makes him somewhat of a glass hammer.

So that's the duplicate characters in the Batman crew. Hopefully, somebody will find this useful. Next up, the duplicates in the Joker crew.

The Village People

No! Not those ones. Well, maybe the one in the middle...

With the summer holidays started, ive begun to pick up pace and I've managed to get my Native American villagers done.

Even more so than with the warriors, I've kept these simple as they'll ultimately enjoy even less table time. However, they'll make for a good objective in scenarios, and I might have a crack at making a lodge at some point (or even a wigwam as a kind of creative trolling :) ).

The miniatures are from Redoubt Enterprises and I'm torn about them. In the one hand they're quite characterful with nice details, on the other, the casting is really rough and ready. The woman grinding corn has a massive mould line down the centre of her face which I couldn't get rid of, and the children are quite flat miniatures. My settlers are Redoubt too and I've found quite a few miscasts amongst them. Redoubt are affordable, but a bit 'buyer beware'.

I've also done my chiefs.

Again, these are Perry and you can see the difference between them and the  villagers in terms of quality. I think I'll take a little flash removal over miscasts and oddly shaped heads.

The chief on the right is clearly based on Chief Joseph Brant, a famous Mohawk Chief during the French & Indian War and so I aimed to paint him in a similar way to the paintings I found of Brant.

The other Chief was done in colours of a vaguely French theme as I may end up splitting my warband to fight on different sides and I wanted an easy way to decide who was on which side. Yes, I'm aware that the French hadn't adopted the the tricolour at this point, but white would not make for an interesting model. I also figured that blue would work for the handful of natives who fought on the side of the United States in the War of 1812.

So that's all my Woodland Indians done (well, except for a baby in a crib, and a dog urinating against a tree), and now I have a couple of days to get them all based...

How Wes Ruined Star Wars...

We've just finished running through the narrative campaign in Imperial Assault, and I have to say that it's a brilliant game. The linked narrative nature of it takes me back to Heroquest.

Disappointingly, we, the Rebels, lost the final encounter. We'd previously bested the villainous General Weiss and prevented him even getting into his suped-up AT-ST before battering him down.

However, rather predictably, the climax of the campaign saw Darth Vader show up again. The last time we met Vader, he force choked Matt's Rebel Trooper, beat up Pete's Jedi, and cut down Luke Skywalker, causing us to lose a scenario. The first time we met him, he force choked Matt's Trooper, beat up Pete's Jedi and caused us to lose the scenario.

This time however, things were different. A door opened, Vader was there, he force choked Matt's Trooper; so far, so Vader. Mike's Smuggler had learned to shoot round corners (and apparently through walls - although we might have been cheating) and preceded to shoot the Dark Lord of the Sith from a position of complete safety.

Amazingly, rather than advancing into the face of the fight and dispatching Stormtroopers to deal with Mike, Wes made Vader run and hide in a corner. My Wookiee Meatshield had to run to catch up in order to smack him upside the head.

At the climax of the campaign, Darth  Vader cowered in a corner whilst we tried in vain to fight through his minions to fight the most dangerous model in the game.

We took a vote and decided that although the Rebels had technically list the campaign, Wes had acted in a wholly un-Imperial manner and had therefore rendered the whole thing void. :)

It's called Imperial ASSAULT for a reason!

Nevertheless, Imperial Assault is a cracking game and well worth playing.

All of a quiver...

Another quick update on my progress with the Woodland Indians. Another six done; this time it's all the models with bows.

All six of these are from Perry Miniatures and the difference in detail and animation between these and the Crusader models I've mainly been painting is noticeable.

However, as ever with Perry figures, the additional detail also comes with significantly more flash and cleaning up required.

Nevertheless, better models are more enjoyable to paint and my spirits are higher than last week as now only have two chief models and half a dozen villagers to do before the end of the month. The villagers should be quicker due to the lack of weapons and war paint, so I might try to be a bit more ambitious with the chiefs. 

"White man paint with slow brush."

Work continues on the Native Americans...slowly.

However, I have managed to get through another nine warriors, leaving just six bow-armed warriors, six villagers and two chiefs to get through before the end of the month. Oh, and the bases.

The miniatures I'm painting are a mixture of Crusader and Perry sculpts. The Crusader miniatures are more chunky (especially the weapons) but relatively simple sculpts. The Perry miniatures are more detailed and finer but more prone to flash.

I'm being quite simplistic about how I'm painting them, mainly for speed, and not worrying too much about detailing and patterns. I may go back and do this in time (but probably won't), but for now I'm not worrying too much about models which, if I'm honest, won't get used that much.

In other news, despite trying to gain some ground on my unpainted mountain, I've managed to gain 30 plastic Germans for a new Bolt Action army. I'm claiming immunity from spending a joker as they were free when I renewed my subscription to Wargames Illustrated. I'm planning to do a very small, elite force of Germans, which should play very differently to my Soviet horde. However, a couple of recent experiments with veteran Soviet have gone less than well, as the reduced number of units means that I've suffered from a lack of redundancy, and been more vulnerable to freak dice results.

I've also received my copy of Frostgrave, a new fantasy skirmish game from Osprey. It only requires 10 models in a warband, and the fantasy theme means that I've already got plenty of usable models and don't have to buy or paint anything. I may eventually do some models specifically for the game, but barring two or three miniatures to add a bit of variety, I'm ready to play.

That's it for this week. Expect more Indians next week...

It's the end of the world as we know it!

The Warhammer World is...gone...

With somewhat brutal suddenness, the game and setting which has been the focus of the majority of my wargaming life have been 'retired' by Games Workshop with the 'End Times' story line and the tempestuous release of their new game 'Warhammer: Age of Sigmar', and I have to admit, I'm experiencing a weird sense of loss.

Admittedly, I've not played any WFRP or WFB in some time (I really wasn't keen on the 8th Edition of the rules), and not only am I no longer GW's target customer, even when I was, my penny-pinching ways and use of other maufacturers hardly made me their best customer. However, I have been inhabiting the world they created in my imagination for something like thirty years, and I have one simple question: why did they have to destroy it?

I know it never existed, I know I can still play games in the setting, and I think I know about GW's desire to reinvigorate a struggling product line and develop a more defensible IP, but there's something about ending a narrative that leaves future games in the setting a bit stale.

I suppose it's one of the reasons why my attempts at running rpg campaigns in Middle Earth or the Star Wars universe have always run into problems; we all know how it ends. The fixed point in time of the Old World, perpetually balanced on the edge of disaster, made for an excellent setting were every rpg session or battle had a narrative sense of relevance and importance. For narrative gamer like myself, the Old World will never be the same again. Which is a bit depressing as I've spent many happy hours there.

So rather than descend in a spiral of depressive negativity, I thought I'd mark this event with taking you on a trip down memory lane to visit a few of my high points of thirty years of gaming in the Warhammer World.

WARHAMMER FANTASY BATTLE

First Army: Vampire Counts (well, they were simply 'Undead' back then, but more on that later)

The cult of Cheaphammer began with the purchase of the Skeleton Army plastic box set. I believe that this excellent box might have been the progenitor of all subsequent multi-part plastic kits and still beats most of what has followed in terms of quality and value. Skeleton infantry (with a range of weapons and armour), cavalry and even a chariot, this box was crammed full of value and detail.

With the addition of the Skeleton Warmachines Boxed set, I suddenly had an army, and with a bit of help from my dad, I was able to get them painted to an acceptable standard (black base, white dry-brush, silver on the weapons, jobs-a-gud-un) and my 11 year old self had his first army.

The majority of these models still shamble among my army today, and are the reason why I've never jumped on the flavour of the month ghouls, wights or zombies. The core of my Undead have always been skeletons.

Favourite Army: Wood Elves. Always.

Even back when I didn't have an army, and stared longingly at the black and white entries in the Warhammer: Armies hardback book, I was drawn to the Wood Elves, with their minimum 30 Archers, mohican-haired Wardancers, now defunct Falconers and Shapechangers, and the inexplicable four-horse chariots (ideal for driving through the deep forests).

When I eventually, after many years, put together a Wood Elf army, I finally found my ideal play-style. I liked the evasion, stalling and tactical necessity of picking fights carefully, setting traps for my opponent and knowing that my units would get smashed by enemy blocks.

Best Game: Wood Elves vs Beastmen (Club Captain Tournament)

This was the first game I ever played against my long-time regular opponent Andy, who now lives at the other end of the country. It was one of those games where everything went right. I shot, slowed, harrassed and redirected his blocks of Beastmen and Minotaurs as they lumbered across the board, and when he called on his ambushing herds, the appeared behind his own army and had to cross the same killing ground.

The reduced units that made it across the table were set upon by my Wild Riders, Dryads, Wardancers and completely predictable great-weapon wielding Alter-Kindred Lord, and butchered in short order.

The best thing about the game though, was despite the butchery, we had a great laugh and became good friends for a long time, and Wood Elves and Beastmen clashed many times over the next few editions.

Best Edition: Late 6th - Early 7th Edition

This was the point when, to my mind, WFB was at its most balanced and yet still allowed a wide range of play-styles and themes of armies. This was when I was playing a lot and attending a few tournaments and really enjoyed the different experience of fighting different opponents.

Sadly, it was the arrival of a new army book for my own Vampire Counts that heralded the end of this period, shortly followed by the accursed Daemons of Chaos, that spelled the end of fun and challenging games and started the descent into a period when you would look at the opponent's army and know the result before you rolled a dice.

Worst Nerd-Rage: The Great Undead Divide (I still haven't got over it)

The Undead were once a unified force of shambling death. Vampires and Liches, Wights and Mummies, Skeletal Knights and Chariots, Hordes and Catapults all used to share the same army list. And then they didn't. When the concept of the Vampire Counts was born, my army at the time was ripped in half and I suddenly couldn't use so many of my models. My chariots, archers, Skeleton Cavalry and Screaming Skull Catapult were all suddenly off limits and I had to start rebuilding my forces.

This was the first in what was to be a long line of moments when GW seemed to turn round, slap me in the face and demand more money to rebuild my army. In a way, this was the defining moment in the cult of Cheaphammer and I fought back with ingenuity. The archers were retooled as warriors, the cavalry received homemade barding and were reborn as Black Knight, and one of my chariots eventually (many years later) became a Black Coach.

As the years passed, each time GW made a decision that negated or nerfed part of an army, I responded by cutting up, converting or simply buying from somebody else to fix the problem. In a way, I'm going to miss this as much as anything else from WFB.

Highest Tournament Ranking: 3rd, The Pennine Pillage

It was a small 1000 point tournament, and I took the Vampire Counts. I remember having a big block of buffed Skeletons fronted by some filthy Vampire characters, my Black Knights, some Zombies as a blocking force and some other stuff. I can't remember many of the games, except an ill-tempered High Elf player who didn't like the fact that his Dragon Princes got eaten by my Vampires and became very churlish as the game progress.

In my final game I played the eventual winner, who had a very similar VC army. Our blocks clashed in a titanic struggle and my Lord fell first, which led to the inevitable crumbling of my army. I've still got a badge from that day; it says' "I got hammered." Which is true.

As I side note, I was pleased to once win Most Sporting at the WPS Club Challenge one year. I still have the trophy. :)

WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLEPLAY

First Adventure: The Oldenhaller Contract

This scenario was in the original rulebook, and I used variations of it several times. It was a very simple combination of dungeon-crawling and investigation culminating in a disease inducing encounter with an opponent too powerful for the party to handle. In a way it beautifully encapsulated everything that adventuring in the Old World was about.

Best Adventure: Shadows Over Bogenhafen

A glorious mix of investigation, horror, politics and brutal combat, this adventure leaded very heavily on the style of Call of Cthulhu adventures as the characters were drawn into a plot by cultists (always cultists!) to destroy the city. With allies being killed in gruesome ways and an insidious and Machiavellian opponent, the high point of the adventure was the distinct lack of any deus-ex-machina, the the PC's messed up, there were SEVERE consequences for the setting.

Favourite NPC: Sleeves, from The Affair of the Hidden Jewel

Sleeves, the Bretonnian-Halfling chef with OUTRAGEOUS french accents and a range of ostentatious and impractical hats, was in incidental character in the Restless Dead campaign book. As the Warhammer World at that time was replete with humour, I took this character and ran with him and for the next few years he would crop up in inexplicably bizarre locations to help and hinder the PC's.

Favourite Pun: Baron von Saponatheim

Favourite Location: Kreutzhofen

The central location in the source book 'Death's Dark Shadow', this small village, nestled in the very corner of the Empire is a fantastic setting for all kinds of adventures. With snotling infestations, obnoxious nobles, Tilean assassins, ancient tombs, werewolves and mercifully few of the cultists that infest every other settlement in the Empire, this village is a grim, world of perilous adventure in microcosm.

It's actually also the place where I ran my last campaign. In a wonderfully low key series of adventures, the PC's rescued a missing pig, explored a magician's tower and failed to prevent a castle rustling gang on purpose. It was a campaign that proved that you don't need Vorpal Swords and Daemon Princes to have fun.

So those are just a few of my highlights of gaming in the now defunct Warhammer World over the past thirty years. It's a shame that nothing more will come from that setting and I feel what they've replaced it with is a cheaply thought out Planescape knock-off with some dodgy names (Sigmaron?). The Old World was full of creativity and humour, and packed to the rafters with the ordinary people who are sadly absent from so many fantasy worlds.

Given what's happened recently, I'm actually determined to go back to gaming in the setting. My Warhammer Armies will be re-tooled, again, for Kings of War (I win, GW, I win!) and I'm going to take my current gaming group through at least the first few sections of the glorious Enemy Within campaign when I can get them role-playing again.

And if, by any chance, anybody who was at all creatively involved in developing the setting in either WFB or WFRP over the past four decades happens to read this...

Thank you. The work you put in captured a ten-year-old's imagination and held it for thirty years.

Muskets & Tomahawks (Literally)

Just a quick post charting my progress with the Woodland Indians. So far I've done five of them, and this blurry photo shows.

Although I'm keeping most of the paint jobs really simple, these guys are taking time as I don't want their warpaint to be too uniform so I'm basing each model on a different photo or painting such as the one below.

The other issue I've run into is that the warpaint has had the unforeseen consequence of making them models look less 'human' when they're finished; sort of less 'alive' than usual. In it's own way, this 'dehumanising' effect has highlighted one of the reasons many different cultures adopted forms of warpaint.

I've still got another 17 to go and half a dozen villagers, but I've hada fairly busy week, so I'm happy with my progress.

Savages!!!

The end of June's project heralds the beginning of July's project, and as a culmination of my Guildball project, JP came over to give my Morticians a thorough going over with his Butcher's Guild team.

I'd like to point out before I begin, that JP was the winner of the world's first official Guildball tournament last months...with his Butchers. In fact, he apparently won the final in the manner of a steamroller. This wasn't going to be easy. However, it was going to be fun; I haven't played JP since our gaming club folded a couple of years ago, and we have a history of some brutal, and epic Bloodbowl matches (I seem to remember that our Skaven/Norse game broke the scoreboard).

The teams were as follows:

Morticians - Obulos, Dirge, Casket, Graves, Cosset, Silence

Butchers - Ox, Princess, Shank, Meathook, Boiler, Gutter (apparently he was being 'nice' by not using a character called Boar)

We deployed in fairly flat lines, and the game began with Ox kicking straight down the middle and following up. I used Casket to move up and use a range of his abilities to prevent Ox from moving, and then a combination of Silence and Obulos' Puppetmaster skill allowed me to move the ball out to the right towards where Dirge and Cosset were making headway up the field.

Apologies for the rubbish photo.

 I felt that I'd made a good start and then I started to learn how the game really worked. In a flash of special rules, Shank leapt forwards, stole the ball, dodged through my defence and flash a shot straight towards my goal. Score 4-0 to the Butchers. Ouch!

The ball was kicked out and Dirge went to collect it and again move up the right as that was where I had players. I began trying to batted the Butchers in the area, but found Shank hard to lay my hands on and Gutter could heal herself fairly easily. Cosset, however, struggled to do the same and eventually fell in the battle of attrition. 6-0 to the Butchers!

In the middle, Casket was doing an excellent job of tying up the lethal Ox, and when Meathook joined the fray, Graves managed to get behind the pair and unleash a scything blow that hurt Ox, but put Meathook and the nearby Shank onto a dangerously low level of health. However, before I could capitalise on this, Graves also fell to some brutal combination attacks from the Butchers. 8-0.

However, the build of damage I'd been inflicting across the Butchers finally paid dividends and with the writing on the wall in terms of the overall game, Obulos battered Gutter into submission and Dirge launched up field with the ball in a desperate rush to score. 8-2.

However, this was to be my final act as the job of holding up the main Butcher attack alone finally told on poor Casket and he fell before Ox's cleaver and then Boiler was launched towards the fragile Dirge and was more the capable of bringing down the the ball-bearing Bat. 12-2 to the Butchers.

Well, that was brutal.

To be honest, I wasn't at all surprised at the result and I feel that in some areas I did quite well. Casket was very good at keeping Ox occupied and to some extent out of the game. However, instead of attacking him, Casket's actual attacks should have been focused on a squishier player like Meathook, and he would have been helped in this if I'd given Graves more influence to get involved earlier.

Obulos is excellent and his Puppetmaster ability is really useful at controlling play, however, each time I got the ball, I didn't do enough with it and found myself drawn into a slugging match with the Butchers that I was destined to lose. I needed to get the ball moving sooner and be more aware of how easy it is to lose the ball. Cosset really struggled to make an impact, and she may find herself substituted out of a Union player like Mist in my next game.

I'm really enjoying Guildball and this game (my second, as I played another friend's Alchemists using his Fishermen a couple of weeks ago) has really whetted my appetite for more.

So with one project complete, a new one begins. Dave, one of the participants of the 6MMRPC has been working on some excellent Woodland Indians from the French & Indian War, and has inspired me to finally have a crack at the warband I've had kicking around for some years.

I originally bought these for Muskets & Tomahawks, but I never really played that, and then the got co-opted into my continuously false-starting War of 1812 project, and recently they've become a potential opponents for Mike's new Pirates project. And so, with numerous outlets for them, I've finally begun to paint them.

This picture is actually a rarity for me, as I don't normally like to post WIP photos, however, I've done this one to show the skin tone I've got for my Native Americans. I've done some digging on different paint recipes, but it didn't really work, and so I've settled on simply using Ratskin Flesh and a wash. I works for me. :)

So my goal for July is to complete the warband of 22 models and hopefully get some form of game in with them. No idea what rules I'll be using though...