Orsa The Fearless: The Thing of the North

Over the last year I've been putting together the various miniatures and bits of terrain to allow me to play through the Orsa the Fearless feature pack for 7TV Fantasy. 

All I needed was someone to play and the requisite amount of time. So, when Matt, JP and I planned for a mini 7TV day, Orsa the Fearless seemed the obvious choice for a theme.

The version you are about to see is not the original (fictional) 1981 classic fantasy action movie following the adventures of the beautiful warrior orphan Orsa, her stalwart ally and ex-mercenary Wulf, and her pet bear Karhu, as they seek to foil the evil machinations of the Witch-Queen Skadi in her attempt to subdue the free lands of Valhannon on behalf of the wicked Atlan Empire.

No. This is the low budget and copyright infringing Italian version, starring glamour model Alessandria di Napoli. This low budget made-for-TV three part series took more than a few liberties with the story, not least the setting of it in warmer climes, facilitating skimpier and more revealing outfits for di Napoli in a cheap attempt to increase ratings.

Nonetheless, Orsa Gli Impavidi gained a cult status of its own for its effective use of a limited budget and managing to completely miss the point of the original film.

***

The movie begins with the sun coming up on a typical Valhannon village in which the 'Thing' (a gathering of the clan chieftains) has been called to address the growing threat of the Atlan Empire to the south.

Suddenly horns sound in alarm and the chieftains, their warriors and turncoat mercenary Wulf rush out to meet the threat.

With them is the warrior maiden Orsa, and her faithful ursine companion Karhu.

The threat is revealed to be Atlan Hoplites, who are pushing into the village, searching for something...or someone.

They are lead by the fierce and intimidating figure of General Aeolus, the strong right hand of the Atlan Emperor.

With the Atlan invaders is the hag Gullveig, who has allied the feral Vild to the Atlan cause. These cannibalistic men-like beasts seek only to sow carnage amongst the clans and feast on the fallen afterwards.

Deep within the village, the ancient seeress, and Orsa's foster mother, Skuld emerges from her hut. She knows the invaders have come for her on behalf of her sister, the treacherous Skadi.

She dies not flee, but awaits whatever fate has in store for her and Valhannon.

The Atlan hoplites plunge deep into the village, driven on by Aeolus.

Meanwhile, Gullveig urges the Vild into the other side of the settlement. Arrows are loosed and several northern warriors fall.

Wulf is an experienced soldier. He knows a diversion when he sees one. He spots that the Atlan hoplites are the real threat and at his insistence the chieftains order their men to get between the imperial troops and their quarry, Skuld.

The Vild riding with Aeolus is unhorsed when his mount his killed by a flung spear ensuring that Skuld cannot be spirited away.

Meanwhile, a party of warriors are despatched to slow down the marauding Vild.

However, they run straight into a storm of arrows and find themselves horribly outnumbered by the man-eating fiends.

The hoplites plunge into the defensive line and cut down many warriors and even a chieftain. Things look grim for the tribes of Valhannon.

Suddenly a stirring score strikes up and the lithe figure of Orsa strides into the fray. With balletic skill and the aid of Wulf, she cuts down the hoplites to a man.

As the men fall to her blade she feels a ferocious and bloodthirsty hunger come upon her. Although raised by Skuld, she is Vild by birth and faces a constant struggle to contain her brutal urges.

Suddenly isolated, Aeolus is set upon from the rear by the ferocious form of Karhu.

However, with the aid of the dismounted Vild, Aeolus is able to drive off Orsa's companion and continue his terrifying march forwards.

Aeolus launches towards Orsa. His brute strength overpowering the warrior maiden, tearing her clothing in a fetching manner and leaving a small cut on her perfect cheekbones, just below her heavily made up eyes.

In a desperate and chivalric bid to protect this valiant lady, Wulf manages to grab Aeolus in a headlock and starts dragging him out of the village.

Despite this, the Vild continue to drive through the village, their arrows scattering their foes, but repeatedly failing to bring down the clansmen.

Wulf is unable to hold on to his prize and Aeolus breaks free, kicking Wulf heavily in the back. Despite a warrior rushing to his aid, Wulf looks to be overmatched by the towering warrior.

The poor accuracy of the Vild allows the northern warriors to launch a viscious counter attack, cutting several of the cannibals down.

Recovered somewhat from Aeolus's frightful assault, Orsa joins the fray and finishes off all but one of the Vild and the hag Gullveig.

Famously, there follows a few frames of what appears to be Gullveig and Aeolus on fire. The story goes that somebody had meddled with the pyrotechnics for the burning of the village later in the scene and they went off too early, delaying filming for several hours.

These few frames slipped into the final cut by accident, but a more lasting effect was that the burning of the village was dropped from the film as there wasn't enough money to redo the effects.

Despite his bravery, Wulf was not match for Aeolus and was knocked sprawling and unconscious into the unlit warning beacon (this was the moment that was supposed to start the fire).

With the burning of the village cancelled, what was left of the pyrotechnics were redeployed to give Gullveig some magical fire, which briefly engulfed Orsa and the last Vild, but both walked away unharmed as the script demanded it.

With revulsion in her heart for what she truly was, Orsa and the northmen cut down Gullveig and the last of the Vild raiders. Orsa wondered aloud if her people could be redeemed now the baleful influence of the hag had been removed.

With Wulf out of the fight, Aeolus unceremoniously cuts his way through the only warrior standing in his way.

Despite being truly alone, Aeolus stands tall and strides towards Skuld. He casts a spear in the direction of Orsa, striking her in the chest (which is seen in slow motion and close up as this is a low budget Italian movie in the eighties). Although protected by her improbably uplifting armour, Orsa is flung backwards and falls unconscious, draped glamourously and provocatively amongst the long grass, as if she's sleeping.

We do not see the rest of the fight, and Orsa does not see Aeolus bind Skuld and lead her out of the village as a captive to whatever fate Skadi has in store for her.

Upon waking in a devastated (but not burning) village, Orsa learns that her foster mother has been taken. 

Realising that the north needs help if they are to resist the Altan Empire and rescue Skuld, Orsa, Wulf and Karhu set out to seek the land of the Svartalfar to renew the old alliances.

***

This game was lots of fun, had a brutal death toll and went to the wire, with both sides needing to take axed tests from Act Two onwards. Aeolus was a terrifying foe who got the drop on Orsa and was able to complete his mission single-handed.

For those that care, the final score was 7-4 to the villains.

The Ring Goes South

After a hiatus in Rivendell somewhat longer than both the films and the books, my Quest of the Ringbearer campaign finally gets going again and the newly formed Fellowship of the Ring set off towards Mordor and Mount Doom.

Cue the epic walking music...

Heading south through Eregion it becomes apparent that the Enemy is likely watching the Gap of Rohan and so Gandalf attempts to lead the Fellowship over the Misty Mountains via...

The Pass of Caradras

This scenario is a bit of an odd one as it"s more of a mini board/card game, with the Good player trying to move  Fellowship over a board of playing cards, whilst the Evil player (representing Saruman) tried to predict where they will go to bring the mountain down on them.

The opening moves saw the Fellowship hit by several snowfalls, but fortunately never twice in the same place. 

As the Good player I quickly realised that I couldn't always take advantage of Legolas having extra movement, as it would allow Matt of Many Colours (the Evil player) to easily block off some routes of advance.

The Fellowship advanced slowly, taking more damage as they went.

Legolas inevitable was able to sprint ahead and escape but a rash of 8s and 6s meant that Matt was able to see what was likely to happen and both Samwise and Boromir were trapped in the snow.

However, despite the fact that the Fellowship had taken damage, being spread out protected too many of them from being picked off as the inched forward.

Whilst Gimli fell into a drift, the rest of the part escaped, and Pippin was the only member of the Fellowship able to escape without a scratch.

This was a fun little game with some real strategy to it. The only downside is that it's fairly poorly explained in the book.

Winning the game gained the Fellowship a shooting bonus that I would promptly forget to use in the next scenario.

Despite their efforts, the Pass of Caradras remained closed to the Fellowship. The snow was too deep. As they turned south it became apparent the Fellowship were being tracked and were about to be attacked by...

Wargs In The Night

Howls filled the night air as vicious packs of Wargs advanced from all sides, intent on making a meal of the Fellowship.

Gandalf ordered the others to form a circle facing outwards with their backs to the fire, whilst Bill the Pony brayed in panic.

The circle of slavering Wargs closed in. A sorcerous blast shot out from Gandalf's staff as the bow of Legolas began singing, dropping several Wargs.

The Wargs launched the attack and Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli met them blade to claw.

However, there were too many to stop, with more always coming. The whole party found themselves assailed, with Bill the Pony narrowly avoiding finding himself inside a Warg's belly. 

In an attempt to stem the tide, Aragorn cut himself free of the melee to run to Boromir's side as the son of Gondor confronted the Wild Warg Chieftain.

The blades of these mighty men fell in unison, slaying the great beast and denying the pack further leadership.

The foul beasts kept coming and desperate measure were taken to protect the more vulnerable members of the Fellowship.

Gimli and Boromir hacked down every Warg they could catch, Legolas abandoned his bow in favour of his long knives. Gandalf threw himself in harm’s way too often and almost succumbed to snapping jaws.

The hobbits fought for their lives and Bill lashed out with his hooves desperately.

Aragorn was everywhere, trying to hold the line.

Although more Wargs kept coming, the fight began to thin out. The Fellowship always seemed to be one step ahead (Matt won just a single priority roll all game), continually preventing the Wargs from being able to use their superior numbers to swarm the Fellowship.

A breathing space was won, and the Fellowship saw an opportunity to back off and put some distance between them and the howling packs.

Legolas took aim, but was unable to pick off any Wargs, which now advanced more cautiously.

Seeking to keep the Wargs back, Aragorn rushed forwards alone...

Suddenly the Wargs sprang on him from all sides and the heir to the throne of Gondor found himself fighting for his life.

Gimli rushed to aid Aragorn, but could quite get to him as the Dwarf also found himself surrounded by Wargs.

However, as the sun slowly began to creep over the mountains in the east, the Wargs, even those creeping round the flanks of the Fellowship began to melt away, their bellies empty.

This was a tough scenario for the forces of evil as the Wargs are no match for the heroic might of the heroes. However, this was made even tougher for Matt, as he was cursed with terrible rolls for priority and wounding. Also the rules of the scenario meant that each time I won priority I could position his never ending reinforcements as far as possible from the action.

This all combined to mean that the Wargs just couldn't make inroads into the Fellowship. Aragorn, Sam and Gandalf all took wounds and somehow Bill the Pony managed to survive, despite using his only fate point.

The bravest companion was Aragorn, whose ability to call heroic combats pretty much every turn was crucial in stemming the tide of fur and fangs, whilst the 'Fool of a Took' was, ironically, Gandalf, wo failed repeatedly to cast sorcerous blast and came extremely close to being brought down.

In the next scenario, Gandalf will have just a single wound and only 5 will points, and so he'll need protecting. The rest of the Fellowship were able to regain all their lost points except Boromir, who will be down to 5 might.

The next adventure will take the Fellowship to the Gates of Moria. However, with both terrain and a rather large miniature to sort for that, you are more likely to see a return to the War in Rohan before that.

"Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria"

It is coming...I cannot get out...

The end of the year moves inexorably closer, and with it the need to complete my Hobby Bingo card.

At last count I had four tasks to complete:

• Paint more minis that you buy (acquire) this year,
• Build a gaming table or enough terrain to fill a table,
• Try out a new paint or hobby brand that you've not used before,
• Build a display board for one of your armies.

Although the painting/buying task is going well, I needed to take action on some of the others.

I figured that the fastest way to build enough terrain to fill a table was to choose a small table with not much terrain on it.

Enter the Balin's Tomb scenario for the Quest of the Ringbearer campaign. A 2'x2' board with terrain that all comes on a single sprue.

An added bonus was that it was quick to paint up. The majority of the terrain is meant to be stone and so was easily dealt with via a dark grey base and a light grey drybrush.

There was more work on feature pieces like the tomb itself, but even then I didn't go further than a wash or contrast over a base colour as speed was the order of the day, especially given that this is being done for a single scenario.

Having said that, some of the pieces are quite versatile and could be added to some of my other pieces to furnish some future dungeon.

I do feel that some if the purely scenic pieces could have benefitted from being larger to enable them to function as meaningful difficult terrain.

However, given that this sprue started life in the Mines of Moria starter box, I can understand why Games Workshop went for the purely aesthetic option.

In addition to the terrain, I've also 'made' a board by painting some reinforced cardboard packaging with emulsion paint from a tester pot.

Again, speed and convenience win out over hard labour and expense on something more durable. It'll work for the scenario perfectly fine.

I'm arguing that this little arrangement allows me to tick off two boxes on the Hobby Bingo card:

• Build enough terrain to 'fill' a 'table' - the table is small and the terrain is sparse, but it works for the scenario,
• Try out a new paint or hobby brand that you've not used before - not sure if Homebase counts as a 'hobby brand' but I'm constantly picking up resources from different manufacturers, I just hadn't clocked this box earlier in the year. I do this all the time.

That just leaves two. The painting tally is certainly helped by 12 more models done without purchase. The display board is more problematic as I can't really see a need for one.

I'll have to get creative with the terms and conditions.

Acquired: 116

Painted: 204

Status Quo Ante Bellum

The war of 1812 project is over*.

Back in 2017 I set about painting up a rather disorganised bunch of miniatures I'd amassed for a War of 1812 American force, and with these few miniatures I've now completed everything that I have for this project.

Those of a historical bent might notice a couple of things of interest.

Firstly, the War of 1812 lasted until 1815, and so completing this small project has actually taken two years longer than the war itself.

Secondly, the War of 1812 concluded with the Treaty of Ghent agreeing that everything should go back to how it was, "status quo ante bellum". At the beginning of this project these miniatures were sitting unused in the cupboard...and unless I can get really persuasive, it looks like that might be their fate.

At least they're painted.

I finished off the command for my Dragoons in the same was as the rest, except for the fact that as I was using parade uniforms (white breeches and not blue) the bugler is dressed in all white.

I dud realise that the silver helmets should have been black, so I took the time to fix that for the whole unit.

Finally I added a flag. I couldn't find out if the US Dragoons carried flags or guidons at this time (they would by the 1830s), and I'm pretty certain  that this one is wrong. However, I did find a images on a blog of someone who'd done something similar, and so I figure that at least I'm not alone.

Additionally, given the amount of historical inaccuracies in this unit, I figured it didn't matter. They might as well have pointy ears and be riding unicorns.

The cannon and crew are the final part of the mismatched ebay bundle I picked up years ago and I left them until last as they are not part of the base army list I'm.planning to use for Sharp Practice.

The miniatures are from Wargames Foundry and are the least dynamic miniatures from that pack. I can see why they ended up on eBay as the crew look totally disinterested in firing the cannon.

The uniform is the 1812 pattern of the US Artillery and models with shakos would be more versatile for the war.

My small force already has somewhat mismatched uniforms which I'm handwaving away has supply problems in the outpost they are stationed at.

The uniforms are full of kit, braiding, turnbacks and other details that plague napoleonic uniforms and the Foundry sculpts are quite small and fiddly.

Added to this, the two with muskets have backpacks that took me pack to the frustration of having to paint an embroidered 'US' on each, as I had to with the line infantry.

The cannon (I'm not sure what size it is; I think it's a 9 pounder) was a fairly simple affair. I discovered from another blog that the Americans painted their artillery in a mid-blue (this might be a little dark) and they were usually made from cast iron rather than bronze, hence the fact it is black.

And so that's it. My Scouting Force for Sharp Practice is done. Technically I am short two models (one officer and one artillery crew) but my French & Indian War civilians can fill those gaps easily.

The base force is four officers, 16 line infantry, 8 cavalry, 6 riflemen and 6 woodsmen skirmishers. Depending on the scenario I can add in the artillery or use my Woodland Indians in a variety of roles (Warband, Skirmishers, Local Scouts).

So I'm finally ready for an actual game.

The Christmas bulwark continues to build and I have a healthy lead heading into the tail end of the year. Perhaps of more concern are the remaining boxes I need to tick off on the bingo card.

I might need to do something about that...

Acquired: 116

Painted: 192

* Is a project ever really over. I've noticed that North Star have a small War of 1812 range for Muskets & Tomahawks. They look nice...

Gnome Alone

I had a package arrive this week which encouraged me to take a short break from trudging through my War of 1812 backlog and prompted me to make a bit of progress on some other overlooked projects.

For those with aging eyes, that's a Gnome on a fishing boat by a jetty.

This is a rendition of my character in a D&D campaign I've been participating in for a couple of months: a Gnome Rogue called Waldo 'Nimblefingers' Redcap.

The miniature is a Garden Gnome Assassin from 3DResinprintstore on Etsy - a seller I highly recommend you check out as they have an eclectic range of reasonably priced miniatures available, delivery was really fast (and free in the UK) and the print quality is excellent.

The sculpt is really charismatic and simply done, without lots of extraneous detail to faff about with. This is exactly how I like miniatures as it leads to a more chilled out experience and I put a bit more time into highlighting than usual.

This is the first resin 3D printed miniature I've bought and I'll be honest, considering the price and quality of this I can for the first time see the existential threat 3D printing potentially represents to traditional miniature manufacturers.

I'm not sure I'll ever start printing for myself, but my head has definitely been turned towards Etsy when hunting for something specific.

Having said that, there will always be a place for tradition shopping in my heart as I stumbled on this Wizkids Deep Cut boat whilst browsing in Patriot Games, one of several FLGS in Sheffield (we are really well served here).

I've been wanting a boat as a piece of terrain for the second scenario for Lurkers from the Deep for 7TV and the larger Wizkids pieces are hard-wearing and easy to paint.

I figure this won't look out of place in Carnevale or other 7TV Fantasy games either.

Painting the boat also nudged me into getting these MDF jetties from Warbases done at the same time. I've had them a while, bought specifically for Lurkers from the Deep, and I think I might actually get that game played soon.

Easy to build, easy to paint, lots of potential uses. Winner.

Another healthy bit of progress made, and I haven't totally ignored the War of 1812 project either, but as Napoleonics are the very definition of extraneous detail on miniatures, things are moving somewhat slower.

Acquired: 116

Painted: 184