North Star taking Pre-Orders of The Pikemans Lament

Seems like you can get a copy of The Pikeman´s Lament to a discount if you pre-order at North Star. It is a chance that you also get the book before the official releasedate, no prommise, but Nick at North Star most often get the Osprey Wargaming rule boos well in advance.

While you at it you might also have a look at the North Star 1672 range of minis, exellent for Swedish and Danish regular troops during the Scanian War 1675-1679.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all !!!

As Santa evidently uses a SAAB for his transports he must be from Sweden;)

Fire Forge Plastic Scandinavian Infantry

It is so very nice to see that something you have contributed to will be released, as in the upcoming Fire Forge plastic Scandinavian Crusader Infantry, a multi component plastic set that enables you to build 25 post-viking scandinavian infantrymen, i.e Ledung infantry.

I was fortunate to be asked to help Fire Forge out with ideeas and information about Scandinavian ledung soldiers for new heads, weapons, shields etc for this kit. we even had a "secret" planing meet at Salute 2016 :)

The aim are that they will be released in April 2017 in time for Salute 2017.

Below are some work in progress pictures of the 3-ups.

17th century Matchlockmen for the Pikeman´s Lament

This is the first minis I painted in 2 month, starting to get some inspiration back...

The minis are a mix of warlord Plastic Musketeers and matchlockmen as well as the matchlock box command minis and the special mini you got with the Pike and Shot rulebook.

For the Pikeman´s Lament rules they will either be used as a unit of 12 Shot or as 2 units of 6 Forlorn Hope.

Chosen Men - MILITARY SKIRMISH GAMES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS

I was lucky enought to get me a pre-copy of Osprey´s latest release in the Wargaming Serie - Chosen Men - Military Skirmish Games in the Napoleonic Wars by Mark Altham.

Chosen Men 
MILITARY SKIRMISH GAMES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS
OSPREY WARGAMES 18
Author: Mark Latham
Illustrator: Mark Stacey
Short code: OWG 18
Publication Date: 15 Dec 2016
Paperback: £11.99

I have only had the time for a read of the rules, no games yet, so I really cant say if they would work good or bad. But from my reading it seems like the rules are easy to learn and are fast paced. You would need about 50-100 minis that are divided in units with 5-30 minis, each force have 3-6 such units.

In the Action phase of the game turn player 1 activate one unit then player 2 and so on untill all units have been activated. All Close combats are resolved after the action Phase have been concluded. If you have played some Warhammer Historical games you will be familiar with parts of the rules and that they will give good games.

There are ofcourse armie lists, British and French are the base and several of their Allies in different theatres of the Napoleonic War, But no Swedish or Russian army list...

there are also 6 scenarios included in the rules.

I get a good feel when I read the rules.I ill have to try them out but I´m not sure they are the kind of game I like to play. Fast paced indeed but maybe to much rules to get the result if you know what i mean. I suppouse I´m damaged bu the Lion Rampant Rule engine... anyway I will defenetly give Chosen Men a chanse on the gaming table ASAP.

Back side text of the rules:
Chosen Men is a set of fast-action skirmish rules detailing the bloody skirmishes between light troops in the Napoleonic Wars. The primary focus of the game is on soldiers and NCOs in light 'flank' companies, as they scout ahead of larger forces and take part in man-to-man actions against enemy skirmishers.

Although the game allows for the formation of accurately sized companies of light infantry and cavalry if you wish, these formations are broken down into small groups of up to a dozen men.

For the most part, officers are not swashbuckling super-heroes, but staunch commanders who rally and direct their men to achieve the battlefield objectives. Although the game uses an alternating action turn sequence, officers can use their influence on multiple units at the same time in an effort to steal the initiative. With all rolls resolved using standard 6-sided dice, this game combines a classic wargaming feel with modern wargame mechanics.

Star Wars LEGO Slave 1

My son David love to build LEGO and so do I;)

Some time ago he got the carbon freezing chamber box, with Boba Fett and Han Solo in Carbon. Didn´t take long untill he asked for a Slave 1 modell to... but the box cost about £220 a bit over my budget at the moment...

So I decided to build him one from some pictures in one of his LEGO Star Wars books and using two small LEGO BrickMaster models he already got.

The final result...I hope you like the end result, at least David did:)