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:)

Flipthrough of The Pikemans Lament

Wargames Illustrated have done a "Flipthrough of The Pikemans Lament" video, you can see it below. Just 2 month left to release. North Star have also started to take Pre-orders.

Building some Fire Forge Russians

As you might remember I got me a few of the new Fire Forge Plastic Russian Infantry as well as some of their Resine casts that I havent got around doing anything with yet...

I havent had any inspiration for painting or building minis the last month or so, it was a long time ago I didnt paint for a whole month...

So I thought that I had to build me some more Medieval Russians for my Baltic Crusade project to get me back on track again...

About the Plastic Russian Infantry, I really like them, they are perfect to mix up with the Gripping Beast Vikings to get Eastern looking Vikings.

The Pikeman's Lament in the Post today:)

After almost two years of waiting and work I got a advance copy of The Pikemans Lament in the post today, such a greate fealing to see onces first wargaiming rules IRL.

I hope you all will like how I and Dan Mersey have reworked the Lion rampant rules in to Pike and Shot wargaming rules. The official release date are late January 2017 so i´m not sure that Santa can bring you a copy ;)

Anyway pleased with the book and I hope you will be that to. If you want to pre order a copy you can do so at the Osprey site.

The Pikeman’s Lament 

PIKE AND SHOT WARGAMING RULES OSPREY WARGAMES 

Short code: OWG-19

 Publication Date: 26 Jan 2017 

Number of Pages: 64 

Print copies are only available for preorder. 

Paperback 9781472817310 £11.99 

Recreate the action and drama of 17th Century warfare on your tabletop with The Pikeman's Lament. Start by creating your Officer - is he a natural leader raised from the ranks, the youngest son of a noble family, or an old veteran who has seen too many battles? As you campaign, your Officer will win honour and gain promotion, acquiring traits that may help lead his men to victory. Before each skirmish, your Officer must raise his Company from a wide range of unit options - should he lean towards hard-hitting heavy cavalry or favour solid, defensively minded infantry? Companies are typically formed from 6-8 units, each made up of either 6 or 12 figures, and quick, decisive, and dramatic games are the order of the day. With core mechanics based on Daniel Mersey's popular Lion Rampant rules, The Pikeman's Lament captures the military flavour of the 17th Century, and allows you to recreate skirmishes and raids from conflicts such as the Thirty Years' War, the English Civil Wars, and the Great Northern War.

Transformers Rampant

During the weekend my son David started to build a city and play with his toy Transformers that he got from MacDonalds I think, after a while he asked for to play a game with them and who was I to say no:)

As he is familiar with the Dan Merseys Rampant system we used Dragon rampant as a bas for our Transformers Rampant to fight out a battle between the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons.

All Transformers was single miniature units and to not have to keep track of how many Strength Points they had lost we decided thayt all of them had just 1 but introduced "Recovery" , so in the turn after a Transformer had been taken out he rolled an activation for "Recover" and if succeeded the Transformer was up again and could activate as usual. We also removed the Courage value as we didn´t feel they would flee, but fight untill destroyed.

We used 3 stats lines for the different Transformers, both Autobots and Decepticons used the same. I dont know to much about Transformers so any experts might have to have indulgence with my rules;)

PRIME @ 8 points each
Attack: 5+
Move: 5+
Shoot: 6+
Recovery: 5+
Armour: 5
Attack Value: 3+
Defence Value: 4+
Shoot Value/Range: 5+/18"
Maximum movement: 6"
Strenght Points: 1
Special Rules:
Ranger: This unit uses its normal Attack/Defence/Armour profile when fighting in rough terrain.


SECUNDUS @ 4 points each
Attack: 6+
Move: 5+
Shoot: 6+
Recovery: 6+
Armour: 4
Attack Value: 5+
Defence Value: 4+
Shoot Value/Range: 5+/12"
Maximum movement: 8"
Strenght Points: 1
Special Rules: None

TERTIUM @ 4 points each
Attack: 5+
Move: 6+
Shoot: -
Recovery: 7+
Armour: 3
Attack Value: 4+
Defence Value: 6
Shoot Value/Range: -
Maximum movement: 12"
Strenght Points: 1
Special Rules:
Ranger: This unit uses its normal Attack/Defence/Armour profile when fighting
in rough terrain.

Wild Charge: If the unit is within Attack range of an enemy unit, you must test
to activate an Attack; this is the only order the unit can be given. Wild Charge
may not be used if the unit is Battered.

Fleet Footed: This unit does not halve its movement in rough terrain.

OOB for our game

Autobots (David)
2 x Prime with Mystical Armour @ 10 points each
1 x Secundus, Offensive (AttackValue 4+) @ 6 points

Decepticons(Dalauppror)
1 x Prime with Fly @ 10 points
2 x Secundus @ 4 points each
2 x Tertium @ 4 points each

Decepticons moving in to town, the Prime to the left, the two green ones are Tertium and the last two are Secundus Transformers.

Our little town center, the three Autobots, Optimus Prime, Green Prime and the Secundus Bumblebee, are hiding on the other side of town

The Decepticons are moving in to town...

Optimus Prime jump up on a skyscraper roof and open fire at the approcing decepticans...

One of the Desepticaons Secundus go down...

Green prime joins Optimus Prine om the roof top, the building start to scatter due to their weight...

Bumblebee also want to join in for the fight and advance in the center of the town...

Decepticaons Prime are flying ower the town searcing for his prey...

...landing on the roof top opposit to Bumblebee...

...Bumble bee charge the Decepticon Prime thinking he can outfight him...

The town are in chaos as the Transformers create hawock, building start to tumble down on people, cars and transformers...

The duilding Bumblebee and the Decepticon prime are fighting on starts to fall donw due to the heavy fighting, they both manage to rais up again from the crached building...

Bumblebee find him self in a problematic situation when one of the frenzied Deceptican Tertium attack him...

The frenzied Deceptican Tertium put up a hard fight and Bumblebeee notise that the frenzied Deceptican Prime will join the fight...

...with some swift blows Bumblebee slay the Deceptican Tertium in time to engage the Deceptican Prime...

BOOOM... both Bumblebee and Deceptican prime was thrown to the ground... none of them continue to move...

With the Deceptican Prime out of the game the Autobots had the uperhand... 

But the  Deceptican Secundus started toteardown building in a atempt to get the Autobot Primes  damaged...

...but they quickley was up on their feet agaon starting to fight the Decepticans...

The two Autobot primes smached all recistance from the Decepticans... almost...

Optimus Prime took a bad hit before Green prime could defeat the enemy...

...finnishing the Deceptican with his last blow...

...Green Prime rais his hand in Victory...

...but an costly one...

We had a greate game even if my Decpticans lost. It´s nice to get some easy gaming with the sons toys using the Dragon Rampant rules :)