Massive Horde (well 8...) 28mm Dark Age Cavalry

    8 Gripping Beast Dark Ages cavalry from the "Mounted Welsh reinforcements box"

Through the years, my "batch size" has morphed. When I first started painting 15mm Ancients, it was "all of a certain troop type" -- heavy infantry, skirmishers, etc. Then, once I realized how a never-ending run of painting flesh or leather can kill motivation, the batch size began to shrink. It settled on roughly a dozen or so at the end stages of my painting 15mm troops. The same thing has happened as I adopted 28mm for pretty much everything except my 20mm moderns. For 28's, I have settled on a batch size of about six -- sometimes one or two more if foot, or less if mounted.

    A look at the 28mm mounted figs from the side so you can see the horse coloring clearly

So, when I decided to paint up a Gripping Beast reinforcements box containing 8 Dark Age Welsh cavalry, I went back and forth whether to break it over two batches. Finally, I decided that I would try to paint it all at once. After the experience, I now remember why I'd gone with smaller batches! This group of eight miniatures seemed to take forever! I honestly believe that I have been working on them for more than two weeks. Why Dark Age cavalry, in the first place? Well, when we did our six-player Lion Rampant game the other Sunday evening, that was the one troop type I ran short on. So, it was obvious that I -- and we all use this word -- needed more! I believe that I'd won this Gripping Beast box in a tournament. The figures are relatively generic for Dark Ages, too, so it was a natural fit.

    The clothes and equipment is relatively generic so they can be used as other nations of the Dark Ages

Except the batch size was way too big! I am telling myself (but will I remember it?) to never do that again. For these figures, I first had to glue the weapons and shields to the riders. I had decided to paint the horses without the riders on them first, so it would be easier to get to all of the spots. So, when I brushed primed the horses, I left the saddle blanket area bare. I painted the horses first, using a variety of colors and styles that I admit have become somewhat routine for me. After painting my 28mm Mongol Saga army, I definitely experimented a lot with horse colors, so kind of innately know which ones should look nice. I try to make the overall effect brown, as that seems to be the most common horse color. I want some variety, too, so thus you see blacks and duns and such.

    The horse with the rider with the cross on his shield is probably my favorite of the batch

Once the horses were done and the weapons and shields glued on, it was time to epoxy the riders to the saddle blankets. Now that I have found another decent source for two part, 5-minute hobby epoxy, I have gone back to using that in preference over super glue. The hardware store epoxy I had bought, back when all the hobby and craft stores seemed to be out of stock, stinks to high heaven! It will literally smell up the house for the entire day, which doesn't make me the most popular person around here...ha, ha! I took to going out in the garage to epoxy things, using our giant green trash can as my "desk." As you can imagine, that wasn't the best solution. So, I was happy when I saw some 5-minute epoxy in Hobby Lobby a month or so ago and snatched up a package (I would have bought two if they had another in stock).

    I switched out the spears on four of the figs, giving them axes and swords instead

I did kind of make a mistake when putting the shields on the arms of the riders, though. The reinforcements box came with larger and smaller shields. I used the bigger ones because these are meant to be heavier cavalry -- not light skirmishers, necessarily. However, there was a problem. The shield sometimes got in the way of the rider sitting flush on the saddle blanket. Oops! There are four poses of horses, so I played around some mixing and matching the riders to the horse poses for the best fit. It really came down to only two riders who sit somewhat awkwardly on their mount. See if you can pick them out in the pictures! I think it is fairly obvious, but it may not be.

    A look at the cloak border patterns that I did for the 5 figures that had cloaks over their tunics

For the colors of tunics and cloaks, I went with paler and duller hues. I always assume Dark Age dyes aren't exactly colorfast, and that many items of clothing fade in color over time. So, faded yellows, blues, greens, and reds. I probably need to make a trip to the craft store and pick out more variety in my faded colors, one of these days. I am tending to use the same half dozen ones on lots of figures -- especially my Dark Ages ones. Of course, my paint rack is overflowing now, which means I will either need (there's that word again) another rack, or I need to purge colors I am not using. For example, I have WAY too many shades of blue and probably don't use 3-4 of them with any regularity. I probably have one or two more grays than I need, and I think almost never use the palest of my yellows. So, yeah, if I bring more colors online I will likely purge some I don't use.

    The one with the red cloak is the only one with chainmail and an almost Late Roman uniform

One thing that is different about painting 28mm miniatures over 15's, is pretty much every article of clothing gets a dry brush highlight in addition to its base coat. So, this means my day's painting typically begins with dry brushing yesterday's base coat and then adding a new base coat or two. So, if it is a big batch (like, say, EIGHT mounted), each step takes that much longer. These Gripping Beast riders were wearing a lot of steps, so to speak: tunic, cloak, trousers, shoes, and leather belts and sundry. I usually try to make the highlight a very light version of the base coat color. So, I have a very, very light blue, an almost straw color for yellow, and so on. I was recently reading a thread about how some painters struggle to highlight red. I typically use a salmon color. 

    Another look at the whole batch, slightly from above - I am 'so-so' about the shield patterns I did

For the inside of the shields, I use a dark brown with Camo Brown dry brush. Weapons are done in Iron Wind Metal Steel and a silver highlight (or Bronze, for metal parts that would be made of bronze). I gave them hair and mustaches in a variety of colors from black to brown to blond. Although I know it is not that common of a color, at least nowadays, I love how an auburn hair looks on a miniature -- particularly Celtic types, like the Welsh. I use a Red Brown base coat and Howard Hues Middle East Flesh for that. 

The last stages were to do the patterned trim on the cloaks and the shields. I Googled Dark Age Welsh shield patterns, but most were a little too Roman looking for me. So, I tried to go with a theme of crosses and variety. Remember -- these are not mean to strictly be Welsh, but any generic Dark Ages cavalry. I'm so-so on how the shield patterns came out. Some worked better than others. I probably should have dug out my painted up Dark Age mounted warriors and looked them over for ideas that worked first, then execute them in different colors. I was definitely suffering from "get these guys done!" fatigue, by that stage, though. 

    The trees in the background are the ones I just bought from 'A Critical Hit' at Cincycon 2025

Prior to flocking, the last thing I do is a dark brown wash on flesh tones and whites, yellows, and tans. I do a black wash on everything else. I am thinking I need to remix my black vehicle wash, though, and water it down even further. Right now, I believe it is about 50%, but I still think it makes certain colors too dark. There has been some discussion on Lead Adventure Forum (home of figures painters better than I...) about brightening miniatures back up. Too much realistic dust, dirt, and grime makes them look like dark blobs on the tabletop, and actually detracts from your painting. I don't want to go back to my 15mm days when I didn't do a wash at all, but perhaps my miniatures need some lightening up? I'd be curious to hear your opinions!

    The 3-D printed trees from above - I did end up repainting them with base coat, dry brush, & wash

So, what else is on my desktop? The next two things I paint will be terrain/scatter. I have my two buildings I converted from Reaper shipping containers. I also have three sets of clothes lines from Miniature Building Authority. They are clothes lines all primed up and ready, while the shipping container buildings have their base coat completed. Stay tuned to see how they turn out...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 31 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 14

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 51
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 26

Vikings Descend in Fury on Anglo-Saxon Town at Cincycon

    Ragnar Lothbrok (near the church door) tries to fight his way into the church in search of loot

The fabled Ragnar Lothbrok of the Norse Sagas, accompanied by his friends and companions, brought chaos and mayhem upon an Anglo-Saxon town at Cincycon 2025. My convention game that I will run for at least the first part of the year is a cooperative historical miniatures game where all six players are Vikings trying to loot a town. The role of the Anglo-Saxon townsfolk and defenders is played by the game's A.I. and cards. Ganesha Games' Sellswords & Spellslingers is the rule set I am using, and did a great job throwing the unexpected at the players and making each running of the scenario unfold differently.

    A look at my town tabletop at Cincycon before the figures are placed and the Viking raid commences

I had a full table of six players for both my Friday evening and Saturday morning game. I had a great group of players both times who joked and laughed throughout despite their reversals of fortune. In addition to the players supposedly cooperating, they were also competing to amass the most loot. This could be gained mostly from slaughtering the townsfolk (1 silver piece each), levy Fyrd (1d6 silver), and hearthguard or household troops (2d6 silver). The windfall, though, would be if they made it to the central church, which stood in the center of the hexagonal board. Each player deployed their three Viking raiders along their respective hexagon edge. In Friday's game, they made it to the church courtyard, but did not gain entry. On Saturday, Ragnar Lothbrok and his son Bjorn Ironside both actually made it into the chapel and slaughtered monks, gaining 4d6 silver for each.

    My Saturday players were a rowdy bunch and had a blast teasing each other and enjoying themselves

The way SS&SS works, the player rolls one, two, or three 20-sided dice to activate one of their raiders. For each roll of 8+, they get an action (move, fight, shoot arrows, loot bodies, etc.). For each failure, a card is drawn from the deck. These cards can bring more defenders onto the board, trigger an Anglo-Saxon springing unseen from ambush, and activate defenders on the table to move towards and attack the Viking raiders. Most of the cards are bad for the players, but a few are beneficial or neutral. I had worked out ahead of time what each card would translate to in this historical version of the fantasy miniatures game. For example, a "Wandering Monster" was a mounted hearthguard who appeared on a random board edge and immediately charged the closest raider. "Trap" meant a town dog darted out and attacked a raider. Some of the cards activate the Anglo-Saxon (foe) closest to the player rolling the failure, while others activate ALL Anglo-Saxons on the table.

    Ragnar's brother, the sometimes treacherous Rollo, and his Viking raider companions

In addition, some cards dictate the deck to be reshuffled after playing that card, which keeps things mixed up and interesting. There were three levels of foes, as mentioned earlier. Townsfolk were the weakest, levy Fyrd were the next toughest, and the hearthguard were the most powerful. Hearthguard also have armor that might block a raider's hit on them. In a one-on-one fight, the raiders ("PCs" or player characters) are much more powerful. However, the defenders can form "hordes" which give them an outnumbering modifier, which can greatly reduce or negate the raider advantage. Plus, there is still good old-fashioned bad die rolling! For example, on Friday night, Ragnar's brother Rollo almost met an untimely, early end. He was quickly down two of his three wounds, but ultimately survived. Each player had a Viking hero (either Ragnar, his wife Lagertha, brother Rollo, son Björn, friend Loki the shipbuilder, or Ulf the Wise). Each player also had a swordsman or axeman, and their third raider was an archer. The archers had no armor, so were most vulnerable to counter-attacks, while the leaders and other raiders had armor and/or shields which could negate enemy hits with a good enough roll.

    Sounds of steel clashing on steel reach the Anglo-Saxon defenders in the church courtyard

Interestingly, in each game, there was one Viking band that was swarmed by defenders almost immediately. On Friday, it was the maniacal Floki, who had trouble keeping his footing on the muddy streets. Anglo-Saxon defenders sprang from nearby houses and the woods on the edge of town to attack his trio again and again. On Saturday, it was Rollo, who almost never made it off of the wharf where the longship was tied up. Mounted hearthguard came in waves after Rollo and his men, nearly killing all three. Still, in both games, most of the Vikings penetrated the outer buildings and advanced steadily through the muddy streets. On Friday, Ragnar made it to the courtyard in front of the church, but couldn't break through the solid shieldwall of the Anglo-Saxon captain and his hearthguard defenders.

    'Horde Fighter' Rollo takes on a pair of Anglo-Saxon Fyrd in the streets during Friday's game

On Saturday, the players did better. Lagertha's archer stung the shieldwall in the courtyard, prompting them to charge after the shieldmaiden and her raiders. This opened the way for Björn's band to break through the defenses and enter the church. Ragnar followed his son soon after. Monks shrieked as they fell wounded or were knocked senseless to be taken captive. Perhaps hearing the chaos in their beloved church, the Anglo-Saxon defenders began to swarm the perimeter of the table. The sound of their shouting convinced the Vikings they'd gathered enough loot and it was time to escape back to the ship before more of them fell. Both games lasted about three hours before I called them.

    Ragnar's companions, Hakon and Sigurd hurry to keep up with their quick-footed lord

The players seemed to have a lot of fun. They laughed at each other's misfortunes and howled in protest as a fellow player's failed activation rolls sent a horde of Anglo-Saxons randomly at them instead! This being only the second and third times that I had run these rules, I was pretty busy handling the arrivals of new defenders, deaths of Anglo-Saxons, and doling out silver pieces. However, the players do all the die rolling and control the action. Still, Friday night the players kept me hopping and it seemed chaotic to me, at times. However, on Saturday, I was able to relax and anticipate the rhythm of the game. I spiced up the narration of what was happening, taunting the players, "You can't miss that roll, right? You can do this all day...!" Of course, they realized that was likely jinxing them and chuckled at my ribbing.

    Lagertha's swordsman, the wounded Fafnir, is beset by two determined Saxon Fyrd

The die rolls and randomness of the frequently reshuffled deck created its own flow. For example, Blake's Rollo suffering charging mounted hearthguard after hearthguard. Dan's board edge was the unlucky recipient of an odds-defying number of Anglo-Saxon reinforcements. Derek's die failed rolls were to blame for the other players' misfortunes. It was hectic, unpredictable, but enjoyable -- at least that's what my players told me. Several of them planned on going out and downloading the rules from Wargame Vault. I got lots of compliments on how my table looked, especially my scratch-built Anglo-Saxon church. To this day, it is probably still my favorite scratch-build I have ever done.

    The decorated inside of my scratch-built church, defiled by the presence of pagan Björn Ironside

I plan on running the game again at DayCon (April 11-12) and at Drums at the Rapids (May 17-18). And then I will run the heck out of it all weekend at Origins Game Fair (June 18-22). So, if you want to give the game a try, show up at one of these conventions! I was gratified by the number of players who told me they signed up for the raid game because they love my games and always have a good time playing in them. I had a fun time, too, this weekend at Cincycon. I will do another blog post soon about my purchases I made there. Look for that in another day or so!

    Another look at Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and friends (28mm from Brigade Games)

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 9

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Ragnar Lothbrok and Family & Friends

    Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and friends from the Vikings TV series - 28mm Brigade Games

Since I am going to be running my Viking Town Raid game at a number of conventions this year, I decided to spice up the interest level a bit by using characters from the 2013 History Channel's Vikings series. They will lead each player characters' band of raiders in their attempt to gather more loot than their fellow Vikings. I asked for input on the Lead Adventure Forum and did some searching myself, and eventually decided to go with 28mm metal miniatures from Brigade Games. Besides the series star Ragnar Lothbrok, the set of five also included his brother Rollo, wife Lagertha, son Bjorn Ironside, and friend Floki the shipbuilder.

    Vikings series characters in front of a 28mm Acheson Creations Viking Turf House

I preferred to order all five from the same manufacturer so that I didn't end up with scale issues. Plus, Lon Weiss at Brigade Games always has excellent service and sells quality miniatures. Shipping from the USA, rather than an overseas manufacturer, was a plus, as well. I really liked the figures when I unpacked them, and continued to like them through the painting process. There was almost zero flash and the detail was crisp. I detest "slotta" bases, so snipped them off of their metal tabs and shaved the bottoms of their feet flat so that I could epoxy them directly to the base. I primed them with white Gesso, and the Vikings were quickly ready to be painted!

For their flesh, I use a ruddy craft paint but then apply a wash of darker orange color. I don't know why a matte clear paint and a matte dark orange combine to give me a glossy finish sometimes, but that's what I have to deal with. I fix that anyway during the final wash and clear coat stage. I decided to do all five at the same time, painting their flesh, then clothing, then weapons, etc., at the same time. I wasn't under huge deadline pressure, as I wouldn't be running the game till Cincycon weekend, Feb. 28-March 2. For those interested in playing, the game can accommodate six players (all Vikings) and will be on Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 10am. 

    Ragnar Lothbrok from Brigade Games -- I think they did a nice job recreating him in 28mm

I am hard pressed to pick a favorite among the five miniatures, so I will just go over them one by one. Starting with series star Ragnar, I did numerous Google Image searches to try to get his costume from the series right. The chainmail is my usual recipe -- an Iron Wind Metals Steel base color with a Silver dry brush. Seeing the images for the characters I found online, there would be LOTS of varieties of brown in these five figures. So, I did my best to differentiate tones so each figure didn't look like one big blob of brown. For Ragnar, that meant a dark brown tunic (with my own addition of a dark red trim), medium brown trousers, and lighter brown boots. Googling his shield came up with a red shield with a strange bird emblem, so I took that as liberty to create my own Ragnar shield design using a bird head. The tattoos on his head came out well, I thought, as did his lighter tan colored hair.

    I like how Ragnar's brother, Rollo, and his tattoos came out (which I did with a black micron pen)

Bare-chested Rollo was probably the easiest to paint (at least until it came to the tattoos). More brown's with some leather straps and tan boots. His shield also came up in a Google search. Incidentally, I think the design is similar to one of the flags of the Nordic nations today. His dark brown hair and slightly crazed looking eyes came out well, too.

    Ragnar's wife Lagertha is a definite fan favorite in the series -- a tough, no-nonsense shield maiden!

Lagertha gave me the opportunity to do the most detail and creativity. Blue seemed to be her color in the series, so I gave her a light blue tunic with a decorative darker blue and yellow band at the hem. Her trousers were brown (what else?) and I made her boots a bit fancier looking, painting them reddish brown. Her blonde hair was more striking than the other characters in the images, so I used a brighter yellow. The shield design is the one she and her shield maidens used later in the series and is based on a Viking rune, I believe. In fact, I admit the chronology of the characters and game are a bit mixed up. By the time Björn is old enough to go to war and lead men, Rollo is in Normandy. But hey, it is a game and most of the Ragnar legendary sagas are liberally played with by the show's writers.

    I'm satisfied with my job on Björn Ironside's animal skin cloak - Ragnar would be proud of his son

Björn's figure was the one I was least looking forward to paint. The images I saw online of his animal fur cloak looked challenging. Still, I persevered and did my best. I began with a light tan base coat on the fur, then white dry brush in what would be the animal's (wolf? fox?) lighter sections, with medium brown patches here and there to darken it up. A brown wash over it all and I am actually very happy with how the cloak came out. The rest of the figure is various tones of (wait for it...) brown and gray. The "< >" shield came up in a Google search, so I went with it. I gave him lighter blond hair than his mom, but more yellow than dad, which I thought made sense.

    I managed to hold off mimicking Floki the shipbuilder's insane giggle as I painted his figure

Finally, Floki -- a very interesting character in the series. The shipbuilder is not named as such on Brigade Games' website, but is obviously based on that character. He holds an awl (wood carving tool) and axe. In the series, he rarely carries a shield, if I remember correctly, but I attached one to his back anyway since it was included in the pack. Here the Google searches were particularly helpful. I replicated the reddish brown vest, gray under tunic, brown pants, and dark boots as closely as I could but to also allow for contrast and a more interesting looking miniature. I gave him the tear tracks tattoos that this devoted follower of the Norse gods wears in the film. His unruly hair was done in a medium brown and he looks equally sinister and crazy like the character is at times in the events in the series.

All in all, I am VERY happy with how Ragnar and his crew turned out. When I left for vacation Feb. 4, everything was done on these figures except the wash and flocking. I finished those when I came back, two weeks later. It is also less than two weeks from my Cincycon game, now, so hopefully you will soon see action shots of them looting an Anglo-Saxon town and cutting down hapless villagers!

    A final look at the Brigade Games' take on the characters from the History Channels series, Vikings

What else is on my paint desk? I have the two trailers I purchased from Bad Goblin Games at Siege of Augusta. Both have their primary base coat and dry brush done on their exteriors. I have begun painting the exterior details and then will switch to the interiors. They also have to be done because I will be bringing them down to Cincycon to be used by Bad Goblin Games when they run their Trailer Park Warlords of the Apocalypse game Friday, 2pm, at Cincycon. A couple of the owners just happen to be in Cincinnati from Florida for work, and they decided to run one of their games and attend the show. Since they're flying up, I am helping them out by bringing a mat and some terrain to use. If you get a chance to play in their game, I encourage you to do so. It is a lot of fun!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 7

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Viking Longship in 25mm Resin

    This 25mm resin Viking longship has languished unpainted in my closet for more than a decade!

Many, many moons ago, I went to Pittsburgh for a DBA Ancients tournament held at a game store. I placed well enough to win a store gift certificate, but ignored the packets of 15mm Ancients lined up for us to choose from. My eye had been caught by a 25mm scale Viking longship on the shelves. I chose that, and it has languished in a series of closets over the years until recently. I pulled it out to paint up as eye candy for my Viking Town Raid game (which I seem to mention on here in every other post...ha, ha!). 

    Closeup of the dragon figurehead, which was actually a metal piece which needed to be glued on

It comes with rowers and such, but honestly I want it just as a piece of stationary, atmospheric terrain. So, I stuck the rowers in the unpainted lead drawer to continue languishing (poor guys!). The longship comes in two resin pieces -- the hull of the ship and the deck with its benches and such. The dragon figurehead and curly tail spiraling off the stern came as lead castings. It also included one single wooden dowel for the mast. I glued the deck to the ship and the figureheads to their bow and stern posts. The dowel I set aside to agonize about later. The constructed ship itself got a black spray paint coat, followed up by my usual brush-on 50/50 mix of water and black acrylic paint.

    A close up of the benches and fur bundles that the rowers would sit on while at sea

Painting the ship actually went very quickly, much to my surprise. I did a wet brush of Howard Hues Camo Brown, followed by a dry brush of Khaki as a highlight. Then, came the more time consuming part of picking out the details on the deck -- the wooden seat benches, the piles of furs or skins for rowers to sit on, and the various bronze fittings. I went with paler colors, figuring the sun and salt spray would have bleached them over the weeks and months at sea. Once done with all of these, I did a black vehicle wash over the entire thing. I was very happy with how it had come out so far, but there was the small detail of that dowel for a mast!

    Panic along the coastline as the dragon figurehead is sighted - Viking raiders on the way!

Obviously, a single upright dowel was NOT going to do! Not sweet enough for eye candy, in my opinion. I would have to at least do a cross-spar, and hopefully with a furled sail gathered around it. The model will be sitting at anchor or dock 90% of the time I use it, I imagine, so a furled sail looks better than one with a bellyful of wind. I did research on what a Viking longship with a furled sail would look like. I asked the incredibly creative folks on the Lead Adventure Forum for suggestions. Thus, the two weeks or so of "agonizing" while the rest of the longship sat finished on my desk.

    The curled stern is another metal piece and turned out very nicely when dry brushed

Before I could even begin on the sail, I would have to first affix the horizontal spar to the dowel rod. I decided to go with a narrower width dowel for the spar, and I would pin the two together with a piece of brass rod. I also shaved out a bit of a flat on the spar so the two would join closer together. From there, it was a simple matter of drilling a hole in each and then adding the pin. Once it was in place and the glue had dried on the mast, I slid the spar onto the projecting length of the pin. Once again, simple to do, with white glue adding its grip to the two pieces of wood. Once dry, I trimmed off the excess pin and recommenced my agonizing about the furled sail!

    The cause for days and days of agonizing: How to do a furled sail on the longship?

There were several good suggestions for how to do the furled sail on the forum, but I ended up going with my first thought. I purchased a piece of red and white striped scrapbooking paper from the local craft store. For some reason, Viking longships are always illustrated with a red and white vertically striped sails. The pre-printed paper would keep me from having to paint the sail. I measured and trimmed off a rectangle. I then folded it in half, painted the underside with white glue, and set it under a weight so it dried flat. While it was drying, I borrowed a spool of brown thread from Jenny, and wrapped and cross-wrapped the spar and mast together so it would look like rope lashings.

    A welcome sight to many villagers -- a Viking longship sailing away!

I was still figuring things out on the fly, and putting further work off each day. One night, while trying to get to sleep, I had the idea of pre-curling the top part of the sail around the spar and epoxying it in place as a separate first step. So, I took the sail (which was only about half the length it would be if it would be down and "full bellied"), and trimmed out a divot in the exact center where the top end would split to go around the mast. I epoxied it into place. This worked really well. So far, so good. I took a deep breath. I was ready to put my ideas to the test and furl the sail to the spar. I found a piece of insulation foam and poked the bottom of the dowel into it, firmly fixing it upright. Next, I grabbed my bottle of 50/50 white glue and water and poured its contents into a plastic cup. I set the foam on the edge of the sink and weighed it down so it wouldn't tip over and fall in.

Taking a wide flat brush, I soaked the sail thoroughly with white glue and water. I waited till its ends began to curl, which hopefully meant the layer of white glue joining the two folded sides together was once again wet and pliable. I cut a length of brown thread, made a loop, and pulled it tight, pulling the sail up like a curtain. I wrapped the thread round and round the dripping paper. I did the same thing in three more spots -- two "tie ups" on either side of the mast. It was a little crumpled in places, but by and large, looked vaguely like I wanted it. I set it to dry over the sink.

   A view from above of the longship, which actually painted up very quickly to my surprise!

That evening, once the glue had dried, I trimmed off various wild pieces of string, and painted over the loops with full strength white glue. The next morning, I used a thin brush to paint a light leather color over the looped string. Was it perfect? No. I am sure others could do a much nicer job. However, I pronounced myself satisfied and all that was left to do was to clearcoat the ship and mast. Done! After languishing in my closet for more than a decade, I finally had a 25mm Viking longship! I have updated my tallies below, but felt a little like Legolas and Gimli when adding only a "1" to the "Terrain Painted" total. Despite weeks sitting on the painting desk (and days of agonizing), "That still counts as only one!"

    Last look at the dragon figurehead -- which historically was removed when sailing to trade peacefully

What's next on my paint desk? Well, the occupants of the ship! I purchased a set of five 28mm Viking miniatures from Brigade Games that are sculpted to resemble Ragnar Lothbrok and his friends and family. They are close to being done, and will likely be my first post when I return from vacation. So stay tuned!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 7

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Lion Rampant: Charlemagne's Empire Battles Byzantines in Italy

    Our Sunday evening group gave Lion Rampant a try, with six 24-point warbands on the table at once

My friends Keith and Mike S had been wanting to try a big game of Lion Rampant for awhile. We finally got it arranged for this past Sunday, with six armies on the tabletop. Three Carolingian commands faced off against two Early Byzantine with one Avar ally. Each of the six players controlled a 24-point warband using Lion Rampant rules. I was worried that it would be too much of a traffic jam on my eight foot wide table, but it ended up not being the case. I was pleasantly surprised by that.

    Carolingian left wing in the early game as we struggle with activation rolls to move up

I commanded the left wing of Charlemagne's army. Jenny in the center and Allen on the right had identical forces taken from the 2nd Edition rule book. We each had two units of Heavy Cavalry, two of Heavy Infantry, and two Archer units. I was a little worried when Mike S and Keith deployed on their side of the field, though. Every unit in Mike's Byzantine command could shot, and all but one in Joel's Avars. Keith's Byzantines were on the opposite side of the field, and he was fiddling with his troop list still when he arrived, so I am not 100% sure of what he fielded. I do know his archers seized a crop field and shot Allen's troops mercilessly. So, I was worried how Lion Rampant would play out with a mostly shooty army vs. a mostly not. Missile fire is something "big skirmish" rules sets often struggle with representing, making it alternately too powerful or too ineffective.

    Jenny's Carolingian center command, with one of its archer units on the left supporting me

Jenny had put one of her archer units on the left end of her battle line, and they marched alongside my two archer units who were on my right to repel Joel's fast-moving Avars. In Lion Rampant, foot bows consistently out-range horse archers (18" vs. 12"). So, with Joel's steady advance, he was bound to take some shots coming in. Jenny's archers loosed first and drove back Joel's light cavalry (the unit failed its courage test), killing two of their six figures. That was my hope. Mounted units in Lion Rampant are typically six figures while foot are usually 12. We should have more staying power in an archery duel. On the left, that's how it began to play out. After a frustrating first couple turns, I finally got my archers moving, hurrying to catch up with the heavy infantry who were advancing to meet the mounted Avar battle line.

    Joel's Avar mounted horse archer battleline across the table from my left wing

Joel was unable to get close enough to shoot without taking casualties. The Frankish archers would cause 1-2 casualties with each shot, and that would often be enough to drive back the small Avar mounted units. Things became desperate enough for Joel that he sent the Avar general with his Elite Cavalry to fill the gap vacated by the light horse. The Avar nobles charged forward, first against my archers, then against Jenny's. They drove back my unit which was trying to enter the plowed fields, but when they followed up by charging Jenny's archers, disaster struck. In Lion Rampant, if a leader's unit takes casualties, you roll to see if he was killed. It requires a "snake eyes" -- "2" on 2d12 to kill the general, but guess what Jenny rolled? The Elite Avar cavalry failed its morale check and fell back. Each turn, archers would shoot at them again and again until the unit was finally destroyed.

    Joel's Byzantine allies, Mike S (left) and Keith as their legions begin to advance across the table

On the far left, my two heavy spear units attacked a unit of Avar Cavalry. Each time, they counter-charged and drove us back. However, with our combined 24 figures against their six to absorb casualties, they had little hope and were whittled down below half strength. My own general got in on the action and charged in to finish off the unit. The Avars opposed to us were disintegrating, and we surged forward to try to threaten the Byzantine center. However, we were too late. Mike had cleverly placed his shooting units in a crescent and concentrated archery on Jenny's units that advanced. The shooting of four to five units a turn devastated her forces. One after another, her infantry and archers were hurled back. Mike had began the game activating poorly with dice rolls. However, when crunch time came and the Carolingian center entered his range, his rolls were flawless and he proved my fears were justified. Five units shooting from a defensive posture were simply too much to overcome. Jenny's forces were crippled and fell back.

    All of Mike S's force were archers -- from his lowly foot skirmishers to his heavy and elite cavalry

On the far right wing, Keith had been getting the better of Allen, as well. He had a unit of Elite Cavalry that was worth 8 points -- double what each of our units were worth. He used them to great effect to smash each unit Allen advanced, after it had been weakened by his Byzantine archers in the plowed field. Allen scored some successes, too, routing Keith's light infantry with bowfire. However, Allen's activation rolls were very poor -- especially with his other archer unit, which handicapped him severely. It is interesting that each command that attacked -- Joel's Avar left, Jenny's Carolingian center, and Allen right wing -- were all driven back by missile fire. Is archery in a defensive posture too powerful in Lion Rampant? This is only our first game with the rules, so I can't say for sure.

    Joel's Avar Light Horse dash towards the center of the battlefield, next to the village

There are a lot of variables in the rules, though. Units don't activate all the time. We needed to roll a 6+ on 2d6 to get our archers to activate. As the Carolingians, we failed at least 1/3 of the time, it seemed, with our bowmen. The Heavy Infantry do slightly better with a 5+ on 2d6, but that often meant they advanced unsupported against a wall of missiles. I did make the comment to the others that Lion Rampant was originally designed to be a medieval battle game -- not to replicate steppe warfare, which is kind of the army we faced. It convinced us that we need to be sure to do historical battles in our future games. Everyone was encouraged enough by the results to give it another try, though. Mike S suggested he'd rather fight the battles of Dark Age Britain than the continent, so there will be no horse archers or entirely missile-armed armies there...I hope!

    And those Avar Light Horse are promptly driven back by Frankish archery

Six commands of 24 points on an 8'x4' field DID work, much to my surprise. What's more, the game ended fairly quickly. Well, we actually called it early as Jenny and Allen's forces were in no shape to advance. I had won on the left, but I had no easy way to exploit my success with the Byzantine center anchored on the impassable terrain of the village in between out forces. I felt the enemy had won, though they weren't so sure. So, our experiment was enough of a success you will likely see us playing more Lion Rampant games in the future. Mike chose to use the variant of the rules where failure to activate a unit does NOT end your turn. Much like with Rebels and Patriots, you are given a chance to activate every unit in your force (assuming it did not have to rally), no matter how many other units had failed. Honestly, I prefer that. I know, I know -- playing the less forgiving command and control system forces you to make hard choices!

    Joel plugs the gap with his Elite Cavalry, who charge into the flank of my archers, driving them back

However, on a Sunday evening multiplayer game, I am looking to roll dice and have fun -- not agonize over every activation roll. And for those players having a bad night crapping out on activation rolls, there's not a whole lot of fun if you don't get to move troops around and shoot or fight! So, I guess I'm in the less serious, more "Let's have fun" crowd when it comes to "big skirmishes." And on that note, I don't really consider Lion Rampant, Saga, Warhammer, etc., skirmish games. They're big battle games. Anytime you're maneuvering 12-figure units around, you have left the skirmish world behind, in my opinion. Still, we laughed and had fun, whatever we want to call the game!

    Elated by their success, the Avar nobles charge into another archer unit...but lose their general!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 4

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

    The battle rages as my Carolingian leader at bottom leads his troops forward

    Victorious on the left, my command begins to sweep in towards the Byzantine center

    Good to get a table full of troops out & see the spectacle of a Dark Age warfare with Lion Rampant!