Sea Peoples Chariot General

OK, so I finished up my 15mm Sea Peoples chariot. It is the General element for my DBA v1.0 Sea Peoples army. When I went to research the colors, I found ideas all over the spectrum. I went with a muted scheme based on the one from the Essex Miniatures website.

Sea Peoples Ox-Carts

OK, so Kurt and I have started playing the old first edition of De Bellis Antiquitatus. I haven't played since my San Diego days. We are doing the Biblical period, as he already has New Kingdom Egyptians and I have Libyans. I thought it would be fun to start a new army. Just 12 stands of 15mm figures, under $40 for the whole bunch of them. I chose Sea Peoples as they are good opponents not only for the Egyptians but Kurt's proposed Myceneans as well.

Well, anyways, I finished the first two elements of my Sea Peoples army, a pair of Ox-Carts.

Tortles In The Dust: Game 6

 After a long spell, I have played another game of my Tortles In The Dust campaign for Five Leagues From The Borderlands. I still have not finished painting my miniature of Vashti, so a stand-in was used again. I think I am going to need to buy some new brushes before I finish her, as there is some fine detail my current brushes just can't quite get. Plodo was still Healing, so Our Heroes consisted of Weppi, Tundaline, Plog The Elder, Rukacta, Quicktoes, and Vashti for this encounter.

As Our Heroes were still In Camp, they Lived Off The Land and Rukacta did some Training. Plodo Healed another turn, only three turns to go before he can fight again! Our Research yielded a Hidden Monster Lair; we wagered five Adventure Points with a roll of two. We located it! Per the Scouting roll, it was in the same map area as the town of Ectanaba. Our travel there was uneventful.

The Monster Lair required some investigation, and Quicktoes took on this responsibility. There were three tokens to investigate, and he revealed all three; the first was the Ogre-Golem, as yet unaware of his diminutive presence, while after that he found some of the construct's tracks by some palm trees, and finally he discovered a captive, who would fight alongside Our Heroes against this aberration. Once his work was done, Quickktoes signaled the rest of the warband, which then moved towards the monster.

The combat was fast and bloody: Vashti, Rukacta, and the captive all went out of action in the first turn, while the Ogre-Golem sustained three wounds to itself. The second turn saw Weppi and Tundaline unable to damage the thing, but wit the timely arrival of Quicktoes the halfling was able to dispatch the monster. Somewhere in there, two Story Points were spent to re-roll some dice.

After the dust settled, it was time to inventory both injuries and rewards. Rukacta's Harness Of Vengeance was damaged, Vashti took a Moderate wound and would need three turns of Healing (she and Plodo will be on their feet again at the same time,) and Hamada, the captive, was merely knocked out. She joined the Warband as a Loyal Follower. We discovered Thief's Tools, a coil of rope, and a Scout's Cloak in the foyer behind the Ogre-Golem.

This was a fast and brutal game. I am generally not a fan of the "Fight The Monster" scenarios because it usually winds up with the whole warband surrounding the beast and it becomes a dice-rolling exercise. The one thing that really saved this battle for Our Heroes was the Counter-Attack granted by Weppi's Warspear. That was where half the damage to the Ogre-Golem came from (Rukacta's Harness of Vengeance was another, and Quicktoes got in a lucky strike.) So I've got two more Monster Lairs to go through for the campaign victory conditions, as well as any that come up from Quests or Contracts. I might think of how to tweak the rules to make it a bit more interesting.

DBA Desert Camp

 OK, so my buddy Kurt dragged me back into De Belis Antiquitatis. Teribel news. I love this game. We are playing the original 1st edition of the game. I took the papercraft file for the Desert Tent and scaled it to 50% to make this encampment for my Early/Late Libyan army. I think mybe it should have been scaled at 30%, but it's done and usable. It is on a 60mm x 80mm base.

Big Lizard In My Backyard

 OK, so my Five Leagues From The Borderlands solo campaign wound up needing a Ravenous Lizard as an opponent. After reviewing my collection, I had nothing suitable for use and so I rolled up a different encounter. But the need for a possible future Ravenous Lizard remained, and I saw an opportunity at Dollar Tree in the form of a small Jurassic Park toy Allosaurus. It wasn't quite an Allosaurus, it had a snaky droopy tail instead of the long stiff one assumed by modern paleontology. But it was perfect for a fantasy desert giant lizardy thing.

So the first step was removing it from the toy base and putting it on a proper 40mm round gaming base. I prepped the base first, and then secured the toy using a pin and Krazy Glue. The tail didn't want to glue down quite right, but with a little work I got it to look "mostly" right.

Next, I primed both the toy and the base with two coats of black gesso applied by brush. I use the Bob Ross brand because it is economical, but any brand would have sufficed.

I painted the belly and the inner thighs an off white, and the rest of the Ravenous Lizard a neutral brown. The inside of the mouth was done in dark red, and the eyes and claws were blocked in dark brown.

 With the colors blocked on, the next step was applying the Shading Wash. I make mine from acrylic floor polish and artist's inks.

Once the shading wash was dry, I gave all the colors a three=stage highlight, did the eyes in a dull orange, and flocked the base. I wasn't sure the spots would turn out well, but overall they did. If I were to do ot again, I would do smaller, solid spots on the head in a symmetrical pattern.

Svetlana, Frost Giant Princess

OK, so I finished repainting the skin and hair on the Frost Giant Princess, as well as getting her on a larger base. She was previously caucasian with brown hair (and a green-skinned Forest Giantess before that.)

This is the original metal model from Reaper Miniatures.

Tortles In The Dust: Game 5

OK, so I played through the fifth game of my solo Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign. Our Heroes are currently on a Quest to learn the ways of The Dust, so they can lose all those negative effects from being Outlanders. We started off In Camp, where we were visited by a Wise Healer, who gave much needed aid to Tundaline. We were Living off The land, and both Tundaline and Plodo were able to do some more healing. Tundaline was back on her feet and ready for adventure! Rukacta did some Training, gaining an experience point. As we were In Camp, there was no trading to be done, and our Research had no results. We did know, however, that a an artifact called the Jewel Knife Of Kemseht was in an underground temple storage complex some distance away. As we travelled there, we encountered a Sociable Physician, and added Suroush as a Friend. Once there, Our Heroes prepared for the descent into the tunnels. The party would Include Weppi, Tundaline, Plog The Elder, Quicktoes, Rukacta, and Vashti in her first outing (note that I used a placeholder miniature from the collection for Vashti, this is not the model that I will be using to represent her; I haven't acquired the miniature I want to use yet.)

Entering the tunnels, Quicktoes scouted ahead. Using his secret Hobbit Senses, he determined this place wasn't just storage, but a tomb as well. Two additional Exploration Markers and three Skeletons were added to the already present Blood Stained Renegades led by a Grim Knight.

OK, rather than 11 turns of "Weppi and Tundaline crept forward" interspersed with a few melees, I'm just going to do the Highlight Reel. Quicktoes Explored the first marker, finding some hidden tools worth 2 gold. He and Rukacta were then overwhelmed by the bad guys. Weppi moved forward like a tank, destroying everyone who was in front of her. One enemy ran away. Tundaline uncovered the next Marker, yielding a suit of Partial Armor. The Skeletons were defeated. Vashti uncovered the third Marker, which turned out to be the Jewel Knife Of Kemseht. We then fought our way out of the tunnels, with Weppi and the Grim Knight engaging in a multi-turn battle wherein they were both very good at hitting one another but really bad at getting through armor. Eventually Weppi prevailed, and the battle was over.

Quicktoes was just knocked out. Rukacta seemed dead, but the application of some Sage Flower revived him, leaving him with a damaged weapon. That's okay, we have spares! We gained a Gold Coin from the Grim Knight. And finally, drum roll please, the Quest Step roll was a 1, meaning we had completed the Quest! We are no longer Outlanders to The Dust! We ended the Campaign Turn once again In Camp, preparing for the next leg of our journey.