Silver Bayonet - Japanese Faction

A dip into the lead pile and next up a couple of extra's from Northstar and Empress to create a Japanese faction for the Silver Bayonet. The Russo-Japanese forces proper have not been out of the box for a while so this will be a tentative step back into Manchuria.

Not the best photo but left to right - Infantryman, Officer, Occultist, 2 Swordsmen and 3 more Infantrymen.

Two Swordsmen/Officers from Empress Miniatures these are1904 officers wearing tradition Samurai armour perfect for adventuring in Manchuria and confronting evil.

I spotted these on the Northstar site and these looked just the part for the Japanese faction as a Soothsayer and his apprentice.

Ghost Archipelago - #7 The Gateway.

According to locals the Chappata live in a mountain city high where the only why in is through a large gate in the bottom of the mountain, all the parties have to do is push open the gate and enter the city, where a bounty of treasure awaits.

The Chappata are peaceful people and not known for their warrior skills so they should be easy to push aside.

The winner in today's outing is the first player to push open the gate.

The Gateway is defended by three warriors of the Chappata people, however a further warrior will join the defenders for every 18 rolled on the initiative table. They won't engage the parties until anyone gets within 10" of the gate or they are fired upon.

Littered along the road to the temple is various piles of treasure, the players will gain rewards for collecting them, but this is a race to the gate..... Remember guys a race.....

Turn one and it would appear blood feuds run deep, as the freebooters open fire on the Atlantians who are sandwiched on the main highway between to the two opposing forces.

Whilst the Marines look to skirt the fighting the Guardians blaze away at anyone in sight.

Heritor Rasco is taken out of the fight by a blunderbuss blast from the nasty pirates... this brings a lull in the fighting with both sides content that a small amount of recompense had been done.

A few turns tick by and the Marines and the Pirates make it to within sight of the gateway, the native numbers had been growing slightly but they continue to observe the invaders. The Freebooters make a break for one of the piles of gold, only for the Marines to break from cover and let loose a volley.

Captain Masters let's his releases his war hound who tears into the burly pirate, his large axe is no match for gnashing teeth,

Meanwhile at the gate the native numbers continue to swell.

Having regrouped the Atlantians now led by Atmir move up the road, the Warden throwing up clouds of mist to cover their advance.

The Marines having triggered the Chappata fall back into the hinterland in the hope that they will take out the other gangs leaving the way clear for them to reach the gate.

Atmir takes the opportunity to grab a a pile of treasure before another bloody exchange between them and the Marines.

The clock ran down and all players agreed to fall back each party having lost a number of comrades, with their numbers reduced and the natives growing numbers. They would have to try another day to breach the gate,

Another fun outing but perhaps next time we all should save our powder for the natives.....

Ghost Archipelago - #4 Swampland

Blimey has it really been over 6 months since the last outing of Ghost Archipelago?

No wonder it took longer than usual to get to grips with the rules, good news by the end of turn 2 we were well under way.

A couple of quick texts around the group and we were able to amass enough boats and bridges for the Swampland Scenario, three islands with treasure aplenty, but don't roll low on your initiative as this will cause a swamp zombie to appear. Unsurprisingly it was a night of low rolls :-(

The adventures had been busy over the past 6 months and everyone had a couple of sail boats to bring to the party, Marines, Privateers and Atlantians all prepared their landing parties.

The Crew of the Sun Chaser got off to their usual start, set upon by Zombies. OK we the other players kept placing our undead foe in their path. The Marines marched about confidently shooting anything that moved and the bullet heads hung about doing very little.

Bonus points could be gained by stepping on each island, but being a sporting bunch we of course were happy to let that happen - Not. So Zombies were soon appearing on the bridges to block the path of the adventurers.

Whilst the Privateers made a lightening grab for the central treasure, the Marines rushed the central island however tonight for once the Atlantians had decided to bring some powder for the muskets and could actually hit a target, the Marines came under concentrated fire and several of their section were killed caught in the open, left isolated even Captain Masters was shot and put out of the game.

Even without a leader the Marines continued their bold moves snatching treasure and loading up their sail boats, however if you can block a bridge why not fill have a zombie climb aboard your vessel. Yes we the other players might be going last, but we get to mess you up with Swamp Zombies.

As the game drew to a close the Privateers had snatched the bulk of the loot, the Marines limped off with a bunch of treasure and the Atlantians were left holding the table with nothing but one pile of gold and a bunch of undead.

A cracking evenings entertainment which makes me wonder why it took so long to make it on the table. The wandering monster rule and low initiative placement keeps the game flowing and serves as a great tactic to keep players tied up. As you push for that extra treasure.

Despite their high casualties on the night the Marines managed to recover most of their troops and everyone is spoiling for a fight to get their revenge. Roll on round 5.

Snowed in - Time for some more GA crewmen.

Hammerhead may well have been postponed due to the snow, but it does not mean I can't get some hobby time in.
This is the second half of the Northstar crewmen box for Ghost Archipelago. I wanted to give this group a more uniform feel so opted for yellow sashes to and scarves to separate them out from the others.

Not sure when they will see varnish due to the temperature being below 0 degrees again, but they will make some useful additions to the on going campaign encounters.

When facing off against the Eastern inspired crew they both look rather good, perhaps better then when I was staring at them with paint brush in hand.

Right back to the asteriods, at least now I have until the 28th April to get them finished for Hammerhead mark 2.

Ghost Archipelago - Review and First Impressions

Just as I was preparing the latest batch of Haitians the latest distraction landed on the door mat. Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, I only played the original game once it was a little heavy on the terrian side for my liking but when I saw the setting for Ghost Archipelago it felt like a rule set that could bring all of my odd collections together on one table top allowing me to get to use some of the mini's that rarely see table time.

I backed the base level pledge in the current Nickstarter from Northstar, which provided me with the Rules, spell deck, a box of Crew, Crew Rooster, Treasure tokens and preproduction casts together with the novel to get you in the mood for island hopping.

Everything was well packed with the books bubble wrapped for extra protection. The presentation style is excellent, the rules are hard back and have a high production feel to them, no pages will be falling out of this set unlike Cutlass! 

The Snakeman's sword was damaged but being only one I can't see much use for him anyway.

I did not go to the trouble of selecting the Heritors and Wardens but am happy with the random figures, they have a Eastern feel to them which will allow me to use some of my Ottomans should I need to ground troops or extra crewmen.

 

I quite like the idea of my Atlantians guarding the various temples and jungle outposts, they will definately feature as some of the "bad guys" the rules cater for waterborne warfare with rules for boats, perfect as I picked a couple of these up from Iron gate scenary at Derby a few weeks ago.

The rulebook is 144 pages filled with full color photos of painted miniatures are some lovely art work to inspire the modeller in you. The rules within the book are relatively straight forward and with specific chapters for each area its easy to to find the specific rules. The contents include. Heritors, Wardens, and Crewmen, Chapter 3 Playing the Game, Chapter 4 The campaign followed by Heritor Abilities, Warden Spells, Scenarios (eight in the book), and the Bestiary.

Flicking through the rules and set up this morning, Ghost Archipelago, provides for a basic warband consisting of 10 members that must be purchased using 250 gold coins. Outside of the Heritor and Warden the warband can filled with a mix of  Standard Crewman and Specialist roles such as the Pearl Diver or Scout.

The Wardens must choose from five branches—Beast, Earth, Storm, Warden, Vine, and Wave, allowing your Warden/Wizard to influence the terrian and creatures on the board.

To spice up your encounter Ghost Archipelago also provides a Random Encounter Table with three levels of encounters each giving a different type of creature and with rules for your average wildlife through to Dinosaurs and the undead, plenty of choice to allow me to get those long forgot miniatures on the table - Fishmen anyone?

Ghost Archipelago feels perfect for those mid-week games where you only have a couple of hours to spare, the terrain demands are minimal espically if like me you have been collecting fish tank terrain for years. With 10 figures aside the investment for a warband is quite low and you can always swap out the monsters to fit what you have already - You never know the Bugs may make an appearance....

Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago Nickstarter is now live!

OK I was going to call this posting "I have Crabs" but I am pretty sure that would get all the wrong kind of views. To mark the launch of the latest Nickstarter I thought I would clear a couple of items from the foot of lead mountain.

I picked these nippy looking sea creatures up a number of months ago for the Warlords of Atlantis Project but I am pretty sure they will come in handy for island treasure grabbing.

As daft as it sounded I did not want to many fanciful creatures for the Atlantians/Pirates to battle but then I realised Atlantis was made up and giant Crabs don't really exist...

The largest armoured crustacean is from Otherworld Miniatures while the smaller two are from Antediluvian Miniatures you can see the size comparison when compared to one of the Guardians. somewhat of a rushed paint job, but they will do the trick lurking in swamps and coming out of the sea.

Right enough of this silliness back to the Haitian Project, with a big game looming in a couple of week I have at least 3 units to finish and little paint time.

Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago

I never did get into Frostgrave. The investment in suitable terrain put me off, I like to ensure my terrain collection has multiple uses across periods and gaming systems. The rules themselves seemed fine in the few games I had with Paul at the Wyverns (see his posts here.) so when Ghost Archipelago was announced set in jungle covered Islands it suddenly felt worth considering as a gaming system.

The main characters in Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago are the powerful Heritors and their Warden sidekicks. These characters will replace the Wizard and Apprentice characters from the original Frostgrave setting the teasers suggest a Sinbad type feel to the crewmen and factions with the usual RPG type options of building characters through the games played.
 

The initial previews are encouraging expendable crewmen and weird adversaries such as the
snakemen.

The initial look and feel appears to give the kind of large scale skirmish I was looking for in a pirate type adventure and the recent games of Cutlass! and Atlantis type adventure should transfer well into  Junglegrave and give me a use for some of the stranger painted items which don't see much game time.

It hopefully will give me a chance to pull together all of those small projects under one roofwith a common rule set.

Definately a Nickstarter worth backing and with jungle terrain a plenty something I can bring to the table relatively quickly. Crickey I am almost entering mainstream gaming. Anyhow after this minor distraction back to some thing a little more left field Haitian Napoleonics...

Frostgrave - Chinese Style.

I guess I can't be the only one with a drawful of figures that come in a blister pack, that don't quite make the grade or fit with the army or faction that are currently on the paint table, the Water Margin Project is no expection - Just why did I order that extra pack?

Surely it always be to pack the postage up?

A few of the club recently talked about running a number of Frostgrave games, desperate not to get into yet another period, I could quite easily convert some of the latest mini's for an outing.....

Back at the foot of lead mountain were half a dozen Blackhat Chinese Wizards and Warlocks - Perfect for the job.

Frostgrave goes east.

The latest off the production line.. Various magic casters.

With the smell of varnish still in the air the Wizards took to the table in a three way Frostgrave encounter. Paul has been steadily building up his collection of terrain, so it was a great excuse to give the newest pieces arun out.

You can see more of his work here.

With enemies to my left and my right.

The plan was a simple one run in, grab the treasure before the statues wake up and head off the table.

The brave band about to embark on the treasure hunt.

Paul makes a frantic dash for the treasure reaching the centre of the table first, his archers keeping my chaps heads down, Dane is having a quiet game for a change one manning a barricade (top of the pictiure) and firing off arrows at anyone brave enough to stick their head out.

Pauls theives reach the first treasure tokens, waking up the stone guardians, who go after the closest enemy insight, meanwhile his nasty ranger finds his mark taking out one of my thugs....

The theives true to their name pick up another bundle of treasures as more statues wake from their slumber.

I edge closer to the main courtyard dispatching a zombie with my oriental knight payment for losing my thug to the flaming archers.

My Construct makes it's way back to the base line a treasure token in hand as my Wizard and is attacked from behind by a pair of wolves who had wandered on to the table.

The final phases become a mad rush for the remaining treasure items. All three players are looking to grab what they can, the statues are tough are getting in the way of all our plans tieing up characters and inflicting a considerable damage on all our warbands.

Eventually I flee off table with two treasure tokens and a badly injured apprentice who goes on to die of his injuries.... Not the best day at the office.
The curse of newly painted figures strikes again.


A great fun outing a perfect club game for a Sunday evening....