531 and counting

Final rush for finalizing almost painted miniatures

Just like last year my December has mostly been dedicated to finishing half (or more) painted minis.

In this blog post I'm sharing the minis I've painted recently. On Novmber 11th I posted a post about having 420 minis finished this year. Now there 110 more and counting... 

I've also painted several models for the Harry Potter Miniatures Adventure Game, see them here

and terrain and Iron Hills Dwarves for LOTR, see them here

Shinto models for the Rising Sun (CMON)

Way to Hogwarts - Updated 21st of February 2019

Harry Potter Miniatures Adventure Game

15th of December 2018: Acquired This from Firestorm Games UK as Knight Models don’t ship to Finland. In this post I will review the game and miniatures and publish pictures of minis I’ve painted. This post will continue to evolve as we go forward. And what do I mean with “we”? This game will be a Christmas present to our family - my three daughter are all Harry Potter fans. And shhhhhh... don’t tell them about this!

Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant!

First go with Sons of Mars

Rome and gladiators have been my interest since reading Asterix comics as a kid and my first historical army was Early Imperial Rome. We've been playing different Gladiator games as beer and pretzels games many times and now this fire has been kindled again with Sons of Mars

Read on...

Middle Earth SBG Tournament at Nopat & Taktiikka -club - FIRST BATTLE REPORTED

Great tables & Great games

Several new or returning players joined the ranks of us veterans and once again Adrian took up the mantle of a TO. Soon players were flocking in and we had a tournament with 12 players all set at the club!

Read on to find out how my games went down! You can see how I had prepared for the tournament on the prequel post.

My Road to Middle-Earth SBG Tournament

 New edition of this classic game spurs activity in the Finnish gaming community. 

This is part 1. of two blog posts - covering my preparations. You can read the battle reports in the second post.

Read on to find out how I prepared and what went down in the tournament!

First go with Byzantines - review

Testing a new Battleboard from Saga Age of Crusades:

Byzantines vs. Saracens

I've been slowly painting some FireForge Games plastic Byzantines (see review here ) as an allied force for my Rus / Medieval Russian army, that I've been playing our Kingdoms in the East -campaign. As the November Saga Game Night at our Nopat & Taktiikka Club was closing in (I was organizing it), I decided to take a sprint in painting my Byzants and challenged Saracens to a fight.

420 miniatures painted / finished this year

Campaigning really boosts productivity

I've played several campaigns this year and this focusing on  one army has gotten me to finish a lot of Rus / Medieval Russian and some of their allies this year. And there are many that have been started and will probably end up being finished before the year end. I've decided, that during December, I won't start any new miniatures, but will focus on finalising the ones started earlier. I'm still aiming to get 600 minis finished this year!

In this blogpost you'll pictures of minis painted after summer - more than a hundred of them.

P.S. I don't know why, but my Mac (with Chrome) messes up the order of the pictures...

Kingdoms in the East: Round 5.

Practicing War

As the fifth round of our campaign started I was holding the third position among our eight players. Jaakko B. (Anglo Danes) and Sami (Teutonic State) were leading me just a bit. I managed to "help" in creating a situation, where Jaakko and  Sami are now playing against one another. My game was against my (secret) ally and neigbour Mikko and his Goth horde. Since were allies and all, we agreed that the battle would a mere joint practice with wooden weapons. Read on to learn how it all went down and what were the results of this round all together.

Unit of Byzantine allies I finished for the game (and some Medieval Russians too)

Unboxing FireForge Games' Byzantine Auxiliaries (few pics added 11/2018)

Unboxing and some Kitbashing

I had pre-ordered these already in August and finally today the wait was over!

Read on to find out how I like them and to see some kitbashing too (of course)

Kingdoms in East Campaign: Round 4 - UPDATED

Delivering the Word of God to the Pagans (with a Sword)

For the 4th round I was challenged by Matti, the fearsome chieftain of Baltic Pagan warband. They have had several armies forcing christianity down their throat (and some Islam too), but still they continued to resist! Being a Finn myself (if not a pagan), I almost felt ashamed to fight my ancestors.

Samurai Games Day 2.: Test of Honor

 Three Player Drama

Three promising Samurai (/ Sohei / Shinobi) novices gathered to our club to hear from their sensei (me) about the true Test of Honor! We played a three player scenario, invented by me.

Read on to learn how it all went down!

First Game of Middle Earth SBG

And a first Game with Erebor reclaimed 

& Laketown survivors -army

I'm preparing an army for a coming ME SBG tournament and wanted to try out the new edition before it... so I speed painted my force for the game with Kalle...

Read further for more pics on the minis and how they are converted... and of course to learn how the battle unfolded!

Back to 1808 with a new player joining our ranks

Random encounter somewhere in Finland

Busy with many gaming related things, so just pictures of this game with a new player joining our 1808-1809 campaign Antti. For some reason Mac throws the pics into the blog in a random order...

Kingdoms in the East Campaign - Round 3. Summary

Challenging the leading player

After two rounds and two victories I continued my course of action and challenged Jaakko, whom was leading our campaign. So a second round of challenging a Jaakko, whom is leading...

Battles and results on Round 3. 

Marko's Arabs vs. Jaakko's Seljuqs - Victory for Seljuqs (Game played by Kalle)
Sami's Teutons vs. Mikko's Goths - Victory for Teutons
Tommi's Swedish KD vs. Matti's Baltic Pagans - yet to be played
My Rus vs. Jaakko B's Novgorod Anglo Danes - Minor victory to Anglo Danes, see report below

Campaign Status in the end of Round 3.

300 Finished miniatures milestone breached

Some of the latest results

KIngdoms in the East - Round 2

Empires are developing

Map status after 3/4 games are played

Great excitement is brooding around the campaign and round two was kicked of in two weeks

after the kick off. Read on to learn how it went down...

Map based Campaign started: Kingsdoms in the East

Time to fight bigger battles!

After two Saga campaigns (Limes and East part one) in the spring and early summer our armies have grown and are growing. So evolution takes us to the next level: larger battles with rules systems designed for them.  Read on and follow how this campaign unfolds...

Age of the Wolf Campaign documented

I made a page for this as it compiles campaign background and 7 battle reports!

You can find it here

Warhammer Fantasy: Race for the Badlands campaign continues

Two more games for my Tomb Kings

Read on! (or see the pics at least)

Ropecon: Finnish Civil War 1918 - UPDATED

Battle of Orivesi

So our D-day had arrived. Since late 2017 we had been discussing playing the Finnish Civil War 1918 with Bolt action and hosting a demo game in the Largest LARP / RPG / Card Gaming / Miniature Gaming / Whatever Gaming - event in Finland, Ropecon. Then we had been searching the web for suitable miniatures and converting and painting them.

See my commitments to this project here.

I had to leave scout camp Kliffa one day earlier to make it to Ropecon for Sunday. In the morning

I dressed up for the occasion. It's been to hot in Finland to use the warm woollen jacket (sarkatakki), that would have suited the theme even better.

Finnish Civilwar 1918 page published

See above under, ”projects” pictures and info on our club’s Finnish Civil war 1918 project.

Samurai! - post updated.

Samurais and Songoku-jidai period in Wargaming

Notice: this is more or less the same content as published at https://sculptingpaintingandgaming.com/

Have been my interest for years and years and I've been collecting my Sengoku-Jidai -period army for a long time - but haven't really had that many games, as there has not been other players with similar armies. After all Japanese mainly fought each other during this era. The few games I've had with them before have been quite weird indeed: Warhammer Fantasy fan made army list and fighting Late Imperial Romans, Pike & Shotte rules and fighting 17th century Swedes and then finally a P&S game against Mongols (I was soundly beaten), that at least had some historical relevance.

Read on!

Another text by me published at Sculpting, Painting and Gaming

More Sengoku Jidai

Read all about it here

Project Salute: Battle of Stäket 13.8.1719

Nordic Co-operation in military matters continued - invasion of Britain

Dalauppror with his warband of Swedish & British sell-swords are already notorious for their presentation games in Salute. As a committed Great Northern War armies collector I was allowed to join in on this crew and so started my "Project Salute"

Me, myself and the Maestro himself!

Read on to learn what this all meant!

Nopat Club’s traditional summer weekend: Bolt action!

Pacific Theatre Campaign Day 

A great tradition of gentlemanly summer weekend with wargaming, good friends, cold drinks, fat cigars and hot sauna has been established at our club. You can find blurry accounts of previous sessions in my blog.

This time we decided to run a kind of team tournament with a Pasific team.

Concept is based on the campaign day event pack  by Downorder.com - thanks for sharing!

Three player Zen Saga!

Battle & murder at the monastery

This months Saga Game Night was about fan made battle boards. I had recently discovered and played Fantastic Saga pitting my Greek Hoplites (and Ares) against Jaakko's Undead, but for this evening I wanted to "re-enact" my experience from Hamburger Tactica (2014), where Patrick & co. from Kurpfalz Feldherren were running the same scenario with the best looking games table, I had ever seen (until I saw more tables from them next year!).  

Back to Mythic Pantheon

Clash of father and son

Instead of continuing with the New Guinea Bolt Action campaign, Herkko and me decided to come to Mythic Battle Pantheon. It was time to move forward from the intro game and try out the full rules.

Status report from the painting desk

Is this satisfactory?

As I finished 600+ miniatures last year, it seems I'm badly behind this year. Well as always (even if I'm getting better!) I also have some 50+ minis, that have been on my paint desk and are almost finished. In this blogpost you can see what are the minis behind these numbers.  So far this year my gaming has focused on Saga, Bolt Action, Warhammer Fantasy Battle (8th ed.) and then some. Star Wars Legion is on the rise. This obviously shows in my painting as I'm always painting for the next game. Samurai -theme is also showing.

Pagan Rus / Eastern Princes for Saga Age of the Wold Campaign

From the Frozen Steppes they come

As another Saga campaign started I finally got around to paint more Rus / Medieval Russian minis I had acquired through the last five years from Grippingbeast, FireForge, Old Glory and Magister Militarium, to name a few sources ;-)

 

Salute 2018

My first time

I've been to Hamburger Tactica three times (it's a great show) and ones to Warfare, but 

so far had dodged visiting Salute, possibly because the image I had in mind about it: rushed and crowded shopping event, where one can't join in on games (something I've really enjoyed in Tactica). Now I was part of  Dalauppror's international team making a display game of a Great Northern War: Battle of Stäket 1719 (there will be a separate blog post on this project). This motivated me to go and simultaneously my wife and one of my three daughters came to see the marvels of London. 

How convenient!

First go with the Rising Sun by CMON

Happy victims of another CMON kick starter gathered

...to try out recently arrived Rising Sun boardgame. Read on how it went and how did we like it.



4 of us from the Nopat & Taktiikka Club had participated in the kick starter and most of us had already gotten the game (not me as I was late with my payment for the delivery :-( ). So we were more than eager to give it a go. Marko also joined us as one of us had to cancel.

EPIC FIRST CRUSADE HAIL CAESAR BATTLE

Battle of Dorylaeum 1097

The Battle of Dorylaeum took place during the First Crusade on July 1, 1097, between the crusaders and the Seljuk Turks, near the city of Dorylaeum in Anatolia. - Wikipedia.

Introductory video here.

Unboxing STAR WARS Legion

Dream of a Star Wars Fan - Wargamer came true?

I was very positively surprised when our local game store Fantasiapelit sent me an email yesterday, announcing that pre-ordered Star Wars Legion -products could be picked up today! I had been warned, that deliveries from FFG or their European distributor haven’t always been in time.

So even if suffering from a nasty flue I hauled myself towards downtown Helsinki and got my precious loot! 

Read on to see what’s in the box and first minis put together and base coated...

Warhammer Fantasy Battle!

Tomb Kings vs. Empire 2000p.

Old gaming friend Jussi contacted me and suggested a game WFB I was happy to oblige.  As it was going to be a totally friendly game, I chose to dust of old Tomb Kings I hadn't used for ages. I also continued painting these Ushabti with great bows, they had seen a field of battle only once before (I guess I wasn't pleased with their performance back then) and I had left them unfinished. I had caught a cold or flue over the weekend, but didn't want to cancel so the game was on!

Read on to find out if we still remembered how to  play this classic ;-)

Bolt Action Apocalypse

Allied push in the Pasific

FIRST GAME OF SAGA 2 & REVIEW

And the 5th Game of our Limes Campaign 

Last Romans vs. Germanic People

Our club’s Saga players gathered again for another Saga Games Night, but this time it was a special: first go with Saga 2.0

Last Romans (me) faced Germanic People in 5th year game of our Limes Campaign (Rome currently leading 15-8 vs. Barbarians). Other games were Saracens vs. Normans (playing Crusaders) and Vikings vs. Scots. A full battle report on my game and conclusions on how we all felt about Saga 2.0 follows...

Gentelemen's Saga-tournament

Winter War Saga-tournament

Finally the days had arrived! Nopat & Taktiikka Club's famous Winter War Tournament Weekend

with some 150 players fighting it out in some 7 different game systems including 40K, 9th Age, FoW, Bolt Action, Infinity, Guildball and SAGA!

I had been organizing the Saga-tournament since November and was delighted to finally get into action! Unfortunately 2 out of 8 players had cancelled, but as you can see, the committed bunch of Warlords started the day in very good humours!

Sohei Buntai and a new start for Ronin (by Osprey)

Fight for the Temple

The long wait to get back into "Samurai-gaming" was finally over. Throughout the fall of 2017 we had been chatting about getting a small Ronin campaign going with my mates Joonas and Juha (a 4th player needed!). Joonas had the responsibility to get us organized, but our good doctor seemed too busy... Finally in our club's Christmas party (held in January) I managed to corner him and we agreed this date our calendars! 

Armies on Parade: Swedes and Finns of Napoleonic Wars

Army that lost Finland

Stop the Press!!!! Painted miniatures during 2017 re-calculated

Am I living in Florida or what?

Because that's the place they typically don't get score right the first time...

During January I've published several "Armies on Parade" -blog posts and while doing that, I've re-calculated miniatures painted this year. I've also taken a slightly more relaxed approach to my calculation: if a mini has a few details not yet picked up with painting, but I consider it at least battlefield ready, I've added them to my calculation. Even with with that, there's still many many minis unfinished, some of them started last year, some earlier.

1st of January I reported in a blog post, that I had finished 309 miniatures last year, the truth is quite something else... guess how many?

Armies on Parade: Late Romans

My first army built and painted for 

Aetius & Arthur -Saga supplement

Armies on Parade: Great Northern War Russians & Saxons

The Arch enemy

Peter the Great's army with colors flying

Bustling Saga activity in Finland

Saga Limes Campaign year 4, news on the 2nd edition, upcoming Saga-tournament...

Our club is at the moment bustling with Saga-activity, so this blog post gives you an overview of what's going on here in Helsinki, Finland. In this same package you'll also get what have I gathered on Saga 2nd edition and a battle report on my 4th game in our Saga Limes Campaign! Enjoy!

Armies on Parade: Swedes and Finns for the Great Northern War

Charles XII and his brave "Karoliner"

Mythic Battles PANTHEON Unboxing

A huge package of Greek Mythos Goodiness arrived!

I was expecting a two part delivery from Northstar today. It arrived. I was totally blown away when I opened the other (the bigger one) and found an insane amount of Kickstarter Goods on the Mythic Battle Pantheon!

Read on to learn, what insane means in this particular case!

Armies on Parade: Imperial Japanese Army for World War 2.

Banzai - Banzai - Banzai!!!

Mighty Japan!This is my second and largest Bolt Action force and the most triumphant so far: I won Bolt Action tournament with it. Several battles have been fought with them and more is coming with the New Guinea Campaign proceeding. 68 miniatures were finished for this army during 2017!
Note the new approach to basing 3 - 2 -1 to make small dioramas

Armies on Parade: Commonwealth forces in World War 2

British army without so many Brits

This project started long ago by painting a unit of Gurkhas, but with the release of Australian forces and New Guinea Campaign Book it really kicked of during 2017 and 53 models were either painted from the scratch or finished (more Gurkhas).

So far they've only fought one battle as a force, but more will certainly come this spring as we continue the New Guinea campaign. Read on see more pics of the army.

Armies on Parade: Napoleonic Russians in 28mm

Covering all seasons...