UPDATED! Painting Countdown to New Year

500 painted miniatures here we come!

...whoops it's almost 700 in the end!

It's again that time of the year, when it's time to finish up as many yet unfinished models started this year. Last year's countdown here. Last year I eventually reached 623 completed miniatures, this year I'm aiming to get at least 500 done. As this count down begins I'm standing at:

• 384 miniatures painted and started from scratch
• 51 miniatures completed, that were started before 2019

You can also follow my painting on Instgram by name "wanhaherrat"

First batch in the countdown were these 4 Footsore Warring Clans Ashigarus with Yari:

The Command base also received decals, but has been painted earlier this year. Count 439 minis

ASOIAF: Storm of Swords

Stark vs. Lannisters 60p. Battle

A while a go I played this large ASOIAF TMG battle against Mikko, it was kind of a thematic game: The False King Joffrey was defending the walls of King's Landing against an assault from the Northern army, lead by non other, but the King of the North, Robb Stark! Our scenario was Storm of Swords, which is a kind of siege scenario. 

Latest paint jobs

So what have I've completed since Summer?

Years drawing to it's end. Traditionally I always have a final rush of completing miniatures in December, so soon it's time stop starting new projects! Previous account here

When writing this blogpost my paint count is as follows: 

So in total running at 405. What I've painted strongly corresponds to what I've played, as always.

Warhammer 40K: Map based Campaign started!

Prima Artania!

Last 10 or so years I have not played 40k very actively. Editions have come and gone and I stopped wasting money on Codexes.

For the 8th edition I bought couple of Index books and eventually also the Harlequins Codex as I really wanted to deep dive into them.

So far I had  played a few games (first one took like 3 hours for completing 1 or two rounds), so I needed to get more games to get the game flowing and hence get a good experience. So when my long time gaming friend Jussi suggested, that we could organise a fluffy (not HC competitive min max), map based campaign, I was all in and helped him to draft the Campaign doc. Then it took some promotion to get enough players to join in, but eventually we had 8 players, including my oldest wargaming buddy Pave, joining, whom all seem to have same expectation more or less: narrative, fluffy armies and relaxed gaming! And now there is only war!

Bolt Action: a bridge too far

First Combat Jump with 101st Airborne

Bought the BA 2nd edition starter set ”Band of Brothers” when 2nd ed. was released, but hadn’t gotten around to play or paint the US Airborne force.

Naturally I had bought some extras too ;-).

So, when Juha, our club’s MC for Bolt Action, called out for players to join in on a Market Garden themed day of Bolt Action, I volunteered.

So then  I just had to paint 1000p. worth of America’s finest.

Luckily they are an elite army.

First ever ASOIAF Tournament in Finland

COMMUNITY BUILDING

Song of Ice and Fire by CMON Games is a rather young game combining elements of modern board games and unit based & skirmish wargaming.

About a year ago we bought the starter set with a mate from our Nopat & Takriikka Club and I’ve been sold ever since! Number of players in Finland is not yet great, some 15 maybe, but the number is growing. In order to “build the community” I decided to organise a tournament for the game. Read on to learn how it all went down...

UPDATED! Saga Age of Magic: Warband in Parade

Masters of Underearth

First Warband I tried and painted more minis for was MoUe. Dwarves was one of two first armies for Warhammer, when I started the hobby in 1989 or so and I've always had a soft spot for these tough warriors from the mountains. Read on to learn what I used for what in this warband.

Unboxing FireForge Games' Forgotten World Kickstarter

FANTASY PLASTIC

It's always a celebration, when a Kickstarter pledge is delivered to you. This was a Kickstarter I had really anticipated since a great flame for Game of Thrones or the Song of Ice and Fire is burning inside me since last fall, when I listened all the books and (re)watched all the seasons of GoT.

Read on to find out about contents and my evaluation of these new plastics.

ASOIAFTMG: Blackfish vs. The High Sparrow

Are them bloody Lannisters invincible?

So far I have played 7 games against Lannisters with my Stark and lost every single one of them! I have watched a lot of ASOIAF battle reports in YouTube and I’ve been honing a 50p. list to be better and better... This was to be the third evolution and the third game with that list. Read on to learn, if Lannisters can be won?

Setting I built for the Tactics board 

Back to the Galaxy far far away

First game of Star Wars Legion this year

During this year I had only been buying new releases for imperium, so it was high time to paint and try out the new toys!

Some of the pictures taken by my mate and opponent Marko.

Latest paint jobs

What have I been painting this year?

My painting this year has so far focused on a handful of projects, read on to learn what they are!

There are also links to battle reports with these minis - I always paint to play!

So far I've finished 198 minis from scratch and completed 35 minis started earlier (last yearI. In addition to that, there must be at least 200 minis that have been started, but are still WIP.

Mythical Greeks in action & contrast paints

Saga Age of Magic & Mortal Gods in a one go

After spending 8 days in Crete and visiting also ancient palace of Knossos I was so immersed

with ancient Greek mythodology, that I had to game it out! 

(painting models for the era the last week and in Crete also had an impact)

Egypt project moves on - first proper battle!

Next level: Chariot Rampant

After trying out Hail Caesar skirmish rules (we stopped the game before finishing, as the rules were so poor), we decided to move on to the Chariot Rampant (Lion Rampant variant) with the adaptation rules found in WSS issue 82. 

Some models I painted (almost ready)

Sherden Guard

Egyptian spearmen

I'm the watcher on the wall!

First go with Nightswatch on ASOIAF

Having lost all my battles with Starks against Lannisters, it was time to try something else... So I speed painted my 55 points Nightswatch army to face Mikko's (my nemesis on ASOIAF) Wildlings army... see how it all went down... 

Cool effects made with Vimea app

First Go with MORTAL GODS

Long waited gaming!

Social media and naturally we too had been buzzing about Mortal Gods since end of 2018. Having been playing Test of Honor and beeing a fan of this classical era, I was really looking forward to this.

So pre-orders in and the waiting started. I also organized a joint order for our gaming club and some 7 other club mates joined in. Finally in May the wait was over and I agreed a first game with another Ancient Greece enthusiast, my mate Marko. After our practice game we also ran a "launch event" at our club. Read on to learn about our first impressions.

Painted some more hoplites for the first game

Saga tournament - tactics analyzed

Not your typical Battle Report 

I ran a small one day Saga Tournament (Age of Crusades) last Sunday 

with three games and 4 players. Saga is a good game for tournament playing and

couple of us are preparing / trying to qualify for Saga World Cup, to be played in London

in August this year.

 In this blogpost you won't find a typical battle report, but rather an analysis how did we fare tactically in our games.

Project Bronze Age progress

First Game

Kalle had agreed to paint a small force of Hittites and we opted

to start playing with Hail Caesar Skirmish rules from the Age of Bronze supplement.

We picked up a scenario were Sea Peoples pirates were attacking a Phoenician ship stranded 

on a beach. Unfortunately the skirmish rules proved to be utter rubbish; the logic of operating each model as an entity just ddn't work, especially in the melee. We quitted the game after three rounds and agreed to do it again with Chariot Rampant rules from Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy issue 82

Follow the progress of this army project on a dedicated page here

Salute 2019 Part 2. Battle of Däneholm Demo Game

Rebels and Patriots in Action

For the second consecutive year I had joined in to Dalauppror's international team to throw a visually

superb demo game (where people could actually participate) for Salute. See our exploits from 2018 here. This time it was the Napoleonic era and not surprisingly Swedish exploits in it. As I had already painted stuff for the Russo-Swedish War of 1808-1809, it was an easy (if not cheap, as my whole family of five traveled along) decision to join in. 

First go with Saga - Age of Magic

Bringing more fantasy into Saga!

Since Age of Magic -universe for Saga was announced, there's been quite a buzz going on about it in the Finnish FB-group for Saga. May of us, including myself, saw this as an opportunity to dust old

fantasy miniatures (most of come from Warhammer) and paint some new lying around in our piles of tin, resin and plastic. I also really like the approach or design philosophy of AoM, as stated by Studio Tomahawks designers in the book:

 My plan was to start AoM with Dwarves (Masters of Underearth) and Beastman 

(Lords of the Wild or Horde). 

Read on to learn about my MoU Warband project and about my first two games with AoM. 

Salute 2019 Part 1.

Meeting friends, shopping and general goodiness

It was my second time in Salute (last years report here) this year and once again I was part of Dalauppror's team in preparing and presenting a demo game. I will post a separate "report" on that project. This post is about everything else in Salute.

Besides running a game and shopping, Salute is an event where I have the opportunity to meet face2face people and friends from my "international wargaming network". In this picture I'm shaking hands with Andy Lyons, whom is organising Saga World Cup this year. I'm organising qualifications in Finland. Read on to see what else was there to see, meet and buy.

Bolt Action Campaign started - Ostfront!

Firestorm Bagration 

in new clothes

Many wargamers and readers of wargames magazine readers might now Firestorm Bagration Campaign from Flame of War scene and it has also been played at our club. Jaakko got a great idea to convert the campaign to Bolt Action (not that much to convert really). Soon we had about 10 people joining the campaign, choosing to play either fascist or communists. This week's Wed we had a first game night and generals gathered around the campaign map... 

 Jaakko and other commanders discussing the campaign dynamics

SOIAF: Fighting the Lannisters

North remembers...

...that them Lannisters are cunning bastards! While you're trying to fight

an honest, straight battle, they always turn into their tricks and

always seem to have couple of extra cards up in their sleeves!

And Tyrion is the worst of them all!

Now follows a summary of 2 SOIAF battles I've fought. Before that I had gotten a demo, but

I didn't have the time to finish that game.

Age of Bronze - new Project started

New Kingdom Egyptians in the making

This "pile of lead" should tranform into a wargaming army this year...

Follow the progress in my project page here

Winter is Coming!

A new game has been introduced:

Song of Ice and Fire

During the last 3 months or so I've been listening this epic from George R R Martin as audio books, as well as watching the series from HBO. How surprising, this fired up my painting and gaming juices, read on to learn what then happened...

Finland's biggest miniature wargaming event...

...is probably Nopat & Taktiikka Club's annual

aka Winter War

As I was spending my winter vacation in Lapland with my family, I missed the opportunity to play this year, but arrived to the scene of more than 140 wargamers from Finland and abroad rolling it away in following games: Warhammer 40K, 9th Age, Infinity, Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, Bolt Action and Flames of War. See my reportage from the fields of battle below!

My favorite way of Wargaming - Campaigning

Campaign gaming and gamers

Campaigns have been my favorite way of gaming since I quit active tournament gaming about 10 years ago. Gaming fuels my imagination and what would be better, than a narrative campaign setting with different levels in the game (strategic, tactical etc.). Campaigns are also good for escalation in terms of painting miniatures: last year we first plyed a Saga Age of the Wolf campaign set in the east (Eastern Princes, Saracens, Mongols…) and then continued to escalate our armies to for a continuation campaign  with larger games and rule sets like Swordpoint, Deus Vult and Hail Caesar. Read on to learn about my experiences in campaigning .

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game: Treasures of Enedwaith Campaign

Battle Companies in Action

Heavy campaigning continues at the Nopat & Taktiikka club (check the new website!) with a Battle Companies based campaign located near Enedwaith (SouthWest Middel Earth). Campaign is organized by Jaakko S. and he has added a nice campaign mode to Battle companies. Ruleset in Finnish here.

I'm playing with a Fiefdoms warband. Read further to learn how my warband has done so far...

Celebrating the launch of Rebels and Patriots by Osprley Wargames

AWI AND BATTLE OF VAASA 1808

Several of us had had the opportunity to do play testing for this new set of rules coming from Osprey Wargames tomorrow! So we clearly had invented a way to travel to future!
Besides us play testers three more mates from club joined in to learn about the game.
Juha and Kalle hosted an AWI battle with and The Lament Ridge scenario from the book.
Me and Marko hosted a Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809 battle of Vaasa, that took place 25th of June 1808. This was also the next battle in our related campaign, which has been on hold for a while.

We started the event by distributing recently arrived rulebooks for play testers and then having a video call with Michael Leck (aka Dalauppror), co-author of the rules. He was at their club in Stockholm. We showed our tables and club and expressed our congrats on the publishing of the game.

Hobby Year 2018 in retrospect

What a great year again!

Looking back now, I feel gratitude and joy about my hobby and actually about my life, as a whole. I have lovely family and wife, whom doesn't complain too much about my hobby time and all the hobby stuff lying around and stocked at our house, I have a job, that doesn't take all my time, but provides nicely for life and we have a great gaming club here in Helsinki - Nopat ja Taktiikka, where I can find other likeminded fellows to play with. I'm also proud to call many of them friends.

Nopat -club's annual summer trip to Kalle's summer cabin (where we naturally play a lot too)

Read on to find out what were the highlight of my hobby year 2018!

Kingdoms in the East completed!

Vladimir Nurja, Prince of Kiev Conquered!

And so it came to be, that my Medieval Russian army marched

to glory and victory of this campaign we had been playing since August!

Winner's diploma

More Saga with Byzantium and first experiences with the Book of Battles - WIP

Battle 1. Vs. Milites Christi