Fastasy Roster

My first playthrough of the one dungeon to rule them all exposed a few holes in the lineup.  The place lacked a decent missile threat and that all important 'ambush factor'.

To beef up the undead ranks, and make parties that lack a clericbreally feel the pain, my necromantic antics now include this squad of standoffish blokes.  Good luck returning fire - arrows only do half-damage thanks to their lack of fleshy tissue.

I want to say these guys are Alternative Army boys, but they have been in my lead pile for so long, I honestly can't remember.

Likewise with these shroomen.

Khurasan maybe?  Whoever made them, these shrieker ranchers a fun addition to the mushroom forest seen here:

From the Archive - Ogre Cyclops

Here's another blast from my college day past.  Just some bargain bin big old dude.  He is ostensibly a 28-mm scale figure, but he is a giant of a figure, standing close to 10-feet tall.  In scale, of course.  

Captain Hook One Eye here has also seen use stomping around a miniature city fighting next week's old time figure.  In fact, most of these archive figures have been bouncing around a box waiting for a decent monster rampage set of rules.  And a big old 6mm city.  That's somewhere on my list of somedays.

From the Archive - Hard and Blurry

Note much to say about this mind-1990s figure except that he has mainly seen use in a giant monster rampage style game.  Not even sure what manufacturer makes this guy.  RAFM?  He stands easily twice as tall as most 25mm-ish figures, so it's acutally a giant cyclops skeleton.

From the Archive - Big Red

You know what goes great with leftover Turkey?  Old miniatures!

Every collection of wargame miniatures needs at least one dragon. This one marks the first time that I was able to get the shading on the color red done right.  For some reason it took a big canvas and a little trial and error - and trying to thin red with yellow paint.  All my miniatures before this one used a little white paint to highlight the color red, and so every red piece of fabric wound up looking pink.

The back end of the base for this guy broke off at some point.  He is mounted for use with Hordes of the Things, but the rest of his army is long gone.

From the Archive - Lost in the Maze of Nostalgia

Pop quiz, hotshot.  From the Archive is an ongoing series:

    A. where I show off some of my oldest and most beloved figures.

    B. of filler posts.

    C. Both A and B.

    D. screw you. Warren, I didn't come here for finals week, make with the goods already.

For those of you that answered D, fine.  Here.  Sheesh.

This was one of three minotaurs that came with the Warhammer Quest box set.  The rest of the box set got split out and combined with figures from HeroQuest and BattleMasters to make up a half dozen Hordes of the Things armies.  Those armies got sold off at Historicon to raise money for boring family drama stuff.

Tyranny of Dragons - Take Three

The Cult of the Dragon has (so far) claimed two victims at our table.  Somebody is sending reinforcements in the form of a big dumb elven fighter named Yolo Ellsolor.  Ellsolor is a Quenyan word that roughly translates to moonsurfer.  Yolo is a diminutive, actually an anagram for an elvish phrase that means, "This might be pretty stupid, but I'm totally doing it anyway, bro."

His battle cry is his first name.

Never had much truck with elvish characters in the past, but D5D has warmed me up to the idea of a fighter with some magical ability.  Taking a high elf gives you a free cantrip, and minor illusion is just too much fun.  You can use it as often as you like, so Yolo here tends to pass the long dull moments of his life by "summoning" his pet monkey, Mister Nannerpants, as a travelling companion.  Mister Nannerpants is quite the rascal - can't wait to inflict him on the other players.

New Year's Party

Day late and a gold coin short, here's a shot of the full lineup of the party standing between Faerun and a so-far vaguely draconic but unspecified threat.

Karran, Gilgamesh, Aramis, Henry, and Grim

On the one hand, if the fate of the Realms lies in the hands of these bozos, Faerun is in big trouble.  On the other hand, all of Faerunian history indicates that a number of Mary Sues, Blackstaves, and Elminsters will be there to pick up the pieces if they fail...so it's all good.

[Late edit:  These figures are all from Reaper.  Here are the names and SKU numbers from left to right: Golanth the Half Dragon Warrior (3463), Elnith the Astral Reaver Monk (03540), Templar Knight* (2330), Asgeir Redbeard (02971), Mason Thornwarden the Ranger (03500).

*The shield on this figure has been filed smooth.  It originally comes with a large Templar cross molded onto it.]

Tyranny of Dragons Party - Yours Truly

The most colorful member of the party, in more ways than one, must be my character, a dwarven tank named Henry St. John.  He actually dual wields two light hammers, but the figure came with a hammer and axe.  The axe went to yesterday's dragon-born paladin, and the dragon-born's mace got plugged into the fist of this dwarf.

He's big, bold, brash, and loud.  A typical dwarf - straight ahead fighter, even if he isn't the most effective.  Dual wielding light hammers gimps warriors in fifth edition, but the rules are a lot more forgiving than previous editions, and I've never been a min-maxer kind of guy anyway.

Fighting Fire With Fire

Sometimes it takes a dragon to beat a dragon.  The toughest character in our party running the Tyranny of Dragons gauntlet is the dragonborn warrior, Karran.  This paladin is a white-dragon blooded tank of a hero.  Unlike the three previous characters in the party, the guy playing this character didn't go with a dark color palette.

He went with white on white.

All right to make this work, I tried a bluish undertone for the 'skin' portions of the figure, and a yellowish undertone for the armor.  In retrospect, those would have looked better reversed.  This guy looks more like a blue dragon to me.

Once again, the shield served as a way to provide an additional splash of color.  No idea what the player wanted for the shield, but a nice tribal dragon emblem seemed appropriate.

That weird looking axe is an artifact of an ill conceived weapon swap.  The character wields a big old axe, and the figure comes with a couple of sword options and a mace option.  I stole an axe from a dwarf (see tomorrow's post), and tacked it onto the swords' dragon wing hilt.  It's bulky, but it seems to work.

Sic Semper Tyrannis Draconis

Aramis, cleric of Helm, tank-slash-healbot extraordinaire, and all around good guy.  He has been instrumental in cracking the tyranny of dragons campaign.  

Fifth edition clerics seem like a hard class to play.  They have so many options at every level of the game, there's a lot to track at every stage of the game.  The guy who runs our cleric is very good at his job, he saves the buffs for the right time, and always seems to have heal slots available when needed.

His color choice?  Not so much.  He asked for black and silver, which is fine and all, but the party already has a black archer, a dark mage, and now a dark cleric - we're seriously running the risk of looking like the bad guys here.  This figure also needed something to break up the monochrome, and that's where the shield saved me.

For those not in the know, that's the symbol of the Forgotten Realms' deity, Helm.  A splash of blue background helps provide a nice contrast with the rest of the figure.

Grim, The Party Continues

Grim, a serious archer style rogue with a strong mercenary streak is second in the lineup of the heroes blundering their way through WotC's Tyranny of Dragons campaign.  No idea if I got the colors right on this guy - his player missed the session where I asked for suggestions.  This characters seems to be a brooding type, hence the darker palette. I added a couple splashes of color to his undershirt and bow, just to keep things interesting.

Mele Kalikimaka Loot!

Here's hoping your celebration of the birth of our savior was a smashing success.  (As I type this, Hawaii is still in the midst of the throes of the birthday celebration.)  This year the lovely and long suffering wife fed my addiction with a copy of Neil Thomas' latest tome, One Hour Wargames.  This is the perfect book for those of us looking for quick and compact games to fiddle with in the evenings.  Expect a longer and in depth review once it has been read and fully digested.

28mm figure for scale.

Also up for your consideration today, a truly massive miniature (by my 15mm standards), a 28mm fantasy figure.  I know what you're thinking: look at Warren switching up and starting a new scale - that old wargamer ADD finally bit him good and hard.  Guilty as charged, your honor, but there are a few mitigating factors involved here.

Gilgamesh - a tiefling death mage

For one thing, this Reaper mini was painted for my son for use in our on-going D&D campaign.  For a second thing, the second golden rule of miniature wargaming is "build and play what your friends build and play".  Our DM goes to great lengths to draw up elaborate full color maps in 28mm scale, as shown previously.  The effort that goes into painting a few large figures for the campaign pales in comparison.

And yes, that last sentence was a teaser for future posts - you can expect to see the rest of the party in miniature over the coming days (and probably weeks, if recent history is any guide.)  My Christmas gift to the D&D group is a figure representing their character, with a book handling wizard for the DM (who as you know doesn't have a character of his own.)

Merry Christmas everybody!