Coming Soon...

Coming soon...but not that soon, I'm afraid.

The nasty flu bug that has being going around has finally made it to our house...just in time for the Easter holidays! So I'm afraid I'm playing nurse not wargames.

The cover for the battle report of our recent game of Open Combat is about as far as I've gotten with it...so I thought I'd share it as a little teaser of things to come...at some point in the, hopefully, not too distant future!

SAGA Invasions

Studio Tomahawk have posted up some news about their upcoming SAGA Age of Arthur game...now to be called SAGA Invasions.

Imagine 6 new factions, depicting the Britons, The Saxon Invaders, the Romans, the Huns, the Goths and the Picts. To lead them into battle, larger than life characters as Aetius, Attila, Arthur or Vortigern. A time when the Roman frontiers were hammered by the flow of barbaric invaders. A time when the civilisation of the past was about to be superceded by a new one.

New factions, new mercenaries to join your warband, a campaign system and a large figure range are all planned. 

Sounds exciting! Fortunately for my wallet it won't be out before the end of the year. You can read it in full on the Studio Tomahawk page here.

The Blood Eagle has landed!

The postie has been! Superb production values as expected. Now if only the kids will leave me alone for an hour so I can have a proper read!

Advance copies of SAGA: Age of the Wolf available at Salute

Gripping Beast have just posted up on their Facebook page here that those of you attending Salute will be able to pick up advance copies of SAGA: Age of the Wolf...the rest of us will have to wait until May.

Here's the post:

SAGA: The Age of the Wolf is the forthcoming SAGA Dark Ages Campaign book. It contains an awesome new campaign system for two or more players in which rival Warlords lead their Warbands in a bloody struggle for land, wealth and reputation.

There are many ways to come out on top in the campaign and claim the crown. How you do it will be up to you and the motivations of your Warlord- unless, of course, your opponents have other ideas........

The Age of the Wolf will be released in May but you will be able to pick up advance copies at SALUTE only from the Gripping Beast mega stand TK13.

If you want to secure your copy for collection, please email us at TheBeast@grippingbeast.com or call us on 01386 761 511. Unlike our SALUTE releases, you will not be able to pre-pay or pre-order The Age of the Wolf on the website as it will be for sale at SALUTE as a special bonus ahead of its May general release.

Lucky chaps. I shall have to impatiently wait.

Problems with Blogger Comments...again!

It seems Blogger are having issues with comments yet again. I thought they'd fixed the problem as the last couple of weeks have been fine but once again I'm getting notifications that people are commenting and I can't see those comments (or reply to them) when logged into Blogger. If I log out of Blogger I can see them fine but, unfortunately, it doesn't help me when I want to reply. So please don't think me rude...I can still read and appreciate your comments even if I can't reply.

If you are having trouble as well you can log the problem with Blogger here...the more people that do, hopefully, the more pressure Blogger will be under to fix it quickly.

Open Combat now available from North Star

Open Combat from Second Thunder is now available from North Star here, for those who are interested. The boy and I played our first game last Sunday and really enjoyed it...we haven't had a chance to do the battle report yet but hope to get it done at some point over the Easter holidays!

[edit: North Star have made it unavailable temporarily as not all Kickstarter backers have received their copies in the UK yet. It's now going to be available from the beginning of April.]

Blood Eagle Out Now!

Blood Eagle is now available from North Star here!

Here is the blurb from the North Star Facebook Page:

What is Blood Eagle, Skirmish Games in the Dark Ages like?
It allows players to field forces of three to fifteen miniatures in a game you can easily complete in an evening on a space only a yard square. The rules are short and simple to learn – few players needing to refer to them after their second or third game.
This book provides:
▪ The core rules of play,
▪ The complete points system so you can create your own forces,
▪ Full listings for thirteen unique forces from the period,
▪ Ten legendary heroes that warbands can call upon to aid their cause,
▪ Armour, weapons and equipment, both ordinary and legendary,
▪ Detailed listings of abilities, pagan Wyrd powers and Christi an miracles,
▪ Sixteen scenarios, supported by twelve scenario complications,
▪ Fifteen detailed landscapes for you to play across,
▪ A complete campaign system to let you write your own sagas,
▪ Rules for shipboard combat, and
▪ Simple, yet rewarding campaign rules.

Great news! Mine are already ordered. Can't wait!

Age of the Wolf - SAGA

Lee Brady...on his excellent blog, Harold's Revenge...brought this bit of news to my attention. Not only are Gripping Beast going to be releasing Age of Arthur later this year but they will also soon be releasing a new SAGA campaign system for the Viking Age...Age of the Wolf!

With all these fantastic sets of rules and supplements on the horizon, this year is promising to be an expensive one!

Open Combat - Thoth Amon and the Shadow King Warband

Here is the Open Combat warband to go up against the Conan one I posted yesterday...Thoth Amon, with the aid of a High Priestess of Set, has summoned from the darkness the terrible Shadow King!

Name	SPD	ATK	DEF	FOR	MND	Weapons/Skills/Abilities	Renown
Thoth Amon	4	6	6	6	8	Double-Handed Weapon, Hand Weapon Focused Blow, Evade, Distract, Intimidate (Leader)	36
Priestess of Set	4	5	5	5	6	Double-Handed Weapon Focused Blow, Quick Recovery, Distract, Feint	30
The Shadow King	4	8	6	8	4	Double-Handed Weapon Resolute, Quick Recovery, Intimidate	34
Temple Guard Sword & Shield	4	4	5	4	4	Hand Weapon, Shield Shield Bash, Resolute	25
Temple Guard Double-Handed Weapon	4	5	5	4	4	Double-Handed Weapon Resolute	25

Break Point

27

Total Renown

150

You can find a PDF of the warband on Google Drive here or Dropbox here, if you're interested.

Open Combat - Conan Warband

I recently got my Kickstarter copy of Open Combat and so, in preparation for our first game this weekend, I've statted up our first warband...Conan the Barbarian!

Name	SPD	ATK	DEF	FOR	MND	Weapons/Skills/Abilities	Renown
Conan	4	8	7	7	5	Double-Handed Weapon Focused Blow, Exert, Feint, Inspire (Leader)	36
Red Sonja	4	7	6	5	4	Double-Handed Weapon Evade, Quick Recovery, Distract, Feint	31
Valeria	5	7	5	6	4	Hand Weapon x2 Ambidextrous, Nimble, Feint, Taunt	33
Nestor	4	5	5	5	3	Double-Handed Weapon Furious Assault, Exert, Enrage	26
Wolf	6	4	4	3	3	Hand Weapon (Bite) Nimble, Quick Recovery, Distract	24

Break Point

23

Total Renown

150

You can find a PDF of the warband on Google Drive here or Dropbox here, if you're interested. Next up will be...Thoth Amon and the Shadow King!

The North West Frontier

Pathan Guide, Colonel, Infantry, Political Officer.

My latest lot of figs from the inimitable Matt Slade arrived a couple of days ago....this time they are from the Artizan North West Frontier range as I slowly build up a couple of armies over the next several months for the upcoming The Men Who Would Be King due out in September.

Pathan Guide and Colonel

Political Officer

By adding a wily Pathan guide and a Political Officer, I will also be using these chaps for In Her Majesty's Name. And, of course, I had to get Danny, Peachy and Billy Fish!

Another Blood Eagle Preview

Craig Cartmell has posted another teaser from the upcoming Blood Eagle on the game's blog page here.

Open Combat is here!

My Kickstarter copies of Open Combat arrived today. And very nice it looks, too.  It also came with some funky dice...I'm a bit of a sucker for 'special' dice...though you really only need six-sided dice to play the game.

I shall be putting together some Open Combat warbands using my Frostgrave/Dragon Rampant figs over the next couple of weeks and, hopefully, giving the rules a spin with the boy the weekend after this.

Hasslefree Ladies

Just wanted to show off a couple more figs for Dragon Rampant and Frostgrave. I love Hasslefree figs...and Matt has done a superb job on these for me (as always!).

I'm not sure how they'd fit into my 'The Northern Tribes' or 'From the Frozen Wastes' warbands for Dragon Rampant but they will be perfect in various roles for Frostgrave. I should also be getting my backer's copy of Open Combat this week so I'll be trying out various warbands for that over the coming week or two!

Dragon Rampant - More From the Frozen Wastes

 

Here are some additions to our 'From the Frozen Wastes' warband for Dragon Rampant (the rest of the warband can be seen here).

Assassin (Single Model Unit)

Scout + Venomous @ 5 Points

Dark Druid (Single Model Unit)

Light Foot + Wizardling @ 5 Points

Dark Guardians (Reduced Model Unit)

Elite Foot @ 6 Points

Dark Wizard & Apprentice (Reduced Model Unit)

Elite Foot + Leader + Spellcaster @ 10 Points

We hope to get a game in soon using all these new additions! 

Blood Eagle Contents Page Preview

Craig Cartmell has just posted up a preview of the contents page for the upcoming Blood Eagle rules due out in April!

Another page will be previewed each week until the release. I have to say that we are just a little excited about these rules in this house!

Dragon Rampant - More Northern Tribes

 

Here are some additions to our 'The Northern Tribes' warband for Dragon Rampant (the rest of The Northern Tribes can be seen here).

Beserker (Single Model Unit)

Bellicose Foot @ 4 Points

Ranger (Single Model Unit) 

Scout @ 2 Points

Great Wolf (Single Model Unit)

Greater Warbeast @ 6 Points

Wolves (Reduced Model Units)

Lesser Warbeast @ 4 Points

We're looking forward to incorporating these into our next game! Next up will be some additions to the 'From the Frozen North' warband. 

Frostgrave Forgotten Pacts Cover

Seems today is the day of upcoming book covers! Joe McCullough posted up a pic of the Forgotten Pacts cover on his blog. Due out towards the end of the year, I believe. This is my favourite Frostgrave cover yet!

Blood Eagle Cover

Craig Cartmell has just posted a pic of the upcoming Blood Eagle's cover on the game's Facebook page. Superb! Do I really have to wait until Salute?

On a side note, I'm still having issues with Blogger comments. I can, however, still read all the comments if I log out of Blogger/Google even if I can't reply to them all. So I apologise in advance if I don't reply and thank you for continuing to comment. Blogger are on the case so hopefully it will all be sorted out soon.