House Stark: Heavy Infantry

Just in case some of you wondered: Although there are so few updates, the "Ice and Fire" project is still alive. I recently finished some Perry "Brigans", painted as Stark bannermen.

Leader of these men at arms is the famous Ethan Glover of Deepwood Motte, bannerman to Lord Eddard Stark and one of his companions at the Tower of Joy.

Living by the Sword

Since it wasn't possible for me to attend this year's Tactica in Hamburg, I spontaneously visited the Spieltrieb Frankfurt Wargaming club yesterday to get some live impressions of their great "Feud of Kronberg" Impetus presentation.

Unfortunately some of my own Westerosi troops used this opportunity to betray me. The Wensington archers and the Arryn houseguard offered their services to the enemy general Kerstin and fought as sellswords alongside the guild companies of Frankfurt against their painter.

I had no camera with me, but took these photos with my mobile. I hope they can convey the great atmosphere of the terrain and the miniatures. Thanks for the great game!!!

The Hanau knights under my command, facing the treacherous Westerosi.

Kronberg infantery in the centre.

The glorious knights of Hanau attack the sellswords.

After crushing the Arryn guard, the Hanau knights turn and
attack the enemy from behind.

Some of the Spieltrieb's beautiful "disordered"-markers.

Sworn to House Baratheon

Long time no see, but I finally found some time to finish another base for my ASoIaF themed Impetus army.

House Wensington is a vassal house that holds fealty to House Baratheon of Storm's End. No character of the House has appeared in the books yet but I really liked the heraldry. Most of GRRMs designs are too "fantastic" for my taste but this one, found on the Ice and Fire Wiki, is just great.

Although the Wensington house motto "Sound the Charge" suggests a more active role in battle, I wanted to depict some men-at-arms in a more defensive position. Impetus gave me a great opportunity to use the Perry AO5 box "Archers preparing for battle, hammering in and sharpening stakes".
I added a Wensington knight who gives last instructions to his archers before he is off to smash some breastplates with his hammer...

Nostalgia

Aren't they pretty? I found a picture of some of my old Bretonnian Knights. These guys belong to the very first miniatures I've ever painted. I'm still so proud of these. 

As you can see, I haven't painted anything new last weeks. Sorry for that, but life (or in this case the exams) came in the way...

Unfortunately there's only a small chance of change this month...

Kauzenburg 2012 Picture Gallery

A comprehensive article on the event has been published on tabletop-hdr.de. The article is in German, but more than 150 pictures speak for themselves: Kauzenburg 2012

Impetus at Kauzenburg 2012

As I feared, most of my pics turned out to be blurred. The Kauzenburg wargaming weekend takes place in the caverns of the Kauzenburg in Bad Kreuznach... People in the Middle Ages didn't spent much thoughts about illuminating their castles to enable miniature photography. Considering that I used a cheap digital camera that can't compete with the high tech equipment of the more talented photographers, I'm still quite pleased with the results.

Frank Becker, one of those more talented photographers has already presented some better pictures of the event in his hobby blog: Figuren und Geschichten

I am sure more will follow. At this point, I will focus on the Impetus presentations at Kauzenburg.

Some of the Impetus Armies at Kauzenburg 2012:

Martin's (El Commandante) Warhammer Fantasy sellswords,
based for Impetus Fantasy.

                        David's (Azgul) Knights Hospitallers                   

Frank's (Tankred) beautiful LotR Rohirrim and Uruk-hai,
based for Impetus Fantasy.

                                   Frank's Rohirrim Camp                              

                                 Thomas' (Rusus) Kleve army                             

Some great Crossbowmen, painted by Frank for the
Feud of Kronberg presentation at Tactica 2012.
The troops in the background are intended for the same scenario
and were painted by him and various other artists.

My Personal Highlight at Kauzenburg 2012:

The first battle of my Westerosi. The 100pts contingent, led by Robert Baratheon himself, fought alongside a large 13th century army, led by Count Diedrich of Kleve. Our enemy was another ragtag army composed of Italian sellswords, some unfaithful Lannisters and armed citizens of Frankfurt. I shot a lot of pics, but only a handful turned out good enough to present them here. I hope they can convey some impression of the amazing gaming atmosphere at Kauzenburg.

Norbert, the captain of the enemy sellswords is planning
something evil with his cannon battery...

...and opens fire on my general. I don't think there ever was
a ceasefire for poor Robert.

Kerstin, moving the Frankfurt contingent. My left flank had
recently started to attack the treacherous Lannisters.
Choosing between close combat and constant cannon fire,
it wasn't as if they had a choice...

House Stark: Skirmishers

The Kauzenburg gaming-weekend is over and I am sad to say, that I have taken far less pictures of the gorgeous terrain and miniatures, than I intended to. Instead I mainly focused on my first Impetus battle with my Westerosi, of which I will show some pics soon. In this battle I played a 100 pts battlegroup of a 400 pts army and so, I had to finish another unit beforehand: Skirmishers of House Stark.

Skirmishers belong to my favourite units in Impetus. They are no use if you intend to charge the enemy and deal few to none damage with their ranged weapons, but can be a pain in the ass for your enemy if he wants to weaken your valuable melee troops with bows or crossbows.

The miniatures used here, are a mix of Foundry, Perry Miniatures and Ebob Miniatures and were painted in pale colours, fitting to the Lords of the North. The small banner was not planned from the beginning, but made sense to me because the base had no real eyecatcher...

Kauzenburg 2012

Today starts the annual Kauzenburg Wargaming Weeskend in Bad Kreuzach. My bags are packed and I'm hoping to see some action with my Westerosi. See you there!

Btw: Magnets rule! 

Ours is the Fury!

 I have finally painted my version of the Young Stag. I really love the Darksword Version of this character and had to use it although it is slightly taller than the other miniatures I used. The dying horse on the base is a 5th edition Bretonnian horse, the standart bearer is an English heavy cavalry man, sculpted by Ebob.

I tried to depict Robert in the heat of the battle. His horse has just been shot beneath him and is kicking in vain while the Usurper is now pushing on on foot. The rider on his right bears his personal standart, the black stag of house Baratheon.

Again, I used Tamyia Clear Red X-27 for the blood splatter. This stuff is really great. The mud on the horse legs was coated with gloss varnish to achieve a wet look. Actually this technique can't convince me yet... I might rework this at a later point.

They Have a Cave Troll!

I found some time to paint my copy of the Darksword Gregor Clegane. As I told you, the model itself is way to big to use it alongside "proper" 28mm miniatures. I nevertheless based Ser Gregor the Impetus way. 

I chose to use the monster rules of the fantasy expansion of Impetus. This should fit his character pretty well.

Painting the Mountain was a lot of fun. I used Tamyia Clear Red X-27 for the first time to create blood splatter. I had seen this technique via an article on MassiveVoodoo and was pretty impressed by it. I don't think there is an easier way to get such convincing results.