Streets of Venice

Mitch and I played through the 2 two starter scenarios to get the hang of the Carnevale rules. We did make a few mistakes and can rectify that for the game next week. One thing we definitely need more of is some buildings. I had two that were used but they needed painting. I did have one more to build but even that would not be enough so I ordered two more from TT Combat.

Mitch's lovely clock tower

I spent the weekend building and painting the models. I have deliberately gone for a very limited colour palette as I want the buildings to feel that they belong together. First up was Calle Svoltare, which is a modular building consisting of three buildings, which can be mixed and matched with other buildings in the range.

Calle Svoltare

The other two buildings I picked up were single pieces from the same 'Streets of Venice' range. Villeta Balcone Zaira and Casa Elena.

Villeta Balcone Zaira

Casa Elena

Buildings so far

I also finished 4 pieces of floating debris, these are a must for the game, allowing your figures to jump across canals. They were made taking some spare pares from the Wargames Atlantic scenery sprue and some left over coffee stirrers.

Floating debris

I've now got a few more figures to paint up for Thursday's game, I need to get my Guild gang up to 75 ducats.

Re-furbished dark age huts

With recently getting into Pillage and spending most of last year with Baron's War I had expanded my collection of dark age / early medieval buildings. To the point some old card and teddy bear fur buildings I made over 20 years ago had become redundant. A shame after all the use they give during games of WAB. I even offered them up to the club members but there were no takers. Now nostalgia kicked in, I didn't want to just throw them away. So 20 minutes later sitting in the garden I gave them a refresh. I had never really been happy with the colour of the thatching, so I gave the roof and wooden parts a quick dry-brush of grey followed by a sand colour, this is the same scheme I use on my newer buildings to help them match in.

The original building

Dark grey dry-brush

Sand dry-brush

The finished buildings

Hopefully these will get some use in future games and will save me from buying any more huts.

Carnevale

So I got tempted by this game a few weeks ago as I was looking for something a bit different but a small figure count. So I picked up one of the starter sets and a couple of additional figures I liked the look of. It all kind of reminds me of the Computer game Assasins Creed. So I've initially spent some time watching some games on Youtube and I like what I see. 

So after taking the plunge I had a chance conversation with Mitch after the Border Reiver show. He was hooked and ordered the other starter set. He has even signed up for the STLs so he'll be doing a lot of 3d printing. He has already dropped off 5 figures for one of the more unusual factions, the Rashaar.

The starter set comes with 8 figures, 4 for the Guild and 4 for the Rashaar. So I've gone for the Guild as my starting faction as the extra figures are also the Guild that I picked up. I've deliberately gone for a limited colour scheme.

The Pilferer, Gondolier, Arbalast and Fisherman from the starter set

Rialto assassin, Ebeneezer Chummage and Mira O'Shea 

I think I'll pick up a few more figures for this faction, quite fancy the witch for a bit of arcane magic and one of the Escorts for some added punch. In the meantime I can make some progress on the Rashaar as I've got a planned first game next week against Mitch.

A few more Irish and a game of Pillage

In preparation for the first game of pillage I quickly completed a few more warriors. This time a few in chain armour as so far the force was looking a little brittle. These are all from Footsore miniatures, I also picked a few mounted figures only to discover the Irish don't have them in Pillage.

These all saw action in tonight's game along with the plastic building from Victrix which was in the starter set. I didn't use the wood frames of the roof as I preferred the model without it and helped it match with the rest of the collection.

And so to the first game of Pillage. We just set up the table, picked some random figures and worked our way through the rules. They are simple enough to pick up, but we would have benefited from a QRS, especially for combat. It was an easy victory for the Vikings who managed to extract enough booty from the village. My lack of ranged weapons hampered the defence as I initially seemed too far away. I did though get the satisfaction of killing the Viking leader. A few photos from the game.

In other news I've managed to make a start on a new side project. A skirmish game so thankfully a low figure count. Though plenty of scenery will be needed.

Buildings and more Irish

As mentioned in yesterday's post, Thom provided me with 2 dark age Grubenhaus or pit houses for free. He had printed more than he needed. They took no time at all to paint up. One is wattle and daub and the other is wood. I've got a 3rd one from Victrix to paint up that came with the starter set.

I also managed to paint up a few more Irish warriors to fill out the ranks, there are a couple with slings to provide a bit of ranged missile support to the force. These are Victrix apart from one which is from Gripping Beast.

To further fill out the Irish I have some of the metal figures from Footsore, mainly in armour as the force is seriously lacking armoured troops. Hopefully get them painted up by next week.

Border Revier show

So today I managed to get down to the 2nd Border Reiver show of the year. This time I wasn't part of the organising, Thom and Neil G were displaying their Guards of Traitors Toll, These mean streets. The game did look spectacular and I did help moving around figures and accidentally setting fire to a building. Most of the buildings and town wall were 3d printed by Thom, most of the figures and a few of the buildings were from Neil G's collection.

Plenty of visitors to the table and lots of chatting going on. The other benefit of the show is I got to catch up with a couple of old wargaming colleagues, John, just returning to the hobby and Mick who even invited me up for a game to renew hostilities. We just need to organise a game. We last played against each other before the outbreak of Covid. Mick was there with his Middle earth game, the battle of Azanulbizar, pitching the Dwarves against Orcs. Lots of lovely old Nick Lund figures on display.

With only being able to spend a couple of hours at the show, my spending was curtailed, much to the relief of my wallet. I did pick up 3 15mm adobe buildings, should see use as a bit of table decoration for our Zama game. There were also a few grass tufts and a book of army list for future ideas.

I did pick up a couple of 3d printed dark Age huts from Thom. They were free as he had printed more than he needed. No photo as I have already started to paint them.