New Year, New Project

Traditionally, at this time of the year, I am busy painting a large regiment to add to my fantasy collection. Last year it was skeletons, the year before ghouls, the year before that it was chaos marauders. I like a nice big painting project to get me through January, the longest and coldest part of winter in these parts. However, this year it's a bit different. Allow me to explain this new direction.

In the past year I have met and gamed with a couple of "new" chaps, bringing our little group of nerds up to four. We all have our own diverse backgrounds and interests, with some common ground here and there. We wanted to start a Tale of 4 Gamers style project - but unlike the usual fantasy thing we first had to agree on a gaming system and then an era. After a little discussion, we settled on Lion Rampant as our chosen system, it gets decent reviews as a nice simple ruleset with the freedom to use figures of your own choice. It's a game set in medieval times, so anything from 1066, through the Crusades, Hundred Years War, etc. I wanted to choose figures that I like to paint, past experience with mediocre historicals has taught me that life is just too short to waste on substandard soldiers. I liked the look of Conquest Games Normans, these could be used in Saga too so would have given a nice "Two for the Price of One" feeling. I was also tempted by Fireforge Mongol Warriors, which I thought would double nicely as Harad troops in Lord of the Rings gaming. But both of these appealed to other players, so not wanting to duplicate I plumped instead for Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses. As you can see, we are not serious historical gamers, our forces would never have met in real life, being separated by three or four centuries!

I have always admired these figures, in fact I bought the boxset a few years ago and started painting archers, thinking I might be able to use them in fantasy gaming. But now I can pick them up again with a real purpose in mind. Lion Rampant has small units of just 6 or 12 figures, so my first target is to assemble and paint 12 billmen. I have ordered the rulebook, started to research a faction to give me ideas for colours, and got the first unit assembled. The target is to complete one unit a month, enough to keep me occupied but not too much to stress me out. A nice way to start the new year.