Friday 14 February 2014

The Winter of the Year of The Dragon

Taking a short break from the modern era, you may have noticed Mark's occasional references to the Valley of the Fire Dragon, a "Thirteenth Warrior" inspired bit of Arthurian-Norse fantasy. I'm more than a bit infected by this but have a vaguely different take on it - influenced by the fact that I just love the 15mm fantasy Barbarica range by Mark Copplestone. By my calculation, '79 in the Hyborian calendar is the year of the Dragon. So, without any more ado, it's hej for the North and beware....Winter is coming....
 

"Seeker....Strangely north of the Great River, beyond the lands of the Vikingr folk is the Endless Glacier of Nevermelt....here we see the White Ice Wyrm, an ice witch, some winter kobolds and vengeance driven Picts are locked in warfare with the Nords and their great snow bear allies....."


"Despite seizing the initiative from mankind, the kobolds and their allies utterly fail to close with the Nords...."


"Which Lo! Leaves them open to a charge by the ferocious Nords and their legendary fury......a clan of kobolds is cut down bloodily, it's only their first loss and the winter alliance stays in the field..."


"The battle rages long and hard" - the wound markers show where a unit was destroyed bloodily.... "the Wyrm bites a swathe through a nord berserker cult, the nord rune caster foretells the doom of another kobold clan, drastically reducing their combat roll. The Nord hero and his shield brothers charge home screaming their war cry ...... more kobolds are cut down and their comrades falter and then run......the pursuit lasts many leagues until the kobolds reach their icy tunnels. The Picts, fuelled by the hatred of the Nords, hold their ground until ripped down by iron swords and claws...."

Apologies for going off message here, but with shiny new figures, some cracking snowy rocky terrain and some rules to test.....well it's not all about SLRs, DPM, M4s and landrovers. Oh, it is? I'll get me coat. 

Cheers
Maff 

3 comments:

  1. WOW!

    I have been eyeing off the Copplestone 15mm Fantasy figures for a while and you swing a nice brush!

    Which rules set are you using?

    Happy Gaming,

    Allan

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    Replies
    1. Hi Alan, thank you! My advice is buy 15mm copplestone fantasy; i honestly think that they are the best fantasy barbarians in 15mm. From what I've read on TMP it is basically early imperial Rome era Britain with a fantasy spin. I quite like that idea as it carries elements of romans v Britons, Celtic myth, hyboria, Cimmerians, Picts, lunar empire, even a hint of skyrim.

      I am also a lifelong d&d player so I've some 15mm ral partha orcs and bugbears to field as well.

      About rules, I'm using my home grown set, I want small, bloody battles with small but characterful armies. So I have 6 bases to a host plus a hero; hosts test morale by rolling higher than the number of bases that have been lost. You can combine hosts into great or even vast hosts.
      As an example of units, the nord berserkers have ferocious charge, legendary axe men, fearless and unarmoured......so if they need to get in and kill. The Picts have hatred of the nords, so ignore one lost base if fighting nords and a solitary pict base fights to the bitter end.

      Cheers

      Maff

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  2. Am with you on the Copplestone range - they are lovely. Am trying to write some rules as I speak to reflect a campaign I want to run with them. Mind you, he has been promising Command for the picts and cabe trolls since November last year....

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