So I just finished painting a small Undead army. I had ordered an GW Flesh-Eaters start collecting box and a Flesh-Eaters Warcry box to add to my existing collecting of old painted metal characters and a bunch half-painted zombies I had bought years ago.
As always they are painted in my very simplistic style, which in this case meant almost entirely with contrast paints. The metal characters were either painted by my brother 25 years ago or bought painted at some point. I finished the zombies using contrast paints as well. And all the bases were painted and flocked.
None of the miniatures are a work of art, but they are painted now and ready to play with.
At the same time I have been thinking about what rules to use for gaming with the army and fantasy in general (non-LotR). While I used to play Warhammer Fantasy Battle and loved the setting and lore, I really dislike some of the core rules, in particularly the lack of Command & Control and the IGOUGO system.
Age of Sigmar doesn't really do it for me either, but I had a few other rulesets that could be used. That was Sword & Spear Fantasy, SAGA Age of Sigmar and Dragon Rampant. I think all of these rulesets have interesting and C & C and activation mechanics and could be great fun to play. I had only played the historical versions of these rulesets and those were great games. So I was eager to try the fantasy versions.
One thing the 3 sets have in common, is that they are very open to what miniatures you can use. They have various defined troop types that you can tinker with, so they can fit your collection. The idea is then to be inspired by Warhammer themed armies, but used within the various rules.
After having read all of the rules and thought about what sort games I was interested in, I realised that Sword & Spear Fantasy would probably not be the best for 28mm, as it is more aimed at large battles, where heroes, monsters and magic have a more limited impact.
I did try out a Dragon Rampant solo game which went rather well, and I have set up another game to play in the coming days. I have created a small narrative around these games, that I hope to expand on in the future, both with Dragon Rampant and other games.
I have ordered some SAGA dice, and when they arrive, I will try a solo SAGA Age of Magic game. They will arrive with some skeletons, that I have ordered to expand the army and to use with yet another ruleset, that I am eager to try: Oathmark.
When I read these rules I was instantly drawn to them. If WFB had used rules like these I would probably still have played Warhammer. I love the activation system, the rules mechanics and the narrative aspect of the rules. Fortunately I was able lure my regular gaming friend Steffen into the game as well, and we are both in the progress of painting and preparing armies to do battle with.
Unlike the other rulesets, Oathmark, has a defined universe and are as such not a toolbox to create your own fantasy world and armies. This, however, doesn't prevent you from being a little creative about what miniatures you use for the various troop types. For now, there are only a handful of fractions/races and some different monsters, but hopefully they will expand on those in the future as well.
So there should be some interesting fantasy gaming going on in the future, both solo and otherwise. Plans are also to expand the fantasy collection, although I'm sticking to my creed of not playing with anything unpainted, which is a long way from how I used to play Warhammer.
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