Tournament!

The Christmas break is always a nice time to bring out some toys and play around with some different setups. I decided to bring out my medievals - many of which date back to the 90s. Plenty of old Citadels on display ;-)

Anyway, I still have a plan to stage a game focusing on the "melee" of a tournament rather than the "joust", so this is a bit of a dry-run of how it could look visually.

All pictures taken with smartphone(s), so focus could have been a bit better here and there ...

General overview of the table. The castle is a plastic toy castle.

Another general overview.

Fishman in the castle pond. He always features in many of my games where there is some body of water.

King and herald, both Citadel knights.

Another overview.

The Joust.

A knight putting on his armour. Foundry vignette.

Knights from the old Battlemasters game.

Old Bretonnia Warhammer knights.

Melee in action.

More melee ...

And even more ...

Another overview.

Piers the Ploughman - Wargames Foundry.

Flock of sheep ...

Another pair of knights fighting it out.

View from the ramparts.

More sheep.

Carnival parade. Eureka miniatures inspired by Breughel and Bosch.

Falconer.

Tax collector inspecting the market stalls.

Nobles (Harlequin figures).

A black-and-white view from the ramparts.

The melee field.

Mercator coming out for some scientific observations ...

The herald.

Rabbit hunt.

Sleeping shepherd.

War engine.

More melee.

Melee once again.

And in the mean time, someone running's off with the treasure ...

I painted something!

It has been a while since I painted some figures, but painting a building is always an easy way to get the painting juices flowing again.

This plastic tower has been on my unpainted pile for too long ... 26 years. It's the plastic tower from the iconic game Battle Masters, which I did buy when it was published in 1992.

It's not a very sophisticated model (nor a very sophisticated paint job :-)), but it is a nice "generic" model that can be used in many medieval/fantasy games - if not as an objective in the game - simply as a quick scenery backdrop to embellish the table. The tower was simply spray-painted black, then grey drybrush was applied, and subsequently some details painted in. The 2 decals finish the job. Total painting time (excluding drying time after the initial black basecoat - probably less than 20 minutes).

The two knights are plastic Bretonnian figures, Warhammer 5th edition.

Oldhammer: Bretonnia vs Skaven

Two weeks ago I was lucky to get my hands on a very good set of the classic Mighty Fortress, sold by games Workshop in the 80s. I decided to get some of my old armies out, and make a little diorama where a Bretonnia fortress was under attack by a horde of Skaven. Almost all figures are Citadel from the 80s.

Some pictures could have been sharper, but blame the auto-focus on my camera  ;-)

A general overview of the table.

A unit of cavalry, no Citadel figures, but old Grenadier figures IIRC. In the foreground some old Ral Partha cavalry.

Bretonnian cavalry, plastic knights from the boxed WFB 5th edition set, and the 2nd and 3rd row knights from the MB game Battlemasters.

More knights. The figure in front is a conversion. Horse from WFB 5th edition basic set, and the body of the knight from the old Bretonnian Knight range from the 80s.

Line of knights - all old Citadel models.

Another overview of the castle.

Some old Citadel figures are manning the ramparts.

Action in one of the city squares. Except for the dog, all Citadel.

The herald alarms everyone within the city walls. Citadel, 5th edition WFB, IRC.

Two thieves trying to steal some gold from each other. Citadel figures from the 80s.

More action going on in the backalleys of the city. Citadel figures.

Reinforcements are coming! Old Citadel figures from the Fighter range,

Cart is from Wargames Foundry, 2 figures on the right are Citadel.

Clan Eshin ready to storm the walls.

Clan Moulder with their pack of giant rats.

More Clan Moulder with giant Rat Ogres.

Converted skaven unit. Bodies are from the Warhammer Regiments boxed set, heads and arms from various plastic toy animals, but also other Citadel miniatures.

Armoured Skaven.

Plague Monks on the left, some Jezails in the middle, and a large unit of plastic Warhammer Regiments skaven on the right. Insipiration for the banner came from an illustration in the WFB 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book.

The rat drawing in the middle provided a template for the banner in the image above.

Skaven Screaming Bell (4th edition, IIRC). In front a converted rocket battery. Original model was a Hobgoblin rocket battery, but the equipment was transferred to some skaven models.

Skaven horde as seen from the Bretonnian side.

Fortress as seen from the Skaven side.

Fortress as seen from the Skaven bell.

Monstrous host for the Skaven army. A jabberwock, Hippogrif, and Chimera.

Manning toe towers. A wizard is ready to cast some fireballs.

Another view of the Bretonnian Knights.

Someone is having some fun. Model from Metal Magic, I believe.

Another wizard recruited for the war effort.

And another one ...

The archers on the ramparts are from WFB 5th basic set.

An old Citadel cannon.

Skaven archers. Converted from Goblins from the Warhammer Regiments boxed set (and added pastic Skaven heads)

Flamethrower teams.

Monstrous host, with banner. The chaos script on the banners were real achievements from my old chaos warband.

Some more shots of city life.

A smuggler.

Two citizens wondering what to do.

Two citizens. I believe the figure on the left to be toe Royal Gamekeeper, and the figure on the right an illusionist wizard.

Attempt at trying to get the city in one frame.