Chess is a WARGAME!

Hey everyone,

So this weekend included a great deal of outdoor time in the sun, which was great but I did manage to get a little bit of hobby vibe going on. I originally started wargaming with a WFB dwarf army that I played when I was in my early teens. I tried to build it up but lack of money (even back then it was too expensive) and lack of players near me (I lived in a village of maybe 300 people in Cornwall, England) meant that I dropped it.

Still, having no new models meant I had painted everything up and so I put it up for trade recently. In a great jackpot moment, I found a guy who was getting out of Privateer Press games to focus his money/energy on WFB. We set up to trade and I managed to get a new Skorne Warpack for Hordes...





...and another Trollbloods starter pack plus some rulebooks



The rulebooks are from Mki and so not compatible with the current game, but they have some great background, artwork and modelling tips in them. I am feeling particularly inspired by the Pirates of the Broken Coast book that has all sorts of fun nautical-themed stuff going on. Can't wait to see that one redone for the new edition.


After congratulating me on my shiny new acquisitions, my wife asked if we could get a chess set. We played a bunch before and had a good time doing it but it was late on a sunday and neither of us had the energy to make a trip out to find an open store. Then my eyes fell upon the Skorne Titan Gladiator (the big tusked guy above) and I thought....now that looks like a queen that could take any other piece.

5 minutes with pen and paper plus a few miniatures later, we had a chessboard.


Admittedly it's a bit crowded but I tried to go for things that made sense.


Clicking in will show that Kroot and Fire warriors are pawns, the dreadnoughts and troll impalers are castles (dreads look like castles, impalers throw in straight lines), crisis suits and troll axers are knights (the knight funny movement is apt for a crisis suit I thought), Chief Madrak Ironhide x2 and Cyclops Savages (big sword chaps) are bishops, the queens are the aformentioned Skorne Titan and Gilgamesh from Ramshackle Games, and kings are reprented by the Skorne warcaster and Matilda Grey from Ramshackle.

The game was a complete blast though quite confusing as some of the pieces were bigger than the squares and so it was tough to see where the lines of attack etc. were. Still we had a lot of fun and Emily was great at making relevant sound effects as pieces were taken (it makes the game so much more fun).

So there's a lesson for you. You don't need a $15 chess set, you just need $200 of finely detailed miniatures and a great wife who will play along.

PS: She also said that the painted ones looked a lot nicer and she could see how it would be more fun to play against them in 40k/WM....perhaps I can talk her into helping with painting.


In other news, I finally finished my first Marneus Calgar figure painted in a white scheme rather than as an Ultramarine. (By the way, he is sitting on a copy of the Vegetarian Times cookbook, which has many tasty recipes. It also points out that veggies typically have a slower rate of age-related issues, including decline in sex drive and fuction so I'll be eating my veggie food so I can keep up the good times lol)
Front view

Rear view

And here he is facing off against the Titan Gladiator. You can see the big gaps on the titan model here. I can't decide whether to gap fill it or pull everything apart (it's superglued) and rebuild it with epoxy resin, pinning and putty to gap fill as I go along. Anybody have any thoughts? I'm leaning towards a rebuild because it would be more hassle if it fell apart after being all painted up.


Hope everyone's weekend was also good.

Pete