It has been a long time since I played any fantasy wargames. I sold off my Empire army years ago, I have lots of Lord of The Rings figures that I haven’t done anything with, I have 28mm barbarians from every conceivable manufacturer, all unpainted and my Dark Elves have only ever managed to field a Mordheim Warband!
With the recent addition of all the plastic goodness from Mantic’s Christmas Goody Bag you would think that I would have enough Fantasy figures to last a life time. Certainly it will take several lifetimes to paint them all!
I have been watching the development of Mark Copplestone’s nominally 15mm Barbarian range with some interest. As a life long Robert E. Howard fan the Copplestone range has obvious attractions. Clearly he is basing the range around an REH Hyborian Age style.
There are clean shaven barbarians – for those read REH’s Cimmerians, Bearded Northlanders – Aesir etc. Some very tasty wolves and Cave Bears and some Snow Trolls at the moment.
Mark is working barbarian archers, a mammoth and some Picts, which in his own words he describes as REH style as opposed to historical Picts.
Mark is also working on a set of rules, along with Nick Lund, that will have a background set around a fantasy version of ancient Britain. The rules certainly sound interesting, as scenic items such as stone circles and “Roman Roads” will all have effects on the game (I assume effecting how magic is used).
Mark has produced a map for his version of Britain, featuring a land bridge to Europe, as it’s most obviously fantastical element.
To support this use of scenics as a focus for the rules Copplestone Castings have just released a series of resin standing stones and stone circles. My normal reaction to seeing stone circles produced by mini manufacturers runs something along the lines of “Why not just pick some stones out of the garden” or “A lump of balsa wood covered with Plaster of Paris would work just as well for a tenth of the price”, still I can see that some people don’t want to spend time working on scenics and would rather just buy ready made terrain. So on that level I must say these look very nice.
Now as it happens, a gaming buddy of mine (Jeff) just happened to suggest I take a trip along to The Works (the same remainder bookshop that I picked up the Tron vehicles in last week), he’d picked up a miniature Stonehenge set for £1.99. I have seen these mentioned on the forums before, but they are usually at least twice that price on Amazon etc.
You get 16 “Stonehenge Rocks” and a matt (a simple jigsaw) to put them on. I’ll ditch the matt, it gives you a handy plan if you want to build the actual Stonehenge, but as I will be using them to create my own stone circles I don’t need it! I bought two sets, so I will be able to build a fairly intact stone circle or a selection of more ruined ones! The tallest stone arch stands around 50mm high, so they are just about perfect for 15mm figures, and I suppose they could pass for a small stone circle for 28mm figures…
I haven’t actually bought any of Copplestone’s 15mm Barbarians yet, I am planning on off loading some stuff on Ebay to fund this new venture. I am however, already planning the terrain boards to accompany the project, so expect to see it develop over the coming months!
A trip to The Works is in order!
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