The Long March Patrol led by Sur Davros du Long March

Inspired by much listening to Redwall Abbey tales as audible books, Ann and I are getting ready for the start of our Burrows and Badgers campaign

Ann has choosen a Royalist Warband,'The Long March Patrol' led by Sur Davros du Long March himself (he's the hound with the very large two handed sword). The warband contains two hounds, two otters and a fox.

This is their starting Warband record sheet, Ann's choosen a Ruined Farm as their Den, giving the Patrol free upkeep between missions from the farms orchards and gardens.. The first den upgrade is a smithy, this comes for free and will come into operation after the first game. After equiping the warband the coffers are pretty low, with just 3 pennies left over, hopefully they will have a profitable first adventure.

Sur Davros leads this proud patrol, he certainly knows how to wield that huge two handed sword, sporting a very respectable D10 strike dice, although his block has room for improvement although he has learnt a few defensive tricks and as a melee master is not going to suffer a penalty to his block for being outnumbered.

The Long March Patrol's second in command is a feisty otter by the name of Red Claw. He has benefited from some training while in Royalist service to bring his Strike ability up to D10 and as a otter adds +1 to damage and can swim.

Tanottalos, an otter equipped with a bow and sword and sporting a set of leather armor provides the patrol with some long range firepower.

Hector the hound is pretty adept with a spear and also wears a well worn set on leather armor. He to has benefited from some training in the Royalst barracks to bring his Strike skill up to D10.

The last member of the patrol is a cunning fox, Frances Downer, who wears leather armor and wields a long sword.

We're big fans of character / unit cards rather than roster sheets, so we've designed these cards and made one up for each anthropomorphic figure in our collection. As well as being a handy in game reference, you can flip the card over when a character has activated so that you can easily see who is still to activate and it helps with warband selection as you can pass someone a stack of cards from which they can keep choosing until they get to 350 pennies (or whatever limit has been set).

All of the figures are conversions. I've used left over plastic bodies and arms from my bits box from Frostgrave, Fireforge, Saga, Perry Miniatures together with Albedo Critter Conversion Kits. These are metal cast sets of heads and tails to enable any miniature to be converted to an anthropomorphic version. The miniatures have all been based on Sally 4th Clear Perspex bases which allow the figures to blend in with what ever terrain they are standing on.

Last year Nick & I commenced a journey to replay the original Games Workshop Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game campaign scenarios, using the scenarios from the original editions of the rulebooks and the 'Journey' books. The approach that we are taking is to play both scenarios twice so that we both get the chance to play good and evil, so the final result can be a draw with one replay being a good victory and one being an evil victory or a convincing vistory for one side or the other. We decided to play each scenario as a stand alone game rather than having the effects of one influence the next. The reason for this is that the Hobbits are very fragile and an early loss of Frodo and the ring could of course completely change the whole course of the campaign.

This game is based on the Bucklebury Ferry incident where Frodo, Sam, Merry & Pipin are attempting to gain the safety of the ferry and put some running water between them and the mounted Ringwraiths. The scenario appears in the Fellowship of the Ring journey book and it also appeared as a scenario in the Games Workshop weekly in store campaign. We set up the scenery as somewhere between the two.

We played on a 4' square gaming table made up of Sally 4th Terra-Former modular terrain tiles. When I first played the scenarios, probably about 15 years ago when the 'Journey Book' was first published and I was running a hobby store, I constructed the river sections and ferry with the dimensions in the book. I still have that river and re-flocked it to match the Terra-Former tiles usingLukes Apps foam landscaping products, but when I laid it out it looked to narrow for the Brandywine river so I decided to use Terraformer canal sections instead so that we could just show one bank.

The four hobbits start off in the centre of the bottom edge of the table. For a 'Good' victory Frodo needs to make it on to the Ferry.

Three mounted Nazgul are deployed on the adjacent sides. They are tracking the hobbits, but have not sensed them yet so are subject to the sentries rule.

In the first game the hobbits concentrated their attacks on the Nazguls Mounts and managed to unhorse one early on in the game, reducing its mobility.

With two hobbits fighting one ringwraith, the little fellows hold their own for a few turns.

However, it is not long before more Nazgul pick up the scent and head towards the action.

Eventually they all arrive and get in to combat with Frodo, eliminating him with ease for an Evil victory, (Merry & Pipin had already suffered a similar fate).

In the second replay, the hobbits got a lot closer to the ferry, before their demise. The three companions form a defensice cordon around Frodo and head to the ferry building with the unity of a precision drill team.

Once again, the Nazgul close on the Hobbits.

After the first round of combat and pushbacks the hobbits become seperated allowing Nazgul to focus on individual targets.

This time the results are a lot closer, Frodo is just a single move away from the Ferry when he is killed by the Nazgul.

The game was a lot of fun. It is always good to play a scenario based on the books.

The result was a resounding 2-0 for Evil. It is quite a hard game for the hobbits to win as they slowly cross the table at 4" per turn. Although the Nazgul are slowed by the sentry rule, once they get moving they quickly cover the ground with 10" mounted movement.

The next game we are playing is 'Fog on the Barrow Downs'., which should be a lot of fun. It's a long time since I've used Tom Bombadil in a game!

We've stocked Burrows and Badgers ever since it was first published and I can remember when it first came in having a flick through it, admiring the photographs and line drawings and thinking that it would be a great game to play. However, 2018 was a pretty mad year at work with the release of our own anthropomorphic sci-fi game ACP164, so I did not get round to trying it out, but over the last few months we have had gamers email us saying how great our 'Critter Conversion Kits' (animal heads and tails) would be for converting miniatures for Redwall Abbey style games. To be honest at that point I had not heard of Redwall Abbey, so thought we had best check it out. We purchased, downloaded and listened to 'Redwall Abbey' and 'Murial of Redwall' and really enjoyed the stories, and resolved to start a B&B campaign in 2019.

Our first game is scheduled for Friday afternoon, so Ann & I have both created warbands in preperation. My warband is led by a cat called Rufus and they are Rogues based in a Ruined Farmhouse.

I'm a big fan of character cards rather than roster sheets as it enables me to flip them over once a character has activated so that I don't miss any one out in the heat of battle.

I'm not sure if I've picked an optimum warband or not, as I have just choosen characters that I have already in my collection that I like the look off. All the models are based on plastic parts from my bits box from Frostgrave, Fireforge, Perry Miniatures together with Albedo Critter Conversion Kits to turn them into anthropomorphic characters.

Ruffus is the leader of the warband so he has been given an upgrade to his Strike skill plus the Killing blow skill.

Rammus is the second in command. He has taken the Weaponskill ability that boosts his Strike & Block skills, and has a boost to his concealment from the warband being 'Rogues'

Rammus has his concealment boosted from the leagues 'Rogue' benefits.

The first game scheduled for Ruffus is Friday (18th January) so check back next week to find out how they have got on!

Albedo Combat Patrol ACP164 is a hard science, gritty skirmish game.

It is based on the anthromorphic world of Steve Gallacis comics, which gives the setting 20 plus years of background detail, however if you don't like the setting, no problem as underneath the bonnet ACP164 is a gritty squad level hard sci-fi skirmish game that work well with any genre.

We decided to play through the ACP164 introductory scenario using human troops, pitting Federation troopers against Rebel Alliance Freedom Fighters.

The troops are the standard EDF & ILR troops that are available in thestarter set or unit boxes, we have just swapped the heads out for human sci-fi heads.

The Federation troopers have some resin puppetswar judge dredd style helmets. The bodies are EDF Heavy Infantry and three figures are armed with LAKW 1-56 Assault Rifle while the grenadier has a carbine with underslung grenade launcher.

The Rebel Alliance team are based onILR trooper bodies, 4 are armed with LAKW 1-56 Assault Rifles, one has a LMG, loader has a carbine with folded stock and the quad leader has a Machine Pistol. The heads are a mixture of barbarian heads from Victrix from my bits box and some resin Mohawk heads from Puppetwars.

Ann choose to play the Federation troopers. There are less of these but they have better body armour and better training, counting as Regular shots in a firefight.

As we were playing the recce-probe introductory scenario, my mission was to exit one figure through the Federations deployment zone so they could report on positions in depth.

I decided to send my LMG team left flanking to try to suppress a path on the left hand edge of the table.

Unfortunately, as soon as they cleared the corner of the building a Federation Trooper was sucessful in there reaction fire test and caused a critical head shot on the gunner. First blood to Ann and the Federation!

The Rebel Alliance assault team move into position, making best use of cover.

Unfortunately, for the rebels the LMG loader was pinned following the burst of fire that brought the gunner down, before he could act to retrieve the weapon he also became a casualty.

At the end of the first turn the table looked like this, Anns Federation Troopers had gone firm in good cover, trhe Rebels had lost there fire team but there assault team were working there way around the courtyard of the building, bottom right.

ACP164 is normally played as a platoon level game, with whole squads activating at once, however to enable players to get gaming straight away we have developed some introductory scenarios that are a similar level to WH40K Killteam. At this level each figure is a 'unit' in its own right, and get's its own activation dice.

Rebel Alliance fighters are a bout to break cover on there right flank.

Meanwhile on the Rebels left flank, the first trooper sprints across the yard to the safety of the doorway. However once again. Anns trooper first manages to reaction fire and then scores a wounding hit on the figure which means he can not complete his movement.

On the rebels right flank another Federation Trooper takes up a good fire position, using the corner of the building for cover.

Before the trooper from the assault party can recover from being pinned, he his hit by another round and taken out of the game.

When the group on the rebels right flank also took casualties, the Rebels thought better of this particular probe and decided to retreat, regroup and try there luck another day.

This was a great little game, Ann won by a large margin preventing the recce probe from penetrating her lines and causing considerable rebel casualties.

The rules are available as a free PDF download with any purchase of an Albedo Miniatures Squad set.

The terrain is made from a Terra-Fomer multi-layout terrain set. This contains building sections that can be laid out in lots of different configerations.

Click here for further information.

A few weeks ago Nick & I decided to revisit Games Workshops, Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle. This is a game that has gone through a lot of different versions, I am playing with the original version 'The One Rule book', Nick has the very latest copy, but at the end of the day it still boils down to you both roll a D6, highest roll wins, if a tie highest fight value wins, is still a tie, enie-minie-minie-mo! A simple and fun game, as long as you don't take it to seriously.

Our plan is to start at the beginning of the story, and work our way through the scenarios starting with the Fellowship journey book. As many of the scenarios are a bit unbalance, we are playing through twice so we both get to play both sides.

The minatures are all original releases, brought and painted up when first released 12-15 years ago. At that time I was running a games store, so had made all of the special scenery pieces that the scenarios required. I have however taken the opportunity to freshen them up a bit. I know use 'Lukes Apps - Geek Gaming' scenic materials as my default choice, they just win hands down on range and quality. The terrain boards are all based on 12" square Terra-Former modular terrain tiles. These are kits to build frames with consistant profiles for hills, streams, roads, rivers, canals, cliffs etc and encorporate strong rare earth magnets for perfect alignment and to stop terrain drifting apart mid game.

The first two scenarios in the Fellowship Journey book feature the Dunadain, Rangers of the North defending the borders of The Shire from the Nazgul who have been dispatched to search for 'Baggins'.

This was an interesting match, the Nazgul are fielded in there weakest state, so 7 Will but no might or fate. Each time that they cast a magical ability or fight a round of combat they lose a point of Will and when they get to zero Will they dissapear as the magical energy that holds them together is spent. This means that the evil player needs to make careful decisions about which abilities to use.

The Dunadain, on the other hand are pretty handy with a bow and arrow, but it's low strength combined with the Nazhuls high defence means that you need to roll a 6 followed by another 5 or 6 to actually cause a wound, however if you can get enough shots off you only need to cause a single wound.

Both of the Dunadain vs Nazgul scenarios had victory conditions based on the number of Nazgul that can cross the table and exit opposite side, to head for the Shire. We played both scenarios twice and two were won by Evil and two by Good.

Flight from the Shire

The first scenario that features characcters from the fellowship is based on 3 frightened hobbits assisted by Gildor, an elven hero evading the attention of 3 Nazgul on foot. For the fellowshop to win, Frodo needs to exit far side of the table.

The hobbits set up in contact with the hedge. One Nazgul sets up behind them, center of table and two Nazgul set up at the center of each side. Gildor set up centre of far side of table.

The three hobbits are lost and afraid so at the start of the game they have to pass a courage check to activate.

The Nazgul do not know where the hobbits are, so they are subject to the sentries rule until they get close enough to sniff the hobbits out.

Gildor takes a shortcut through the forest to come to the hobbits aid. As he is a 'woodland creature' the difficult terrain does not slow him down.

Eventually all 3 Nazgul get on the scent and close in on the hobbits.

In one of the games, Frodo slips out of there clutches and makes a bid for freedom, while Gildor holds the Nazgul at bay.

This scenario was played twice with one victory to good and another to Evil.

Links for further details:

Lukes Apps - Geek Gaming scenic / landscaping products

Terra-Former modular terrain tile kits

In November Dungeonwork Architects were giving away some nice 3D printer files for a Banquet model set (table, chairs, food and tableware), this happened to coincide with us discovering Redwall Abbey which is an anthropomorphic fantasy series that features a lot of banquets and food descriptions. This got me thinking that the banquet files were great when printed, but would be even better with some miniatures sitting at the tables.

The seated miniatures are 'The Seated Crowd' figures, which were designed for sitting in our Blood Bowl Stadiums, but are also great for filling our Fantasy or Medieval Taverns, click here for more details. The seated figures have been converted using Albedo Miniatures 'Critter Conversion Kits'. These are head and tail sets for dogs, cats, rabbits, otters, foxes etc. that allow you to take any miniature and easily convert it ino an anthropomorphic 'critter'. Click here for details.

Last week Doug and I got together for another fantastic game of Pulp Alley

We had not played Pulp Alley for several months so our trigger fingers were itching to give a western themed game a go as we have been talking about having another play through of 'Vice Alley' using outlaws and lawmen.

As we had not played for a while, we decided to keep it simple, so we choose the 'Smash and Grab' scenario from the main rule book. In this scenario, all the plot points are on the table at the start of the game. The major plot point in the center of the table and the four minor plot points anywhere on the table that is at least 6" from another plot point or the edge of the table.

We decided to have four movable perilous areas. These were represented by a dog and three horeses, who were obviously very spooked by the gun fire. At the end of each turn these moved D6" in a random direction projecting a 3" diameter periolous area around them.

The stray horses, proved just as dangerous as the flying lead!

For my league, I had focussed on quality rather than quantity. I took the 'Com,pany of Heroes' perk that allowed my league to include four sidekicks, Marshall 'Leather' Durham, the leader for this game (Quick Witted & Sharp), Bernard 'Glory' Barnes (a Deductive Veteran), Ralph 'Wild Boy' Hicks (a Daredevil Veteran) and WIlson 'Wild Hog' Hurley (A Quick Shooting, Eagle Eyed, Shotgun wielding SOB!), we also gained a Level 1 Brawler as a random scenario event, although he did not last the day, as is often the way.

Doug took a different approach and seemed to field a cast of hundreds, (well quiet a few).

In traditional style our leages deployed at opposite ends of the main street, my league split up heading for minor plot points hidden in the back lots and side streets.

Doug's crew emerged from a side street between the Saloon and the Bank and a savage fire fight errupted that lasted several turns (but did not cause the off duty cow hands to spill the beer they were sampling out side the saloon).

Here we see Bernard 'Glory' Barnes and Wilson 'Wild Hog' Hurley captured for Time Life Magazine by a passing photographer while taking cover behind some handy sacks and barrels while tradding shots with one of Doug's sharpshooters.

Distracted by the photographer, they were very surprised when a stick of dynamite landed behind the crates!

However, this low down trick was not enough to carry the day and Marshall Durhams boys slowly whittle down the opposition.

Eventually Doug's leader goes down in a 'Blaze of Glory' leaving the Marshall in possesion of the major plot point plus two minor plot points.

Another great nights entertainment from Pulp Alley that has left us both eager to refine our leagues and get started with an Old West themed Vice Alley campaign.

For full details of Pulp Alley rules and accesories click here.

The game board was built using Sally 4th Terra-Former modules - click here for full details.

Albedo Combat Patrol, ACP164 is a new 28mm science fiction miniatures game set in Steve Gallachi's “Albedo Anthropomorphics” universe.

Fast paced, easy to learn rules combine with a unique range of miniatures, vehicles and terrain to produce a fun and excitingly different SF gaming experience

Click here to read Wargames Illustrateds Review of Albedo

Click here to download the Albedo article from Wargames Illustrated January 2019

Sally4th spent three days with the great guys over at Beasts of War filming some Interviews and 'Lets Play' videos about Albedo Combat Patrol

.... so if you want to see and hear what it is all about check out some of the videos that we made.

Introduction to Albedo Miniatures Game Interview

Beasts of War Lets Play Albedo Introductory Scenario

Beasts of War: Albedo History & Background Interview

Beasts of War: Lets Play Albedo - Subway Scenario

Beasts of War Weekender Interview: Albedo the future

Click here to watch the Beasts of Wat: Lets Play Albedo Cityfight video.

Click here to find how to get a FREE copy of rulebook

Albedo Combat Patrol ACP164 has it's own Facebook Group, click here to join

The Albedo Miniatures game is set in the world of Steve Gallacci's Albedo Anthropomorphics Comics

Click here to take a look at the comic bokk archive and catch up on the story of Erma Felna EDF

We also have a Twitter Feed for the Albedo Miniatures Game @albedo164

...so if Tweeting is your thing, you can follow us by clicking here

Kickstarter 100% Funded in first 13 hours!

Now accepting Late Pledges / Pre-Orders via Backerkit

Take a look at what's available now in the acp164 webstore.

Last Saturday (15th September), Doug & I had a first play through of the introductory scenario from Albedo Combat Patrol.

I also played this scenario through with Justin when we visited Beasts of War and we made a 'Let's Play video of it'

Click here to take a look

The introductory game represents a recce patrol running into a defensive standing patrol. Confed Forces are in defensive positions around the main communications complex. The ILR have sent out recce patrols of fire team strength to identify the defenders state of readiness and the strength of their positions.

Click here to download the scenario as a PDF file

Click here to find out how to get a FREE copy of the rules

This clash takes place in the industrial estate surrounding the comms complex.

As this is an introductory scenario with very small forces involved, each figure gets it's own activation dice and acts as an independent unit. Confed had a fire team consisting off a squad leader with machine pistol and three troopers armed with the LAKW 1-56 Assault Rifle.

The ILR fire team has a team leader and five troopers, four armed with carbines and one with a LMG.

The Confed team leader and foxy trooper deploy into a building, hoping to get a good field of fire from a covered position.

Trooper Fox smashes the glazing with his rifle butt and scans the horizon for signs of movement.

At the far side of the complex, ILR troopers are moving through buildings and taking up positions for a cautious advance.

Confed form a loose line, making best use of the cover in and around the buildings to the left.

The superior range of the Confed rifle takes it's toll, as the lepine casualties mount.

However, the frontal assault is a feint and a pair of ILR troopers make their way around the rear of the buildings. Although one of the pair goes down, the survivor takes Trooper Fox out as he fumbles a magazine change, leaving the path clear for a rush to the exit (which game the ILR three bonus victory points) as they had slipped the patrol and could report on the positions they were shielding.

At that point, on the last turn it looked like a draw with 4 victoty oints a side. Confed had incapacitated 4 ILR troopers for 4VPS, ILR had got a trooper of the table and incapacitated one Confed trooper for 4 victory points. How ever, in the last activation of the last turn this Confed trooper charges and manages to incapicitate his opponent tipping the scales to a 5 vs 4 result for Confed.

This was a very tense and exciting game which could have easily gone the other way. The introductory scenario is a great way to get to grips with the fast, fuirious and realistic card driven combat mechanics at the heart of Albedo Combat Patrol.

Albedo Combat Patrol was sucessfully funded via Kickstarter.

For more details check out the these links!

Albedo Miniatures available now

Albedo Miniatures pre-orders / Late Pledges via Backerkit

Albedo Combat Patrol website

Albedo Combat Patrol Facebook Group

Albedo Combat Patrol Newsletter

Around fifteen years ago, I used to run a couple of hobby stores and I had just about every Warhammer and Warhammer 40K army that was available, including a 3,000 point Imperial Guard (Cadian) Army. Most of my 40K troops were auctioned off on ebay to finance other projects but I do have some bits and pieces of Space Marine, Ork and Tyrannid left.

When I was tidying up last night I came across a case of Imperial Guard Heavy Weapon Platoons, so I've decided to use these as a basis for putting a small force together.

They are all heavy weapons teams. Enought to make a Mortar Platoon, Anti-Tank Missile Launcher Platoon and a Heavy Laser Platoon. I will need to check the latest fluff to find out what these are called at the moment.

I had a quick look and I'm pretty sure that these are the same as the currently available Imperial Guard Miniatures, so my next job is to pick up a box set of the standard infantry to start putting some core troop choices together.

Friday 31st August 2018

Just arrived, a brand new box of WH40K Imperial Guard Infantry, just the way that I remembered them from about 15 years ago when I last put some guardsmen together.

This time however I am going to be looking to do some conversions rather than straight builds.

One of the things that I used to love about Warhammer was the sheer breadth of the canvas, back then you could buy straight from Games Workshop a huge variety of different uniforms for the Imperial Guard including ones based on 19th century British soldiers from Rorkes Drift, WW2 Russians, WW1 Germans and many more together with Abhuman troops including Ratling (Hobbit) Snipers, Squats (Dwarves), Ogryns (Ogres) and Beastmen. The whole rational from Games Workshop was that the Imperium was huge and that the Imperial Guard raised regiments from tens of thousands of planets and that there was a wide diversity of life to work with.

... so this next stage is going to be to play around with some bits that I have left in my bits box from making some miniatures for another new sci-fi miniatures game, Albedo ACP164, to come up with a new and unique look for my Imperial Guard.

Update 2nd October 2018

Finally got around to assembling and painting first five Imperial Guard Feline Conversions.

These all use the plastic pieces from the standard Games Workshop Imperial Guard plastic sprues combined with Feline head and tail conversion pieces from Albedo Miniatures.

I've also upgraded the bases to Sally 4th clear plastic bases so that they will belnd in with what ever terrain they are standing on.

All of the terrain shown is from the Albedo Miniatures game Kickstarter which goes live on 15th October.

Links for Further Information.

Albedo miniatures figures and conversion parts

Sally 4th Clear Plastic Bases

Albedo Miniatures Game Facebook Page

Albedo Combat Patrol Forum

Sign up to Albedo Combat Patrol Newsletter

Free Albedo Comic Book Archive