Wednesday 12 November 2014

Lion Rampant - Danish Warhost

A knight of the House of Trolle (with a strong Danish allegiance)
Miniature from Fire-Forge's "Teutonic" box.

My previous visit to Copenhagen and the DFFcon gaming convention was a much cherished chance to finally game with the Scanian War collection I've been building for some 8 or 9 months, but apart from being the apex of expectations the weekend abroad also opened my eyes to new and uncharted rules and periods. 

Lion Rampant.
The best skirmish rules I've played to date.

Michael and Jonas from our local gaming club here in Stockholm both contributed in the development of an exciting new set of skirmish rules, Lion Rampant, published by renown Osprey. After the fate of Scania had been thoroughly decided, Michael changed the table terrain setup, and offered me and my uncle a chance to roll some dice and test these new rules using some of Michael's extensive medieval collection.

Foot soldiers serving the house of Trolle.
Miniatures from Fire-Forge's Foot Sergeants.

Lion Rampant was a real eye-opener to me. It's really the best and smoothest running skirmish rules I've tried so far. Needless to say, the encouraging gaming experience at the convention had us talking on the train back to Stockholm, brain storming on ideas for how to string together an overall narrative, linking single skirmishes together. 

Bardings, knights and lances.
What more can you wish for as a miniatures painter?

Together with experienced gamer Jesper, we decided to use a Swedish Medieval conflict called "Håtunaleken"from 1306 as our source of inspiration. The reason is that this conflict between feudal lords later became a board game - similar in styles and setup with the PC game "Defender of the Crown". So, using the board game map complete with factions, territories, castles and cities and with the actual historical narrative, we had the framework for an interesting club project. All each player had to do, was to each pick a feudal family, and start painting. Using Michael's experience we decided to start off with a simple 12 point army, which is still enough to give you 2-4 units on the table.

Each noble family in the Håtunaleken conflict will have their own activation card.
Here is the one I threw together for the Trolle family.

As the Danes generally found it hard to leave the Swedes to their own during the Medieval period, and there was plenty of Danish interference in this conflict too, I had no shortage of red-and-white noble families to choose from. However, one Dano-Swedish noble family was special to me - the Trolle family.

Herlufsholm Boarding School.
 Næstved, Denmark.

The Trolle heraldry clearly part of the historical heritage of the boarding school. 


Having spent part of my high-school studies at the Herlufsholm Boarding School, founded 1565 by Herluf Trolle, and situated in an amazing old historic estate, I found it my natural calling to field the eye-catching heraldry of the Trolle family - a beheaded troll carrying its own head.

Only really ludomaniac knights carry their own Chess board into battle.

My warhost will contain a mix of knights, some solid foot soldiers and a small prowling gang of skirmishers. A good mix of punch, movement and firepower to soften the enemy. Painting is frenetic, as I plan to lead my host to it's first conquest in just a few weeks time.
I leave you here with the results so far.

Thank you very much for reading!


42 comments:

  1. Absolutely stunning! Love them all, but the checkey patterned barding is an eye-catcher!

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    1. Thanks Dean, appreciate it! Its a first for me in terms of painting Medieval stuff, so of course the bardings was extra fun to get cracking at.

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  2. Great paintwork, the chequered barding is superb.

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    1. Thanks Oli, happy you liked the result. Was tempted to add some decals, but I couldn't find anything similar to the Trolle heraldry, so I had to get creative instead :0)

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  3. What Dean said! Stunning brushwork! Colors are so vibrant and your work on the heraldry is unbelievable.

    Only really ludomaniac painters paint checkerboard barding. Wait! Perhaps, we are the ludomanical ones since we are addicted to awaiting such wonderful pieces from your workshop?

    Wow!

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    1. Jonathan, you truly humble me. Thank you so much for the kind comment. Like I wrote to Oli and Dean, its a first for me in terms of bardings, and it was great fun. I also must admit to having skimmed through the Funcken Medieval books to get some inspiration for how barding could be patterned - those books were a steal on ebay and supply so much visual material to work from.

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  4. The caparisons on the horses are stunning and the contrasts of the colors are marvelous! top notch painting!

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    1. Thank you very much Phil, truly encouraging for the rest of the painting in front of me (will return to the painting table this afternoon). I got to "google-translate" a new word also - Caparisons :0) Thanks for your support guys!

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  5. Great and admirable paintwork

    I admire and I am always surprised how can be found in the great patience to make these paintings
    and how to find the time (your day job) to make all these fine details

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    1. Thank Max - I'm happy you liked how they turned out! I appreciate your comment on the time issue, I think a lot of us doing this hobby find that a returning concern. I'm running a product development company in the day time, and also have a 4-year old daughter, so I'm not quite sure how this all comes together, but I will have to say it probably have a lot to do with an exceptionally understanding fiancé, who supports my 2-3 hours per day at the painting table. So I cordially salute her for that! She is a nerd at heart, like me :0)

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  6. Stunning paintwork Sören !

    Glad that you gone all-in for our Håtunaleken project and Lion Rampant:) Seems like you will at least have part of your Hoast finished to the campaign kickoff on 1 December.

    Best regards Michael

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    1. By the eway matey, please put some of your pictures at the clubforum to so you can inspire the others sitting honme and paint their Hoasts for our club project.

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    2. Thank buddy, All-In indeed! They will probably all be ready this weekend! Thanks for chipping in the extra bits to create the skirmishers, they're getting a paint job as we speak... Looking forward to the kick off :0)

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    3. Might we have to sneak in an early start game...

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    4. Absolutely! Start rallying the Allmoge, Juten is coming ;0)

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  7. My goodness me these are exquisite! Tremendous work Sir.

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    1. Thank you Michael, appreciate the visit and the kind words. A small acknowledgment to Fire-Forge for making some great and very adaptable minis for us to work with too.

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  8. Splendid paint job, can't believe my eyes!!

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    1. Thanks Phil, it really was an eye-opener to the period. Having previously dealt with the era of gunpowder I now feel an unsettling urge to create a 100 Years War collection around Jeanne d'Arc and the reconquest - the Perrys are certainly making at hard to deviate, right :0)

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  9. Excellent painting Soren, and very striking Heraldry , you have done a magnificent job on the checked barding in particular, each square looks exactly the same size, an amazing feat !

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    1. Chris, you're making an old painter very happy. Thanks for those kind words. The idea came up since there was no decals matching my heraldry, so I had to invent something. Knights and kings etc. are all Chess to me, so it was straight forward choice. I made it by simply painting a series of white line horizontally and vertically, then filled every second square they formed. Happy you liked the result!

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    1. Thanks Matt, appreciate the visit and the kind comment! More knights en route!

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  11. Wow, that's a fantastic start to your host Søren! Can't wait to see the finished one.

    I'm glad Michael and Jesper could lure you away from all the muskets and rifles for a while at least. ;)

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    1. Thanks Jonas, and yeah I'm happy they did. Was actually really nice to dive into something very different. The "horrible" side-effect is that I'm now trying to tell myself that I should NOT be doing a 100 Years War collection, even though every cell in my body wants to buy the Perry minis... Perhaps we could soften the blow by doing this period for Lion Rampant as well sometime in the foreseeable future. Would love to paint some English archers and Jeanne d'Arc.

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  12. Ohh... Really great looking miniatures. You have done a excellent job on these.

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    1. Thank you Engel - the Fire-Forge minis were a treat to paint. I shortened the lances by an inch or so, as they seemed too long, but after that quick fix it was smooth sailing with washes, highlighting etc. Thanks for dropping by for a read and leaving a comment!

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    2. Shortened the Lances... -1 on all combat dice roll then ;)

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    3. HaHaHa, ok ok agreed. But... we all know that Dannebrog will add 3 extra d6 per barding in Hand-to-Hand fighting ;0)

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  13. Beautiful clean painting! Excellent work on the barding!

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks Christopher - its was nice to jump back in time and finally do some real knights, i.e bardings.

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  14. Excellent painting on these figures. The chess board pattern turned out great. The Trolle heraldry looks funny.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, the Trolle nobles might have been met with laughter as few time when they turned up at the tournaments with their "chopped of head" banner...

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  15. Superb painting as allways. Might try to get my hands on a copy of Lion Rampant. Probably Donnybrook as well.

    I have plans of getting the guys of the local club into Historical gaming, and skirmish-games with an local conection might help to catch their interest...

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    1. You should definitely give Lion Rampant a try, also with all the great new stuff coming out for the Medieval period (perrys and fire-forge) . Lion Rampant are the smoothes running skirmish rules I've tried, but complex enough to entertain very seasoned players too. Also, I've come to see skirmish games as a great format for 28 mm and for an evenings game at the club. The larger full on battle games are really more of a whole day event during a weekend or holiday.
      Good luck with the gaming!

      Cheers,
      Sören

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  16. Wonderful work, barding are especially good. It is a pity that at figures from Fire Forge sometimes very strange helmets

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    1. Thanks Klingula, and yes I also found some sculpting unproportional but that was more on the weaponry - in particular the lances. But shortening them was an easy mend, so shouldn't deter anyone from using these otherwise great minis.

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  17. Great painting Sören!
    I like the varied but coherent application of colour. The mounted men at arms are great but the foot soldiers appealed to me even more. Great "heraldry" and they portray lowly common soldiers very well.
    I look forward to follow your progress both painting more and on the gaming table.
    /Mattias

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    1. Thanks Mattias, I hope to see you guys at the club for more games, Lion Rampant or other! Glad you liked the foot, I've experimented a bit with pigment on the shields, and it does give a more battle-hardened look which adds character. More knights coming up!
      /Sören

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  18. Great looking miniatures! I am going to have to try these rules as they are all the buzz in the Wargaming community. I look forward to our game on Wednesday evening. See you then!

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    1. Thanks Mark! I'm sure you'll enjoy the rules, they flow really easily and you can add extra stuff once you get a hang of it. Feel free to borrow my Danes to give it a go! We'll be kicking off at the club on Monday the 1st December :0)

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