You know what 'ol Jack Burton says at a time like this...

A time like this being Sunday evening after a pretty tiring weekend - he says post some old pictures of a vaguely Lo Pan inspired Sorcerer and his motley gang!

A Return to the East (and the blog!)

Well it's been a while but I'm back and with some new stuff!

Army Review: Good Mourn'in Cathay!

As I tend to agree to big games or come up with all kinds of daft and over-ambitious projects, I've often ended up in a mad dash to get things painted up in time for the big day. This has often led to loads of stuff not ending up on the blog so I've been thinking of a way to remedy this. So I'm starting a series of posts where I look back and gather up all the minis I've painted for a particular army. They might not have featured on the blog at all for one reason or another or they have been done over a series of posts but never been gathered together for the big army shot.

As Hobgoblins have been on the menu recently, I'll start with them!

Keep Those Wagons Rollin'

Welcome back dear readers and crikey - lockdown has actually turned out to be a really busy time! In between redecorating the entire house (we were in the middle of a loft conversion and rewiring all the electrics when quarantine was announced), home schooling, dog entertaining and baking fresh bread everyday I don't know where the time has gone. What started out as a throwaway facebook post on my take on home schooling has also turned out to be a bit of a time sink after various friends and relatives insisted I carried it on and turned my daily home schooling posts in to something more permanent - like another blog!

I'm pleased to say that my Ogre wagons for the Dolgan Raiders scenario are now definitely finished and what a fiddle they were too - should definitely have thought of sticking all the extra bits on (as helpfully suggested by Mr Street...) before painting them!

Dolgan Raiders: No Brain Wagon Train

The Dolgan Raiders project trundles on - much like the Hobgoblin Caravan, pulled by their lobotomised slave Ogres, who are the subject of today's post!

Dolgan Raiders: Steppe this Way

Caravan.

The word evokes mystery, romance and travel - half remembered tales of Marco Polo and all the riches of the exotic East, accompanied by the almost hypnotic and sultry melodies of Duke Ellington's masterpiece of the same name...

That is unless you've spent a rainy weekend in Skegness in one or you're preparing to play the Hobgoblin side in the Dolgan Raiders scenario...

Dolgan Raiders: A Lesser of Evils

So, like a lot of you, I imagine, I find myself with plenty of time on my hands! So much that there's certainly no excuse not to fire the old blog up again. As well as a certain little virus, this post also owes an awful lot to a couple of fellow Oldhammerers for very different reasons...

BOYL 2015: A Journey to the East

So - better late than never eh?!

My excuse - Unfortunately the months after BOYL 2015 saw my spare time  and the amount of energy I had for what spare time was left sorely lacking. Back then we were busy juggling every day life with trying to sell our house in York, buy one in the Lake District and work out how we were going to earn a living.

Anyhow - more of that in another post as I have all sorts of news to share. For now I'm just going to knock this report on the head and give you a brief account of the game so I can clear the decks for 2016.

 I inherited this particular game from fellow Oldhammerer Richard, who decided that just playing a game set in the endless steppes of the Warhammer world wasn't enough - he buggered off to Mongolia to experience it for himself and even get some wargaming in there too!

As I was now in charge I came up with a bit of a back story that fitted in around my Hobgoblin army and as that army was getting pretty big, I decided to make it one big objective for the other players to tackle how they saw fit.

Unfortunately as it's been so long I'm a bit hazy on several of the players names (apologies - if you read this feel free to enlighten me in my ignorance in the comments below!).

The warbands included an Ogre Warlord (sorry - forgot your name!) hot in pursuit of a treacherous former lackey who had upped and left for the East, taking with him the boss's favourite cleaver! They were reinforced by some Steppe Horsemen - kindly provided by Golgfag.

It Khan be done!

If you put your mind to it...

As BOYL 2015 approaches ever nearer, I look upon my pile of primed (and in some cases - bare lead) miniatures and despair. There is rather a lot to do before the big weekend but all is not lost.

Thank God for the Summer holidays!

As I am now a man of leisure, I have been able to lavish a considerably larger amount of time on painting this past week and these are the results - most of my Hobgoblin army!

First off is a small unit of Hobyars - the elite of the Hobgoblin army, they are made of Nomadic nobles and their retainers.

A Journey to the East

As BOYL 2015 looms ever larger on the horizon, I've been having a think about how the Journey to the East game might look on the table top.

To start with I've come up with some background for my Hobgoblin Warlord and his army -

All in all, Warlord Vidhal Timotei had had a very profitable campaigning season. Having absconded from the ranks of the Mournghul Horde and stabbed all his rivals in the back, Timotei had led his small army south from the Steppe, up into the Mountains of Mourn. From a lofty viewpoint in those inhospitable peaks, he led his savage Hobgoblin warriors in raid after raid against the hapless caravans that plied the Great Silk Road.

Many hounds are the death of the hare

And many hounds are what I now have - although they'll probably be more interested in Dwarf, Human or Elf as a snack to hare!

An old Bugbear of mine...

Or rather six of the big buggers!

I've had these irascible chaps in my collection for a while yet but no clear idea as to what I might do with them, other than a little dungeoneering perhaps. They will no doubt be appearing down some murky tunnels some time in the future, however, I was rather pleased that they'd fit right in on a Journey to the East with my Hobgoblins.

The Mighty Throgg and his Hobgoblin Despoilers of the Darklands

My Hobgoblin army has been receiving some attention in preparation for BOYL 2015 and it's all about monopose loveliness this morning with Throgg's Despoiling Hobgoblins - not sure how you can despoil the Darklands as they're already in a pretty parlous state but there you go...

Machineries of Destruction

Ahh Machineries of Destruction!

If da Boyz are the main stay of a Warlord's horde then these infernal contraptions are the Big Guns!

In Old Cathay did Hobgobla Khan...

... a call to arms and raiding decree.

Enough with the butchering of Coleridge's great poem Kubla Khan and onto another project I have lined up for 2015 and specifically Chico's Goblinoid Outcasts game he has planned for BOYL 2015.