five leagues from the borderlands

Miniatures, skirmish games, Uncategorized

Fantasy Skirmish: Setting Yourself Free

For a lot of us middle-aged wardolly junkies, Mordheim was the Alpha and the Omega of wargaming when it hit in 1999. The art design defined what Grimdark meant without losing that whimsical edge that made it great. Playing with a dozen minis meant you could get a warband together in a good weekend of hobbying. It was also built off of (I think) Fourth Edition Warhammer Fantasy Rules, so it was easy enough to learn one if you knew the other.

*Todd, a respectable demon lord, and his personal Valet, Timothy.*

And then, like most great things, it disappeared, unloved and scorned by its creator, like the Creature when Victor decides to cast the wretch out to pursue other endeavors.

I’ve been chasing Mordheim now for over a quarter century. The rules set feels a little antiquated now, and while there are modern contenders to the game, I’m not smitten by any of them in the same way.

*A desperate thug tries to sneak up on an unwary magician*

Necromunda is pretty great in its modern incarnation, but I really don’t want to have to carry around half a library worth of books to get a game in. One Page Rules is fun, but a little too simple for what I want to sink my teeth in to. Frostgrave and Five Leagues from the Borderlands both come much closer to what I’m looking for, but I’m still struggling to find that Goldilocks system that works just right for me.

So, I think I’m just going to have to write it out myself. Something that bridges that gap between crunchiness and simplicity, allows some customization, and, most importantly, is miniature agnostic.

*A group of barbarians in search of a hot bath…*

I’ll be starting with a Witch Hunter warband, using the ideas I have in my head to get the classic warband on the table. I have plenty of figures to build out a good roster, and that’ll help me get more of my Paint What You Got challenge figures finished.

At first, I was a little daunted about base size, since I’ll be using some modern Warhammer minis in this warband, and they have larger bases. Then I realized that I’m not bound to those restraints, as I’m working my own forge now. So, the first step in setting myself free is setting those minis free. Goodbye, lovely decorative but overly large bases, and hello 25mm classics!

I’ll be mashing up some classic GW sprues with some modern classics from the Frostgrave range, which should allow me to have some fun with the warbands.

Next up, I’ll share some of the ideas I have for the mechanics, because why not? They’re not entirely mine, but after 40 years of gaming I have a billion game systems in my head that I am going to openly pillage.

Now we’ll see how long this conviction lasts, I could do almost all of this with the 5x from x system and be just as happy!

Miniatures, skirmish games, Workbench

15mm Wargaming: Chaos Cultist Possessed

Turning my frantic eye back to 15mm scale gaming for a bit, I’ve decided I would like to get one warband finished up for 15mm Mordheim. These minis would also work great for Frostgrave and Five Leagues from the Borderlands!

The first thing I wanted to tackle was a big possessed brute for a chaos warband, and this queen pretty much settles all scores, right? She’s hulking big, with lots of tentacles, teeth, and a little sneaky nudity for good measure.

I have one or two more possessed to finish up, and some Undead to plow through as well, but we’re off and truly running, and I couldn’t be happier!

I am also planning on getting some pretty elaborate terrain finished up for these warbands! The nice thing with this scale is 2′ by 2′ is going to give you all the gaming surface you need, and you can really go mad with kitbashing buildings, too!

Miniatures, skirmish games

Fantasy Skirmish: Dwarf Heavy Infantry

The goal throughout 2025, for my fantasy skirmish miniatures, at least, is to get my dwarf army finished up and ready for multiple different games, especially Kings of War, Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, and Oathmark, and to have cool individual models that would work well as NPCs or skirmishers for smaller games like Mordheim, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, and Frostgrave.

These Heavy Dwarf Infantry models from Northstar Miniature’s Oathmark range are fantastic, they capture the classic feel of fantasy dwarfs without breaking the bank. There’s a lot of detail in these models, and considering you can get 30 of these duders for less than $40 US, you really start to wonder why people are spending so much money on monopose models from the industry powerhouse.

I also took the time to touch up a medium infantry archer, who will probably be a leader of a skirmish unit, as I want to use light infantry for the dwarf archer regiments that I’m building.

I’m also trying to spend my hobby money on smaller companies’ products, since the gaming ecosphere has been pretty much consumed by one company. Don’t get me wrong, I love that company’s products, but they’ll be fine if I spend less with them and help support these smaller games!

Miniatures, Workbench

One Scale to Rule them All

I have a problem. It’s not quite all consuming, yet… but I am finding myself more and more drawn to a philosophical conundrum that I’m afraid will never resolve itself in my mind.

That conundrum? I want to find my “Goldilocks” scale in miniature wargames. I am primarily a painter, and will more likely than not drop a smoke bomb and disappear into the ether if confronted with an actual game. So, the age-old adage that smaller (than GW) scaled minis won’t work for me doesn’t quite apply. I really don’t mind if most of the people I hang out with in the hobby sphere only game in Heroic 28mm scale, since I hardly play games in the first place!

Lately, the thought of smaller scale miniatures has been really appealing to me. They take up a lot less space, and there are plenty of options out there to fill out just about any genre for a collection. Sure, I can’t really put together an Age of Sigmar list from most of the options out there, but I can do plenty of fantasy stuff!

Now, the biggest question ends up being which scale works for me? With that in mind, I worked on four dwarf minis in different scales:

From left to right we have a 10mm, 15mm, and 20mm Dwarf from Forest Dragon Miniatures. The stalwart chap on the right is a standard GW Beardie Boy, which I have a metric butt-load of at the moment.

The classic Heroic 28s look great, have tons of detail, and are a lot of fun to paint. But they DO take up a bit of space, and they take some time to paint up, especially if you’re putting together regiment sized collections of figs.

20mm minis had me pretty pumped up for about a week, since they translate to roughly 72nd scale in models there are a lot of cool scenery and terrain options, just not much for fantasy. They also paint up a bit faster than the 28mm figs, but not so much faster that they have a clear advantage. Also, while taking up less room than the GW figs, it’s not that much less room!

Now, I have to be really honest right now. I’m already a sucker for 15mm, which you can see above. They’re small enough that they don’t take up much space, terrain is also pretty small, but they’re still big enough that they have a good amount of detail! Plus, they paint up pretty quickly because of the size. Downsides are that they are small enough that I’m concerned about eye strain, but at least I’ll go blind doing something constuctive!

the less said about 10mm the better, this scale broke my brain. Cool as hell to see put together in a battalion, but at 55 my eyes and hands just aren’t up to that challenge. I might come back to it later, because it’s really tempting from a storage perspective, but I did not enjoy the experience one bit!

My personal favorite after all of this comes down to 15mm! There’s a ton of options available, and I just love how a group of troops looks massed together. This group of Dwarf hunters would work well for just about any skirmish game, and I’ll be back in a bit with some tips on how to put together a group for rank and flank games!

What’s your favorite scale to work with? Let me know in the comments!