Captain's Blog

Just some idea of other games available at the club.

Saturday January 17th was the first Lardy Day - Fèves au Lard at the Abyss put on by the Montreal Historical Wargaming Club. Only Games from Too Fat Lardies were played. Six games in total. Three tables from 11AM to 2 PM and another 3 matches in a 2nd session from 3PM to 6PM. In the morning I took part in a game of Midgard (Romans vs Goths) and in the afternoon I  commanded the Union forces in a game of Picket's Charge.

Dec 13th 1862, along the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad.

Somewhere in Gaul

Other games played were two games of Sharpe's Practice, and another two sessions of Chain of Command, 

Sharpe's Practice 1830s French Foreign Legion in North Africa

Another view of the Action

Sharpe's Practice AWI

Chain of Command Game

 Yesterday I received bases for the supply wagons for my Prussian Army. In 2022 I backed Tundraworks Lace Wars kickstarter project. For my reward, I picked the Prussian Army. At the same time I ordered some extra figures from AB Figures to fill out the troops. These wagons are from that lot. Slow and steady will win the race.

AB Figures Supply Wagons 7YW

The next Saga night in Montreal is Jan 22nd at the Abyss and one of the themes is Age of Invasions. These troops were painted by Garry of the Scarlet Lancer Painting Service late in 2024. They have yet to surface on the tabletop. When I asked him to paint the figures I ensured that the units had enough figures to be included in either a Lion Rampant  or Dragon Rampant game (12 figure units vs 8 figure for Saga). 

Mounted General

12 Mounted Warriors

12 Man Levy Archers

12 Man Levy Javelin Unit, 2 units of Warriors (12 figures available for each)

Some Late Roman Artilley I painted years ago

In the box I stll have two more units to paint. one unit of Levy Slingers and one unit of Archers. I suspect these will be good candidates for the current Analogure Hobbies Painting Challenge.

 Something I swore never to do was to fall down the 15mm Cold War rabbit hole. However early last month a sale on FB marketplace caught my eye and here I am. Late this afternoon twenty Soviet vehicles arrived in the mail. UPS will be delivering the NORTHAG Rulebook and the CENTAG Supplement tomorrow. 

T-54s

ISU - 122

ISU - 130

IS-3s

The WILLS box in the background is a box the cat likes to curl up in. Wills Brewery and Bar are a local success story with their craft beers.

My first entry for the 2026 Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge are twenty Gallic Warriors. This is a unit purchase from Black Tree Design that has been sitting in my pile of lead for somehere between 15 and 20 years. The unit deals, and even the Gauls are no longer available on the BTD website.

20 x 28mm BTD Gaul - Warriors

These are an easy additional to my SAGA Gallic Warband but are displayed here on prototype movement trays for a concept test for Infamy Infamy. Graham, a fellow gamer here in Montreal created these 3D prints for use with Sharpe's Practice. 

On New Year's Eve I discovered I had no shields for these figures, which I imagine are lost in the mists of time. I placed an order to Warlord Games for shields that I hope will work with these figures. I ordered a unit of 16 Javelinmen at the same time. 

On the 27th I was at the Abyss for a game of Sharpe's Practice. This was a play test of a scenario for the upcoming Fèves au Lard, the first-ever “Lardy Day” in Montréal, which will be held on January 17th, 2026. Graham took the opportunity to delivery to me the first figures from the following 

MTB02 - French Army - French and Indian Wars pack.

I received the first 7 Franches Marines painted

The French Army contains of the following 

1x Compagnies Franches Officer

1x Compagnies Franches de la Marines unit (8 figures)

2x Indian Units (one 4 figures, one 6 figures)

2x Canadian Militia Units (Two 6 figure units)

 Yesterday afternoon I went to the Abyss to play my second game of Clash of Spears. The dice gods were not with me and my opponent and his Carthagians suffered a major victory at the hands of my dice. 

Luis and our armies early in the game.

However since I had to pop open the Warband it seemed appropiate to record it on my blog.

The overhead view after the carnage. I had lost half my figures, including two complete units. Luis might  have lost 3 Figures by this point in the game.

The three circular command units on my side were from the rebasing of my WRG Greeks for ADLG.

Command Elements

10 Warriors - Pike, LTS shield - Unarmored

6 Javelin men with Shield

Ranks of Armoured Pike, LTS with Shield - 16 figures in total

Greek Light Cavalry - Shield no armour - 8 figures

Archers - Should be w/o shield - 8 Figures

SAGA General on Foot with Four Hearth Guard

 IMO Alternative Armies offers some fantastic deals to help boost your 15mm DBA armies into the world of HOTT.  In one case, the HOTT1022 Evil Japanese Mythic Army offers a total fantasy army in itself, instead of the Epic Japanese Army listed in the rule book. I found the army sitting in a storage box that it shared with the HOTT1023 Xmas Army. The Christmas army came out of the living room window this morning, and the Japanese came out of the box. This post will only contain the figures that were started and never completed. The Goblins, and Oni will be presented after they have been entered into the Analogue Painting Challenge. 

HOTT1022 Evil Japanese Mythic Army Consists of

Warband (General) @ 2AP 1 (3 Centipede Demons) (D1) SGF30 Centipede Body with SGF39 Snake Head

Lurkers @ 1AP 1 (3 Kappa) (C1) SGF11,12,15 Kappas 

Warband (General) - Centipede Demons and Lurkers (Kappa)

Warband @ 2AP 1 (4 Snake Devils) (D1) SGF31 Snake Body with SGF36 Human Body with Sword (2) and  SGF32 Snake Body with SGF38 Human Body with Sword (2)

Snake Devil Warbands

Behemoth @ 4AP 2 (2 Oni Ogres) (B2) SGF04 Oni, SGF05 Oni, SGF06 Oni, each with two creatures

Shooters @ 2AP 2 (4 Goblins) (D2)

Spears @ 2AP 2 (4 Goblins) (E2)

Sneakers @ 3AP 1 (3 Rokurokubi) (D1) SGF23 Rokurokubi (3)

William and I played two games of DBA 2.2 yesterday afternoon. A great way to end the year. It has been a while since I had the troops out on the table. First match was a Western Cho Other Chinese Army (I/32C) vs Mongol Conquest (IV/35). 

First Clash

 

The Cho Victorious

The 2nd match was two Chinese armies (2x I/32C) vs Mongols (IV/35) and Seljuq Turks (III/74). William had the first victory of the day and I the final. Our second game involved a river crossing, his choice of the terrain.. The Mongols found out the hard way you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them cross the river.

Played on the Steppes, the terrain was very minimalistic. We had the river, a hill and a rocky patch. The Steppes was a GF9 Flames of War gaming mat, and the river was by Armourcast. The figures were mostly 15mm Essex Miniatures. 

Thursday night was the first time in almost a year that I had my Norman Warband in action. Since they were readily available  I was able to photograph the units for the Blog. The Calvary were Black Tree Design Miniatures that I repurposed for SAGA. They were originally based for DBX games. The figures of Bishop Odo and William the Conqueror are from Footsore Miniatures and Games. The remaining infantry are from various manufacturers. Some were purchased 10 or 12 years ago and I simply don't remember where they were from.  

Bishop Odo and William the Conqueror

Hearth Guard

Mounted Norman Warriors

Two units of Norman Warriors on Foot

Levy Bowmen

Levy Spearmen

Levy Slingers - I need 4 more