Open Combat Part 1. Or "I Miss Realms of Chaos"

A couple of weeks ago I came across this Kickstarter for a set of flexible rules for fighting pre-gunpowder battles and it grabbed my attention. After toying with the idea of getting the book I eventually settled on buying the pdf first to see what it was like...

You should buy this

My initial impressions of it are very positive. The rules are clear and well explained with plenty of worked examples and diagrams as well as some lovely photographs of example battles. While I've decided that I don't need a physical copy of the book as it's a very small document that I can easily use from my tablet its definately a game that has grabbed my attention. From listening to the interviews with Carl Brown (it's creator) on Fools Daily he sounds very keen to add micro expansions that will flesh out of the system by adding magic or period specific rules or other lovely details. I doubt it will be a game I play as a "primary game" but it is a good excuse to paint some warbands and recapture the old days of Realms of Chaos! You should go buy it, the pdf is £7 here.

I've thrown about a lot of plans for different warbands and those are what I really want to talk about today. The wonderful thing about these small skirmish style games is that a warband rarely comes to more than 10 figures meaning they make great painting and modelling projects using models I would otherwise never get to use.

I miss this so much

My first idea was a sort of undead band of Romans using the Godslayer range. Unfortunately Monolith Games' Mortan figures are pretty ropey and difficult to get hold of in the UK. I considered whether I could find a suitable robed priest or senator to use as a general and then get some Warlord legionnaires that I could mix with GW Vampire Counts skeleton bits. At some point in the future I'd like to find a reason to paint a small Roman force.  The models are lovely and the history really appeals to me. Lucky I don't really know any historical gamers so the temptation is easily ignored.

Not pictured: Real ale and aran jumpers

Then I thought about doing a Celtic band led by a bloodstained druid using a combination of Circle Oberos models and Warlord celts. This is a combination of wanting to try painting tartan along with wanting to use my new GW blood effect paint. I doubt this will ever see daylight.  I don't need a third WM/H faction.

The safest method of restraining gamers

In the end I settled on an old fashioned Nurgle chaos warrior band. I've got a few figures already that I kept when I sold my Warhammer army as well as plenty of bits for kitbashing. A quick rummage through eBay threw up this guy that I'm pretty sure is actually from Warhammer Quest and worth much more than £6. I also bought this and this from Reaper Bones because I wanted a few monsters in there too. After a quick rummage through my stash I found around half a dozen suitable figures that I'd forgotten I owned. Keep a bitsbox was the best piece of advice I was ever given as a gamer (well, apart from measure all your body parts but most games allow pre-measuring now!).

So I'm pretty excited.  I've got a plan for how I want it to look that involves channeling the TWF Grime Crew to cover them in pus, dirt and rust. I've mentioned my screaming fanboy love of John Blanche and this seems like a great chance to indulge it.

Yep, that picture again.

I'm going to end with an appeal to my loyal readers (yes, both of you!). If you know where I can lay my hands on any of the old Realm of Chaos figures from the Chaos Warrior or Plaguebearer ranges please let me know. Especially if you've got any you'd sell for cheap...

I promise I'll write more frequently in future. Though I can't promise It won't be Warmachine again!