MicroKoW- the first game

My opponent and I played our first game of 10mm Kings of War on Tuesday night with 1000 fully painted points apiece. The game played smoothly- the reduced size didn't feel at all fiddly, and I really enjoyed it, despite losing pretty comprehensively to Tim's orcs!

Micro-KoW progress

Have added a bit more to the 10mm Kings of War army. Nearly at 1000 points, which is the minimum required for a decent game I think.

MicroKoW - Beast of War

One of the great things I'm finding about 10mm is how quickly individual things can be done. If I'm very disciplined and I know exactly what I'm doing I can get a 28mm regiment done in an evening, but more often the task will spread across two or three evenings. With 10mm, just about any unit you can think of can be thrown together in an hour or two. If it doesn't work, you haven't wasted much time, and as like as not you've wasted very little money also.

Today I took a tiny plastic dinosaur, chopped a lump out of his back, scratched off his mouldlines, glued a tiny wooden 'house' boardgame piece to his back as a sort of roofed howdah, added cardboard straps and a couple of tiny card shields, and then painted him up. Cost nothing, more or less, and is a pleasingly retro addition to my army. My heart is always warmed by the sight of a reappropriated toy dinosaur on a wargames table.

Review- MDF Wizard's Tower from Supreme Littleness

About a week and a half ago I ordered an MDF kit from Supreme Littleness, and it arrived today. The kit I ordered is the Wizard's Tower from the 10mm fantasy range. It arrived in a decently compact little package like this, in a jiffy bag. I only have two (very minor) complaints about the kit, and the first is the packaging. the MDF sheet is quite fragile and was very slightly broken in transit. Luckily it snapped through an area of 'spare' MDF, not through an actual part of the kit, but an extra piece of corrugated card in the envelope would have been welcome. Bonus points for the big Ziploc bag- those things are super useful!

The second (again, minor) complaint about the kit was the lack of instructions. I am a bear of little brain, and it took me a little while to figure out how things were supposed to go together, but once I'd cracked it it was pretty simple. Again, a quick line drawing packaged with the kit would have been appreciated for dimbos like me.

The quality of the cutting and the design are absolutely excellent- the pieces fit together beautifully. Part of the kit is supplied as laser cut card which I was initially sceptical about, but the design ensures that these areas are unlikely to risk being bent or buckled, and the texture is wonderfully stonelike, and drybrushes beautifully. The card parts are also much thinner, which mitigates the 'I'M MADE FROM MDF' look that so many MDF kits have. The construction is concealed in a way that I think hides the fact that it's made from MDF very well. 

I heartily recommend this kit, especially for the price of £5. I may well be taking a closer look at their castle in the future...

Micro-KoW first units

Having been very busy this week I've only made a small dent in the pile of lovely tiny metal chaps that landed on my doormat his week. here are what I've painted up so far. They aren't particularly attractive up close, but they're not designed to be- They'll look best when there are lots of them , and are viewed at gaming distance. The sculpts are really great. Here are a regiment of spears (Kessian City guard in my army- their heraldry indicates them to be the third regiment of Kessian Houseguard, one rung below the King's personal bodyguard) and a mounted Wizard- who looks more than a little familiar. I've yet to name him, but some sort of reference to the fellow in grey seems in order. Stormcrow perhaps? The trebuchet is a plastic component from a Dungeons and Dragons boardgame- I bought 6 from a chap on eBay for £3 posted. The scale was advertised as 10mm, but I think it would do admirably for anywhere from 2mm to 6mm, and just strains believability a little at 10mm. Small field pieces of this size did exist in history, but I feel the wheels would be larger, if such a small piece had wheels at all. I'm considering adding a small abutting base with a couple of crew and ammunition on it.

10mm Kings of War- board and scenery

Kings of War is probably my favourite wargame- it's certainly the one I play the most. I and a few friends are going to experiment with an idea lots of people have had over the years- converting KoW to a smaller scale. There are lots of reasons to do this: portability; cost; ease of doing really BIG battles. As KoW is element based, it's eminently suited to the idea.

We're going to scale everything down by a division of 2.54, which sounds arbitrary, but it means that inches become centimetres, and movement and range stats stay as they are with no mental arithmetic- you just have to remember to look at the other side of the tape measure!

I've ordered some miniatures (more of which when they arrive) but in the meantime I've knocked up a little set of terrain and scenery, and a board to put them on. The board is the scaled down equivalent of a standard 6'x4' table, so it's 72x48cm. I used 18mm MDF. The hills are 12mm MDF, which means a 'height 1' hill is near-as-dammit the same height as 'height 1' infantry. All were painted with a single £1.49 tester pot of Homebase 'Village Green' emulsion. Very happy with the shade.

I've gone for a clean and simple look- clarity is paramount at such a small scale, and it's a look I like.

The trees are scrunched paper towels, soaked in dilute PVA and stuck to 8mm dowels, mounted on pennies. The 'forest' floor is Efco green felt sheet. The river and lake are also Efco felt sheet- it's thick, lies flat and has an agreeably mottled colour.

The tower was made from an empty salt pot, part of a broken toy mirror and part of a biro lid. You can see I've sanded the salt pot prior to painting.

All in all a satisfactory set with minimal outlay of time, money or effort.

Now I just need an army...