Burrows & Badgers – Painting & Gaming

Inspired by the new Oathsworn Journal I thought I’d have a tinker with a small game that could be played by Burrows & Badgers fans called Tavern Brawl.

I should note that yes, I am aware that a tavern brawl scenario exists in The Warren Percy Affair campaign by Oathsworn. Michael has clearly done a more in-depth job that works really well for the campaign but this is my simple pop at it, “designed” to be a very casual experience.

I also designed this a few years ago now and there could be special rules, skills and more that would work better in this. Please, let me know if there is something that would suit you.

This isn’t a fair set of rules and it will very much not go your way more often than not. If you’re an uber-competitive wargamer then I probably wouldn’t recommend this. I have still tried to make it balanced in some areas but it will most certainly break and I’m open to ideas from the community.

Burrows & Badgers – Tavern Brawl

Without further ado, here are the rules (I hasten to add there is a lot of work to be done probably) for Tavern Brawl.

• 2-4 Players
• Each player picks a gang of Three Beasts
• NO Massive Beasts
• Each gang member is considered to be an Unarmed Fighter
• Rules that apply to each Beast still remain (Strong, Tough, Delicate etc)
• You buy NO additional items/armour/weapons (your gear was taken at the door)
• In addition, there are a few rules which help make things a little fairer for all involved as this is a multiplayer free-for-all!
• No bonuses for Outnumbering if you have opposing gang members around your target
• Bonuses are only given for having your own gang around a target.
• This doesn’t mean you can’t work together to take someone down!
• The Core Rules of Burrows & Badgers run throughout so when in doubt, use those

This is going to get very chaotic very soon so make sure that you keep in mind that you want the game to tick over nicely.

• Played on a small board (enough to accommodate the number of players and beasts)
• Include plenty of difficult terrain which affects everyone
• Fight until there is ONE gang left standing
• Initiative is decided as per normal with a roll-off going from highest to lowest
• HOWEVER – The highest roller can decide where in the turn they want to activate
• After TURN FOUR the Badger Bouncer* wades through the tavern door!
• They attack anyone close to them and keep fighting until taken down or takes everyone out

It all sounds pretty simple, right? Well, I hope so and it would be fun to see how this works for everyone out there. Maybe you can already see some problems with the rules? I’m sure I intended for it to be that unfair.

Well, making it even more unfair is the Tavern Brawl Table! At the start of each turn, you’ll roll a d10 to see what unfortunate (or fortunate) event triggers as the brawl gets out of hand.

• Just Keep Fighting – Nothing Of Note
• My Drink Was Spiked – A random fighter from a gang becomes Stunned
• You’re My Best Mate – Randomly choose a brawl in progress – those fighters now consider themselves allies!
• Glass The Fool! – One member of each gang grabs beer steins and starts throwing (counts as throwing knives) for one turn
• I Spy Gold! – A random gang member’s purse splits open and is fair game. +2 to Strike Roll Offs against that beast!
• Hold On, I Need A Drink – One member of each gang can down a pint and heal d6 wounds
• I Didn’t Say Anything! – Add an innocent beast to the centre of the tavern who “insulted” a random gang member (you must attack him this turn if you can!)
• The Barkeep’s Boon** – A random gang member gains the luck of the tavern owner (he bonks someone on the head) and gains a re-roll this turn
• You Call That A Knife! – A chest appears on the random table with a double-handed weapon inside (anyone can pick it up)
• What Did You Feed Him! – A random fighter from a gang becomes Fearsome

When it comes to elements like the “I Didn’t Say Anything!” event, just pick a random miniature from your collection (preferably someone civilian looking without a weapon) and add them into the mix. Also, make sure to re-roll if an event happens twice in a row!

As I mentioned above, these rules will no doubt make things very interesting indeed and throw the game out of balance. So be it, it is a tavern brawl after all!

I have tried this game out once (so, this is very new) and it worked (sort of). It needs tweaking but if anyone has any ideas I’d love to read them in the comments down below. Remember to keep it simple!

*I would recommend the Slave Badger from the Burrows & Badgers range.

**Maybe use the Hare Barkeep in your games!

Find out more on my Blog.

Got some time this weekend on stream (can follow me HERE) to finish off this Hare Warrior and Mist-ghast – models both old and new from Burrows & Badgers.

I think that the fleshshade I used on the armour here worked as a cheap way to do rust and worn armour. Overall, I think both models came out quite well!

I am very tempted to pick up a few more Burrows & Badgers miniatures just because – although I think painting up the Slave Badger would be a good kit to do in this more grimdark look.

I know the blood effect on the sword doesn’t look perfect but I think it works to make the Hare look that little bit more dangerous.

I am very much looking forward to seeing what other Mist-ghast figures Oathsworn have lined up for their Kickstarter that might be landing in October.

I thought I would pick up another miniature from Burrows & Badgers and try a different style of paint job on it, one which is a bit more grimdark.

I still started with a Wraithbone undercoat as I find it easier to see the details on the miniature compared to undercoating the miniatures in black. This then led me to work on choosing the right colours for this Hare and Mist-ghast.

After about an hour and a half I got them to this position. The Hare has all of his fur finished and the start of the bronze armour in the works. Shortly after this, I washed the miniature but I’ll come back to that as part of my live stream on Sunday (give me a follow HERE!).

The Mist-ghast was also painted up with some darker colours with grey for its ruined tabard followed by regular iron/steel for the chainmail and such. You’ve also got the darker bone in there too.

All of this will get highlighted up away from the Nuln Oil eventually and then I’m going to work on doing the green balefire for the miniature which should provide a wonderful contrast to the undead miniature.

I am then going to play around with some rust effects using a flesh tone wash AND also see about adding some blood to the sword of the Hare to make it feel extra grimdark.

So, I thought it would be neat to try my hand at painting up the bust I got from Oathsworn Miniatures at a gaming event last year. Here it is base coated…

…and here it is after it has been washed and then painstakingly highlighted and tweaked whilst I was on stream!

I have never painted a bust before but I think it came out quite well! I really need to work out a way to hold one of these without touching the bust!

I thought I’d snap the final two miniatures I painted from the collection (for now). They are aptly two Mice which is more or less how I started with the game/range.

First up is this Mouse Highlander who I am rather proud of. I think I’ll call him Thistle.

Then, we have the Mouse Battledancer which I was kindly sent my Oathsworn Miniatures as I forgot to include her in my recent order!

I think I’ll be calling her Osha.

So there we have it…for now. I think I’ll tinker around with the wagon some more soon but currently, it’s sitting half-finished.

The call of Star Wars is strong right now haha.

The last few miniatures have been added into the collection now and I’ve finally painted everything Burrows & Badgers I own (bar a few terrain pieces etc). So, I thought I’d show off the basing technique for the models again.

First up, you’ve got the ashy/tundra texture which goes on as a base for the base.

Then, once that has dried, I work in some grass which is spread out in patches across the model’s base.

This also helps to hide some of the places where the tundra mix hasn’t quite worked and shows off the obvious joins between the miniature and the base. It also helps fill in those gaps in the slotta bases too.

Finally, each of the miniatures gets a few flowers, a bit of greenery and tall grass to make it feel less flat and also give the miniatures some scale.

This then works for all of the miniatures in the collection and the flowers help to give them all a nice bright feel. Even though the world of Burrows & Badgers is quite dark, the miniatures for me have always been about brightness and vibrancy, breaking me away from greens and browns and I think the flowers help.

So, here they all are. The final selection of finished miniatures with all of their bases complete.

This fellow is the leader of the Stoatbart family and is looking to protect their cargo from bandits!

You’ll also be glad to know that I have started work painting the wagon above…although it’s not in as many pictures as Lloyds!

It needs a lot more work but it should come together very nicely. Then I just need to work on the cargo which came with the set and we’re good to go.