Conan Adventures

I have been picking up some miniatures from Lucid Eye and Fenris Games so I can bulk out my Sword & Sorcery collection for playing games using By My Sword and the like.

For example, I got some of the Lucid Eye Amazons and have been painting them up this week…

They are missing their shields at the moment but they are on the way. Going to be the same gold as their armour.

Following on from that, I also picked up a set of miniatures from Fenris and going to be using these for a scenario or two.

Got a character to lead the Amazonians coming soon alongside some Aquilonian troops from the Lucid Eye range that would fit really nicely. Then it might be a few beasts like giant apes, wolves, bears etc.

For those interested in getting a look at the rules but wanting to download them in a different format, I spent a couple of hours making the rules look a bit nicer. I have two versions, one without the textured background and another plush one…

This entire endeavour today has been a lesson in saving as you go. I spent about an hour building the first version of this only for the software to crash…

Conan Vs Great Ape by Esteban Maroto

As much as I like Might & Melee from Wiley Games, this also felt like a good opportunity for me to try out some simple rules writing for myself. To that end, I made “By My Sword…” which is a set of solo and cooperative rules for Sword & Sorcery skirmish wargaming.

I have thought of easy enough versus rules with two Bands Of Companions but for now, I wanted it to be a shared “we’re having a badass time” affair.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OKPUELk5q8u7LeRjxHV-VzQRhgmLYJux_EMif4hRHkA/edit?usp=sharing

I’ve gone through and done a bit of tweaking here and there but the idea is that this is a “one page wargame” style affair. The core rules are meant to go on a double-sided piece of paper with the extra rules for Scenarios and Terrible Foes there as colour.

I think it works pretty well for what it is but if you have questions, ask me in the comments below. I’m not intending to over complicate this and anything else added to the game rules will end up being bonus material.

Next step is to get the details trimmed down so that they are easily readable (and there’s not much repetition) so I can get it onto a nice PDF which will pretty everything up.

Let me know your thoughts…

…and here we have the warband for the Necromancer, tweaked a little bit to make it fit with the idea of them summoning a whole bunch of undead servants. The Regulars have been replaced by Rabble/Minions who are all shambling undead. The idea is to have a powerful undead Necromancer and his sneaky, backstabbing servant.

Vezis (Leader)
*Leader
Spellcaster
– Control Undead
– Grasping Dead
– Song Of The Dead
– Iron Bones
Cold Blooded
9 Lives

Staff
Spellbook

Yeghor (Sergeant)
Spellcaster
– Withering Touch
– Bone Splinter
Quick
Slippery
Coward

Staff

3x Skeletons (Rabble)
Soulless & Brittle

Bow
Spear
Sword
2x Shields

3x Skeletons (Rabble)
Soulless & Brittle

Bow
Spear
Sword
2x Shields

3x Skeletons (Rabble)
Soulless & Brittle

Bow
Spear
Sword
2x Shields

Here is my first punt at Conan’s Warband that I’ll use for the solo campaign I want to run using these miniatures. It used Might & Melee, the Fantasy spin-off to Fistful Of Lead which uses the same core rules but tweaked for Fantasy combat.

Conan (Leader)
Leader (Gets This For Free)
Tough As Nails
Flurry Of Blows
Master Of Melee

Two-Handed Sword
Dagger

Casinda (Sergeant)
Spellcaster
– Healing Hand
– Enchant Weapon
– Haste
Sixth Sense

Staff
Spellbook

Olumah (Regular)
Deadeye

Bow
Throwing Knife

Reza (Regular)
Stealthy

Bow
Dagger

Kostor (Regular)
Thundering Charge

Mace
Dagger
Shield

This gives me a good starting point for the game and, as you can see, it only uses a handful of miniatures to start playing the game. You can choose their traits and equipment and theme things to match the story you want to tell.

Randomly, I also wanted to say that I recently watched Conan The Barbarian (2011) and whilst I think the film has little to no story and it meanders all over the place, Jason Momoa is actually a pretty good Conan. He has the lithe, pantherish style of Conan from the books and comics and can actually string more than two words together…

I sort of wish the storyline had been better and the characters had had more space to grow. It feels like Momoa’s Conan could have been great as part of a TV show rather than a movie.

Still, something to think about!

I was originally contemplating the idea of using the Wargames Atlantic skeletons as the foes that I would put Conan and friends against. However, I have started to change my thinking after reading that recent run of Conan comics. I quite like the Oathmark skeletons and characters…

I think the miniatures work better in terms of their style. The Wargames Atlantic skeletons are good but I think I might get more fun out of these miniatures and find them fitting the theme a little more.

I also really like the spellcasters from the metal set mentioned above. I think they, once again, look more Hyborean and Conan-esque. These might be on the list once September rolls around.

The Barbaria campaign also came with a bunch of additional miniatures to help build a warband for your games, be they Frostgrave or something else. In this case, these miniatures will form Zamoran allies who are from the local area and also want to bring down this terrible warlock/necromancer and his undead legion.

Again, the process here was to have some fun with something different miniatures-wise and I think the fleshtones worked quite well once again. I also liked that I got to play around with four different colours for their clothing.

The idea is that they will be additional companions for Conan and his Sorceress friend. Not full characters but “basic” warband members who will be able to help even the odds against the legions of skeletons that I intend on throwing against these folks.

The miniatures are slowly coming together for this little project. It’s a bit of a side project next to my Warhammer armies but it’s fun to have something different to work on that could make a small “game in a box” style adventure for my friends.

The Red Box Games’ Kickstarter featured some allies for Conan. So, I took the Sorceress from the set and decided she would make a great ally for Conan to have whilst he is battling against whatever foe has been summoned force by an evil warlock.

My idea is that I’ll explore the “subtle” magic of the world of Conan. It’s there but not quite fireballs and lightning bolts like you’d expect in a Fantasy tale.

I think that scenario-wise, she is someone who Conan has met whilst on his travels and her local town has been overrun by terrible undead foes. All she needs to do is get close enough to the warlock/necromancer and she can destroy him but first, she needs to push through an army of the undead. That’s where Conan comes in.

I really enjoyed painting these miniatures and it was fun to see them work so well together as a duo.

I have been inspired to dive into the undead thing as their foe because of a recent run of Conan comics from Titan. The first set of stories covered an undead legion rampaging across the lands and Conan and his Pict ally have decided to destroy them. With that in mind, I am eagerly looking to dive in and get some miniatures built and painted as foes.

But first, more friends…

My consistent love of Conan came from this…

That theme song has been in my head since I was a kid. I loved the sword and sorcery of Conan and the image of the archetypal barbarian has always been in my mind ever since.

I have always floated in and out of diving deep into Conan, from the Monolith board game to trying out the roleplaying games. It was only when the Barbaria Kickstarter by Red Box Games came out that I decided that I would dive into the wargaming side of things.

I loved painting the miniature for “Conan” and immediately was drawn into how I could use him in some games on the tabletop.

What turned out to be great was that Wiley Games’ Fistful Of Lead (and reloaded) is an awesome set of rules for quick and easy gaming regardless of the time period or genre.

There are even rules in the book for “Conan’s magical sword” and some seriously brutal combat. That seemed to fit the cinematic quality of Conan and was stupidly easy to learn as a set of rules.

So, that has become the basis of this new adventure into Hyborea. One miniature and a cartoon pushing me into a little mini project!