An Old West Town- Part II

Work continues apace over at Dogs of War Online on my western town of Timber Ridge. As noted its been a busy week(s) so I didn't get as much progress as I would have liked, but did get some solid work in with the Marshal's office and a corral rounding to form.

In addition the the various forms/places of inspiration that has already been mentioned: Tombstone, Pale Rider, etc I came up with another one: from 1951-1999 in North Hudson NY there existed a great little amusement park called Frontiertown. My own memories of it are vague as in going there as a little kid around maybe 4-5 years old so somewhere around the late 1970s; perhaps a future blog post. Its a sad testament in a way; the decline of Frontiertown mirrors America's shifting views and movement away from westerns, but I digress.

The Marshal's office is close to completion at about 60% complete in terms of painting and the corral up next. Take a peak over at Dogs of War Online for all the photos, but here is one of the town proper as it begins to take shape.

It looks like the minis will be the last thing I get for the gangs/posses as still look over the miniature lines. Right now Black Scorpion minis are leading the pack, but I still have time to decide. I want them to be a bit larger so they will be at least 28mm with Black Scorpion being 30mm in scale.

I've looked at the classic lines from Wargames Foundry and a few other but will still be mulling it over.

I'm also considering what I want to do for wagons and various sundry items. Obviously scale model rail road terrain makes the most sense. Various miniature manufacturers make wagons and carts but like the minis I have time to decide.

"You tell um' I comin' for um, and Hell's com'in with me!" Start of my Western Town

Over on Dogs of War Online I've embarked on the creation of a western town, for such games as Warhammer Historical- Legends of the Old West, my game Hurled into Eternity and perhaps even Boot Hill.

The start of the Town of Timber Ridge...

Unlike most towns people have created out there on the web, this one is not set in the American South West, but rather in more northerly climes. (As an aside, I love the movie Tombstone and hence the title of this post, but I wanted a look and feel that was something different for an Old West town).

A major inspiration for this is one of my favorite movies of all time: Unforgiven. I've only just started on the town itself so there is not much to show just yet. I anticipate with the pace I'm going at that I'll complete it by the fall of this year, but we'll see what happens.

Here's a single pic with the rest over at Dogs of War Online. Let me know what you think.

Thus, the start of the town of Timber Ridge, a logging encampment, but full of cut-throats, desperadoes and gunmen! I haven't decided fully on minis yet but the 30mm minis of Black Scorpion are the leading contenders. They will come later and perhaps I'll even be adding wagons, carts horses and townsfolk to the setting.

Dogs of War Online 3.0

Just a quick heads up, and sort of a shame-less plug... (hey it's my blog , right?)

I've been spending a lot of time dusting off the forum over at Dogs of War Online After years of neglect in my very busy life, the forum has been updated to the new version of MyBB, the CSS theme updated and new features added to the site with the Wiki and User Map functions updated as well.

Now, this may seem like a fools errand as Dogs of War was/are probably the least supported army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle out there and with the changes to the game via the Age of Sigmar, but... I look at the situation as no different then the state chaos dwarfs around 2007. For years we had a very vibrant community and were quite content to create tons of material on our own all free of GW, now that is even more magnified. Warhammer Fantasy Battle is now free of GW stifling anything they don't like, the community can really create what they want.

So with all this said the site has been dusted off after years of neglect from me. We still have a small cadre of folks who post there but are looking for more, to build up the community of like minded individuals. But its not just Warhammer or even Dogs of War, stop by and participate in the OT forums, discussions of other RPGs even. So whether you pay Kings of War, Age of Sigmar or 9th Age or even some other war game, stop on over.

I'm still an administrator over at Chaos Dwarfs Online and in a lot of ways we're "sister-sites" of a kind, sharing similar goals and outlooks. But given my newly freed up time I figured it would be best to devote my time to building a great community at Dogs of War Online as well.


As a personal note: its the only place you find my army blog as I assemble my force of Nippon using 2nd/3rd edition rules. I've blogged about Nippon here and here, as I've wanted a Nippon force since the late 80's and have been working ever so slowly to assemble one. Now with my renewed interest in Warhammer it's really gathering steam now. I'm building the force under 2nd/3rd edition rules, but I'm also looking to configure them to be able to be used in Kings of War, and 9th Age, possibly even as a 3rd edition "Count As" Empire force . Or even a 5th Edition Dogs of War force! Sky is the limit.

So as the bard said "Cry havoc and let slip the Dogs of War!"

Warhammer 3rd edition, back to the best edition

I've now just exited a really busy period in my life, having left my part time job of ten years. So what do I do with this "abundance" of time? I'm going back to the coolest edition of Warhammer, that being 3rd edition, that's what (aside from the never play-tested rules for Siege)!

I say going back because I really never played all that much in terms of the new editions (a fair amount of 5th edition games) but not much else. So with GW unleashing the Age of Sigmar or the fan driven 9th Age... Why bother with any of that? Its been interesting that GW avoided "Edition Wars" that plagued D&D for so long. Are we now at that point? I'm sure people probably kept playing editions they liked previously, I simply wonder if it's more pronounced now with the Age of Sigmar retro-con.

So with this in mind I  dusted off my 3rd edition books this weekend and started looking through everything. That old familiar feeling came back, what a great game it is! A mess, large and unwieldy to be sure but oh so much fun. There is actual strategy in the game, there is actual consideration of movement and formation, lost of random fun and devastating and cool spells.

The main reason I did this was as I get back into the hobby after a nearly three year absence I've started working on my Army of Nippon (which can be found here). The Warhammer Armies Book has Nippon as mercenary contingent that can only be hired by Dark Elves? What the Hell is that? But imagine my suprise when I was tipped off to the fact that 2nd edtion Warhammer Fantasy battle had them as a full army in Ravening Hordes!

So armed with this knowledge I've commenced an Army of Nippon and plan on tinkering with the 2nd edition army list. I may not have to do much as it appears that gamers were to use the 2nd Edition Ravening Hordes until Warhammer Armies came out. I've been working on terrain and securing minis. Right now I'm focused on acquiring ninja; I don't know of anyone who has one of each of the entire lineup, so I might be the first? Big shout out to my brothers over at the Oldhammer forum. I feel at home there with my like of the older editions of the game. Shameless plug: for those looking to help me out with trades or purchases my want list is here.

On a side note: I really like the look of the art and presentation in 2nd Edition as it mirrors up to the presentation of 1st edition Warhammer Fantasy Role-play which is another favorite of mine from back in the day. You can read my thoughts on some classic campaigns from back in the day here and here.

In a way I've gone home as it were, so I guess you CAN go back.