Building Timber Ridge – Northern Old West Town Progress Report

The Old West town of Timber Ridge continues to expand

Work continues apace on my Western town of Timber Ridge. As noted, it’s been a busy week (or weeks), so I didn’t get as much progress as I would have liked, but I did get some solid work in with the Marshal’s office and a corral rounding into form.

In addition to the various forms/places of inspiration that have 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 I went there as a little kid around maybe 4–5 years old, so somewhere around the late 1970s. Perhaps a future blog post. It’s 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 is up next.

It looks like the minis will be the last thing I get for the gangs/posses, as I’m still looking 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.

I’ve looked at the classic lines from Wargames Foundry and a few others, 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 railroad terrain makes the most sense. Various miniature manufacturers make wagons and carts, but like the minis, I have time to decide.

Timber Ridge – My Northern-Style Old West Town for Warhammer Legends of the Old West & More

 

The Old West town of Timber Ridge underway

 

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.

Unlike most towns people have created out there on the web, this one is not set in the American Southwest, but rather in more northerly climes. (As an aside, I love the movie Tombstone 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.

Thus, the start of the town of Timber Ridge, a logging encampment, but full of cut-throats, desperadoes, and gunmen!

Dogs of War Online 3.0

EDIT: Since Late December 2025, the Dogs of War site has been superseded by a new one: The New Dogs of War Tavern.

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 – Going 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? It’s 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, lots 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. The Warhammer Armies book has Nippon as a mercenary contingent that can only be hired by Dark Elves? What the Hell is that? But imagine my surprise when I was tipped off to the fact that 2nd Edition 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 Roleplay, 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.