Pembrokeshire - well worth a visit.

After the puppy had left us, the better half and I headed off to Wales. Mainly Pembrokeshire.

I have to say we had a splendid time - some stunning scenery and castles.

On the way we stopped off at Rhossili on the Gower and took in the Worms head. 

The next day was a circular walk around the Stackpole Estate. Taking in the Quay, Barafundle Bay (great beach) and Bosherston Lily Ponds. This was absolutely beautiful - well worth a visit. 

The next day was a walk to Tenby - a lovely walled town. A walk over to Castle hill but we couldn’t access St Catherine’s island to visit the Victorian fort (opens 20th July…). We returned to Tenby on our last night for a rather nice curry overlord the bay. 

The last full day was a trip to Pembroke and in particular it castle. The castle was great - a guided tour included in the entry fee - plenty to see as you wander around by yourself.

The cave beneath the castle was closed due to archaeological work but just at the end of the tour we were offered the chance to go down and have a talk from an archaeologist about what they were doing  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp36lnng046o 

Unfortunately Pembroke town was a little bit sad, with not very much going on - castle is well worth a visit.

The trip to Pembrokeshire was lovely and needed after our loss. We are planning to go back and look at some of the places that we missed out this time.

Morts

 

A sad week

I have been planning to post for a week or two but I just didn’t get around to it. 

Work has been busy with a project - which is now over. I was acting up over the course of the project. A job came up recently, which I applied for but didn’t get. Although that is not what is sad. 

Unfortunately, after nearly 15 years our family dog Molly had to go on her final journey. 

She will be missed by all of us, as she was a joyful character who was always pleased to see you.

So a tough week.

Morts

Last of the Drakon Regiment done

I have managed to finish off the last of the Drakon riders from the Regiment. The base needs completing and a coat of varnish.

I still have the Drakon Lord to do - so pretty pleased with this mini. 

I had also finished the another 4 Orks - I have the leaders and the big mech guys to go. 

But I have been busy in the garden - taken out the decking and replaced it with the slabs. 

The weather has taken a turn for the better, which is not good for painting miniatures. I am planning to put wolf riders up the list for, then finish off the Orks and the Drakon Lord … then some WW2 British. 

Morts 

Exeter Legionary Wargames Show 2026

 Saturday saw some of the collective meet up for a trip to the Legionary show in Exeter - DK and I arrived first and did a perusal of the bring and buy - DK picked up a number of bargains with Undaunted Stalingrad and some Batman Miniatures Game stuff, I picked up some British WW2 stuff in 15mm - might try and paint some (after the dragons and wolf riders and Orks and …).

Then we did a wander around the show.

Above a rather nice Rapid Fire game in 20mm and 2 shots of alternate end to WW2, with the Soviets vs the British. The organiser was quite effusive about the books it was based on … which I can’t remember now. But it looked good. 

Above shows a nice 1672 style game - I can’t recall the rules they were using, but looked nice. At alt 40k game using One Page Rules and I think miniatures - pretty epic. 

Talking of Epic - Jason and the argonauts, Talos, a fleece and a ship - lovely setup using Dragon Rampant. 

Then we have some Frostgrave and DBA.

The peeps at Brethren had a large Hastings game and a couple of small participation games which Snake-eyes, Tiger-King and myself had a go at. It was Celts (me) versus Romans (Tiger-King), in a close run thing … I was let down by some appalling dice rolling as my Celts surrounded the Romans - but failed kill. Curses … I pick up the quick start rules for a couple of quid. Could be good for a quick pick up game. An enjoyable show - good fun with chums. 

This weekend was the big event I have been out on the moor for. I was suffering with a little FOMO not being up there, but I got to go to the show and dismantled the decking - which was rotting in places. So a good use of my time. 

Obviously now I have to put the replacement slab etc in place … next weekend?

Morts

Been to Brum …

This weekend we headed to Brum to see Peter Kay on Saturday - fortunately our performance was wrecked by a bomb hoax. A quality show with plenty of laughs.

Saturday afternoon was spent wandering around Brum - which was prettier than I remember. Some lovely Victorian architecture.

I have also managed to complete another one of the Mantic Drakon riders - I am happy with this mini. 

Currently working on some more Orks and the last rider of the regiment set. 

Some of the collective are heading to the Exeter games show on Saturday - hopefully something will catch my eye… like I actually need anymore minis or games.

Morts 

Squig Dogs and the glorious outdoors

 

Painting wise I am still working on the Mantic Orks and have completed these dog things - which must equate to 40k squigs - they appear to have bombs on their backs. A bit of fun with contrast paints.

The weekend saw a little walk and camp on Dartmoor - 2 views of Kes Tor. 

Middle Tor and Frenchbeer rocks

Thornworthy Tor and the view down to Fernworthy reservoir.  

The sunset over Kes Tor and the sunrise of Middle Tor. 

Bloody lovely out there last weekend. 

Morts

More stuff I really do need and a trip to the other moor

 After the game of HotT a few weeks ago I felt that I might need some more wolf riders (I don’t but) … so did the usual thing of scanning through eBay and Etsy to see what was available. Highland miniatures do a nice line in Hobgoblin wolf riders …

So, I thought get 6 for a unit picture above … however, I managed to bugger up the order (seller was a top chap) and 6 became 12 (2 units). Really nice prints and I like the look - the other unit has a couple of bow armed riders - although all have quivers none have a visible bow (apart from those actually shooting), so an thinking of adding them.

Also beer for a nice walk on Exmoor - a lovely day, a bit of cloud and rain.

But turned into a lovely afternoon in the Doone Valley. 

I did think that I should do some local games, the Doone valley reminded me of the Monmouth Rebellion… and I’ve just read about the 1549 Western Rising …

Morts

Some finished things and a trip to moor

I have managed to complete the bases on the miniatures I have been painted over the last few months. 

The fantasy figures - and the first use of the flowers. 

The 40k minis - my first set off Mantic GW kitbashes and the commander of the custodes …

A weekend on the moor - Watern Tor and sunrise towards Postbridge from Holming Beam. 

The end of the walk was around Hucken Tor. Vixen Tor in the bottom right. 

I do like the moss over the rocks and trees at Hucken - puts me in mind of Fangorn forest.

Morts

Stuff what I have been up too …

1. I have been sucked into looking in to Kill Team 2018 again - and have picked up the following expansions.

Now having had a quick scan, I think I have already got some of the miniatures for these (I don’t need any wraithguard … really I don’t…). I have sisters of battle and some Orks (well Mantic Marauders) to sort out first. Anyway happy with these purchases. 

A the weekend I managed to get out overnight on the moor - had some interesting weathe, sunshine, hail and a bit of frost mid evening. 

A few picks around Little Mis Tor. Good to get out. 

In the painting arena I finished off the Chaos Knight mounted and foot character model. I have always liked this mini. He actually isn’t very chaos-y, so I just painted him as a knight. I free hand painted the shield and had planned some of the symbols on the horse cloth shields but could face it when it came around to it.might add some transfers if any suit from the spares. 

I tried to match the foot and mounted as well as I could. The castle at the bottom of the shield is a bit shorter on the foot version. 

Quite pleased with he overall. Must get the varnish out and base up a few bits and bobs …

Morts

A flying visit and a couple of games

Last week my Bro and Nephew came over for a couple of days from Denmark. Quite a change from frozen to soggy - but apparently it was nice to see some colour. 

We played a game of Raiders of the North Sea - a solid game with clear mechanics and theme. We were playing with the Hall of Heroes expansion. My nephew went for the good crew and raiding the high points monasteries and fortresses - and was doing rather well. I went for the usual (although not always successful), raid harbours and outposts then score the offerings - and getting your crew killed. The expansion’s quests helping out here. My brother was doing a hybrid strategy. As it was although the visitors did pull out to a decent lead, it was not enough to counter the offerings and points from the Valkyrie track - I out Viking-ed the Danes! We also managed a game of the King is Dead, which due to surprising placements was a win to my Brother.

The plan was to visit Dartmoor for a walk but due to some (more) rain that was shelved for a tour of Isca instead. I took then around part of the city walls (Roman, with some rare Saxon repairs in Northernhay gardens), Rougemont castle - where the last witch executions in England took place, Exebridges, the house that moved (which was inspiration for Bree) and the Cathedral. Some of the places my Brother couldn’t ever remember visiting. Exeter could be a spectacular historical city, but has suffered some massive cultural losses - most of which is self inflicted by the city itself (can’t blame too much on the Baedecker blitz).

We also took the opportunity to visit some games shops, were my nephew picked up some Sternguard and I picked up some Sister of Battle (with my Christmas voucher).

For my recent birthday the Danes had got me Trajan Valoris - commander of the custodies - so that will be an interesting painting exercise. The Sisters of Battle will be making a Kill Team squad. 

Speaking of Kill Team - we had a game using the 2018 rule set. A three way fight between Eldar, Nercons and Space Marines (in retrospect I should have read the rules first and then just facilitated the game rather than being part of it). Also needed a better objective … nevermind it was a good game.

My nephew to suffer a lot of combined fire from the Eldar and Nercons - because the Marines were so difficult to kill … that 3+ save was really frustrating for the Eldar Rangers (well me actually) who were hitting, but not damaging. Also me nephew picked figures based on the rule of cool and then didn’t use them as expected - again more guidance here would have been helpful. The game saw the marines shooting a lot and killing the most enemy fighters, But eventually being forced back and becoming broken - the Eldar had the most figures out of action, but due to the vague objectives managed a draw with the Necrons. 

Off the back of this I have picked up the Kill Team 2019 Annual off eBay (typically I got a good offer just after buying one … aggghhh!), as I think I will go back to this edition as it allows more customisation of the teams. 

A good couple of days - I hope the my visitors enjoyed themselves. 

Morts

Update for February

Last week was my birthday, so have been a little bit busy. I got some lovely presents including this one. 

This is a game based on Danish folklore - although my Danish in-laws didn’t recognise any of the names … but that could be down to poor pronunciation on my part. The aim of the game is to defeat the devil’s minions to win and avoid being caught by him. You get to use various folklore creatures, but in playing them that can move the devil closer to you …

It can be played solo - which I have tried but lost to the devil … I will have another go.

To sort out some knights and things I picked up a couple of horses from eBay. They came very securely packaged ….

Wrapped in tissue paper, in bubble wrap within a box, within styrene chips in a bigger box. Possibly overkill for the plastic I ordered ….

Today I have been out on the moor - a nice day checkpointing. 

The weather was actually quite good - some rain but manageable. The mossy stone was a near impossible to find boundary stone (I think this was the stone - I couldn’t see anything else) which was one of my checkpoints - I made sure my checkpoint was obvious.

Plan to sort the desk and get some paint on this week and play Skoventyr (and win).

Morts

Happy New Year and all that

As the title says happy new year for 2026, apologies for the late start to this year’s blog … still suffering with motivation - I did think I had sorted that after our new year travels. 

So since the last blog we have been to visit my brother’s family in Denmark (no claims of sovereignty there). A jolly splendid time we had there too!

We had a wander around Roskilde and found Kelsor game shop (where my brother and nephew picked up some paint and Raven guard) and the cathedral.

The following day we had a walk along the beach and …

… found a Danish fort from WW1 - Mosule - which they they weren’t involved in, although they did give the name to the largest naval battle of the war. It was closed, but looks if they do some educational stuff in the summer. I do like a good fort!

While in Denmark we played a few games - Skip Bo - a fun card game, mainly luck based but good fun. We also played a couple of Deckscape “escape room” card game. We played the fate of London and curse of the sphinx - while the games were good fun, although some of the clues were too complicated, cryptic and just silly which did take the edge off of the experience. We might try the Kosmos Exit games to see if they are better. 

The sunset on New Year’s Day. New Year’s Eve was a demonstration of how much money the Danes are willing to spend on fireworks - a good 40 minute display at midnight from private households in a small town … sorry no pictures was too busy going Oooo and Arrr trying to stay warm. 

My nephew has got into 40k and was keenly painting his Christmas presents of Shark Daddy and carcharodons space marines from Majorminis. A very neat painter he is too. When I got back I did make a little progress on a Drakon and the Confrontation Goblins. So I picked up a little inspiration. 

Steedo and my good self also managed a game of Raiders of the North Sea with BUTR (boy up the road) and his good lady … a tight win for Steedo and a close game overall. 

Out on the moor this weekend and the annual Twilight Imperium game the next … all go here now we are back to work. 

Morts

Happy Christmas one and all - Sub Terra played

 So Christmas 2025 has happened and the New Year is coming. Not much to report on the making and painting side of things (I have started some Confrontation Goblins and nearly finished a Drakon rider … but haven’t). 

The collective managed to get together last week for a game at Board in Isca, and good fun was had by all. Sylon picked the game, was pretty much ideal for a couple of hours in a board game cafe. 

Sub Terra is a tile placement game set in a cave system, created as you go by picking tiles (strangely enough). You take the roles of various cavers trying to get out before the event cards do. You have to avoid “cave ins”, floods, gas, ledgers, slides and horrors. We played on easy mode and ignored some advice given by the cafe manager as he explained the rules. Which was being followed in the top picture here early game.

The game played fairly quickly with minimal errors (but obviously some) on our part. You had 2 action points to play in a turn which could be spent in various ways - scouting, moving, exploring (which was a combination of the previous two but you had to go into the new tile), healing or a character ability. We managed to tidy up a real flood when DK knocked out Steedo’s beer … Steedo took the spillage remarkably well. The turns go character actions, horrors actions (I think we might have been doing something wrong because there weren’t any…), flip hazard card - could trigger flooding, “cave ins” or horrors etc. The bottom picture shows the end game as Tiger-King, Snake-eyes and Sylon won the race to find the exit tile with DK, Steedo and myself on the other side of the system … should have left DK’s Leader (who no one had followed) by himself … flashbacks to the 2018 UK Games Expo where Dk “wandered” off … Although 3 cavers out was a win for the party. 

So a pretty tight game which I think non-gamers would play and enjoy. Also time limited. Issues - the contrast on the tiles between the path and walls is difficult to see and the game can spread a bit on the table. However Sub Terra 2 is out and has dealt with these issues (although the setting is different ish). 

Anyway a good little game - enjoyed it. 

We then managed a couple of games of Coup - nice to play again. 

A good evening and nice to catch up with the collective before Christmas. 

Christmas has been and Santa has brought me the 5th Edition of Talisman and a £20 GW voucher to spend …

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and best wishes for the new year!

Morts 

Not much to update, but it is halfway through November

 A couple of weeks ago I was out on the moor - and a very nice day out it was too. The morning and evening …

We also saw a film set under construction at bottom of Fernworthy forest. Initially we thought it might be for the Harry Potter series (as they are filming in Lustleigh, but it might be for a William Defoe Werewolf movie set in the 1300s. 

Then this weekend we went up to London - the first stop was the V&A museum. A really interesting place to visit - so much there. But remember to book in advance for any special events - like the Marie Anntonete … we didn’t. 

Lots to do and see there - like the Natural History and Science museums just up the road. We did see everything there, better planing over a couple of visits is probably needed. 

Friday evening was watching Ricky Gervais at Wembley area - a good nights entertainment. Very funny and thought provoking at times. But I suppose that having watched all the others shows on TV means that the edge appears to have dulled a bit … still worth the watch. 

Saturday morning saw a trip to Convent Garden and a bit of a wander around. 

Managed to find the Orcs Nest game shop - hoping for some inspiration to get me out of my gaming malaise - I got a mug … the shop was small and had some nice stuff but nothing I needed or wanted. Still need to sort out some of my stuff to sell on. There we met up with my sister for lunch. 

After seeing my sister off, we wandered off to Trafalgar Square - Nelson’s column (with St Stephen’s tower in the background), the Christmas decorations in convent garden and the Rik Mayall bench in Hammersmith. While at Trafalgar Square we had a look around the National Portrait Gallery (lots of culture on this visit). The room numbering there was a little confusing but we managed to see some Holbein’s etc before ending up in the Van Gogh’s and the Monet rooms. Really cool. 

With some of my eBay money I have bought Voidfighter, as the rules seemed interesting and I would like to get some Babylon 5 and Battlestar fighter to play with … I might try with counters first. 

These might get out of my malaise … but what to do with the Star Trek attack wing stuff …

Morts