Ithoriel's Strength & Honour DIY

[Ithoriel]

Initially sceptical, the more I saw of Strength & Honour the more intrigued I became. Eventually the TFL Youtube videos of the game being played sold me on the idea.

Of course, I wouldn't be me if I went with the suggestions in the rules!

So, 50mm squares, 80mm x 40mm bases, Irregular miniatures rather than the bases designed for the game, Setback and Disaster cards knocked up in Open Office and home printed then sleeved in card sleeves I already had with an old CCG card as stiffener.

Taking to the one corner of my dining table that isn't either emulating a builder's merchant or a food bank I played a small game using empty bases marked up to show what they were. Which confirmed my thought that this could easily have been a board game. Though it wouldn't have looked half so pretty as the stuff currently being produced by players.

I have half a suspicion that I am going derive at least as much pleasure from producing 2mm scenery as I do from playing the game!

One thing that irked me was that the card command board kept getting "shoogled" with dice gently creeping around the board.

So, I decided to create something more solid.

Off to Warbases for a kosher S&H Roman Camp and Wagon Laager and, while I was at it, a pile of MDF. Figure bases, terrain bases and ... components for a Command Board .... or two.

Et, voila! One 150mm square, 2mm MDF round cornered base (a custom size), two 90mmx10mm rectangular bases, one 70mm x 10mm rectangular base, six 25mmx10mm rectangular bases, six Quad 10mm dice frames and two of their MDF mini-token 1-10 sets.



Which became this



And then, with the addition of paint and home printed labels, this



and finally, as it might be in action

[fsn]

like it! Looks very neat and tidy. 

[toxicpixie]

Damn your eyes, stop giving me ideas for more projects not to finish

Good idea!

[Glorfindel]

This game has also bitten my biscuit as well.   I've ordered the rules and am looking at figure options.

>> I have half a suspicion that I am going derive at least as much pleasure from producing 2mm scenery as I do from playing the game!

Definitely agree here, particularly as the scenery tutorials shown on Youtube look eminently do-able.   Also some great terrain pieces available on-line (I'm thinking of the Roman Camp and City tiles from Korhyl).

[Orcs]

I came to the conclusion long ago that no matter what scale you do, they are all as expensive as each other. As the scale gets smaller the size of the armies gets bigger, as does the number of armies you collect.

[Ithoriel]

This game has also bitten my biscuit as well.  I've ordered the rules and am looking at figure options.

>> I have half a suspicion that I am going derive at least as much pleasure from producing 2mm scenery as I do from playing the game!

Definitely agree here, particularly as the scenery tutorials shown on Youtube look eminently do-able.  Also some great terrain pieces available on-line (I'm thinking of the Roman Camp and City tiles from Korhyl).

I have two Roman camp sets from Warbases Antonine range to make a complete camp plus I have their wagon laager.

I also have some of Brigade's modular castle pieces to make a city wall and some of their Roman buildings to fill it. Plus their Dark Age Village which will do as a small Gallic village,  I reckon.

Villages, woods, farms, marshes look eminently doable.

Hills I'm less certain of given that units may span flat and elevation leaving them at drunken angles unless the hills are relatively flat.

I think I will leave the crossing of that particular bridge until I come to it

I am quite taken with Irregular's base of pigs so may yet have a 2mm scale piggery. Am I wrong to be somewhat amused that they have figures that can be cows or horses depending on paint job? Won't stop me getting some though!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Looking good

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice work

[steve_holmes_11]

I came to the conclusion long ago that no matter what scale you do, they are all as expensive as each other. As the scale gets smaller the size of the armies gets bigger, as does the number of armies you collect.

It's been a while.

When packs of 6mm were £2.00, I did some comparisons.

It showed that the smaller scales were cheaper, though not necessarily as much as you'd imagine.
The one that sticks in my head was 1 28mm figure at £2.00 occupying similar footprint to 12 6mms costing £0.50.

It's worth noting that those 6mm packs are now listed at £5.00 while Foundry 28mms are in the £1.50 - £1.80 range.
This reduces the deficit to £1.25 for the smalls and £1.80 for the expensive bigs.

[Glorfindel]

I have a feeling that this scale will definitely encourage terrain megalomania !   Brigade Models will certainly be extremely useful and I can see some form of Roman town on the horizon.   I expect that good terrain will be even more important given the size of the figure blocks.


The one area that will prove a significant change for me is the gridded playing surface.   I know a number of games already employ this idea but it does mean investigating methods of temporary marking (perhaps small pieces of clump foliage).   It'll be interesting to see how people achieve this.


Phil

[mmcv]

I like that! 2mm terrain does look fantastic en masse, can really give the feel of proper settlements and vast terrain features. I liked the idea in one of the TFL videos of using the magnetic labels and just placing one of those in the woods to indicate a unit in there, works quite well at the scale and would allow you to do large forested areas without worrying too much about getting figures round them.

The one area that will prove a significant change for me is the gridded playing surface.  I know a number of games already employ this idea but it does mean investigating methods of temporary marking (perhaps small pieces of clump foliage).  It'll be interesting to see how people achieve this.

For gridded games I keep a container full of random foilage and stones to lay out the grid with. If you find you enjoy it enough it's well worth making a permanent one (even just some dark green dots on a green sheet to mark out the corners works well) but having the foliage does help add character.

I just got a big sheet of greaseproof paper and did a dollop of glue and some bits of flock, clumps, stones, etc on each dollop. once dry and sprayed with varnish/watered down pva, they lift right off the sheet and give you a handy corner piece.

Another option is to use tile spacers, possibly painted to merge in with the table.

[Ithoriel]

Thanks to all for the kind comments.

Being somewhat of an obsessive - "I have CDO ... it's like OCD but the letters are in the right order" - I have a mat in transit from Tiny Wargames with a 50mm grid specifically for this.

At least, I hope it's in transit ... been a while since they despatched it.

[Glorfindel]

MMCV.   Some great ideas to create a temporary gridded playing mat.   As you say, if our group do like the game, we will have to investigate a more permanent solution.

Ithoriel.   Very much like the mini-mat idea and DIY command board.   Hope the Tiny Wargames mat arrives soon !

Phil

[Ithoriel]

A first go at a unit for Strength and Honour.

I described the suggested painting style as somewhere between Impressionism and Pointilism!



Not 100% happy with the result but happy with it as a first go. It looks better from a distance ... ar maybe that's just my eyesight

620 men in 10 cohorts and a colour guard for the Eagle, so a little understrength

Compulsory units for the list I'm using are General, 3 legions and a unit of skirmishers after which I'm looking at cavalry, an allied Gallic warband or two, more legions and skirmishers, maybe even a unit of elephants.

[paulr]

   

I wonder if a green/brown/blue background for the label, maybe with white letters, would blend in a little more, letting the figures stand out a bit more