inconsequential ruminations » miniatures http://cheyne.net/blog A minimalist blog, with a pretentious title, about strategy games. Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:30:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Bloody Borders http://cheyne.net/blog/2009/09/the-bloody-borders/ http://cheyne.net/blog/2009/09/the-bloody-borders/#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:17:36 +0000 Iain http://cheyne.net/blog/?p=479 I visited Julian on Thursday to play miniatures. I never got into miniatures, simply because I don’t paint, but I’ll play with someone else’s toy soldiers, particularly if they paint well.

We played a game of The Bloody Borders, a super-simple skirmishing rules set from Wargames Illustrated about the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers of the 16th century.

We played two linked scenarios. In the first, my English village, populated by the Charltons, was attacked by Julian’s marauding Armstrongs trying to capture livestock. In the second, a posse of Charltons pursued the Armstrongs back towards the border.

Julian used 28mm plastic miniatures. As you can see from my poorly lit photo, they look great. He uses a fast varnish-dipping technique, which he says is considered a bit naff among the cognoscenti, but I think they look very nice. The bulls were adapted from wine bottles, which is why they look Spanish.

Bloody Borders close up

I like the free-wheeling, fast, casual nature of miniatures with Julian. It’s about seeing how a narrative unfolds, not about realism or winning.

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