The Maw. Also yet another Crusade.

Hi all,

As anyone who follows this blog is aware, I'm a bit of a hobby magpie (more than a bit, if we're being honest).  As I've been involved in this hobby for something like 30-odd years, this means I've any number of projects going at any given time, usually more than I can realistically manage.  Today's a bit of a twofer, covering both a GW side project I've had running for a while, and a historical project that has been languishing in the drawers of shame.



I've had a soft spot for the GW ogor range for a long time, but for all the usual reasons (time, money, the chaos of life), had never really gotten around to doing much about it.  About a year and a half ago, I picked up a box on a whim, and started painting them - even got in a game or two.  Between other projects, Covid, and life, they've never really become a key focus for me, but they're something to which I keep coming back, and the horde is slowly growing.





They've kind of become my reward / treat / break project.  When the other things I'm working on start to feel like work, or when I just can't face painting more red things (given how much Khorne I play), I break out an ogor, and have some fun with it.  It's a very different process of painting, and feels different as a task than the painting I do with a "gaming" project, even my historicals.





More than anything else, these guys are the ones I paint to relax, and just enjoy the process of painting.  While they're unlikely to be a focus any time soon, I suspect they'll be part of the rotation for some time.

In contrast, these guys have been sitting around in the drawers of shame for something like 7 years.



Waaaaay back in Toronto, when Impetus was my main game, a few of us planned to start up a campaign around the Crusades.  Much planning, and some buying ensued, resulting in me picking up the start of an Ayyubid force, for which I painted a single stand (which has since been given a flag).



As sometimes happens, however, the project kind of petered out.  I don't remember that anyone else actually got as far as getting stuff painted up, I was playing other games, and the whole thing just became less of a priority.

Lately, however, I've been corresponding with one of the local historical players, and we've been kicking around ideas for a) remote gaming, and b) post-Covid gaming.  Both of us have an interest in trying out Art de la Guerre (which seems to be the new historical hotness), but building armies on that scale is a fairly large (and hence longer-term) commitment.  Given, however, that AdlG armies use a variant of DBA basing, and DBA is both a manageable project, and relatively easy to execute (and hence suitable for remote gaming), and we figure we're on to something.



I've played DBA before, a long, long time ago when living in Newfoundland, but it's one of those games I've kept up with.  The rule book, with it's endless lists of obscure armies, remains a source of fascination to me.  As it turns out, Jura (my prospective opponent) has a backlog of mid-crusade appropriate 15mm "Franks", so our plan is to start with DBA lists, and then build towards AdlG armies from there.

The stuff I picked up for Basic Impetus looks to pretty much cover me for the DBA list; I think I'm short one stand of arab cavalry, or something like that.  Should be fudgeable with a house rule, or I can run a sabot until I pick up the needful.  In the meantime, it's a reason to get these guys painted, and a way to try out both the new version of DBA, and eventually AdlG, without having to engage in a massive rebase (just the one stand).  Sounds like a plan to me.

FMB