Tormund, often called Tormund Giantsbane, is a renowned warrior and raider among the Free Folk and one of the key leaders behind Mance Rayder. Tormund respected Mance as the King-Beyond-the-Wall and suspected he was the man to lead them through the Long Night.
Leaders need to be attached to a unit so I will place him with one of my two compulsory Free Folk Raiders when they are painted.
“Plenty of little men tried to put their swords through my heart. And there’s plenty of little skeletons buried in the woods.” ―Tormund to Jon Snow
Tormund is a trusted leader in his own right of a large warband of wildlings. He has joined his forces to those of King-Beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder, and now functions as one of Mance’s most trusted lieutenants. Tormund is not just a capable leader, but also a very dangerous fighter.
This is proven during the Battle of Castle Black, where he killed multiple Night’s Watch brothers and clearly outmatched Ser Alliser Thorne in single combat and Lord Smalljon Umber at the Battle of the Bastards. He boasts of having bedded a she-bear. Ygritte insists that everyone knows he just made this story up.
Tormund makes much of his capacity for drink and sexual encounters, usually as a means of raising his allies’ morale. He is extremely loyal to those who have fought alongside him, even Jon Snow, who once betrayed him and the wildlings. Thanks to Game of Thrones Wiki for the information.
I bought a collection on eBay of “Song of Ice and Fire” miniatures some time ago thinking that in the future I would use them for generic barbarian types. The figures were great and the price was cheap so I put in an offer that was accepted.
Camp of the Free Folk
I had played the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game pre-covid but wasn’t that interested.
During our recent game I concentrated on the rules and what they did, and this changed my thinking on the games system and I decided to fast forward the painting of a 50 point army list. I have about double this in units so I chose those that were readily accessible in the cave and looked cool.
I chose Tormund Giantsbane as the leader:
Tormund, often called Tormund Giantsbane, is a renowned warrior and raider among the Free Folk and one of the key leaders behind Mance Rayder. Tormund respected Mance as the King-Beyond-the-Wall and suspected he was the man to lead them through the Long Night.
Leaders need to be attached to a unit so I placed him with one of my two compulsory Free Folk Raiders.
“Plenty of little men tried to put their swords through my heart. And there’s plenty of little skeletons buried in the woods.” ―Tormund to Jon Snow
The bulk of the Free Folk forces are made up of the everyday people of the various tribes. They don’t have fancy metal armor. They don’t relentlessly train and drill maneuvers. They barely have weapons, just scavenging a bit of bone or old swords from the battlefield. But what they lack in military tactics, they more than make up for in one thing: numbers. When the Raiders come down from the north, they’re like a tidal wave, overwhelming enemy defenses as they go.
Free Folk Raiders
Giants are a non-human race considered to be a legend by the inhabitants of the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall. However, giants do actually exist in the furthest north beyond the Wall, and have had some interactions with the human wildlings. This is in contrast with both the Children of the Forest and the White Walkers, which even the wildlings claim to not have seen in thousands of years.
Two giants came with the starter pack. I am not sure how effective they are but they looked cool so they were next to undercoat.
I wanted another big gnarly monster so chose a mammoth.
I liked the idea of some skin changers (shape changers). These are attachments to units so I attached a bear skin changer to a unit of savage cave dwellers as I thought that would be appropriate.
The second skin changer I chose was a wolf and attached them to a “trapper” unit.
There are non combat units in Song of Ice and Fire, that represent the political intrigues going on off the battlefield that still have an impact on field.
The firs I chose was Lad Val a Wildling Princess that helps with army movement.
The Free Folk warriors have little or no armour and suffer heavily in casualties so I chose Craster, who allows me to replace casualties. He is a horrible person in the books and the movie series but is great in game terms.
This should be enough to deal with those “Kneelers*” that chose to travel north of the wall!!
I will gradually paint these over the next few weeks.
*
“I know your kneeler’s knees must be itching, for want of some king to bend to”.—Tormund to Jon Snow
“You call us thieves, but at least a thief has t’ be brave and clever and quick. A kneeler only has t’ kneel”.—Ygritte to Jon Snow
You could imagine how disappointed Guru was when he woke up Christmas morning and there was nothing under the tree (a lounge suite had arrived a month earlier but that doesn’t count does it!). There was some relief when at lunch time a bottle of Moet Chandon arrived but Guru was still not pleased.
A quick call to the North Pole complaints line put me on to this very obnoxious fellow in a green suit with very small man syndrome! After finally being put through to his supervisor I was very politely told that I should have read the fine print which had a “naughty” Clause (pun intended).
Finally, after explaining that at my age being “naughty” (nod nod wink wink) is the new nice, the supervising “ellon” relented, but she indicated that there would be no express sleigh delivery as this was a special one off offer available for only one day each year.
The workshop however, made special arrangements with FedEx to pick up an “ultimate bundle” from Warlord Games and it finally arrived today.
GURI IS VINDICATED!!!
Who would have guessed – Santa gave me MORE ZOMBIES!!!!
Guru says “When Santa rips you off forget about being nice, just lawyer up”!!!
After all he is only an over-rated fat chimney sweep in a red suit, who exploits Rangifer Tarandus.
Yesterday morning I was settled in to have what I thought would be a relaxing few hours in front of the TV and I didn’t even get a chance to finish the first Chardonnay! England’s lowest test innings in Australia since 1902 and an ashes campaign that was won in just 12 playing days was hardly good TV.
At least is was great to see Scott Boland make his debut at 32 years of age and show what we Victorians always knew he was capable of. The plus in all of this is I have had a chance to finish off these Test of Honour Pauper soldiers.
Disinherited samurai, Lord Senzo the Thorn, leads a group of pauper soldiers, using his legendary skills with the bow in the hope of winning back his fortune.
The box set Contains: 18 unique cards including One with the Target and Hidden Marksman 1 metal character model Senzo the Thorn 10 plastic figures 10 metal straw hat heads 3 mulltibases Once again, the metal straw hat heads that come in this set completely change the feel of the models, making them less military and more like peasants.
The samurai archer character from this set is backed up with some useful shooty skills, plus other skills and quests that reflect him being more at home with the local peasants than most noble-born samurai. Warlords box artwork.
I can find no historical evidence that Senzo the Thorn ever existed. despite this the figures do look great.
Senzo the Thorn
It is very fitting after yesterday’s victory that this is my 600th post. To my fellow bloggers in England all I can say is someone has to be the Prince and someone has to be the Pauper, but at least these paupers have some weapons in their armoury!
There’s an evil moving through the land, a curse. Communities large and small alike are being destroyed. Towns are being torn apart, people are being killed, and worse.
The curse has finally come to Dead Man’s Hand. Get together anybody you can, time to put petty rivalries aside and stand together against an enemy who shows no mercy, who will take it all, and leave you with nothing, not even your soul. The Curse of Dead Man’s Hand Ungodly Horde includes:
I mean a break where one relaxes 1: the act of relaxing or state of being relaxed. 2 : a relaxing or recreative state, activity, or pastime : diversion. 3 : the lengthening that characterizes inactive muscle fibers or muscles.
Now that’s my kind of retreat! Wine tasting. Good food. Wine tasting, good food, and more wine tasting.
The iconic Mitchelton winery tower.
Heaven……… the wine tasting and sales area.
The “Sofitel” motel snuggled in at the foot of the tower.
There is one of the largest collections of aboriginal art in Victoria.
You can even go fishing!
Their was even a “cement pond” – where’s granny (Irene Ryan) and Elly May (Donna Douglas), well in order not to be labelled a “dirty old man” I took the photo after the pool had closed. Arghhhhhh!
The great weather meant we had to slip, slop, slap.
The grounds are riddled with “art” works.
Dinner at the rowing club on Lake Nagambie
The Goulburn river tributary that the winery is on.
A “black swan” event.
View of the “theatre” from the tower.
The Goulburn river from the tower.
A panoramic view of the winery complex
A small fraction of the vineyards.
Unfortunately (well not for my pocket) the day spa was booked out well before we even made our booking so, Maree did not get the pampering she deserved. Next time when we will be back in May.
We had a really great time just relaxing and doing nothing ………..and wine tasting!!
Grey aliens, also referred to as Zeta Reticulans, Roswell Greys, or Grays, are purported extraterrestrial beings.
Some time ago I had painted some of these up and involved them in a quirky scenario called Things that Go Bump In the Night. It was now time to give them some more umph with some extra leaders, squads and heavy weapons !
The advantage of these figures is that can appear on our planet in any time of its history so can be fighting ancient Egyptians one game and Modern forces the next. This makes them a very flexible “asset”.
They are not a new invention because the origins of the Grey alien may go back to the late 19th century. In 1891, the novel Meda: A Tale of the Future was published by Kenneth Folingsby, in which the narrator encountered small, grey-skinned aliens with balloon-shaped heads.
In 1893, H. G. Wells presented a description of humanity’s future appearance in the article The Man of the Year Million, describing humans as having no mouths, noses, or hair, and with large heads.
In 1895, Wells also depicted both the Morlocks and the Eloi – successor species to humanity – in very similar terms, in the novel The Time Machine.[8]
