Dude where's my Trolls? : The failure of plans A & B, and the road to Dresda. And Goblins, of course! .

After a break from blogging at the weekend,  I had planned the next update would be a listing and photographing of all of my armies that are listed in Warhammer Armies, as well as the Ally and Mercenary Contingents.
However...

...I have been a bit pushed for time, and quite tired from a mix of the heat and a horrid summer cold :( . When I had spare time and I was not out and about, I decided to paint Bretonnians or play Civ III.  Making some progress on the Bretonnians, 20 of the Knights and 40 of the Villians now 'completed' (still require basing and flags adding). So, after the mass photographing of Slann,  I decided to go for plan B, to photograph all my Trolls.
However.....

.... a couple of weeks ago I spent some time re-boxing and sorting out miniatures, and now cannot for the life of me remember where I put the Trolls. Somewhere in the room I am currently typing in are 40 or so Trolls, lurking. I even checked under my scenery bridge, but to no avail. :(  .
 However.....

...whilst looking for the Trolls I found an old game  called Dresda, released by Alternative Armies back in the 1990's, and so thought I would update about that, the ongoing Bretonnians, and of course as few Goblins. Oh, and I bought another Slann from e-bay (another Slann Lieutenant with Mace from the Magnificent Sven).

Enjoy.

20 Bretonnian Knights, including the King.

 King and the Chevaliers D'Honneur.

 Viscomtes and Chevaliers De Norte Dame de Bataille.

 40 Villians WIP,
with 20 WIP peasant Rascals behind them. 

 Dresda. 

This was Alternative Armies Fantasy companion game to Flintloque. It was released in 1996, and contained a paper rulebook and a dozen or so miniatures. I think it was about £20 at the time, but cannot quite recall .

The company was set up by some former GW staff in about 1991 (and still in business), and had the feel of people trying to keep the feel of 1980's Warhammer alive, even though the rules were very different in thier execution. It was more of a skirmish game rahter than massed combat, but could work for larger battles.

I enjoyed playing it at the time, but not sure if anyone ever plays it now.

 Snap shot of the rule book.

 The rules were the same as Flintloque, only without muskets, and with more medieval weapons options. The background was placed in the Alternative Armies world of Valon  before the time of black power weapons that characterised Flintloque, and with Humans a as besieged newly emerging race attacked by the older races of Elves, Orcs, and others.

Instead of points values, you raised warbands and hired troops with an initial random generation of gold coins and then you had to gain gold to keep and expand your force!

 The Doomegarde, the Human miniatures that came in the box.

 Two Halberdiers. Really nicely detailed miniatures. 

Painted to the colours on the box art. 

 On the right, from the background in the book, is the female leader of this particular band of humans named Olrika von Viebrick, the widow of a reknowed hero.

 Two more halberdiers.

 Rear view, showing the 'on campaign' look and detail of the miniautres.

 Scale photgraph, next to a rogue Trader Imperial Army/Guard (I'll have to photograph them another time).

As the case with many Alternative Armies miniatures, they can be much taller than older Citadel miniatures, the halberdier is mounted on a 25mm base. Personally I think they are better quality than the Flintloque miniatures of the time.

 Orc leader from the box set.

As well as the humans, the box set came with 10 Orc miniautres, some of which are with the errant Trolls I am unable to find!

 Orcs, again very detailed and much larger that Citadel ones.

 Female and male Orcs. 

 Two more Orcs. 

The background in the book gives the Orcs, Goblins, and Bog Orcs (a sort of bigger Orcs) more of a background and life to them them, rather than just cannon fodder. The idea of the rules was that you had  personalities for the members of your warband, not just nameless troops.
Personally, the Dresda ruleset reminds me of the time when I, like many other others, gave up with Warhammer and looked around to what else there was emerging. In the 1990's, before the internet was widespread, it was not easy for a lot of these ideas and companies to get known and started. I played Dresda at a local (now long closed) miniatures shop.

Goblins! 

20 Archers.

Shaman with his knife removed used as a standard bearer from the Command range. Centre is a spare hornblowing musician from the second version of Groms Goblin Guard. On the right is a C12 Goblin named Grak.

Three more Goblin archers, one C12 Goblin with a crossbow called Blart, one Goblin with a fancy helmet, and another with a less fancy helmet and looking less happy about it.

They are all later 1980's Kev Adams Citadel.

Three Iron Claw Goblins.

On the left is a naked Hasslefree Miniatures Goblin Scout. 

The other one is one of my favorite Iron Claw Goblins, I love the face and the helmet.

Three more later 1980's Goblins, the centre one is a C12 Goblin named Zit, and he is a variant of the less than happy Goblin in a helmet from before.

Left is a Harlequin/Black Tree Goblin with a crested helmet, centre a 1980's Citadel. The one on the right is a Citadel Goblin, but I am not sure from which range. I thought he might be ADD or Lord of the Rings, but cannot find him.

Finally, is a solid based C14 Night Goblin on the left, and on the right is another Citadel Goblin from the later 1980's.

The centre Goblin is a mystery. I think he might be a Heritage Models or Asgard miniature, but I am not sure. He bears a striking resembalance to the Goblin name Cawl (one half of the duo 'Bec and Cawl'! ) , on page 196 of Brain Frouds and Terry Jones book, 'The Goblin Companion, A Field Guide to Goblins' (page 136 of the larger  'Goblins of the Labyrinth Book').

..but still no Trolls, despite having the Goblins out looking for them ;)

Next blog update will hopefully be back to Plan A, and be a list with photos of all the Armies/Allies/Mercenaries in Warhammer Armies, and an further update on the Bretonnians.