From Curt - 17th Century Heroes for 'Devilry Afoot' (25 Points)

Hi All!

As a few of you know (or I'm sure can commiserate) I'm a little, um, 'diverse' in my hobby interests. Italian Wars to Forbidden Psalm, Napoleonics to Turnip28, WWII to Burrows & Badgers, I like to cast my net wide and far. The same goes for rules and ideas for games: my mind (and library) are bursting with them, often to the detriment of forgetting other, perhaps more important things.

So in this vein, one new set of rules that has piqued my interest lately is Nic Wright's 'Devilry Afoot'.

This is a very nice, compact set of gothic horror skirmish rules set in the much-troubled 17th century. Similar to 'Hametsu', I really like that it's cooperative and requires a very modest figure count. Each player typically has one Hero and perhaps one or two followers. In 'Devilry Afoot', players are set against classic horrors of the period such as witches, werewolves, vampires, etc. I've not rolled it out to our gaming group yet as I wanted to have a few heroes 'oven ready' for the guys to choose from - and so here we are.

The rule book itself is a wonderful 128 page hardback which contains the rules,  character/beastie profiles and about a dozen scenarios for players to have fun with. I believe these are self-published but I found my copy on Amazon (boo!) and a PDF version is available through Wargames Vault. Highly recommended.

Here are the first five heroes (all 28mm) I've painted-up for 'Devilry Afoot'. Four of the five models are from Bloody Miniatures. Several worthy Challengers have already featured these figures in their excellent posts, and so here are my efforts.

A cavalry trooper cheering his mates on.

A calm squire, smoking his pipe and waiting with his blunderbuss.

I really enjoyed working on these figures as they have great character and just enough detail not to get you in trouble. I also appreciate that they are cast in metal which appeals to my small lizard brain on these heady matters.

A soldier from the Continent prepared with his long arm.

A lightly wounded gentleman with his dragoon pistol at the ready.

One of the five figures originates from today's most excellent minion, Sander. Sarah and I met up with Sander and Arthur in Antwerp a year or so ago, and during lunch he gave me this wonderful figure of a rat catcher that he thought I could make good use of. 

It was a very apropos gift, as rat catchers spark some nostalgia for me. I had just turned 20 when we received Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay at our game store in Winnipeg. At that time (I think around1986), I was very used to fantasy RPGs having the typical wizards, fighters, thieves, etc., but then WFRP introduced totally new characters such as Troll Slayers, Agitators and... Rat Catchers. Mind. Blown. I absolutely loved it, and my first character was a poxed rat catcher with a peg leg, hemp bag and a spade as a weapon. It was brilliant.

Of course, like a dullard, I threw out the figure's packaging before noting the sculptor/manufacture, so if anyone (Sander?) knows the provenance of this mini let me know in the comments. Anyway, its a terrific model with loads of detail (rats galore, as you can imagine) and I had a terrific time painting him up. He'll be a worthy character in our games such as 'Devilry Afoot'. Thank you again, Sander!

These five sturdy adventurers will give me 15 points and another squirrel!

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt

Curt, we all have those enticing little side projects we love to do and this is one such project. As with all your projects this one is extremely well executed. Your painting and choice of colours are top notch, the basing really fits the secene. The rat catcher is from the same range of figures designed by the Owlhammer Mordheim group. I will check with them who the sculptor is. Monday I will post some figures of that range myself. 

Arthur and myself have really enjoyed our get together in Antwerp and would really love to do this again sometime.  

For now I am very curious as to where this project will take you, thanks for dropping in!     

Cheers Sander