Burrows & Badgers – Painting & Gaming

Inspired by the new Oathsworn Journal I thought I’d have a tinker with a small game that could be played by Burrows & Badgers fans called Tavern Brawl.

I should note that yes, I am aware that a tavern brawl scenario exists in The Warren Percy Affair campaign by Oathsworn. Michael has clearly done a more in-depth job that works really well for the campaign but this is my simple pop at it, “designed” to be a very casual experience.

I also designed this a few years ago now and there could be special rules, skills and more that would work better in this. Please, let me know if there is something that would suit you.

This isn’t a fair set of rules and it will very much not go your way more often than not. If you’re an uber-competitive wargamer then I probably wouldn’t recommend this. I have still tried to make it balanced in some areas but it will most certainly break and I’m open to ideas from the community.

Burrows & Badgers – Tavern Brawl

Without further ado, here are the rules (I hasten to add there is a lot of work to be done probably) for Tavern Brawl.

• 2-4 Players
• Each player picks a gang of Three Beasts
• NO Massive Beasts
• Each gang member is considered to be an Unarmed Fighter
• Rules that apply to each Beast still remain (Strong, Tough, Delicate etc)
• You buy NO additional items/armour/weapons (your gear was taken at the door)
• In addition, there are a few rules which help make things a little fairer for all involved as this is a multiplayer free-for-all!
• No bonuses for Outnumbering if you have opposing gang members around your target
• Bonuses are only given for having your own gang around a target.
• This doesn’t mean you can’t work together to take someone down!
• The Core Rules of Burrows & Badgers run throughout so when in doubt, use those

This is going to get very chaotic very soon so make sure that you keep in mind that you want the game to tick over nicely.

• Played on a small board (enough to accommodate the number of players and beasts)
• Include plenty of difficult terrain which affects everyone
• Fight until there is ONE gang left standing
• Initiative is decided as per normal with a roll-off going from highest to lowest
• HOWEVER – The highest roller can decide where in the turn they want to activate
• After TURN FOUR the Badger Bouncer* wades through the tavern door!
• They attack anyone close to them and keep fighting until taken down or takes everyone out

It all sounds pretty simple, right? Well, I hope so and it would be fun to see how this works for everyone out there. Maybe you can already see some problems with the rules? I’m sure I intended for it to be that unfair.

Well, making it even more unfair is the Tavern Brawl Table! At the start of each turn, you’ll roll a d10 to see what unfortunate (or fortunate) event triggers as the brawl gets out of hand.

• Just Keep Fighting – Nothing Of Note
• My Drink Was Spiked – A random fighter from a gang becomes Stunned
• You’re My Best Mate – Randomly choose a brawl in progress – those fighters now consider themselves allies!
• Glass The Fool! – One member of each gang grabs beer steins and starts throwing (counts as throwing knives) for one turn
• I Spy Gold! – A random gang member’s purse splits open and is fair game. +2 to Strike Roll Offs against that beast!
• Hold On, I Need A Drink – One member of each gang can down a pint and heal d6 wounds
• I Didn’t Say Anything! – Add an innocent beast to the centre of the tavern who “insulted” a random gang member (you must attack him this turn if you can!)
• The Barkeep’s Boon** – A random gang member gains the luck of the tavern owner (he bonks someone on the head) and gains a re-roll this turn
• You Call That A Knife! – A chest appears on the random table with a double-handed weapon inside (anyone can pick it up)
• What Did You Feed Him! – A random fighter from a gang becomes Fearsome

When it comes to elements like the “I Didn’t Say Anything!” event, just pick a random miniature from your collection (preferably someone civilian looking without a weapon) and add them into the mix. Also, make sure to re-roll if an event happens twice in a row!

As I mentioned above, these rules will no doubt make things very interesting indeed and throw the game out of balance. So be it, it is a tavern brawl after all!

I have tried this game out once (so, this is very new) and it worked (sort of). It needs tweaking but if anyone has any ideas I’d love to read them in the comments down below. Remember to keep it simple!

*I would recommend the Slave Badger from the Burrows & Badgers range.

**Maybe use the Hare Barkeep in your games!

Find out more on my Blog.

Got some time this weekend on stream (can follow me HERE) to finish off this Hare Warrior and Mist-ghast – models both old and new from Burrows & Badgers.

I think that the fleshshade I used on the armour here worked as a cheap way to do rust and worn armour. Overall, I think both models came out quite well!

I am very tempted to pick up a few more Burrows & Badgers miniatures just because – although I think painting up the Slave Badger would be a good kit to do in this more grimdark look.

I know the blood effect on the sword doesn’t look perfect but I think it works to make the Hare look that little bit more dangerous.

I am very much looking forward to seeing what other Mist-ghast figures Oathsworn have lined up for their Kickstarter that might be landing in October.

I thought I would pick up another miniature from Burrows & Badgers and try a different style of paint job on it, one which is a bit more grimdark.

I still started with a Wraithbone undercoat as I find it easier to see the details on the miniature compared to undercoating the miniatures in black. This then led me to work on choosing the right colours for this Hare and Mist-ghast.

After about an hour and a half I got them to this position. The Hare has all of his fur finished and the start of the bronze armour in the works. Shortly after this, I washed the miniature but I’ll come back to that as part of my live stream on Sunday (give me a follow HERE!).

The Mist-ghast was also painted up with some darker colours with grey for its ruined tabard followed by regular iron/steel for the chainmail and such. You’ve also got the darker bone in there too.

All of this will get highlighted up away from the Nuln Oil eventually and then I’m going to work on doing the green balefire for the miniature which should provide a wonderful contrast to the undead miniature.

I am then going to play around with some rust effects using a flesh tone wash AND also see about adding some blood to the sword of the Hare to make it feel extra grimdark.

So, I thought it would be neat to try my hand at painting up the bust I got from Oathsworn Miniatures at a gaming event last year. Here it is base coated…

…and here it is after it has been washed and then painstakingly highlighted and tweaked whilst I was on stream!

I have never painted a bust before but I think it came out quite well! I really need to work out a way to hold one of these without touching the bust!

I thought I’d snap the final two miniatures I painted from the collection (for now). They are aptly two Mice which is more or less how I started with the game/range.

First up is this Mouse Highlander who I am rather proud of. I think I’ll call him Thistle.

Then, we have the Mouse Battledancer which I was kindly sent my Oathsworn Miniatures as I forgot to include her in my recent order!

I think I’ll be calling her Osha.

So there we have it…for now. I think I’ll tinker around with the wagon some more soon but currently, it’s sitting half-finished.

The call of Star Wars is strong right now haha.

The last few miniatures have been added into the collection now and I’ve finally painted everything Burrows & Badgers I own (bar a few terrain pieces etc). So, I thought I’d show off the basing technique for the models again.

First up, you’ve got the ashy/tundra texture which goes on as a base for the base.

Then, once that has dried, I work in some grass which is spread out in patches across the model’s base.

This also helps to hide some of the places where the tundra mix hasn’t quite worked and shows off the obvious joins between the miniature and the base. It also helps fill in those gaps in the slotta bases too.

Finally, each of the miniatures gets a few flowers, a bit of greenery and tall grass to make it feel less flat and also give the miniatures some scale.

This then works for all of the miniatures in the collection and the flowers help to give them all a nice bright feel. Even though the world of Burrows & Badgers is quite dark, the miniatures for me have always been about brightness and vibrancy, breaking me away from greens and browns and I think the flowers help.

So, here they all are. The final selection of finished miniatures with all of their bases complete.

This fellow is the leader of the Stoatbart family and is looking to protect their cargo from bandits!

You’ll also be glad to know that I have started work painting the wagon above…although it’s not in as many pictures as Lloyds!

It needs a lot more work but it should come together very nicely. Then I just need to work on the cargo which came with the set and we’re good to go.

I took some time yesterday to work on another character from the latest Burrows & Badgers Kickstarter. Here we have the Squirrel Ranger/Rogue.

There are a few mistakes on the arrow and around the tail that I need to sort out, but I think that the deep orange mixed with the earthy greens and such really worked on the model and it was fun to paint.

Now I just need to work out what I’m going to do next from the collection. I have a few more characters from the Kickstarter and a wonderful cart to have a go at as well!

This fellow was sitting on my painting table for a long time unfinished. I had done all the base layers and washes but just hadn’t gone back in and highlighted him. Well, the Frog Burgher is now all done save his base work…

I went for lots of big bold colours on him to show that he has plenty of wealth from his various endeavours at the market. He seems like the perfect NPC for my characters to rob!

I have a lot of miniatures which haven’t been given their proper basing love and care yet. I’m in two minds about just waiting till I have finished painting all of the miniatures I have left waiting for Burrows & Badgers, or diving in and at least finish a few of these now so I’ve cleared the backlog!

Maybe I’ll have a flower, flock and fluff session later tonight!

So it was great to get stuck into a few games of Burrows & Badgers. I really don’t get to play miniatures games anymore so this is a nice annual outing for possibly my favourite game.

The day was broken down into four games and I took just a few pictures of how it played out.

The first game was with Ian who had never played the game before. So, predictably I lost! A lot of the fault came down to me really not positioning my archers and melee folk in the best places…and not using my items and spells to the best of my ability.

I wasted a lot of arrows and such and spread damage, and also potentially picked the wrong target to try and assassinate in his warband. It was still a really fun game with lots of ups and downs but I didn’t kill a single fellow!

Game Two was against a chap called Byron and it was one where we had to get our characters off the opposite end of the board. It was a pretty bloody affair with a few deadly shots here and there plus a deadly fight with a hulking badger!

I did come out with a win in the end which was a nice springboard back into the rankings and it was also great to talk about skirmish games and RPGs with Byron afterwards.

Next, I played against Jo, the other half of the Oathsworn Miniatures team and her warband of feisty female animals. We had to pilfer jewels from the other side of the board and run off with them.

Whilst the game started out well with Robyn, my Otter Archer taking out a poor Mole in one shot, the Badger leader of Jo’s warband then charged forward and took control of the treasure.

The other side of the board featured a very lengthy showdown between Marian, my Hare and Tom the Kingfisher and I’m fairly sure Jo and I scripted an entire short kids TV show during the scenario, making up reasons as to why the fighting was unfurling as it was…it was great fun!

I will still remember the awesome clash between Granny and Much, my Mouse Thief and Scarlet the Otter hunting down Jon my frenzied Ferret as he tried to chase down a pesky Mole!

The final game was against Peter who I’d played first time around when I went to the event last year. This time around I came out the better after two very gruelling games where the first went very differently from the second.

Whilst in the first I was more or less locked down away from the objective, in the second I was able to roll more perfect dice than I think I’ve ever done before and shoot down his warband from range.

My MVP for the game went to Jon (pictured above) because he was able to charge off the objective and hunt down Peter’s Otter, keeping him in combat and slowly chopping him down. Also, Scarlet, my Mouse was able to pick off his spellcaster too.

I also have to give props to Robyn, my Otter Archer who was the leader of the warband and was able to kill two characters with one perfect shot. The second time he did it was against a very fearsome looking dog who was charging towards the point only to catch an arrow between the eyes!

It was a really fun day playing a game that I adore with wonderfully friendly people. I can’t wait to start painting up more from the collection and then diving into the Kickstarter which is hopefully coming up at the end of August.

A few more images because I met the single entry limit!

So I snapped some of the cool warbands that people had put together from the Northymbra At War Tournament held in Rushden this year by Phoenix Gaming. Lots of folks were in attendance and it was great fun playing against my four opponents.

So, I got stuck in and painted up two more characters for Burrows & Badgers. The first of these is the Fox Mage who I was terrified to paint as the orange/ginger fur is such a different colour to the purple of the robes!

I really liked how she turned out. She might require a little bit more work on the robes and cloak, highlighting etc, but otherwise I think that she is very much a finished piece now.

I really enjoyed painting a creature which didn’t just have brownish fur as well and she really stands out on the tabletop!

I also took some time to paint up the miniature I picked up from Salute this year, the Mouse Nun who I’m using as Maid Marian in my Robin Hood-themed warband.

A Mousemaiden’s Tail anyone? I thought she came out really nicely and whilst I know that the eyes should be black on a lot of these creatures I just can’t bring myself to do it…I might try it though as they look a little blind unfortunately sometimes.

It will certainly be something I go back and do later on once I’ve painted more miniatures I think.

Now the warband pieces are complete, even if the Kickstarter bundle isn’t, so I’m slowly working towards having a warband worthy of a tournament in July.