BasEx D&D: Relieve the Outpost!

On the frontier lands of the Duchy of Karameikos, 

a BasEx battle begins!

The logical adventure after "B1: In Search of the Unknown" is of course the classic [and better known] "B2: The Keep on the Borderlands" which I have in original edition from my sister's box set [I still have some of the crappy blue dice, too!].

As most of the group is familiar with and played B2, it was understood that while "meta" feel would be the same, the specifics would be greatly changed.

In any event, the group explored - at some risk - the abandoned fortress of Quasqueton, home of the mysterious and unspellable heroes Rogahn and Zelligar. Achieving great things brought them accolades from Duke Stefan III, of the Duchy of Karameikos. And as success is invariably rewarded with greater demands by the authorities, the Duke soon summons them for another task: travel to The Keep on the Borderlands and aid the castellan in his struggle against the forces of Chaos.

After being entrusted with Duke Stefan's writ of employ, the party travels upriver on the sailing barge Steach Queen. Captain Seldin smells of salt and his bowlegged gait indicates that the river trade is a new adventure for him. He says he served the Duke for many years, trading from Specularum to Black Eagle Barony, and even to the outer islands. He seems unworried by the wild lands. "After a few brushes with  pirates and the deep monsters, river work is tame work" he says laconically.

The destination is Overfals, a settlement far into the borderlands between The Northern Wilds and the frontier the good Duke claims. There at the trident meeting of the Black, Cruth and Steach Rivers, the Duke has rapidly built a keep to give substance to his claim. This strategic location controls all river traffic between it and Krakatos, his main fortress, and Specularum. There are no roads, so the only efficient [and profitable] highway is the river - and the Duke means to control it!

It is 20 Karameikon Leagues from Krakatos to Overfals [60 miles - the Kn League being the distance a man can walk or a horse-drawn cart can cover in an hour. 8 Leagues is held to be a Daylong, a day's travel]. With each mile upriver there are fewer signs of human habitation. Some frontiersman are occasionally seen walking in the distance or along a rough trail near the river; these wave and bandy words with the captain and crew. It is a well-watered land of rolling hills, deep dales, stands of trees and tall grasses laced with wildflowers. Good land, but as yet untamed.

Rowing in the morning then sailing with the afternoon up-river breeze, the Queen makes slow but steady progress.  Laden with supplies for the keep and the settlement, as well as the party and its possessions, the barge is solid but not swift! Still, in two days it makes port at Riverton, a frontier fort of dirt walls surmounted by a palisade that protects a natural cove on a riverbend.

Here, the party and crew take a rest, a few supplies are off-loaded, and the captain checks with the garrison commander about any threats further up river. Suddenly, a sentry's shout alerts the garrison: a wayrider is galloping to the fort from an outpost  - they are under attack! The sentry waves back, and Watch Corporal Pelgar begins gathering a few mounted men. "Coming, my newfound friends?" he asks the party.

The party accepts the challenge and quickly saddles their mounts; all are ready to depart when the wayrider arrives. Breathlessly, he says that the small post was gathering supplies for Riverton, when a pack of wild men and wolves attacked. "They're like nothing I've ever seen" says the soldier, wide-eyed. "I don't know which is worse, the howling of the men or the wolves!" 

   "Do they have any bows or missiles," asks Pelgar, all business.

   "None I saw, Corporal. Our archers were holding them at bay as I rode off."

   "Let's go!" says Pelgar.

All of the party except Alcibiades and Gordo ride off - they'll help the garrison if needed and protect the party's supplies meanwhile. Pelgar brings an archer and a swordsman, he himself being an archer - this is all the garrison can mount. The party therefore makes up most of the rescue effort, mounted on a mix of riding horses and ponies. The dwarf rides behind Major the Magician, muttering in his beard about "infernal animals, a dwarf belongs on his own two feet" etc, etc.

The group rapidly sight the outpost. It is on a small rise surrounded by scrub and a few trees. The horses become skittish as a disturbing howling grows louder the closer they get. The attackers caper and leap in a bizarre fashion as they circle the outpost. At first glance, their antics make no sense - but as the party dismounts and gets closer, a sprinkling of arrows are seen sticking up out of the ground where the soldiers had wasted their shafts.

"I'll try to get a clear space to spelcast a few of them" says Major.

"Do it," says Pelgar. "We'll head left and secure the wagons" he says to his pair of soldiers. The party heads straight towards the ruined building in which the outpost lies, Rego the Hermit [cleric] leading the way with Zarak the dwarf to his right. Following behind them are Major [MU] and Pendo the halfling. In the rear, Kandolin [fighter] notches an arrow and prepares to loose it.

Below, about three Rounds into the combat.

Three soldiers in the ruins, center. Some provisioners cowering with the wagons, lower left. At top and left, 6 wild men and 3 wolves. One man is down with an arrow deep in his chest, top, but nearby another and a wolf attack a mace wielding corporal in charge of the outpost. At left, two of the Berserkers struggle to free themselves from the Web Spell cast by Major. 

Near the provisioners, bottom left, archery has taken down one of the fearsomely mutated wolves. The swordsman and Rego advance to support the lone archer just inside the wall.

Scene at top: One wildman down, one advancing behind the swifter wolf! The corporal uses the wall to protect his side, but his own archer takes an optimistic shot at the wolf and instead grazes him!  "After we survive this, Pitsek, we're going to have a long talk over ale YOU are buying," shouts the corporal over his shoulder.

all are classic metal Empire and Chaos Citadel figs

Scene at lower left. A wolf is down but another is charging forward. Two wild men have been webbed. As they flail about in a frenzied fashion, they begin attacking each other in their rage! Something is not right with these guys...With a few arrows in it, a wolf goes down just in front of the swordsman. ""Ba'nuts balls," swears the swordsman, "that one was mine!"  The archer shrugs nervously...

classic metal Citadel figs, empire and chaos; at left, Old Glory medieval carts & figs

cloth is Battlesystems Terrain; plastic building ruins are GW from MESBG

Round the right side, Zarak steadily trots forwards. Pendo lets fly a shaft into the posterior of the wolf, provoking frenzied howls and unseemly whines. The corporal swings doggedly at it, encouraged by it's wounds - surely it is near death?? But he himself has several wounds, though he desperately fights on, knowing help is at hand.

classic Heritage adventurers, halfling and dwarf [click]

The well-balanced attack by the relieving party was just in the nick of time. Despite this, one archer was nearly killed by a wolf, and the corporal severely mauled. Rego quickly cast a cure light wounds on the archer, who returned from the brink of death with one hit point. The corporal would have to wait for Gordo to heal him.

None of the warriors or wolves ran away or surrendered.  They fought to the death with their last breath, and those with any life left had to have it forcibly taken from them.  Close up, they were even more unnerving - their eyes especially, which were black as coal except for a fiery vertical slit at center. The wolves had fearsome bone spikes in unlikely places, or festering wounds on their flanks...

Who - or who - were they?  Perhaps we should ask "Whose were they??"

*** break ***

In game terms, I used a 1"=10' ground scale, which makes it easy to put BasEx encounters on the table. There were three Initiative rolls per turn for the outpost,  attackers and relief party. Once characters were in melee, they rolled to strike first against their opponent within that Initiative order, i.e. regardless of which Side had the Initiative, in melee the fight would be resolved by individual figure Initiative. This neatly sequenced shooting and spells at distance while high Dexterity characters got their Initiative advantages close up.

I simplified the phased melee sequence of the book using the simultaneous action option on B23. Each character had one action when it was their time to act.

Combat Sequence B24
Note: Check Morale @ First Death & 50% casualties [-1if losing] B27;
   - Hirelings are +/- Hirer’s Charisma B7

1) Initiative roll-off, Winning Side Acts first B25. 

Actions:

- Cast Spell / Move / Shoot / Move & Shoot / Move & Melee / “Task”
Modifiers: DEX [-3 to +3], Range [+1 / -1], Cover [-1 to -4], Magic [+/- ?],
- Movement & Shooting [+1 Shooter Still; +1 Target Still; -1 Shooter Moved > ½]

- Task = Oil & Holy Water B26 – spread or throw [missile], other Actions
- If in Melee, may only Fighting Withdrawal or Retreat B25.
- May run at x3 rate; but out of breath next Round [-2 to Hit / +2 being Hit], B24.      

     -- Figs that run can't do anything else.
- Fumble / miss on a natural ‘1’, Critical Hit for x2 Damage on a natural ‘20’.

2) Initiative Losing Side Acts. As above.

There was some confusion about moving and shooting.  Later, I clarified that the rules allow missiles to move and shoot, but they can't initiate melee on a turn they shoot, i.e. Shoot then move into melee. Subsequently, I decided to reward shooters for remaining stationary [aiming] and shooting at stationary targets. Moving over 1/2 is penalized. This gives shooters some realistic choices that balance considerations of changing position versus aiming. Spells require no movement - or distractions - at all to be cast successfully. 

I forgot about Running, which is 3x the normal rate but you can't do anything else, obviously.  It results in large distances covered, which is awkward on a small table space. It may concede Initiative to the opposition, depending on the dice.

I also made a mistake with the Web spell, which I wrongly assumed had a 240' range like Sleep, Fireball, et al.  It doesn't - it's range is only 10'! That would be 1" on the tabletop battle.  Ultimately, it didn't matter, as Major could have cast Sleep instead with the same results.

I've no problems with the system generally. It requires decisions on the fly by the DM about bonuses and penalties [there are too many possible situations to cover them all], but organizes fighting into a series of discrete, easily managed actions. All I did with the simplified sequence was make it more fluid by resolving actions simultaneously by Initiative, an option in the rules, p. B23.

One may not think of D&D as a skirmish game, but there's very little difference between a wargame skirmish game and an RPG skirmish, except the background information and the greatly fleshed out characters.

More to come!

BasEx Dungeons & Dragons: RPG or Skirmish Combat Game??

Time to get back to the BasEx!

Original 1980 Tom Moldvay edition - still available!

After working with Chainmail for a while and throwing several battles for the guys [click], I was at a *decision point* about my old D&D stuff, that had been carted around for years, somehow surviving. I mostly just kept it for nostalgia and the many lovely hand-drawn illustrations.  But eventually, a friend and I decided to see if we could get a few people together to play Basic / Expert D&D [BasEx], from the 1980 editions. This was perfect since we've known each other since 1980, but never played D&D together! 

The first result of that decision was to work on the battle system for it, that used the BasEx framework as closely as possible [click]. Why?  Because it's me...!  And I can't imagine any fantasy campaign that doesn't end in a big battle of some sort, so may as well prepare in advance.  I also wanted to work with the mechanics, in general, and this would give me plenty of action.

We were successful in getting a regular group to play, and I ran them through a modified "B1: In Search of the Unknown" first, just to get things started. This went well, and we all like that BasEx stresses decisions and dice rolls over game mechanics, and is therefore rules light.  

It should be noted that many BasEx publications are still available, either in print, pdf downloads, or scattered around the web in various forms.  Several Fb groups, Wikipedia, and RPG Geek support them, and provide easy start points.  These include: Original D&D, 2nd Ed "Chainmail" (yellow), and numerous modules:

Basic D&D, still available for $5: [CLICK]

The modules B1–B9 include: 

B1 In Search of the Unknown, 

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, 

B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, 

B4 The Lost City, 

B5 Horror on the Hill, 

B6 The Veiled Society, 

B7 Rahasia, 

B8 Journey to the Rock, and 

B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond.

First 9 modules, plot arcs: [CLICK]

Overall, I found the mechanics pretty straightforward, with lots of explanation of one Turn [10 min] in an Encounter B23, and one Round [10 seconds] of combat B24. While most of it is common sense, it is well thought out and easy to follow [although I made a QRS for myself and the players].

As a tabletop skirmish game, BasEx is simple:

A) Roll for Initiative by all Sides in a game [usually 2 but complex situations could result in more]. In a tie, both sides may act simultaneously if situation allows.

B) Initiative winner acts first, using below sequence. 

   1. Morale Checks.

   2. Movement.

   3. Missile Shooting.

   4. Magic Spells.

   5. Melee.

C) Initiative Loser acts, or the Side with next highest Initiative roll, etc.

Further explanations about rolling Initiative to strike first in melee, movement while in Melee, Missile Fire, Cover, etc, all take up about 4 pages. There is also a short but interesting suggestion on how to use simultaneous resolution of mechanics to take care of the "who acts first" questions.

Combat - shooting and melee - is simple. You roll to hit cross-referencing attacker's Level versus defender's Armor Class. If you hit, your roll Damage. 

- Modifiers include Dexterity, Magic, Cover, and Range 

- The higher your level the easier it is to Hit

- The better the defender's armor class the harder it is to Hit.  

Magic spells are all given in concise explanations that include Range, Duration and Effect.  As D&D is a magical world, a lot of the tactics will involve careful use of spells to gain advantages and confound your opponent.  However, depending on the type of spells your Magic User(s) have, you will take very different approaches in an Encounter [scenario]. So it is not just firing off magic missiles and fireballs!  You can use Charm Person, Light, Sleep, Mirror Image, and Phantasmal Force [an illusion] to confuse, misdirect, and outwit your opponents. Floating Disc and Levitate can gain you position advantages, especially in steep or wooded terrain.

Clerics have a wide variety of protection and preservation spells [prayers] to help their side.  They can use Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil, Remove Fear to buff up their side.  As Clerics can use all spells of any level they have access to, it is easier for them to prepare for an encounter with enough warning, preferably a day. This can be managed by the Encounter's back story and explanation, but is obviously to advantage if the players know their likely opponents, situation, terrain, and plan an ambush.  If the players are themselves ambushed, Clerics are more likely to have picked prayers with wide rather than narrow application, e.g. Cure Light Wounds.

BasEX as an Historical or Fantasy Skirmish Game

At the back of my mind, the reason to use BasEx D&D as a battle game is that it is a relatively simple combat game with all the resources you need to pit two sides against each other, from move rates to mundane combat capabilities. However, if you wish to throw in the fantastic - magic and prayers - you can easily do so.

Obviously, there is an EXTENSIVE amount of information on how to match players against opponents [often but not always monsters], manage the critical opening stages of an encounter, and how it develops into a conflict. As an RPG, it is best seen as a - large - tool kit to provide numerous Encounters on land and sea, extensive background information, and many ideas for Encounters, from quests to more mundane sources of conflict.

Where's the genius and variety?

The game has relatively simple combat mechanisms, even if the Encounter's Host finds creative and logical / historical ways to handle the modifiers in the book. 

This may be seen by some gamers as a drawback in a wargame culture where sophistication is expressed as Special Rules with a multitude of modifiers for tabletop situations, and complex capabilities of various gadgets and weapons.  And neither fantasy / sci-fi nor Historical gamers have a monopoly of this sort of thinking.

Variety of weapons is modest but enough. It is more in the game's fantastic elements that the granular aspect of play variety is found. In effect, if you just change the names a bit and use different figures, the game would play equally well in a modern or sci-fi setting!

But more importantly, variety is found more from player decisions and the Encounter's terrain. Yes, the terrain is a key part of any Encounter, as it should be!

Player Decisions include shooting, maneuvering and fighting hand to hand, and how to use the terrain to give their characters advantage and disadvantage the opposition. If used, magic can be a significant element of player creativity as their Side works together, as a team, covering their Side's weaknesses and utilizing their strengths to win.

As D&D presupposes that one Side [at least] is going to be run by the Dungeon Master [DM] / Host, there is a cooperative element of "everybody against the machine" which is very enjoyable and used in numerous historical table top games like "B Troop Ain't Coming Back" and the Terminator Genisys board games.  This leaves the Host in a place to present the players with enjoyable challenges and see that they have fun, significantly reducing the possibility of toxic competitors, rules lawyering, and personality clashes that can all-to-often spoil a head-to-head tabletop miniatures game.

As BasEx approaches gaming from a Host / Players cooperative direction, it is also easier for the Host to hide failures to plan for every possibility or mistakes with rules. And cooperative games are unusual in tabletop miniatures of every genre, from speculative fiction to historical simulation.

Therefore, I recommend you spend $5 for a pdf and $13 for a Print on Demand copy, then set yourself to creating some interesting scenarios with conundrums to challenge the most experienced and jaded Grognards. As long as they are open to "fantastic elements' being in a game, and even most historical gamers are, it is quite a tool kit of nearly endless possibilities to test tactical skill and improvisation for gamers of any level.

More to come!

Hoplimania 4: 15mm Labors...

Now that looks more like a phalanx!

First, time to repair spears that were knocked off. Trusty Dremel is at the ready!

repairing shields that were knocked off - they would have been fine if based on the magnetized ones like the batch of Panhellenic hoplites. These were just sliding around on the craft sticks in the tool box.

Cleaning and filing some more shields.

It's been hard to go from the massive GW "heroic 28mm" or whatever they are billed at this point to 15s again. Even the bigger one to left is pretty small to work with. I had to hold the shields still with a small piece of wire while I primed them.

Some more shield work - using Army Painter "Warpaints" metallic "Weapon Bronze".  It has a reddish hue to it, much like GW's "Dwarf Bronze".  I like that it has a mixing ball in it.  I gave it a good shaking then opened it up. However, it did leak a bit all over the top. Below pic you can see where I used the excess paint.

Another thing I didn't like is that despite the rattle pea, and a good mixing, the paint went on pretty thin over the black undercoat. You can see a lot of black from the first coat, and how thin the bronze layer is.

Below, you can see where the cap is cleaned off, and therefore how much paint was all over it.  Also, a second coat definitely made more of the bronze pigment show up. All I can say is from this initial first impression, is that there isn't a lot of pigment in Army Painter's "Warpaints" series, or at least not in the metallics.

Below, work continues on 32 more Panhellenic hoplites.  These are almost ready for decals and spears.

I did an experiment with black priming some of the Xyston figs, and white priming the other half - the two groups are identical, part of the command packs.

Confident that the armor will look better over the black, and the clothing on the white if it is bright colors.  Most of it is.

Their flesh is too pale.  Even with a wash, I think it will be too light for agriculturalists who are outside a lot.

The above are generic leaders for Greek hoplites. I plan to decorate their tunics and cloaks a bit to make them look "special".

The below are leaders for Spartans.  They are a lot easier to paint since they didn't wear much, and it is nearly all the same!  Crimson is the color.  I believe I can get away with painting their helmet crests in some different colors, not all red.  

The above were white primed. This meant I had to paint the bronze armor black.

The below were black primed.  With a light drybrushing over the black prime, I do feel like there's a noticeable effect on the top coat.  

The effect is a bit more noticeable here.  White prime left, black prime right.  You can see that there's a natural darkness in the folds over the black prime.  The white prime looks flat and consistently colored.

Won't know until I finish them up... but white v. black prime?  It all depends...

BASING

Yes, basing...the wargamer's quandary, and Ken Litko's success story! These fellows are on 40mm x 20mm bases, pretty much DBx sized. I believe they should be 40 x 15mm deep, but that won't fit them.  Issues to consider:

   a. The bases are not nearly deep enough or high enough to handle without picking the figs up by their heads or spears, which means too much scratching and damage from spears bending or popping off.

   b. I never will play DBA with single bases again. I'm double-basing all my 15mm ancients and putting them on thicker bases for easier handling. 40x40mm would work well for Age of Hannibal...

   c. Hoplites look good in groups of 16, 24, or 32. That's what a taxis should size out to be. Hoplomachia always uses two ranks of hoplites anyway, and Tearless Hoplite Battles is basing agnostic.

Another view without a lot of clutter. The bases underneath are 2" deep and 1.5" wide, so 50mm deep by not quite 40mm...uncertain about that depth, however...

...but the top-down view shows that the depth is just about right to keep the figs and their spears within the base edges and from getting scratched and banged together. The alternative is to remount the spears so fewer of them extend to the rear [which may be wrong, anyway, the grip point of balance was pretty far back].  Extra space will also make for the occasional diorama effect.  I wonder if 50x50 would work...45x45? My hoplite armies and their foes are a "closed project" in that I don't intend to play them in competitions using DBx, AOH, Triumph! or - Lord have mercy - ADLG.  I'm done with that sort of gaming.

Now the cavalry and light troops are not only smaller units, but they move as individual bases. So these may stay on single bases of 40mm by 30mm deep, and have 2-3 figs on them as appropriate.  Interestingly, DBA classed peltastes as psiloi (s), not Auxilia. This made them two figs a base. Thracians are Aux since they have big swinging choppers as well as javelins and a shield, so they are three per base.

Hoplomachia! Tearless Hoplite Battles, Men of Bronze, AMW, Tactica 2?  As long as the basing is consistent on both sides, it doesn't really matter.  Age of Hannibal does really need square bases for optimal play.

Project thoughts

To run a 4-player game, I want a lot of Hoplites, about double what I have. With proper basing they should be easily handled and therefore it can be possible to share with some friends.

44 lochoi  [double bases] total x 40mm = 176 cm, or 90cm of hoplite phalanx a side. At four lochoi a taxis, that will be 11 taxeis, each player managing some lights on their flank as well.  That will require 350 or so hoplites!

What could be better than the hoplites I have?  MORE HOPLITES!

There was a bit of a sale, so I picked up from Noble Knight three DBA army packs, one Spartan:

This has 44 hoplites altogether.

Two Theban:

For 32x2=64 more hoplites, all in Beoetion helmets, but...who cares?  I will likely use half as "Panhellenic" hoplites.  

Interestingly, the "Beoetion helmet" is a metal rendition of a cloth cap with two straps, front and back, which explains the unusual shape.

I also got 24 Phoenician Marines [look like everyday hoplites...what makes them "Phoenician" I dunno, but that's what it says on the label!] and about 24 more in three 8-packs of stray hoplites [command, early, late].  With some odds and ends, that will get me into the 300 realm for hoplites.

HOPLIMANIA TASK LIST 

1. Order more shield transfers / decals - Little Big Man?
2. Print out and assemble some Greek buildings - OHW scenario terrain.
3. Decide on the basing and double base the hoplites.
4. Corrections on 15mm figs: more darker hair, some gray, shield rims bronze or patterned, hat/helmet mold lines, clothing patterns, Thracian and other shield transfers, thin spray coat of matte varnish
5. Mix new miracle dip - thinner, with black tint [bright Med. sun effect].
6. Markers: Heroes, Strategoi, Sphagia, Couriers [running figs], Initiative, Defensive Stance Bonus, 

Well, it's nice to have a bit more time for gaming projects, and to be progressing.  Nothing quite as discouraging as boxes of dusty lead...!

Basic / Expert 1e D&D - Figs

Classic Sculpts for Classic Folks!

My mix of Grenadier and Heritage figs has survived these 40 years or so - amazingly!  No dry rot, etc.  Some were primed, some were painted and others just laying around in a box.  But, finally got motivated to go "old school" with my 1e Bas/Ex D&D and get some of these guys painted for a true Old School feel!

They are being used as Player Characters and their opposition.

These are half-painted Grenadier orcs from Mirliton in Italy.  They look better in real life.

Also, some of my pictures need better lighting and focus!

The below are Heritage, except for the guy kicking down a door, who - I believe - comes out of the Grenadier Fighters box set.

Fighter in back is a well-known classic from the Grenadier box set [I think], and a good sculpt.  The tree is nicely done and easy to paint up.

The above halflings are Grenadier, I think.  The bowman may be a Heritage...

These fellows are coming along nicely.  They are mostly done.  The thief is one of my favorite sculpts - lots of animation and personality.  The wizzo wasn't that interesting until I started to paint him, now I actually like him. He's definitely a traveling Wiz.

This fellow is a good sculpt.  Several things I like including the unusual helmet and the shield. Deserves a good paint job! I'd guess the tree is a Gondor reference?

This halfling archer has been getting more interesting as I've painted him.  I think he has a bit of a belligerent air about him, now that he's half painted!

This dwarf just has a great expression on his face.  Thoughtful?

And here he is, basically finished.

I may feel obliged to do the eyes, they seem pretty easy.

I think this halfling is picking a fight!

cloak is nicely sculpted, natural folds.

This fellow took some work, but he came out well.  It was easy to pick out the details.

These two have a lot of character.  The Wiz is clearly negotiating, while the thief appears to be stalking off with booty while telling someone else to piss off.

Gear on the back is nicely done, they look ready for a few weeks of adventuring!

Close-up of the thief.  He has a lot of charm and personality, IMHO. Especially now he's painted.

Well, there you have it. 

Boy, the sculpting style is like another planet compared to modern stuff, and these have great style and "character" despite being less realistic looking compared to modern sculpts.

But they also have charm, which many modern sculpts lack.

I hope you enjoy them and they inspire you to either paint your old lead or buy some new old lead!

Grenadier Figs Live on!

Great old-school boxes of awesome D&D figures arrive!

See these boxes at the Mirliton site  [CLICK].

When I started my retro nostalgic BasEx 1e D&D project, I knew I wanted to get my old figs painted up, and add some new figs to the few I had [about 30].  Some of them are Heritage and some Grenadier.  Heritage is gone, but Grenadier lives on!  It was taken over by an Italian group called Mirliton, SG, and clearly the whole thing is a labor of love for them. I eventually decided to purchase some from the line of "Fantasy 25-28mm Dragon Lords" as they look great in the pics and are true originals.  Prices were a little higher than for some figure lines, averaging around $5 a figure [or in figure equivalents for large figures] after all shipping, etc was paid.

Ordering process was painless, Mirliton has great communication, uses FEDEX and it all arrived in about 10 days.  The Purchase order came with it:

EDIT: great question on metal quality.  The metal can still be bent and shaped, but it is a lot less soft than the original lead of the old days.  I'd guess there is no lead in it, but it's a pewter - tin mix.

A few had mold lines running down the sides that were noticeable [some didn't]

And here are some pics of them cleaned and primed:

Mr. Molotov?

"Orcs - Dragon Lord" above and below

Hirelings and Specialists

Dragon Lord Monsters - the two biggest...

...and a smaller one - a Basilisk?  If so, very dangerous...

Can definitely recommend the figures and the seller.  In a gaming world where a lot of the sellers are part-time hobby projects themselves, it is refreshing to get great service at a reasonable price of around $5 a figure shipped to USA.

What are YOU waiting for??

😄