Review: Burrows and Badgers by Oathsworn miniatures.

Well its been rather quiet lately on the hobby front. Training courses, a weekend away with the family and the prep and packing involved with that has result in not much time painting. There has been some additions to the project log. So this will be my 'not going to salute loot post lol' Having sold all my Batman collection (well nearly all of it) I had a large sum of paypal burning a hole in my pocket. Some of it has gone on various purchase towards my Joe Project mainly weapons, heads, and equipment as well as a few more bodies for conversions. But as always with saying goodbye to the old we can say hello to the new! Please note the images are not from the rulebook just some I fond based on Redwall that I particularly like

As you can see at Brummie Towers the banner has changed to a rather marvellous looking mouse fellow possibly based on Martin the Warrior from the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques. I have been admiring the miniatures produced by Oathsworn miniatures for there Burrows and Badgers range a while now. A few online friends have been sharing their painted figures online as well and I had a good look at Michael and Jo's fabulous display stand at the Derby World show last year and the figures look gorgeous.

The game is set in Northymbria a sort of alternate England type map ( which of course makes your imagination run wild for some fun places to name). The warbands are comprised of anthropomorphic animals. Mostly with a Woodlands theme so expect to see Mice, Shrews, Dormice, Rats, Ferrets, Stoats, Weasels, Toads, Squirrels, Snakes, Bats, Sparrows, Foxes, Badgers and Hounds to name a few as well as a few exotic creatures which are fun to include but restricted as rarer creatures.

The game is aimed at Skirmish/Campaign play with rules for both one off games and playing through a campaign. Model count is quite small with anything from 5-10 figures per side. All creatures can be taken and mixed if you wish. There are four themed factions with there own rules so you can theme your warbands. Also there are rules for single race factions as well so you can take all mice or rats etc.



There are ways of creating your creatures and some natural stats are better than others but anyone can be ranged, melee or magic users.

The characters are defined by several stats which use different dice values to represent skill level so so starting at D4 and some can potentially go upto D20's (with advances during campaigns) Most test use opposed rolls. Movement is an obvious one though it is listed as dice value. What i find interesting is you can move upto you max value over normal terrain but when crossing some obstacles or entering difficult terrain you roll the dice to determine how far you can move through it.
Strike is your combat statistic and when attacking your opponent uses the dice under the block value. There is also Ranged vs Nimbleness, Concealement, Awareness, Fortitude and Presence.

Dice are rolled and to attack for example adding any relevant modifiers the winner being the one with the highest score and the difference being how many wounds are cause. If you roll the top value on a dice you also score whats called a perfect roll. A Perfect roll adds +7 to your score which allows even smaller creatures a chance of hurting and harming those biggers ones. Without going into the maths to much your far more likely to get a Perfect roll on a D4 (25%) versus a D10 (10%).

All creatures have 16 wounds each and various skills offset that so bigger creatures will be naturally tougher to bring down as they will soak some damage up.

The recent kickstarter saw the rule book being reprinted after updating and streamlining the first edition of the rules. I don't know the differences but I am told there are quite a few between first and second.

Some of the figures from the recent Rogues and Vagabonds kick starter are still to be added to the webstore as they are currently fulfilling that one. Thats expected to be added in 3-4 weeks. However there are still a ton of  figures to choose from.

So after much nail biting descion making I made my mind up and place my first order. (I have to say whats great is free shipping when you spend over £30!)  The order arrived last Monday and I have to say the packaging was absolutely top notch. Arriving in a firm card carton the figures where in a plastic box with layers of bubble wrap and packing peanuts securing the figures wonderfully.

The rulebook is hardback, full colour and weighs in at around 126 pages. Including some excellent drawings and photographs of painted figures. Its laid out in a straightforward format. Including the usual warband sheets at the back (which are also available online to download and print). I have to add that by ordering direct you get an extra scenario printed on coloured card and a free Mouse Burglar figure!

 My selection of Woodland animals. I mostly went for what I liked the look of the most. I have a soft spot for Owls and birds so they were high up on my to get list. So I got both Sparrows and the Barn Owl.

 As you can see they vary in size. With mice, shrews and bats being small creatures are around the 20mm height. Then moving upto medium creatures which are 30-40mm in height. The Barn Owl was the largest but I think the biggest creature that is done is the male badger model.

Fox Rogue, Hare Knight and Platypus Hunter!

 Bat Necromancer, Sparrow warriors and Adder Mage!

Mice and Shrews various, maids, warriors, mages and Pirate Shrews! Oh and a Shrew Errant Knight riding a Stag Beetle!

 Some close ups of the bigger characters the details is fabulous I am looking forward to getting these painted.

 Basing and clean up begins. The usual filing off of moldlines (I have to say very minimal)

The only issue I had was a slightly miscast owl which had a crack running all the way round the centre. But a quick email exchange and a replacement owl was recieved by Thursday which is absolutely spot on customer service. So not wanting to waste such a gorgeous model I have filled in the crack and added some 'boob' armour to the breast plate to create a female Barn owl. I also added a helmet inspired by the Guardians of Ga'Hoole. I need to file it smooth and base it.

Exciting times ahead hope you all keeping well I've had a catch up this morning on what everyone has been upto as well lots of exciting hobby projects going on.