Tuesday 8 May 2018

Rural Tranquility - Fogou Scenery Set (Part 2)

In my last post, I showed off the forthcoming Fogou Models terrain set that I've just painted up. It's worth taking a look at the set in a bit more detail to see how I might use the set.

Besieged Space Marines defending a ruined farm from a horde of greenskins. That sounds familiar!

I suspect many of you Rogue Trader fans have looked at the 'Battle at the Farm' scenario and wished there was a nice set that would allow you to recreate it. I suspect it's no coincidence that the Fogou terrain set might provide you with a good solution.

The classic (and possibly unplayable) 'Battle at the Farm' from the Rogue Trader rulebook.

I took a few moments to lay out a simple table along the lines of the 'Battle at the Farm' schematic. By supplementing the Fogou set with some palm trees (my orchard is palm dates rather than apples or plums), a small hill and a fuel tank to represent the generator, I could mount a more than passable Battle at the Farm.


I certainly plan to use the set for some gaming at the forthcoming Bring Out Your Lead event over at Foundry in August.

And what use would a farm be if there were no farmers? Just like Scrawler in the previous blogpost, I wanted to use the farm as an excuse to add some more figures to my collection. This time I fancied some rural backwoods types, and I looked no further than Citadel's Dredd and Gothic Horror ranges.

Mad Jack and his younger brother Hilly Bill have lived in the hills around Black Dust Gulch for as long as anyone can remember. They run a small-holding, farming groxen, distilling a vile hooch and generally keeping themselves to themselves. A small skirmish between a squad of Space Marines and some unruly orks saw their family homestead destroyed, so the brothers have retreated to a small shack in the bush, only emerging for resupplies of necessities.


I kept the colour scheme on the pair relatively close - the yellow patches on Mad Jack's jacket match Hilly Bill's shirt. I also didn't spend a huge amount of time painting them - probably 3 hours in total for the pair - after all, they're supporting cast rather than principal actors!

To avoid a contemporary denim look, Hilly Bill got grey overalls rather than blue.

The Fogou terrain really does provide a great backdrop for setting up some lovely scenic shots. It was also great to use it as a springboard to get some more figures painted.

Grox farming requires skill, patience and the willingness to loose body parts.

26 comments:

  1. This is a brilliant post. Where've you had those Ultrmarines lurking?

    I really like the pots you have lurking in the corner of the Grox shot.

    The farmers really add a lot of narrative to the terrain set you've painted.

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    1. The Marines are a group I picked up a few years ago. They're not my paint jobs and I keep meaning to repaint them, but they're perfectly acceptable as is. And useful for the occasional scenic shot too ;)

      I figure that if a terrain set can encourage me to paint up some accompanying figures, that's a very favourable outcome :)

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  2. I dunno I'd leave the marines as is. BUt those farms add a new depth, to scenarios. Looking forward to blasting them this summer. ;) You guys are all twisting my arm on this Fogou stuff.

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    1. I have a feeling that the Marines will stay on my "one day I'll do something with them" list for years. At least a painted squad has a function, rather than a freshly stripped one.

      Fogou stuff is great. You know you want it ;)

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  3. Awesome flashback to the Battle at the Farm. This post almost felt like a lost "behind the scenes" look at the Farm, and the people who ran it, that was simply never published all those years ago. Good job, and thanks!

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    1. The lost pages from the editor's desk perhaps? It really would be great to run the scenario with all the little additional elements - a few farmers defending their home, the ramshackle agricultural vehicles etc. Cheers!

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  4. Brilliant mate - perfect for all your farmyard battle needs! Looking forward to seeing this (and you) at BOYL :-)

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    1. Absolutely! Can't wait to catch up and get some games on the table :)

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  5. Your really very good at taking staged shots Axiom. They look good enough to be in a magazine!

    I like the hill billies :) They're the most suitable candidates for their chosen careers i.e. food for Grox.

    Cool :)

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    1. It's all about layering details to deceive the eye! Most of my shots are the same half dozen items of terrain and scatter crammed into the viewfinder!

      Hillbillies are certainly stupid enough to end up as dinner too!

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  6. I love the farmers and their grox. Nicely done.

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    1. Thanks Sean. I did make a 3rd guy that I didn't end up painting. Sort of like the 3 stooges I guess. A future grox farm extension could be on the cards.

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  7. This is all great !
    Battle at the farm is totally playable but unfortunately impossible to win for the orks, that's all !

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    1. As long as the ork player knows they can't win, then they can establish some alternative objectives. Like storming defences with grots. Tallying the number of stupidly crazy kills. That kind of thing!

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  8. Sweet pieces, I love the farmers too! About the scenario conditions, I think it might be interesting to replay it with a few modifications. What you said above about grots, or adding consecutive waves of Orks, making the Space marines have limited ammo... You have the minis, you have the scenery! We want you to play it and tell us!! :D

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    1. I'll definitely take a look at the scenario options and will see what can be done! I do like the idea of a wave of grots ;)

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  9. Looks fab mate. I too think the marines look fine as is, though I am sure your own take would make those classic sculpts shine all the more.

    Think I only ever played the farm scenario with the cardboard pieces from the back of my old rulebook, prior to actually owning my own minis...

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    1. Thanks Dai! I have a stack of upainted Marines to go, so I'd start with those first anyway. In a suitably retro paint scheme of course - maybe Mentor Legion or something in an RT camo scheme.

      Playing with card pieces before having minis is something I suspect a lot of us did!

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    2. Those classic schemes from the Badab illustration is why I started painting my solo marine scout mini in the yellow Space Sharks camo. (And made an utter pig's ear of it, so will have to start all over again.)
      Not familiar with the Mentor Legion camo tho, hope you find the time and energy to try it out!

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    3. The Mentor Legion are white with green helmets and pads or pad trim. The yellow camo Space Sharks looks brilliant, but I can well imagine how difficult it would be to execute!

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  10. That's a really nice post.

    Have you checked out the 40k 4th ed Battle at the Farm re-imagining? It bulks out the ork force, possibly making it a bit more playable.

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    1. I really should check it out - I must have missed that scenario for 4th edition. Cheers cheetor!

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  11. An inverse color scheme for the pair of figures ... spot on. And nicely done!

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    1. Inverting colour schemes is an age old approach - but it still works I think!

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