Turnip 28 - The Squelchy Wargame

What? My new favorite game. I'm still working on my oldschool imagi-nations project (2nd regiment is two-thirds finished!), but I took a little side trip last week after discovering this wonderful world...

Churned mud and swampland stretches out into the gloom. Thick fog hangs heavy in the air. Rolling barrows loom out of the murk. A strange root writhes underfoot. A thousand years after the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, the world has fallen into decay. Endless war has led to technology stagnating, and beautiful countrysides have been ground to a thick ruin under the boots of a million dead men.

Now, nothing grows. A bizarre and horrible root covers the land; strangling the life from the trees, poisoning the water, and filling the sky with an acrid mist. Humanity barely endures by harvesting this disgusting tuber. It twists their bodies and minds. It infests their thoughts with divine visions of lost vegetables.

Bizarre religious orders have formed. They stockpile abandoned weapons unearthed by the twisting roots. Marching in column under fluttering banners, brandishing mud-clogged muskets and rusted bayonets, they are cruel parodies of long-forgotten armies on the march.

Gather your troops. Fix bayonets. Devote yourself to the roots.

Turnip 28 is based on the art of Max FitzGerlad (Patreon). The rules for the game were designed by Gaetano Ferrara (from Onepagerules) and are still a work in progress—a living rulebook—though already very playable. There are very few "official" miniatures (yet), and the concept is that you build your own units by combining various plastic historical kits from Perry Miniatures, Warlord, Victrix, Wargames Atlantic, etc.

It was this aspect of the game (and the great artwork) that inspired me to have a go at creating an army. In Turnip 28, your force is called a "regiment" and consists of a number of noblemen known as Snobs. The basic game consists of one Toff (your general) and two Toadies (lieutenants), but you can play with a different number if you like, as long as both sides field the same strength force. Each Snob has one unit (the Toff gets two, 'cause he's the Toff) so for a basic game, you have four units chosen from several different types of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. You can also pick a Cult, which gives you access to unique units and special abilities, but this adds complexity (and maybe some balance issues). Your regiment can actually change Cult allegiance between games, so you're not stuck with only one theme!

This isn't meant to be a review (other than I LOVE it) so I'm not going into more detail than that (the book is free - download it and have a look). It was really just to show what I've come up with over the weekend... Introducing the first unit of the Quindian 69th!

This is a unit of Fodder, 12-strong (like in Donnybrook), I spent spare time during last week building the models and literally painted the entire group Saturday morning. I'm planning another unit of the same because these guys are awful (pretty much EVERTHING in Turnip 28 is hapless) and I'll need to numbers on the battlefield. These models are based on Warlord Prussian Landwher with heads from Victrix, Warlord, Perry, and North Star (Frostgrave). There are various bits from other kits and some greenstuff work as well. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

I'll have more soon, plus I should have my next 48-model regiment for the Gran Duchy of Sazir finished this week!