Beautiful Brutality: decorated armor explained for a wargaming context pt.1

 When most people think of any pre-modern warrior, the images of knights in shining armor aloft galloping horses, or poor peasants in nothing more than a sackcloth shirt and a rusty spear come to mind. Whilst these stereotypes certainly weren't a false reality across history, the reality is a lot more nuanced, and for this articles purpose- colorful.

Armor, arming garments, and even weapons were often decorated in myriad ways- painted, textile covered, enameled, gilt, polished and heat treated to achieve various colors and designs. What does this mean for wargames and your minis? To most people I feel, not much, because in a miniature context, armor painted in non-metallic colors often doesn't read as armor unless you're handling a model up close. But if you crave color and love garish, clashing schemes- then this may be of interest.

Also too I want to touch on the  dichotomy inherent to armors and weapons of pre-modern Europe. That whilst they are all stunning sculptural, biomechanical pieces of art, they were made with the intent to kill. These are pieces whose existence is predicated on brutality and carnage, and that should be kept in the back of the mind when viewing these pieces, as art created to kill another human being isn't something we touch on today, and often keep those two aspect separate. 

To clarify before diving in, this article will be examining armors in a strictly European context, as that is what I know and am able to speak on with any real knowledge.

First I will start with painted armors- one of the most varied and prevalent forms of decoration throughout history, with the Greeks and their painted shields (And some evidence for the occasional painted helmet), to the first implementations of medieval heraldry, where knights would paint their armor in designs or symbols to be identified on the battlefield, all the way to modern militaries, whereby they use paint in a pseudo-heraldic manner in the form of unit markings. With it being such a widespread and near universal practice, there are myriad sources to draw from. Below are some painted armor from historical sources should you want a point to research more into this.

Fragments of murals from Tinell Hall at the Palau Reial Major, Spain. 13th Century.

A selection of painted Germanic Sallets from the late 15th & early 16th centuries. Also, here is a link to a lecture by Dr. Tobias Capwell (sick ass armor expert, def check him out, has some great youtube videos rating game armors lol). He touches on painted armor, its use cases, units in painted armor, and how Victorians created the myth of all armor being polished. Also he touches on different qualities of armor, how armor would be produced in large scales, and social meanings of armor. Painted armor talk begins at 38:30, but definitely watch or listen to the whole thing! 

https://youtu.be/COAIQPsgZWY?si=vDI3djI8icVLCNV7&t=2307

And a 17th Century Painted Cabasset from the Wallace Collection in the UK

Painted armor served many functions, protection from elements, identification, polishing a turd. Many armors and weapons were painted to protect it from the elements and to prevent rust. This protection also sometimes served a dual purpose in making low quality armors look nicer. Need 100 helmets sourced by the end of the month for your troops? The armorers won't have the time to make neat, symmetrical helmets en-mass. They're going to beat a piece of metal until it will vaguely fit on a head- its going to look ugly. Then passing those helmets off to painters will make the helmets look cohesive, and add decoration that makes a quickly produced piece look pretty decent. A good rule of thumb throughout history is that if an armor for war is painted, its of a fairly low quality, or is mass produced- as a quality clean and neat armor is expensive and will usually be bare metal as its sculptural beauty will stand on its own without need to be covered in paint to distract from imperfections. There are always exceptions to this rule of course! 

Lost track of time. Gonna have to end this here, but ill be following up with fabric covered armor and heat treated/gilt armor. Not doing a full history of any of this cause I could write a fucking book, but just wanna give a little taste to get the creative gears turning a bit!

Campaign maps should be treated like another character

I'm finishing up a rewrite of the fantasy game ive been working on for a bit now, Blood Red Blades, and am gearing up to do a playtest campaign. 

As with any good campaign you need a map:

Now to me, maps aren't just a piece of art to move your armies around on and provide a little bit of backdrop. I mean they totally can be if that's the function they need to serve, but they can be so much more. Growing up playing games like Mount & Blade, Total War, and growing up in the US, it always stuck out to me how much history and story is held in even the most simple of maps and the names upon them.

In Total war, after big battles, you see little memorials show up on the map to commemorate big battles that you fought, adding to the character and history of the map. Even though it has no game function, it always is fun to imagine what your armies feel marching through the sites of previous triumphs, or what they're thinking as they retreat through that same area being chased by 8 doom stacks of horse archers- all adding to the history and narrative of the game your playing, and to the land you're fighting across. 

Or even in real life, taking Minnesota for example. Just looking at place names, you have French- Fond Du Lac, Grand Marais, Roseau. Scandanavian- Palo, Toimi, Finland. Native American- Minnetonka, Minneapolis, Owatanna, Waseca, and lots of German as well. At first glance they're just place names, but when you look deeper, you start to ask questions. Why are they named in different languages? Who were the people that named it? Who was there first? Who is there now? Was the name changed at all? Why was this name chosen? 

It's these details and questions that can really help weave a narrative fabric for the map you are creating, and making the map itself a character in its own right, or even a narrative prompt for players to build off of for their armies and characters. 

Using the map I made for example- the gist of it is that it's an island off the coast of Ind that is being fought over by the Empire and Lizardmen. The map is created from the perspective of the Empire, using elements from factions present in the campaign. I named things to give all players something they can connect to and tie into their army. Prince Salzheim Bay & Salzheim lake- clearly empire names, but who are the named after? The patron of this endeavor, or a previous lord who first came here and named it after himself? The bay of Quxtal- is that a name of a prominent figure to the Lizardmen, the name of a diety, or just a descriptive name? Same with T'uxl lake and the Saurus woods. Shipwreck bay and sacrifice rock- who was shipwrecked, who was sacrificed and who was doing the sacrifice?

I added all of these little implications of stories to help engage players and maybe even drive narratives. Another aspect too is that with my game, Blood Red Blades, I have campaign and army events that can trigger things like NPC armies coming onto the map in the form of marauders, pirates, and peasant revolts, and random events like dragons being awakened, plagues being unleashed, or even a wildly rich foreign noble coming into the map and tanking the economy, making units and supplies prohibitively expensive until they leave (Mansa Musa expedition basically).  The map and its implied stories and history allows these "random" events to be woven organically into the campaign in a way that might not feel as natural if it was just a blank map with no names.

It also just sounds a lot cooler when you have things to name battles off of too- The battle of the boglands, The second battle of the Greenfields, the Massacre at Stonejaw peak, the skirmish at T'uxl lake.

Long story short, if you're doing a campaign game with the homies, make a map, and have everyone submit a few random names to be thrown on by the organizer, or have the organizer be sure to name stuff on the map after every faction in some way. It honestly may not even get used or noticed, but when it does, it'll add that extra little flair of detail that makes it feel that much more immersive. It also gives all players a little bit of buy in to the setting, as even though they only submitted a few names, it results in them having a history in the game world, and some sort of stakes in the game.

Also, I have to recommend that you use azgaars fantasy map generator. Its so great for making big, detailed maps on the fly! It also auto generates names and states and stuff based on cultures you can set (has fantasy and historical)

https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/

Making berry bushes

 After chilling in my garden the other day, I had the thought that most any wargame terrain overlooks the details like fruit on trees or berry bushes. So to rectify this in my own WIP farmland/forest scatter, I made some berry bushes!

Super simple process- get a ragged old brush and a color to represent whatever berries you want. I did red because we have a lovely raspberry bush on the lot where my garden is that has been there since my great grandma was a kid- and raspberries are fucking delicious, so I want my toy soldiers to enjoy them as well!

Then with your paint in hand and bushes waiting, just lightly stipple some of the paint onto the bushes. the ragged brush and the uneven texture of the flocking will make sure only little points of paint stick, making some nice lil berries :)

Hope this was helpful and helps add some color and variety to your terrain!

Post rant clarity?

 So I decided to put my last post back up after cooling down a bit. It was an honest post from the heart if a bit chaotic, and we're tryna be open an vulnerable this year, baby.

Thinking on this topic more- the issue of divesting form social media in an age and culture where most anything is predicated on some sort of online engagement, I've realized this is really what's called a "wicked problem." A wicked problem, going from my Anthropology days, is basically any issue that's too big to fully solve with any one plan or solution- basically too many connected, moving parts so you're always aiming at a moving target that's zig zagging and changing shape. 

With these issues, the only really way to engage with them is to pick as aspect where you want to effect change and focus on it as your goal, and that's how im going forward with my social media engagement and use. It's tricky, and im still thinking about how I want to go about it, being that the sole reason i'm on social media is to run my business. Otherwise I would delete everything and just chill on discord.

The rough outline I have for a healthy social media usage whilst physically on the apps is:
-Only check engagement stats once a day.
-When on the apps, only check my own comments and messages for anything I need to respond to.
-Make the posts I need to make to keep up engagement for the algorithm.
-Post what I want to post, when I want to post.
-Only spend time on and engage with stuff that makes me say "hell yeah"

Whilst healthy social media usage is good, the other side to that coin is real life connections- which yeah no shit that's important. But to be honest, its been something I have been struggling with in reagrds to the hobby/gaming side of things. I live in very rural Minnesota, and its like 3 hours to the nearest area that has any sort of real gaming scene, so it's a bit cost prohibitive to be constantly seeing people, and so it's been lots of getting drinks and hiking with the local homies instead. However, there's still lots that can be done. I think going forward, I'm going to try to get some sort of monthly(at minimum) get together or event for gaming and hobby shenanigans. I used to do the organization for monthly goth markets in the area, so hobby events isn't that big of a stretch. 

I've also been thinking about taking my experiences putting together events, and also reaching out to other organizing peeps and try to put together some sort of zine on how to put together an event- places to reach out to, resources, good things to have at different events, maybe even people to reach out to for more advice etc etc. 

Getting community together isn't necessarily hard, but if it's your first time it can be daunting, and I feel like having a sort of playbook that anyone can pick up and use as a guideline may be handy. Idk, I have lots of pent up frustration and want to put it towards something that can potentially help others feeling the same as I am.

It's a weird world, and lots is going to shit, but if we have close knit communities around us we can weather anything I feel.

Also, Im thinking of hosting an online campaign map for some sort of fantasy war, using the blood red blades campaign rules (soon to be updated for this). Setting up a simple website where players can look at a live map, and submit their campaign moves and actions to be looked at and written into a narrative by a DM team. If anyone may be interested I would love to chat and maybe team up!

Well that's all I have for now.

meta can rot in hell: we should start divesting ourselves of this dystopian network.

The account that was my only real means of promotion for my business.

Falsely flagged and banned by AI moderators.

The only oversight of these AI moderators is another AI program running other META subsystems.

The only support I can contact to discuss this issue with? AI

The "support team" that the AI said would review my case in depth? An AI that closed my appeal ONE MINUTE after I submitted it.

All this struggle for an account that has been critical to me being able to run my shop and make an income with because its my only option in the face of a failing job market in the US (I'm at 3k job apps submitted since OCT. 2025 with nothing to show aside from my own jewelry shop), as well as a great tool for helping to organize community events. 

An account that is soon to be swept up by Palantir's newest AI and turned into a neat little profile on me as a person that our government has said they are going to use to persecute anyone that has spoken out against ICE, Trump, etc. 

Politics and mass surveillance aside, this is a platform that is getting flooded by genuine AI slop even in our hobby space- with those damn AI videos animating miniatures and warhammer/fantasy/scifi art and AI made "historical" photos. 

This needs to fucking stop guys. This really truly needs to fucking stop. Why are we submitting ourselves to this automated, soulless, and now corrupted, site?

Even just under two weeks away from being on Instagram daily, and its appalling what these vibes are and how we are complicit in all this absolute fuckery going on. It's frustrating to see, and especially as someone who's entire financial existence relies a large part on having a presence on Instagram. 

How do we torch this, at least in our community, and move forward in a healthier, sustainable, and community driven way?

How do we stay connected without having to keep a part of our souls dipped in this soulless mire?

How do we run and operate small businesses and make a living without being able to reach thousands at the click of a button?

How do we keep the spark of our hobby alive and keep it safeguarded from the technological bullshit that has permeated every level of our electronic existence?

How do we get ourselves on board with breaking away from this, and go back to older shit, and taking things slower- mail newsletters, magazines, penpals and polaroids, forums if you don't wanna fully break from tech.

There has to be a better way than the path we're on now.

I don't know if this makes sense. I don't know if this is too unhinged. Sorry if it comes across as such. I've just been too sick of this AI and surveillance nonsense for far too long and i'm just tired of it and had to vent it out somehow. This is being written in an angry, feverish state tonight after getting thrown at another AI bot trying to resolve my account issues, so I may delete it in the morning. Unsure.

I don't wanna end this on a sour note though, there's too much good out in the world, and too many beautiful souls in our community and others, to really give up hope.

If anyone who reads this would be genuinely interested in talking about or coming up with some sort of plan to actually start promoting our divesting from instagram/facebook/etc and start some sort of grassroots community driven hub or network offline or partially online, drop me a DM. There has to be a healthier, warmer way to inhabit a shared space. The in rust we trust discord is amazing, but its really only one shitty corpo buyout away from joining insta and facebook in the shit bucket. We need to get ahead of it and maybe try to future proof things.

Also, if you wanna be penpals, I love writing letters and just found my wax seal stuff. So shoot me a dm and lets swap info- ill send you cool leaves and pressed flowers and nice recipes. 

If this resonates at all feel free to share with people. I can't imagine i'm the only one frustrated with all the bullshit in the world. Let's genuinely try to get our heads together and make something new and lasting. Or call me a kook, either works lmao.