The Yarkshire Gentlemans Cricket Club - Empire of the Dead

Off T'Wall or Off T'Trolley

T'Team ont Village Green

Long term followers of this blog may well have heard of these boys, back in June last year I ordered and received this magnificent set of figures. I am and always will be a historical gamer but every now and then a game will grab my attention and Empire of the Dead was that game.

EoD has a great back story, great figures and decent rules; a rare combination for something I would firmly place in the "weird stuff" category. I dip in and out of the game every few months painting some figures up as a bit of a change from the endless conveyor belt of similar uniformed historical minis.

Sadly I broke the barrel on the gun

For those who haven't played or heard of EoD its set in a Victorian Steampunk universe and the game revolves around various factions who fight each other, earning points to improve their faction with upgrades and allies over time. One of those factions is the Gentleman's Club representing those Victorian male only meeting places, these contained the rich, the eccentric and the mad, all three traits often appearing in the same person. In Literary fiction imagine the Diogenes Club from Sherlock Holmes and the like.

So for my Gentleman's Club, I needed an idea, not necessarily from the game book. Something to do with my now home county of Yarkshire. As well as hating everyone (Thanks Mr Cameron don't worry we love you too) Yarkshire is famous for Cricket (said in Geoff Boycott accent), hence the Yarkshire Gentleman's Cricket Club was born.

It helped that I had seen these magnificent chaps on tinterwebnet somewhere and they had stuck in my mind as a "must have them, no idea what I will use them as" purchases. The figures are available from Sloppy Jalopy the link will take you to the figures. They were designed for the Very British Civil War game (pre WW2) which makes some of the weapons a bit new, but hey this is "Weird stuff" so I am not going to have someone on TMP going on about "that rifle wasn't there and you'll find the hair cuts are 2mm too long for etc etc etc zzzzzzzz........."

King Geoffrey

Each of the figures has been named after one of Yorkshires Cricketing Hero's and who better to lead the merry band than the King of Yorkshire himself Geoff Boycott. It reminds me of a story which always makes me smile. When the Tour de France came through the Gods Own a couple of years ago they award a special shirt to the "King of the Mountains" one particularly dower Yorkshireman was heard to say "Tha can't have that, they'll have to change that, s'only one king in Yarkshire, Geoffrey Boycott !"

Prince Frederick Baron of Trueman

Sir Marytn of Moxon

Marquis Bairstow and Lord Dickie of Bird

The team can be bought in two halves or as a job lot of 12 figures representing a standard cricket team of 11 plus an umpire, the figures are armed with various weapons and the cricket ball has been replaced with a hand grenade. £8 for 6 or £15 for the whole team.

Young Squire Root

The Fielders, Root, Illingworth, Verity and Emmett

The Batsmen, Sutcliffe, Hutton and Close

The blue and yellow pin stripe are the official colours of the genuine Yorkshire Cricket Club and they have been stolen by the Y.G.C.C. I've been a bit quiet on the painting front for a while but I'm sure the mojo will return soon. Hope you have enjoyed these.