Some more participants for the Ancient Battle of Britain

 This week I managed to finish another few units for Infamy, Infamy. A horse unit being only 6 figures makes them a lot easier to get completed, and the Iberian infantry with only 8 figures was also a bonus. 

Spanish Caetrati are the original Auxilia for the Late Republican Romans.

And a view from behind, just because.

I've chosen to use the Roman list for the rules that is based on having Spanish auxiliaries supporting the legionaries. I had originally thought to use the Numidian list and add in my German Cavalry as support, but I already have Numidian Light Horse, and felt I needed something a bit more solid, so I have ordered some Victrix Iberian Cavalry.

The British Light Cavalry

The British cavalry are old Wargames Factory figures that I've had lying around for years. They're certainly part of the 'first generation' of plastic figures. Detail is shallow and design is rather basic. The horses are quite small, which is great, because they are meant to be ponies. 

Numidian Light Cavalry shivering in the British summer

No Roman army is complete without some Numidians.

If I want to, I now have all the figures necessary for an army list based on the Numidians as the main auxiliaries. 

On the tray now are the British chariots and some Balaeric slingers, so hopefully I can get them completed by next weekend, The chariots are also Wargames Factory aside from one Warlord Games metal chariot, so it will be interesting to see what they look like when they are all completed.

The table was set up for a game last weekend, but I still haven't deployed any troops, and it may be another week before I actually throw some dice and push some figures around. It has been a while since I did a battle report.

I acquired a second hand copy of the Condottiere rules from Foundry yesterday. In my quick read through so far, I'm quite intrigued by them. The Italian Wars era is also a period I have a real aesthetic interest in, what with Landsknechts and heavy knights mixing it up with artillery and stradiots. I won't be diving in, there are too many other things to finish for that, but don't be surprised if something new and Italian shows up on this blog in the near future.

Nate

Making the August Deadline

Over a month since the last blog post! Not that nothing has been happening. NZ went into Level 2 (Level 3 in Auckland) and shit just all got very weird again. Honestly, I can imagine that the see-sawing of alert levels is playing serious games with everyone's mental health, not just mine, but I found I went into survival mode where I've worked my arse off and then crashed. Having been feeling very on top of things I'm now struggling for the energy to concentrate. Surprisingly, in the last week I seem to have regained my painting mojo while my energy levels sagged, and I think it is because painting is my zen release. Now I have prelim exams to mark and that is seriously impinging on my desire to paint. Therefore, in a way to avoid the guilt of painting when I should be marking, I've decided to do neither and write a long overdue blogpost.

So here is the painting I haven't displayed so far, starting with my work for Infamy Infamy.

4 groups of British warriors for Infamy Infamy. Nobles to the fore.

Skirmishers, painted using the magic of contrast paint, and my Barbarian leader and a musician.

The British army so far. I have another couple of infantry groups, another skirmishers, cavalry, chariots and naked crazies to go.

The Romans so far. Three groups of legionaries, Centurion, Optio and musician, as well as a scorpio. Numidians, slingers and Caetrati still to come.

Alongside my Infamy Infamy I have been steadily painting for Craig as well. Here are Taun Tauns and Rebel Veterans:

Close up of these guys.

And Craig's Wookies, painted the same way as my own using Sorastro's wet-blending advice

My birthday came and went, and with it some inevitable toy soldier acquisitions. There has been a small amount of painting on these new additions to the collection. 

The first of 5 French squads for Trench Hammer in my 54mm WWI project:

A VB rifle grenade team.

The other present was my long overdue descent into the world of Marvel Crisis Protocol. 

Iron Man 

Spiderman

The bases will all be painted when I've finished everyone so that they all match perfectly. I also plan to make sure that my city terrain matches as well. 

The aim for the near future is to get all of the Infamy Infamy figures painted and to get a few games under my belt. Simultaneously I want to finish Craig's Star Wars which is a single unit of rebel pathfinders before moving o nto painting his Wild West Exodus figures. By next weekend hopefully I'll have a some breathing room to play a game of something.

Nate

Success with the Successors

Yesterday I painted the bases on the last figures for Craig's Successor army. So I think it might be time for a parade.

Pointed pachyderm on the left flank

More points - the phalanx covered by peltasts

Led by the strategos, the Companion cavalry prepare to scythe through the oppostion

The three syntagmoi in a row.

The full army

I have a late Republican Roman army to put together as opposition, but it was great to complete these guys for Craig. The units are expensive in terms of points - the phalanxes suck up a lot given their size - but the Romans are high cost too, so the armies look relatively small.

I'm just painting up my Argonauts for Mortal Gods and then it will be some 15mm Flames of War figures for other people. I haven't painted any 15mm for a while, and I have to say I'm not really looking forward to it - 28mm has really become my default scale now.

Nate

Sorting some shade for the Spartans

These Persians are no pussies! Just because they dress like colour blind residents of Carnaby St c.1966 does not make them any less deadly. Their arrows can block out the sun... hence the title of this post.

The force features some cavalry, which will be an interesting addition to the Mortal Gods gaming experience.

A bit of a closer look with the Persian Chief of Warriors in the foreground.

 The miniatures are a mix. The cavalry are Warlord Games, the rank and file Crusaders Miniatures, and the heroes are from Footsore Miniatures. A pack of Crusader Spearmen and one of Archers gave me the figures to assemble 2 bases of Sparabara, 2 of Archers and 1 of Spearmen.

The best view of the Persians is from the side so that you can see all of the stripes, zig-zags and dots on them.

More close ups

An army of fashion victims - but hopefully not Hoplite victims.

I really like the Persians. They get a bad rap due to them being the bad guys in the Western tradition, but we are lucky enough to live in times where the historic record is being seen with a bit more balance. I'm awed by Cyrus (the Great, not Billy Ray or Miley), and I wish we knew more about him.
I'm just waiting on the Persian Cards to be back in stock at Footsore, so I can order them and get these guys into battle.

On the painting tray at the moment are a mix of Ancients - some generals for Craig's Successor army, some casualties and vignettes, and some Skeleton warriors for Mortal Gods Mythic.

Nate

Digging into the Ancients pile

Painting over the last few days has seen me finish off Craig's 'blob' of pikemen for his successor army, and move onto some Gauls.

The red phalanx completed

A closer shot. LBMS shield transfers, looking very nice.

The red and blues phalanxes. Only the purples to go.

 Gauls are a tricky proposition. They can be overworked and look to busy, or underworked and not look like Celts at all. Either way, they can be quite consuming, so I was looking for some speed painting techniques with these guys.

The shields are the Warlord Games decals. Quite a nice selection.

Zooming out to see some of the other figures

I'm not a great fan of the guys that are bent right over. It may be a dynamic pose, but there's too many of them on the sprue.

 I went back and looked at some Peter Dennis battle scenes with Gauls in them, and saw that his technique was to take a lighter colour as the base and do a check pattern in a darker shade over the top to give the impression of plaid. So that is what I did with these figures. The flesh is Gulliman contrast, which I cannot rate highly enough, and all shading is done with washes. In the end these 15 figures took 2 painting evenings, but the first evening also saw me finishing the successors, so I'm really pleased with the speed painting experiment.

When I based up the Gauls I also rebased some Romans for the Rule Britannia rules.

12 figures to the maniple

Ready to conquer

So the first two units for Rule Britannia are ready to go, although these aren't my priority at the moment. Currently the painting tray has 18 Achaemenid Persians on it for Mortal Gods. I'm listening to Dan Carlin's King of Kings Hardcore History podcast at the moment when I go walking, and I'm loving the way he tackles Herodotus. Expect some games from Ancient Greece soon.

Nate

New Year's Painting

It's hard to believe that January is two thirds over already, and this is only my second post for the year. However, it is a post with all of the stuff I've managed to paint so far. An eclectic mix, I've got fantasy, sci-fi and historical here.

First off, Star Wars Legion.

Rebel troopers

 I've painted plenty of Legion figures so far, but these are the first that I've painted for myself.

Imperial Stormtroopers

The scratch-built terrain piece was also painted at the beginning of this year. I'm planning to do several more like it.

Amazing what you can do with an old yoghurt container and a Pringles tube!

Next up, a completed second warband for Burrows and Badgers.

The full warband led by Justin Beaver

Terry Boarder

Tich

Mick

Dave

Rowan Adderson

All of these guys have already been up on Facebook, which is a much more instant forum, but doesn't have the journaling appeal that a blog has, so apologies if you have seen these characters already.

Finally, Half of Craig's next Seleucid phalanx was finished. The second half is up after a finish a couple more of my own units.

A proper staged scenic shot will happen when the whole unit is complete

Now that I 've got the hang of LBMS transfers I really like them.

 On the painting table I have some French Dragoons for WSS, another unit of rebel troopers, and the Warlord Games MASH set to do for John. Hopefully they'll be up before the end of the month!

Nate

Rule Britannia (and Gaul, Germania, Dacia etc)

While spending a pleasant week at the beach this summer, I began thinking about my ancients projects. I decided I wanted to revisit my adaptation of Lion Rampant for the Gallic Wars, which I named Caesar Rampant. There were a number of aspects that I wanted to alter. The first was to adapt some of the ideas from the Men Who Would Be Kings into the game, particularly the idea that a failed activation does not hand the turn over to one's opponent, but simply means activation of another unit. I also wanted to make attack rolls based on the number of figures, and to really give individual units some character that they could call their own.
Having got the balance pretty good so far, I decided to try and extend the rules into the Early Imperial period. So chariots were added, as were auxiliaries. The Scorpio battery was an interesting addition, and has only been playtested the once, but let's just say that it probably needs some work. With the change in scope, I thought a new name might be in order, so I've renamed them Rule Britannia (and Gaul). They can be found on this page here:
https://natholeonsempires.blogspot.com/p/caesar-rampant-gallic-wars.html

The armies that I had painted for Caesar Rampant I passed on to my wargaming buddy John, so I've been cobbling together new units which are not yet painted, but they are high on the priority list! Here's a couple of snaps of the playtesting that I did.

Romans on the right in stealth armour, Gauls on the left in multiple states of undress!

The 12 figure base is handy for the Romans, as they have flanks in the rules.

The Gauls are boosted by some spare Germans and Wargames Foundry Cyclops. Rest of the Gauls will be arriving soon.

In this earlier game there was a lot more running away. I've altered that now. 

Have a go with the  rules if you are interested - and let me know how they work for you, and any clarifications I need to make.

Nate

Some light relief

Just off the painting tray for Craig's Seleucid army - a unit of 18 peltasts.

Next up from the Seleucid list will be the heffalump, which I'm really looking forward to painting.
Also on the painting tray are my 54mm WWI HMGs (up next) and the La Couronne regiment for the War of Spanish Succession. Variety is the spice of life after all!

Nate