Friday, 15 February 2013

Charioteer and a Queen

My projected British chariot force has been delayed by the Raphia project.  However, I've just received around half of the crews back from my mate Nick Speller, and couldn't resist showing a few of the figures.


Above are some of the riders.  The figures on left and right are Wargames Factory celts, and at the rear is one from the more recent Foundry chariot release.  Nick has done an excellent job with these, but they aren't great sculpts; Foundry, in particular, should be able to do far better.  However the Factory minis were cheap, and easy to convert, and didn't need to be cut off their bases.  I think they will look great on the chariots.

Below is Boudica.  I fancied a "fantasy" queen of the Iceni, and this model from Newline Gripping Beast, lightly converted to make her a little taller, does the trick.  She is no beauty... especially since her face was pitted in the casting process.  She is also rather chinless.  She is, however, quite a character!  She will do, nicely.


A huge thanks to Nick for the great painting...

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Somewhere near Utica...

Somewhere near Utica, a Pompeian army under Cato (left), with local Numidian allies under Juba (some shown in foreground), faces a smaller but more confident Caesarian force (right).


Below, elephants trot past the city gates.  It's a short but a glorious life, in the elephant corp!  I got to use all my elephant casualty markers by 9 PM.



Above, the very numerous and colourful Numidian city militia and hordes of light horse, wisely hung back to let the Romans sort it our between themselves.  Below, Cato confers with a subordinate.  The newly-raised Pompeian legions turned out to be surprisingly effective force...



Above a Pompeian cohort of inferior troops, charged by superior Caesarian foes, and having failed to counter charge,  pulls off something of a coup by dint of expert dice rolling!  Several wins by the aggressive (and phenomenally lucky) Cato drove a deep wedge into the Caesarian lines.



Eventually they broke through (above) and subsequently turned, ready to roll up the Caesarian line (below).  Although there were still a lot of Caesarians on the table, we felt that they would now need to retire from the field.


The game, played with a couple of local opponents, Nigel and Jay, proved to be a very enjoyable and relaxed play-test of my rules.  I've taken away a bunch of new ideas and will tweak the rules, for another run through, hopefully next week.


Monday, 11 February 2013

More white shields



Another 21 finished (bar varnishing).  For some reason, I find the Polemarch rather less interesting to paint, than their Foundry equivalents; I'm really not sure why.  However, I've now got enough minis finished, to be able to start thinking about basing up another 2 phalanx blocks.

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Meganotpolis

Played a game last night with Ian and a new local gamer, Jay.  Unfortunately I've not time to write the game up, but it was very loosely based on Megalopolis, the "Battle of Mice", between Alexander's regent Antipater and Agis of Sparta.

The game was mainly an excuse to a) get my emerging Raphia  phalanx on the table, and b) test the latest incarnation of my rules.  Both objectives were achieved.


Above, Spartans and allies in the foreground defend the pass against the advancing Macedonians.


Above, some lucky (and anachronistic) Macedonian thureophoroi broke through the Spartan line.


Some extrovert Galatians chasing away the Cretans guarding the Spartan flank.


Eventually, Macedonian numbers (and pikes) told and the Spartan line crumbled.  Agis (on the small hill, centre, above) finally fell, and the Spartans were defeated, in very much the same manner as in the original battle.  Also, as in the real battle, there was barely a Macedonian left unwounded by the end.

Today I've been making the latest amendments, and hope to get another test of the same battle under my belt, tonight!

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

A footnote to star bursts...

Steve at Little Big Man Studios has very kindly published the transfer sheets I suggested to him a few days ago.  There is a new black star burst set and a new red set, which complement the existing red set, giving 72 subtle variants on a theme. They have terrific battle damage and staining on them, and are a must if you fancy raising that white shield phalanx you've always needed...

Of course I've bought some of the new sets, and now need to paint even more pike men...

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Starburst

No, not the confectionary (which I still think of as Opal Fruits), but half of the shields I need for the Egyptian portion of my phalanx, mostly with the classical Macedonian starburst design (clickable).  The concept is that these are cheap wooden shields covered with felt (or perhaps locally available Egyptian linen or cotton), with designs painted on, for the cheap, emergency, wing of the phalanx.


I've used the excellent Little Big Man designs, from two different sheets, and painted some plain white shields to go alongside them.  I've distressed them, somewhat.  I think the black and alternate red designs give a nice variety to the designs, and Steve of LBMS has very kindly offered to make up a new sheet for me.  I'm about 10 days away from basing up the next 2 units.

I love putting on shield transfers, I find it very relaxing.

Friday, 1 February 2013

Rear rankers


I've finished (bar shields) another batch of 18 pikemen, this time rear-rankers for the Egyptian phalanxes.  8 were painted and kindly donated by Craig, and I just needed to add pikes, and painted 10 more in a similar style.  I absolutely love the unarmoured Foundrys, they are a pleasure to paint!  The chap in the blue chiton is a pleasing conversion from a hoplite, who actually looks quite Egyptian, rather than Macedonian.

Behind are 21 more Polemarch phalangites, at an early stage. 

If anyone has any of the Foundrys in the straw hats, I'd love to buy or swap for them, a dozen or so would be very useful, indeed.

Rear rankers does sound unfortunately like Cockney rhyming slang...