To fill out my ranges I've ordered a Gripping Beast Army deal- 4 army unit packs for 100pds- I've decided to go with Irish, Welsh, Viking Bondi and Viking Huscarls. I've the start of a Welsh army already and want to complete it. The Bondi will be lighter armed troops in my Viking army and the more heavily armed huscarls will be interspersed with the GB plastic vikings and also make a couple of stands of Veteran Huscarls as well.
Gripping-Beast Norse Irish. These are my favourite range, I love the poses and figures. In fact I've just ordered more. This is the frist time I tried a single shield colour and really like the impact on table. Probably not realistic but it ties the unit together nicely.
Crusader Irish. Personally I don't like these guys. My issue being that there are only 4 different poses in a pack of 8 figures so they tend to lack a bit of variety. I intend to use these guys as kerns, although technically they probably should be more heavily armed noble or bonnachts but really can't see them getting much use! I've got 2 packs of the new Crusader Scots range which I was going use with my Welsh army and now intend to mix them with the GB Welsh I've ordered. Also I've decided I prefer plainer shields for the regular troops so will focus on plain, dark colours in future and leave fancy sheild designs to the nobles and veteran troops.
Old Glory Scots. I've a few OG figures/range and some I don't like- especially the Moor Cavalry I started last year. However, these Scots are one range I absolutely love. Great poses, really animated and to my mind they capture the ferocity of the Scots and to me they simply look right! I also am a real fan of the shields, I love the detail on the wooden shields especially. This is one OG range I'll happliy get again! Although I bought them for my Pre-Fuedal Scots, they'll morprh into allies/extras for most of my Dark Ages forces. Alas the Scots is the one 1000AD force I want that is not included in Extra Impetus 2, so I intend to make my own list combining elements of the Welsh and Irish lists and using the DBA list as a guide.
I think units of 4 bases (24 figures) looks great and are a good base for building larger armies as time goes by.
From right to left: Gripping Beast Irish, Crusader Irish, OG Scots.
TAGCON 2011
At the club on Wednesday night the guys asked if Kent and I were intended to run a comp or evena demo game at TAGCON (Sept) this year. We may look at putting on a 28mm Impetus demo game, I like the idea of refighting either Hastings or even Brunanburgh (which was covered in Wargames Illustrated 271). The advantageof the latter being a bit more variety in troops as we could use Norse-Irish, Viking, Scots and Anglo-Saxon figures/ranges. 2x 400 pt commands per side would make for a very impressive game on a 6x8 table!
Craig
Those are some cool figs Craig, I really like the scots too.
ReplyDeleteWhile I though I'd be a 'plastics' man - I see impetus represents the Camillan Romans pretty uniquely (lol, the rules author is so an Italian) and now I'll have half an eye out for a good range: Hastati - Principes - Triarii! I reckon someone cpould be lured into 28 mm Carthos to oppose the upstart city-state of Rome. :)
They look very nice, I like the unit with the same shield colour also, as you said, probably not that realistic, but so what, they look good and they're your figs!!
ReplyDeleteCheers Ray & Jamie- I intend to use more of your banners Ray- great job on them!
ReplyDeleteJamie, I've the basis of my Carthaginian army done- have a couple of bags of OG Libyans as the core infantry component to paint up and already have the Numidians and Celt elements done. I intend to work on my Dark Ages forces for the next wee while- and have my eye on the West Wind and Musketeer to make some "early-Mid" Saxons as my next purchase-which may lead towards some Sub Roman Britons too!
I will eventually start on the Romans, but after having done Imperial Romans was a bit "Romed out"- my two 15mm FoG starter armies were Republican Romans and Carthaginians but after painting them and having one game of FoG I sold the Romans and cannabilised the Carthaginians for other projects and am slowly replacing both with 28mm versions. There are several good Republican Roman ranges out there.