Next up... Byzantines

Well, I am excited about finally getting in another game of Impetus next week, my Armenians vs Kent's Crusaders. Dave will be joining us so we will operate 2x comands at 300 pts- we find the slightly smaller sizes ensures we finsh with plenty of time at the club.

This has got me inerested in my Crusades forces again (short attention span and all that). So I had a bit of a stock take and looking at the boxes of Perry's waiting to join my Crusades forces I realised I have most of the figures I need to make a 300 pt Comnenan Byzantine force (1071- 1150) for post Manzikert. All I need to get enough Armenian Cav to make two bases of Kavallaroi to be able to put together yet another Impetus force.

I intend to use Perry's for most of tthe figures (all of them?) using the Armenian range substititued with a few from the Crusades range (Latinikon- Frankish/Norman knights) and the axe weilding Crusaders for Varangians- though could possibly use the GB plastic vikings for these).  I know that Crusader Miniatures do a range of Byzantines but the figures are a bit bulkier than the Perry's so I'm hesitant to mix them in- even though I really only need them to represent the Kontaratoi (heavy foot). However, I think the armoured Armenian infantry should work well, especially when given the same shield designs to make them look like a uniform military unit.

 Both Kent and I are tryng to stick to Perry's as much as possible for our crusades forces as as (IMO) Perry's don't mix that well with other ranges being slighter figures and not so tall- hence Kent and I using Perry's exclusively for our Crusades projects (well, Kent does have some Black Tree Design Crusaders too but I think he plans on selling those)

Anyway, enough ramblings, here is what I am aiming for:
 300 pt Commenan Byzantine (1071-1150)

		Pts  Each	Total Pts
	Command Poor (10U)		0
	Fair Commander		20
2	CM Kavallarioi	23	46	Byzantine Cav (3)
1	CP Latinikon	30	30	Latin (Frankish) Cav
3	CL Skythikon	25	75	Pechnegs & Cumans light Cav
2	FP Kontaratoi	17	34	Byzantine heavy Inf
2	Varangian Infantry	26	52
4	T Archers	11	44
			301

Palm Trees

I've also ordered 80 x 9cm tall palm trees from e-bay UK. I was going to get a couple of the Battle Front Desert Palms boxes for our Crusades Impetus forces but Jamie (Rough War of the Ring) put me onto some cheap trees via E-bay. 80 for 13pd or about $25 NZ is a real bargain- free shipping too. So I should have 80 palm trees in the next couple of weeks. Do I need 80? Hell no, but Kent will take a few and I'll also make some bases up for the club.

Craig