More work on my Byzantines

I've been chipping away at my Byzantine project.  

Command stand- Perry Armenian infantry command.

Spears and archers- all from the Fireforge plastics range. 

The archers- again Fireforge. 

Turcopoles- Perry miniatures. 

Armenian or Frankish cavalry- again from the Perry Crusaders range. 

Perry mailed sword and axemen which will be used as Frankish allies or Varangians at a pinch- until the Fireforge kickstarter arrives. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Fireforge and Perry ranges go together. The Perry's have a reputation for being slighter builds than many of the other popular 28mm ranges and truth be told they are slighter than the Fireforge range but height wise they are close and the two ranges do work well together.

Craig 

Seljuks and Byzantines

 A few more pictures of the armies so far.

The Seljuk and Byzantine forces

The Seljuks- all Perry Miniatures

Medium cavalry

Seljik light horse

Archers and light infantry

The Byzantine force

Turcopoles

Armenian/ Frankish cavalry

Byzantine Skoutatoi (Fireforge) and Frankish crossbows (Perry Miniatures)- I will use the use the crossbows till I get my Byzantine archers done.

The Byzantines prepare for war.

Craig

Dragon Rampant- Crusades

 Personally I prefer Dragon Rampant to Lion Rampant and so will be using that with the new Lion Rampant- the Crusader States supplement. 

Last week's game vs Ian showed to my that my current cavalry bases (10cm deep) are a bit unweildy so have decided to use the Impetus standard 8cm deep bases as the standard for my cavaltry units. I popped down ot the bach for the weekend last night and got to work rebasing some of my Crusader cavalry to act as allies to the Byzantines (until the new Fireforge kickstarter is released anyway). 

The frank or Armenian cavalry- all Perry miniatures. 

And of course they need enemies so also got work on rebasing my Muslim/Seljuk  cavalry to match- all from the lovely Perry range. 

And to go with those I've been updating the basing on my other units. My light horse were already painted the same base colours just added static grass to tie everything together. 

I'll try to post a few more pictures tomorrow.

Craig 

Start of the Komnenan Byzantines

 I always enjoy doing s bit of research when embarking on a  new army which I have little knowledge of. A Byzantine force has long been an army which has been on my radar for my Crusades based games. The release of the new Dragon Lion Rampant: The Crusader States, was all the inspiration I needed to get this force up and running at last, well that and the new fireforge kickstarter from earlier in the year which I happily backed.

 The Komnenan Byzantine Army   

The Byzantrine (aka the Eastern Roman) Empire survived many centuries after the fall of the Western empire and its army was one of the most powerful and effective military forces in the world. However, the army over the centuries the army did dcline and the disaster at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 destroyed much of the professional standing army (the Tagmata) which had provided the core of the Byzantine army. At Manzikert, units tracing their lineage to the Roman Empire were wiped out, and the subsequent loss of Anatolia deprived the Empire of its main recruiting ground.  not only that but the Empire was facng addiotnal threats posed by the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, the expansionist activities of the principality of Dioclea (Duklja) and by Pecheneg (Patzinak) raids across the Danube.

The death knell of the traditional Byzantine army was at the Battle of Dyrrachion in 1081, where Alexios I was very heavily defeated by the Normans of southern Italy. However,  in time Alexios was able to slowly rebuild the army and restore the power of the Byzantine Empire. The new army had a core of units which were both professional and disciplined, elite units such as the famous Varangian Guard and other foreign mercenary regiments, not to mention units of professional soldiers recruited from the provinces. These provincial troops included kataphraktoi cavalry from Macedonia, Thessaly and Thrace, plus various other provincial forces. Alongside troops raised and paid for directly by the state the Komnenian army included the armed followers of members of the wider imperial family and provincial aristocracy. 

The rise of the Komnenan army coincided with the rise of the Crusades in Western Europe and the Byzantines were to prove to be allies, rivals and enemies of the Crusader states.  

The first units:

2x units of Skoutatoi, spear armed infantry

I need a couple of units of misile troops,  some Frankish knights, a couple of units of both medium cavalry and  lighter cavalry to round the force out but at least it is under way. 

Craig 

 

HC: Rebased Seljuks

The rebasing of my Seljuk/Syrian/Arab army continues. The majority of the force is now rebased, just have to do 2 more stands of light horse and an additional heavy cavalry, as well as some command units to be able to field 500 points worth. I still need to touch up some of the figures but the rebasing part of the project is done- though I am now considering upsizing it by getting a few more heavy cav units (another 2-3), and some more infantry (I've 2 bases of light horse to paint up)

All the figures are from the Perry's lovely Crusades ranges.

5x units of heavy cavalry

 6x units of light horse

3x units of light infantry with bow
2x light/medium infantry (Javelins)
2x light infantry/ Ghazi fanatics (depending on the game)

So a busy last few days

Craig

HC Seljuk Turks- WIP

A couple of the guys at the cub are keen to get an crusades game of Hail Caesar going soon, so I've started rebasing (the third time I think) my Seljuk army to my current basing conventions.

One of the reasons I don't like selling/getting rid of armies. You'll need them one day! I rebased the light cavalry a couple of nights ago, the medium cav units were done today, the permafilla went on an hou or so ago  and I'm waiting for it to dry so I can get started on painting.

 I like having my light cavalry units based diagonally as though they are crossing the front of the opposing army, makes them nice and easy to distinguish on table too.

There will be more photos of this force in the next few days as I complete rebasing units.

Craig

Armenian Reinforcements

After slacking round for the last few weeks I actually did some painting last night. My game the other day I needed some Turcopoles to use as lighter Armenian Cavalry so painted up a couple of stands last night and rebased 2 stands worth or Crusader Miniatures Norman crossbowmen as well.

Other things I'm looking forward to...

I have recently received my Ebob Mongols (they need to be made soon list) but am REALLY  looking forward to the new Mongols from Fire Fore games. The Mongols are one of my favourite armies and are somewhat under represented on the gaming table.
 
 Can't wait till they are released


Craig

Impetvs- 500 pts Armenians vs First Crusaders

It has been several weeks since Kent and I managed a game. Yesterday was Queens Birthday (a public holiday) here in NZ so we arranged a game of Impetvs with my Armeains vs his crusaders.

I took (split into two x even commands
4x heavy knights (VBU 7)
4x standard knights
4x foot light javelinmen
6x heavy foot
2x crossbows
2x shortbows

Kent ran:
4-5 knights
2x CM turkopoles
3-4 foot knights
3-4 foot sergeants
6x crossbows
2x shortbows

Having faced my Seljuks and Syrian armies Kent maxed out his crossbow options, obviously to keep my cavalry away from his troops. Kent put all his cavalry in one command and his infantry in the other.

My lighter cavalry are holding my flanks. 

 The armenian army advances to stop the Crusader incurision into their territory.

 Kent led with his crossbow units. We both manged to destroy a unit of crossbowmen in long range firefight but he has a lot more of them than I do.

 I refuse my centre and wait developments. Once the impetuous knights are released and start going forward they are hard to stop.

 The accursed crossbowmen taunt the Armenians

 I threw my javelinmen at the Franks skirmishers but lost one unit very quickly. The second unit was attacked in the flank by some foot sergeants and several rounds of combat resulted before either unit broke.

 In the centre my heavy (VBU 7) knights tried t charge home their advantage but having done some damage they were repulsed having taken heavy losses.

 On my far left flank my lighter knights tried to ride down Kent's coveing forces but again failed to drive home the charge.

 I was starting to take serious losses on my left flank so decided to advance the centre to try to claw things back.

 On the far right I managged to kill a unit of turcopoles but then the second unit and some knights decided to get involved and my light troops once again melted away.

 In the centre Kent finally decided too unleash his own knights who had been waiting on opportunity for the battle to unfold.

 Confused fighting rages in the centre as the two armies engage.

 My Armenian foot (my last reserve) advances to support my knights who have become bogged down.

 To little to late though. Both Armenian commands are broken in the same turn as is the Crusader knight command but the Crusader infantry division is barely scratched and holds the field.

Once again the knights claim the glory but it was Kent's foot troops that held their ground and at the end of engagement held the field.

A fun game, lots of topsy, turvy dice rolls. My heavy hitting knights (VBU 7) were not as effective as I'd hoped but even so they could still take a lot of damage before being destroyed. I was happy with the army overall. The only real change is going to be the balance between infantry and knights in each command. I might make a foot and a mounted command next time as that seemed to work really well for Kent.

Craig