Rebasing my Vikings

Tonight I decided to rebase my 28mm Vikings. Why? Mainly as I decided I prefer only 6 figures on a base to make the bases a bit more dynamic. I also painted up the last few Gripping Beast plastic Vikings I had lying round and so tomorrow nights job is to finish the basing. I'm still using my Big Base DBA system. By putting 4 figures in the front rank, or even off setting the figures a bit I get a similar mass effect but the bases look a bit more animated.

Once the Vikings are done I will probably rebase the Saxons as well, again with only 6 figures per base as opposed to the 8 I currently use for heavy foot bases, but they may have to wait for quite a while for that to happen.

All going well I'll give Kent a game of Impetus on Wednesday using the Vikings and Norse-Irish- hence my need to rebase the Vikings as I was light a few stands- at least until my ordered reinforcements arrive.

The force I hope to use this week are as follows:

Vikings (approx 211 pts)

• 1x fair general
• 1x poor general
• 2x FP Guard Huscarls
• 2x FP Vet Huscarls
• 6x FP Huscarls
• 2x FP Hird
• 1x S Archers

Norse-Irish (Approx 213 pts)

• 1x fair general
• 1x poor general
• 2 FL Nobles
• 4 FL Bonnachts
• 4 FL Kerns
• Viking Allies: 2x FP Vet Huscarls
  

So two similar armies for a typical Dark Ages pushing match

Sassanid Persian Update

Work continues on my 28mm Sassanid Persians. I've now 2x Cataphracts and 3x Savaran completed along with the elephants. Tonight's job will be 2x stands of Persian light horse and then it is onto the infantry. I am trying to get them done for a game vs Kent next Wednesday.








Edit: I popped into town this morning so picked up another lighter shade of paint to highlight the bases. Here are the results:









Craig

28mm Gripping Beast Vikings

Gripping Beast are one of my favourite figure manufacturers so I've been wanting to get some of their new Vikings since they were released. one of the guys in Dunedin has just started importing 28mm figures and a box of Gripping Beast Vikings arrived on Friday, the same day as we got into town for Southcon so naturally enough I had to buy them!

What can I say, the figures are everything I was hoping they would be. Sure, as with most plastics, they can get a bit fiddly to fit together but they look in proportion, and more importantly, match well with the metal range. Here are a few photos of the first, and not yet completed stands. At 44 figures per box it will only take me 2 boxes for a DBA size, big base, army. My plan is to once the Saxons are released convert up a few Saxons into the hird as all the figure sin the box are wearing chain mail.




And Grpping beast metal Vikings painted up as Norse-Irish.


A side shot gives a good comparison.






Craig

DBA: Ancient Britons vs Imperial Romans

Time to try the Romans.

Finn was keen for a game after school and chose the Romans. He decided to defend and set up the terrain as he wanted (we don't abide by the rules, I let him set it up as he likes- keep it simple with 8 year olds!).

I took a warband general as I am a bit short of chariots and Cavalry for anything else!

The two lines advance.


A bit blurry but you get the idea. 1 pip for the Britons, the Romans moved their infantry to align with the cavalry.


The Celts get ready to charge.


Getting closer.


The impetuous Finn charges. He sent his cavalry into the marsh to assist the blades who were fighting the Britons- but were in good going. He was confident he'd win and it proved correct. Actually, now I think of it he shouldn't have been able to move that far in bad going, oh well.


Let the carnage begin! I lost 2 elements and Finn one and there were a few recoils.


And it all goes horribly wrong! My general punched through a hole in the Roman battleline and cut down another element of blades. My Cavalry and chariots combined ot destroy another cavarey element but then...

With a blade flanked and attacking with supporting warbands (4 vs 4) I rolled a 1 and the Romans a 6 (result 10-5= 2 dead elements of warband). 4-3 to Finn!

Next time Finn, next time...


Notes:
The game all up took about 30 minutes and by the end of the game Finn was at about the limit of his attention span so DBA is ideal to get him into wargaming without boring him silly.

Craig

DBA II/56 Early Imperial Romans

A busy week of painting, due in part to floods down this way closing my school on Wednesday, has meant that I've completed the first part of my Warlord Games Early Imperial Romans, at least enough for a DBA game!

The figures are outstanding, my only complaint is the size of the auxiliaries vs the legionnaires. They are huge, I know that they are supposed to be the larger Germanic/Gaulish types but really, the difference is very, very noticeable. However, the plastic auxiliary figures are nicely animated though and are my preferred poses.

As per normal they are based to my own heretical conventions rather than "standard" DBA- that way they can be used for both Big Base DBA and Impetus. I hope to give Finn a try at Impetus soon. I'm not sure if the rules will be too complex for him but I think he should be able to handle it.

Anyway, here is the army so far.

Early Imperial Romans

4x Legionnaires (Blades)


3x Auxillia (should be 4)

I need 4 bases but there were only 24 figures in the box which is enough for 3 bases @ 8 figures per base) One is without a transfer on his shield- this will be rectified once I get some more auxiliaries as I ran out of transfers having done the axillary cavalry first.

2x Praetorian Guard

Not really needed (except as pseudo auxillia for the next wee while), but can be used as veteran legionnaires to differentiate the different units.

3x Auxillary Cavalry (Wargames Factory figures)

The Wargames factory Cav figures are much bigger than the legionnaires and my plan is to replace them with some Warlord Games Cav as soon as I can. Warlord Games have an Auxillia special deal (48x auxillia, 2 commands, and 10x Aux Cav for 50 pound so think I'll grab one of those as then I should have 10 bases worth of Auxillia and 10 of legionnaires). Of course to get the free shipping I'll need to add a few other things to round out the force (such as the western archers...)

1x Warmachine


And a few shots of the infantry battle line.







What Next?
Well I still need another 5 bases of Auxillia, a couple of bases worth of western archers and 2-3 more Cavalry to do a Double -DBA force (or more variety for Impetus) so will get those ordered soon.

I've 5-6 more bases of legionnaires and Veteran legionnaires to finish off as well.

I also need a few more boxes of Gauls/Britons (including another 3-4 chariots) to complete a Double DBA Ancient Britons/Gauls force

Craig

DBA II/11 Gauls- Completed!

At last the Gauls are completed! Well, for now at least.

• 2x Chariots
• 2x Cavalry
• 8x Warband
• 1x Psiloi
• 2x Warhounds/beasts
  

I love the Warlord Games Chariots! Truly beautiful miniatures.



The Warband.


The Beasts of War- for HoTT anyway. The warhounds are to be used as 2x elements of beasts in the HoTT version of the list.


The Cav/light horse- Wargames Factory figures.


An aerial view of the entire army.


I still need to add more warbands (at least another 8, probably 12, bases worth) and maybe a couple more chariots to be able to morph it into the Ancient British force for vs the Imperial Romans. I'll also add a few Germans at a later stage to be able to morph those out of it as well.

Now, to complete the Imperial Romans.

Craig

Warlord Games Romans

Here they are with the bases finished.




The Wargames Factory Aux cavalry. I used some of the spare transfers from the Warlord Games Auxillia to complete the shields.


Craig

DBA II/30 Galatians

Well tonight I had the fastest game of DBA I've had in a long time vs Stephen's Early Imperial Romans.

Three turns and it was all over. Stephen advanced his artillery down the road, I moved forward and he took a pot shot at my general- I rolled a 1, he rolled a six. Game set and match!

One


Two


Three

Game 2:
The second game was vs Nigel with Alexandrian Imperial (2x knights, elephant, 6x pike, aux and psiloi) and again I went down (this time 5-2 although I did mange to kill a knight and general but his pikes finally got into action vs the warband to take the win).

Not an auspicious start for the Galatians!

Warlord Games Romans
My Warlord Games Romans arrived today (along with a copule of Celtic chariot) so I will be busy in the next wee while assembling enough for a DBA double based force. The figures look great and I can't wait to see the finished product.

DBA II/11 Gauls

Well, there is a 15mm DBA comp in Christchurch in a couple of months (book 2 armies only) that the local DBAers are gearing up for. I have narrowed down my options to the following:

• Numidians
• Gauls
• Visigoths

The Visigoths are probably the most flexible of the three, Numidians would be very challenging to run, and the Gauls pretty one dimensional but I'm leaning towards fielding those (Warband, chariots and a couple of cav!)! So last night I was supposed to sit down and paint up my 15mm Gauls/Visigoths that are part of my ill-fated 15mm FoG army so I can run them ina play test at the club next week. However, I go side tracked by Wargames factory Roman Axillary Cavalry (which are going to be the cavalry elements of my Early Imperial Rome 28mm army) and rebasing my 28mm Warlord Games Celts/Gauls. My initial bases were too shallow (8x 5cm- which are now the depth for "blades"). All my warband type forces are now on 8x6cm and I've been putting off re-basing the Celts but did so last night.

This change of periods/scales was also partially in response to having ordered the Warlord Games Imperial Roman starter army. With figures working $1NZ or less (when bought in bulk) they are actually cheaper than comparable 15mm figures! I'll have far too many but can always grow that army. I also ordered a couple of chariots for the Celts (one for the general), a Roman warmachine and some Numidian light horse (to start the 28mm Numidan army) so have even more painting ahead of me.

It is hard to get inspired to paint 15mm DBA figures on standard bases when big based 28mm looks so much more dynamic!

To me this looks like a barbaric horde!









Wargames Factory Germans as the Cav element.


Psiloi


Tomorrow night I'm supposed to be playing Dave at Lasalle so hopefully will manage a few pictures.
Craig

This Weeks New Additions

Well its been another busy week.

This week I've managed to paint up a horse artillery battery for Lasalle (3x medium guns, 2x licorne).






I've finished off my last battalion of Poles and 1 1/2 battalions of French Line (I ran out of regular infantry so need to order more), as well as making 4 skirmisher stands for the Poles.




I painted the 15mm DBA Numidian force.


Last night based up the Poles and French and painted up 2 x 28mm command stands for the Warmaster version of Brunanburh using some OG Scots, a Crusader mini and a Gripping Beast Viking that I had lying round.