Huns

Here are my rebased Huns for historic and Middle Earth gaming- they'll do double duty as Huns or Easterlings as required.

I've 4x stands of light cavalry

4x command stands- 2 generals/heroes, a standard and a musician.

All figures are Gripping Beast.

More rebasing- Goth/Gondor cavalry

Yesterday I continued my rebasing mission, this time the rest of my Goth cavalry were rebased to my (6 figures per unit) new standard- and can now pull double duty as Gondorian reinforcements if necessary.

Most of the figures are Footsore but two bases (lurking in the back row) are GW Rohan with different shields.

In bigger battles (eg Hail Caesar) they can form a division.

I'm still unsure which rules I'll end up using more- Dux Bellorum, Dragon Rampant or Hail Caesar. But is good to have options.

Craig

Gaming at last!

I am happy to report that after months of inactivity I finally managed to get some gaming in. Two games in two days in fact!

Simon and Mark were down from Wellington so we arranged our usual annual "Craigcon" catch up. I was down at the bach and got back to find an email checking if we were still on for a game. For some reason I thought it was next Thursday we had arranged but no, it was the one just been. They were turning up at 7ish and I only got home about 6:30 so quickly threw together two armies for Dux Bellorum. Not having read the rules in quite a while it wasn't going to be the best.

Anyway we had a God faring Late Roman army (supported by some monks) led by Barry, older and much less well known brother of Artimus, aka King Arthur. Apparently Barry was killed in some long forgotten battle and disappeared from and annuals of history, unlike his more PR savvy younger brother. Barry was out to rewrite history and make a name for himself, or die trying,vs a mass of unwashed, hairy Saxon (Gothic) rabble.

The game was a lot of fun, Barry charged the Saxon cavalry in turn 1 and remained stuck in combat for the rest of the game, slowly chewing his way though the enemy whilst his sheildwall (rabble) cheered on- or actually set about trying to win the game despiute him. About half way though we discovered not having a hill to stand on (British shieldwall tactics 101) is bad for sheildwall troops but by then it was too late, Simon and his sheildwallers were gleefully taking the fight to the hairy warband Saxon hordes who apparently "don't like it up 'em."

In the end though both armies broke and Barry was left alone and forlorn, even abandoned by his priests, to rue the fickle gods of fate.

We did make a house rule though, defensive LPs mean you get a save not automatically cancel a hit. It seemed to work well.

A few pictures:
Late Romans on the left, Hairy unwashed hordes n the right of picture.

Barry and his nobles

 Thew unwashed, and unnamed, Hairy hordes of Mark.

 Barry leads the boys in a charge, way to go Barry.

And promptly gets itself into all kinds of trouble. Being a wuss he used his LPs turn after turn defensively, whilst awaiting rescue from his fryd. Simon wasn't having any of that though and stoically marched towards the Saxon warband and away from his general. Barry never was one to command respect of his troops.

"They don't like it up em sir. Let's charge eh!"
What about finding a nice safe hill?  instead?
"Nah, hills are for girls."

 The armies clash.

Simon being far more aggressive than "Barry" used his LPs each turn to get extra attack dice.

A few turns later and Barry is still slowly hacking his way through the Saxons. Flanks, we don't care about flanks! Or as he was heard sayg to one of his followerers. "Surrounded? We're nobles we are supposed to be surrounded."

The Shieldwall even manages to push the warband back a few times.

 More random clashes.

Slowly both sides are being ground down.

Oops. Not much left now. Both sides on the point of collapsing. Barry still engaged in combat with Mark the Hairy- having chopped up the easier meat he is getting his arse handed to him by the Gothic general.

The Late Romans are all out of LPs.

A victory (just) to the Saxons/Goths. A great game, really enjoyed the way it played, fast simple, LPs made for lots of entertainment and decision making each turn with LP allocation mechanic. A fun game and entertaining evening, it is always a pleasure to catch up with Mark and Simon and definitely enjoyed Dux Bellorum.

Craig

More Goths

Tonight I finished the Goth command stand for the Ostrogoth command for the Chalon game. Most of the figures are Footsore Miniatures but two are plastic GB plastic Saxons. As per usual the shields are LBMS.

And the rest of the Ostrogoths.

 

 

 

 

Next up, a stand of Welsh Cavalry and some monks to finish off my Welsh Army for Dux Bellorum.

Alas, then I'll be taking a bit of a break, I've some renovations on a rental property that will keep me busy in the evenings after work for the next week or three :(

Goths

A fun weekend away playingg footy at the Masters, six games over 3 days wasn't fun though- I

could hardly move by the time we had our last game on Sunday but got through it injury free which is a bonus.

I have just finished a base of Goth infantry for Dux Bellorum/ Impetvs. The figures are a mix of Footsore Miniatures and plastic Gripping Beast Dark Age warriors and LBMS transfers. I was pleased with the Gripping Beast plastics, good detail and easy to put together.

 Craig

Dux Bellorum- Chalons

I've decided to set myself a little goal, to refight the battle of Chalons using Dux Bellorum.

I've sorted out the figures I've rebased and am almost there. Each command will be approximately 20 pts and during the battle each will get 4 LPs per turn.

	The Romans
Left Flank - Romans, Franks and German allies (Aetius):
		Pts Each	Total
1	x Foot Companions	5	5
1	x Noble Shield Wall	5	5
2x	Ordinary shield Wall	3	6
1x	Bow	3	3
1x	Skirmishers	1	1
6			20
Center - Alans (King Sangiban):
1x	Mounted Companions	5	5
1x	Noble Riders	5	5
4x	Mounted Skirmishers	2	8
			18
Right Flank - Visigoths (King Theodoric and his son Thorismund)
1x	Mounted Companions	5	5
1	x Noble Riders	5	5
4x	Ordinary Warriors	3	12
2x	Skirmishers (bow)	1	2
8			22
	Attila and allies
Left Flank - Ostrogoths (Valamir, Theodemir and Videmir):
1	x Mounted Companions	5	5
1	x Noble Riders	5	5
3	x Ordinary Warriors	3	9
1	x Skirmishers	1	1
			20
Center: Huns (Attila):
1x	Mounted Companions	5	5
1	x Noble Riders	5	5
5	x Mounted Skirmisher (bows)	2	10
	Total:		20
Right Flank - Gepids and German Allies (King Adaric of the Gepids):
1	x Mounted Companions	5	5
1	x Noble Riders	5	5
	3x Ordinary Warriors	3	9
1x	Skirmishers	1	1
			20

I can field most of the forces but am short a command of Alans! Yesterday my small order of Aventine Steppe Cav (Huns) turned up so decided to turn some of the huns into Alans. The Alans were of fair skin and blonde hair apparently so not you typical hun! Although all "steppe" peoples would have similar dress I decided I wanted by Alans to look a bit more Germanic, so did a couple of head swaps using Westwind heads.

I'm not happy with the Westwind head or the shields so will replace the shields (at least) with Gripping beast ones. I suck and painting shields so Little Big Man Studio has been a life saver for many a project.

The Aventines mini's are really, really nice. The photos and my painting don't really do them justice. Each pack comes with plenty of extras too:  quivers of javelins,  quivers with bows, sheaths for swords, bags etc to further individualise them- and which will be handy for future projects,

The Footsore Miniatures Goth Heavy Cavalry unit I've also completed are beside them. These two ranges mix really well.

The Alans look better from the other side. 

 I also completed another unit of Gothic cavalry- Footsore Heavy Cavalry with barded horses. I need two more units of cavalry for "Operation Chalon" (and to complete the cavalry required for an Impetus Visigoth force)

The Aventine Steppe cavalry unit gave me half of the requirements of the Alan light cavalry contingent. I was going to/ am/ will get more Aventines but in the meantime looked round for some alternatives in the interim and soon came upon my GW Rohan force. I've read of other people using them for Visigoth/Germanic cavalry and as they are Saxon inspired thought, why not! So a rebase and a change of shields and there we have it, two more units of cavalry for the Alans!

To finish off the forces required for Chalon I now only need 2 more units of Footsore Goth Cavalry, and to complete my unit of Aventine medium Steppe Cavalry.

School holidays are just beginning so am away for a couple of days then up to Nelson to play football at the South Island Masters games for few more so won't be doing anything else for a week or so.

Craig

A busy couple of weeks

I've just finished another 3 bases of cavalry: My Welsh Mounted Companions, Late Roman/Arthurian British Companions and another stand of Goths (which will be press-ganged into service as Welsh).

Footsore Miniatures Goths

Welsh command. Again old Gripping Beast. I only had 3 mounted so added a priest/druid and and standard bearer.

Welsh Mounted Skirmishers

Late Roman/ Arthurian Command-Westwind Miniatures. Not my favourite models but they'll do.

Gothic Cavalry Assembled

This is what I've achieved in the past couple of weeks:

13 Stands of Cav (Huns, Goths, Late Romans, Welsh)
14 Stands of infantry (Welsh, Saxons/Goths, Late Romans)
1x Bow
5x Skirmishers

All in all not  bad effort really