Huns/Easterlings/Kingdoms of Men

 I've been working on my Kingdoms of Men list ofr kings of War the past week or so. I got some more of the lovely Gripping Beast metal huns so have painted up a couple of bases of Mounted Sergeants to add to my light horse (mounted scouts).

The army is the basis of my hun force for historics and easily morphed into Easterlings for Middle Earth gaming, or now a mobile Kingdom of Men force for Kings of War. I like the idea of an all mounted army- heavy cav (knights) supported by mounted sergeants with skirmishing scouts on front. It works in my head but we will see if I can learn to apply it on the table top.

To add a bit of aerial support in KoW  I have a couple of Nazgul to act as generals on fell beasts, and can add either an elephant or two or even a trolls (giants) to the mix if necessary. 

I have no idea how it will peform on tabletop but am keen to take it out for a spin. 

Mounted scout troops (in KoW)

I base my cav for easy table top recognition- light horse 4 figs per base, medium cav (Mounted Sergeants) 5 figs and heavy cav 6 figs so I can easly tell at a glance which unit is which. Though I will probably redo the mounted scouts with 5 figs on the regiment sized bases to differentiate them from troops of scouts a wee bit more (though the base size is a dead give away IMO).

The figures in the back are my original idea for Easterling Havy Cav- GW Rohan with differnt shields. They work, but just need to rebase them to match the rest of the force. 

Mounted scouts in the front, mounted sergeants in the next rank and knights bringing up the rear. I am especially interested to see which performs better for me, scouts or sergeants. On paper the flexibility of the scouts wins out for me but we will see. 

Once you get enough units together on the table top it doesn't matter if you are a very average painter like me, the massed effect makes the figures stand out anyway. 

Craig

 

Back to gaming...nearly

Well I'm back home and after a few weeks or getting things sorted which included moving house, I'm finally starting to get myself organised and ready to get back to some gaming.

I was up in Christchurch for a concert a couple of weeks back and caught up with my friend Ian who has just finished some  Nazgul on Fell Beasts for his Dragon Rampant/ Lord of the Rings forces. My phone camera doesn't do the subtlety of the paint job justice.

As for me, I'm looking at adding to my Black Numenorean force.

I'm also looking at modifying my basing system slightly, using 2x 6cm wide bases per unit, an idea I've stolen from Ian. My first decision? 3 Cav per base or two. I was messing around trying to sort this out and took a couple of photos.

First up three figs.

Or two?

I've decided I prefer three, looks more dynamic and so future units will have 2x3 figure bases per unit.

I painted these Rohan as Numenoreans a few years back, the only change was to replace the Rohan shields with some Black Shields from one of the historics ranges- I can't remember which manufacturer- and paint the figure some suitably dark colours.


I also have a small force of Gripping Beast huns which are being repurposed as Easterling allies (I'll have 4 units worth for bigger games). I've decide to use two x 6cm round bases with 2 figures per base for light cav/skirmishers as the bases look more...skirmishy. I really like the look that these give.

I also picked up a Nargul on a fellbeast last year and he will be added to the force too- but needs to be repainted.

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

The Huns rebased

The first four stands of Hunnish light cavalry completed.  Was a bit unsure of how to base them but think they turned out okay.

Gepid infantry

The army (so far) assembled

Craig

And so it begins...

I've decided to rebase some of my 28mm armies for "regular" Impetus. The Wellington guys are talking of having a one day Impetus day early next year so am keen to pop up. After much thought I decided to start with my Huns- though they will also be morphed into Alans and even part of a Visigoth force in future or as needed.

I intend to use them for both Impetus and also Dux Bellorum but who knows may end up trying then with Hail Caesar too. All figures are on 12cm wide bases but depth varies:

• Cavalry: 8cm
• Light Foot/ archers etc: 6 cm
• Heavy foot: 5 cm (this gives an additonal 1cm to protect spears etc, so is slightly deeper than the suggested 4cm in the rulebook)
• Skirmishers: 3cm

Figures vary too depending on the troop type..

• Heavy Cav: 4-5
• Medium Cav: 4
• Light Cav: 3
• Heavy Foot: 7-8
• Light foot: 6-8
• Skirmishers: 3 

My  350pt Western Steppe Huns will be (at least initially):

Average command( 12 pts)

2x average leaders (40 pts)

Huns

• 1xCP Sciri (Gen)     - 21 pts         
• 2x CM Nobles- 62 pts
• 4x CL Mounted Archers- 108 pts
•  

Gepid Allies                                                                                                      

• 2x CP Cavalry (Gen)      - 42pts
• 3x FP Foot          - 36 pts
• 2x S Archers       -12 pts

And so here is a start. I'll continue with them tomorrow night when the permafilla has dried. The Cavalry are Gripping Beas, most of the infantry are Muskteer (I think) with a few Gripping Beast plastic Saxons.

4x Hunnish Light Cavalry

1x CM General (Gripping Beast)

3x Gepid Warband (Mainly Musketeer miniatures). I based up some javelinmen as I wasn't sure if i preferred 3c of 4 cm deep skirmisher stands- I decided to go with the 3cm deep ones.

And half an hour later with the permafilla applied the first stage of basing was completed.

I need to get some more armoured Huns (I'm tempted to go Foundry for these), some bow armed skirmishers, and a few other bits and pieces to complete the army.

Craig