Normans for Impetus

In the past week I've been working on my Impetus Normans. I rebased two stands of crossbows and two of Normans pears and have added another 4 stands of spears. Tonight's job is to paint up two stands of skirmishers and then the infantry component is finished. I've modified my basing system so it is a bit slower. I am awaiting some Gripping Beast spears so I can finish them.








All figures are Crusader Miniatures. I really like these and will probably get some more in future.

I've also a box of Crusader Norman knights but am waiting until my Conquest knights arrive before beginning them as I want to mix the Crusader and Conquest figures on each base to get a bit of weight on each stand. I've three boxes of Conquest knights to come which will give me at least 48 knights (although apparently there are three spares in each box as well) so will be able to make 12 stands with 4 figures per stand. however, I will probably do a few less and also make some light cavalry bases too and intend to convert a few to finish off my Welsh army.

Flames of War
My 231 armoured cars from Battlefront have finally arrived- they sent me some AEC armoured cars instead! It took a few weeks to sort out the mistake which was a bit frustrating, but I now need to finish those and a couple of panzer IIIs for my Worlds force. BF were out of panzer IIILs so I grabbed a couple more of the panzer III warriors tank and will use those as my panzers supporting my armoured panzer grenadiers.

Craig

Gripping Beast, Crusader & Old Glory 28mm

I've decided to build all my Dark Ages forces up to 400pts for Impetus. I really enjoyed the game the other night and it had a much better feel than DBA where all the Dark Ages armies tend to be a bit bland. I never finished my DBA 28mm Viking army as I could not face the prospect of playing a boring army with 10+ Blades! I tired it once in 15mm and wasn't my idea of a fun army to play.

To fill out my ranges I've ordered a Gripping Beast Army deal- 4 army unit packs for 100pds- I've decided to go with Irish, Welsh, Viking Bondi and Viking Huscarls. I've the start of a Welsh army already and want to complete it. The Bondi will be lighter armed troops in my Viking army and the more heavily armed huscarls will be interspersed with the GB plastic vikings and also make a couple of stands of Veteran Huscarls as well.

Gripping-Beast Norse Irish. These are my favourite range, I love the poses and figures. In fact I've just ordered more. This is the frist time I tried a single shield colour and really like the impact on table. Probably not realistic but it ties the unit together nicely.


Crusader Irish. Personally I don't like these guys. My issue being that there are only 4 different poses in a pack of 8 figures so they tend to lack a bit of variety. I intend to use these guys as kerns, although technically they probably should be more heavily armed noble or bonnachts but really can't see them getting much use! I've got 2 packs of the new Crusader Scots range which I was going use with my Welsh army and now intend to mix them with the GB Welsh I've ordered. Also I've decided I prefer plainer shields for the regular troops so will focus on plain, dark colours in future and leave fancy sheild designs to the nobles and veteran troops.


Old Glory Scots. I've a few OG figures/range and some I don't like- especially the Moor Cavalry I started last year. However, these Scots are one range I absolutely love. Great poses, really animated and to my mind they capture the ferocity of the Scots and to me they simply look right! I also am a real fan of the shields, I love the detail on the wooden shields especially. This is one OG range I'll happliy get again! Although I bought them for my Pre-Fuedal Scots, they'll morprh into allies/extras for most of my Dark Ages forces. Alas the Scots is the one 1000AD force I want that is not included in Extra Impetus 2, so I intend to make my own list combining elements of the Welsh and Irish lists and using the DBA list as a guide.


I think units of 4 bases (24 figures) looks great and are a good base for building larger armies as time goes by.

From right to left: Gripping Beast Irish, Crusader Irish, OG Scots.

TAGCON 2011
At the club on Wednesday night the guys asked if Kent and I were intended to run a comp or evena demo game at TAGCON (Sept) this year. We may look at putting on a 28mm Impetus demo game, I like the idea of refighting either Hastings or even Brunanburgh (which was covered in Wargames Illustrated 271). The advantageof the latter being a bit more variety in troops as we could use Norse-Irish, Viking, Scots and Anglo-Saxon figures/ranges. 2x 400 pt commands per side would make for a very impressive game on a 6x8 table!

Craig

Numidian Roman Trained Infantry

My order from Warweb turned up today, including the last of my Numidians. Crusader miniatures Roman trained infantry, imitation legionnaires and some light horse + a prince for the command element.

So tonight's job was to paint up 3 stands of Roman trained infantry- which I will also use as the auxillia version of the list under DBA. So now I only have the command Cavalry stand to complete the army.










Note: If you compare this post to the earlier posts on the 28mm Numidians you'll notice that I've changed the basing- I've added some Woodlands Scenics turf (various shades I've mixed together- it includes fine and course turfs) and some clump foliage. I think the bases look far more effective.

I also received a couple of Old Glory Elephants and Libyan Spearmen for the Carthaginian army, so another project to carry on working on.

Craig