A Busy Night

Bad news regarding my copy of Black Powder- four pages fell out the seond time I opened it! Even my Battle Front books don't fall apart that quickly!However, Warlord Games are sending a replacement- which is great service.

A busy night tonight. I've managed to rebase 2x units of Russian infantry to the new standard and must say I love the look of the 24 figure battalions so I guess I now have to accept that I'll be painting more figures per unit. The overall look is well worth it though and the units look more Napoleonic than the previous system. I  have a few more figures to paint to get back to 8 battalions of Grenadiers which means I will need to paint another 4 battalions worth at some point before too much longer.

Much better visually as far as I'm concerned.

As well as rebasing, painting, flocking and adding some scenic grass clumps I managed a game of Impetvs vs Kent. Dave and I ran my standard Seljuk force vs Kent & Stephen using Kent's Crusaders.

Dave
2x 3 light horse commands

My command:
2x Seljuk Nobles
2x Ghulums
4x skirmishers (shortbow)
1x light troops (javelins)

Kent's command had:
6x knights
2x Armenian light Horse

Stephen ran something like:
3 foot knights
3 foot sergeatns
2 bows
2 crossbows

Crusaders on the left, the Seljuks on the right. Kent massed his knights vs Dave's light horse- or more accurately we massed our light horse vs Kent's knights.

 Kent got to move first and sent his knights forward.

 Stephenn went next and did the same with the Crusader infantry- alas the crossbows got stuck trudging through the woods- and so missed most of the battle. Shame that.

 Here they come. Already the Seljuk composite bows are disrupting the knights.

 My own Seljuk nobles and Ghulums move forward while the horse archers rain a steady stream of arrows on the advancing knights. The light horse managed to tie the knights up for most of the battle.

 A swarm of light horse raining down arrows on the knights- frustrating the impetuous knights.

My skimishers stick to the woods- having been run over numerous times by the foot knights I've decided that massed skirmishers to control the bad going is a more useful tactic than taking militis or other heavier foot troops- and it worked.

 We had already killed the Armenian light horse and a unit of knights with the Seljuks when one unit was caught by some angry knights- a wee bit of revenge.

 Meanwhile my Seljuk heavy Cavalry advances to support the light horse.

  Stephen's infantry continue forward.

The Ghulums charge the Crusader general but become stuck in an inconclusive battle.

 So I throw in another unit- with the same result. If we can kill the general its all over as Kent is very close to breaking.  Stephen threw some infantry in to support the general but the Seljuks forced them and the general back.

 Stephen's infantry are getting too close but it is too little too late.

 The foot knights manage to catch my javelin troops in the woods and slaughter them.

 

 End game. Massed archery from the light horse has been decisive. Although Dave is within a whisker of losing one of his commands he has more than taken care of the Crusader knights, breaking their command!

The most decisive victory yet. However, Stephen and Kent made a few mistakes. They failed to get their missile troops into action and Kent raced forward with his knights on turn 1 to engage the seljuk light horse which then proceeded to dance round and mass their nasty composite bows. By moving out so quickly meant Stephen's foot were uanble to support the knights and we were able to mass most of out troops v Kent's command. Screening the knights with misisle troops and a more combined arms approach would have probably worked much better for them. Looking at the troops massed against us it looked like Dave and I were going to be in trouble but the lack of coordination of the Crusader army helped us out- after the post game debrief about possible tactics to negate the light horse I think  we will be in trouble next time.

Great game guys, lots of fun as always

Craig

Warlord Game Plastic Russians

 I decided to order some of the new plastic Warlord Games Russian Grenadiers to compare them with the Front Rank. You get 28 grenadiers + 4 command figures, which means out of each box I'll get 2 battalions but will need to add a 2nd (Front Rank) command stand- not a problem. The figures look well proportioned and detailed so should paint up well. I like the fact that you only need to add a  suitable head and the backpack to the figures so they won't be too fiddly to put together. As its raining today (typical for the last day of my holidays) I will get a stand or two painted up. They also include a set of flags which will be a welcome addition.

 Some Comparisons: The WG are slightly slimmer and taller than the Front rank but the two ranges should still go well together on the table top. 

 

 

 

The main reason I bought the Warlord Games Russians was actually not for the Russians. I really wanted to get some of the new Army Painter Meadow Flowers to add a bit more colour to the bases (Kent has been using the stuff and I have been very impressed!). My basing philosophy is to keep it simple but tied together- there are plenty of people out there with better painted figures and better bases but to my mind even an average-good base lifts the overall look of the figures and poor basing (ye old ancients/historics 1970s era lime green with or without flock bases anyone?) detracts from even well painted figures (if that makes sense).


My only disappointment with the Army Painter Meadow Flowers is the fact that each pack is so small, I used 2/3 of a pack on 5 battalions of infantry and one of cavalry (and am using them sparingly).

Alas as its raining today the photos aren't that great but hopefully you get the idea- just enough colour to make the bases interesting (I'm not sure if I'll continue using the Silfor grasses in future- but they are better value for money given the amount of Meadow grasses in the Army Painter packs). 

The photos are of some of my recently rebased Front Rank Russian Grenadiers.

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

Warlord Games Romans

Tonight's work- my first two stands Imperial Romans (16 figures in total). Tomorrow nights task will be to finish off the bases and do another two stands. Two down, six more to go for my starter force for DBA.

The cavalry in the background are Wargames Factory and still need their shields finished- they were Tuesday nights task.






They look a bit shiny but I think that's just the flash- they have had a wash of GW's Devlan Mud but may get a black wash on their armour if it looks to shiny in natural light tomorrow.