Progress on my Syrians

A busy week, I've managed to paint up 8 stands of Syrian Cavalry- 4 will be my CM Syrian Cavalry and the rest will be used as Ghulums. I have two more nights to paint this week and will get 4 stands of Bedouin Lancers done- these I intend to do a bit differently and give them a solid uniform look, I am considering dark blue robes, just to make the unit really stand out from the rest of the force. We will see how it looks when I do my first test base.

Next weekend is Easter and the New Zealand Wargaming Nationals (NATCON) are being held in Christchurch. I had decided not to go this year, mainly due to a lack of time. Instead I'll be heading down to the bach with the family. However, Jamie and Jason have decided to do an Impetus demo game since their War of the Ring comp has been cancelled. I had a chat to Kent and we've decided to pop up and support them on Friday which leaves the rest of the weekend and following week to spend at the bach.

We will run a 500 pt game with my Syrians vs Kent's Crusaders- hence the rush to get the figures painted!

The Syrian Cavalry


I still need to make some banners


Syrians




Ghulums


Craig

Impetus Syrians vs Crusaders- take 2

Kent and I played a nail biter game of Impetus- my Syrians taking on his First Crusades rabble. We both lost a command at the same time and this put both our armies under half strength so it was a hard fought draw- one lesson I learned, Crusader knights hit hard. My Ghulum command exploded in the last turn thanks to two rampaging units of knights, while on ther other flank my Syrian Cavalry managed to rout his command of mainly foot knights. So, the result was a lot closer than last week but unfortunately I left the memory card for the camera in the computer so couldn't take any photos. 400 pts was a lot of fun and I can't wait for enogh troops to add an extra 200 points Craig

First Perry Syrian's Completed

Last night I painted up the first three stands of Perry's for my Syrian army- they will get their first run shortly vs Kent's Crusaders.

Perry Syrians

My order of Perry Syrians arrived today. I've undercoated and based the 6 stands of Ghulams and Syrian Cavalry and hopefully tomorrow night I can paint the first two stands so that Kent and I can play a 400 pt game of Impetus on Wednesday night. The figures are the usual very high standard of Perry's and I'm really looking forward to painting them up. I was intending putting 4 figures on the Ghulum bases to help differentiate them from the Syrians and other medium cavalry I think I'l save some money and simply put three per base, as I have done with the Normans. I'll have to think of a new way to tell the difference. Once finished I'll have 4 bases of each: Ghulums, Syrians and Arabs.

I'm looking forward to completing them so I can put the Old Glory figures out to pasture. This is the force I am intending on using on Wednesday night- all going well tomorrow!

I have decided to go with two commands and intend to build up more 200 pt commands as we increase the size of the armies.

Commander: Fair (+2 leadership)
3x Ghulam Lancers (30 pts each)
1x Ghulum archers (Comp Bow B)
2x CL Turcomans (Comp Bow B)

Commander: Fair (+2 leadership)
4x Syrian Cavalry
2x CL Turcomans (Comp Bow B)
2x FL Kurds (Javelins) 2
x S Archers (Short bow B)

Total: 398 pts

Craig

Next army...Alans?

I'm thinking of what army to build next. Jon's mini's Late Romans and Visigoths has inspired me to replace my 15mm Late Romans and Visigoths with 28mm versions. However, rather than Visigoths I think I'll build an army of Alans- an army I've enjoyed using in DBA and would like to make a 28mm version of. So over the last few days I've been looking at ranges to use for the Alans and think I have it sorted now:

Westwind: Arthurian Cav (some with Saxon heads) and Saxon warband for the heavy Cav and infantry- or maybe even a few modified GB Saxons and Vikings for variety. The infantry are supposed to be axemen so I'm not sure if the Westwind range will work.

GB: A few character types for variety- and their huns will be used for the Alan light horse

Musketeer Mini's- a few of their Saxons will be used for extra variety in the infantry.

I hope to order the figures in the next few days.

NZs First Impetus Competition

I don't play Impetus as a competition game but Kent and I am intending to run a First Crusades demo game at TAGCON which is held here in Timaru the first weekend in August. I started TAGCON several years ago as the second FoW competition in the South Island. In the past couple of years I haven't run FoW at TAGCON, preferring to run our campaign weekend, Day of Days, instead (mainly because no bbody else would organise the FoW comp at TAG and I got sick of doing it!). TAGCON now mainly s 40K, DBA and a few other games (Warmachine was run last year for example year). The DBA comp is held on one day and Kent and I usually run, or take part in some sort of demo/fun game on day 2. This year though we intend to do things a bit different. We'll run our demo game on Saturday and run a small Impetus Comp, probably the first in NZ, on the Sunday. The theme will be the armies and enemies of Imperial Rome (as a few players now have Warlord Games Roman forces) and I'll provide several armies for those who want to give it a go. Rather than a competition we will focus on having 3-4 300 pt battles and introducing other ancients players to the rules. It should be fun, but I guess I neeed to get bbuilding some suitable terrain pieces.

Impetus: Syrians vs Crusaders

The first clash of Kent's new Perry mini's Crusader army vs my OG + Perry Syrians. I got to defend. 300 pts per side.

I took:

• 3x Gulums
• 2x Syrian Cav
• 4x seljuks
• 2x gaziz
• 2x skirmishers

Kent fielded

• 3x crusader knights
• 2x dismounted knights
• 4x spear
• 2x crossbow

Kent's CM turkoples.


The Syrians deploy




The Crusaders advance


Into the Valley of Death the Syrians advance.




Seljuk's prepare to stop the turkopoles- they will fail miserably!




Meanwhile the Crusader knights close in on the Ghulums


The ghulums are on opportunity- awaiting developments.


Havng seen off the seljuks the Turkopoles advance.


Ghulums counter charge the incoming knights- but the dice go against us.


Gaziz charge the dismounted knights- and manage to destroy one unit!


In the centre we continue to lose to the crusaders.


Crusader foot advance to support the knights.


The Crusader general cuts down the Syrian general to win a crushing victory (17-6).


Result
An overwhelming Crusader victory. I was out deployed and outplayed. Those crossbows are nasty as are the Norman knights- the big spear block protecting their flank , and a small block of dismounted knights on the other flank really worked well. Back to the drawing board. We hope to have a rematch next week- maybe at 400 pts if I can get some more Syrian allies done in time.