Last batch … 200 of the suckers down, just the last 100+/- … Spray brown
there are some old Chariots figures here
and slap on the gunk. This is really smelly varnish, even I find it strong. Figures are confined to out of doors until completely dry!
Sometimes I wonder how I got the figures for this army. I was going through the lead I found another Nubian of different make, then it all became clear. I bought this way back when DBM book 1 was being revised and the archers moved from Bw(I) to Bw(O) ..
I bought these figures , found I didn’t like them and immediately bought another army from Black Hat (when it was Gladiator). I painted that army in a weekend too! However, I never actually played with it and sold it before the revised lists came out!! Some things don’t change 
So, a quick early morning session cracks off about 100 of these…
For all of my biblical armies I like a high gloss finish. To be honest , I’d do it for all armies – I like the tactile feel. But can’t handle the peer pressure!
For biblical armies I’m always reminders of those ancient toy soldiers with their simplistic style.
Although they don’t seem very glossy in this picture. Maybe my mind just adds it on with ‘rose tinted spectacles’.
I’ve quickly knocked up a list. With the change to the army break point values in v2, it hurts the Nubians , as the only thing they’ve got is being a horde! At 800pts there is a 16 BG break point. So there is not much point in having more than 16. So with that in mind, picking the 8 BG of swordsmen – the only superior troops allowed and the rest are archers – either MF or LF. In the first draft I’ve picked 5 (8′s) of MF and 9 (6′s) of LF. The MF are rubbish being uprotected and with no melee capabilty. But my reckoning unless you have something as ‘bait’ then everyone will ‘shut up shop’ against 14 LF BGs – which is a bit boring. As it stands they can lose all MF archers and swordsmen and the army will not have broken.
I have a club game arranged in a couple of weeks. Its just a FoG:AM pick up game, with a Biblical theme. I have plenty of armies suitable for this, but I find myself searching through the lead mountain to see what I can rustle up. After a quick search I find several packs of Lancashire games Nubians that have been languishing far too long at the back of the cupboard. Not great figures, but a great subject for a fast project. The army is primarily archers with a few fanatical fighter (who aren’t that great anyway)…
So, 2 weeks… armed with a can of army painter leather brown and wood varnish I’ll see what comes out.
So figures prepped , lighlty deflashed. The casting are rough and not really deserving of a major cleanup. Glued to lolly stocks and primed with the AP brown
Once that is down, paint on the wook vanish , and let it dry completely.
Then its a case of picking out the detail … so thats about it. A small sample done.
Whether this can manifest itself into a complete army is another matter!
here are some shots of the command figures.
here are the first few shots of the new Scots Jacobites
ATTACK! 2013
July 20th/21st 2013. Devizes School, The Green, Southbroom Road, Devizes, SN10 3AG
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Field of Glory: Renaissance
15mm Doubles Tournament
“Decline in the Mediterranean”
The permitted armies are as below – any date from 1610 to 1698. No allies are permitted. Total army points not to exceed 900 points.
Wars of Religion
Later Imperial Spanish (Army of Italy only) (Nordlingen option NOT permitted).
Thirty Years War Peninsular Spanish
Early Restoration Portuguese
Trade & Treachery
North African States
Later Venetian
Clash of Empires
Early Venetian Colonial
Later Ottoman Turkish
Duty & Glory
Later Venetian Colonial
Later Spanish (Only in Spain or Italy)
Later Restoration Portuguese
Restoration British (Only Tangiers garrison, 1662 to 1684)
TO ENTER: Contact Philip Mackie. (philip_mackie@me.com).
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So, this the theme… very narrow. After a cursory glance at all the lists none are what you would call top drawer. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, Where everyone is saddled with a poor army its surprising what fun can be had.
This mix of armies offers a interesting mix of archetypes. With the Eastern cavalry types (North African states – Algerians , Morocco – which are basically Ottomans abroad with some indigenous types). The Europeans with the regular pike and shot formations and armoured horse types (Imperial Spanish , Venetians) and the later linear tactics of Restoration British and to an extent the Colonial Venetians
There is a certain amount of rock, paper , scissors here with the later Europeans having dominant foot, the earlier Europeans with dominant mounted and the Turks somewhere in the middle not quite good at anything… other than having a artillery park!
I have a Spanish Army, it it is restricted to being the army of Italy – which is woeful.
http://lurkio.co.uk/blog/gallery/15mm-imperial-spanish
It could serve as a Peninsular Spanish Army which is less novel. But I just don’t fancy it. Having being through the lists in a little more detail it does seem that RBS has done his best to keep the number of Superior troops to a minimum.
My opinionated view of each of the armies being -
Later Imperial Spanish (Army of Italy only) (Nordlingen option NOT permitted).
Pike and Shot in either Later Tercio or ‘regular’ formation. The best cavalry superior heavy horse – but not in numbers
Thirty Years War Peninsular Spanish
Pike and Shot in either Later Tercio or ‘regular’ formation. The best cavalry superior heavy horse – but even less numbers. Funky coastline / warship option.
Early Restoration Portuguese
Cannot see any redeeming features!
North African States
Ottomans abroad. Highest number of Superior Cavalry (18 bases) but it is of an inferior type – light lance & Sword
Later Venetian
Can have big blocks of old skool pikemen. But really the problem is its all so average!
Early Venetian Colonial
Not much to say other than some interesting (but poor) mounted options
Later Ottoman Turkish
Core of reasonable musket troops that are vulnerable to cavalry in the open. Reasonable but old fashioned horse – Sipahis
Later Venetian Colonial
As reasonable selection of foot. Mainly mercenary European types. Poor horse , with a few stradiots. Normally lifted from obscurity by being allowed a French ally – but not allowed in this competition.
Later Spanish (Only in Spain or Italy)
Normal pike and shot and reasonable cavalry – restricted by numbers. OK list just nothing ‘out there’
Later Restoration Portuguese
Average western foot , and average cavalry. Allowed internal British ally. But if you want that why not have …
Restoration British (Only Tangiers garrison, 1662 to 1684)
I would say cream of the crop, but being a garrison they are not allowed any guard or regimental guns! One of the few to have bayonets. You could definitely build a wall of shooters with this. Useless horse…
While I’m still toying with what to bring … I have picked up some turkish types at Triples and am idly painting up some tests and scratching some lists together
Yellow is a pain, but if you get an even effect, it can be the lift you need
Sometimes something that should be reasonably quick isn’t. A quick fire effect with the airbrush … Mmm somehow just didn’t come together. I guess I should take more care , but I don’t really like to spend an hour on a single piece. Oh well…
After painting so much 15mm its hard going back to 28mm fantasy . The new high elves are just tops, but so much work. I don’t really want commit too much time to them. So a flat white base with washes us my preferred route. Still take an eon . The new army painter ink washes are great though. So there is life after Devlan mud.
Well all over for another year. It was a good event , heavingly busy.. Not much sign of recession here. Some new stuff , but not as much as last year I thought
Perrys AWI plastic continentals
Perrys 16th c plastic extras
Warlord plastic greens
Warlord D&D demo
And still not in
Salute… Here a bit too early the queue seems to be doing concentric circles
Only one thing for it
And wait it out
Just finishing off painting the converted infantry and dragoons for the French.
Here is a quick pick
This gallery contains 13 photos.
I’ve had these figures for a long time now, and perhaps that don’t get as much love as the others! So, as they did well at Badcon here is a little gallery
After 2 big drubbings, Sunday afternoon saw the Gauls languishing in the lower quartile of the table. Playing only for pride now, the draw when up. Later Republican Roman ( Martin and Andy). The positive side being that at least there were no Cataphracts. We lost the PBI roll off, again no surprise. The Romans ran for the hills (picking Hilly). At this point we didn’t really know what their plan was. They would have more HF that we do! Anyway the battle field was littered with patch of rough going, with only a couple of 1-2’ gaps.
Deployment
The Romans army was small. All of its legionaries were full fat. (Arm SUP If/SSw). They had a Numidian Ally and a far few light troops (LF and LH). They only had 1 BG of MF (some Spanish in 1 BG of 8 (Prot AVG If/Sw) . The centre was covered with 4 BGs of Legion. Their right flank was dotted with a couple of non allied Numidians and the Roman Cav. Their left flank had the Spanish in a patch of rough going, with 3 more Legionaries. In front of which was the Numidian ally with 3-4 BGs of LH and the LF tucked away at the back.
From our left we had 2 BGS of Chariots and the armoured CV facing the Roman Cavalry and non allied Numidians. In the centre we had the Gaesati facing the Legion, the Hill tribe facing the Spanish and the Lowland Ally facing the Numidian Ally and the Legions in reserve.
I was overall quite please with the matchups. On our left flank we had heavier horse and more of it. In the centre the Legion faced the Gaesati that was dicey m but those are out best troops. Facing the rough the hill tribe faced Spanish. Same troops buy we had 12 bases vs 8 bases. On the right flank it was dodgy as the AVG warband wouldn’t like the Roman legions BUT there was a lot of LH in the way – which really didn’t have much space to play in.
The game was pretty straight up, with both sides pushing the left flank and refusing the right.
In the centre both sides advanced. The Romans having even more of a advantage as they threw out a line of slingers trying to tempt the naked fanatics out of line. This actually worked and a couple of poor throws meant that out Gaesati charged out impetuously, it wasn’t really too bad .. but just push extra time pressure on our left flank to deliver the goods.
The game was really decided by the Hill tribe. Both sides has settled in the centre for a tit for tat exchange while they both worked the flanks. However right from centre the Spanish and Hill tribe glared at each other in a patch of broken ground. Each turn both sides requiring an 8 not to go charging off. The Gauls failed first and charged impetuously . With both sides having a general in tow it was high stakes, whoever won this would open and uncontested inner flank, as neither side had much in the way of reserves. Luck was on side of the Gauls. They won the impact , the Spanish lost a base and disrupted. It then got a whole lot worse as being the phasing player Gauls expanded (now having and overlap on both sides), it was 12 dice vs 5 . The Spanish fragged and then broken in their own turn. The victorious Gauls rampaged onwards. Unluckily the Spaniards burst through some Numidian skirmishers. Who then with nowhere to run got caught by the charging Gauls. It was soon 2 BGs down.
As this happened obviously emboldened by the success of their neighbours the Gaesati charged off , crashing in to 2 BGs of Romans. It was a fight we had to win. If they stayed steady then we would be in trouble. One disrupted the other held. The disrupted group broke but the other slowly ground the naked Gauls away, and they lost breaking to a 1/3rd of their number. It looked bad but it was only a single BG.
On the left flanks the Chariots slowly enveloped the flank. Eventually the Romans drew a line in sand for the fall back. Their 4 Cavalry faced our 6. One Chariot BG got behind the lines and was ready to run amok. The other Gaesati BG crashed into the other Romans with some success.
The far right flanks was a bit of non event. The lowland troops were pinned back by the Numidians who seemed content to pelt them with Javelins. But with a BG of 12 based , even with 8 shooting dice (and only getting 6 normally) it was unlikely they would cause a test and less likely with a – (1 per 2)
The Hill tribe was marching merrily onwards. They saw no reason to turn around and face Roman troops that would duff them up, say the camp as the easier option with 4 attrition points attributed to them already they felt they had down their job today. They marched up the camp (which was fortified) and start to try and roll a 5 to get in.
The Roman army being small teetered. Their cavalry had lost to greater numbers. In the centre they was still and ongoing melee, but Chariots now abounded behind the lines. The jig was up.
I was actually called away for a an umpire call – and when I came back the game was over. The hill tribe had broken into the camp (winning the man of the match award with 6 attrition points). In the centre chariots hitting the flanks of Legionaries bowled them over and rolled up the line. The game ended. As we had lost only 2 attrition points this actually rounded up to 0 points lost on the score sheet – so it ended up as a 25-0 to the Gauls.
So 2 bit wins and 2 big losses. As the wins were both army breaks the extra points catapulted us to 15th position. Which all things considered was pretty good.
It designed this army with fighting mounted opponents in mind and that is where it struggled ironically. Against stout foot it is surprisingly resilient. The Gaesati were great as being tarpits, and they have a great chance to win any impact phase. I would change some areas. The lowland foot were a bit of a liability and maybe an Hill tribe army with subordinate generals would be better. Phil would doesn’t play often was really pleased with the result and an army often though as of being a ‘loser’ can be competitive. I enjoyed it – which is the main thing, and it made me look at refreshing my Gallic army who are long in the tooth now!
Well, after missing warfare last Nov this is the first show I’ve attended in 4 months. Part of my new years resolution was to sort out my competition terrain. Somehow it’s tends to slip , as I move stuff about and generally sell stuff. So I decided to sort it our once and for all. It sort of coincided with a bit of painting commission that was due for delivery a WMMS. So it was a horse trade.. The cash was fleetingly in my pocket.
Before … Some Islamic cavalry types …
After a bit bag of rubber
The show seemed well attended this year. Despite being FA cup day, 6 nations and Mothers day
Game 3, Parthian (Stephen & Robert)
So Sunday morning , now armed with a cloth! :-) unfortunately the gods hadn’t smiled on us for the draw as our first round opponents were Parthian (Stephen and Robert). After the last debacle against Cataphracts this would only be worse, with even less foot we stood a chance against. So, let’s see how this would go ! Again, losing the PBI roll-off (no surprise 4 vs 1). So, steppes again. Armed with our 4 pieces of Rough going we diced for terrain. It didn’t go so well this time with only a single piece landing on our side of the table, and that was ‘away from the edge’, on the left flank.
The Parthian army was , roughly
With limited options we decided on following the last plan. So we refused the right flank with the fortifications (manned by the lowland tribe). Next stood the Gaesati (in the open). The Hill tribe stood opposite with rough going on the left flank. We deployed even more neutrally with a refused left flank also (with a lot of the Cavalry in reserve) as we suspected a flank march there, which turned out to be correct.
The Parthians massed all their Cataphract cavalry in the centre (matching the width of the Gaesti , or thereabouts). On our right flanks there was a 3 LH BGs, on the left flanks were a couple of LH BG and all the LF.
Having the first turn didn’t help. Given that we suspected a flank march we held back and couldn’t commit. We just stood and waited.
On the Parthians first turn there was indeed a flank march(but it didn’t arrive). There was a general advance to pen us in (like we were going anywhere!)
On the subsequent turns the Parthians advanced onto our position. There wasn’t any clever manoeuvre. The Cataphracts lined up fancied their chances against our best troops. If we sent our cavalry we would be mobbed by Light horse archers. It was a sad state of affairs really.
The main even started with a couple of Cataphract charges, We’d edged forward to try and get an extra overlap (if that would do us any good). The charge failed. We killed a couple of based and disrupted one Cataphracts BG. The Gaesati may have lost a base. But they stood steady. I think that our opponents were a bit surprised on the resilience of the Gaesati. But they are superior impact HF. So with a general in they are re-rolling 1 & 2’s . Being level in impact with lancers. The only downer was the melee when the better armour would kick in. We had to hope to stay steady. If we ever disrupted then they wouldn’t break off and we’d be –POA until the end L
The Centre held, it was a bit tit for tat. The Parthians always had the advantage that they could break off if thing started going badly, with an IC around then they would always have chance the bolster morale.
Finally the flank march arrived. It was only 2 BGs of Light Horse archers and a general . They didn’t fancy the reception committee so arrived on their own side of the table. As least with that over it gave us a flank to work on. There was nothing there to hold us up. The hill tribe advanced to fill the gap. To be fair they faced LF and LH, so didn’t really have much hope of influencing the proceedings! It did however release a chariots BG to get behind the Cataphract line. The Parthians preferred to sacrifice a LH BG by charging the Chariots in the rear to avoid the Cataphract line from being rolled up (wise). The LH didn’t win the impact to the rear (when they were ++POA) , and once the chariots turned around there would only be one winner. However it took a while.
On the right flanks we has to move the Lowland tribe out from their fortification. There was single Cataphract BG lurking and if we could get our 12 bases to lure them towards us then there might be mileage there.
In the centre the Cataphracts were not having it all their own way. A couple had lost a base or two and were wavering., but eventually our leftmost Gaesati unit gave up the ghost and broke. The Gaesati BG on the right held firm. It was under a lot of pressure one of its Cataphract opponents was fragmented. Any we were left with the unenviable situation of having to charge the Cataphracts , to get the fragmented ones to test, while being intercepted by the other Cataphracts (who couldn’t prevent us from stepping forward to contact the Fragged ones). The Fragged ones broke, but the others held firm and we had a dicey impact (now beingn –POA for charging shock mounted)
On the right flank the final indignation was delivered where 4 bases of Cataphracts charge the Low land tribe (with a general), on level POA. They beat us 2 nil in the impact and the resulting COH was 1 & 1 … AVG troops L straight to fragged. So our double overlap which was 8 bases (vs 4) now became 4 vs 4 … on a –POA. We lose and the 12 strong BG broke without taking a base loss.
We’d lost all of main fighting troops now and it was only a matter of getting a few odds and ends. We had killed a couple of BGs but not much else was on offer. Our opponents were mindful of the time as we have been playing for 3 hours to get to this position and there was a possibility that we’d time out before the army collapsed (not helping us, but depriving them of the extra 5 points). We had one straight fight where we had some LF that had been hit by pursuing Cataphracts … despite the odds they would not die. However, it was only a minor distraction.
With about 5 mins to go the Gallic army broke. The only survivors being the Hill tribe chasing LF through some rough ground. The rest of the Gauls were dead.
The game was OK. Again we didn’t really have much of a chance. Maybe a bolder plan to envelop the cataphracts and ignore the LH. But I feel that the shooting that we would have received would have done us in there too.
Oh well another 3-22 against….
