10mm For Gaming Ancients & Medievals - A New Start

When I first started gaming ancients & medievals, I used 15mm because that's what the group of guys that introduced me to DBx were using.  I later migrated fully to 28mm as I became fully involved in Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB); this included getting rid of my 15mm armies to fund 28mm.  When Warhammer Historical was shut down I really felt it as a punch to the gut; not only would it become next to impossible to get new players into WAB, but all of the time I had spent working on (play testing, proof reading, etc.) the 100YW supplement, the Successors supplement, and others was lost...time I would never have back for wonderfully written books that will never see the light of day because of how the company that "owns" the material operates. My 28mm armies just sat unused.  I tried to get interested in other rules, but interest seemed to die off locally as well.  Eventually I sold and traded my 28's off for 15mm again.

Last year though I started to shift my perspective on gaming and heed the words of a friend..."do what makes you happy...", so here I am starting over again when it comes to mass battles for ancients & medievals.  I am keeping 28mm for skirmish games like SAGA, but for big battles I am moving to 10mm.  My first test is in the pictures below.  I bought a painted army based for Warmaster Ancients off of ebay and realized that this will give me an opportunity to have units be a single base instead of multiple bases like in many games.  I fiddled with frontages and depths before arriving at 100mm by 50mm for infantry and 100mm by 60mm for cavalry, warbands and pike phalanxes.  I think this gives a nice massed look, allows the units to be handled by the bases instead of the figures (something that always drove me crazy with the Warmaster basing and most 15mm basing conventions), allows for for more diorama style basing (like adding some casualties or skirmishers in front of a unit of heavy infantry), and will still allow me to play a wide variety of games since most rules really just depend on similar basing for units.  Now, I did think of basing skirmishers and horse archers, etc. on narrower frontages in order to fit as "small" units for Hail Caesar, but decided against it in the long run.  Since this is a solo project where I intend to build matching armies and host games for my friends which they won't have to contribute anything except for their time, I will simply have unit rosters noting the unit size when/if needed...no big deal to me.

So, here I am...doing something that I have thought about for a long time...finally...and enjoying it.  The pictures don't due these units justice as I didn't feel like setting up the photo box today.  More to come as I get painting on this project...

28mm Mitanni Chariots - Army Complete!

Well after literally YEARS I've finally finished my 28mm Mitanni army!  When I started this army I was playing WAB extensively and my goal was to use this army for that game.  But with the ultimate demise of Warhammer Historicals at the hands of Forgeworld/GW and the hose job they gave to people that put in a ton of time on products that will never see the light of day, I'm done playing WAB and have moved on to Clash of Empires.  It will be for a game of Clash of Empires that this army will see the table for as I've got a game lined up next week.  If I remember, I'll take my camera and get some pictures of the game.

The chariots for this army are a collection of different manufacturers.  All but two of the chariots are from Old Glory with the other two being from Newline.  The crew area mixture of Foundry, Newline and Old Glory.  I think they all fit together just fine.  The base painting on the chariots and horses was done by Tim K. at Saguaro Painting Service and the crew were painted long ago by Fernando Enterprises; I added extra detail to the chariots & horses and did touch ups on the crew as well as the basing.   

It feels good to get another project checked off of my list.  Next up is a bunch of basing projects along with some painting for a friend...updates to follow on both of those as I make progress.

See Ya' 2010

Well, I only managed 13 posts this year (14 if you count this one)...better than 2009 but not where I want to be. I've had some real life stuff taking up time and just haven't had that "hobby" drive I need to focus and do things consistently like paint and blog! That said, here's what I've done off of my "wish list" for 2010:

1-Finish Uruk-Hai scout army for LOTR: Done, but I will eventually be adding stuff to the army.

2-Do terrain for Gathering in the Desert 2010: Done. I've toyed with the idea of getting rid of the Osgiliath terrain because I no longer have armies for any game that fit that basing, but I still have it.

3-15mm Napolenics: Done...kind of...I ended up selling/trading what I had acquired off. The guys I game with have more than enough 15mm Nappy's and anything I was going to contribute would be duplication.

4-Finish Trucks for my DAK FOW Army: Work in progress...I'm a lot closer than I was last year...just some detailing and basing to do. I would have been done, but I did some additions to my 8th Army force and also additions to a Late War Soviet force that I acquired instead.

5-Chariots for Mitanni WAB Army: These have been passed off to Tim K to finish up as the final part of a trade that we entered into years ago.

6-40k Stormtroopers: Done...mostly...just have some detail and basing to do. This went to the back burner pending the new DH codex coming out.

7-WHFB Army: I have a Tomb King army that I had previously owned and I think I may get rid of it. I won't play WHFB competitively so I may just stick with my Dwarf Wars stuff when I get around to playing this game.

8-New 40k Army: Didn't happen...

9-Base up 15mm Marian Army: Didn't happen...but I did have Tim K paint up a 15mm Mongol army that I have to base up as well...so something did get done on the 15mm ancients front.

10-Start new game: I purchased stuff for Dystopian Wars...and I'm also thinking of Warmaster...

Well...it was an "ok" year...at least I got to play a lot more games than I thought I would. Now I'll mull over what I want to accomplish in 2011 and post that up when I get if figured out!

28mm Roman Velites

Well I've been busy and not as dedicated to my painting efforts as I should be...that said, I have managed to get something done recently. Here are a couple of photos of some 28mm Roman Velites that I'm painting up for Mike as part of a trade. They are from Crusader Miniatures and were great figures to work with. They were easy and enjoyable to paint. Next up for Mike's Roman Army for WAB are the Triarii which I'll post pictures of when I've finished them. Eventhough I'm not painting as much as I'd like, I've been getting in about a game a week and having fun, so there's that!

A New Year - 2010 resolutions?

Well, the New Year and New Decade is here and though I haven't been updating this blog much I have actually been doing some gaming related activities. I had a target date of December 31st to finish off my Uruk-Hai scout army for LOTR, but I'm going to be a little behind on that...maybe this weekend...the reason I'm mostly behind is that I decided to do up another box of Warg Riders that I won at the Gathering In the Desert Primer event. So here's my "plan" (subject to change at any time, of course!) for 2010:

1-Finish the Uruk scouts for LOTR: I plan on taking pics and posting them next weekend.

2-Do a bunch of buildings from Old Glory and JR Miniatures, along with some accessories from Pegasus and a piece from Hirst Arts; I want to get this done by the end of January or so because I'll need this stuff for a couple of tables I'm supplying for the Gathering in the Desert.

3-Touch up and rebase a bunch of 15mm Napoleonics I got in a trade. I traded off a 25mm Early Imperial Roman army for these troops since some of the local guys have started playing Napoleon's Battles and Shako II. I'll likely trade/sell off the Russians I got so I can expand the French and Poles I have.

4-Finish up the 15mm DAK trucks for my FOW army.

5-Finally finish up the chariots for my 25mm Mitanni army for WAB.

6-Get some figures suitable for 40k Stormtroopers to add to my Daemonhunter Army.

7-Start on a Warhammer Fantasy Army: I have a large number of Dwarf Wars figures that I can proxy as either an Orc army or an Empire army based on how they are armed, but lately I've been thinking of starting either a Skaven or a Dark Elf army instead.

8-Start on another 40k army: I have my Grey Knights and I think I will start off by adding IGuard and Space Marine allies with possibly expanding these to full blown armies in the future. I'm also interested in Eldar and Dark Eldar though too...

9-Finish off and base up a 15mm Marian Roman army that was painted by Philgreg painters in Sri Lanka. This is for Might of Arms...a good game which I hope to play more of this year.

10-Commit to one "new" game...I'm thinking this will be Uncharted Seas, but we'll see.

That's all for now...hopefully I'll have the time (once my son's basketball season is over with at least) to update the blog more frequently.

Happy New Year!
Tom

Busy, but not dead...

So it's been forever since I posted to this blog...I've just been busy with "real life" for the most part. Work has been "interesting" since April when I got a "temporary" promotion due to a manager leaving; after doing the job for 3 months I had to interview for it and luckily I got it...promotions from people leaving are the only way people working for the State of Arizona are going to get raises in the forseeable future. I also had a busy summer due to my oldest son playing on a club basketball team, including a trip to Vegas.

In addition to "real life" time commitments, I've strayed into another hobby and started collecting sports cards again. Right now I'm working on some sets and also collecting players from the teams I follow (Red Sox, Falcons, Suns and Syracuse). That "hobby" certainly has changed since I was a kid and there was only Topps to deal with, that's for sure!

As for gaming, I had the wind knocked out of my sails in the spring when it was announced that Warhammer Historicals editor Rob Broom was made "redundant" WHW would become part of Forgeworld. At the time WAB 2.0 was looking good and was on trackI thought; since then...well, nothing. From what I understand from talking to various authors and testers that were working on various WHW projects non-communication from the new powers that be is the new "norm". I don't know when, or if, 2.0 will see the light of day, and even if it does if there will be any follow-on supplements released. I am helping a friend on some ACW rules that are supposed to be done by WHW, but that's the extent of my involvement. The saddest part of this is that after years of no real releases and all of this crap going on, WAB, a game that I really enjoy and a game I've supported with endless hours of testing, emailing, proof-reading, and defacto editing is pretty much dead locally and even if 2.0 come out I'm not sure it will ever get back to where it was. I'm even looking at other rule sets now so I can use my 25mm armies and have some opponents.

Well, enough about the negative...time to focus on the positive...I have managed to finish up most of my 15mm Afrika Korps army for Flames of War (tanks are from Old Glory and infantry from Battlefront):

Late Roman Infantry

OK, so here are the Late Roman infantry for my WAB army. I haven't had good success with the army as it's hard to be successful with it without using the Warlord list from the Fall of the West book; a straight up Late Roman army as I use it just doesn't pack too much of a punch. That said, that makes the victories that much sweeter!

Late Roman Infantry - Mixed Pedes and Archers

Another Mixed unit of Pedes and Archers

Armored Infantry Unit

Another Armored Infantry Unit

General and Army Standard Bearer

Well, that's it for now...take it easy...

Excuses, babbling, and Late Romans...

Well, if I want to average one topic posting a week for 2009 I better get to it. I've been busy painting and had a slight distraction with the Superbowl (and all of the cooking for the mandatory party of course...pulled pork, brats and wings!) and eventhough I'm a Falcons fan I was rooting for the hometown team...it was a great game! To top it off I'm also getting into a good painting groove working on finishing up my Rohan for the Gathering in the Desert which gives me 17 days to finish the army up!

That said, I haven't had a chance to take any good pictures of stuff, so here's an army that I've had done for a number of years, my Late Romans for WAB.

Roman Cavalry and Infantry Command Figures: Gripping Beast
Hun Cavalry and Infantry Archer Figures: Old Glory
Roman Spearmen: Wargames Foundry
Shield/Standard Decals: Dark Age Design
Painting: Tom O.
Basing: John G.

I put this army together after getting a good deal on some Foundry Late Roman Spearmen. Though not the best supplement for WAB IMO, I used the Fall of the West army list to create this army. The mixture of figures from Foundry, Gripping Beast and Old Glory fit together nicely, even within units. And kudos to Darren at Gripping Beast in the UK who allowed me to mix and match packs in the Late Roman Cavalry package to get the mixture I wanted…great company to do business with and I highly recommend them.
I also have to give high praise to Dark Age Design for their shield decals. They look great...too bad they are no longer available... And lastly, thanks to John G. for doing the basing...I hate to base figures as I find it tedious so I bribed John to do it for me as he does a great job.
The army consists of: 10 skirmishing infantry, 2 units of 24 infantry (18 spear, 6 bow), 2 units of 16 infantry (I usually upgrade these to light armor, drilled, and heavy throwing spears as the Veterans are too expensive IMO), 2 units of 12 archers, 10 Hunnic light cavalry, 10 Roman horse archers, 10 Roman light cavalry, 10 Roman heavy cavalry, 12 Roman Cataphracts, a General, and an Army Standard Bearer.

Late Roman Heavy Cavalry

Late Roman Cataphracts

Hun Light Cavalry

Roman Light Cavalry screening the Heavies

Roman Horse Archers screening the Cataphracts

Next post will be the Infantry...

2009 "To Do" List

OK...I know...I know...it's been several months since I posted last...been busy, but that's no real excuse. One of the big issues for me is that I want to take decent pictures, but I have no conveniant place to do so...that's one of the things I'll work on this year. Here are some others:

1-Finish my Lord of the Rings Rohan army in time for the Gathering in the Desert tournament in late February. I have 30 riders complete...now I just need to do the characters and dismounts.

2-Post an average of one post per week on this long-neglected blog, so 52 posts for 2009 is my goal.

3-Finish the 17 chariots for my 28mm Mitanni army for WAB; this will complete the army.

4-Finish my 15mm WWII Afrika Korps. Fernando painted the infantry, but I have to do touch-ups and base them. I also have to assemble and paint all of the tanks, trucks, and guns.

5-Finish either the Babylonian or Andalusian armies I have for WAB. In this case Philgreg painters painted all of the infantry and cav riders, but I have touch ups to do and also have to paint several dozen horses for each (and a few chariots for the Babylonians) and do all of the basing (which is a tedious chore for me).

6-Finish up Mike's 28mm Flanders army for WAB.

7-Undecided. I will either do a 15mm army for Might of Arms or some 28mm ACW or who knows...maybe just a combination of things and start some new projects as the items I have listed previously make up the majority of the started projects that I haven't finished yet.

If I do anything "new" it's likely to be 15mm Napoleonics as I've been kicking that idea around for a while...though there are some other areas/periods I'm interested in as well.

Well, that's it for my 2009 "resolutions" for gaming I guess...of course, this list is subject to change based on my ever changing interests!

More WAB Mitanni

Here are the rest of the infantry for my 28mm WAB Mitanni Army that were painted by Fernando Enterprises. The javelinmen are Newline Designs, the Sea Peoples are from Old Glory, and the Phoenicians are from Foundry.

Javelinmen

Phoenicians
Sea Peoples

WAB Mitanni Infantry

Here are some pictures of the start of my 28mm WAB Mitanni Army. The infantry are mostly from Foundry with some Newline Designs mixed in. I've had these guys for quite some time, but only recently based them up. I sent them to Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka to get painted and I think they did a good job. All of the infantry are done, but I have 17! chariots I have to paint up myself. I'll get cracking on those soon hopefully. The army will be mostly Mitanni with a Hittite allied contingent.

Archer Unit 1

Archer Unit 2

Archer Close-up

Hittite Spearmen
Mitanni Spearmen

I took these pictures in the portable photobox my wife got me for Xmas. I like it for taking pictures in...I seem to have less issues with focus than I did in the past; now my main issue is the lighting which I'm still working on as you can tell by the pictures. Maybe I'll get it, maybe I won't, but either way I don't think the pictures are awful.

Last of the Danes

I wanted to show more of my Ulfhednar; the picture isn't the best, but it shows more of the variety in the unit. The Danes are as "done" as I'll ever be with an army...I've got more than enough troops to play a "standard" 2000 point game. If I ever start playing larger games I'll have to add more troops. I know that some in WAB think the Ulfhednar are "cheesy", but I don't use Beserkers in the army as I consider them the Beserkers. They are actually pretty easy to beat...there's nothing like getting an expensive unit shot up by 40 points of skirmishers!

Even More Danes

Since it appears that I can only upload 5 pictures per post, I'll have one more post after this to put up to finish showing off my Danish WAB army.

Two Units of Hird:

More Hird:
The Fallen:
"Tiny" and friends:
Ulfhednar:

More Danes

Here are more pictures of my Danes for WAB. The figures are a mix of Foundry and Gripping Beast...

More archers:

Another Bondi unit:

The General's Unit:
The Gestir:
A Hirdman Unit:

First Post and Danish WAB Army Pictures

This is my first post to the blog and I think I'll be starting off by posting images of stuff I all ready have, starting with my 28mm Danish Army for Warhammer Ancient Battles. This army has been done for quite a few years and uses Foundry, Gripping Beast, and a few Black Tree figures in it. They all mix together well and I like the look of the army.

One of the archer unit leaders:

A unit of archers:

A nicely done Hirdman with a daneaxe:

A unit of Bondi spearmen:

The General and Army Standard: