Macedonian Army Part 4

 

A Splash of Colour

 

 

I'm a fan of keeping thing simple so with these I'm going to go with a 2 or 3 stage painting process after undercoating.

I undercoated the models first with a grey spray undercoat and then a light spray of Games Workshop Wraith Bone.  The Wraith Bone was sprayed from about 45 degrees to give a zenith highlight.  I am not sure it’s necessary with these figures but for the sake of a couple of minutes extra work I decided to do it anyway.

I then blocked in the base colours in this order;

Flesh with The Army Painter Kobold Skin

Tunics with Citadel Contrast Blood Angels Red

Sarissa Shafts with Citadel Zandri Dust

Boots and Straps with Citadel Gorthor Brown

Bronze Areas with The Army Painter Weapon Bronze

Blue Areas with The Army Painter Crystal Blue

I wasn't overly careful with blocking in the colours because the next stage was going to be a wash.

 

I mixed a wash from equal parts

Strong Tone from The Army Painters Quickshade

Quickshade Wash Mixing Medium from The Army Painter

I felt that strong tone on its own was just a little too dark for figures at this scale and I didn't really want to go with a lighter shade, just a more diluted shade.

 

The result was rather mucky looking, but I figured adding highlights to a couple of the colours would enhance the miniatures a lot.  Besides the main focus on the figures would probably be the shields once they are done.

 

I chose to just highlight a couple of colours, the White and the Blue.

White with Wargames Foundry 33C White

Blue with Citadel Lothern Blue

So far, I am reasonably happy with the results.  It’s a very quick paint scheme and with over 300 Sarissa armed troops to do I think I will appreciate that by the end.

I did a few of the helmets in blue and a some in white to break up the bronze look and because pictures I had seen had helmets in different colours.  I did toy with the idea of doing some in red but ultimately decided to just stick to the 3 colours.

Macedonian Army Part 3

 

The Pointy End of the Stick

 

In recent times I have seen lots of people using broom bristles for spears and the like.  So off I went to the local hardware store to find something that would fit the bill.

Scouring the isles for what felt like ages and manhandling more bristles then I dare to admit I ended up empty handed.  Lots of natural product bristles but none that were thick enough and long enough for what I was after.

Having done some Darkest Africa models in the past I knew I had some 28mm steel Javelins spare.  You know the sort, the ones that are terrifying to most armchair generals on account of them being incredibly sharp and pointy.

Using a small pin vice I drilled holes for all the metal spears I would use to represent Sarissa.  I opted for 50mm length weapons.   I know they should probably be a little bit longer but 50mm was the length I had and it also saved me having to cut down the 100mm thin spears.

These things seem pretty hard to find these days.  I think the ones I have came from North Star Miniatures but they now seem to be unavailable.

If anyone knows where I can get my hands on any more please let me know.

 

Once the Sarissa were glued in place I used blu-tac to attach the figures to popsicle sticks.  Initially I used hot glue but the figures didn't stay on to well.

Using the pop sticks it would allow me to handle the figures easier whilst painting.

 

 

Macedonian Army part 2

It's all about the Base

Having  settled on multi-basing my models I then had to make a decision on what size and shape bases to use.

Looking through the internet it did seem like rectangular bases were more popular than square bases when it came to 15mm figures.

I settled on a standard size of 20mm x 40mm for my infantry figures with the idea being to mount 4 models on each base.

Basing this way did somewhat make Hail Caesar the preferred rules system as it relies more on the footprint of the unit rather than number of bases.

To play using Warhammer Ancients I would ideally need units between 5 and 8 bases wide.  Although doable it could mean my armies start to look a bit like thin lines unless I increase the ranks of bases too.  Of course also doable, but it would require quite a lot of figures per unit.

I had initially thought that 4 bases would be a good size, but I soon realised that it would lose a lot of grandeur.  I really want to give the impression that these battles involved a cast of thousands, not just a few hundred men.

 

16 man units just seemed small.  So I have decided to go with 8 men per base, or at least for tightly packed close order infantry.  I will probably do different figure counts to represent more open order troops.

 

Next I started to look at the shape of the footprint.  I noticed that many people portrayed the Macedonian Phalanx formation in a rectangle on the tabletop but looking in history books the formation was more square.

With each Phalanx consisting of 16 ranks of 16 men for a total of 256 men.

Looking at the Hail Caesar rules it pretty much confirmed what I needed to do.  Phalanx formations in the rules are supposed to be 4 ranks deep.

If I make each phalanx unit 2 bases wide and 4 bases deep not only would I make the footprint square I would also comply with the 4 ranks rule from the rules I plan to use.  This in turn meant that my units would be 8 men wide and 8 men deep for a total of 64 men.   A massive increase from what my initial thought had been.

I was hoping to have at least 6 phalanxes in my Macedonian force, but after working all this out I would have nowhere near enough men.

So another order was placed to bolster the ranks.

 

Macedonian Army Part 1

A Little Adventure into the World of Ancient Warfare

For quite some time now I have been contemplating building and painting an Ancients army but have always stopped short of actually doing anything.  That was until I decided to back a Kickstarter campaign by Forged in Battle for some of their beautiful 15mm figures.

It was actually the Dark-Ages kickstarter that I backed in the end, due to my procrastination, but I used my credits to buy figures from their Ancients range.

After some time a rather heavy box landed on the doorstep and without hesitation I eagerly opened it, and then left it tucked away under a table to gather dust.

Fast forward to now and I once again feel the itch to do something with Ancients.

So what did I get in this box of delights?

With so many options to choose from, and this being my first venture into Ancients I decided to go for something that I hoped would be relatively easy to research.  Who better to choose then Alexander the Great.

But what to choose for him to fight against?

I looked through the images of the Forged in Battle website and decided it really came down to either Persians or Classical Indian.

In the end it was the ability to have both chariots and elephants in large numbers that swayed me towards the forces of India.

Having no prior experience in this field it just felt that the forces of India with all its archers, chariots and elephants would be the complete opposite of the massed Macedonian Phalanx and Companion Cavalry.

 

 

 

So many options.

Looking at my shelves of books that I had collected when I first thought of dipping my toe into this I pulled out a few likely candidates.

My first thought was Warhammer Ancients.  I know they were popular some time ago and I am reasonably familiar with the basics of Warhammer Fantasy, or at least I was.  Sure the rules are really designed for larger figures but I could get around this by multi-basing them.  Maybe 4 models to a square base?

I know I want the armies to look suitably large on the table and multiple models on each base could help with that, especially with casualty removal.  Basically each base of figures would be the equivalent of a single figure in 28mm scale.

My second thought was Hail Caesar.   I love that there is no individual model removal, as that can be a bit of a pain sometimes and would allow larger armies to be used and still have the games played in a reasonable timeframe.

I also have Clash of Empires which at first glance looks similar to Warhammer Ancients but I have not really read into that rules set much.

 

I'd be interested to hear other people’s thoughts and ideas.  Any suggestions at the moment would be very much appreciated.

Time of Legends - Joan of Arc

Finally Finished.

Carrying on from my original Joan of Arc post I have managed to finally get everything painted and based, well except for the trees and bushes which I may swap out for alternative models.  I'm still undecided on that.

The complete collection laid out on my 6' x 4' gaming table.  There is an absolute huge amount of content to this game.  Even more to come with the release of version 1.5.

The set includes various livestock and civilian models that can be interacted with during the different scenarios.

Characters on horseback and foot.

Cavalry from both Ottoman and European forces.

Each Foot Knight has his own unique shield design.

Trebuchets, probably my favourite models from the set.

The Siege expansion adds some extra firepower.

Undead forces.

Some of the buildings from the siege boxed set.

The four horsemen of the apocalypse.

There are plenty of oversized models included in the collection.

Hordes of Infantry

Relics, religious zealots and Monks

Peasants, Angels and Joan of Arc herself.

Battletech - May The 4th

May the Force be with you.