A bit of nostalgia

One of the first ancient armies I put together as a young lad over 20 years ago was a 15mm Later Hoplite Greek DBA force. Why post them now, well in March Mick is putting on a Greek vs Persian game in 15mm. Dave and Neal are putting together the Greeks while Mick will be supplying the Persians. It was at this point that I had these gentlemen sitting at the bottom of a box, spears bent or broken, bases unfinished (you get the idea). I decided that I could offer them as additional support which was gratefully accepted by Neal and Dave. It did take a bit of work to replace all the lead spears with steel ones and re-base the units. I couldn't bring myself to repaint them, just a bit of touching up to cover the chips. Now compared to my painting of today these are way of pace, however it is nice to look back and see how my painting has evolved.

The Hoplites

Psiloi to the front

Peltasts

Battle line

The figures I believe are all Essex, still not bad even by today's standards. Ive still got a couple of bases of Psiloi and a base of Cavalry to put together to finish my small force.

1st Maryland

In a total change for me, I've committed to painting up some 10mm AWI figures. I got these from Pendraken and cannot recommend them enough, lovely sculpts, plenty of detail and variety. To say I was daunted by painting these guys would be an understatement, how wrong I was, they were easy, taking the paint well with washes picking out the hidden detail.

The first unit of my force is the 1st Maryland in their hunting shirts. Most of the pictures I've come across show them in either blue or purple? I went with the blue and mixed in a few shades of brown to add variety to the unit.

1st Maryland in column of march

1st Maryland in Line

I've taken the flag from the Warflag site, not sure how historically accurate that it is, but I like it.

Scots / Irish warband for SAGA

Finally managed to finish my 3rd point unit for this force, a unit of warriors. The figures are a mix of Foundry and Old glory. For the fourth point I'm not sure between taking a 3rd unit of warrior, a mounted unit of hearthguard or using some Pict's fanatics for something a little different.

Scots / Irish warriors

Scots / Irish warriors

More Franco Prussian stuff

Finally managed to paint up the last of my Franco Prussian war figures before I need to make another order to Outpost. First up is the Wurtemburg cavalry brigade and the Divisional commander. Instead of using a black undercoat on these I went with white, mainly due to my preference of painting horse from white rather than the black. Sorry the photos aren't the best, too cold outside to get any done at the moment.

Divisional Commander

Wurtemburg Cavalry

Next up was my supposed to be Wurtemburg artillery to finish the division, but turned out to be Bavarian instead. Must say I actually enjoyed painting these. A nice change doing the lighter blue uniforms.

Bavarian artillery

Bavarian artillery

I'm an idiot

After receiving the figures from Outpost I spent the morning preparing the artillery and crew ready for painting. I kept getting a nagging doubt about the artillery crew but chose initially to ignore it. Later in the day that nagging doubt wouldn't go away, I was sure the headgear was wrong. I checked my painting guides, oh oh these guys were not right. I then double checked my order form, yes you guessed it I ordered the wrong bloody crew, they are Bavarian aaaaghhhh! Now that I have since calmed down, I'll just have to put in another order next month to get the correct crew.On a slightly positive note I've decided to now change tack, I was going to order and paint up the Baden division next, guess they will have to be Bavarians now. The Bavarians are at Corps strength with 2 divisions, not sure if I will do both, that will depend upon finances. After explaining this to SWMBO, she simply replied "idiot!"

KOB Battleship

Just finished this the last model of my daughters Dystopian war fleet. The battleship is a lovely model, probably one of the best in the whole range in my humble opinion. Once again I've used the same colour scheme and added the shark teeth. My daughter did point out a slight mistake on one of the teeth that will need touching up.

I've also received my next batch of figures from Outpost, this will allow me to get the cavalry and artillery done to finish the division. Totally going off track on my plans for this year I've made a small purchase from Pendraken miniatures for some of their 10mm AWI range. My brother and I wrote some rules for this period based upon fire and fury back in 2002 and I fancy giving them ago again.

Scots / Irish warband for SAGA

I've had most of these figures painted for the last couple of years but never got around to basing them. This probably coincided with my loss of interest in WAB. After looking through my lead pile I reckon I can put together a 4 point SAGA warband. So far all I needed to paint up were the 2 armoured members of the Hearthguard. One of these is a GB plastic viking figure, but he will do for now. The warlord is the free GB Pictish chieftain I got when I order the Age of Arthur supplement. The Irish warrior has also made it into the warband.

My Warlord with faithful wolfhound

A unit of warriors

The hearthguard including the Bishop Aidan

The figures are a mix of Gripping Beast, Foundry and Old Glory from their Celtic and Pictish ranges in the main. The force currently stands at 2 points and I'll try and paint up the other 2 points of warriors. I've also managed to put together 4 mounted warriors which I can also add into the mix for a bit of variety. My only issue is my painting style has changed quite considerably since I painted the original figures and it may be difficult to ensure the new paint jobs match up.

Kingdom of Britannia Frigates

I got these models off E Bay as my daughter has got a sudden fixation with frigates. We've played a couple of basic games using the FSA frigates that I already own, but she wanted her own. So her they are 3 frigates just for her. They are not in the original colour scheme that she picked out (red with black tiger stripes and yellow lightning flashes at the front)as I managed to talk her out of it, explaining that battleship grey was a more appropriate colour, though I did have to compromise and add the teeth to the front so they look like sharks!

KOB frigates

To add to her small force I've purchased a Battleship. I've got no further plans to expand these unless her interest continues.

FSA vs PE

My first Dystopian Wars game one on one. My opponent Tom took to the seas with his rather impressive looking Prussian Empires fleet in a rough 1500pt game. The forces if my memory served me right are as follows.

Prussian Empire fleet
1 Dreadnought
1 Battleship
1 Sky fortress
3 pflicht airships
2 Bombers
1 squadron of 2 gunships
1 squadron of 4 destroyers
1 squadron of 5 corvettes
3 squadrons of 4 frigates
10 flyers

FSA fleet
1 Dreadnought
2 Battleships
1 carrier
2 Lee airships
3 bombers
1 squadron of 3 cruisers
1 squadron of 3 destroyers
2 squadrons of 3 frigates
10 flyers

Initial set up

The battle opened with the PE advancing with their gunships. I immediately moved forward the destroyers who promptly inflicted damage to both gunships (nice start for me). Tom then moved forward one of his frigate squadrons who then sunk one of my destroyers. Over on my right the PE battleship came under fire at long rang from my cruiser who began to inflict damage. The PE then had to send a frigate squadron to support it. In the centre my dreadnought moved forward and began to open fire, promptly sinking both gunships and 3 frigates.

Damaged Prussian Gunships

Cruisers engage the battleship

My 2 battleships then got into long range exchanges with the PE sky fortress and dreadnought inflicting damage to both. However I made the mistake in getting one of the battleships to close to the PE dreadnought who then poured heavy fire upon it inflicting some significant damage. Before my battleship could escape the Pflicht squadron pounced and commenced a boarding action. My marines just held out. The the Sky fortress entered the fray and it was all over for the stricken battleship, a prize for the enemy.

Battleship under heavy attack

Boarding assault

Derelict Battleship

Luckily for me Tom only left 2 marines to guard the vessel so my remaining supporting frigate chanced its arm and boarded the battleship, managing to kill the remaining Prussian marines but loosing its own at the same time. At least it denied the prize to the enemy. Meanwhile my dreadnought continued to pound away, destroying frigates and corvettes as well as inflicting damage to the sky fortress.

On my left my scout airships came unstuck against the enemy bombers and destroyers. One was left in flames while the other crashed into the island.

Burning Lee's

Overall as the game drew to a close I had hung on for victory 822.5pts to 560pts. A really enjoyable game against a great opponent. Learning points, know my MARS and get to know the enemy strengths and weaknesses (i.e. don't get too close as those Prussians are rather nifty at boarding.)

More Franco Prussian stuff

First off just wanted to wish you all a Happy New year. I finally managed to get around to finishing off the last two infantry regiments for the Wurttemburg Division. This brings their strength up to 6 infantry regiments and 3 Jaeger regiments. I've also sent off an order to outpost for the remaining items still required, namely Officers, cavalry and artillery.

Infantry Regiment #8

Infantry Regiment #7

The Infantry in formation

Finally pleased to get these finished. All that dark blue was getting to me, especially as I only recently finished painting 3 union corps for fire and fury in  you guessed it dark blue.

And now for something completely different. 3 Huscarls that are to be added to my SAGA warbands'. These guys are some old models I had from Black tree. I've also had a look through the lead pile and think I can put together a 4pt Scot/Irish warband. The figures will be a mix of Irish, Pict, Celt and Viking models. I'll stick up some pictures when I get some of them done.

Huscarls