Pyrrhic Epirote Phalangite

 

Finished a new Epirote Phalangite unit for my Pyrrhic army bringing me up to 3 out 5 planned. I had forgotten how long it takes me to do one of these and is probably why they are spaced out rather then one after another.

I decided on a light blue for this one and quite like the colors. I'm trying to decide if  I'll do some more units this way or keep each unit an individual in their own colors. As mentioned they do take quite some some time to paint(for me that is) so I probably won't attempt another for a little while and for sure not this challenge, but not a problem as I have plenty of other units for the army to do!

The miniatures are from the superb Aventine range and I highly recommend visiting their site. If you like ancients you will be hard pressed to leave with your basket empty! The colors I used were Foundry, Vallejo and Citadel with some mig pigments for rock dusting.

I have some more Pyrrhic units on my desk at the moment so that will likely be next up on the blog unless I get distracted which can easily happen....

Thanks for viewing!

Miniature Company- Aventine Miniatures

Late Roman Light Cavalry

 

Some more light cavalry for my Late Romans. This brings me up to date on my back log of late romans that I've had finished for awhile. I pretty good in terms of cavalry units for the romans now so will likely turn my attention to some more infantry and Germanic tribes as they need some additions. 

Painting them didn't take overly long as I only needed to paint a few of them except the shields which started as transfers, but basically required me to repaint 70% of it due to disintegration of the plastic and the colors were not bright enough.

Doing the bases was fun as I had extra space to add some scenery without crowding the base. The figures are all foundry which I really like and the paints used were again mostly foundry with some Vallejo as well.

 Next up will probably be some more of my Pyrrhic project which is currently on my table for what seems like forever. Looking forward to getting the current unit off the desk asap!

A little off topic of my post if I ever fully commit to doing Napoleonic's or WSS in 28mm I will need to employ a quicker method to painting my horses as my current method is a non starter! I like how it looks, but is completely impracticable! 

Thanks for viewing!

Miniatures-Wargames Foundry

Late Roman Equites

 

Some Late Roman Equites I finished a little while ago. I did say I have a backlog of units to post.;-) They are some much needed heavy cavalry for my Romans....well I always need more cavalry then I have to be honest.

As cavalry goes they were not overly difficult to do which isn't to say they are not time consuming which they are just that the parts were pretty accessible to paint. What can I say Foundry miniatures just keep standing up to years very well indeed. Are they over priced? Yes. Will I still keep buying them? Yes of course and b*tch the whole time as I do probably. However, I always keep my eyes open for a deal and avoid full price when possible. This Christmas I didn't order the Foundry deal as I ordered other things, but last year I did and when I visited England I picked up some.

  

The unit has a few repeats as I used what I had at hand, but that's fine as it gives a unified look to the unit which works for Romans.

I have another unit of Equites to do, but they are Foorsore miniatures which are excellent as well!, However, I'm staying on my Pyrrhic project.for now. I'm almost caught up on the units I've finished of which Late Romans are again one of them.

Thanks for viewing!

Miniature Company-Wargames Foundry

Pyrrhic Epirote and Tarentine Pikemen Phalanx Re-Based

I rebased my Epirote and Tarentine pikemen phalanx onto single figure bases mounted on movement bases. I do not like my units on multiple bases so lately I've been mounting them on one base, but adjusting the depth depending on type of unit.

Since my Spanish Reconquista and Late Roman/Germanic projects are at playable levels needing just a few character models and units to enhance the gaming experience(more Romans on the way) I decided to turn my attention back to my Pyrrhic project as I wanted another large army project to add to the table.

 My Pyrrhic army is starting off point to eventually make my way into the Successor wars, but that some time off as the Pyrrhic army and their Republican Roman adversaries will keep me quite busy!

The figures are from the excellent Aventine Range which I personally think are some of the best figures out there. I expect the collection to include Aventine, Wargames Foundry and Victrix which all go well together so I foresee no problems in acquiring the figures I need.....I already have a lot so it's going to be a very large project indeed!

 It's an interesting project to do as you get to have fun with color and a whole lot of variety. Some models are not to difficult to paint while others can be very challenging in particular those in linothorax

armor. 

The AHPC is coming up and I have a bunch of Pyrrhic stuff primed and ready to go, but before then I'll be posting a few things I've already finished that are from other periods. The next Pyrrhic unit won't be ready for a little while.

Thanks for viewing!

Miniature Company-Aventine Miniatures

Late Romans vs Late Romans To The Strongest! (Solo)

 

The rival warlords Nexiust and his loyal legions face off against his rival Primus and his Burgundian allies.

I finally decided to have my first solo game. This came about due to the fact that my wargaming has been reduced to maybe playing a game once every 3 months or so if  even that. Why? Well my regular opponent no longer (war)games very often or least not that I'm aware of as he prefers mostly just to paint in regards to miniatures. The other group lives over an hour away and has their own gaming group, but are also not gaming as often as they used to at the moment due to real life interfering. There is a club I used to go to about a half hour away. Friendly folks, but they mostly play games I'm not really interested in (Fantasy ,Sci-Fi ,some historical but always skirmish) plus often with unpainted miniatures which sadly I cannot overlook, not to mention I really dislike transporting my miniatures. Since wargaming includes both painting and playing for me if I'm not gaming then the motivation to paint is affected. Well, I knew I had to do something or wargaming as a whole would just come to a halt period. This would not be a good thing as the wargaming hobby has had a very positive affect on the quality of my life.

Solo gaming. Hmmm would that really work? When playing a game I've always looked at it as very social activity and probably the part I liked the most even more then the game itself . The hobby talk before the game, friendly banter during the game, and the after game discussions and plans. This would not be present. I also worried about favoring one side too much leading to a boring predictable game.

Well I'm happy to say I enjoyed the solo game a lot more then I expected! Of course I would have had more fun playing a friend no question, but the experience was quite fun which is the important thing! I think the rules To the Strongest! had a lot to do with it due to the friction in activations where units can fail to activate which changes the dynamics disrupting plans not to mention the grid system eliminated any kind of fudging and fiddling of units and speeds the game up. As long as you try to play each side as best you can then you will have a good time as the cards will give you plenty of surprises.

General Nexiust in the center with the legions and commander Cyprus in his cataphractarii leading his division of cavalry on the left and commander Poximer leading the auxiliaries on his right face off in the distance General Primus and his legions center with his cavalry under Optomier and his ally Chieftain Hangar and his Burgundians.

The cavalry prepare to engage.

Poximer's Aux. Begin to advance

Hangar's Burgundians roar their defiance 

General Primus with obvious Germanic tastes 

Genaral Nexius who isn't above showing the heads of previous enemies as an example of what happens when defying his rule.

I decided to use my Late Roman/Germanic collection as it's my largest to play a kind of civil war of two rival Warlords. I did need to substitute some units for others as I didn't have enough of a particular type. For example I didn't have 3 cataphractarii units on one side rather just one and the other two were equites(normal cavalry). There were more substitutes, but I think the overall impression of Late Romans with Germanic allies fighting Late Romans was achieved. 

A mighty clash of cavalry led by Cyperus himself!

More clashes of the cavalry looking for advantage.

Hangar charges with his Burgundians, but Aux. hold their ground.

Back and forth the Auxiliari's and Burgundians fight, but neither can seem to get an advantage

In the cavalry duels Optimer's heavy cavalry manage to outflank one of Cyprus forward pressing units.

Optimer's riders crush the enemy underfoot

Disaster for Cyprus as both he and his cataphractarii are shockingly ridden down!  

I was always holding back from playing To the Strongest! as I didn't think I would like the grid system and the cards instead of dice.....I was wrong to say the least! I really liked the grides as it just made moving units so easy without any fuss and the process of flipping cards was more fun then rolling dice I found. Also, since I could take my time I didn't feel the game drag as often happens when learning new rules. I found myself completely engaged as to what would happen and not wanting to stop playing which is a very good thing. It was a very tense game with charge at the end deciding the game!

I thought maybe the cards on the table would be distracting, but they were not as I picked them up after each "division" was completed and the attack/save cards were played off battlefield. Really like the way the victory medals were worked especially with the amendments. Do you really want to rally that unit? Could cost you victory medal in doing so. I won't explain To the Strongest! here, but those that play will get that. Quite a few interesting choices to make in that whichever side your playing you are making decisions.

Nexiust seeing his cavalry flanked destroyed and his right flank bogged down decides a desperate charge of his legions to break Primus center is the only chance he has before his flank will be set upon by cavalry

Auxiliarii vs Auxiliarrii, Legionarii vs Legionarii and Warlord vs Warlord clash in the center!

Nexiust and his Legionarii's desperate charge pays off and they break both of Primus's Legionarrii's sending them scattering and Primus himself being dragged off to safety by his bannerman.  

Remember when I said that I was worried that my preference for one side could lead to unconscious bias to the side I was playing......well I lost so that answered that! To the Strongest is an excellent game and if I had to nit pick I'd say not having the units base to base takes a bit from the visual, but that can be easily adjusted simply by making the boxes smaller, but I wanted them "standard" until I'm more comfortable with the game. I highly recommend playing To the Strongest! and I plan on playing many more games in the future along with Simon's For King and Parliament and his yet to be released Age of Reason(Corporal John?) ruleset for 18th century warfare all which are right up my ally with a focus on fighting armies.

So It looks like wargaming will continue through a combination of solo and friends which is a very good thing for me indeed and has already fueled my desire to paint more units to fill in the gaps of my existing collections and grow others. Other rulesets like Field of Battle and TFL also look promising for solo due to friction in activations which I think is very useful in solo wargaming. 

Thanks for viewing!