15mm Keeps Marching On

I am still fired up by the painting competition and two lots have been sent off to Curt, the first of which are shown here. These are old Essex figures that may well still be available. It is also quite possible they are on the wrong horses as these are the first figures I have painted that my friend Martin gave to me a few weeks before Christmas. I was lacking any command figures for my Macedonian army which became clear when I played that test game. So I was happy to pull these out of the box and make up three command stands. These are really for the Seleucid army but I am fairly confident that at least two of them are fine for the other Successor and prior armies and the third really is OK.

This is the Seleucid stand. I really like the General figure and how his horse is ducking it's head. As he stands out the most I will use him as the C-in-C. My daughter likes him as he is on a white horse!!! I have added rock chips to these bases, in reality they are out of the chicken grit we feed the chucks in lue of food. (Not true they have food and the grit LOL)

The second stand, I really like how the wash brought out the engraved lines on the armour plates on the horses. The figures all painted up fairly quickly but were heavy on the flash, especially the horses. Each command base has a basic colour theme in their tunics, Red White and Blue, how patriotic. You don't have to pay much attention to see the damage to one of the lances! That's one of the cat's! Since the pic was taken this has been repaired and all good to go. As Curt on the painting contest said, it must have been a Persian!!!!! No just a moggy working through it's 9.

This stand is the one I am least pleased with. I am not a fan of two part castings, even basic gluing of horse to rider, just adds extra time to the job. Worse still I botched the gluing of the commander to his base. It did not look to bad so I left it. Only on basing the finished model and finding the horse seems to have a slight angle to the right s well really shows off the poor original setting of the rider. So sometime in the near future the rider will have to be removed and repositioned and possibly touched up to repair what ever I bugger up taking him off.

One final moan on the subject of the figures. The bases of the horses, these are really thin so come gluing in place you have all sorts of wobble going on. Yes it saves the supplier on material costs but just adds that extra bit of pain at the finishing stage.

So great timing of Martin to supply the figures and it will be great to get them used. Not that this will be straight away as my First proper game using FoG will be my Persians against a new Macedonian Army that Lee bought ready to play just a week ago. We are looking at next week with any luck and we look to go for about 800 points each. But before that Barry and myself will finally get that Naps game played out, more virgin regiments fighting their first battle, got to love that.

15mm Macedonian Pike 2nd Unit

Well this painting competition is sure got me inspired to get the lead out. Having fairly recently finished off a 48 figure block I was eyeing up the three 32 man blocks a man with a heavy load looks at a steep hill. A little unfair as I enjoyed painting them but man 96!!! Since then I have received a further 96 but that's another story. But 32 figures is a fair amount of points so after doing the Cretans I wanted to get stuck in.

I obviously want each block to stand out from the others and had already selected the Blue shield finish before even cleaning the figures up. The shield is Prussian Blue by Valero but in a moment of madness I also decided to have a go at painting faces on the shields as per the FoG army list illustration. I was more than happy with the result, though like most painted items they look better from a distance. This is the only block that I will add this touch to with though I think, two reasons. 1. One stands out and as such best leave it at that. 2. The effect of massed Macedonian Stars is lost a little with a front rank of different shields.

I really like this shot Cath took, shame I did not have the patience to set it up on a cloth as it clearly was taken on my painting table. I mixed in a few blue helmets in an attempt to give it that campaign look. The front rank are a slightly different figure to the rear ranks. The helmet lacks cheek guards and the men all have bushy beards. The shield is positioned slightly further to the right and lacks the extra leather strap for the shield. Whilst this makes painting easier I liked the added detail.

The last block I painted the shield strap and sword strap in different colours but decided to go with the same colour. Not sure how I will do the two following blocks as I don't see that much of a bonus for the two colours and doing it this way is far quicker but it feels like I cheated!

So 20 bases of pike would allow me two BG's and a reasonable start. I need to get the Command stands painted, these are now cleaned and primed but waiting behind 4 German WWII figures I am working on for a project idea for ASL. Then I need to get the Agema and more Companion Cavalry done. I'd say a further 24 mounted after the command has been done and I am ready to try out the rules with a fair army. Though I still have the camp to paint and build which I have the components just need to get it started. But before that I am taking a little break. No not in painting!! I am going back to 6mm for a couple of Regiments.

FoG Test Game

Well I finally got round to trying out the Field of Glory rules in a solo game. I felt that I had the basic combat rules in my head but realised I would have to go stage by sage for a few turns to get all the different sections to fit together. I wanted to have a fair mix and also make it worth my while I used seven Macedonian against 11 Persian and set up with the traditional cavalry on each flank, heavy foot in the centre with skirmish troops to the front. But a couple of points, first up I have yet to paint up any Command for the Macedonian so I used a Persian Command stand and EHC stand from the Persian Cavalry not used. I also have not painted up the one camp I have so I used no camps at all.

Another good point is that the table is not a gaming table so it was rather narrow and not long enough. Good enough to move a few units, no where near what would be required if I was playing a real game.

The pike start on the long hill flanked by the Cretans and the lightspear armed LC. My plan was to move the pike each and every move to try and get into contact. I should have used the double move on these guys but never thought of it during the game! It was great to get freshly painted units on the table.

Facing these I had two units of Hoplites with two skirmish units out front, slingers and Persian bow whilst a medium lightspear unit flanked them. Nothing new for the Persians other than rebasing, the only question was would the more experienced but worn Persians beat out the shinny shinny new guys?

The first physical contact was between my venerable Persian HC and the just painted Prodromoi LC armed with Lance. First they had to pass a complex test just to charge. This they did. I was really looking forward to seeing how these guys could stand against HC. On the plus they had lance but being lights they lost one die in two in the Impact Phase. The + status for Lance was not that great of a bonus when you loose 50% of your dice, especially when they loose that bonus due to having a lower armour class. In the system you have three kinds of combat. Shooting, obviously but also Impact where just the front row gets to fight and only those in direct contact, no overlaps here. Lastly if both units remain in contact then you have melee. Though in reality shooting is normally sandwiched between the two close combat phases.

I found that whilst the rules worked well and as you use the same mechanics for all three combat mechanics were lumped together that whilst learning the rules it meant that much searching was required. The page labels letting you know what rules are covered on that page and indeed in the coming/preceding pages was useful but would be even better if the index and rules were better organised. I would prefer to have 50 more pages and some duplication to the constant dead end reading. Better yet instead of the rather annoying, 'Discussed Later' would have been a page number reference to where you would follow on the rules. After all when you look up shooting and read the section called shooting would it not be normal to expect shooting mechanic's to at least feature in that section of the rules?

In fairness once you get your head around the fact that much of the book really is padding and that the rule mechanic's for all combat is really never in the section labeled as Impact, Shooting or Melee and is in fact in 'The Combat Mechanism' and the results of this are in 'Cohesion Test' life gets a little less cumbersome. The fact they separate these two sections with another chapter speaks volumes of why it would be better to play with an experienced player.

Whilst the Prodromoi was tussling with the HC I also charged in on the opposite (Persian right) flank Eastern LC and against normal play stood the Saka LC against them. Whilst the Prodromoi managed to hold out through good dice and would eventually be defeated by the addition of another HC unit the Saka was fairly quickly put to rout. OK it took a couple of turns but each combat saw them loose a base.

The Persian Crescent Shields faced off against the Thereophoroi whist both units of bow faced off. I was happy to stand back with the bow but as the Cretans were getting the worst of the engagement I sent them into contact as well. Both melee's worked out for the Macedonian force with the quality re-rolls working for the Cretans. It's a mechanic I like.

The view from the Persian hill as the Greek Hoplites await the mass pike phalanx. The slingers were having no effect on the pike whilst the Persian bow was starting to fail.

The Macedonian view of things. No way was the Greeks going to come looking for trouble.

So as to speed up the demise of the Persian bow the phalanx moves to support the Cretans and it was all over for them from there. Both sides had beaten opposing flanks and the Persians were losing the screening forces. I had already started to move the as yet untried Companion Lance armed Cavalry to face off against the two Persian HC units which would be supported by the reduced strength lightspear armed LC. I would possibly be able to throw in the Medium Infantry but this would leave the phalanx facing the two hoplite units with little support.

End of the game. It had taken 4+ hours and to be honest I was happy to finish here. Further reading of the rules will only show up mistakes in the use of the rules and allow for a better understanding of what to do. I have previously stated that I really want to like the rules as I have invested both money (rules and 2 army lists) and time (rebasing one army and building another) but whilst a few rules are not yet sitting right I already prefer them to the Impetus light. However with Barry now owning the full rules and list III I will get a chance to play the full version. Something that I am looking forward too. My gut feeling though is that when I play Barry I will play Impetus, even looking at putting together a army for it! But when I play Lee and Matt we will swop heads and play FoG. Impetus would have to be a marked improvement to FoG to get me to re-base again and at this point it would take a lot of convincing. Still with only one game of FoG and no full Impetus I could have my mind changed fairly quickly.

Now I need to get that 2nd Phalanx finished and onto a few command stands for the new boys.

Cretan Archers and Prodromoi Are Go.

I have been rather fired up this past week or so with my Macedonian army. What with a possible game on the horizon and the painting competition I really wanted to get going. The rules of the contest were quite clear, to count the figures could not be painted before the 20th but could be cleaned and undercoated. Well I cleaned and sprayed 8 Prodromoi (LC with Lance) and 16 Cretans but I also cleaned up 32 Pike as well. I had already planned to paint the LC next but the ease and speed of the Cretans made me choose them as the second unit. I did feel that would be in with a good chance of leading the way with such a bunch, well dream on Ian as I was quickly enlightened by some truly good and fast painting. I think I am in 7th place and the leaders are so far ahead I don't think they need worry for a few weeks even if they stop painting!

Oh well, good job it still serves as a great vehicle to drive me on, like I really needed it.

I was expecting the Prodromoi to paint really quickly as they only have a helmet and tunics and cloaks are not the slowest items to paint. Well tunics with four colours on the chest and another colour on the sleeves are not the fastest either! I am not sure the final result was worth the effort though as it neither stands out nor really looks that great when you look for it.

What I did like though was the leopard skin on the horse, it was fun and fairly quick to do and for the most part looks effective. The pink helmets and lighter pink cloak and tunic are correct and I await Matt taking revenge on my calling his Companion Phalanx, 'Smurfs' all those years ago. Especially as they are on the painting table right now waiting for Farther Abraham to turn up.

The whole unit ready for action. The unit is a mix of two poses that are almost the same and work well together. I was intrigued by this unit as the idea of mixing LC and Lances was very interesting. It seems to only be used in one of all the Macedonian lists I have so will only get action when playing the Alexandrian Macedonian army. My daughter loves them as they are pink and keeps asking me if I like pink, oh the shame.

I struggled with what colour to paint the tunic's, white seems the new Vogue but I remember Matt's red ones with a very keen memory. I knew the red would stand out so went with the original plan. I painted them scarlet and when I added the wash this really came to light. You get 8 figures per pack and I really only needed 12 figures but painted up the whole lot as other lists may use them all and besides I needed the points.As a unit they look rather pleasing to my eye and I am 100% happy with the colour choice.

I used two different colours for the leather belts but they ended up looking fairly close to each other. If you look close you can tell but rather disappointing. More than making up for that though is the leather hats, these I mixed up the colour and they turned out exactly as I saw in my head, how often can you say that?

Now I have stated work on my second Phalanx which at 32 figures is much smaller than the 48 figure block but I already have the colours fixed in my head and I hope to get it finished in the next two weeks. Within that time frame I want to get the casualty markers I am also working on finished and based as well as the sniper markers for ASL. After that it will be more Sniper Markers, some Macedonian Command bases and more Lance armed Cavalry, this time a little heavier.

Hypaspists ready to go.

Originally I bought enough Hypaspists for a different set of rules but under FoG I am at least one base short (well technically I am 2 figures short). Fortunately Reading is this weekend and I have the figures ordered through a mate who will be there. Other than the shield I have used base colours so it will not be difficult to get the same results on the rest of the unit. I had enough figures for 5 bases of 3, this will go up to 12 bases of 3 figures. I had the choice of Heavy or Medium (3 or 4 figures a base) I went with three as I have plenty of Heavy options and felt the extra movement gained by being Medium was well worth the trade off. If I am wrong I will convert to Heavy.

Figures are Magister Militum (ALM7) 15mm and are the first figures I have had from these guys that I am not 100% happy with. A fairly heavy mold line runs down the face, from a distance this is OK but a lot of Macro shots could not be used as the faces of all the figures are disfigured. Worse though is the shields they have what can only be called a rough patch that makes painting an emblem on them a little tricky and whilst I hope it was just this batch I expect to find the next lot looking the same. Other than that they are very nice figures and once I have full battle groups I think they will be a presence on the battlefield.

A little thin on the table right now but it's another unit off the list. Till next week I now just have 12 Companion Cav and 24 Thracian Peltasts to paint. Still I need to get some kind of command figures for my Macedonian army, any suggestions?

Macedonian Phalanx Arrives.

I have been working on a block of 48 Magister Pike for the last three weeks which I picked up at the Derby World Championships a few months back. Whilst there I decided I would also buy shield transfers for the first time ever. To put it bluntly I was not sure I was up to painting the shields. I had in the past painted another 48 man block and had done a fairly good job then, but that was long long ago and I was a far more confident painter. The problem is that as the weeks passed since Derby I have looked at these transfers more and more as a sign of defeat and worse giving up without even trying. So in the end I decided to give it a go and the transfers went from a sign of failure to insurance.

The image of what could be described as my lack of confidence but I prefer to see it as a moment of weakness. These look rather nice and for sure are better than my own efforts but as they are in fact smaller than the shield space itself I think the overall result would not have looked as good and to be honest would have anoyed the hell out of me everytime I dug them out to play.

So with this fact in mind I paintd the rest of the figures less Pike and then finally grappled with the shield.

This is a close up of one of the finished models (15mm) complete with basing. Apart from not straightening the pike for the picture I am rather prowd of my effort. Of couse I have a further 196 to do but I am trying to ignore this fact at the moment. Whilst it's not perfect and it is also one of the nicer finishes I am rather fond of the result. I can't wait to get him and his pals on the table.

Heres a shot of the whole block. Whilst I was painting them they took up rather a lot of room on their bottle tops but as a block whilst looking imposing they just seem a little tiny. I love the shear size of the Magister pikes, care needs to be taken with the pikes to stop them being snapped but the metal is soft enough that they bend more than break. They also straighten with ease. I also like the pike extensions, in fact I think these figures are the best 15mm Phalanx available.
Another shot of the block. I can't wait to get to play with these, though I expect the first outing I will be seeing the fronts rather than the backs as they get used in suport of Lee's new army andmy next project is the re-basing of the Persins to face them. That starts straight away and I will take the oppertunity for some clean up work as they have been played well and hard in the past. As for these figures they have been painted exclusivly with Vallejo paints.