Belated Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

It took me a while to get to this annual year in review post - I have been painting a Scots Common army for DBA and it seemed to take forever! Lot of figs in this one, pike, knights and assorted other foot - pics below

I have also been working on some 15mm moderns that came from Santa - I got a bunch of the Team Yankee stuff for 2017. I couldn't resist - don't plan to play their game in 15mm (it doesn't work for me in that scale) but rather some variant of Bolt Action and maybe the TooFatLardies modern game if they get to releasing it.

Here is a T-72, a Zvezda BTR-90 and a Huey UH-1 which is a repaint of a die-cast I picked up some time ago in a department store.

I managed only 15 games of DBA this year - mostly with Dennis I think, we also played quite a lot of Dragon/Lion Rampant. I'm looking forward to playing more Historical KoW in 2017 - that's a nice tight ruleset for mass historical battles. 

This year's painting totals were similar to previous years - about 1,300 completed figures and models, although the numbers are perhaps more dominated by 10mm napoleonics and medievals:

1/35: 1 vehicle, 2 foot
1/48: 1 vehicle
28mm: 104 foot, 12 mounted, 4 elephants, 2 monsters, war machine
1/72: 106 foot, 12 vehicles, 7 guns, 1 plane, 1 glider
15mm: 215 foot, 4 chariots, 1 chopper
10mm: 542 foot, 88 mounted, 4 guns, 3 spiders
6mm: 42 foot, 75 vehicles

total: 1099 foot, 127 mounted, 86 other

I look forward to doing more 15mm moderns, 28mm medievals, and 10mm naps & medievals in 2017.  Although you never know when something else shiny will come along!

Cheers all!

Thematic Byzantine DBA army

I spent the last 2 weeks on working on this Thematic Byzantine army for DBA 3.0 in 15mm. Not sure of the figure manufacturers, but it looks pretty sharp. Lots of cavalry, including a couple of double elements (6Cv) that I have never fielded before. I used a LBM 28mm shield transfer for the banner.

Seleucid DBA army

I just finished this colorful army for DBA - a late Seleucid army featuring lots of heavy foot, knights and an elephant. Looking forward to playing this one - at the very least it looks cool!

Feudal French DBA army

Received this army of Essex and Battle Honours figs from a mate in a trade. They paint up nicely, I went for a very uniform theme of bright blue, white and red with lots of fleur-de-lys everywhere.

The army is characterized by a ponderance of heavy foot and knights with some bows and psiloi options. I would describe it as "crunchy" to play - it is slow but packs a wallop. While I like the mix of heavy types, I prefer a bit more of a nimble army. But this one is very forgiving to play when you roll well in particular.

Walk like a New Kingdom Egyptian

I've had this Old Glory 15mm NKE DBA army sitting in a box forever, so I decided to paint it up for my MayDay tournament entry. Unfortunately, it turns out that holidays plans conflict with MayDay - so all for naught. Except of course, I now have another army to play with.

NKE is very well balanced, under 3.0 it will be interesting to play. Nimble, with fast blades and light chariots, and formidable against mounted with the 4 bow elements supported by a solid blade.

Warring States Qin DBA army

I took a diversion and painted a 15mm Warring States Chinese army (II/4a) Museum Miniatures. They still await banners from LBM studios but look like fun to play - heavy chariots, warband, bit of mounted and some crossbows. Pretty formidable methinks...

DBA Abysinnians II/62 first blood

I recently painted a Nubian Christian DBA army for my chum Dennis in exchange for this Abysinnian DBA army, mostly Essex I think. The Elephant General is an interesting element to play, it's vulnerable to quick kill by lights, but I used it very aggessively thinking that he's stompy as hell but hard to kill, so just give'r and let the chips fall! Fun army to play, need to be aggressive I reckon, with ample warbands and Jumbo needing overlaps and decent match-ups to ensure they make the most of their q-killing ability.

First 2 games against Nubians were close wins.

Alans

Well, they are Sarmatians and late Romans, but they will be taking their place on the right flank of the Visigoths at Adrianople next week when I put on the BBDBA game. The cataphracts are Warlord and the light horse are Foundry.

Sarmatians

Here we have some of the Warlord Sarmatian cataphracts. These are fantastic figures, wonderful animation and nice detail. They are cast with the riders legs on the horse and separate torsos, which I quite like. These are great, I will be using them as Alan noble cavalry for the Adrianople project to face my Late Romans. 

Teutonic Kniggots

In between late Romans I have been working on some DBA stuff in the background. I just finished the important part of a Teutonic DBA army using 15mm Essex figs I received in exchange for painting an English HYW army for my chum Dennis. Good figs, nice transfers (thanks Dennis!) and a nice balance 

including light horse:

Crossbows:

Cavalry:

Of course, the kniggots:

various foot:

and the Hochmeister of course: