More Ancients From GrahamB ( 390 points)

 More ancients from the stash this week.  Firstly a unit of 32 Macedonian Pike Phalanx. The figures are Warlord plastics, including an officer and standard bearer from a box of Greek Hoplites.  The colour scheme is inspired by a unit in the Phyrric Wars Hail Caesar supplement.  I don’t know how accurate it is but looks quite striking to me.

Next are two units each of 8 Triari to boost my Republican Romans.  The front rank kneeling figures are 2nd hand from Renegade miniatures with the standing guys at the back from Aventine Miniatures.  These figures are destined to serve double duty as spear armed Italian allies to support my Republican Romans and Phyrric army’s.

Thirdly are a unit of 16 Foundry Spartan Hoplites.  Their spears are made from broom bristles.

Next is a small unit of 4 Tarentine light cavalry.  They were favoured as mercenaries and fought for several armies of the period.  The only thing that I can find to distinguish them from other Greco/Roman light cavalry is that they were early adopters of shields.

Finally 6 skirmishers from Victrix Republican Romans, in generic tunics making them suitable for use in several armys.

Totalling up there are 32 phalangites, 16 principe, 16 Spartans, 6 skirmishers making a total of 70 foot @ 5 points each and 4 cavalry @ 10 points each giving a total of 390 points.

I've been enjoying your ancients over the challenge Graham, and these ones are quite a treat.  That pike phalanx is lovely, I like the colour scheme and it looks right to me.  I also like how you've built your units to morph into other armies as needed.  IIRC, fighting in the Tarentine style came to mean carrying a shield while mounted and not all "Tarentine" cavalry came from southern Italy.  Bravo on this lot.  

 

PeterD

From MattW: Italians and Greeks (115 points)

More Italians and Greeks additions 

First up some Italians for Infamy Infamy and Gangs of Rome skirmish rules, not sure of the brand Agema perhaps, hand painted shields.

Another unit of Greeks, again Immortal miniatures now sold by Warlord Games,  6 more units to go and the heavy infantry will be done. Again VVV decals on the shields. 

10 Italians @ 5 points = 50

12 Greeks @ 5 points = 60

Total points 110

Cheers

Matt

TeemuL: Good looking warriors, but more photos would show them even better. Nevertheless, nice additions to your forces. And naturally some bonus points for hand painted shields.

From Mike D. Heavy Normans and Light Romans (365 pts)

I got off to great start this year. I was well ahead of my intended pace entering into February and was hoping I could make my secret dream stretch goal of a thousand points. Then this past month I kind of hit a wall. I don't know if I burnt out early, or the winter sads just got to me, but I had a hard time painting at my usual past these past few weeks. In addition, I had intended to parcel my output into more frequent posts this year, but here I am with my yearly final points-bomb. I've even got a few 15mm elephants I've painted that I'm still hoping to photograph and post tomorrow. 

But here I've got two chunks for the historical army projects that were my primary goal this year. First Republican Roman Velites.

Then I've painted up a few more Perry Crusaders for my Norman army:

So that's

61 x 28mm foot @ 5pts  = 305

6 x 28mm mounted @ 10pts = 60

Total = 365

That should put me just past my goal of 700 pts and a personal best. Thanks again to everybody.

From Millsy:

You're by no means alone in feeling the burn this late in the Challenge Mike. Even so you are still producing quality and quantity so congrats to you mate. It's always satisfying to make inroads into a large project and you've done that here in spades.

Congrats on reaching your points target too!

From MikeD - Romans of the Republican Variety (160 pts)

The good news is I've gotten a lot painting done this challenge. The difficulty I'm having is that things sit in the 'To Be Photographed' lane for quite some time. I envy those with enough space to set up a dedicated photo area. I still haven't gotten a system or easy setup to get these together. Also, I recently noticed a correlation between how I feel about pictures of myself and pictures of my painted figures. All I can see is that stray cat hair or part of the face with the big green streak across it. (Not to mention what I see when I look at my minis!) Anyhow...

In all these years as a wargamer, I've never had a Roman army. But as part of my 2022 project to get back into rank-and-file mass battle games (e.g. ADLG), a got a couple of boxes of Victrix Republican Romans and have been working on them for the Challenge. I have to say, these are the first Victrix's I've done and I love them. Great size and variety. I originally bought my first box of these a few years ago, when they had a special offer to include a limited edition (at the time) obscene graffiti shield decal set. I later learned that these are a totally 'speculative' take on legionary living, but I gotta admit they were too fun/cool to pass up.

The scoring on these is:

32 x 28mm foot @ 5pts = 160 pts

From Millsy:

Good to see someone else jumping aboard the Republican Roman wagon Mike! I really like how you have gone about painting yours and the slightly irregular basing and mix of gladii and pila adds an extra bit of dynamism. I've just had another big batch arrive in the post so I will be revisiting mine at some point soon, partly spurred on by yours.

PS. You're a braver man than I am tackling those split shield decals mate, I avoided them like the plague!

Cheers,
Millsy

From NoelW: The Armoury: 82 points

Somewhere in the dimly perceived depths of the Chambers of Challenge Merlissa is squinting into her crystal ball. She sees a party of five adventurers, flee the Gallery of Ancestors and slam the door heavily behind them as a collective noun of statues creaks into life. She sees them stumble into the Armoury. She smiles to herself.

The Armoury is filled with orcs rampaging around like gorillas on tequila, gathering helmets, breastplates, vanbraces, ordinary braces, bucklers, swashbucklers, buckets, bascinets, bows and bright shiny beads, falchions and halbeds, scimitars and poignards, and the occasional pointed remark and heaping them in an untidy pile in the centre of the room.

“At last!” cries Titchy. “A pile of Treasure!”

Everyorc stops what they’re doing, and turns round to view the newcomers.

“I mean,” says Titchy hastily. “There’s plenty to go round isn’t there. Lots to do. Why don’t we lend you a hand?”

Casually he picks up an odd dagger and tosses it to the base of the pile.

It falls well short with a deafening “Ting!”

The tallest orc, Gnawbone, (why yes, it is he!), scowls then growls. Menacingly the orcs close in on the five adventurers.

“It’s us, Gnawbone. Don’t you recognise us now you’re two people tall?”

The orcs continue to advance. With added menace.

Merlissa’s smile has become a grin.

But at that moment a clamour arrives from the far side of the chamber, coming from the exit leading to the Hatchery. Dozens of soldiers bearing white shields stream in, shouting their battle cries and immediately laying into the orcs.

“We need to get out of here!” screams Elfbow.

Merlissa’s smile is now wide enough to be classified as at least two grins, if not two and a half. This is going to be better than anyone could have expected. Soon there will be five ex-interlopers face down amongst the gorgets, sallets, cuisses and poleyns. And the blood.

She watches Elfbow stumble over a stray guisarme, falling against the pile of armour, which crashes down with a crash, surprisingly. Reaching out to stop his fall, he grabs a spear. A golden spear. 

No! 

It cannot be!

Not that golden spear!

Not the Spear of Density!

Merlissa shrieks in horror, and is so startled by her own shriek that she drops her crystal ball. 

"Didn’t foresee that, did you?" flashes the message on the ball as it rolls away.

That spear shouldn’t be there. And it most definitely shouldn’t now be in the moronic hand of a stupid elf. Now, whoever kills the adventurers, that spear will end up in someone’s hands. The wrong hands. She can’t have that. She hates the idea. Grimvizaj would really hate the idea.  

Oh, botheration! Just when everything seemed to be going so well. Forget that plan, then. Come up with a new one.

Time for a sorceress, it would seem.

She can imprison them in the Oubliette. They won’t survive there for long. Then she can retrieve the spear from Elfbow’s moronic, etiolated, bony hand whenevr she feels like it.

Who would have thought it? The Spear of Density!

***

Not much to say about this post. The 12 Republican Romans are more of the same Victrix minis, except their shields are white rather than the black ones previously posted. The pile of treasure is from Terrain Crate. I tried to straighten the bend bits using warm water, but the straightening does not seem to have taken.

Scoring: 

12 x 28mm infantry: 60 points
Armoury: 20 points
Pile of treasure: 2 points? (it stands about 35mm high)

Total: 82 points 

From: EdwardG - 15mm DBA Medieval Russians (+Germans) and Pit of the Pendulum Entry (74 points)

 Happy New Year all! 

Thank you for the kind comments, hope everyone has had a great new years celebration. 

I have sadly not had as much painting time over the past couple of days. But I have managed to get some more figures done. 

I have now filled out the final elements for my 15mm DBA Medieval Russian Army. I managed to get it done within my own 2020 deadline (just!)

Firstly the 3 elements of Russian spearmen. There are two types of spearmen listed in the DBA army list. The Polk and the Smerdy. The Polk are described as town militia, and I have added a flag to each of their elements to distinguish them. I looked up the miniatures I used for the spearmen and I found that they were Mirliton miniatures from Italy. The Russian mounted I posted earlier are from the same manufacturer. The flags are from LBMS, I found my sheet of transfers while looking for some other miniatures. I had forgotten how fiddly the LBMS flag transfers are. I am not sure I will be doing too many more!

Next up are the German mercenary Knights. These are an option within the army list. The figures are from Legio Heroica. I really like this manufacturer and I have many more of their figures in my collection. After the experience with the LBMS flags, I decided to have a go at hand painting the heraldry. I must admit, I have not based these on any exact family, and I think I have also managed to mash the heraldic forms somewhat, but I am quite happy with the outcome, especially my eagle (although it certainly skips leg day at the gym and only works on the guns!) 

  Finally for this post, I have my entry for the Pit of the Pendulum entry. I have to admit, I have been scratching my head as to what I had in the lead pile that could fit this entry, and then I found some miniatures at the bottom of a Tupperware box. They are Camillan Roman anti-Elephant Incendiary Pigs! These are miniatures that my, now wife, purchased for me for a birthday several years ago. This was before we got married, and I think it was one of the many reasons that I realised she was the one for me. I have to admit, I am not sure of the origin of the pigs, but I thought they are perfect for this Chamber. As with a lot things, the actual historical accuracy of these miniatures can and is endlessly debated. But the DBM/DBMM lists for the Camillan Romans allows up to 3 elements to be fielded and if it good enough for Phil and Richard it is good enough for me, so here they are :)

The Chamber asks for something that is torturous or terrifying. These little piggies are both! They are being tortured themselves, and are terrifying to the elephants of the opponents (not to mention thinking about the person who thought of using flaming pigs against elephants in the first place?!)!

 Will must admit, that I had painted one of the pigs a few years ago, so I can only claim 7 of the piggies and the two handler miniatured (Legio Heroica javelinmen). As the pigs are about 15mm from snout to tail, I would say that they count as 15mm foot figures. 

So my total tally for this entry is:

12 x Russian Spearmen (15mm) = 24 points

3 x Mercenary German Knights (15mm) = 12 points

7 x Pigs + 2x Handlers (15mm) = 18 points

Chamber of Challenge bonus = 20 points

Total = 74 points

Hope everyone has a smooth start to 2021, and that real life doesn't arrive with too much of a crash for us all on Monday! 

Take care

Ed :)

KenR - 28mm Allied Italian Velites - (120 points)

 

A bit of a disaster at the start of my Italian Allied Legion Project, I've lost 8 Velites ! I prepped everything over a month ago, stuck it in individual unit boxes. I come to the painting stage and 8 have deserted 😤 the word decimation has been whispered in a number of little plastic ears over the last few days !

So if anyone has 8 Victrix Allied Italian Legion Velites they don't want let me know and we can do a trade ! So this unit has 24 figures rather than the planned 32, hopefully I can get them up to full strength before challenge end, unfortunately Victrix sell the figs in boxes of 60, so that would be a massive waste.

A nice basic paint job, I will probably need a bucket full of white paint before I'm done. I've based these on 60 x 30, 2 figs per base to reflect the skirmish role of the unit.

Very happy with the Victrix figures, really nice detail and lots of lovely contours to work wonders on.

So that is 24 x 28mm figures at 5pts a pop for a grand total of 120 points. Next up are my 4 16 figure Hastati Maniples, providing that is that none of them have decided to do one in the middle of the night !