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 RustyP - Arrows Abound with 28mm Dark Age Archers - (250 points)

I may have been absent from posting but I haven't been absent from painting.  I skipped any space travels this time and went back to my roots.  Here we have 50 dark age archers that I really wanted to get painted and ready for game play.   We game a load of different genres and these will come in handy for fantasy, dark age and even some RPG's as well.  These are hot off the press.  I put my tufts on them and straight away to the photo shoot. lol

The guy in the fancy red shirt is trying to hide behind his bow.

Must be more than 20 here! -- 25 says I...

I'm running out of things to say... The ponytail guy looks grumpy

Pardon me but is that wet glue on your shoe?

Group B - all 25.

They're actually interrupting a Star Wars Legion game.

All together as one big happy thrall gang!

These figures are mainly Gripping Beast plastics with a few different heads mixed in.  A few are metal sculpts from Crusader minis.  Not my favorite figures to paint but I am happy that I completed them.  These will get put to use in many future games.  

As far as points go:

50 different 28mm foot figures @ 5 points per = 250 points

These were kinda rushed as far as I'm concerned.  I would have honestly spent more time on them but hey... they're ARCHERS!  This Challenge is doing me good and getting me to push a little faster than my normal turtle pace. 

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Hi Rusty - painting and pacing are a relative thing of course, but a sudden deposit of 50 different 28mm figures - even just archers - would count as a fairly hectic pace for any us, I expect. Well done on this lot, as they look set to fill the sky with arrows, and do so in a variety of settings. Very nice!

GregB

Devotio in the Shrine - Mark Backhouse (48 points)

 For the shrine it was time to return back to the Ancient World. I’ve been playtesting my rules lots and on one feature we hadn’t visually represented very well were skirmishers and generals. To compensate I scratchbuilt a load of strips of skirmishing troops that can be deployed in front of and behind the larger units. Each is made of coffee stirrers, matchsticks, a bit of Pollyfilla and sharp sand. The individual skirmishers are literally bits of grit from in the sharp sand. Your eyes trick you into thinking there is a bit more there! Yes, this is the joy of 2mm. Individually they look like spots of paint. Together they look like an army and truly epic!

Now time to get onto the shrine part. I wanted a way to depict super aggressive troops that carry out a devotio. A devotio was an act of self sacrifice carried out by Roman volunteers. By promising to Mars they would carry out this sacrifice they hurled themselves into the enemy lines to inspire the rest of their army and win favour from the gods to grant them victory. Of course they all expected to die in the act! Probably the most famous was carried out by Crastinus and 120 volunteers from the 10th Legion at Pharsalus in 48BC. They charged headlong into the Pompeian ranks, hacking their way into the enemy formation. Crastinus himself died with a gladius that was thrust through his mouth and out the other side! Ouch! I decided to model them as aggressive looking wedges that I can place in front of the legion they are inspiring. A completely ridiculous one shot weapon, but adding a bit more period flavour.

The devotio here leads the legion to attack the German tribesmen! The legion and warband were painted before the challenge but hopefully show in context how they will be used!

So these are all the bases I made. The two devotios and 4 general bases are at the front.

These are all the bases I made. 13 strips of skirmishers, 4 generals and 2 devotios. I made two just in case there was a Civil War game and both sides wanted to use one! I think there are about 100 men per strip of skirmishers roughly.

This final picture shows how the skirmishers supporting a legion now look. The devotio leads the way!

I realise points for these are a bit abstract, so I’ll claim 2 per base or strip of skirmishers. That’s 19 x 2 =38, +20 for completing the challenge makes a grand total of 58 points.

On to the Oubliette now and something I found from about 2004...