If you go down to the woods tonight...

 

A big surprise is quite likely. This lot were basically lying around as bycatch from casting other figures - seemed a shame not to let them go to waste. Figures were all just sprayed brown a few times then drybrushed with lots of different earthy colours in no particular pattern or order. Then red bits painted on.

Admins AD220 Wise Old Treeman. Under HoTT Behometh!

Admins AD79, Tree Ent (60mm high). Another Behometh.

AD58 Large Evil Tree. If I did a HoTT army I would only be able to use 1 of these - only 3 4 point Behomeths would be allowed in the army. Of course, if not doing HoTT...

This lot are from the S&S Range - SS70, Tree Spirit (Ent). If I loosely based the army on the HoTT Giants list they would be Hordes. Personally I would go for Beasts - at 2 points each I could use 6 in a Tree Army.

OK, bases 'wrong' for HoTT, but then I use HoTT as a base, not scripture. It might be fun to try doing more 'HoTT' armies using my (getting large) collection of single based figures... not realistic armies but it's fantasy... I mean, using army soldiers as shooters against trees as beasts...

A skirmish in the desert

 I've got quite a few Cataplanan and Vanha figures that have not yet tasted blood. Seemed like they deserved a chance. In this battle, the two sides are fighting for control of a desert oasis.

As a starter, few words on rules - usual make up as I go along to a certain extent. Everything moves at 8" except light horse (riders on -1 as far a combat goes).and flyers at 16"

Units fight as units or detached elements - as a unit, roll one die for combat, etc, treat each detached element as separate and rolls their own die. Detached elements have to stay within sight of main body.

Foot archers have a range of 16", horse archers and elephants 10". Ignore losing result if opponent not firing back.

Combat factors as per HoTT.

Beasts and elephants have a fear factor. Units attempting get within 4" of  a beast or elephant unit roll 1 die, roll 1 and must stop at 4". Beasts and elephants do not need to make this roll. Roll 2 1s in a row and a unit will not advance against that beast/elephant unit for the rest of the game! Incidentally, rather than beasts I should have made clear this includes things like flyers, dragons and other non-human elements.

OK, That's a basic outline. So the game:

The battle after the first move - nothing much happening yet and it's easier to take a photo with the armies closer to each other. The Cataplanans have sent the Griffons to occupy the oasis. Note that the Cataplanan pikes are being treated as a single rank! It just looks better having them on double depth bases.

Second move and things are getting sorted a bit. Both sides were set up with the infantry directly facing the oasis and cavalry, etc, placed on the flanks. In this case the Vanha left flank ended up outflanking the Cataplanan right. Because of this the Cataplanan right flank is being slightly refused.

A very slightly different angle... gives a slightly better perspective of the foreground showing the Vanha light horse outflanking the Cataplanans.

Meanwhile, in the centre, the first effect of that beasts rule... the Vanha foot rolled to see if they would move into contact with the Griffins and decided against it... they rolled a 1.

I'm leaving the post at this point. Next post will start with this round's firing.

The ever growing power of Atlantis

Back in February I mentioned some reinforcements for the Atlantian army. Since then I've added to the spears part of the army but I'm definitely lagging as regards the pikes. I've also managed to acquire more cavalry. Of course the elephants are not an issue - I can always cast as many as I want, plus I've built up a healthy surplus of old Minifigs archers to use as crews. I think the best way of describing the Atlantians is that it's a 'background' army - mostly using bought painted with minimal retouching, not a major effort, just quietly building up.

The thing is, non of this has really been intentional - it's just a case of 'they're cheap, could use them for Atlantis' - with rarely a thought as to when I'll get round to actually be able to repaint/retouch/base/etc them - or even if they'll ever be used as anything other than the original DBA/HoTT army.

Someday I'm going to have to stop this mad impulse to collect large armies- but probably not for a while yet.

This is the 'original' army -14 elements to allow some variation - the pikes were intended to be regulars, the spears citizen militia.

Addition of more spears as previously reported. At this time I also got some pikes, spears and cavalry that need/needed stripping so aren't here. Need more pikes.

Gradually got more spears and cavalry. Adding a couple more elephants seems to be appropriate. Need more pikes. I might replace the Cretan archers with these S Range Greek archers. The cavalry are early S Range one piece castings.

One thing that always surprises me is the sheer number of different S Range variants there were. Even this lot comes in 2 different versions.

Vanha archers

Finally finished the Vanha archers. I've mounted them as (DBA classification) as 3Bw - they're only going to be used with HoTT rules in Fantasy battles and their are no skirmishers in Fantasy battles - everyone has a big sword and finishes up using it.  Having said that, if I ever get round to doing the javelin armed Vanha I'll probably put them on Ps bases. I've stuck to the basic Vanha 'green' scheme.


One thing I've never been is consistent. I did 18 of these on 6 bases, should have 12 on 4...

 

I mean, the spears are on 4 bases... 

With the swordsmen and possibly another spear unit (4 or 6 bases?) this will give the Vanha a reasonable infantry component. 

Being on a roll, I've also undercoated the swordsmen - these will make good Palace Guards and I'm actually thinking of red turbans.

Vanha Swordsman

During my recent spell of casting I had (continue to have) serious problems casting the Vanha archer. It became increasingly obvious that it wasn't viable any more. So a new mould is in order, but they're expensive and I needed morte than just an archer to justify the cost...

When I did Aquiland and Nemidian moulds I sorted an officer for them. OK, new project, Vanha officer. Basically cut the spear off a Vanha spearman and replace it with a suitable sword. I now have masters for Vanha swordsmen...

Not sure how well they'll cast though - the sword is very thin and doesn't do all that well when attached to other figures. I can but hope.

Cataplana Republic reinforcements

One problem about the army of Cataplana is that it's quite small.

 

Especially as it's main enemy can field this lot:-

So, in a recent visit to Portugal (the modern name for Cataplana) I bought a few reinforcements. Actually, I might have gone slightly over the top...

 However, there's more. It seems that there are still a few griffons left in Portugal, so assuming that they were more common in the past I'll be adding a few to the army. By a happy coincidence Garrison made griffons - I'm going to have to go through things and see if I've got any cast up.

Zulu

When I was building my Minifigs Kushite/Blemmye armies I needed a load of cheap spearmen to act as Nobades/subject Kushite spears. The problem was solved when I picked up a couple of hundred Zulus at the bring and buy at a convention. Most of the figures are Minifigs Zulus, not convinced that  a couple aren't by other manufacturers though.

These were always going to be quick dry brush jobs. The first hundred were quickly finished and pressed into service, the rest are still being used in various ways. Might even cast up some Colonial Brits sometime.

 There's nothing else to really say about these - the time spent on each figure was minimal and I didn't use any fancy colours. Mainly lots of white.

For bright colours I waited until I did some figures for my Hyborian Black Nations army - but even these weren't exactly a major effort time-wise.

Egyptian Monstrosities

Plus another couple of views of a Manticore.

The sphinx is the one that arrived with the two right wings and has had them swapped with another figure that used the same wings.  I like the face, not sure about the body.

More ready painted toys pressed into service. The 'Nile Crocodile' is a bit iffy, but does the job, giant lizards and cobras just seem to be very useful.

One thing I don't worry about as much is base depths. Beasts are supposed to be 80mm deep, frankly, if 60mm looks more 'realistic' then I use 60mm.

Sphinxes, Demons and Cyclops

Carrying on with the Mirliton order I've started on the demons plus a Cyclops and a couple of sphinxes.

At least, started a couple of sphinxes. One no problem, other one had 2 left wings...

Demons are an interesting crowd, first couple completed others getting there.

The Cyclops took a few minutes to complete - virtually all drybrushed. Actually, both the sphinx and Red Demon were mainly drybrushed as well.

Verdict on the figures so far? Excellent, virtually no flash, nice detail, easy to paint. I like them - could be another order going to Italy at some stage, lots more in the Range I'd like to have. My photos and painting simply don't do them justice.

HoTT Hyborian Black Nations

Such as Kush, Darfar, Keshan, Punt and Zembabwei.

Still waiting for those birthday orders to arrive so started to look around for things to do...

Many years ago I bought a load of Zulus at a Bring and Buy to act as Nobades or Subject Kushite spearman for use in DBM Bk2 army 55.

OK, for a Black Nations HoTT army I could have simply used my current Kushite hordes... plenty of Warband lying around... but I wanted something more colourful. Cavalry, colourful enough, warband, not.

So I've painted up some of the Zulus instead.

Really, should probably have stuck with white and blue for the plumes and clothing, just couldn't resist the red.

The army would be easy to expand - got plenty of Kushite cavalry and Zulus left, plus could take it out of the Hyborian range with a couple of elephants, or perhaps some of the RAFM Um Cijo figures. However, I think that's unlikely - this particular build was more opportunism to use figures already lying around and to give a potential opponent for Stygia rather than anything else.

RAFM Wizards and Clerics

Well, this is the third posting of the day - but seemed more logical than putting everything in one.

I've continued to find more of my old 1990s RAFM figures, some of which will give me some useful command/wizard/cleric stands. One, of course, was the 'Khitai' stand:

These three are probably not on their final bases. The Pharoah type is from the Call of Cthulhu Range set 2937, Cultists.  The others are from the Wanders and Warriors sets, the one with the skull from set 3808, the staff bearer set 3801.

These will be kept together as a group. the monk/cleric at the front is from set 3804. I haven't identified where the two behind him come from - can't find them in the RAFM (or any other) catalogue, square bases show that they're not RAFM anyway.

Still a lot more RAFM of mine to find, plus I've sent off a birthday order that my wife Sandra can give me, also 'found' many of the Grenadier are still available - hard to find as some not in the online catalogue, others renamed/spread all over the place - so at some stage I'll be ordering some of them. I'll also probably get in a stock of some Ral Partha.

RAFM website

Ral Partha website

Grenadier Minatures figures

One problem is I'm finding, buying or casting lots of Chaos/Evil/Good characters, wizards, clerics, monsters, gods and demons but not many rank and file. For humans I can use available armies, but the elves, dwarves and goblins realy need to be sorted!

Wizards and Demons

More distractions...

One of the down sides of people asking for things you've already cast for your own use is that you tend to use them for that instead of painting them yourself... on the other hand, you also find yourself casting 'spares' of other figures or just wanting to use unwanted figures from that mould rather than put them back in the pot.

OK, lots of figures cast - I've just bundled orders together this time rather than 'first come first served' because of overlaps - and lots of spares...

The result is that the Vanha and Stygian infantry will be going elsewhere (tomorrow, Saturday or Monday) while I have lots of wizards and demons going spare.

The monolith and Demon Idol (painted as the demon or as a painted statue of the demon?) are both Admins, the burning sacrifice is my second one - it looks better in 'real life' than the photo. At the moment I haven't decided which of these, or which combinaton of these, to use on the wizard bases.

I used 2 Western style wizards.  One looks more Medieval, the other Celtic, again not sure how I'll be using them. The original intention was to use them on the same base, now I don't think it would work.

I decided on red as a good demonic colour. Two of these fliers have been put on single bases, the third held back for possible use on a wizard's base.

 The flightless demons I'm using as Hordes. I've used a winged demon sans wings as an 'officer'. Again, I held some back as possible extras on a wizards base.

The light shading on the plain red colours doesn't show up very well here - perhaps heavier shading was needed. Still, they look quite effective and used  en masse should both look good and be quick and easy to produce. 

This lot don't have specific armies yet. A Celtic style force is likely using lots of (probably MiniFig) Celtic infantry, possibly a few cavalry, Druid and raised demon flyers and hordes, General to be determined. I started thinking about painting some Celtic chariots  then reality came to my rescue... I already have 5 Stygian, 2 Assyrian and 4 Egyptian chariots half painted... so perhaps not a good idea just yet...