Alexanders Companions

This is the final unit to finish my Basic Impetus Macedonian army, the mounted companions. These are a compulsory unit for Alexanders army, and a very strong unit in Impetus, but I can never bring myself to like the helmet. A bit part of the appeal for me of a Greek/Hellenistic army is the look of the Greek equipment. The linothorax armour is for me one of the iconic images of the classical era, the phrygian helmet is cool and the common image of a Greek helmet, the Corinthian with full vertical crest ( none of your Spartan transverse crest guff) is probably the coolest piece of military kit in the ancient world. The boetian helmet however looks like an up-turned soup bowl with none of the military menace of the Corinthian, its the bicycle helmet of the Greek world, soldiers only wearing it because their mum made them.

With Alexander at their head.



How the unit will look for Impetus

 I was pleased how the unit looked over all. The xystons are cut down pikes from Black Hat, the same ones I used for the foot companions, but with a bit taken off so they would not be overly long. They only have one point of contact, the hand, so they are not very secure. I went with the reverse of the colour scheme I used on the Prodromoi. I only realised when I was finished that I had used different colours on Alexanders base, so a quick repaint was called for. I used a P3 yellow called sulphuric yellow for the cloaks and horse fittings. I bought this paint a good while back on a whim and hadnt used it , but since starting the Macedonian army, it has seen more use than Sean Beans grim reaper loyalty card.

That is the army finished for Basic Impetus. I have one unit of pike left to do and a successor general painted but not based yet, so I can do Pyrrhic and successor armies with these figures. I will have to add Cataphracts and Argyraspids as well when finances allow, so I can do Later Selucid to face the Romans. When I have the last few elements done, I will post a few pics of the whole army laid out together. Next up after that is some GW Imperial guard.

Phil

Basic Impetus - Gauls Vs Romans

My usual Basic Impetus opponent, Ed, and myself had two fun games of BI yesterday. Here is a few pictures and a quick after game report on the first game. In the first game, Ed took the Romans, using the Marian Roman list, which covers the forces of Julius Caesar. It contains 1 medium cavalry unit, 1 light cavalry unit, 1 unit of medium infantry with javelins, 1 unit of javelin armed skirmishers and 4 units of scary Roman heavy infantry, the legions. Ed placed his general with one of the Legionaries units.

MARIAN ROMAN (VDT=18/9)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
1	CM(*)	10	4	1	2	Gauls, Germans, Italians...
1	CL	12	3	1	1	Numidians, Tracians...
4	FP(*)	5	6	1	3	Legionaries - pilum
1	FL	8	4	1	2	Spanish, Ligurians... - javelin
1	S	8	2	0	1	short bow B (Cretans) or sling (Balearics) or javelin (Spanish or Numidians)

This is the army of Marius, Sulla, Pompeus, Crassus and Julius Caesar


I took a Gallic force to oppose him, for the classic Rome/Gaul match-up. I had two medium cavalry units, one of which contained my general, two units of javelin armed skirmishers and six units of Gallic warriors, four of which I formed into two large double strength units.


GAULS II-I Cent. AD (VDT=20/10)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
2	CM(*)	10	4	1	3
6	FL	8	4	4	2	impetuous
2	S	8	2	0	1	javelin

Note. FL can form Large Units


 We rolled for attacker and the Gauls won, so the Romans set up the terrain and deployed first, then the Gauls deployed opposite them. The initial battlefield looked like this :


The Romans held the hill in the centre, with a wood to their right and broken ground on their left.

 Turn 1:  The Romans won the initiative and advanced across the line, except for the legions on the hill who kept the high ground. The Gauls advanced all their troops straight ahead.

 Turn 2 : The Gauls took the initiative and surge forward, the Romans do the same in their phase, except for those holding the hill.

Turn 3. The Romans win the initiative and press forward again, the skirmishers attack the large unit of warriors ahead of them, but to no effect.

 Turn 4, The Romans take the initiative and the cavalry on their right flank charges the Gallic noble cavalry ahead of them, both sides are disrupted but no permanent damage is suffered on either side. The Numidian light horse on the Roman left charges the other unit of Gallic cavalry. The light horse causes 2 points of damage to the cavalry, but suffer 1 point themselves. The cavalry are driven back and the light horse pursue but cause no additional damage. The Gallic warband in the centre charge the legion on the hill and disrupt them. All other Gallic troops advance towards the fight.

 Turn 5: The Romans get the initiative yet again and the legion on their left flank charges the warband ahead of it, disrupting them, but then the Romans luck runs out. Their light horse are destroyed by the damaged Cavalry on the Gallic right, their cavalry go down to the Gallic cavalry and their legion on the hill are swarmed under by the large warband facing them. There are holes in the line and a few flanks are dangling in the breeze...

 Turn 6: The left flank Gallic cavalry turned to threaten the flank of the Spanish medium infantry of the Roman far right, but the Spanish are destroyed by the Gallic warriors attacking them. The victorious warband on the hill turn to face the flank of the last Roman legion on the hill and the left hand Roman heavy foot unit destroys their opponents

Turn 7: The Roman heavy troops on their left destroy the Gallic cavalry and have cleared the Gallic right flank apart from a unit of elusive skirmishers but the combined warbands on the hill in the Roman centre flank and destroy the Roman generals unit and break the Roman army, but having lost a cavalry unit and two units of warband, it was hardly a bloodless victory for the Gauls.

The position at games end.

We swapped sides and the Romans got their revenge in the second game which was a close run thing with every Roman foot unit being a hit or two away from breaking by games end. Both games were good fun. I hope to have my Macedonians finished and on the table in a week or two, unless real life gets in the way.

Phil

Prodromoi or Light horse, big stick.

Here are a few pictures of the next unit to be finished for the Macedonian army, the Prodromoi. These are very unusual in that they are pike armed light cavalry. The models didnt look right when assembling them, as the Sarissa looked way too big for light horse and it was tricky to position them in a way that looked realistic. I also had to make sure the bases would be able to line up as a unit without looking like a mounted pole-vaulting team. I tried to stick to a yellow/purple theme as the Osprey book on the Macedonian army shows these colours from Prodromoi, Thessalian cavalry and the Companions.

Only two units left to go for the Alexandrian army now, one more unit of pike and the Companions. After that I have a few bits to add to cover early successor lists. I will have to pick up some cataphracts before I can do a later selucid list. Next up is the second unit of pike. I will go with the same colour scheme as before so they look right when forming up together as a large unit for Impetus.

Macedonian Pike Unit for Basic Impetus

Hi Guys

Continuing the project of painting up my Alexandrian Macedonians for Basic Impetus, I got the first unit of pike finished. There will be two units of pike for this army, and a third done to cover some of the successor lists. Once I am done with the figures I have, I will need to add so cataphracts for the later Selucid list. I love these pike figures, they are easy to paint, and the pike has 4 points of conact with the model so is very secure. Both the models and the pikes, which are sold seperately, are from Black hat models. The pike wire fits to the models hand perfectly and is surprising strong for such narrow wire. The head is well shaped as a spear point and not just a pointy bit on the end. They are also bloody sharp, and I have a thumb like a tea bag after not watching what I was doing while picking up the next figure to paint. I have all the pike I need to do a successor list, but as they mostly fought each other, I can see this army mutate until it can field two successor lists so they can fight each other. This could be a project for next year, as the next army I hope to do for ancients is an Indian army to face Alexander. They could also face my Late Achemenid Persian army, which could be an interesting fight with lots of colour.

I have to get transfers for the shields, as my hand painting isnt up to scratch

The pike heads show up well in this shot.

The Command stand

In column formation.

Next up is the unit of Prodromi. They are half painted so far. It looks strange to have light horse equipped with pikes and they could be awkward to line up as a unit without poking the figures in front.

Tarantine Light Horse

Here is another unit for Impetus. I picked them up with the Macedonian figures and will be used with them for Pyrrhus and for Selucid armies. They will probably be pressed into service as later Thracian Light horse for my Romans, especially if the Numidian Light horse is in use. These figures are from Magister Militum, they are single piece casts. At first I thought they were all in a single pose, but there is slight differences with the riders and more variation with the horses, mainly in head position as if they have been made to turn. Very clean models with crisp detail and no flash.

I am fairly pleased with the paintjob, but the shield patterns are less than what I would like. My first attempt at taking pictures outside, as it is a rare sunny day here. Better than using a flash but the shadows are a bit severe.

Next up is the start of the Macedonian pikes. I have started painting them up, and although the wire pikes I got from Black Hat look really good, I have serveral holes in my hands and forearms like a heroin user. There is nothing like stabbing yourself with a base of pike and jerking your arm back, launching the nearly finished figures across the room, Noooooooooo crunch.    :(

Phil

Where are my Eyebrows ?

We had a game of Dystopian wars last night. They are an unusual set of VSF rules which cover naval,aerial and land fights simultaneously. We have yet to try land combat, but started with the naval starter sets and added some aerial units for a little variety. Last night we played to 1000pts, with my usual gaming oponent, Ed using his British fleet while I used my Prussians. We normally use a few islands as it breaks up line of sight and forces more challenges for placement and manoevering.

The British fleet deployed

The Prussian fleet

Prussians converge on the British aerial flagship

Congested air space

Where did my airship go ?

We played for about 3 hours, with time lost making tea and talking. There were some quality moments, such as my battleship running into a strength  5 mine, Ed rolled one 6, and continued to roll 6's until my BB had taked a crit and was now on fire. Towards the end of the game, most of my heavier units had started to converge on Eds aerial battleship, it was damaged and I was desperate to try to bring it down. My two aerial crusiers came up behind it to engage at close range but had little effect. Ed closed with his flying aircraft carrier and shot at my two smaller airships. He scored a critical on the nearer one and rolled a double 1, a magazine explosion.This has a blast radius and all the nearby flying units were in range. The resulting fireball caused a crit on my other aerial cruiser, wrecking the engines. It caused damage on the flying aircraft carrier that fired the shot, my heavy airship and nearly caused a crit on Eds own flagship. We timed out at this stage, there was still plenty of fight left in the Prussians but the tide of battle was in Eds favour so we called it a minor victory for him. 1000 points was probably a bit ambitious given the amount of time we had to play in, so we figure on going for about 750 next time and try to play to a conclusion.

Phil

Skythians

I finished another  15mm unit today, skythian horse archers. They are incredibly useful unit, being a part of many ancient armies, Persian, Greek, Macedonian as well as a variety of others. Theses figures are from Magister Militum, very nice single cast models, very crisp with plenty of detail, but unfortuneately just one pose. These are intended to serve primarily with the Alexandrian Imperial list for Basic Impetus, but will be used as generic horse archers with plenty of lists.

The quivers were quite detailed but one feature of these models that surprised me was each figure had three severed heads tied over the saddle. I didnt know the skythians took heads, but there you go. The red on the hoods were a bit dodgy. I didnt want them all to have various shades of off-white to light brown, but I didnt want them to look like Noddy either.