Keeping Byz-zy

Yes, I have been painting more Byzantines. What about the Bronze Age, you ask? Don't I have a convention game coming up in just a couple of weeks? Indeed--but for once I think I have all the troops  I'll need for that, so I won't have to be painting up until the last minute this time. (Though there are a couple of things I might add if I should happen to get to them before March 8.)

Anyhow, here's the latest from the Golden Horn:

More heavy cavalry. These ones have beards--I'm debating whether I should go back in and paint beards on the earlier ones too, but is anyone really going to notice? Probably not. These are the last of the heavies, at least for now--at some point I plan on doing a cavalry/knight general, but that will use some of the other figures from the Strelets set.

Also more light cavalry. There will be at least one more stand of these guys at some point. Also, though you can't really see it from this angle, since the relevant bits are on the back side, I trimmed off more of the baggy pants from these guys. The guy on the right got his sleeve trimmed a little too.

And finally, more spearmen, using a couple of the other poses from the Orion Byzantine Infantry (10th-13th centuries) set. Here's a closer look at them from the front:

Arranging the poses in two ranks ended up being a little awkward due to the poses involved, but the armored guys bracing their spears against the ground made more sense to me as a front rank, with the guys in the second rank sort of lunging over them. Still, it's a good thing they're all wearing helmets, because it looks to me like someone's going to get conked in the head sooner or later...

And there's the army as it stands now: nine units down, three to go! (Plus maybe a few extra bits here and there--I like my Hordes armies to have some flexibility...)

Back in Byz-ness

Way back in June I painted up a sample stand of Strelets medieval Russian cavalry as the first of a "Byzantine" army. Since then, Orion has released a couple of sets of Byzantine infantry, and I have bought some of said infantry. And now at last that first stand of Byzantines has some company:

The first new unit I completed was a second stand of the heavy cavalry. As mentioned, these guys are Strelets--specifically the standard-bearers from this set with the flag swapped for a lance made of brass wire, and a couple of archers mixed in. The kite shields on the lancers are another addition, from the Zvezda Russian foot. It's a good thing these guys are up on horses and not standing next to anyone else, because they're definitely typically Strelets, proportions-wise. (Especially compared to the infantry, their heads are massive--it's like a watermelon next to a grapefruit.)

Originals are on the right; new guys on the left.

Another angle.

Next up are some infantry. These guys are from the recently released Orion Byzantine Infantry (10-13th Century) set. (So recently released, in fact, that Plastic Soldier Review still hasn't reviewed them!) As with many Orion sets, these guys had a lot of flash on them. Some parts of the sprue get it worse than others--the archers, which will be showing up later in this post, were on the good end of things, but these spearmen took a fair bit of carving. Still, I think the results were satisfactory. The one odd thing about these guys is their foot gear--they appear to have some sort of lacing that goes up to the knees, which is molded on the figure but very difficult to paint as-is--the detail is just too fine. I ended up painting a sort of simplified pattern over it, but I can't decide whether the end result is more "argyle socks" or "fishnet stockings"...

Front view.

Back view, with another angle on those leggings.

After that, it's back to horsemen--light cavalry this time, armed with javelins or perhaps a sort of light lance. These are intended to be something like trapezitoi, but may be less than perfectly historical, since they're converted out of HaT El Cid Spanish. I did a little carving on these guys--the Spanish have these baggy trousers (or possibly ankle-length tunics) which I cut away in an attempt for a tighter-fitting look. I think I could have cut even a bit more, and I may try that with the next stand when I get around to them. A sort of light padded or leather armor has been painted on over the original tunics as well. Also, by this point you may have noted that I'm trying for a consistent color scheme for this army, and similar shield designs as well...

Finally, the archers--again from the Orion set, and actually much the same as the spearmen, right down to the argyle socks. These guys are still waiting to receive the full basing treatment...

All in all, this puts me almost halfway to a Hordes of the Things or DBA army. I'm currently hoping to have some version of the army ready by February, but we'll see how that goes...

Saxons vs. Vikings

A couple of my brother's friends came over for a game today, so Dad decided to haul out his old multiply-based Dark Ages armies and try them on a little Warhammer Ancient Battles action. (Somewhat tweaked to account for the basing and whatnot.) William and I took the defending Saxons, while our guests took the marauding Vikings. We set up position with a small village to our right, and a pair of low hills between the opposing armies.

The Saxon Eorl prepares for battle.

Little does this shepherd realize that his peaceful pastures will soon be soaked in blood!

The first few turns were fairly uneventful, as both armies advanced towards each other. The Vikings took up positions on a pair of small hills, much to our chagrin, as we figured the high ground would make them difficult to push back.

Vikings on a hill. Saxon huscarls moving up on the left, thegns to their right.

The next couple turns saw the armies meet and clash--a group of lighter Viking bondir dashed out from the Viking lines to attack my elite huscarls, while William's thegns, to my right, overcame their fear of the Vikings, broke their shieldwall and charged impetuously up the hill towards the waiting foe.

"Ut! Ut! Ut!" 

Despite the odds, the thegns managed not to lose that combat. Meanwhile, the Vikings did not fare well against my huscarls. In fact, they broke and ran... inciting panic in much of the Viking center. Including the troops on the hill, despite the presence of the Viking chief, who was promptly dubbed "Ragnar Brown-breeks."

"Wait, come back! We haven't finished stabbing you yet!"

It took two turns for their leader to stem the rout, and by that point a number of the lesser troops had fled the field and we had gained a good deal of ground on the right flank. On the left flank, however, things weren't going so well--a group of my scruffy fyrdsmen had routed after attempting a similar charge up the hill, and were overrun by pursuing Vikings. My better-equipped thegns were similarly repulsed, and narrowly escaped being run down themselves, despite the presence of the Eorl himself.

Vikings in hot pursuit of my thegns.

Fortunately we were able to turn and rally before the Vikings slammed into us, and a protracted melee developed. Our long spears, deployed in depth, were beginning to give us the advantage, when events on the other flank intervened.

Melee on the left. The Vikings on the right have stemmed the rout, and are facing our thegns and huscarls again.

A large group of fyrdsmen had been making their way through the village off to the right, despite some opposition from a band of bow-armed Vikings. It was about at this point that they finally emerged from among the huts and hedges, uncomfortably close to Ragnar Brown-breeks' left flank. Finding himself rather outnumbered, Ragnar decided to break the standoff that had been developing over the past few turns, and to charge our shieldwall of thegns and huscarls. This didn't work out too well, and his troops fled the field. Although the other Viking commander still had most of his forces intact, at this point it was decided that Saxon arms had carried the day, so we packed it in.

Field at the end of the battle--there's a Viking column coming up the center that didn't quite make it to the scene of action in time.

Overall, it seemed like a pretty good game--though we did get a lucky break early on, for a while it looked as though things were going to swing back the other way. And while we glossed over some aspects of the rules, it was good to brush up on the basic WAB mechanics again.

And next, off to Maine, where we will join forces with the redoubtable Ross Macfarlane for Huzzah! (Well, technically we leave Thursday, but I don't anticipate much happening in the miniatures line over the next few days...)