DBA/Hordes of the Things: Dwarves

It's been a slow year so far for painting and gaming, but last month I capped off another set of DBA armies in fantasy guise - this time, dwarves. My dwarves have shown up here once or twice before, I finally decided to expand them into a full-sized army. I started by looking through the DBA army lists to see if there was a historical army that:

1. Could incorporate the figures I had available (heavy infantry and a cannon) AND
2. Didn't rely on any cavalry, since I didn't anticipate finding or building any compatible with my 20mm dwarves.

Oddly enough, I found an ideal candidate in list IV/83b, the Rebel Army of Henry Tudor. It would require some archers, crossbows, and handgunners, which led me to tracking down the out-of-production Caesar Dwarves in addition to Alliance set 1 and set 2.

Of course, this left me with quite a few surplus dwarves, and it seemed a shame to waste them all, so I decided to branch out with options for a couple of other historical armies. The III/40b Vikings seemed an obvious candidate, just requiring a couple more solid blades and a warband. And once I had gone that far, why not add one or two more blades to permit me to field III/59 Toltec? (DBA 3.0 allows them a monotype army of twelve solid blades.)

All in all, I ended up with (as pictured from left to right):

2x Psiloi

1x Artillery

12x Solid Blades (including a general option)

1x Command Post (in DBA) or Hero (in HotT)

2x Fast Warband or Fast Auxilia

2x Solid Bow

They've even managed to get out for a game or two (both times getting drubbed by the Orcs, alas...)

DBA/Hordes of the Things: Medieval Humans

 

For years my maps for potential fantasy campaigns have had a placeholder country for "generic medieval people" tucked away somewhere, under the assumption that I could piece some sort of army together if necessary. But about this time last year, I started thinking that maybe it was time to paint up some of the figures I had stashed away and expand the handful of units I had into a real force.

As usual, this got a little out of hand.

I figured I would use one of the DBA army lists as a model but not worry too much about the exact figures or the descriptions in the list. I could just about piece together what I needed for a medieval French army with what I had on hand, mostly the old Accurate Hundred Years War Knights and Men-at-Arms. But then I needed a few more crossbowmen, so I got a box of the Italeri French Knights and Foot Soldiers. And then I ran across some of the English Knights and Archers at a flea market... and you know, wouldn't it be nice to have a matched pair of armies?

What I finally settled on was a sort of conjoined-twin pair of armies: two lists with a reasonable amount of overlap that can also serve as historical opponents for each other. (For the DBA aficionados, these were IV/64b Medieval French and IV/74 Free Company & Armagnac. All the dedicated English lists needed more longbows than I had even after my flea market acquisition.) So here at last are the armies of Florlys (blue and yellow) and Brimarth (red and white): 

Mounted general (3Kn)

Mounted knights (3Kn)

Dismounted knight generals (4Bd) - here there is some duplication so that I can play the two halves against each other. Also, I actually painted up some pavilions to represent camps for the two sides!

Dismounted knights (4Bd)

Spears and other polearms (Sp)

Crossbowmen (4Cb)

Brigans or men-at-arms (3Bd)

Longbowmen (4Bd)

Additional longbowmen as mounted infantry (Mtd-4Lb)

Skirmishing bowmen (Ps) - some ubiquitous Airfix Robin Hood figures here, representing something close to their native time and place for once, not converted into ancient Canaanites or Mesoamericans.

Peasant levy (7Hd) - more of the Merry Men here.

Painting time remains easier to find than gaming time, but I do hope to try out these armies against each other in the not-too-distant future. (The Florlys contingent has had some fantasy adventures already, facing off against orcs and the undead...)

New toys for orc armies

As a little side project, I have been working on new units for some of my old Hordes of the Things armies in order to field them under various aliases for DBA. (Not the first time this has happened!) This time the orcs have been the primary beneficiaries - the last time they got an expansion was a few years ago now when I painted up a shaman for Orctober. Now they are adding a couple of chariots and some goblin... allies? subjects? cannon fodder?

The orcs are from the original Caesar set, with some minor conversion work. The chariots are spares from the HaT "Gallic Chariot with Warrior Queen" set - turns out I didn't really need all those Boudicas, but I've found a variety of uses for the figures over the years.

The goblins are also from Caesar - it took me a while to find any and then I ended up with multiple boxes somehow! Some got painted up as massed Hordes, and a few more got picked out to be skirmishing Psiloi (or perhaps Lurkers for HotT.)

Between all these and the Orcs I already have, I can now field a version of the DBA II/53 Ancient British army - albeit looking a little green rather than blue.

The other army to get a small add-on was my Byzantines. (I'm pretty sure when I was working on them a decade ago I had some notion of fielding them for DBA, but now for the life of me I can't figure out what army list I expected to use.) Anyway, they also got some Psiloi - not particularly historical, but I drafted some good old Airfix Robin Hood archers to fill the gap.

Next step... finally turning my handful of generic medieval troops into a coherent army? We shall see...

Painting, gaming, and a new arrival: 2023 midyear review

Well, here we are, halfway through the year, and nary a blog post to be seen! While there's been a fair bit keeping me occupied aside from gaming, I have managed to get some painting done, and a few games on the table. First up, a few add-ons for previous armies:

The dwarven contingent got an artillery piece - still considering whether I might expand them into a full army some day. Crew are mostly from the same set as the rest of the dwarves, though a random MiniArt Germanic warrior got conscripted as a fourth. The cannon barrel and most of the carriage are from the same Spanish sailors set that supplied my conquistadors; the wheels and the mantlet are from a Caesar Assyrian chariot I'd had around for ages.

DBA/Hordes of the Things - Mummies and Undead

I've been on a bit of a DBA kick for the past three years or so, but before that I used to play a lot more of the related fantasy rules, Hordes of the Things. With Dark Alliance having put out a set of Mummies a few years ago, it had always been at the back of my mind to pick some up and fit them in as a fantasy complement or opponent for my historical Egyptians. However, I wasn't quite sure I wanted to build the whole army out of mummies, and my first thought was to fill them out with some of the Caesar Undead. Sadly, these are long out of production and I have been unable to turn up any at a reasonable price. 

However, earlier this summer, I had a little brainstorm while looking through my collection of unpainted figures. I have a large stash of Atlantic Egyptians that was gifted to me some years ago; I haven't painted many of them because they're a little tall and thin compared to the Caesar figures that make up most of my armies. However, looking at their thin, almost gaunt features and slightly odd postures, I wondered: could I just paint them as zombies of some kind? Turns out, yes, I could.

The next issue was army composition. I decided that I wanted to base it on a DBA army so that I could use it for either set of rules. The question was, who is:

1. An enemy of the ancient Egyptians
2. Not an army I already have available
3. Matches the available figures as far as troop types and weapons

In the end I settled on the I/17a Early Hyksos list as the best fit for my criteria. Their army has a core of fast Blades and a Light Chariot general, with some lighter supporting infantry.

The LCh general. In Hordes of the Things, he might be a Rider or Knight, but likely a Hero General. The chariot and horses are from the venerable Atlantic Egyptian Cavalry set; lacking mummified or skeletal horses of the proper size I attempted to paint these as recently reanimated. The charioteer and his two followers are Dark Alliance figures; one has been converted into a standard bearer.

Four units of mummy warriors as 3Bd (probably still Blades in the HotT version).

Three units of Dark Alliance Anubis Army warriors as 3Ax. These end up being rather imposing; about 7 feet tall compared to regular humans, so to class them as mere Auxilia seems perhaps a little dismissive. In HotT they'll probably be Warbands instead.

Two stands of bow-armed mummies as Psiloi - probably Lurkers rather than Shooters in HotT.

One stand of zombie infantry as 4Ax. In HotT they might get played as Spears instead.

A solid Horde (7Hd) or another psiloi (Ps) round out the army. In HotT these will be a Horde and another Lurker respectively. 

I had originally hoped to have these done by Halloween (for which they might seem a more appropriate subject than Christmas) but better late than never! There still might be a few more HotT unit options waiting in the wings, but at least the DBA version of the army is ready to take the field - perhaps in the new year once my usual opponents return from the holidays!

Getting adventurous

This is the second half of my post-Mycenaean painting spree; as mentioned in my previous post I got some work done on my Proxian 19th-century Imagi-nations armies, but I also had some fantasy odds and ends that I wanted to work on. In particular, I thought it was time to re-visit the Caesar Adventurers set. I've painted a number of the figures over the years, but I still had a few tucked away. 

First up, I selected a trio to base together as a stereotypical D&D adventuring party, with a fighter, a magic-user, and a rogue. I expect the three of them will feature in Hordes of the Things games as a Hero unit. (The fighter's coat of arms is actually an allusion to a long-running D&D game I'm in, where our guild's symbol is a phoenix.)

I've also been plotting to add a few fantasy elements to my Bronze Age Egyptians, to allow them to play as a HotT army as well. One of the female magic-users from the Adventurers set looked like she could serve as a priestess; I gave her a couple of retainers from the old Atlantic Pharaoh's Court set. This unit will probably be either a Cleric or Magician as required.

As another HotT element for the Egyptians, I had a couple of crocodiles to serve as Water Lurkers. These are from HaT's "Jungle Adventures" re-issue of the Airfix Tarzan set.

This next one is bit of an oddball; some years ago I picked up several boxes of MiniArt Germanic Warriors at a convention flea market, thinking I would use them as Riders of Rohan. Well, I got as far as painting one stand of them, then kind of lost interest. I sold off the bulk of them to a friend of mine, but I still had another unit that had started prepping. Well, I finally got around to painting that unit, so perhaps now they'll see some action in a future game of N.U.R.D, or as a little mercenary contingent in a HotT campaign.

Moving over to the 28mm side of things, I also got a few more Reaper Bones figures painted. This one is a Psychic from their Pathfinder range. I actually painted a version of this figure in a speed-painting contest at Gen Con a couple of years ago and I liked it enough to get a plastic Bones version when it became available.

Finally, I painted up a gang of lizardfolk to match some I did a couple of years back. They might see action as primitives in Stargrave, or if we return to the Ghost Archipelago some day.

Next up, it will be the Bronze Age once more... perhaps for the last time! (Though I've said that before, haven't I?)

Hypothetical Hordes: Shadows of the Apt

Well, the last couple of months have been a sort of betwixt-and-between period for me as far as hobbies go - with restrictions starting to loosen again I've been able to do a bit of in-person gaming, starting with a DBA marathon with my dad over Memorial Day weekend. (We put together a bracket of eight of our various Bronze Age armies and played them off against each other - the Sea Peoples won, beating out the Hittites in the finals. The Aztecs and Maya also got their first outing, with the Aztecs beating the Maya 2-0.) And the weekend before last, I got a chance to try out Stargrave, the science-fictional version of the popular Frostgrave/Ghost Archipelago system. Meanwhile, the driving urge to paint that kept me busy through lockdown seems like it is also starting to ease up. May and June mostly saw me working on some Reaper Bones figures and painting some Mongol cavalry to fill out the options for a DBA 3.0 version of that army.

However, June also saw me plow through the second half of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt, an epic ten-book fantasy series with rich, unique worldbuilding and tons of battles - perfect material for another "Hypothetical Hordes" post!

If there's one thing you should know about Adrian Tchaikovsky, it's that he loves invertebrates of all sorts. (He's probably most famous for Children of Time, which features intelligent spiders.) In the Shadows of the Apt series, there are none of the typical fantasy races like elves or dwarves - instead, the people or "kinden" take on aspects of their totemic insects or arthropods. Ant-kinden are great at working together, Beetle-kinden are slow and solid folk, Mantids live to fight, Spiders are manipulative, Flies can fly, Wasps can sting, and so forth. The other key element of the setting is the division between the "Apt", who are technological, and the "Inapt," who are magical. At the time the story opens, magic seems to be a spent force in the world, and the fortunes of the Apt are on the rise - particularly the militaristic Wasp Empire.

COLLEGIUM

Our protagonists mostly come from this city of scholars and inventors. Most of the inhabitants are Apt Beetle-kinden, who threw off their Inapt Moth-kinden masters about five hundred years ago, when the powers of the Inapt began to wane. However, it's a very cosmopolitan place, and all sorts of people can be found there - not to mention our protagonists have a tendency to make friends and allies wherever they go. Between that and the ability of some Collegiates to whip up a crazy clockwork inventions pretty much on the spot, there's not much limit to what they could field. However, here are some possibilities:

• Spears and Shooters - troops of the Merchant Companies, armed with pikes, crossbows, or later "snapbows" (similar to muskets or rifles, but powered by compressed air - gunpowder for personal weapons isn't really a thing in this setting.) The general should probably be among them.
• Behemoths - "Automotives" either clockwork or steam-powered, and either wheeled or vaguely insectile walkers, armed with ballistae or "leadshotters" (cannon).
• Artillery - Ballistae, cannon, or an off-the-wall invention - a later book features something that is more or less a railgun.
• Flyers - Small flying machines. Ornithopters seem to be the most common, but there are also fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
• Airboats - Larger dirigible-type aircraft.
• Hordes - Desperate mobs of ordinary people defending the city with whatever they can find.

Stronghold: One of the city gates of Collegium.

THE WASP EMPIRE

The main baddies of the series, like Imperial Rome with a touch of Nazi Germany, the Wasps also fall on the Apt side of the Apt/Inapt divide. Wasp-kinden can fly, and can shoot fire from their hands, but both of these abilities seem to have somewhat limited range. However, like the Romans, they tend to recruit conquered peoples into their armies as auxiliaries. The Empire also has a strong "black and gold" color scheme going on (hence the title of the first book in the series.) A Wasp army might include some of the following:

• Riders - I was torn on how to consider the Light Airborne, who seem to be the mainstay of the Imperial forces. While they can technically fly, I don't think the Flyers of HotT really reflect their tactics all that well - and besides, the Wasps have flying machines as well. Having them as Riders seems like a good way to represent them as flexible and mobile.
• Shooters - like other Apt armies, these should be armed with crossbows or snapbows.
• Blades - the Wasps deploy a limited number of heavy infantry in full plate armor.
• Warbands - Hornet or Scorpion-kinden Auxillians
• Spears - Bee or Grasshopper-kinden Auxillians
• Sneakers - Agents of the Rekef secret police
• Flyers - early on, the Wasps have a fondness for primitive helicopters; they upgrade to more advanced machines as the series progresses, but in HotT terms these can all be considered as Flyers.
• Behemoths, Airboats, Artillery - similar to Collegium.

Stronghold: A regimented army camp, or evil-looking ziggurat.

ANT CITY-STATES

Ant-kinden are Apt, but with an almost telepathic "mindlink" that renders them rather xenophobic and insular. Their city-states tend to deploy a lot of heavy infantry, with their machines being fewer and generally about one step behind everyone else's. Their army should be mostly Spears or Blades, perhaps backed up by a Behemoth, Artillery, or a couple of Flyers. Giant ants (the insect type) could be deployed as Beasts, but this seems to be a tactic of last resort when an Ant city is in peril.

THE SPIDERLANDS

The Spiderlands are vast, and the Spider families tend to be more concerned with internal power struggles than outside threats, at least until the Wasps show up. Spider-kinden are Inapt, but seem to have powers of manipulation and persuasion that let them rule over a variety of other kinden both Apt and Inapt. Spider-kinden often seem to be skilled swordsmen, so actual Spider troops would probablt be Blades, but they are often quite happy to leave the fighting to their satraps or mercenaries. These could include almost any type of infantry, and mercenary aviators from the Exalsee could be deployed as Flyers.

THE MANTIS CLANS

In the Old Days, the Moth-kinden were mighty magicians and the Mantis-kinden were the backbone of their temporal power. These days, the remaining Moths mostly keep to themselves in dark and secret strongholds up in the mountains, while the Mantids keep on doing what they've always done - fighting. (Not winning, necessarily, but fighting oh yes.) Peerless duelists and fighters one-on-one, the Mantids tend to be outnumbered and outgunned whenever it comes to pitched battle. Sometimes they still manage to carry the day. A Mantid army might include the following:

• Heroes or Sneakers - Mantis Weaponmasters
• Warbands - Mantis holds are often located deep in the forests, and Mantid troops are generally unhindered by the terrain.
• Shooters - as Mantids are Inapt, these should be bowmen.
• Lurkers - giant mantises or other creatures of the deep woods.

Stronghold: A village well-hidden among trees, with an unsettling wooden mantis idol in the center.

THE DRAGONFLY COMMONWEAL

When the series begins, the Wasps are just concluding the Twelve-Year War with the Dragonfly realm, in which Dragonfly chivalry and daring came off second-best against Wasp ruthlessness and technology.  

• Riders - Almost uniquely, the Dragonflies do actually field cavalry in significant quantities, both mounted or horses or giant insects. The general should probably be among these.
• Heroes or Paladins - The Commonweal has a tradition of wandering heroes known as Mercers who roam the land righting wrongs and keeping the nobility in line.
• Flyers - Dragonfly-kinden are Inapt, so these would take the form of warriors mounted on actual giant dragonflies.
• Warbands - From Mantis holds located within Commonweal territory
• Lurkers - guerrillas or other dangers of the forests.
• Hordes - conscripted peasant infantry. Some could be classified as Spears instead if you're feeling generous.
• Cleric - A seer or other mystic.

Stronghold: A large and airy but impractical castle.

I'll stop there, I think - there are a few other potential factions I can think of, but perhaps they should be left as a surprise for the reader. The series reminds me of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom books in how frequently new kinden turn up - you never know when you might run across a strange lost city, and in some places magic is not quite so easy to dismiss...

Mesoamerican DBA Part 2 - Aztecs

As mentioned in my previous post, for years I have had a stash of Revell Aztecs awaiting the day when my childhood interest in the period would be rekindled. Well, the day has finally come, though the road was a long and winding one. Since the beginning of last year, I have been working on building various armies for DBA 3.0, and the Aztecs were one that I noted as a possibility based on the figures I already had around. I was eventually tempted into buying some of the more recent Caesar Aztec Warriors to supplement what I already had, with the end result that their intended opponents, the Maya, got painted first. However, after a couple of months of painting, the Aztecs are finished at last!

After the trouble I had finding sources on the Maya, I was pleased to find that original sources on the Aztecs are far more detailed and plentiful, in the form of various codices compiled shortly after the Conquest. Some of these are even scanned and freely available online through various academic institutions. Pictures from the Codex Mendoza were especially helpful:

However, the downside of this is that I became more aware of some odd choices made by the figure sculptors. The Aztec military seems to have been fairly well-organized, with rank and accompanying insignia (in the form of colorful suits, pamitl back-banners, hairstyles, etc.) being awarded to warriors based on their prowess in capturing enemy prisoners. Some of these ranks are well-represented in the extant plastic sets, others (particularly the lower ranks) much less so. The older Revell set in particular has some very odd mix-and-match going on - there is at least one figure who seems to be dressed and armed like a common warrior but with the hairstyle of a priest from the nobility! 

The Revell figures also suffer from what I consider to be a flaw in that the shield designs are molded on. I much prefer to paint my own - in fact, it's generally one of the parts I enjoy the most. Some of the Revell shield designs are well-attested; others less so. After painting a few of them as-is, I started carving off the existing designs and painting on some different ones. This resulted in more than one inadvertent blood sacrifice as I jabbed myself in the thumb! The Caesar set has plain shields, but are a much smaller proportion of the army - there's generally about one per stand.

The general, rated as a fast Blade in DBA. The center figure in the crocodile costume is one I was unable to find any source for, though he does look very commanding!

Two more units of fast Blades, representing the Jaguar and Eagle military orders. I was interested to find that the jaguar costumes were probably not made of actual jaguar hide, but rather quilted or hardened cloth covered with colorful feathers for decoration.

The DBA list includes one element of "Ontontin or Cuachic shock troops" as fast Warband. These were warriors who had taken five or more captives. The Ontonin, from what I can tell, wore green suits; the Cuachic wore yellow and had a distinctive hairstyle that I was unable to replicate. These figures are actually conversions; the center figure was a Revell Eagle knight with a head swap; the one on the right was a slinger but I gave him a war club and a shield instead. All three have pamitl banners added. I think the center banner rather resembles a pineapple; I haven't figure out yet if this is just a coincidence or not.

The bulk of the army is six units of ordinary warriors, classed either as fast Hordes or fast Auxilia - I painted both options. The Horde option seems to be what makes the army somewhat unique in DBA terms, though I suspect the Auxilia option might be better in a tactical sense. Most of these are dressed in plain white, though there are a few more colorful fellows scattered in amongst them.

Finally, we have a couple of units of psiloi/skirmishers with slings and bows - not much more to say about them!

A couple more views of the army all together:

In other news, I received my first dose of the Covid vaccine this past week, so these and the other armies I have been working on over the past year might actually see action soon!

Painting-wise, I will probably take a break from 20mm for a little while, and catch up on some of my Reaper Bones, or maybe work on some terrain projects. The next planned DBA army is an expansion to the Bronze Age milieu, but I might get back to Mesoamerica eventually - I realized I might be able to scrape together enough figures for a Tlaxcalan army, with or without Spanish allies...