Mesoamerican DBA part 4: Chichimecs

Ah, the siren song of DBA armies - it wouldn't be that hard to paint just one more, right? At the beginning of last summer, there was a crop of "SKODBACs" popping up everywhere (Simple Knock-Out DBA Campaigns). I saw a few reports on these and thought they sounded like fun - but instead of putting one together with my existing Bronze Age or fantasy armies, for some reason the thought crossed my mind that I could paint another two Mesoamerican armies and have a nice little set of five for a SKODBAC of my own. 

One of the two additions that I settled on were the Chichimecs, DBA list III/41b. (Before I get much further, I do want to note: "Chichimec" is one of these probably-derogatory exonyms applied originally by the Aztecs and adopted by the Spanish, and is not what these people called themselves.) This list covers various desert peoples of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States; in fact DBA uses it for the Pueblo cultures as well. This was not the first time I had considered them; in fact I painted up a few as mercenaries for my Maya army a couple of years ago (though more on that later.) I figured I would take the same approach as before and convert them from the Caesar Libyans set; my dad had a bunch of spare bowmen left over from building his Libyan army which he was willing to contribute. Well, ten months later, here they are!

This time I did a bit more looking around for pictorial references; Ian Heath's book on the armies of the Aztecs and the Incas had some useful illustrations and I also tracked down a reference to the Ixmiquilpan murals which includes more-or-less contemporary depictions of Chichimec warriors.

All agree that the Chichimecs were habitually unclothed except for a belt or string tied around the waist, often a cape (usually of animal skins), and perhaps occasionally a loincloth. (Ian Heath asserts that the capes were not worn in battle; based on other depictions I am not so sure - and as most of the Libyan figures start off with capes it was much less work to leave them in place!) Their usual weapon was the bow, with which they were legendarily proficient, and to reflect this the DBA army list is mostly archers, either as Fast Bow or skirmishing Psiloi. The list also includes some "club-men" as Fast Warbands; I added in some spears and atlatls in addition to war-clubs of a couple of types.

Options for the general as either a Bow or Warband unit. The warband general has a back-banner of red and yellow feathers, similar to though simpler than those used by the Aztecs.

Two additional warbands. There is some discussion of face and body paint being used by some of the Chichimec peoples; I have opted to include some as it made them more fun to paint - mostly stripes in combinations of red, yellow, white, or black, but some more elaborate.

The majority of the army is the Fast Bow units; the DBA list permits up to nine; I topped out at eight (with the Bow general potentially subbing in for the ninth on days when he's not in command). I tried to vary the three archer poses as much as I could. Most have hair lengthened with greenstuff and hairbands added. Some have their cloaks carved away for a more nude look; the remainder are painted with a variety of animal hide or vaguely Southwestern textile patterns.

Some archers based as Psiloi instead. Again, up to nine are permitted; I figured four would be about the useful limit (and was also as many as I had room to fit neatly in my current storage box!) Here I have mixed in a couple of warriors converted to be holding bows and arrows instead; quivers also added where needed.

Another view of the whole army together. All in all, these ended up skewing a little more fanciful than historical; it's more fun to paint cloaks and bodypaint and feathers, but it's possible that a more accurate representation would be a bunch of naked men with bows. I also tried something I don't usually do and varied my basing scheme - no ubiquitous green flock, but a bunch of spiny-looking tufts and rocks for these desert-dwellers.

And finally, one bonus addition. Remember those Chichimec mercenaries in the Maya army? Well, it turns out they really ought to be "Toltec-Chichimec" mercenaries from city-states like the Tlaxcalans - not the same thing at all! So the original band was split up and sent to join the new army, and I painted these fellows to take their place:

So, what about that fifth army? Well... we'll see. These guys took a lot longer than I expected, and I don't have much appetite for further conversions at the moment. Maybe a four-nation SKODBAC would be sufficient fun for now...

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.

2022 painting round-up

Happy New Year, everyone!

Ever since I started tracking my painting a couple of years ago, I like to assemble it all at the end of the year for a review. For 2022, I painted 239 figures in total, down a bit from the last couple of years. The biggest contingents were two new DBA armies, who have previously been featured (Tlaxcalans, Undead), but my Proxian imagi-nations armies also saw considerable expansion (spurred on by several battles being fought over the course of the year.)

(There are a few absent from the picture - some chariot runners I painted for my dad as part of a rebasing scheme prior to a game at our local convention, a Leonardo tank painted for a club project, and a Scythian lancer borrowed to paint for a contest over at Benno's Forum.)

A few other highlights that I never got around to posting about on the blog:

Occiterran Red Hussars (from the Emhar Light Brigade set), painted up after the Occiterran defeat in April.

A proper Pharaoh for my Egyptians (from the Caesar set), painted up in time to lead the Egyptian army in my Battle of Djahy game at Barrage.

Camp followers for various DBA armies - Aztec and Tlaxcalan at left, Bronze Age at right.

A selection of Reaper Bones adventurers.

As for 2023, no big plans yet - I'll just have to see what the year brings as far as painting and gaming! My brother stopped by yesterday for a couple of rounds and DBA and HotT, so we are off to a good start...

Mesoamerican DBA Part 3 - Tlaxcalans

Even as I was wrapping up my Aztec army last year, I found myself wondering if I could pull together one more Mesoamerican DBA army - preferably one that could be an opponent for either the Aztecs or the Maya. As it happens, there was one plausible candidate - army list IV/19a. This list covers a whole swath of Mesoamerican groups, among them the Tlaxcalans. The DBA version of the army is heavy on bowmen, and as it happened I had quite a few archers left over from the Aztec project. I decided to see what I could piece together - and for those who are interested in the process, I wrote about it in a thread over on Benno's Figure Forum. 

(In brief: I took a great deal of inspiration from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, a record put together post-Conquest by the Tlaxcalans themselves to document their role as Spanish allies. It's made up of about a hundred illustrated panels which run together in a narrative almost like a comic strip. As far as the figures go, they are mostly a mix of the Revell and Caesar Aztec sets, with a lot of conversions.)

Now, at last, the army is complete!

First up, our Tlaxcalan generals, as suit-wearing warriors who can be either solid Bows or fast or solid Blades:

The IV/19a list includes two additional units of fast or solid Blades. Unlike their Aztec counterparts, the Lienzo depicts most of the Tlaxcalan warriors without animal headdresses - the exceptions tend to be either feline or canine rather than avian. (One thing I learned while working on this project: the "crocodile" headdress that shows up in both the Aztec sets is probably supposed to be a stylized coyote and not a crocodile at all!)

The IV/19a list also calls for three stands of solid Bow. Per the description in the DBA army list, I depicted these units with two archers and two warriors with shield and maquahuitl - partly to help distinguish them from the fast Bows, and partly because I didn't have quite enough archers and wanted to avoid having to buy more!

The fast Bows, of which there may be up to five. There are a few converted Robin Hood figures mixed in among here...

In the IV/19a list, one of the fast Bows may be replaced with a fast Warband unit of Otomi allies. Unfortunately I was not able to find any good pictorial sources on the pre-contact Otomi, so they are a little fanciful.

Finally, one unit of psiloi - these are actually Atlantic Egyptians, as I had used up my stocks of Aztec bowmen. 

A couple of views of the whole army together:

But wait, there's more! Although my primary goal was to build the IV/19a list for the pre-contact era, in the end I also put together the four Spanish units needed for the IV/19c list variant, which covers the Tlaxcalan/Spanish allied forces. 

Here we have the Spanish general, as a unit of knights. The rider on the left is from the old Revell set of conquistadors; the other two are from the more recent Caesar set - though the man with the raised spear has a substitute horse for size compatibility.

One unit of Spanish sword-and-buckler men, as solid Blades. While I kept mostly the same overall color palette for the Spanish as for the Tlaxcalans, it was quite a change to go from the intricate designs on the Tlaxcalan shields to the plain metal of the Spanish...

One unit of Spanish crossbowmen and arquebusiers as solid Crossbows.

Finally, the Spanish get to deploy a falconet or similar small cannon as a stand of Artillery. The crew, the gun barrel, and the carriage are from one of RedBox's sets of Spanish sailors; the wheels are taken from another set. (There are a few panels of the Lienzo that depict Spanish cannons; they are shown there as having spoked wheels.)

Here's a shot of the Spanish contingent all together, and one more of the combined Spanish-Tlaxcalan army:

And with that, I am just about done with my adventure into Mesoamerica! I do owe all three armies some camp followers, but I think I am about due for a break - hopefully both to work on some other projects and to actually play some games!

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...

Mesoamerican DBA Part 1 - Maya

When I was a kid, I went through a phase of being very interested in the Aztecs - probably sparked by reading Captain Cortes Conquers Mexico, from the World Landmark book series. (I'd credit these books for a good chunk of my interest in history; linking titles to specific gaming projects they've inspired could probably be a topic for another post...) As part of this, I ended up with a whole host of the Revell Aztecs and Conquistadors, some of which I even painted up and played games with. Some of the unpainted ones have hung around ever since, with the notion that maybe I'd have another go at them some day.

Well, that day hasn't arrived yet, but it may be coming!

At the beginning of last year, when I started looking through the DBA army lists and considering what armies I could build, the Aztecs came up as one possibility. But I knew I'd want some historical opponents for them, and the options in 20mm plastic are somewhat limited. However, DBA does list one of the later Maya armies as an Aztec opponent, and Caesar Miniatures put out a nice-looking set of Maya a few years ago, so I decided to order a box of them, just on speculation... and then I decided that I'd also like a set of the newer Caesar Aztecs to supplement my older Revell figures. But since that second order took a while to arrive, I figured I might as well start painting some of the Maya while I waited.

So that's how I ended up with a DBA Maya army but still no Aztecs! And here they are:

This are intended as the Maya III/22c list, nominally for 1283-1461 AD, the late Postclassic era. However, when I went to do a bit of research, I discovered a couple of things:

• Those fine Caesar Maya are almost certainly all based off a single color plate from an Osprey book.
• The depictions in that Osprey book are at least partly based on the famous Bonampak murals.
• The Bonampak murals date to the late Classic Era, which ended around 800 AD, at least four hundred years earlier.

So despite my efforts, these guys may be a little historically suspect as opponents for the eventual Aztecs. But hopefully they will stand on their own merits.

The list includes two units of "noble warriors" including the general, classified as solid Blades. For these I ended up using the poses who were using a spear two-handed, and wearing tunics or other torso-coverings. These are almost certainly based on a picture of a ruler from the Bonampak murals, and I have a sneaking suspicion his outfit is supposed to be unique and distinctive. So this may be the equivalent of having a regiment of Napoleonic French cavalry who all resemble "Napoleon Crossing The Alps."

There are eight units of "Maya warriors", who are classified as fast Auxilia. As is often the case, I had fun with the shield designs for these, though they are mostly fanciful as I did not find much source material.

The next one was a head-scratcher: one unit of "Toltec-Chichimec mercenary archers" as solid Bow. "Chichimec" seems to have been a term applied by the Aztecs to a wide variety of peoples, but I did run across one depiction attributed to the Florentine Codex:

Hmm, bow-armed men dressed in long cloaks and loincloths? Where was I going to find those? The Caesar Maya set certainly did not include anyone like that... but it turns out they are a surprisingly close match for some of their Bronze Age Libyans, with a little conversion work:

Finally, we have one unit of peasant slingers, as Psiloi. Easily done!

So here's the army all together again. Despite all my qualms about historicity, they were fun to paint, and they may see some future service in Hordes of the Things as well, which would make it a moot point. Next up... maybe it will finally be time to paint some of those Aztecs!