New recruits for the Empire

Hi everyone! Back to 1/72, and to one of the most iconic armies of Ancient times, the Early Roman Empire. Nothing original of course, but new figures anyway, painted and based :)

In case you've been here before AND you have a good memory, you might remember that I've already displayed a Roman Imperial army for DBA - 12 elements, and (in theory, but still missing in my case) a camp element. but these days, I don't play DBA any longer and wish to paint larger armies. That's where the rule l'Art de la Guerre (ADLG) is perfect, since the basing is almost the same as for DBA. And moreover, the small format at ADLG is 100 points (normal is 200), which corresponds to 68 figures for the Romans (according to my list), and I already had 42 figures in my DBA army. Not a big gap :)

Here you are a table that gives a correspondence between DBA and ADLG, so that I know what I have to paint.

Note: with DBA, you need 4 figures to represent Heavy infantry, or Auxilia or Archers. With ADLG, you need 8 figures and a base twice deep - a better way to represent the most numerous troops on the battlefield.

 

Let's begin with the Auxilia: 2 more elements for ADLG. All shields are hand painted, and I must say that I am quite happy with the green ones.

Hät figures

Strelets figures

All Auxilia together:

 

Then we have a look at the 4 missing legionaries:

Strelets figures

My 3 ADLG Legionaries elements are now complete:

 

Time to take some family pictures:

 

The 100 points ADLG army is not yet complete: I need to paint the generals (with their officers or guards, 6 figures) and... the camp :(  

After that, the next step is to upgrade to a 200 points army for which I need 116 figures, only 54 to paint!

Hope you like them :)  

 

Egyptian Mythology: of Gods and Beetles

 Hi everybody!

Sorry for the lack of update on this blog. Not a lack of mojo this time, it's just that sometimes, real life's stronger than hobby. I didn't paint a lot since last winter, though I have a few figures to show. After Nordic then Greek mythology, I wanted to extend my Ancient Egyptian army into a fantastic version. It's far from complete but I have enough figures for a decent post.

First, the family picture:

 If you've read this blog in the past, you might identify some mummies on the left of the picture. Let's have a closer look:

These figures come from a Dark Alliance set, ALL72045. The same manufacturer also produced some Anubites (named after god Anubis, a reference to the Mummy movie series, set ALL72053), and you can see them here:

I also wanted to represent some Egyptian Gods. Fortunately, Reaper Minis produced some in their plastic 28mm range, and I chose to paint Thoth, god of the Moon, wisdom, knowledge, writing, hieroglyphs, science, magic, art and judgment. He is often depicted with an ibis head an a human body.

A could also find a swarm of scarabs in the Reaper range - though big for 1/72, they do the job.

Of course you also need some human troops. Here they are so far, some archers:

Some heavy warriors, including a few Sherden elite.

And the usual light infantry. Nubian archers:

And Libyan warriors:

Still a lot of work to complete this army. I need:

- a second scarab swarm figure

- more heavy warriors

- more Anubites (my favorite figures in this army)

- some giant scorpions (I found some in the Conan range by Monolith)

- a sphinx (Reaper)

- some Chariots (some are on my workbench for aeons...)

- and some generals, foot and chariot

Hope they are worth the wait :) 

EDIT: I also wanted to apologize for the lack of answer to your nice comments lately, but there's a security issue between Firefox and my Google account, so that I am now unable to write a comment on my own blog!!! Very sorry. I'm considering leaving Blogger if I don't find an answer to that problem.

EDIT #2: I've found a way to solve my problem, at last! If I use Firefox private navigation, I can write comments on my own blog, and also on the others. If this info is of help...
 

Mythologic Greek army complete

 Hi everyone! It's high time to write a new post in this blog. In the end of June, I showed you the creatures painted for a Mythological Greek army. Since that post, I've been painting some Greek hoplites, and I have now enough of them to consider my modest army complete. Modest meaning that this is a 123 pts army for l'Art de la Guerre v4 - with house rules for the Fantasy elements.

Here you are the result (before basing):

The army list is as follows:

General in chief, brilliant: 4 pts

Subgeneral, competent: 2 pts

1 element of Heavy Centaurs: 10 pts

1 element of Light Centaurs: 7 pts

3 elements of Hoplites: 24 pts

1 element of Amazons: 10 pts

3 elements of Psiloi: 12 pts

1 element of Minotaurs: 36 pts

1 Cyclops: 18 pts

 

 Let's have a closer look at the hoplites:

At ADLG, you need 8 figures for a Heavy Infantry element. The first figures on the left are Theban hoplites, with a general element behind. The next are a mix of Athenian and Spartan hoplites, with a Spartan general in the background.

I've also painted 4 more Amazons to complete the Amazon hoplites element.

For hoplites, it's always good to have a screen of Psiloi, here are these young and agile warriors.

Let's have a closer look at the hoplites. I like painting these guys because of their shields, or aspis. Some figures have engraved patterns on their shields (some of the Hät Thebans and Zvezda hoplites), but I must say that I prefer plain shields to paint whatever design I wish, as you can see on the Caesar, Linear and the venerable Atlantic figures.

The last close-ups focus on the command elements - first the Theban subgeneral:

And the Spartan commander.

So what's next ? Still some work. I need to base all these figures, and paint some new ones to have a 250 pts army, which means:

- more hoplites

- more Amazons, hoplites, Psiloi and command

- some more Centaurs, or maybe Minotaurs

They also need some opponents, the Mythological Egyptians! That's another story, but let me tell you that the paintjob is well under way :)

See you!

Late Crusaders: Maronite auxiliary archers

This year, I've decided to complete the armies I've started to paint in 2017 or earlier. The more I read l'Art de la Guerre, the more I wish to play with these rules, so I need different armies to test most situations. One of the most epic scenes is the charge of units of heavy cavalry, so I need an army with knights. Since I painted a few Templars for DBA last year, I decided to paint a Later Crusader army.

I prepared a list for a 100 pts army, the closest format to DBA. Here it is:

• General (1 knight + 1 standard bearer + 1 monk): 5 pts
• Templar knights (6 knights): 26 pts - 4 painted, see here
• Crusader knights (6 knights): 20 pts - 2 painted, see here
• Turcopoles with bow (2 horsemen): 6 pts - 1 painted, see here
• Bedouins (2 horsemen): 6 pts
• Sergeants on foot (8 men): 16 pts - 4 painted, see here
• Sergeants with crossbows (4 men): 7 pts - 4 painted, no pictures
• Maronite archers (4 men): 10 pts
• Light infantry with bows (2 men): 4 pts

There is no manufacturer who released Maronite archers, but the Andalusian archers  are close enough in my eyes. I also painted a couple of figures from other manufacturers to add some variety in the poses.

Here is my unit:

 Not as impressive as the knights of course, but they will be highly valuable auxiliaries.
Some close-ups:

These figures come from the El Cid Andalusian infantry by Hät (set 8168). They are perfect as Maronites, but two poses are a bit short, hence:

The firing archer comes from the Italeri Saracen warriors (set 6010), He is rather close to the previous ones. The other one comes from the Strelets Anglo-Saxons before battle (M050). He would be perfect in my eye if he was equipped with a composite bow - let's say that he was compelled to use an occidental one :)
If I find a better mini for the fourth Maronite archer, the Saxon archer will downgrade to light infantry. Any suggestion ?