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 :)  

 

A Gallic army for DBA

Back to 1/72 and back to Ancients! The title of this blog declares that most minis should be in the One True Scale, here we are.

At the beginning of this year, I've been able to finish my (second) Gallic army for DBA, but found no time and no mood to take pictures. They're here at last, so let's have a look:

 

The figures are still to be based. There are enough figures for 2 elements of Slingers (Ps), 1 element of Gaesatae (Wb), 8 elements of warriors (Wb), and a General on chariot (LCh). Some of the figures have aleady been displayed on this blog (see here), but some others are new, let's focus on the latter.

Manufacturers, left to right: Caesar, Hät, Caesar, Newline Design

Hät, Revell, Hät, Italeri

Caesar, Caesar, Hät, Italeri

Linear, Linear, Linear, Hät, Hät

Linear chieftain on the left, others figs by Hät and already displayed

This time, I've painted the warriors as if they were related in clans wearing the same sort of tartan to identify. I'm not sure that this was common practice in that time, but I this likely, and it helps to give some sort of visual homogeneity without painting uniforms, which would be inappropriate.

Hope you like them, and appreciate the break from big 28mm monsters (I do)  :)

DBA Early Germans

 As announced in the previous post related to the Early Imperial Romans, the Early Germans are on the warpath too, and now ready to contest the battlefield with the Romans.

The army is composed of 12 elements, in accordance with the DBA rules. I've tried to mix as many sets as possible to get a 'warband' effect. The figures come from 8 sets from 6 different manufacturers: ESCI, Revell, Hät, Caesar, Strelets and Linear-A.

The bases have been made with the same method as for the Romans.

The Early Germans army is mainly a Warband that gather warriors from one particular tribe or from a confederation. No less than 9 Warband elements here:

Some close-ups on two of them, the first is the General (3 Caesar figures + a chieftain with his blue plaid by Linear-A):

Then we have an elements of archers as Psiloi:

And last, two elements of cavalry, one heavy and one light:

Now that the basing method has been validated with the Romans, it proved much faster to base another army, and still fun to do.

Hope you like them :) Tell me if you prefer the Roman Empire or the Germans !

DBA Early Imperial Roman Army complete and based

 Sometimes, one of my never ending projects comes to an end. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I have the pleasure to announce you that my 12 elements Early Imperial Roman (EIR) army for DBA is complete. All necessary figures are painted, and more, what can be seen as a milestone event is that all figures are based, YES, ladies and gentlemen, and I prove it right now:

Aren't they nice when they are properly arrayed on the battlefield ? You can see that there are 12 elements - heavy infantry of course, with auxiliaries, cavalry and even some artillery.

Let's have a look et each unit.

First of them, the prestigious legionaries. These 3 elements are all part of  Legio XXI Rapax. All figures by Strelets, except for the centurio, slightly converted ESCI figure.

The next two elements are from a legion that I can't identify. Note that the pattern on the shields is different between both - it was engraved on the shields of the back element, which gives you no choice, but I love these old dear ESCI figures, and wanted to incorporate some in my army.

Now we have a look at auxiliaries. My documentation (WRG) says that the pattern on the shields is that of a foot auxiliary unit, but I don't know which one. Strelets figures.

Next we have the auxiliary archers. The would be best employed on eastern fronts (where they come from), but I like this figures, a mix of Hät and Airfix.

Now we go on with the cavalry units. First, we have a look at Numidian warriors, running through the flowers. Figures by Zvezda.

You can see next Roman Horse Auxiliary, maybe of Celtic origin, riding to fight against their Germanic enemies.

And last, a roman Scorpio. The DBA list allows to have one, which is fun, but I suppose that it was mostly used during sieges than on an open battlefield.

And a last family picture to conclude.

You may wonder why it took me so long to base these figures (some of them were painted for years).

Several reasons:

- I needed to wait until every figure was painted, so that I can make the same sort of bases for all

- I needed something better than my old cardboard that proved fragile in time - the MDF bases are really great, I recommend them

- I thought it would be very boring... and I was wrong. To say the truth, I really enjoyed it, and the flowers are a must :). And I think that the Germanic tribes will soon be based too.

Hope you like them, as always.

Early Germanic army complete !

At last, I could paint the last warriors that I needed to field a complete DBA Early Germans army.
And since I've created a small scenery for Christmas (see the previous post), I used it to take pictures of my army in ambush in the woods in winter.

To be honest, my interpretation of the DBA list is rather loose. In the picture above, we have:

• 8x4Wb, the main warband
• 2x2Ps, the skirmishing archers
• 1x2LH, the light cavalry
• 1x3Cv, the medium cavalry

But I have enough more warriors to add 2 more 4Wb elements, and stick to the list.

The last painted figures are displayed below: 2 riders from Strelets Batavian auxiliaries, and 8 warriors from various manufacturers (Hät, Strelets, Caesar and ESCI).

Close-ups:

You can see that the Strelets seem more suitably dressed for winter than the others, but maybe some extra strong or fanatic warriors could fight half naked ?

The Cv element is composed of Hät Gothic riders painted a long time ago - they're ok in an Early Germanic army, in my opinion.

A few more pictures:

One of my objectives for 2018 is fulfilled, hourra ! Just need to base them (it will be a 2019 objective I guess :)).

I suppose you won't be seeing more Germans before long ! Hope you like them anyway.

Late Imperial Romans - DBA army complete

After the Sagittarii, there were only a few men left to paint in order to complete the army: 2 archers (the second Psiloi element), 1 Hunnic rider, and two clibanarii for the command group.

Here they are - first, the command element (3Cv): like the other 3Cv element, they belong to the Equites Constantiani feroces.

The general - a Miniart figure. Not as nice as his Hät comrades, but he'll do the job.

The standard bearer - I appreciated to paint a draco banner .

And here you can see the two Cv elements together.

Next unit, the Huns as LH(figures by Lucky Toys).

And last, the archers (Italeri) to support the Victores Iuniores.

So for DBA, my army is complete, at last !!

Wait, you don't believe it ? You're right, because I am slightly cheating. First, I have to base them all, something I don't like to do, but it is impossible to play without bases. and I also need a base to represent the camp - still looking for a good idea for it, any suggestion ?

That is not all. I also wish to test another promising ruleset named l'Art de la Guerre (AdG) - I have recently discovered that the author probably lived only a few kilometers from here (Lyon), but I really don't know him :)

Although the rules recommend to play with more minis than I usually paint (between 20 and 30 elements for a budget of 200 points), I've read that a good way to start is to use 100 pts armies, which more or less corresponds to the 12 elements required in DBA. And the bases are compatible, that's great.

So, for a 100 pts AdG Late Roman army, I just need to paint:
- a general element, ie a general and staff on a particular element (the riders shown above would in this cas be a second heavy cavalry element)
- a bolt thrower with servants (at least two)

It sounds reachable :) But I plan this painting for later, I first need a break from Late Romans !

See you soon.