International Brigade Reinforcements

Last week I also completed another ten of the rather lovely International Brigade figures from Northstar. I prepared these at the same time as some El Cid Spanish, so, having a bit of green-stuff left over I added a few armbands that were later painted with the Popular Front motif, maybe not historically accurate for the International Brigade, but it gives a bit of extra variety.

As before the figures were really easy to paint and I'm happy how they came out. I've got 30 of these done now and will soon be able to field a full platoon in my Chain of Command games without having to bolster the numbers with a few Militia.

Here are a few close-ups

Another dozen Germans for James

I am continuing to work through some WWI Germans for chum James and have added another dozen to the six I did a few weeks ago.

All are Great War Miniatures and are painted in my standard WWI German scheme.

Here are a few more close-ups. You'll notice I'm experimenting with a new blue backdrop instead of the familiar green, what are your thoughts?

Vortigern meets the lawnmower

This is a very tardy report of a game I played against Richard a week last Tuesday, so the details may be a bit sketchy.

We fancied a game in preparation for my Age of Arthur campaign day on the 13th February   which unfortunately Richard cannot now attend as he is off on his holidays.

I picked a pretty standard Early Saxon Kingdoms force of Cynning, Atheling, Thane, Scop and Wiglera leading a unit of Gedricht, two units of Duguth and a unit of Geoguth. Support was provided by a small unit of skirmishing Duguth and two units of peasants.

Richard fielded the sample Vortigern list from the Age of Arthur book, making up the extra 100pts by bolstering the cavalry unit.

Both armies deployed, the Romano-British with their Pedyts in the centre with their flanks anchored on two fields of crops, Vortigern took the cavalry on the left. Heignst was on the far right with  his unit of Geoguth while Horsca and his Geoguth supported the Pedyts.

The Saxons formed a solid line with the Gedricht in the centre flanked by Duguth while the Geguth were on the right.

Opening the action the Romano-British slingers caused the Saxon javelinmen to flee the field, a great start for Vortigern whose troops began a general advance.

The Saxons countered with a surge of their own, unfortunately due to their warband rules, not necessarily in the intended direction!

Battle was joined, Vortigerns slingers kept up a great hit rate causing much consternation in the Saxon ranks. The Roman cavalry crashed into the Geoguth and after a protracted combat scattered them to the winds riding around the rear of the Saxon army.

Horsca and his Gedricht were involved in a combat with my Duguth on the left flank that lasted almost the entire game until my Duguth eventually broke - small wonder really as I had been using them as Geoguth up until that time!

However, the Duguth formed a solid line in front of the cavalry and eventually beat them off causing Vortigern to flee the table. The Saxon Cynning finally had is moment and launched his Gedricht, first smashing the Geoguth of Heignst and then a unit of Pedyts.

After a bright start for the forces of Vortigern the sharp blades and superior swordsmanship of the Gedricht had won the day.  

Bumper El Cid painting update

Those of you viewing my blog of late will note that there have been very few painting updates since I returned to work after my Christmas and New Year break. Fear not, I have not been idle. I am slowly painting some WWI Germans for chum James, but in the past three weeks I have been having a major drive on my El Cid collection.

Firstly, for my Birthday my Mother in Law kindly bought me some armoured spearmen, I used 15 of them to create a new unit of spearmen, being armoured these can be either foot knights or a well favoured unit of Peones.

Combined with the ten I painted back in December this makes a respectable sized unit. I just need to sort out a movement tray for them.

With the remaining three figures I have made a General on Foot for our Hail Caesar or To The Strongest! games.

Next, we move on to the Berbers, the first being a Berber General on Foot again for our To The Strongest! or Hail Caesar games. This chap is accompanied by a Imam calling down the blessings of Allah and a personal standard bearer. All are Gripping Beast figures I received from Victoria for Christmas.

I have made a start on a unit of Black Guard, unfortunately, I don't have any rank and file, but made a start on the first four figures of the command base. I'll add two spearmen and the remainder of the unit at a later date. I've deviated from the white and blue scheme used in the rest of the force, but have stuck to the same restricted pallet, just using more black than white on these.

I have also finished off the last of the Miniature Design Studio Berbers with Bows, seventeen figures in all. I did have rather a lot of the same pose though, nine of these chaps are identical.

Again, like the Spanish spearmen, if I add these to the command stand and archers I did last month I get another respectable sized unit. Again, I need to do a large movement tray for them.

Finally, and these will not count towards the painting tally until they are based, I also finished another Berber standard bearer and four officers. All from Gripping Beast, these will be added to upcoming units.

For Sale: Large Saga Viking Warband £275.00

Preparing for the house move I've got to decide what is going with us, what is staying in storage in the UK and what can be sold.

After some deliberation I've decided that my Viking Warband for Saga and similar can be sold. These are mainly figures from the lovely  Shieldwall Miniatures range with a few bonus 'special' figures like the Gripping Beast Jarl Sigvaldi and the Sven Forkbeard.

The warband consists of a warlord, four Berserkers, fifteen Hirdmen (if I want a 4th unit I use a Berserker or a Bondi to make up numbers), sixteen Bondi and twelve Levy with bows.

As you can see from the photos they are all painted to a very good standard.

The price includes UK postage, rest of the World will be charged at cost.