Those men .. always fighting .. sigh....

Having been collecting armies sine the early 1970s, I like to be able to repurpose armies rather than dispose of figures often lovingly collected and painstakingly painted. I have a reasonable sized Early Imperial Roman army collected for DBM. It has sat unused since the late 90's. So, I thought, why not repurpose it as a Kingdoms of Men army for Kings of War? No rebasing required (although regiments would be slightly wider than the prescribed base width, it still tends to work out.

Andy brought along his own almost completed Kingdoms of Men army (in the style of Medieval - or old school GW Brettonian), and my EIRs came out of their boxes for the first time in a very long time .. the figures were walking clutching white canes, so long has it been since they saw daylight!!! Adrian and I commanded the Romans.. this was as much about good fellowship as it was about the game.

Medieval on the left, EIR on the right

Regiments of EIR legionaries made up the Roman centre

A horde of warriors on the Roman left made for the weaker archer based Medieval centre, hoping that their own cavalry could hold up the knights on the Medieval right

Meanwhile the legionary regiments advanced against Andy's solid pike centre

The Roman centre was supported by two ballistae

The Roman cavalry on the left were despatched very promptly by the medieval knights .. ouch

The knights threaten the flank of the Horde of legionaries. The centres are about to clash

Lots of pushing and shoving in the centre... those pike are tough

The centres continue to push, and the legionary horde closes in on some archers

Ouch.... it's all good fun until someone gets a stick (pike) in the eye, eh!!

Legionaries take it to an opposing warrior regiment

Roman cavalry attack medieval knights... and the knights disappear

The misguided legionary horde gets hit in the rear by knights.. yep, my own incompetence put them there. It didn't end well for the legionaries

The Romans make headway in the centre

Those medieval knights turn to take on some archers, having just removed the legionary horde

Archers and warriors are hit by Roman legionaries, and two units of Roman knights... ouch ouch ouch

There is almost nothing left of the medieval army.... 

But what a thoroughly enjoyable evening of gaming... great to get those Romans out on the table again. There were Minifigs Legionaries from the 1980s, Airfix Roman eastern archers from the 1970s and Foundry legionaries for the 90s.. a very eclectic mix of figures...

First 'Armies of Dust' regiments.. finally .. whew!!!

In December last year I bought the Mantic 'Armies of Dust' army set. I've always liked skeleton armies in the fantasy genre, especially the 'Egyptian' style armies. There was huge anticipation, and in February I started on the first figures - the spear. Why so long? The box set hadn't been packed properly and was lacking quite a few key packs of parts. I found the project hard going from the beginning..  the new metal torsos didn't fit the plastic lower bodies, and most had to be individually fitted. The superglue I was using wouldn't seem to hold the body parts together (that may have been an environmental issue.. too hot, or too cold, .. or ..) so I had to use a contact adhesive to hold them.

I also decides to use a white (well, ivory) undercoat instead of my more usual black, and was surprised how it has taken me a while to get my head around the difference this made to painting demands and style. The figures were block painted over the white, and then given a black wash.

In Kings of War, regiments are normally composed of 20 figures, and I based the first 20 spear on that basis, but the figures looked far too dense. I took a closer look at the multi basing that has taken off within the KoW community. It reduces the number of figures on a base. I opted for 10 per base, which meant that instead of two regiments I had enough figures for four. I took the first 20 off their base, and rebased back to 10. I prefer the 'multi base' look.

It's been hard to keep the motivation going. Finally today the fruits of nearly 6 months of work.

The four spear regiments

The forces of Chaos dive into the realms of the Lost Worlds

I've actually managed a few games this past few weeks, but back into work mode have struggled to find the time to post anything. Three weeks ago we got to Dunedin (for a conference) but I managed to fit in a couple of HotT games with Nick. We used the Lost Worlds and Chaos armies.  In this first game I commanded Chaos, and Nick commanded the Lost Worlds. An array of photos form the first game in which Chaos won. We then swapped armies for a second game.. Chaos won again. So for Nick and I honour was satisfied.

Propoganda efforts fail in the face of British pluck and courage

In the face of the deleterious output of the Nazi propaganda machine, and the flights of fancy of Herr Goebbels following the steadfast actions of our troops in France, actions that saw the Nazi war machine stopped in its literal and metaphorical tracks, the Prime Minister today said this in parliament:

"Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

And even as he spoke, British industry stepped forth to deliver it's own speech in the best of British traditions where actions speak louder than words:

"We shall never surrender".