Small mercies

 I was gratified to find last night that I had accidentally painted one too many elements of Slavic auxillia for my Early Hungarian army. So the Manichaean 3Ax for my Komnenan Byzantines is already painted. I guess I just have to choose the Hungarian Ax that looks the most prone to banditry. 10 mounted and 8 foot figures left to paint for the Komnenans then.

 

Troops from my Nikephorian and Konstantian armies - soon to be Komnenans

 

It’s just as well really as progress has been very slow on the completion of my Papal Italians. I managed to get all the horses done for the knights, and I’ve made a start on the knights themselves, but I’m still tidying up the standard and fixing the shields of the figures that suffered from runny ink.

 

I notice, by the way, that the cavalry I painted for the Konstantinian Byzantines is looking a little pale. I wonder if the matt varnish washed away the washes?

 

Matt varnish cum paint stripper

I found in my previous work with the Matisse Polymer Matt Varnish that I’d been thinning it down a little too much, so it took a couple of tries to reliably give figures an overall matt finish. I also used to give shields a coat of clear gloss when I was applying the washes.

Thinking that the clear coat was a little unnecessary, as the varnish dries to quite a tough finish, and wanting to get the figures varnished in one coat, I tried a thicker mix of varnish. This was the result.

The effect of matt varnish on ink

The ink lines that you see have now turned to a fuzzy blur were applied about three days before the varnish was put on, so they should have been well and truely cured.

Next time I will give the figures an overall coat of gloss the day after I give them their washes, to see if that works. It will delay my gratification but so does repainting the shields.

The good news, by the way, is that the matt varnish does seem to have worked fairly well this time.

Painting progress

The seven elements I have been painting in order to morph my Nikephorian Byzantine army into a Konstantinian Byzantine one are very nearly finished. I am pleased with the shield decals I made for them. I think the lesson is that if you’re going to make shield decals, use a complex design that you wouldn’t want to hand-paint.

The Konstantinian part of my Konstantinian Byzantines

Rather un-patriotically I spent the Melbourne Cup long weekend painting the 37 foot figures for a Papal Italian army rather than watching horse races. I’m still working on the shields, and the hot weather is slowing me down a bit, but I hope to have them finished in a week.

Just a week's work left on these.

 

The Italo-Samurai War continues

I had another two DBA games at the FBC on Friday, my Communal Italians against Alex’s Post Mongol Samurai.

In the first game the Italians were the attackers. Unfortunately I took that a little too literally and ended up with my spearmen quite close to a steep hill covered in warband. My knights became separated and one was caught and destroyed. I tried to move my psiloi in to protect the spearmen but they didn’t have enough room to maneuver. The warband then destroyed two spear and a supporting psiloi. Oh dear.

In the second game I was the defender. I chose to use my crossbowmen for the first time, and I deployed them with the carroccio. I realised after deployment that my horde, that were deployed behind my right flank, were out of command distance from the general – one of the perils of a 30 inch board! Alex’s cavalry moved forward and attacked my Wwg and Cb group. Meanwhile my Kn moved all the way around the front of the army. Alex spent a PIP each turn rolling his Bd, whose flank my Kn were threatening, sideways. Although one of the Cb was destroyed, the Wwg, supported by the other, had some very lucky dice and destroyed Alex’s general and his other cavalry element. But his warband were threatening my spearmen. My knights began to race back to take on the warband, but luckily their trip was not necessary. Thanks to more lucky dice my Sp destroyed two Wb, and that was that.

In the second game I had about half a plan, which helped considerably.

Dissimilar combat

I played two games at the Fairfield Bowling Club (Wargames section!) on Friday.

Both were my Communal Italians vs Alex’s Post Mongol Samurai (IV/59b) – Bd and Wb (Monks!) with two Cv and an Sp.

I left my crossbowmen in the box and gave my spearmen psiloi support to make them tougher against those monks.

In the first game I was the attacker and stupidly chose to walk around a steep hill instead of going over it. My Kn were isolated on one flank and my General had the door shut on him and was killed.

In the second game I was the defender. In the turn before hand to hand combat my War Wagon shot one of Alex’s monk elements (6-1). After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing I destroyed two more elements. Alex’s left flank was Bd, Cv(Gen), Sp, Cv. I had Hd, Hd, Kn(Gen) and Kn. One of my Hd recoiled his Bd, the other ‘stuck’ against his General, but my General killed the Sp and my Kn killed the Cv. I lost an Sp to a Wb quick kill somewhere in that fighting. In the next turn my General ‘closed the door’ on his, and his General was killed by a Horde!

Alex had a very nice army though, Old Glory figures painted by Neldoreth.

Konstantinians started

I’ve started painting the figures to ‘morph’ my Nikephorian Byzantine army into a Konstantinian Byzantine one. It’s quite a variety of elements: 1×3Kn, 1×3Cv, 1×2LH, 1×4Sp, 1×4Bw, 1×2Ps, and 1xArt!

Horses nearly there

I’ve nearly finished the horses, and I’ve already made the shield decals for this army, so hopefully these should all be finished in a couple of weeks.

The 3Kn will represent Italo-Norman mercenaries.

The 3Cv are Thematic kavallarioi. By this stage horse archery was in decline, so the figures are all lancers.

The 2LH are Pecheneg mercenaries.

The 4Sp might be supposed to represent Varangian Guard, who apparently fought as spearmen during the period this list covers. I was a bit wary of using Varangian figures as spearmen because if my opponent was unfamiliar with the army they may assume that they are Bd. Instead I have used Outpost ‘light’ spearmen, who will represent marines for this list. They will probably be landsmen when they are in my Komnenan army though.

The 4Bw aren’t actually on the DBM army list at all. I’ve assumed they are a precursor to the 4Bw elements on the Komnenan Byzantine list.

The 2Ps are Akontistai javelinmen.

The Art element will be a ballista with crew. The DBM army list says it is a cart with ballista at each end, but that turns out to be a translation error which was caused by the Byzantines not having a word for ‘counterweight trebuchet’. There’s more on that on the interesting Tabulae Novae Exercituum page.

All of the figures are from Outpost Wargames Services, except for the akontistai, which are from Khurasan, and the ballista, which is an Irregular Miniatures model with an Essex Miniatures crew.

Just a few packs more

I’ve just ordered 14 packs of figures from Essex Miniatures. I thought I only needed a few (and perhaps that was right) but I ended up with:

For my Neo-Hittite army, a pack of ‘guard’ javelinmen (who will also be spearmen), a heavy chariot, and Aramaean slingers.

For my Neo Babylonian army, two packs of cavalry (of two sorts for guard and militia).

For my Later Hebrew army, two Philistine light chariots that I will put Assyrian armoured archers in, as Hebrew armour looked like Assyrian armour.

For my Phoenician army, a pack of Hittite cavalry and two Egyptian four horse chariots. I’ll need to modify the horses with ‘apron’ armour made out of green stuff, and side pendants made out of Assyrian standards.

And a pack each of assorted archers and slingers.

Improved Byzantines

I found to my surprise that my page on Nikephorean Byzantines had been linked to by the madaxeman.com, which is a Field of Glory site with lots of good pictures, army notes, and figure reviews. I’d put the page together very quickly as a placeholder. So I’ve now added more detail and photographed the figures again.

Break out the Asti

I’ve finally finished my Communal Italian army (and there’s a page on this site). Well nearly finished - I still have a bit of work to be done to make the carroccio’s mast stay up, yet still be removable for transport. There’s also one element of spearmen that has been resisting completion. I initially gave the figure with a round shield a cartoon profile of a man that is in Armies of the Dark Ages, but it looked out of place with the other figures. I repainted it a little hastily, so it could do with another repaint.

Glutter of Ravens Page

I’ve updated my still rather skeletal page about Glutter of Ravens with a new Quick Reference Sheet. The one that comes with the game is written in Lucida Calligraphy and differs from the rules in a few places.