An Old Midlish Rhyme
The wind from the North sings of heroes of Olde
The wind from the East makes our blood run Cold
The wind from the South smells of Spices and Gold
But the wind from the West tells of warriors Bold.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Pass in Review

 Since my decision to drop first Warhammer Ancient Battles and then the Mede-Lydian campaign, my poor battered collection of ancients has again been tossed on stormy seas. I have a plan in mind but it doesn't exactly have places for all of the existing figures. So I am left again to sort through seeing what should be saved, what should be scrapped or re-homed. The goal as always is that the available display area must not be exceeded and that figures should get to be played with often enough to be worth keeping.

I had been starting to think about making room by disbanding and disbursing my Greek and Persian troops since they don't fit into current plans  and if all are fixed up, there are too many for my current table space. Unfortunately I hauled them out for a game last week and it occurred to me that I've finally painted up enough to play a game and with just a little work I can put aside a Greek & Persian Wars "game in a box". Questions remain. How big a box? Who gets to be re-based? Who has to go?

For now the remaining hoplites can serve on their 20mm frontage per figure bases but I intend to cram them back into 8 figures per 60mm wide element, 12 such elements to make the core of a Greek alliance army supported by some skirmishers and cavalry. The Persians will stay on the looser frontage but 3 deep for 9 figure elements. Perhaps 20 all told. That leaves a few stray Greeks, especially lighter troops, not to mention that I really should add some Spartans which would mean bumping yet more existing Hoplites. Some of the excess Persians are easily co-opted into the later 5 Kingdoms fictional setting but others, I'm just not  sure about. Then there are some stray Italians left over from a foray into Carthage and there is the small band of Hellenistic pikes and peltasts who were to form part of the 5 Kingdoms but who just look too Hellenistic.

So, nothing decided but here are some of the troops whose fate is being pondered.

 The miscellaneous Hoplite regiment composed of largely RAFM & Ral Partha figures and including a number of later hoplites, a mix of figures I like and others that I don't really..


Rospak Hoplites, in service since 1982. Veterans but getting a bit tired, they drop their shields and spears a lot.


More Rospaks, also veterans, these never got new spears, they still have the 6 foot long ones, about 1/2 of which are broken as happened in real life apparently but distressing when you start a battle that way.

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A "new" unit, only 4 years old. RAFM Seleucid  Arab levies recruited into my Persian army. Nothing wrong with them, I actually quite like them but which levies to keep? and is there a plausible place for them in the 5 Kingdoms where almost everyone else has pants and a tunic?


Another new unit, Rose Prestige Ethipeons. Lovely figures  and nothing says Persian levy like Ethiopeans with fire hardened sticks, so maybe.

 Thracians from Rospak, Ral Partha, RAFM and Corvus. One can always find a place for a few Thracian mercenaries. the question is how many and do I want/need a whole Thracian army as opposed to one unit of mercenaries. There's another score or more that need some sort of repair or just aren't based at the moment as well as archers, slingers and cavalry.

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RAFM multi-part Thureophorai. Too late for Graeco-Persian Wars so how Hellenistic do I want my forgotten outpost city? Or, do I want to add a few more Garrison S&S figures instead......?

 RAFM & Ral Partha pikes. I'm really not big on pike phalanxes, I just happened to have had them from an abandoned earlier project.

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and the real strays, cobbled together Italians and some late Greek cavalry.

14 comments:

  1. I would question your re-basing figures, Ross, except that I am planning on doing some really ridiculous re-basing myself.

    You at least have a reason to re-base . . . I am planning on cutting all of my Saxe-Bearstein and vile Stagonian 18th century infantry off of their 40mm x 40mm bases and putting them on 40mm x 40mm bases.

    "Eh, what?", you say.

    Currently they are on cobbled together 40mm x 20mm stands glued to cardstock . . . which bothers me.

    I now have some nice 40mm x 40mm MDF bases that are much "cleaner-looking" . . . and I want to use a different colored flocking (to more closely match my table cover cloth).

    Also I recognize almost all of those Ral Partha & RAFM Hoplites because I have a great many of them myself . . . indeed, before this past year of medical malady I was planning on building some sabots for them (they are currently based for WRG 7th) to build a pair of "Basic Impetus" armies and giving those rules a try (I've got lots of 25mm Ancient armies and haven't played with them for about 25 years . . . *sigh*).

    That's still an idea although it will still be quite some time before I'll have enough stamina for a face-to-face game (not to mention my current severely weakened immune system).


    -- Jeff

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    1. I might be a little annoyed at putting them back where they were 10 years ago except the experiments have been informative and enjoyable and anyway the Greeks and Persians never made it onto Armati/ Comitatus basing. ( same 60mm as WRG ). Anyway rest up and hang in there Jeff.

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  2. Personally I'm going through a lazy phase; if I were fictionalizing things, I'd let the odd units of mercenaries get around, rather than spend a lot of effort creating something with different helmets...

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    1. Well, to be honest, part of the reason for a fictional setting is to allow me to paint some figures I wanted to rather than what I was supposed to.

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  3. Keep them ,you never know when they will come in handy or inspire you to new games or projects.

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    1. That's just the problem, I want to reduce temptation and distraction!

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  4. Seems reasonable to 'get rid' of ones no longer fit for the purpose, re others:

    A hoplite is basically a hoplite, so most others could do as Spartans. Persians revel in divesity - 'one' set army would lose a lot, my suggestion would be to keep this box a bit fuller. My own 'choice' on the above would be to keep both groups of levies and (most? some?) of the Thracians as they are potential most useful and generally sound to be in the best condition anyway.

    Rob

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    1. I have been using any hoplite unit as Spartans but it would be nice to have one unit in red, with cloaks and long hair even though they probably didn't wear the clock's in battle.

      I'll definitely keep some of the Thracians. But I think one unit of auxiliaries as opposed to a whole army. The Arabs may be generic enough. I'll keep some Ethiopeans too, the question is a small token unit of light infantry or a block of massed archers. The later just doesn't quite feel right for painted guys with sticks.

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  5. Great looking figures Ross - all the more so since many of them seem to have 'history'. Definitely best to hang on to them. Or send them to me.

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    1. Apart from the Rospaks, most of these are actually fairly recent, but, be careful what you wish for!

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  6. Definitely keep them and definitely rebase to elements - they look so much better when deployed in mini-diorama's in my view. I am having great fun renovating my old 25mm ancients and it is surprising how well they scuba up. I am on to the Corvus Thracian thureophoroi now and will post pics when done
    Simon

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    1. I gave up on the single figures 2 years ago, just haven't rebased because I've been toying with various non-standard basing but dragging my feet. Not sure how far towards the mini-diorama look I'll go this time though.

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  7. That should have been 'scrub up' not 'scuba up'. Unless you want an Atlantean army!

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  8. Great looking armies, love the Thureophorai!
    Phil.

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