You'd Have To Be Crazy...Sumerian Saddle Carts

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Next up for the Sumerians (15mm from Museum Miniatures) are another non-core unit: the absolutely insane Straddle Carts:

The view from the rear, below, shows them better, but it’s a chap sitting on a mini-vaulting horse being pulled along by four equids!

This seems like a very good way to die!

What is a shame, however, is that the army lists from To The Strongest rate these as just about the worst troop type you can get: Raw Lights. Now I know that is probably the author reflecting his slight disbelief that these things ever existed (carvings, presumably, being open to misinterpretation), but I think a Veteran rating would be more appropriate. For a start, more people would use them, adding to the uniqueness of the army; and secondly, as I say in the title, you’d have to be crazy i.e. Veteran to ever get on to one of them in the first place!

Sumerian Archers

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I’m making a real push to finish my Sumerians now. These are from the excellent Museum Miniatures 15mm range, painted with Citadel Contrast paints.

Today’s offering is a non-core unit: a regiment of either Bodyguard or City archers:

Lovely figures, as you can hopefully see, and really easy to paint. Here’s a view from the back:

On to the Battle Carts next!

More Museum Miniatures Sumerians

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Here’s the latest batch of the 15mm Museum Miniatures Sumerians that I have finished. The more I paint this range, the more I appreciate the beauty of the figures.

48 City Spearmen

I’m painting them using the new Citadel paints: using just one coat over an undercoat to get all the highlights you can see. I reckon that now I’m more familiar with the figures, I could add a few extra highlights to make them even better (especially on the flesh), but as I’m painting about 400 of the little blighters, I think I’ll stick with what I’m doing!

City Axemen

The next big challenge is how to paint the equids/onagers i.e. the proto-horses they used to pull their battle carts. Might do a bit of easy-to-paint light infantry first whilst I think about it…

Levy Slingers

Finally Got Some Painting Done

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So I finally managed to get some painting done: a third Sumerian spear block.

These are more of Museum Miniatures excellent CAD designed 15mm figures: some of the best Ancients I’ve seen and very easy to paint up.

As with the other two blocks, these were painted using the new Citadel Contrast Paints: one coat only for every colour except the bronze.

Three down, three to go!

Second Sumerian Spear Block

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Here’s the second of the six spear blocks that I need to field a To The Strongest Sumerian army in the style of my ancients collection.

Once again these are the almost unbelievably detailed 15mm Museum Miniatures figures painted (all except the bronze) with the new GW Contrast paints. I did the whole lot in one weekend, averaging about 45 minutes for 12 figures.

Only another four blocks to go!

First 15mm Sumerian Spear Block Finished

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I’ve already posted pics of half of the spear block, here’s the block now I’ve added the other half:

I am really happy with these. The speed that you can achieve a detailed paint job with Citadel contrast paints is extraordinary. I know I sound a bit like a fan boy, but I painted one row of these (i.e. 12 figures) from start to finish in about forty minutes: a miracle, and such a relief when you have 288 to paint in all.

I’m not 100% sold on having the command figures in the middle of the second row, but it certainly makes for a striking unit. Only another five spear blocks to go!

Incidentally, CP Models are now doing a 28mm version of the above. They are using the same 3D printing files, so the figures are identical…just bigger! They look amazing:

First of the Sumerians

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When I first saw the new Museum Miniatures Sumerians, I knew I just had to get some. Designed by CAD, they looked absolutely amazing.

The thing with Sumerians, however, is that you need to have an awful lot of them: to play To The Strongest (my current system of choice for Ancients) you need five or six spear blocks, with each spear block containing (the way I base) 48 figures. That’s 288 infantry: a significant investment in both money, and perhaps more significantly, time.

So a test unit was called for: 48 figures were ordered i.e. one spear block’s worth.

This was to be a double test: one for the figures themselves, and the second for the new Citadel Contrast paints I keep banging on about. I couldn’t face painting 288 figures my normal way (basecoat, wash, highlight i.e. paint each figure three times) but maybe I could if I only had to paint each figure once.

Sold!

The figures are as good as promised, and the paint as well. To emphasise again, the flesh, kilts, spear shafts, cloaks and shields are painted with one coat of a Contrast paint each. Only the bronze is double-painted, but that’s using non-Contrast paints.

Right, once more into the breach: only 264 spearmen to go!

More Celts

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One thing about playing the To The Strongest rules for Ancients in 15mm is that you need an awful lot of figures, especially if playing an army whose units are mostly “deep”.

I’m playing on a 15cm grid, with a normal unit represented by two Vis Bellica bases i.e. two bases 6cm wide and 3cm deep next to each other, frontage 12cm. Already that’s double the number of bases that you’d need for a game of VB.

Now add the fact that one of my collections is Ancient British/Gallic (or indeed anyone vaguely Celtic) and that their units are deep and therefore four bases in all (so a unit has frontage 12cm and depth 6cm) and you can see that I needed to quadruple the number of bases that I used in VB to play TTS.

Well, not quite, as I used to play very big games of VB, but the point is that my Celts needed reinforcements. I’d already painted the chariots/light cavalry I needed, and one warband, but couldn’t face painting another. So I got someone else to do it for me!

Here’s a lovely bunch of Celts painted by friend John. Can’t wait for them to take the field!

Sassanid Levy Infantry

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I know no army is ever really complete, but my 15mm Sassanid Persians are now effectively so. I have all the cataphracts, heavy cavalry and light cavalry allowed, and now have two deep units of Sassanid foot as well.

These have been sitting on the painting table for far too long and were effectively blocking me from getting anything done: whilst they were there, I didn’t want to start anything new; and yet the thought of painting them just caused my mojo to flee!

Anyway, they are done now, so hopefully the block is cleared…

Escorts for the Elephants

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A previous post has covered the elephants that I’ve added to my Sassanid Persian force. As I had a few spare infantrymen left over from those put aside for a Levy Foot unit, I thought I’d use them to represent the optional light infantry elephant escorts that significantly improve the battlefield effectiveness of the pachyderms.

Okay, so those big wooden shields don’t make them look much like light infantry, but I did take a bit of time and trouble over these little chaps, even if only as a practice for the planned (and far bigger) Levy Foot unit. You can see them better from behind:

Loving the white hats, even if they aren’t especially historically accurate

A simple paint job that nevertheless looks quite good. Three shades of blue, red and flesh. Paint in the darkest colours; wash in GW Agrax Earthshade; highlight in the next lightest colour; finally, a tiny highlight in the lightest colour.

The real test, of course, is how they look with the elephants they are supposed to be escorting:

Huts for the Ancient Brits

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With the game To The Strongest, each army really needs at least one, and usually three, camps. Obviously, one can cobble something together, but it’s nice to have some specific pieces for each force.

Forged in Battle’s Empire range has recently added a whole series of 10-15mm buildings that, when combined with a flat base, make rather nice camps. I’ve bought a few, with the first off the production line being these six Ancient British huts:

Loving these. Easy to paint up: spray white; paint the roofs straw colour and the doors brown; wash with GW Agrax Earthshade; leave to properly dry and then highlight the thatch and doors; finally, take a stippling brush to the walls.

They are perhaps a bit pricey at £24, but well worth it. Recommended.

First of the Ancient British Foot

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A bit more painting left over from last year: four bases, so one To The Strongest deep unit, of Ancient British foot in 15mm. The figures are Forged in Battle, excuse the shed!

Quite like these. The shields are partly painted and partly using LitteBigMan transfers. What decided which to use? Well, I couldn’t be bothered to cut out the holes in the transfers for the double-boss shields, so only used the transfers for the simple single-boss shields. I did try to do one: but it was annoyingly difficult and time-consuming!

Here’s the back view. The tartan and stripe patterns look better at wargaming distance than under the microscope.

I now need another four units of these: the thought of painting which fills me with horror! The Hoplites are bad enough, but at least they are homogeneous: these all have to be painted individually. Anyone got a pile of well-painted Ancient Brits they don’t want any more?

Christmas Painting

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I always seem to get a lot of painting done over Christmas.

I think it’s because there’s nothing else to do apart from eating and drinking heavily (check), watching tv (check), arguing with the family (check), snoozing (check)!

Anyhow, three more units for my Ancients refurbishment completed:

Another four bases of Celtic light cavalry to pad out my chariot units

Another three Celtic chariot bases, meaning I can now field the minimum number required

Four Sassanid Persian elephant bases, so one full unit in To The Strongest, four units in Vis Bellica.

The Sassanids Are Go!

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With the below, my Sassanid army in 15mm for To The Strongest is now finally legitimate i.e. fulfils the minimums required by the army lists.

So, here are two units of Heavy Cavalry - armoured men on unarmoured horses - plus a couple of heroes.

Naturally I haven’t quite finished yet: a unit of elephants and another unit of levy foot are sitting on the painting table waiting for a bit of attention. They’ll have to wait for the Ancient Brits to be finished first, and I’ve got that final unit of Hoplites to finish, and don’t even mention the Macedonians! So much painting, so little time!

And Now The Sassanids

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Another ancients army that I need to bulk out for To The Strongest is my Sassanid Persians.

Fortunately, I had plenty of cataphracts already painted, so all I need to add to bring the force up to regulation ratios is some of the heavy cavalry that supported the superheavies.

That requires four heavy horse units, which I have decided to field as two units of what I would call Clibanarii (armoured men on felt-armoured covered horses) and two units of Heavy Cavalry (armoured men on unarmoured horses). They have exactly the same stats in TTS, but it’s nice to have the variety should I ever need it.

Here are the Clibanarii:

Lovely 15mm figures from Forged in Battle’s Empires range. Highly recommended.

The grey Clibanarii at the back have come out beautifully, but the turquoise lot at the front haven’t quite worked the way I wanted. I think the contrast between the white and turquoise is just too great to look good at this scale. No matter: I’ll know better for next time!

Looking good!

Not looking too bad!

Bulking Out The Ancient British Panzer Division

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Updating all my Vis Bellica-based armies for To The Strongest means doubling the size of all my forces, or at least it does the way that I’m doing it. Vis Bellica has element bases that are (for 15mm figures) 6cm wide, so when I switched systems, it seemed obvious to use two VB elements to represent one TTS unit using the recommended 15cm TTS grid. That also means that I can show disorder in TTS merely by moving the two elements apart at an angle i.e. no need for additional markers.

That’s fine for standard units, but we’ve already seen how TTS deep units (such as Hoplites, Pikes, some Warriors) need four VB bases per TTS unit…and the same is unfortunately true for light chariots as well. In VB, they are based on a 3cm frontage: so four VB light chariot units are needed to make one TTS light chariot unit.

That was fine for the Egyptians, as I already had loads of light chariots in a double-size VB army. It is not so fine, however, for my Ancient British. The VB version has six light chariot bases - just about the right number - but that only makes 1½ TTS light chariot bases. Time to paint lots of chariots!

Reading the TTS army lists, however, the Ancient British have light chariots up to AD211 and light cavalry after that, so the author recommends mixing light cavalry and light chariots in a TTS Ancient British light unit that can count as both. Good idea: time, then, to paint loads of light cavalry rather than light chariots!

Xyston have some very nice Ancient British Unarmoured Cavalry, so that’s what I went for: painting up six four-horse bases’ worth and, controversially, mounting them to match the chariots rather than the more normal four-across-6cm for light cavalry.

This means that the ABPD currently looks like this:

Which looks really good.

So all I need now is another two chariots and another eight cavalry to hit the minimum number of light chariot units required.

Oh, and if I wanted to keep my chariots together, here’s what a light cavalry unit would look like too:

New Ancient Britons!

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I need to take a break from painting Hoplites, so thought I’d also start bringing my Ancient Britons up to scratch.

I’ve had Ancient Brits for as long as I have been wargaming: starting with an army for WRG 6th mostly made up with Airfix plastics but with a smattering of metal command figures; and then another, 15mm, force for Vis Bellica, which I had painted for me for the Society of Ancients “Battle of the Sambre” Day, for which we won best game of the day.

It’s only meet and right, therefore, that I adapt the 15mm troops for To The Strongest: which means painting chariots, light cavalry and warriors. And heroes, which is what I’ve started with.

This is a pack of Gaeseti Nobles from Xyston. Nice crisp, animated figures that paint up well. Which is lucky, as I’ve got a load of light cavalry to paint as well.

More new Hoplites

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I’m continuing to build up my Hoplite Greek force for To The Strongest. My target is six units of Hoplites, with each unit being 48 figures strong. That’s 288 Hoplites in all!

I started with 96 Hoplites, added another 48 two weeks ago, and am now adding another 48 making 192 in all. So 96, or two more units to go.

This time, I chose to use Hoplites from Forged in Battle’s 15mm range. They come with shields and spears attached, and although the spears don’t look quite as good as the wire spears used with the Xyston lot, it did save an awful lot of time to have them ready-fitted.

So how do these compare with Xyston?

  • There’s less variety of pose in the FiB pack, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as Hoplites are supposed to be in formation , so even-Stevens on that one.

  • As mentioned, the spears and shields are integral, so don’t look as good, but save an awful lot of work, so even-Stevens on that one too.

  • Details is comparable, although the hoplons themselves (the shields, darling, the shields) are a little small.

  • The FiB Hoplites are a shade easier to paint: the relief on the panoply is just slightly deeper

So, all-in-all, Xyston edge FiB in terms of quality of sculpt and final look, but the ease of integral spears and shields, and the fact that FiB are slightly easier to paint, more than makes up for it. I shall use both evenly from now on.

Right: time to start on the next 48 of the little blighters!

Scenery for To The Strongest

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Now that the camps are sorted out, time to get a bit of scenery to dress the table and provide me with more of the sort of “traffic jam” problems that I encountered in my first game of To The Strongest.

I’ve got some desert style bits, but need to prepare for when my Hoplites eventually take the field. They are based in a sort of rocky outcrop style, so I need some sort of rocky outcrops to match.

A quick wander round Warfare and I came across The Scene. They had four rocky outcrop style bases about 120mm in diameter which I purchased immediately. Sorted!

As you can see, each fits neatly in one of the boxes on my mat.

Camps for To The Strongest

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In addition to the extra figures I need for To The Strongest, my current war game of choice, I also need some camps: about six i.e. three a side. They need to be big enough to take a guardian unit (so at least 120mm wide) and deep enough to carry a bit of “dressing”.

The components for these I picked up at Warfare on Sunday, still one of my favourite shows, and quickly painted up as follows:

I’m not sure where the bases came from, but the pyramids, huts and Sphinx all came from The Square, an excellent place to find all sorts of useful bits of resin. I always make my way there at the end of the day and spend whatever I have left in my pockets!

They paint up easily as well. The huts are undercoated in light brown, then very heavily dry-brushed white with the roofs dry-brushed in a variety of yellowy-brown colours. What makes the difference is that I have filled in the doorways and windows with a bit of woven hemp: giving a bit of depth and texture.

The Sphink and pyramids are simply painted sand yellow, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, and then dry-brushed with GW Screaming Skull. Whole lot took me about half an hour.