Assyrian army

Assyrian army

Saturday 23 April 2016

My Garrison figures are complaining.

Seems I'm neglecting them badly in favour of those Minifigs ones.

It started with the Egyptians...

Figures left lying around, painted but unbased...

Where are all the chariots? To be told many have now been transferred to provide support for a future Philistine army. And the cavalry couldn't even be bothered to turn up.

Look at those bases - unpainted, not textured.

Pharaoh is not very happy!

Then a bunch of cavalry turned up late and not even painted yet.

Then the Macedonians started. Sure, the Greek part are finished, but what about their Asian brethren, the Pantodapai? Half painted, unbased, poor things milling about all confused.

'Look at me' their commander moaned. 'No shield blazon even. What am I supposed to be? Even the paint I have got is getting chipped.'

I admit, I can see their point. Poor things, last couple of years have been very traumatic for them.

I'm really going to have to do something with them.

Perhaps later.

Friday 22 April 2016

Minifigs Gallic Army

The Minifigs component of my Gallic army isn't big enough by itself to act as a full sized army, though eventually will be joined by the larger Garrison component. Meanwhile, it's big enough to provide a range of DBA armies or act as mercenaries for Carthaginians or Successors.

Most of the infantry are as originally bought. The chariots and cavalry were painted by me - the links cover all the close ups and tie up the series.




Wednesday 20 April 2016

Macedonian update

Armand put the Carthaginian army link on TMP and I mentioned the Macedonians, so thought it might be an idea to post this about them.

Still a long way to go, so this is just an update/work in progress. There are quite a few phalangites available for me to work on. Next ones to base will probably be more light infantry and cavalry (such as the Thracians) -  there are enough Alexandrian phalangites here for now, might leave the Successor phalangites a bit - they will need some work on the cavalry.

Later on I'll see if I can put together my own Macedonians/Successors  - quite a few of them but in a very disorganised state - old Minifigs, my own Garrison Conversions, Minifigs and Hinchliffe .


Tuesday 19 April 2016

Carthage - the whole army

Well, apart from the Garrison figures. I intend to use them as Phoenicians in my Persian army.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures - the lighting around my wargames table isn't really up photography standard! I haven't included any close up shots as they are already covered in the blogs on the individual contingents.

I've included a Gallic contingent from my Gallic army as Gallic mercenaries were an important component of many later armies.

I think the first photo shows up the lighting problems quite well.

Down the army from the right flank. The first line consists of light infantry, second line cavalry, third line is the 'battle' line of close order infantry and Carthaginian/African cavalry whilst the elephants bring up the rear. It would have been nice to have laid everything out 2 deep with cavalry on the flanks but space limitations got in the way.


Troops in the cavalry line are Numidians, then Spanish, finally Gauls. The close order line starts with Liby/Phoenician cavalry, then Citizen cavalry, Libyan spears, Spanish then finally Gauls.

This photo shows the Spanish and Gallic components. For the Gauls, I didn't bother about an accurate infantry count, I simply used enough to fill that space  whilst looking like a substantial force. The current Minifigs Gallic army has also been photographed and I'll put those out later.

Friday 15 April 2016

Carthage - the Numidians

Again, the cavalry have already appeared, and realistically there's not many infantry, so this is a posting more for the sake of completion and keeping the components together.


 The cavalry needed new javelins and I also repainted the shields as cowhide.

 The infantry, on the other  hand, are in their original state. I keep thinking about repainting the shields. It would be an easy job, perhaps someday.


The Gauls have already been covered, likewise the Garrison Carthaginian infantry. And that pretty much covers Carthage. At the moment I've started basing a load of Macedonian phalangites as well as painting and basing a load of Indians.

Slowly getting there!

Thursday 14 April 2016

Carthage - the Spanish

Apart from basing and a new coat of gloss varnish very few of the Spaniards needed any extra work - really, it was just a case of giving the round shield cavalry new spears.

I'm a great believer in the thought that, for wargames figures, the most important visual aspect are decent shields. The Spanish figures have excellent shields.


The scutari have been put into 24 figure units though I  actually have 30 of each - the 'spares' may find a use later.




This unit is a later PB version than the other two. I think the officer is a Byzantine.


The cavalry have been posted in the earlier 'Sorting Carthage' blog but are here to make it complete. Also, I like the figures.




Nothing to say about the caetrati - they're well painted light infantry.


Never sure whether I should include Balearic slingers with the Spanish, but there isn't anywhere else to sensibly put them so...


I'll admit I really like this contingent.

Wednesday 13 April 2016

Carthage - Libyan spearmen

This component of the Carthaginian army looked a bit tired - the shields had been varnished and had yellowed badly over the years. The ostrich plumes were also a bit strange. As a result, I've repainted the shields and given them plain black feathers. The figures are early PB, though the standard bearer (red crested helmet guy) is 'S' Range.



Monday 11 April 2016

Carthaginian Elephants

There's nothing more impressive on the Ancients wargames table than a large corps of elephants. So this lot should be quite impressive.

I've resisted the temptation to do anything other than base these. I'm not sure how the howdahs are managing to stay on the elephants...

The elephants themselves are a bit strange - seem to be 'S' Range elephants and mahouts, but the howdahs have been replaced by Garrison ones and the crew are Minifigs PB Range.