1,000 hoplites Review

 Having cleared away Newhaven and having all those hoplites I've painted this year lying around I thought: let's have a Garrison Hoplite Review...

 I originally planned to leave spaces between the units but couldn't get them all the picture.

There are slightly more than 1,000 of them, but who's counting?

With the exception of some of the Spartans and Thebans the front 6 ranks are all G3, next 6 ranks the cavalry conversion. Back ranks are various other Garrison hoplites - I haven't used any of my Minifigs hoplites in this Review, they are all Garrison.

The original set up didn't include my Asiatic Greek hoplites but left me a bit under 100 figures short for the full 1,000... so I thought 'why not?'

OK, so that would suit one target - I can field 1,000 Garrison hoplites; what next? Probably 500 each of G3 and cavalry conversion (must give it a code!)... so that would leave me another 400 figures or so to paint. Perhaps that would make a good 2021 target? Can't see me managing it though!

Music to paint by

 In my youth I had a decent classical music collection on LPs. Still have them but don't play them because they haven't been downloaded on my PC...

Anyway, looking through ebay as I do (and picked up a couple of The Tiny albumns cheap in the process!) I idly started looking at classical music cds and realised something.

If you bought a decent second hand collection it would be cheap.

So I started looking...

 

40 cds for less than £1 each - and a good basis for a collection. I just have to sort out and rip the ones I want!

Some opera here, but no Wagner - want the Ring Cycle - and no Also Sprach Zarathustra - but pretty much everything else I want is there!

The Horse Regiment and other hoplites

Continuing with the 'big' units, this early hoplite regiment took twice as long to paint as the Late unit because of all that armour.

Basically scale armour and a white horse head on red background shield blazon.

It's a while since I've painted armour as scale - I used silver paint instead of steel because it shows up better.

I think the best I can say about the horse head blazons is that quality of the artwork is 'variable'!

Not exactly a Review, but having painted two full size (48-52 figure) units since the last Review, plus increasing the size of another from 24 to 48 figures, it seemed like a good time to put them together for a photoshoot.

Realistically the side view looks better. Note that there is another G3 unit in use as Carians so not here.

Shouldn't miss out the late hoplites - likewise, 2 48 strong units completed this year. Probably best to look at the box on the right as National/City contingents, the left box Mercenary regiments. Roughly 300 figures

 

So between the two blocks a bit under 600 hoplites.

A disturbance in the aether - Endgame

 

Perhaps it was the weather turning cold. Perhaps it was the rift closing. Whatever, the strange flora started to yellow and die.

 

As the vegetaion died the animal numbers went down. It was a gradual retreat, the University area holding out for a while.

Soon large areas were clear, the remains of the ethereal plants and animals seeming to just disappear leaving few signs other than devastation.

People started to creep back, always ready to retreat if it proved necessary.

 

But only finding stained but empty streets.

From the tenements

 

To the University

 

And the town was finally clear. The Terror was over, clearing up could begin.

 Two things on this game. Firstly, hadn't noticed the damage to the church until I was looking at these pictures - but then, that just added to the feeling of destruction so... As did another thing. Those stains -  I used lichen as foliage, the shed must be dampish and the lichen absorbed water. It became quite slimy in feel and left authentic looking damp patches behind!

A disturbance in the aether - Inside the rift zone

The extent of the rift finally stabilised. Inside, more creatures appeared as a whole new world started to develop... 

Not a pleasant place - more jellies appeared to prey on the other species.

As did the plant form.

Sometimes the ethereals won and ate their prey.

But these creatures had evolved with the ethereals. Sometimes the ethereals lost and collapsed to slime.

But winning one battle wasn't always enough.

While outside the zone the authorities could just watch and wait...

A disturbance in the aether - The Terror continues.

 

It seems that the hungry looking plants could move...

 

And all the time the unworldy music plays as the plants draw their prey towards them.

Some of the plants are delayed by obstacles.

But not for long!

The hypnotic music continues to draw the humans to their doom.

As more of the plants head towards the boundary.

Once the plants have taken their victims the spell drops - the crew of the USS Newhaven decide it's best to get to a safe distance!

However they leave a present or two - firing the deck gun blows one of the plants apart!

Time to discuss the issues involved.

And the plants crowd the boundary, seemingly unwilling to pass the heat barrier into the colder air of Newhaven.

A disturbance in the aether - The Terror begins.

 As night fell over the dark tenements of blighted Newhaven the remaining inhabitants took to their beds, fearful of what new terrors the dawn would bring. This time they would not be disappointed. Of course, at the time it was not called 'The Terrror'. That name would come later...

With the affected area evacuated an eery dread fell over the town as the air was filled with the low piping of strange, unearthly music.

The police put up road blocks to stop people entering.

The crew of the patrol ship USS Newhaven provided sailors to monitor the river side of the town.

Then, virtually overnight, strange plants sprouted and grew as the temperature started to rise...

Where the aetherial jelly creatures had sunk plants grew, eldrich things the hearts of which showed the same shifting colours as the jelly creatures' canopies.

And the jungle grew, trees of vaguely tropical form growing to full size in days as the thermometer continued it's relentless rise...

Even in paved areas the jungle grew as thick red creepers climbed the buildings.

Even on the roof tops the relentless plant growth continued.

And the area covered was slowly growing...

Newhaven, February 2021

 This post is mainly to let me see where everything should be in the future! Photos on my previous setup weren't as clear as I would have liked. I haven't put these in any set order - just did a load of photos, uploaded them then put captions on. So they tend to jump around a bit.

I should probably have posted this before 'A disturbance in the Aether', but then that wouldn't have had the same effect.

General view down Church Street. This photo shows the 'extension'  that I managed due to having a bigger table. The tenements have been 'borrowed' from elsewhere.

A view from the other end showing the warehouse area at the bottom of the picture.

Another general view showing the relative positions of the two churchs on Church Street.

A general view from the other side of the town where it sort of peters out. Brewery next to the police station. It's only when I looked at the photos I realised that the roof is lifting a bit on the brewery! The brewery itself should be opposite the warehouse with tenements between the University and the brewery. With a bit of tidying up I should be able to extend this end a bit more! I have a few buildings lying around that need making up.

A view of St Catherine's Church next to the graveyard with the tenements and other church in the background. St Catherine's gets it's name because when we go to Salute the hotel we use is next to St Catherine's Dock on the Thames - so makes sense to call this area St Catherines!

Pretty much a random view... 'new' tenements, St Catherine's behind and river on the left.

New tenements with 'new' church in background.

View of the park with the University in the background.

View of the diner, then police station, then brewery showing their position in relation to the park and University.

Just a view of the brewery and University.

A view of the main tenement block. Beginning to run out of other things to say!

And a final view down the length of the town.

I have to admit, I had forgotton how impressive Newhaven actually is when set out!