A couple of Ellies

 These were originally cast to join my Atlantean army using Minifigs S Range crews. However, only one got finished and after a bit of time the crews were given other duties...

So I've decided to recrew them with their original Garrison crews and use them - somewhere...

Went for a plain and simple wargames unit rather than anything fancy.

Did make an attempt at painting the eyes on one of the pikemen... decided not up to it any more...

Meanwhile, working through another full size G3 unit and have cast up enough figures for one each of G3 and late hoplite (becoming a priority: start going through 'mass' produced conversions and start assigning codes to them!)

More Successor cataphracts.

 Mounted on super heavy cavalry bases as 4Kn. I'm still in a bit of a painting desert so I'm scratching around looking for a few odd items to just - well, paint quickly.

I wanted this to be a 4 element 16 figure unit - at the moment I can only fing 12 of the horse Iwant to use so it's stuck as a 3 element unit - know I've got extra horses somewhere (I think), just wanted to quickly get going again so the extras were sacrificed.

Simple dry-brushing paint scheme - it looks effective, dark and menacing.

The green on the horse armour is just reflections! This is one of the simplest and quickest units I've painted for a long time.

 

Slings without the arrows

Already mentioned that I've got a lot of Garrison light infantry, also got quite a few Minifigs! 

32 figures of uncertain origin - I think 12 are exHarry, 20 from  Ebay. Quite a few light infantry figures have been acquired as part of an order including figures I actually wanted.

However, they are of a muchness so quite happy to just use them as required. Must find the other 12 ex Harry...

The Hypaspists

 Other things seem to have taken over recently so not getting as much sorting/basing done at the moment.

My own 70's army had a unit of Hypaspists in it but they seem to be scattered all over the place. Meanwhile there were three units I got from Harry to rebase.

Three lots of 24 adds up to a reasonable force.

Red is the colour I always use when I'm painting hypaspists or similar, so this is the unit I would use in a battle if I only had to choose one.

The shield patterns are quite simple - I did think about redoing them but decided against.

Must admit I like the blue tunics on these.

Carry on (follow that camel?)

 As in, Minifigs PB range camels...

Ex-Harry - suspect he painted them, they have that look, but not certain

16 Arab camels looks a bit of overkill to me... Well, unless I decide to do a Midianite army or something.

They look good - they're very well painted.

My own 70's army used Hinchliffe - to be honest, think I prefer these.

Successor cataphracts

I've started sorting the Successor cavalry - still working on them plus might be doing a bit of extra painting, basing and finding.

This lot come under the 'finding' heading. The various Minifigs Macedonians are all over the place - though frankly I should have 'found' these by now.

An ex-Harry unit, originally with very long Kontos that sort of bent like pretzels all over the place. I cut the Kontos down, hammered the ends and filed to a spear point and repainted the shafts flat earth rather than the original white. This is one one of the very few of Harry's units I feel I've improved. Technically, kontos is now a bit short but it's a lot more practical.

A figure comparison. In front, cataphract. Next, late PB model Minifigs with wire Kontos, cut down fronm It's original length. Finally, 'standard' early PB Macedonian cavalry - 'kontos' really a bit short, but they look a lot better than figures with the long version!

More later PB figures - these cataphracts I haven't cut down the kontos as it would be difficult to do it and leave it looking good.

The current batch of  heavy cavalry. Various PB figures from the 70's to the 90's.

And the current batch of cataphracts - the ones in the middle with full horse armour aren't technically Macedonian but I've never considered the differences between different super heavy cavalry figures to be worth worrying about - these can be used as anytning from Seleucid to Sassanid and Byzantine. There should be a couple more unpainted units somewhere to be used as either EHC or SHC.

So the heavy cavalry are looking better - thing is, if I do both sides of a Seleucd/Ptolemaic battle I 'might' need to sort out more. Might even use one or two of the javelin/shield armed units.

What next?

 All the Garrison Greeks and Persians are back in their box, so what next?

One possibility would be a Successor battle... so sorting out my Minifigs.

Rebased a few cavalry already. Can't remember where from, general ebay or Harry. Think probably ebay.

 

Sprayed a few others that were previouly just matt. Early separate weapons type of cavalry - still slim line - but on 'S' Range horses - painted by me, I assume early 90's?

Some others might need a bit more work - these are ex-Harry  but the long Kontos are very bendy - I've cut them down to match the length of the other heavy cavalry in the hope they'll be more manageable! Thinking about doing the same with those heavy cavalry in the previous picture.

A Seleucid/Antigonidish dust up.

Just liked the idea of using elephants and chariots so threw together nominal Seleucidish and Antigonidish armies - didn't bother about 'accurate' armies or balanced sides. For the table I just cleared a 4' frontage. As usual, rules were generally modifies DBA, to a degree the added ranks were more for show - pikes got a +1 for extra ranks but that's it. I gave 4Kn an extra factor, the Syrian 1 shot wonders a -1 plus needing 4/5/6 to stand if charged. I also used my usual tree system to mark which move I was on. A lot of the figures I used were from my original 70s armies - just wanted to give them a game - though with quite a few more recent additions.

Obvious tactics as each right flank tries to advance and left flank holds backs - more obvious with Antigonids at the bottom.

Move 2 the Antigonid and Seleucid centres are close.

Still a way to go on the other flank.

Initial contact one of the Seleucid chariots died...

But it's move 3 when things happen...

With contact right across the front.

The left flank Seleucid peltasts and Syrian archers die.

Some bouncing of Seleucids in the centre.

While the Seleucid right takes out the Thracians and light javelins. Crucially, the elephant is just pushed back so the flank just holds.

As can be seen here, that elephant is doing it's job - it's an effective block to the Seleucid right, while on the Seleucid left the Antigonids now have a free passage.

And on move 4 the Seleucid phalanx and elephant are in serious trouble while the Antigonid cavalry are coming around the back of the Seleucid army.

Two lots of light infantry from my mid 70s army - and the Antigonid Cretan archers lose to the Seleucid light javelins - only bright spot on the Seleucid left.

At this point the Seleucid centre and left are gone though the Seleucid right is still intact. At this point, seems reasonable to end things as an Antigonid victory.

 

Garrison EHC Cataphracts

For the last week there's been the start of a draft post for my latest DBA game... which  is set up but hasn't happened yet. Mainly because the wargames shed is currently showing a temperature of 96 degrees and hasn't dropped below 90 in that time...

But I'm still doing other things - mainly painting 'orphan' units again. This time it's getting a unit of Companion EHC sorted.

Simply my Sarmation cataphract conversion - bowcase removed and given sidearm - mounted on the Achaemenid Persian half armoured cataphract horse.

Not about to try and say it's a realistic representation of early Successor uparmoured Companions, but it will do.

Already have a couple of units of fully armoured cataphracts of course - that do as Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanid, Late Roman...

Adding a shed temperature update - 104... but then, our outside thermometer is reading 110!

One shot wonders

Back in my wargames heyday one of the 'gimmic' armies were the Seleucids. If you look at the 1977 WRG Army Lists, Seleucid armies could field Asiatic archers, 'Irregular D' MI bow@1 point - 20 to 75. The same army list  Late Achaemenid Persian army could field Subject race archers 'Irregular D' LMI bow @ 1point - up to 50. Which meant you couldn't use the same unit in both armies - very unfair. Anyway, as Irregular units could be up to 50 strong, and as command points were 25 per unit, lots of armies had a 50 strong unit of cheap archers that would basically fire once but run away if challenged. They had their uses.

In the early days my levies were based on the S Range Mede archer - 50 of them, of course. However, I soon followed the trend, got rid of most of my S Range figures :( - a couple of hundred of the things overall - and replaced the levy with what was now becoming the 'standard' - PB24, Syrian Archer. I only bought 30 of them though and used them as MI in my Seleucid army - the Achaemenid force I fielded was early.

There must be thousands of these things out there and in recent years I've been quietly acquiring them - usually as part of other purchases. It then became possible to start thinking about the whole levy situation again - though of course I have done this at times in the past, for example.

So I've been putting all the 'near right' figures together, mainly painting hats, bows and quivers so they more or less look compatible, and put it together.

I'm ignoring the MI option, LMI/Irreg Bw are already complete. This leaves LI and Hordes. LI in a couple of lists are an option instead of LMI. I had already acquired a dozen; I decided to double this. Meanwhile, Hordes - can have up to 20 elements of these in DBX, 100 figures of which I already had 30/6 bases, so double this up and do another 6 bases - should do for now.

132 figures looks impressive but... WRG in those days would need to be 4 units, 100 points. Figures 1 point each, grand total 232 points - and a WRG army was between 900-1500 points! Cheap, but not very effective.

This shows the clear difference between the later version in front and the slimmer less detailed first version behind.

Stance is another difference - facing directly forward the later version is easier to put on bases compared to the shooting angle of the earlier one.

Meanwhile, still got some that have been stripped/are being stripped, no doubt I'll get more... at some stage may even get round to the MI option!

Being silly - phalangites.

Just that - being silly. Normally phalangites would be spread over several armies but couldn't resist this. This lot are totally unsorted and 'unprocessed'. So it's a mix of bases, lots of figures with no sarissa, lots 'missing' on the grounds I've just collected together the 'main' boxes...

Numbers. Harry originally sold me 250, but he had 400. When they arrived he'd sent... 400. Not all are here though. Add the 150 or so Garrison conversions I was building up - another 50 strong unit had been prepped ready for painting, cancelled when Harry's figures arrived. Then the original Macedonians and Seleucids from my 70's army.

OK, what's actually here? Lot's missing, the troops mustered have a 35 base frontage. 4 to a base, most units 4 deep, others deeper. Total about 600 phalangites (my total force is about 750-800). Total length 84"/7'.

These pictures aren't really good - but they look spectacular on the ground.

Some Minifigs Alexandrian phalangites with thinner pikes next to the start of my converted Garrison units.

The 3 units of Garrison conversions - left flank are Asiatics with trousers painted on, middle standard phalangites, right flank 'elites' - G16 Boetian pike with a longer pike!

Mainly Minifigs Successor phalangites. The unit with the bronze shield are Garrison conversions credited by Harry to Ray McGarry

 

Continuing the Harry component.

The 2 right hand units are from my original 70's army - the Alexandrian phalangites are from a 48 strong very early PB unit with the telegraph pole pikes, about 1972/3, Trivia re the extreme right Hinchliffe unit - mid 70's entered them as part of an army in the Ancients section painting competition at the National Wargames Championships and it won.  Wouln't win today and besides unkind people could point out that it was the only entry...