Showing posts with label 15mm ancients. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 15mm ancients. Show all posts

17 Dec 2017

The Ancient British Panzer Division - in ADLG

That well-known Barkeresque wargaming trope, the Ancient British Panzer Division, gets a surprise but strangely welcome outing in these three L'Art de la Guerre competition reports all taken from the recent Central London Invitational 1-day event.


This is your chance to thrill to the rumble of 32 separate wheels as the 15mm British Catuvellauni tribesmen race across the tabletop towards the Carthaginians and the Seleukids, before rounding off by taking part in a Very British Civil War against a more pedestrian flavour of Ancient British.


The reports are now laid out in a new wider-screen format with bigger pictures, but the same hapless captions and post match-mishmash of commentary and analysis from Cassivellaunus himself as well as Hannibal. The three opposing army lists are also referenced and included.


Trust me - these reports are wheely, wheely good !




5 Nov 2017

The Chimu - 15mm Lurkio figures

You know how it goes, you have lots of stuff on the painting table, some of which you might need fairly soon... but that long-neglected project somehow insinuates itself into your mind and forces it's way to the front even thought it's of no use whatsoever?

Well, in the last week or so, that project for me has been painting a DBA v3 Chimu Imperial Army 1350-1480AD from Lurkio, that I won in a competition more than a year ago.

I don't really play DBA all that often, I have no intention of expanding the army to a full ADLG one, but these guys had been waiting to be painted and, well, one day I just got the bug...




See the full army here.

1 Oct 2017

Alexanders Companions Go Tilting at Windmills

After an unfeasibly long delay, the 6-game "Worlds 2017" set of L'Art de le Guerre match reports are now released into the wild in all their multi-faceted glory!


Set in the sun-drenched uplands of Salamanca in Western Spain, the biggest event in the world draws out Hannibal's only true rival, Alexander The Greats own army to take on opponents from across the swathe of time, from their own back garden in the form of the Classical Indians all the way to the Middle Ages and the Ordonnance French.


Thrill as Alexander himself narrates in these 6 match reports, stuffed full of videos, inappropriate accents, suggestive double-entendres and all manner of painted lead as it refuses to melt in the Spanish heat, and Gasp as Hannibal skillfully and not at all politely deconstructs it all after each game.

And, in a special ADLG bonus, Even The Man, The Legend, The Hero - El Kreator Herve Caille gets a look-in as Alexander's Phalanx clashes with the authors own concoction of an army in Game 4!

It's a widescreen epic - read all about it here!

27 Jul 2017

What an Atmosphere! The Rus get in some ADLG action

Hot on the heels of The BHGS Challenge comes Dogs of War, in the excellent Bristol Independent Gaming Centre.

This was a Dark Ages & Early Medieval themed L'Art de la Guerre event, and in keeping with my efforts to try and get as many of my long-forgotten armies on table as possible under ADLG I had elected to wheel out the Rus - with a Viking ally.


The "Wall of Spears" was a new thing for me to try in L'Art de la Guerre competition gaming, so the big question was whether that was because everyone else had missed the tactical potential of such an army, or because it was a bit pants and I hadn't worked that out yet.


See how the men from the Ukraine did in these 5 rather linear battle reports!

4 Jul 2017

Massive Heeds, Sausages and Tie Fighters - ADLG from the NEC.

With this year's BHGS Challenge taking place in the galaxy-sized open spaces of Birmingham's NEC expo centre, the first army to be dropped to the planetary surface was also a brand new to the table outfit - the much-trailed Sassanid Persians.


Resplendent in their new livery, the "Sausages", as they have been affectionately known to generations of wargamers were certainly Feeling the Force as they deployed an army built around a massive Death Star, surrounded by horsemen with Massive Heeds (or those 'lightbulb' hats to be more precise).

To find out what happened, the best bet is to see if your local protocol droid will help you translate each of these 5 match reports into something sensible.

You can also listen to a podcast at the end of Battle Report # 4 to help you learn how to build a good Sassanid list in ADLG - which is much easier than having to ask a couple of favours from some guys who look just like Tuskan Raiders...

May the Sausages Be With You..!

11 Jun 2017

15mm Indian allied contingent for ADLG

Having flirted with the idea of actually using my Classical Era Greek Successor States armies on many occasions, and now discovering that the Indians (in their Kushan incarnation) also work well with the Sassanids I decided to refurbish a Classical Indian allied contingent.

These are troops who had been languishing in a drawer for many years, so they were delighted to be brought out into the light and converted into L'Art de la Guerre DBE double based elements to make up an allied contingent with essentially all of the useful options.



You can see the finished collection here

27 May 2017

The Sassanids are almost here..!

A Bank holiday weekend and a mixed forecast meant I accelerated the basing and finishing of the Sassanid ADLG army in order to take advantage of the warm dry weather for dullcote-ing the troops.

Normally I like to add the static grass before matt varnishing, but in this case the weather was just too good to miss, so here are the "before" and "after" dullcote shots for your delectation.


 The whole lot...


Essex Ghaznavid infantry stand in - as I am sure they do for many wargamers - as Dailami infantry. I have added a couple of random arab-looking archers to the 40x40 base so they can have integral support (a nice-to-have in ADLG if you have spare points).


 The Legio Heroica infantry command with Irregular mounted command. The shield ended up a bit 'FC Barcelona', but that's still pretty cool, right?


 The Donnington elephants tower over the rest of the men


Very simple sun-themed banners. No LBMS transfers for me today, more's the pity!


I have used some new colour palettes for these troops, in particular Vallejo ESMERALDA (071) and MAGENTA (042) together with Army Painter Hydra Turquoise. I've never used such vibrant colours before but for this army they do sort of work.


I went with different schemes on all of the Clibanarii - they are nobles after all.


The still-shiny levy spear in serried ranks...


I might go back later and add more design to the Generals horse barding.


Banners and pennants are another thing I'm still considering...probably out of metal foil.


Each of the three elephants has a consistent colour scheme


Two types of LH from 2 manufacturers - Legio Heroica and Irregular. The Irregular ones can be javelin or bow armed as they have both.


Plenty of blue Lightbulb hats on display


This is the whole thing - add in a couple of Cataphracts from another army and maybe some slingers and I'm good to go  


Being able to do the photography in full sunlight is a nice bonus


The static grass and some drybrushing of the bases is all that is left...

24 May 2017

The Sassanids are coming...slowly..

With the 28mm Goths mostly out of the way now (apart from two dozen cavalry...oops!) these 15mm Sassanid Persians have made it to the top of the pile again after a bit of a hiatus.

The 9 bases of Clibanarii are now all painted and varnished, just needing to be based and the elephants are on their way too.


Most Legio Heroica figures.


The Levy spearmen/horde/mob are going to be in 3 ranks so they can appear either as Mediocre Spear or as a Mob. Donnington elephants in the background - Irregular Levy.


After some dithering I based the Generals on 40mm round bases - they won't be used for other armies and it's a cool look. Not sure I'd be keen enough to rebase any others but for new stuff it makes a nice change. These are Irregular mounted and Legio Heroica foot


The Clibanarii have a bit of a blue/purple theme going on


4 elements of LH and 3 of LH bowmen round out the army - I have the cataphracts already

21 May 2017

Copplestone Barbarians sneak into the battle line...

Having acquired a pack of Copplestone Barbarian Heroes earlier this year in a complex shipping and exchange rate transaction involving a man known by many as the scourge of TMP, and which, fortunately, has yet to be drawn into the "Car Wash" scandal engulfing much of Brazil, I have finally gotten round to painting the figures and sneaking them into various 'proper' barbarian battle lines.


Here are the guys - proper 18mm Heroic 15mm scale, on the painting table


Three of them now form part of the front line of my enough for an ADLG army's worth of double-based DBx units of generic Barbarian Gauls and Germans


Two more are faster moving, even with such huge swords, and fight alongside the loose formation Gauls and Britons, again already DBE'ed for ADLG


Were you ever to wish for a mid 80's German Hair Metal band in 15mm, these figures might also make good starting points for a conversion ...  


Two more now fight alongside the Vikings and Rus, as legendary "Northmen" - my theory being that what we recreate on the tabletop is as much based on first hand reports turned into the stuff of legend by retelling over the years - and we're also recreating cool films too - so why not!


And the one axeman in the pack is suitably mad, appearing with some Two Dragons Beserkers


Isn't that a Massive Chopper?


Ready to create legends...  Follow the painting progress of the main batch which these were siphoned from here on the Lead Doesn't Bleed blog

5 May 2017

With a spare 28mm figure or two....

.. from my Gripping Beast Plastic Late Romans still lying around, I decided it was a good time to add a 25mm "Heroic" Commander to my Late Roman 15mm armies... and here's the evidence.


This is the in-box Gripping Beast plastic commander figure, together with a standard bearer on a 40mm round base to act as an L'Art de la Guerre General


The standard bearer looks especially glum today for some reason...


He is clearly somewhat lacking the exuberance of his boss.. but he does have an LBMS transfer for his flag, so it's not all bad.


Usual Army Painter technique with matt varnish to finish and a very light pale drybrush.


Here they are with some Later Roman/Byzantine infantry from Strategia et Tactica


Leading from the back in textbook style


Or from the front, making the standard bearer even more unhappy... and showing off the LBMS transfer on his bosses shield as well.

(unusually, these pictures are all clickable and give you a much bigger version)
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