Kegworth Codgers - the Battle Reports

 This year's Kegworth Codgers event was themed for the years in which Kegworth Church was (broadly speaking) built, namely 1200-1299, with a mix of Christian and non-Christian armies who would have clashed in Europe and the Middle East being permitted.

With mostly "Christian" armies entered, I opted to balance the books a little with a Berber army, also fitting in 2 Almughavars which were newly painted.

This meant I ended up with a list who's key attributes were a solid core of spearmen, with a more punchy Almughavars + Javelinmen block to take on terrain and elephants (of which it turned out there were none), a wing command with Medium Cavalry Javelin Elite and some supporting foot, and a third command of 3 Impetuous Medium Knights in reserve to find a suitable gap to aim for and punch through - in theory! 

So, with a trip up the M1 achieved, and a decent few pints on the Monday evening before this midweek extravaganza began, The 2025 Kegworth Codgers Competition was soon playing host to the Berbers.

The reports from all 5 games are now available in video format, either on YouTube or on this website.  

Byzantine Cavalry - the never ending army!

 I now seem to be almost there with collecting countless legions of Byzantine Cavalry to allow me to make up almost all of the Byzantine lists in ADLG - this time it's some "kite shielded" very late ones which I think of as being Nikephorian types, but which Forged in Battle seem to have decided are Thematics. 

The product code on their website for these chaps is a bit of a mix of WE-BT03 Middle Byzantine (Thematic) - Kavallarioi EHC bow which provides the archers and horses, and some lance-armed riders from the pack of WE-BT02 Middle Byzantine (Thematic) - Kavallarioi EHC (which look to be exactly the same riders as those in WE-BT04).

Mixing the two packs gives me cavalry units with both bows and lances, which matches their capabilities in the ADLG army lists.  

 Kite shields began appearing in Byzantine art and military texts around the mid-10th to mid-12th centuries, placing them very much in the Nikephorian period, and its those which give these chaps their distinctive look.

These are again using the LBMS shield transfers from Forged in Battle, which have also appeared on some of the Skoutatoi I painted up some time ago. 

Everything here is done with a white base coat, using GW Contrast paints for the brown and black horses, and Army Painter Speedpaint Holy White for the greys as well as a "2nd undercoat" for the one white horse too. 

I may use these as "medium" cavalry, and so I used Army Painter Hardened Leather Speedpaint on the shoulder and body armour that looks like it could be designed to be leather, although there is still quite  a lot of gunmetal - in this case Enchanted Steel Army Painter Speedpaint, which I am becoming a bit of a convert to as it doesn't need a base coat of black to work (unlike my more traditional drybrushed gunmetal approach).

The cavalrymen have base-specific colours on their tunics - this allows me in theory to mix them up across different commands and tell them apart, without being too intrusive or jarring. 

I am still somewhat puzzled by this shield transfer - it looks like it's missing a shield boss or something, but it is a specific transfer for this range and the shields don't have bosses, so perhaps its just a design that I don't quite understand!

The Army Painter Speedpaint Hardened Leather really pings when seen from the back - I also used it for the horses straps and reins, as it self-blacklines really effectively for minimal effort. 

 

Numidian "Imitation Legionaries"

I've been accidentally collecting a Numidian army for many years now, with the most recent addition being some 3D printed cavalry who entered the collection earlier this year. 

With a possible opportunity to use the army in a competition at Warfare 2025, I recently decided that I really did need to add some "imitation legionaries" to the mix to make the army a little more viable - and with Forged in Battle being easy to buy in quantity, and compatible with the rest of my FiB infantry in the army it was their Numidian heavy infantry who got bought. 

These troops were recruited and fielded in the later Punic Wars period, when the Numidians began to adopt Roman military formations and equipment, such as a pilum and shield, and even trained under Roman instructors - or sons of Gladiators if you believe the 2nd installment of Ridley Scott's opus! 

Either way, troops who were trained to fight in a more resilient close-combat style that imitated Roman tactics and capabilities sounded like a good complement to the Numidians' traditional light cavalry and skirmishing types, and here they all are: 

Buying two packs of infantry and basing many of them 7 to a base allowed me to eke out 7 units from the nominally 2x24 FiB blisters, due to the presence of a couple of extra figures. 

As they are not-quite Romans, I wanted to paint them in a non-Roman (ie "not red") palette, so I went with a white undercoat, with Yanden Yellow GW Contrast as the main colour for their tunics. 

The straps were left white, and then done with Army Painter Leather Speedpaint, which I find gives an interesting colour texture, but more importantly pretty much self-blacklines (or "brown-lines"?) on these deeply sculpted FiB figures. 

  

The 2 blisters had a set each of trumpeter, officer and standard bearer, which you can see at the front of this block of all 7 units. 

For shields I wanted to be a bit Roman, but still retain a tribal feel that would match my existing Numidian skirmisher types, all of whom have brown hide-like shields. The compromise I settled on was to paint the shields in a dusty brown (a bit of a mix of various browns) and then add either "tribal" patterns or a knock-off "Roman-style" laurel wreath in a random selection, suggesting that whilst these were still tribal warriors, some of them had made at least a passing effort to impersonate the "Romans " their commanders aspired them to become.

 

The laurel wreath is pretty effective IMO, and even better, remarkably easy to do as its a series of green blobs and half-moons, each half-moon then having a second layer in a lighter shade of green added on top for contrast. 

The Yanden Yellow works really well on these figures too, almost uniform but also very "in the desert" 

 

Here's an officer unit close up - showing how I failed to clean off the static grass before photographing them! 

There are more Numidian figures on this blog / website you can see here:

• Numidan Light Horse in 15mm 
• 28mm Infantry 
• 28mm cavalry
• 15mm Numidian Infantry - Traditional Skirmishers
• More 15mm Infantry
• Numidians in the Photo Gallery

28mm Scythed Beastie!

 "Would you prefer your Scythed Chariot to be a little less noticable Sir? "

"No thanks. It's a bit rubbish in practice, but it does still really scare the sh-t out of my enemies - so I absolutely don't want them to fail to spot it on the battlefield.. "

Yes, that nonsensical, frequently damp-squid-like tabletop staple the Scythed Chariot gets added to my 28mm Hellenistic Successor armies in the shape of a Newline Designs bargain priced Scythed Chariot model.

It's absolutely insane to think that this is being sold for just £10.50, especially when you consider that a Xyston 15mm model of a Scythed Chariot is currently going for £7.50, with the 15mm Essex version at £7.95 !

As you can see here, I accidentally made the cab with the floor upside down (I think...?) so the driver is standing a bit lower than he should be. 

A least it might keep him safer for a little longer than normal...

Here it is in its traditonal role, running down some Foundry Republican Roman Legionaries.  

 Bosh!