Romano-British Archers - part deux

I managed to finish these chaps off over the weekend and this evening...

They are the last of the Gripping Beast Arthurian archers I picked up at Salute last year. My post-Roman force is now quite respectable but just needs a few more adding to it to round it off.

I have a pile of heavy armoured chaps to paint and will most likely grab a few extras like a personality leader or two, a sorceror an dmaybe some slingers if GB do them (I will need to check their catalogue).

These Romano-Brit figures have actually seen the most action out of all the ones I have painted up since starting this blog. They have been played in two Brytenwalda face offs with Alex, and four SoBH match ups against Dunc. I sure hope they will see the light of day more often this year, along with more of my armies.

Next up should be a few barbarian archers for my HotT Barbarian army. I also have those Chronicle Hobgoblins to undercoat (bases have been stuck on) and a big stack of Norman cavalry. Hmm, maybe a match up between the hobgoblins and Dunc's Anglo-Saxons might go down well.

Romano-British Archers and Games Workshop

We had a family trip to the Bluewater shopping centre this afternoon. Not my idea of a cup of tea but at least there is a Games Workshop to lose myself in whilst the Mrs does some girly stuff. I popped in in the hope of seeing the new Lord of the Rings releases. Unfortunately they didn't have any in to show me, but I picked up a White Dwarf, some paints and brushes, and some movement trays for my LotR Rohan force whilst there anyway. Now, I won't be using those movement trays for War of the Ring (I don't have the rules and doubt I will pick them up after seeing them in action a year or two back) but to put my Rohan forces in so they don't slide around so much in their storage trays. Also, I rarely buy White Dwarf these days (once a year maybe?), but as it seemed to have a wee bit of LotR content I decided to take the plunge. There is quite a bit of new stuff coming out for LotR next month, so I for one am glad they are now devoting some time and effort to what I think is by far their best mainstream game. Apparently they are going to be filling in quite a few gaps from Legions of Middle Earth - about time we all say!


Also, as I hadn't quite finished the Gripping Beast archers I bought last year when I went into action yesterday, I completed their bases today upon my return from Bluewater. Half-a-dozen have now been completed, but there are 2 more still on the paint station. I also have about another 15-20 heavily armoured chaps to round out the army. I will probably just need to buy one or two leader and sorceror types to completely finish what I require. Anyway, here are those six I finished today...

I am hoping to get those Splintered Lands minis finished next weekend, and I have just started work on basing those Chronicle Hobgoblins I dug out a few days back. I also have a HotT stand of barbarian archers that is almost completed too. There is also some work still to be done on that Village of Hommlet map. Hopefully I will get the time to complete quite a few by next post.

Brytenwalda Command

I am on a bit of a late one tonight, so thought I'd post the latest pictures of the minis I was working on a week or so ago. They are of a new building I bought from a company called Conflix and half-a-dozen Brytenwalda command troops from Gripping Beast.

The new building - a Barn. It is more for use with fantasy miniatures I think, but it will double up nicely for late-ish Medieval. This building has a set of double doors at the left end and the single door you can see in the facing wall. I will get round to buying a few more of these when I see them, to make up a small village...

Here's my foot commander - a Pendragon. Figure by Gripping Beast and shield transfer by LBMS.

Here's another leader type - ditto the figure and shield transfer (although it cannot be seen!).

A third leader type. I like this one as he is in the process of drawing his sword, so it is a just before the action figure. So many figures are either in marching or combat poses these days, it is nice to have one in a different type of pose.

A standard bearer type.

A couple of cornicens.

I still have about a dozen or so heavily armoured troops and some archers to paint up to finish my army. These can then hopefully take on Dunc's Saxon invaders in the very near future.

Still to come:
~20 Splintered Lands Druid's Children
8 EIR Command figures
~6 various fantasy figures
9 Nick Lund Kobolds
Then I can get onto those Warriors of Rohan I have been threatening to get onto the paint station.

Some of Alex's Brytenwalda and LotR minis

Here are the rest of Alex's minis that he finished painting last weekend. They are stood in front of a new building I bought at a show a little while back. It is by Conflix, who produce a good range of what I would consider D&D period buildings. I only have the one so far, but I will buy more over time as I really like them.

First up are a couple of Arthurian leaders for his Brytenwalda forces.

Next up is a Games Workshop Gimli from their Lord of the Rings range. He did a really good job on the claok, but like a doughnut I didn't photograph it in all its glory. He did some great shading work on it.

Finally, here is a Games Workshop Legolas from the same range as Gimli above. He used one of the 'official' painting guides for this one. Again, I think he has done a splendid job.

Next up should be a bunch of my minis, but probably not until early next week as I am off to the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany this weekend, leaving the wife and kids behind. This is my annual pilgrimage to savour the flavours of the finest German beer, food and hospitality.

The Seventh Marca

Today I managed to finish the last of the seven Gripping Beast Arthurian cavalrymen I bought a few years back. He wasn't used in our battle this evening, but makes a welcome addition to our forces.

We now have 8 cavalry, 20-odd unarmoured infantry and half a dozen veteran and hero types painted up between us. We still have maybe 20 or so armoured infantry and that pack of 8 archers I bought at Salute to start on. We should have a decent sized Romano-British army when these are completed. We also did a bit of surfing to look for some enemies for them and came across some Pict minis that would go down well. I can't remember the manufacturer, but I am sure we will be able to find them again easily enough.

I was also able to put a bit more paint on the remaining Broo minis, as well as three adventurers, some Dragonewts and my first ever shop-bought figure - a 1976 Ral Partha centaur. He was my first ever Runequest character a few years later.

First Brytenwalda Battle Report

Alex and I decided to try out our first Brytenwalda game this evening. It was only to be a run through to familiarise ourselves with the rules a little. We pulled together the minis needed for the 600 Solidus armies and rolled for Defender and Attacker. We agreed on a 25% Solidus loss level to mark the end of the game.

Alex rolled higher and decided he wanted to be the Attacker. I set up a small 2' by 2' board with each player having a hill to their left flank and a small wood to their right. As Alex was Attacker he could swap two items of scenery and he decided he wanted the hills on his side and the woods on mine.

Here's Alex's army set up from my point of view.

Here's my army set up from Alex's point of view.

Turn 0

As Defender I set up first, with my cavalry on the right flank and the infantry holding the centre. Alex set up exactly the same way. We set up within 10 centimetres of our respective board edges.

Turn 1

I won Initiative so moved my cavalry through the woods towards Alex's infantry. I then moved my infantry directly forward in one large group. Alex basically copied my move, advancing his infantry towards my cavalry to cut them off and his cavalry to attack my infantry.

Turn 2

I won Initiative again, but failed my order roll. Luckily my infantry unit had a hero with them so could re-roll and luckily they passed second time round. So, both units moved forward a little more. Alex did the same. It looked like it would become two infantry versus cavalry battles in this skirmish.

Turn 3

Alex won initiative. With a roar his pendragon and marca hurtled into my infantry. Combat resolution was swift and bloody. I lost 5 aulue and Alex lost his marca. I lost the battle, so my unit was pushed back 1 inch. Both sides passed their Morale checks.

My part of the turn saw my cavalry return the compliment. Alex lost 3 aulue but I didn't lose any troops in the melee. As Alex lost the combat, his unit retreated 1 inch. Both sides passed their Morale checks.

We totted up the losses and found we had both lost more than 25% of our forces, so each side retreated (plus it was past Alex's bed time, so this worked out fortuitously). I lost 170 solidus and Alex lost 164, so we decided it was as near as dammit a draw, even though Alex edged it points wise.

Conclusions and observations...

The board we used was rather small, but this was a run through battle to just see how things played. Next time we'll have to at least double the size of the board to allow for 28mm scale movement as opposed to using the 15mm scale measurements.

Neither of us used the missile weapons of our marca - they had throwing spears.

I think we totted up the Combat rolls incorrectly, so 1 cavalryman would have had the same effect as 11 as against the 12 man infantry units in our game. Results would have been quite different otherwise.

It seems the whole unit is affected by combat as opposed to just those in base-to-base combat. We may look at changing this methodology for combat resolution in future games. That said, if we had smaller units then the effects would have made more sense.

This was a very quick game that took longer to read the relevant rules and set up than to run. That said, it was quite good fun despite our mistakes. Next time we will make a few amendments to our interpretation of the rules and maybe I will pit my daughters against Alex for a bit of sibling rivalry, as the two girls were asking why they couldn't play.

Brytenwalda Aulue 2

Finally got these Brytenwalda aulue finished. They are the twelve that Alex will be using in his games against me. They are the so-called green warband, but there were only enough transfers to do eight of them in green, so the rest had to have red. Hopefully we can get a game going in the next couple of weeks. All figures are Gripping Beast and the shield transfers are from LBMS. Here's the first picture, showing the swordsman and banner bearer (without banner at the moment) front-centre.

Next up is a more bird's eye view, showing off most of the shields.

Finally, here's a shot from where the banner bearer is looking.

I managed to finish off the dip last night and after the time it had taken to dry over night, I was able to finish off the bases and spray varnish them.

I also put a bit more paint on a few more Broo and several of them are now ready for basing and/or varnishing. I managed to base up a few this afternoon but they won't be ready for finishing until next weekend or one evening during the week if the weather (and light) holds up.

Brytenwalda Marca 2

Four posts in one day! It must be a record for me. I have been busy with quite a bit of real life stuff lately, so I haven't had much time to post or paint recently. So, like London buses, you wait for ages and then there are four arriving together.

Alex and I managed to finish off a few miniatures this weekend for our Brytenwalda armies. Going has been a little slow on these this month, but at least some progress has been made. First up is a cavalryman, or marca, with a full face helmet.



Second up is a standard trooper, painted up with a very Rohan Royal guard theme. I thought about doing the shield designs with a horse motif, but decided against it in the end. I may revisit that idea at a later stage when I do more LotR minis.

Here's another standard cavalry trooper.

This final shot is of a mini skirmish scene I set up. You can just make out who their enemy is in the bottom left of the picture. It is very much on a LotR theme.

All miniatures are from Gripping Beast's Arthurian collection.

To come in the next few weeks...
More Brytenwalda troops to fill out our armies.
A few fantasy minis for RPG and HotT
I also dug out some old Runequest minis this weekend, which I have cleaned up, rebased and undercoated. They needed a complete repaint though as my old paint job on them was awful, but should be fun to do - I have a small selection of adventurers and the old Citadel Broo box set

Alex's Brytenwalda Command

Alex managed to finish off three of his Arthurians this weekend. Two of them are a part of his Brytenwalda army. First up is the Pendragon.

Here's a musician; not part of his Brytenwalda army, but as it was painted I thought I'd photograph it and put it up on the blog.

Finally, here's his Merlin figure. This will be a Scholar in the game. It will be good to see how these different troop types perform on the battlefield.

Next up for Alex should be some more Bretonnian Knights and a few more Arthurian types.

Brytenwalda update

No pictures today, but an update on how Alex and I are getting on with our Brytenwalda forces. As you are aware, my starter 600 point army has been painted up and displayed on here already. Alex has almost finished his command unit and I have done some work on his footmen. Here's a break down of his 600 point army...

1 Pendragon (mounted chieftain) @ (60+10) = 70
1 Teulu (warrior command) @ 50 = 50
1 Scholar (priest) @50 = 50
1 Rherel (veteran) @46 = 46
11 Aulue (conscript spearmen) @34 = 374

Total for army = 590 Solidus

His army is 8 points less than mine, but we'll see how this affects their combatitiveness on the tabletop. We should have a stack of minis almost ready by the end of next weekend, so hopefully I can get some photos up of the ones we complete.

Once done, we will play a few scenarios tha come with the rules, just to try them out.

Also, in the meantime, I have started on some old goblin tusker riders. I have enough to create 2 HotT bases (2 on each) and a single fantasy RPG goblin on large washer. These will be added to my orc/goblin army for HotT. I have lots of old Citadel night goblins I can add to the army as well as a couple of boxes of GW's plastic Night Goblins and Goblins. Several hordes in the making me thinks. I need to find a suitable leader/hero, shaman, behemoth and some heavy hitters to round out the army. These should be ready to report on next week provided I pull my finger out.

Brytenwalda Aulue

I managed to finish up that unit of Arthurian footmen this afternoon. They are all Gripping Beast miniatures from their Arthurian range and the shields are transfers from Little Big Man Studios - there's no way I could paint that well, and I feel they really set the figures off nicely.





 This is a picture focusing in more on the Teulu (the leader).

And finally a picture of the unit as seen by their adversaries.

I have to admit that I do not know what the names of the troops actually mean and have just followed the naming conventions from the rulebook verbatim, so they may be incorrect. When I get time to have a surf for them on the net, I'll try to find out what they mean and whether the words are singular or plural.

Next up should be another unit of footmen and cavalry similar to those reported on this weekend. Alex will be working on his command unit, so as soon as I have points values I'll try to get a picture up of the army. I am also working on some more RPG and HotT stuff, so there will be plenty more to show in a few weeks time, but there may be a couple of weeks before anything is finished and photographed.

Brytenwalda Marca

Just got these finished (still working on the infantry). A small cavalry contingent to support the infantry in their endeavours, or should that be the other way around considering the leader is on horse-back.

First up is the Pendragon. I was a bit unambitious with the shield design as I just copied it from the Warhammer Historical 'Age of Arthur' supplement. I decided with these to try adding a bit extra to the bases other than just sand, paint and flock. The trees I made a little while back have shed a few clumps of foliage, so I stuck these onto the bases here. They hide the hole in the washer quite nicely that the base of the miniature didn't cover.

Here's the first of the leader's bodyguard. Without really thinking of the colour scheme, the Pendragon has wound up with a red cloak and the two Marca with dark green cloaks - very similar to the way I will be painting my Eomer and Royal Guard for LotR SBG when I get round to them later on this year.

And, here is his second companion, painted to match the first Marca.

A couple of group shots.

All figures are by Gripping Beast, from their Arthurian range.

Coming up later today - the foot sloggers.

Brytenwalda

This year I have decided to try to do things a little differently. I will decide on a theme each month and try to paint a unit or army or a few stands towards it. I am hoping this will allow me to complete armies more quickly and thus be able to use them to play games. I will try to post work in progress shots of all of the figures projects I work on each month. If I happen to paint anything else in the meantime, then they will wind up on the blog too as extra entries.

This month I have decided to put together a 600 solidus Romano-British Brytenwalda army. Here are a couple of shots of them in their undercoated state. Hopefully each week I will be able to add a picture or two to show my progress. All my potential Brytenwalda minis are from the Gripping Beast Romano British /Arthurian-type range. All I can remember buying is a pack each of armoured and unarmoured spears and a handful of cavalry. I will add to the collection with a wizard and some archers eventually to round out the army in later months.

This 600 Solidus Romano-British army is made up of the following ...

1 Pendragon (mounted Chieftain) @(60 + 10) = 70
2 Marca (cavalry) @52 = 104
1 Teulu (warrior command) @50 = 50
11 Aulue (conscript spearmen) @34 = 374

Total for army = 598 Solidus

This is a starter army which will hopefully have another similar one painted next month. I am going to name them the Reds and the Greens initially due to the colour schemes I am going to use to paint their cloaks and shields. The army this month will be the Reds.

Alex has bought into this too and he is putting together his own unit. We both bought some Gripping Beast packs of minis when we went to Salute back in 2007! Mine are to be based on washers and 2p pieces but Alex has decided to go down the Warhammer base route (20mm squares). Luckily the rules are OK with basing differentials, as long as warriors are based individually.

Hopefully I'll have an update or two for this weekend's work. Alex will certainly have something to show as he is busy painting up a couple of troops as I am typing this!

Birds of a feather

I had a great weekend painting. I finished off quite a few figures to the basing and varnishing stage. The following two I actually completed: they are identical miniatures but I bent the neck of one slightly and painted them up to be a mated pair of Terror Birds. As mentioned previously, they are from a Games Workshop/Citadel box set from the eighties for their Runequest range. These initially had Dragonewt riders, which I still have, but I prefer them as riderless 'monsters'.

I also managed to finish up to the basing and varnishing stage half of the Riders of Rohan, 3 more fantasy Fighter types and I got started on another half-dozen or so fantasy minis. Alex did well on some of his Bretonnian Knights too. Hopefully there should be lots more to put up on the site in the next few weeks.

I had a browse around the net through the week too and came across some nice skirmish style rules that are being given away free. They are for a Dark Age type setting, but they could easily be used for other periods. The rules are called Brytenwalda and can be found here.