AHPC XV: From Mike W - More 28mm Arthurians (65 Points)

 Following on from my first post if this challenge is a group of 4 x Mounted and 5 x Infantry figures, all to be used to build up my new Arthurian collection.

Arthurian Heavy Cavalry man, armed with spear

And the other side's view! More to come for this unit!

The mounted figures represent 3 x Heavy Knights and 1 x Heavy Cavalryman whilst the foot figures are all Medium Infantry. 

So a word of explanation - the Heavy Knights (Cataphracts) are to be the mounted versions of the Close Order Heavy Infantry units as shown in my first post, in my head the rules for use will require commander to opt for mounted of foot deployment at beginning of each game.

Arthurian Knights, these guys will have individual shield patterns to reflect the uniqueness and privilege of their positions.

Anther view of the knights

Infantry can be Heavy, Medium or Light and the Heavy and Mediums can be classed as Close or Loose order, all Light Infantry are Loose Order. Anyway the two Archer figures are Light Infantry (unarmoured) whilst the remaining three infantry figures will be classed as Medium (Loose Order, Partially Armoured) Infantry.

Archers - with a Victrix head swap on the right

Another view of the Archers

The mounted figures are all Gripping Beast Cataphracts, the three Heavy Knights have all had head swaps from Gripping Beast or Victrix Late Roman sets plus a couple of shield swaps. The Heavy Cavalryman is pretty much straight form the box.

Three Medium infantrymen, the final unit will be 16 figures,
including Standard Bearer and possibly a musician

Close-up of the Medium Infantry

For the infantry one of the archers has had a Victrix head swap, otherwise both are straight from the box. The spearmen are also straight from the box, as is the Lesser Knight leader, except that he has had a Wargames Atlantic helmet crest added.

Painting wise, I followed the steps described in my first post, the infantry having a light grey tunic with blue trim for this unit and red / white shield iconography. The mounted figures were done along similar lines but with a lot of metalics on the horse armour!

AHPC XV: From Mike W - 28mm High Elves (30 Points)

 A quickie post to kick off my quest on Dante's Devine Comedy.

These two GW High Elves were in my bits box for nearly 33 years - what kind of horrendous limbo could that be!

GW High Elf Spearman and Archer, from an early 1990s Boxed Set 

I saw them there the other day and I thought I'd liberate them and give them a new lease of life...

They were so much fun to paint that I'm  now seriously thinking about collecting a small High Elf Amy to go with them.

I liked doing these guys so much I'm looking for more to do - but even on eBay they are now quite expensive!

As ever these guys were undercoated white and then 'dressed' with paint! GW Leadbelcher for chainmail and spear points.

Light Yellow for spear shafts  a bright blue speed paint for robes on the archer and a lighter sky blue on the Spearman's robes, with an old gold trim on each and a dash of brass to add much needed bling!

And a final view, I went for red jewels to offset the silver and blue overall look.

I spent some time on the shields and adding a the red jewels to their bow / costumes.

All finished with a fine sand and electrostatic grass vase with a black edge.

AHPC XV: From Mike W - 28mm Romano British / Arthurian Infantry (60 Points)

 Well its Christmas Time and so it must be AHPC time as well! It's good to be back, I hope everyone enjoys it this year's competition.

Finished unit of 12 x 28mm Arthurian Close Order Heavy Infantry

So one of my new projects this year will be building a Romano-British / Arthurian Army in 28mm using the fabulous figures that are available for the period that have been released by Warlord Games, Gripping Beast, Victrix and Wargames Atlantic. All of these set have their pros & cons but the best thing is that they are all pretty much interchangeable, allowing a great variety if figures to be assembled.

Close-up of unit from the left - each shield has unique iconography
but to similar black & white colour palette to give unit cohesion.

I have of course been inspired by Warlord Games recent release of their Arthurian supplement for Hail Caesar, it fits nicely into my image of Arthur being a Dark Ages knight, hanging on to the last strands of Roman 'civilisation' as the Saxon hordes invade from overseas.

Close-up of unit from the right- shields are of various shapes and sizes.

This group of figures represents a unit of 12 Close Order Heavy Infantry, lead by a lesser Knight who owes allegiance to Arthur. As such they have a fairy uniform appearance, albeit they all have individual shields with their own Christian iconography on each shield. All figures are in a light grey dress with a blue trim and where worn, black horsehair plumes in their helmets.

These three guys each have round shields and are all Wargames Atlantic figures,
with a couple of Gripping Beast / Victrix head swaps.

Figures were primed in white, before a light grey coat on all leggings and tunics. A few variations were then allowed as this is, after all, the 'Dark Ages' and the influence and availability of Roman dress and equipment is beginning to be lost. 

Each of these three guys are entirely made from Wargames Atlantic figures
but the oval shields are from Gripping Beast

GW Leadbelcher was used for all chainmail and Snakebite Leather for all shoes and leatherwork, whilst scabbards were done in a fairly bright blue.

Helmets, belts and swords had details added in brass - to add some 'bling' and then the figures were given a watered down wash in Army Painter Dar tone all over except for backs of shields and spear shafts that had a soft tone wash.

Three more figures, the large black shield is the Wargames Atlantic standard oval shield, which appears a bit but to my eye, so I prefer the smaller Gripping Beast counterparts.

The shields on this unit were fixed to be black and white, to give it some unity on the tabletop. Bases were covered in fine sand and then electrostatic grass to give a pleasing finish.

Left we have the Lesser Knight who commands this unit,
Centre is the Units Standard Bearer and right another foot soldier.

Look out for more of these figures in future posts as well as Skeletons, Orcs, Elves and some Warlord Epic 15mm figures.....

Friday Night Games: The Grinch v Santa Fantasy Game

Friday 14th December saw the kickoff of one of our quasi-annual Christmas themed games  this year hosted and umpired by Rupert. 

The Grinch and his Goblin hordes are attacking 'Happy Valley' stealing all the villagers presents and heading to the Santa's Workshop to wreck toy production before Christmas.

The figures are an assortment from Rupert's 28mm Medieval and Fantasy collections and he was using his own Fantasy Rules.

Happy Valley at the outset of the game

On the side of light & good are Mat & Mike W, whilst arrayed against them, commanding the Goblin Hordes were Mark, Steve, Dave & John.

Santa's Workshop, defended by the local Happy Valley Militia

Close-up of the Happy Valley Militia

A villager family

The ravaging hordes of The Grinch's Goblin Army

The forces of Good, under MikeW, did a Stirling job holding up John's Goblin column on the right wing. Whilst on the left of the Good side, Mat was able to deploy forces to contest Mark's Goblins.

Goblin wagons hoping to be filled with the Happy Valley villager's presents

The alarm is raised and the villagers beginning to panic at the sight of the approaching goblins

In the centre, Dave pushed his Goblin column forwards and they set upon a small village  only to be opposed by Good forces rushing up the center of the table from Santa's workshop. Meanwhile Steve is zooming around with  a pair of dragons trying to inflict damage and then raising the dead and supplementing the forces of Evil with Skeleton hordes.

More villagers!

One of the Dragons under Steve's command

At the end of Week #1 there was all to play for...

Forces of Good on the right battling Skeleton Cavalry and a Dragon, despite heavy losses John's Evil Doers were driven off.

One of the Goblin Columns

Steve's Dragons help eliminate an Infantry unit that has mauled Mark's Goblin Column on Santa's left

A unit of Ogres force the bridge on the extreme left of Sant's front,
a bridge that is defended by a small infantry unit. 

Happy Valley Militia Archers hold the centre

The advancing Goblin Battering Ram, to their rear.

Santa's left flank is now somewhat devoid of defenders, although in the centre a big force of archers and cavalry are checking enemy movement.

2024 Games league Table

By John S.

It’s that time again; what period was played the most? And, who hogged the gaming table with the most games?

Another Napoleonic Mega Game in 2024!

To begin though, I’ve changed the way I record things slightly, now concentrating on the number of games people put on rather than the number of weeks they are played over as I feel that’s probably fairer overall.

2024 saw 27 games played (counting tonight’s game at Rupert's) and covered 13 different periods or sub periods, so we are still very active.

The most popular period was Colonial and this is a tricky one as I’ve incorporated a few sub periods in this, so as well as my Boer War and NW Frontier I’ve added in Matt’s Formosa Campaign games (I thought it sounded Colonial) and also Matt’s Sino/Japanese War (again sounds Colonial) If you strip Matts games out then Colonial would rank as third most popular.

John's Colonial British Infantry 

Joint second place goes to WW2 (there’s a surprise Mark!) and Medieval (there’s another surprise Steve!) But of course if we re-jig Colonial then WW2 and Medieval would come out as joint winners……..you decide………

One of Mark's WW2 Offerings

Player wise, three of us put the most games on, Mark, Matt and Me with 5 games apiece. Given that we agreed that we would all confine ourselves to 6 weeks of table time, so roughly 3 games, us three have hogged the table limelight at the possible expense of others. We must try to be mindful and let others have more of a go in 2025 perhaps. For example, Phil and Mike W only put one game on each all year and Mikey only managed two games. I know that there were mitigating circumstances with Mike W on grandchildren minding and Phil’s ME playing up so it’s not all bad. So, well done everybody.

Not so many Ancients Games this year

Naval Battle in the Java Sea

The game was put on for Friday 6th December by Mat, using rules supplied by Mark and hosted by Mat, who also supplied the models.

Dutch Vessels

ABDA (American, British & Dutch) allies under Admiral Mark set sail at speed to intercept Japanese invasion force east of Java

American & British Vessels

Admiral Dave had a stronger Japanese force well covered by air power, but his forces were initially scattered so he encountered the Allies piecemeal.

The Japanese Fleet

Admiral Dave was bold to close range using his light cruisers and destroyers whilst high level bombers tried to smash the allies. Initial inaccurate fire soon started to play heavy on the Japanese, with both light cruisers having to turn tail after serious hits from British and US guns took a toll

But at the critical moment the two heavy cruisers of the Japanese fleet sailed into range and in ten devastating minutes sank the Dutch Cruiser Java that brave Admiral Mark had deployed at the van of his line, generously taking second position in his flagship!

Explosions erupt around teh head of the fleet

Sensing that all chance of victory was gone ABDA Float retired - just as in the real historical battle - one cruiser down!