AHPC IX - From Mike W: 28mm Roman, Fantasy and 17th Century figures (115 Points)

For this second post of the week, I am concentrating on a number of other figures I have been working on, separate to my efforts on the Saxon Infantry Regiment previously posted. As ever, somewhat a mash-up of periods...

First off a group of 12 x 28mm Roman Legionaries that have been kicking around in my 'lead mountain' for several years, I bought these on a whim but can't remember now, where they came from. Remember thinking that they would look cool painted-up but  have never had time or inclination to paint these once I got them home!

The raw figures with first steel, red & flesh layers added

I'm afraid that I have forgotten who the manufacture was for these figures, but having painted these, I was right! They do look cool!

Roman Legion Cohort of 12 x 28mm figures

Due to the large amount of metal work on these figures I undercoated them black and then dry-brushed on a suitable steel colour,I wanted the figures to have a strong presence on the wargame's table so used a lot of red for tunics, shields and helmet plumes.

Officer and shield detail

The rest was simple - flesh and leather with a few details picked out in brass. I gave the chap's skin a flesh wash to add tone and the sprayed with matte varnish before basing.

It's my personal view that for most ancient armies, the key to a spectacular army, is getting the shields right, in the case of Romans  these have to be uniform and that is something I struggle to do! For these figures I used the original paper shields that I think came with the first Warlord Games plastic box set. I attached to the painted shield with PVA glue and then varnished with Army Painter matte varnish to seal them in place, job done!

Calculations; 12 x 28mm Infantry Figures @ 5 Points ea. = 60 Points.

Unpainted figure

Completed!

Next up, is an old plastic Games Workshop fantasy figure,believe this came in a small boxed set of magicians, this guy is a Egyptian type Necromancer - if I remember correctly!


I glued it to a 2 pence piece and undercoated with white paint and  layered on the colours in my usual way. I initially did his under robe in a crimson colour, but then decided I didn't like it and want to go for a classic ochre and jade blue look and feel. I think I have some old Games Workshop skeletons  up in the loft or out in the garage in those colours, this chap can join them.

Anyway, I used a thick mix of ochre paint to block out the crimson that I'd previously used and then dry brushed with Citadel Bone paint, I also highlighted his flesh with the same bone colour to make him look less healthy!

The snake on the staff was deliberately painted in bright colours, to contract the figure and the base was left largely sand, with a couple of dry grass tufts to show a more arid environment.

Calculations; 1 x 28mm Infantry Figures @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.

Raw figures, prior to undercoat

Next are 4 x 28mm 17th Century mounted officers, believe that three of these are a Front Rank and one a Riever Castings piece, I base these on 40mm round MDF bases and as usual undercoated with white.

I like painting up officers and commanders of this period as it offers a little scope to give these little fellows a slightly different take on the uniforms of the period.

Firstly - I have to say my main area of interest is the Franco-Dutch Wars in the 1670s, so pushing out to Siege of Vienna is a bit of  a stretch for these figures. Additionally a couple of these figures are actually Marlburian from the early 1700s. As such I often change the tricorns on these figures to more relaxed floppy hats of the earlier period.

However, I decided to go with tricorns on three of these figures as there is no real hard evidence as to when the fashion for pushing up three sides of the slouch hats started. I did change one figure to have a highland bonnet after cutting off it's original hat.

The figures were painted a variety of colours, the Scots officer in Government Red,whilst the other three were deliberately kept more generic to allow deployment in any army of the period.

The results are as below...

Reiver Castings Officer

Converted Scots Officer

Another Front Rank Officer

Probably my favourite of the group!

Calculations; 4 x 28mm Mounted Figures @ 10 Points ea. = 40 Points.

Rear side view of Caisson

Front side view of Caisson

Next is a second Ottoman artillery limber and horse, this time painted in a base red with metal fittings. I include two photos to give a better look at the fancy caisson / limber, once gain liberated form an old Games Workshop Galloper Gun set.


Calculations; 1 x 28mm Horse @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.
                        1 x 28mm Limber @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.
                        TOTAL 10 Points

TOTAL Points - 60 + 40 + 10 +5 =115 Points

Punic Wars - Night Raid on Carthaginian Camp

Friday night saw the continuation of Rupert's Punic War campaign, after a somewhat dormant period, with the Romans in North Africa, sallying out in strength to raid the Carthaginian forces that were besieging their positions.

Initial set-ups saw the Carthaginians, asleep in their beds within the camp walls (red units, in the grey squares on map to left) with cavalry, heavy & light infantry dispersed across the camp.

The Roman (blue units) forces lined-up with 5 legions in the centre, screened by some light infantry, then on each near flank more light infantry plus heavy cavalry on each remote flank.

At this point it should be noted that each Carthaginian unit would check each turn to see if it 'wakes-up', whilst unwoken the unit cannot move and is considered disordered if attacked.

The terrain was unknown to the Romans, but known to the Carthaginians, that shown in yellow was all they were certain of, being clear terrain. All green squares were split into quarters with a one in six chance of bad terrain in each quarter of a tile.

The final scenario special rule was that given this is a night raid, the game is played with all units limited to 8" moves, only reverting to full moves again once daylight arrives on turn 21!

'Michaelus Maximus Meridians' was Commander of the Roman Army and the African Legions, loyal servant to the Emperor. Commander of the Carthaginians was one of Hannibal's minions...
 

the heght of teh battle, Carthaginians make a stand within the camp
as routers pass them by as the the Romans hesitate

The Carthaginians, not knowing where the Romans might attack from, were distributed around their camp, whilst the Roman plan was simple, a concentrated hammer blow at one end of the enemy camp. With luck, the Roman's would be into the camp quickly, hitting units before they wake and drive defeated units back through the camp, preventing any reinforcements hampering the Roman advance.

The Roman legions cracked-on once the game started, moving across the cream terrain at 6" per turn. The Carthaginians managed to wake some light infantry and cavalry, which were thrown forward to delay the advancing legions, which they managed to do for a few turns, albeit that they were driven back to the camp walls each turn.

Carthaginians streaming out of the camp's rear gates in a state of rout.

Eventually the light infantry broke, allowing the legions to surge into the camp, meanwhile on the Roman left flank the light infantry and cavalry were able to start tracking around the flank of the camp. On their right flank, the light infantry ran into bad ground, though the heavy cavalry were able to move on and check emerging Carthaginian light cavalry that had left the camp.

Then after morale checks, additional Carthaginian units began to break, all of a sudden half of the Carthaginian camp was in rout. Then the Roman forces frozen, not gaining enough command factors, two turns in a row, to move any units. In that time the Carthaginian routers cleared much of the camp and a number of units rallied.

The Romans pressed on, engaging with Carthaginian heavy infantry, several rounds of melee continued with the Romans wearing down their opponents and breaking one then two heavy infantry units.

The roman 3rd legion were battered by Carthaginian units and evenually broke.

On the flanks, Carthaginian cavalry broke the Roman light infantry on the Roman right flank, in turn the Roman heavy horse pushed forward and finally broke one of the enemy light horse. On the Roman left flank, the lights flanked and attacked advancing Carthaginian units whilst the Roman heavy horse, crashed into the rear of the camp.

More Carthaginians routers

As day broke in the game (turn 2) we reached the end of the night,the game had been planned a s a 2 week affair but there wasn't enough of a game left to allow for a second week. the Carthaginians had two heavy infantry units engaged with a veteran legion and one of these had just been hit in the flank by a fresh Roman legion, both the Carthaginian units had reached zero cohesion points and would break soon.

It was left to Rupert as umpire to deliberate the impact on the campaign,this will be communicated to the commanders in due course. An enjoyable game that a number of 'nip & tucks' / 'to and fros' despite the apparent one sided nature of the game.