Aristeia Things and 15mm Ancients

A few little things for today. Some more work on Aristeia took place, mostly on the weapons and rules around them. I've been toying with these for a while as I want them to reflect historical/practical uses while still keeping them all reasonably viable or at least within their own niche. I think I've done a reasonable job and look forward to sharing these in the future when the ruleset is more complete.

related to the yesterdays talk of Ancient Greek housing it seems Warbases are releasing a modular ancient farmstead/villa in the near future. If this is not too expensive it may provide a reasonable alternative to building my own. I'm generally in favour of self-made terrain due to the personal nature of it but if what is released so far better than anything I could realistically make then it is not that much of a problem. I am looking forward to seeing a few more pictures in the future.

Finally basing for 15mm ancients. I have stated before that I have been looking at doing some ancient related things but not in 28mm due to a general malaise. To that end I've been looking at my mid 3rd Century Romans and Gauls/ Helleno-Celts. The main issue I am having is in regards to basing. The figures are most probably going to be used for Hail Caesar and as such will be mounted on 40x20mm (or 40x40mm as I have some of those spare). The standard for such basing seems to be 4 men to a base/rank. This to me looks a little crowded (yes I understand it is meant to represent a close body of men but TOO crowded). Outside of this there are a few other concerns in regards to painting (I paint with my figures already attached to the base rather than individually and attaching them later) and the fact that if I use 3 to a base/rank I can stretch my figures further (as in Hail Caesar it is only frontages that matter). I have taken a few pictures with the figures blu-tacked to the bases.

Side by Side of both bases. They are based on a 40x40mm with 2 ranks on each.

3 Hastati per rank

4 Hastati per rank

I am undecided on how to continue. I like the IDEA of the closer order but in practical term I think three per rank is winning. I, however, do not necessarily want to upset the conventions of the scale but seeing as I have no opponents or armies other than my own lined up it is not a pressing issue.

Future Terrain Projects

With the temple now being completed I'm thinking about other terrain projects for Aristeia. A few houses/farmsteads, walls, olive groves and rocky outcrop would be pretty common and are on the to do list. However, I would like to do something a bit more involved/interesting in the similar vein as the temple. Possibly something like an earlier tomb or some bronze statues/agora style areas would be interesting to build and, more importantly, interesting to from a wargaming perspective (both visually and gameplay-wise).

Painting of the remaining members of the Spartan warband has stalled. Partly because of the concerted efforts on the temple and partly due to limited enthusiasm for them as a whole. Hopefully I'll get excited for them relatively soon. I don't like to force myself to paint figures as 1) it means I'll do a relatively poor job 2) I might start resenting the project as a whole and that means it'll be even worse for seeing it through to completion. So I shall wait a little while and focus on the terrain instead.

I backed the War and Empire kickstarter a few years ago for their 15mm ancients figures. I have a small 3rd Century BC Roman force as well as a slightly larger Gallic army. These have mostly sat in their respective packets these last few years. However I am getting a little more interested in doing something with them. Having picked up a few 15mm Greeks for the temple I'm tempted to try and create a army for the Greek state of Massalia. This would give an interesting mix of Gallic and Greek equipment/troops that's pretty much unseen anywhere else. To this end I shall be purchasing Archaeologies of Colonials: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France by Michael Dietler. 

Hopefully In the next few days I shall get some pictures posted of the terrain or, at the very least, some concepts for my intended pieces.

Post Colonial Imagi-Nations part 2

This will mostly be show casing the forces of West mBrosia and looking at the ways in which I intend to expand the army.

It currently stands at 6 T-55s one platoon of Revolutionary Guard and two platoons of Militia. There are also four unmade T-34/85s and two unmade SU-100s. It’s much smaller than the Beitland force due to it only having been started in the past six months. The eventual plan is for two platoons of Revolutionary Guard transported in BTR-60. I’m not entirely sure what model BTR-60 to use. I like the turret of the PB but it’s rather late in the chronology whereas the P/PB would give me a few more years to work with. It is, however, a rather moot point as I’m primarily concerned with the aesthetics of the force rather than hard and fast dates. I’d also like to include some kind of artillery, be it the 160mm mortars or some kind of Katyusha or Grad. This combined with a few BRDM-2 as a recce element give the feeling a professional force.

For the Miltia I think a far more rag-tag approach using Gaz-67/69 technicals and local/civilian lorries. This gives them some mobility and firepower while still keeping them relatively ‘light’ in terms of equipment. They would also form the core of the anti –aircraft weapons, mostly stationary ZSUs.

I would also like to include one helicopter for the Soviet backed forces, most probably a Mil-8 along with some East German ‘advisors’ although part of me feels this may be straying from the Bush War themes. 

Anyway the pictures of what is currently being done are to be found below! One troop of T-55s are pretty much done including revolutionary slogans in Swahili.

  

The almost complete T-55s. The slogans say 'Colonialism Out!' and 'Revolution!'

Another Angle showing one of the slogans better.

The other three T-55s, just base coated and washed at the moment.

The platoon of Revolutionary Guard with machine gun section and two 'regular' sections.
The bases still require a bit more shrubbery/bush.

A closer shot of the Revolutionary Guard. The platoon requires some RPGs but
I did not have suitable figures at the time.

The platoon of Militia, they carry a rather varied assortment of weapons as befits their
ad hoc nature.

Another angle of the Militia.

Not pictured is the other platoon of militia but they are even less finished than the one posted here so I thought it best to leave them off.

Post Colonial Imagi-Nations

Alongside ARISTEIA I’ve also been working on my African Imagi-Nations. This has been a project stretching back a few years now but it’s rather slow to develop as sourcing figures and the like can be rather time consuming. Actually finding what I want a force to BE is also a large time sink, how I want them to look/what equipment they would use etc. The forces came from an interest in African history as a whole, due to family connections and events, as well as a love of late WWII and early Cold War equipment that is a hallmark of such conflicts.

At the moment there are currently two nations/forces, those of Beitland (a South Africa/Rhodesia/Colonial Power analogue) and West mBrosia (an independent majority ruled post-colonial nation). The former uses mostly late WWII British equipment mixed with Early Cold War Nato/British and the latter is your more common Soviet/Warsaw Pact materiel. I am quite happy with the direction both forces have taken although I am a little unsure how to expand the mBrosian forces while keeping the 1950’s to 70’s African theme.

Both armies represent (mostly) regular troops as I have little desire to wargame insurgencies, at least for these Imagi-Nations, as I don’t feel it was be particularly exciting or necessarily allow me to use the miniatures and equipment that I would like.

There will likely be more posts in the future detailing the nations and challenges of finding/adapting a ruleset that captures the nature of such a conflict.

All miniatures that are posted are 15mm/1:100.
 

A Platoon of Beitland Light Infantry

A Troop of Beitland Centurion 5/2s

Beitland Armoured Car patrol with 2 Staghound IIIs and Daimler Dingo

More Armoured Cars, this time Daimler Ferret Mk 2s

The majority of figures posted above are complete, although they may need a few touch ups to the bases and the odd highlight here and there. The miniatures are mostly Battlefront (Vietnam Australians) with a smattering of Peter Pig (for the short shorts and FN MAGs) and QRF (the Ferrets).

This is the whole, painted, Beitland force alas it is too big for my shoddy lightbox.

The West mBrosian forces shall be shown in a forth coming post. They are, however, in a far greater state of 'work in progress'.