DBA 'Big Battle' Hungarians versus Mediaeval Germans

Had a great evening's game, playing double DBA, using cards rather than dice. Each player had 24 cards  (4 sets of 1-6) and I felt the game was much more fun than with dice.  See the DBA link on the right for more details and pics.

The pic shows the Hungarian knights - bottom centre -  about to crash into my Crossbows. The Hungarian C in C is already gnashing at my mercenary pikes but about to come unstuck :)

Hiatus and a fresh burst of activity - Venetian Crossbows 15mm

I've been keeping a low profile for the last few months as I concentrate on stamp collecting and completing my essays and sci fi novel, so except for a couple of  28mm fantasy figures ( and a Numidian army) which I forgot to upload, there's been little progress on anything. Digging around for something to help me procrastinate over my essays, I found a pile of 15mm renaissance crossbows that were literally getting under my feet, so I decided to paint them and a few cheap 28mils. More in the figures and dba / dbm pages.

I've also added some 28mm renaissance plastics and a 15mm giant to my fantasy armies - see the HoTT link on the right.

First DBA 3.0 games - Sassanids V Byzantine 15mm

This was a first try of DBA 3; my friend had just finished a Byzantine army and I was able to raise a partly finished Sassanid army to fight them. The first game   demonstrated the extra movement available to most units. We had two games, both wins for the Sassanids.


More via the DBx linky, see 'Battles' -> 

Game Over for the Byzantines

DBA 22a New Kingdom Egyptian Camp

Sent an emergency email to Mick Yarrow Miniatures begging for a reed boat and crew for my NKE camp. Within 48 hrs I had this lovely little boat, 5 crew, 2 archers and an Ox! All for 2.50 plus post. Here's my camp , ready 'double quick'.

I'm saving the Ox and archers for a DBM baggage base, and I will be ordering enough reed boats to equip a DBM Egyptian navy :)

DBA 22a New kingdom Egyptians

Here's my latest rush job, ready in 2 days for a competition at PAWS on Saturday 9th March 2013. I've not much chance of winning but it was good to be motivated to paint something. I'd like to add stripes to the tea towels and  maybe kohl to the eyes, but only if they win!

These are 15mm Lancashire figures; probably had these sitting around for 10 years or so and there's easily enough for a DBM army. Found a Kushite army too, 3 boxes of them. About time I got them painted. I'll be moving my DBx armies to a seperate site soon as I've got stacks to photo and upload.

Vintage 25mm Greek Hoplites

Greeks in Column

Just finishing off some old  Greek hoplites that have been hanging around for ages. One of them had lost a head, so I replaced it with a resin cast 'Amazon ' head, only to find a spare figure a week later. Another round of tidying in the magic cave of wonder ( a.k.a. the loft ) revealed a packet of 40mm spears (Foundry), ideal for the  2 metre spears they would have carried, but not as nice as the Warlord  examples I was originally going to use. With most of the figures holding their spears horizontally, it was going to be difficult to arrange them so they could all  form up together in column. With some faffing I managed to sort them out into compatible 2-deep pairs which could then mesh  as a full column although some of them are at risk of  killing the guys in front :(

I spent over 40 quid yesterday on Dutch plate leaf (fake gold) and some new gilt finishes to try and improve the look of the polished bronze armour on future figures. On these ones I used a mix of  gold metallic acrylics with various brown,  yellows and whites added to  form highlights and shadows. I'm not entirely convinced. I also used  Little Big Men Studios 20mm Hoplite  transfers, with some Noch grass clumps and scatter to make wild flowers. Spears are all painted up, just  need to find three swords and Ill post a close up.

German Medieval DBA

Got a competition on at the end of June and hoping to get three German Medieval armies ready for me and my posse. That's assuming the fella from Lancashire  Games gets the order to me in time. Whilst I'm waiting I thought I'd get cracking on my Landsknecht Pike.

:) Confirmed the order with Lancashire Games on Monday and received them Wednesday morning, can't speak highly enough of this supplier. I've spent the day  filing my  gothic Knights but with a mate coming over on the weekend for a practice game I'd better get a move on.

Managed to patch together an Med. German army from assorted late medieval stuff I had sitting around. The game went well  but the Medieval Germans may be the most tedious army ever to fight. Definitely defensive, formed around a  BUA garrisoned by artillery. The real weakness  is  with the war wagons which are very sensitive to artillery fire!

19/06/12 Finally got them all undercoated today but I need to start painting soon! Now distracted in a search for Roman troops for the PAWS Summer Comp in Portsmouth on the 7th July.

Enjoyed the comp at Sussex Shield Chichester. Didn't get as much painted as I would have liked but here are the guys all lined up for a post battle memorial service!

Still have handgunners to crew the wagons, Landsknecht Pike, Arquebusiers and Artillery to finish. Volunteers from my Late Burgundian army filled in for them for the competition.

Just got back from Alton comp ( March 23rd 2013 ) . Had plenty of good fights with two identical pairs of Med Germans  IV 15d. -  4 Pike inc General, 2 Warwagons, 2 double based knights, 1 normal Knight, 1 Psiloi,  1 Artillery and 1 Cavalry.  Being the defender allowed me to avoid the enemy artillery although I hemmed myself in with a gentle hill that I kept thinking was a wood! My dice started off good but deteriorated over the day. The most consistent weakness was my deployment - I had no plan - and my army was soon broken up as I tried to firefight everywhere.  despite some great dice  and some rotten timing the general takes the blame.