More Sarmatians Done

Good afternoon,

As work looms large, here are two more Sarmatian Knight elements finished.








An ecclectic mix of Zvezda Mongols, Revell Praetorians, a HaT Carthaginian (I think), a lot of Esci Napolionic cav legs. The bulk of the horses are Italeri Mongols with one HaT Late Imperial Roman Heavy Cavalry/Catafract and an Evolution Sarmat horse.

And here are all that I've got to do to actually finish the DBA (or HOTT) army.


One last Knight, a Light Horse and a couple of Psoloi elements. If I ever get a box of Strelets Sarmatians I'll be able to swap out some of the Mongols and add a twelfth Knight element.

The General element, well...


...I'm thinking of replacing the trumpeter's kontos with that [HaT Parthian] Draco standard. Whatdoyarekon?

Nick

Early Greek Hoplites Done...

...for the time being, anyway.

Good evening,

Here are the final four elements of my first Early Greek Hoplite DBA army...




...all from one box of Zvezda figs.

And here they are all together.






All I need to do now is paint a Ps, a Bw, a LH and an Ax and I'll have a [generic] I/52 Early Hoplite Athenian Greek Army c. 540-450BC.

But no need to hurry these things now, is there. These have been sitting around for about 10 years to date...

Talking of things to do, I was watching/listening to this as I was pottering away with these figs...


...and it occured to me that this could easily be converted into a Crossfire scenario. One company, three sections...hmmm...perhaps some plastic Brit airborne troops at some point...

Speaking of things future, I was just reading this, and I thought...hmmm, I've got me all those Zombies!!! zombies, and I've always wanted an excuse to get me a handful of moderns and vehicles...and maybe even some 20mm metal zombies...grin...

Has anyone tried/can recommend some good Zombie rules?

Nick

Battalion Advance

Good evening,

This afternoon I popped round to Robin's place for a crack at this Spearhead scenario here.


Basically, I had two full British infantry battalions plus four tanks, two batteries of off board 25 pounders and a 4 inch mortar, to take three of the four two contour hills without loosing 12 elements, or three of the four two contour hills plus the town without loosing 18 elements, from one battalion of Germans supported by two shots from a 105 and two Stugs.

So I figured I'd concentrate my boys down the left to try to avoid hopefully at least a third, possibly as much as a half of the Germans.


Robin laid out his Germans...


...and away we went. Or I went. The Germans, since they couldn't see the Brits stayed still. It's a Spearhead being-able-to-see-the-enemy thing.


(Note my old tablet - the newbie that I used last time is away learning to talk to the server and printers at work. I bought it thinking Windows 8 would naturally chat with the Windows server, but, well...)


As I raced down the flank of the field, Robin pops up one of his Stugs to strike out at the flank of my tanks.


Rats!

(And double rats, I forgot my destroyed vehicle markers!)


However, no stopping them now!


I unlimber my 6 pounder, greatly overestimating it's ability to take out that Stug!


Unfortunately, Robin calls back my Firefly to fire at it before it disappeared behind the wood.


Double rats!

As my infantry march across the front of Robin's entrenched infantry they come under fire.


With some success.


Still, I speed them on.


And on.


All the while loosing one or two elements each turn.

In the meantime my F/O calls down ineffectual 25 pounder shells upon the German elements chasing my Brits, along with the 3 inch mortar that I dropped off for that express purpose. Ineffectually.


First battalion manages to take the town, while the second start working round Robin's flank.


Aww, cute!


My Brigade HQ. 1/72^nd figs riding a 1/76^nd jeep.


I chance my luck in an assault against Robin's entrenched Germans.


It didn't work!


And it was about then that I conceded the game. I'd lost 11 of the 12 I was able to before losing my victory conditions.


I guess we could have carried on (had we the time), but I thought the possibility of winning the other two hills without loosing more very slim.

Although, upon further reflection, since I had the town I could therefore loose 18...ha! It's funny what a little reflecting can do! I had better odds than I had realised at the time!

Still, it has taught me to use smoke. Much better use of the 25s - I could have screened my advance, lost fewer elements...and won the game...perhaps!

Thanks for the game Robin, it's been great to push around the plastic again!

Nick