HOTT Winter's Day, Game 4

Good evening,

And onto Game 4. New game, new army (I love that format - five games, I get to play with five different armies), so I pulled out my Hoplite Greeks. Who were up against Gordon's 25mm Samurai. Bows, Blades and Heroes. Urghh.

So...time to hide 'tween the terrain!

Whilst I try to hold my right with a lowly Bow element.

Come on, ya big Hero, come into the rough.

Yeah, nah...don't!

So, the boys try to hold the line in the face of Bow shot.

Kaboom!

And low and behold...Ares arrives.

Sweet!

Huzzah!

And in the middle...

...the boys really pushed back.

Seeing as how the boys were kinda stuck there in the middle, Ares sallied forth hisself.

All whilst Gordon started applying pressure around the edges.

Ah, rats!

Still, on the other flank...

...Huzzah!

Against all expectations, Ares stuck around.

Albeit being...well...a little...ineffectual...

And the centre begins to break up.

Aww, I was sure I had a cavalry element in the back there...

Finally, Ares gets some back up...

Huzzah!

Huzzah again!

Huzzah again, again!

And so the men from the West triumphed over the men from the East.

Though, if those men from the West had headed out into the open, (not to mention had Ares headed off as is the want of so many HOTT Gods) those men from the East would have had them for lunch!

Thanks for the game Gordon,

Nick

Heroic Hoplites Finally Finished - Huzzah!

Good afternoon,

End of another couple of weeks of holidays (much of which I spent working, but there you go), and here, finally, along with the first of my Macedonian Cav...

...including Thessalian Cavalry (Cv), some generic Greek LH, and young Alexander himself, atop Bucephalus, which I'll use to represent all Hellenistic generals (DBA Kn - after all, they were all trying to be a new Alexander, right up to Napoleon!)...

...I have finally finished painting all of my Hoplites!

(Newline metals)

So now I have 18 hoplite elements. Huzzah! Enough for two opposing armies...

...in this case II/05b [Later Hoplite] Athenian Army 448-275 BC...

• 1 x General (Sp)
• 1 x Cavalry (Cv)
• 1 x Cavalry (LH)
• 4 x Hoplites (Sp)
• 3 x Hoplites (Sp) (or Peltasts (Ps), which I've pulled into my 4Ax elements)
• 1 x Hoplites (Sp) (see above)
• 1 x Archers ([3]Bw - mine are 4Bw...for some reason...)

...which is pretty much my 1/52 [Early Hoplite] Later Athenian list...

...against II/05i [Later Hoplite] Other Hoplite Armies in Greece 448-225 BC...

• 1 x General (Sp)
• 1 x Hoplites (Sp) (or Cavalry (Cv) which will be in the form of my Alexandrian Allied Greek Cav, which are now on the painting block, so to speak)
• 7 x Hoplites (Sp)
• 2 x Hoplites (Sp) (or Peltasts (Ps), which I've pulled into my 4Ax elements)
• 1 x Psiloi (Ps) (these are actually figures from my first box of Revell Pretorians many, many, many moons ago)

...or of course a double DBA army, probably against those upstarts from the north, the Macedonians. (I'm not doing another 4 12Bw elements to complete a second Early Achaemenid Persian army!)

Cool! Now to game with them...sometime...

Nick

Finally Marians!

And a new metal Newline Greek...

...(with Little Big Men shield decals)

Good afternoon,

Finally, after what seems like ages, my double DBA Marian army is pretty much done.

Many thanks to Andy Gorman and Mark Ottley for painting about half of it!!

Replete with...

• 2 x Equites General elements
• 1 x Equites element
• 2 x Allied Gallic Cavalry elements
• 2 x Allied Numidian Cavalry elements
• 16 x Late Republican Roman Legionaries elements
• 4 x Psiloi elements (including Balearic slingers)
• 1 x [Mediterranean type] Auxilia element
• 1 x Camp element and...
• 1 x element of Camp Followers

I could also add some Gallic warband, German Auxilia or Psiloi, and, once they're painted, Greek or Macedonian Cavalry. I've got a Numidian Elephant that I could add to the mix, but it's got a much more arid base flock. Like, without a touch of green!

So now I can finally refight the civil wars, or my double Parthians, or [double] Ancient Brits, or...any number of my other armies. These Marians really got around!

Nick

Brexit - The Gift That Keeps On Giving...Again...

Good afternoon,

A couple of days ago I received my second Brexit inspired purchase from the UK. Newline 20mms.

Hoplites (Command and Advancing)...

(They weren't quite as compatible with the HaT figs as I had envisioned. Still, they look great!)

...Macedonian Command elements...

(Which now bulks out my number of Macedonian pikemen DBA elements to 16 - two more (eight figures) and I'd have enough for a triple Alexandrian Macedonian army!)

...Late Imperial Romans...

(To supplement my MiniArt LIR Infantry and HaT LIR Cav)

...and Huns.

(To supplement my not-as-historical-as-I-had-hoped-but-still-quite-lovely Lucky Huns.)

As the Macedonian command packs came with two trumpeters, I decided to spread them out. For example, one went to this Hoplite element.

I quite like the way the Little Big Man Studios shield decal worked with this one. Now I just have to wait for the Army Painter Dip to dry...

Nick

Triarii Triumphant

Or something like that.

Good afternoon,

Here, in all of their finished glory, are the sum total of my painted Polybian Roman Triarii.

Replete with a Later Carthaginian standard bearer!

And, of course, that which they are defending. Their camp. And camp followers.

Who are themselves...able to run away so that others can fill their place!

Nick