Hunnic Camp

Over the summer months I have managed to fit in a good bit of wargaming. Back in May I took part in my first wargames competition which was Campaign in Milton Keynes. I really enjoyed this first experience of competition gaming it was good fun. CLWC had a big contingent and we all went off for a curry on the Saturday night. For my first competition I was very impressed by Milton Keynes Wargaming Club’s organisation of the Show, which hosted the local shopping centre outside a branch of John Lewis it provide a spaciious and bright environment for gaming.  I look forward to going again next year and defend my last place.   

I have managed to have a few games back in CLWC mainly concentrating on Field of Glory and in recent weeks I’ve even won a couple games conclusively, by more than by a couple of points. This I assume, is a sign I am improving. 

Another effect of this flurry of Field of Glory activity was that I bought myself an other army which I am currently working on to the detriment of all other projects. I opted for an Hunnic army made up predominantly of Light Horse backed up by shooty cavalry which provides me with different challenges to the Early Imperial Romans and their steamrolling legions. Tim, over on the Madaxeman has a good article on running a Light Horse Army.   

I opted for Lurkio figures. on the bases that they provide ready made armies ad their figures look absolutely fantastic.  But more about these guys in later posts.  Today I wanted to introduce you to the newly created army camp.  I opted to use six individual 40x40mm bases to give a touch of flexibility to the camp.  I hope you enjoy seeing the project developing. I hope it continues to developing!

Early Imperial Roman Army

Well, with a minimal fanfare of trumpets, the clatter of pots and pans and the sound of hobnails on cobbles I can finally announce I have completed painting my Early Imperial Roman Army. 

At this point it is worth while doing a little recap of the main elements that make it up:

We have three legions of  legionnaires making up the main force. These legions are made up of six bases apiece but obviously could be configured in to more flexible four base battle groups.

Supporting the legions are two battle groups of Roman Auxiliary who are classified as medium foot. They can fulfil a number of roles in addition to dealing with broken ground but also they can offer rear support.

In addition to the Roman Auxiliary I have included some archers units despite never having used before. Nevertheless, I have given myself  some extra options including using them on high ground or interspersed in a line to fire and withdraw.

Rocking up behind the Auxiliaries are the noble Roman Cavalry  who in my experience die quite easily no doubt due to my own poor handling. However I have promised myself not to squander the lives of the sons of Roman by charging it to all and sundry.

Next up are the light elements which comprise of a load of blokes who throw a load of rocks at the oncoming enemy and then get out of the way just in time for the next battle group of Equites Satgitti to sweep in and unleshing a volley of arrows before charging off on a heroic flanking mission of some description. 

On to the one of my favourite units the Numidian Light Horse who can case no end of mayhem to the enemy ranks by racing up and throwing pointy sticks at them. 

The final battle group is the light bolt shooters who can sit on an hill getting drunk waiting for anyone to stray into their field off fire and then they can unleash a couple of larger pointy sticks at  them before getting back their picnic.

One must not for get the illustrious command stands whose job it is to lead this army around the fields of felt and over the plywood hills to Elysium.

The Last Units

Well it’s been a long time coming but last weekend I finally finished the last two battle groups in my Early Imperial Roman Army. This part of the army is the shoot and scoot elements, with four bases of horse archers to provide a flexible flanking force. These equites sagittari are Donnington figures and look great now they are painted up, although I did have some reservations about the level of detail when I first got them.

In addition to the equites sagittari I completed a battle group of Numibian Light Horse to chase down Light Foot and deal with any nellies which might show up. The Numibian figures are by Corvus Belli. These figures are some of the most beautifully animated in the scale no two are in the same pose, a beautiful representation of irregular troops.

Tonight I want to finish painting the three command stands which will complete the army. So a little less talk and a little more painting is the order of the day me thinks...

Painting Priorities

Amongst the bits and bobs I have collected over the last month one will find an eclectic mix of different figures, rules, wargaming tools and ephemera.

Nevertheless, the thing that should have the highest priority is to finish painting and basing my Imperial Romans so I can do battle with my very own army.  Currently the painting production line is full of the second cohort of legionnaires who must be feeling slightly neglected by now.

In addition to this, I am in the process of cleaning up my newly acquired Donnington Miniatures horse archers which arrived this week.  I need to give a bit of thought on how I'll paint these chaps up. Assuming they originated from an area of Roman's eastern European conquests, possibly present day Hungary or Romania and seem to be quite lightly armoured  I wonder if a brown cream palate would suit them?  

In any case I have plenty of time to think about this while I slog my way through all those legionnaires.