Greek Peltasts

Hi,

I finished a battlegroup of greek peltasts some weeks ago and of course want to show them to you! If you want to know, what a peltasts was, check the Wikipedia article (it's really good), because I'm too lazy to explain it myself. In short, these were skirmishers, but more profession and better armed than the standard psiloi, who were recruited from the poorer classes of the poleis. Peltasts served as light and medium infantry and were especially good on rough ground. They became a common sight in greek armies in the 5.th and 4.th century B.C. and were also in use by the early hellenistic monarchies. They were namend after their pelte, a small shield.

I used this HäT set, which is great for every kind of light infantry. I converted some of the miniatures, because I wanted that all of them wear a helmet, so they look more armoured and differ from normal psiloi. I also replaced the spears with brooms (I highly recommend this blog article) and equipped all of them with shields. I employed the same colours I did with the poorer hoplites and the bowmen, because the peltasts were also drawn from a poorer class in Greece and should not wear expensive clothes in battle. The shield are held in colours, with white free hands, which are simple geometric symbols.

Blowing off the dust... with pictures!

That's exactly what I'll do now - blowing off the dust of this blog. But of course I have my reasons for my neglect. I had to move, because my girlfriend finished her studies and became an assistant teacher in England. So we had to give up our flat and now I'm living for some time alone. Despite that, I'm in a very hot phase of my master thesis and don't have so much time writing my blog or shooting some photos (which, in fact, takes most of the time when making a blog). However I do paint a lot, because I don't have to do much else in the evening, but that has its positive side too - I can eventually finish some stuff. I'll try to make some new pictures, but my girlfriend took her camera with her, so I have to use an older one.

 Besides the things mentioned above, I also took a week off, visiting my girlfriend. We were in Sheffield, which isn't so fancy, but nice though. We visited York, a lovely place with some history and a big church. Of course I'd to check a wargaming shop - you can't go to the motherland of wargaming without doing so! I was in the wargames emporion, which was a very fine shop and offered a good variety of miniatures and systems, even though it was quite small (something you wouldn't find in Germany). And it was also cheap as well, so I had to buy some greek ballistas!

Me, learning new techniques in Clifford’s Tower, the ruined castle of York.

So, what are my plans? Currently I paint a lot of ancients. In the next year I want to play Field of Glory, a system which needs a lot of miniatures. So I have to keep painting. Luckily most of the miniatures I need are already bought. I just have to get it on! I also have some blog posts in the pipeline for months, which I should finish...


I managed to make some photos of stuff I finished in the last month. Unfortunately my girlfriend took her camera with her, so I had to rely on an older one. You'll notice the difference in quality, but I tried to make the best out of it.

First I'll show you my general base for Field of Glory. It can also be used as general in DBA. I used this superd Zvezda set for the cavalry figures. As you may notice I changed the heads, because a barheaded general looks too much like Alexander for me - I want a Pyrrhos! The standart bearer is from another Zvezda set. It has nice miniatures, but the poses arn't really suitable for wargaming purposes. 

Second you can see two bases of velites. These were the skirmisher of the Roman republic. They are the first elements for my Roman army. I mixed  Zvezda and a HäT miniatures to get some variety in poses.

Russian armour: my Soviet tank forces

Hi there,

in order to play a game properly I was fortunately forced to finish some tanks which were standing around for some time. I took the chance to make some pictures, so you can have a look!

All models are fast assembly kits. The decals are not included, and so bought separately (only very few fast assembly kits contain decals). I painted them all in the same way: black primer, GW catachan green, a black wash, drybrushing with catachan green and camo green. The dirt is a brown (I used a scenery colour).

1. BA - 6

These fast assembly models are made by Pegasus, one of the best manufacturer of plastic tanks. They are detailed, easy to build and very robust, which makes them perfect for wargaming purposes

2. BT - 7

Also made by Pegasus.

3. T - 34/76

Made by Armourfast. Though cheap and easy to build, they are not very detailed and can't keep up with Italeri or Pegasus.

4. KV - 1

Also Pegasus models. The box contains 4 turrets, which makes it very versatile

5. KV - 2

The same models as in 4., but with KV - 2 turrets.

 

Ancients! Hoplites, bowmen and light cavalry

Nearly two months passed since my last post, a quite sad fact. I admit, I havn't done much since then. I'm writing my masters thesis at the moment and a computer game ist stealing my time. But I finished some ancient figs that waited long enough on my shelf half painted. I also adapted my old terrain to my changed game board, but I missed to make some pictures (it also looks unspectacular, so you don't miss anything). The last thing I did was to change the blog layout, which you may have noticed.

1. The Hoplites

You may have seen my other four bases of hoplites, also taken from this set. They had no armour, because it were the rear ranks. Now I've done some front rank hoplites. They wear greaves and linen armour. I made them very colourful, because they were rich men and rich men always like to show their wealth - and colours were expensive in antiquity. I have two more bases on the workbench, the last ones. With ten bases you can field nearly every Greek DBA army, that involves hoplites (there's only one exception).

2. The Bowmen

Eight bases of Bowmen from this set. With eight bases I can easily make a FoG battlegroup or use them as psiloi for Greek and hellenistic armies. Their tunics are held in bright brown and sand tones, because bowmen were drawn from the poor classes of the Greek society and could therefore not afford fancy colours for their clothes.

3. Light Cavalry

These two bases are from this superb set. They can be easily recognized as Thracians, a people with a long tradition as mercenaries for Greek poleis and hellenistic states. They'll serve as light cavalry for DBA.

Battle report: Avanti! Mussolinis offensive in North Africa

Hello there,

hopefully you saw the buildings I made for the North African theatre. Two weeks ago Björn and I made a small game, to begin our campaign. The war in North Africa started with an Italian offensive against the British - a foolish step Mussolini made, because his troops lost the iniative after some minor victories and were thrown back, so they were nearly wiped out. It was so bad, that Hitler decided to help his ally - the birth of the Afrika Korps.

The initial operations - the Italian offensive (red) and the British response (blue)

We began historically with a desperate Italian offensive against a British held village, somewhere between Badia and Sidi Barrani in mid September 1940. Björn took his British forces, I commanded the Italian attackers.

The British troops hiding in the village and the surrounding compounds.

The brave British only had infantry at their disposal, even missing an anti tank gun. So, they had to rely on close combat against enemy vehicles.

The village was fortified by czech hedgehogs. On the building in the middle is a Vickers machine gun. The rest are also manned by infantry, hiding in the cover of the clay huts.

The advanced defence positons at the crossroads - the gate to the village and therefore an important target.

The Italians began to launch a heavy frontal aussault on the British at the crossroads. Supported by two M13/40 tanks and an Autoblinda AB41, the Italian Infantry threw themselves into cover. The tanks tried to spot the British behind the lower wall, which took much time.

Unfortunately, the Italians had a British unit in their flank, but the Italian commander decided that the outpost at the crossroads had top priority. This led to heavy casualties under his men.

Ignored by the Italians, the unit had a good firing position directly in the flank of the enemy.

At the same time, the Italians also came from the right flank and took positions in the dry river. After heavy fire support from the tank, a squad attacked the small wall frontally. The British defendes decided to flee instead of dieing in close combat. 

Italian advance from the right flank.

The wall is taken, but the house itself remaines to be a nest of resistance.

The M13/40 fails to spot the well hidden British infantrymen in the building.

The building at the crossroads was still able to hinder the assault on the village, but the tanks were unable to spot the enemy inside. So everything had again to be done by the hard pressed infantry. There was only one chance to take the house - by attacking in close combat!

Just before bloody fighting begins: the Italians threw grenades to prepare the following melee.

It was a mercyless hand-to-hand fight, with neither side gaining the upper hand. In the end, only one man on each side remained. With a lucky hit Björn's British soldier knocked out the last Italian attacker and the house was saved. Recognizing that victory became impossible, I ordered my troops to retreat. Even though all my vehicle were intact, the infantry casualties were to high, with half of my company wiped out.

Last man standing. After fierce fighting he held his position, which was later named "Bloody Corner".

If you want to read another AAR, I recommend this one. We played the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.