HOTT 15mm Generic Undead Army

Last year when I flew down east (Montreal to Halifax) for my summer vacation I was asked to bring along my 15mm HOTT Undead army. They would see action. It was the first army that I rebased with magnetic bases, but this trip would show that the product used  was not up to the task. Those bases were composites composed of a magnetic bottom layer and a thin cardboard top layer.The heavier miniatures glued to the cardboard, separated from the base when my luggage was handled by the cargo crew. They pulled off the cardboard layer.

 15mm Undead (Old Style Bases) vs Goblins 
Battle over Sacred Site

July 2010 Halifax

I resolved to rebase the army and I managed it in two steps. I placed an order for some figures from Peter Pig and at the same time I ordered pre-cut plastic bases. I already had a supply of Litko self adhesive magnetic bases that I would attach to the plasticard bases. I do not trust the self adhesive tape to hold so I used super glue to insure a solid  fix.

I purchased the beginnings of this army from Irregular Miniatures in the early to mid 1990s.Other figures, mainly characters, were added. Some were 25mm scale but they served a purpose. Additional units were built from the Ral Partha 15mm line of figures produced for the AD&D Battle System. The final group of figures used to build this force are Black Raven Undead units.

Three weeks ago between painting my Nikaian Byzantine DBA army and my Burgundian Ordonnance DBA army I took the time to finish my undead basing project. Last winter I had already taken the time to remove the figures from their old bases and glue them to their new ones. I only had to texture paint and flock the new bases. The end result is my large collection of undead. I am not content to use just the suggested Undead Army list  available in the HOTT rules but have incorporated almost every troop variant available.I am still looking for a suitable undead dragon to add to this army.

1) The Magician General (Three Elements) Majority of figures by Irregular Miniatures. Figure in Red Cloak by Black Raven Miniatures. @ 4AP each

2) Sneakers ( Three Elements) All by Irregular Miniatures @ 3 AP Each

3) Flyers ( Two Elements) by Irregular Miniatures @ 2 AP Each

 

4A) Knights (Skeleton Chariots) One Element Unknown Make @ 2 AP Driver is by Irregular Miniatures

4B) More Knights Ral Partha (Four Elements) ADD Battlesystem Figures @ 2 AP each. Can also be used as Riders

5) Riders Three Elements by ADD Battlesystem Figures and Four Elements by Irregular Miniatures @ 2 AP each.

6) Lurkers ( Three Elements) Irregular Miniatures @ 1 AP each

 

7) Hordes (11 Elements) Mostly Irregular Miniatures some Black Raven Miniatures

 

The Following Troop Types are not on the HOTT Generic Undead Army Lists but I feel that if you read enough stories or watch enough movies, you will find that these troop types are available to certain dark forces.

1) Irregular Miniatures Undead Artillery (Two Elements) @ 3 AP Each. My friend Les, once commented  that these guns are what the Aztecs would have produced if they invented canons.

 

2) Undead Heros or Anti-Heros . Even the Forces of Darkness have their champions. Two Elements @ 4AP Each.

These are two of my favorite figures. Both are 25mm. One was a Ral Partha (or RAFM) Figure sold as an Undead Adventurer. The 2nd is an unknown make but is a Dwarf, who heart has been ripped out. I was referred to as a sick twisted ba***rd for having adding that figure to my army. Needless to say that complement was bestowed upon me by a Dwarf fan.

3) Undead Behemoths (Two Elements) @ 4AP Each. Again these figures were 25mm figures that I felt would fit in nicely with a 15mm Army. The figure on the left is of a Ral Partha (or RAFM) Undead Japanese Ogre. I do not know what the 2nd figure is, nor do I do not know the maker of the figure.

This army is totally separate from the Undead Army I have previously blogged about.  This was the original Force of Darkness, in 15mm. The other army consists of 15mm figures on the 25mm HOTT base widths in order to obtain a massive looking army. The Irregular Miniature Undead figures are the oldest presented here. They are rather crude when compared to either the Ral Partha ADD Battlesystem Line or the Black Raven Figures that are shown, such as the Undead Dwarf Anti-Hero standard bearer.

The Irregular Figures of this age are soft and malleable. Because they are skeletons they break off at the legs very easily. I prefer not to use the Irregular Riders for this reason. Some of the figures are in danger of snapping off the stands, as are a number of the Horde Infantry. The Irregular Miniature standard bearers are extremely robust and I advise people using this army to use them to move the horde elements.

This army can still use more troops but in total I can field 85 AP worth of Undead with the figures above.

The Final Element. 

 The Price of Failure.

DBA IV/84 Burgundian Ordonnance

IV/84 Burgundian Ordonnance 1471-1477AD
1x3 Kn (Gen), 1x 3Kn, 3x 3Kn//4Bd, 2x 4Lb, 1x 4Cb, 2x 4Pk or 8Bw, 1x 2Ps, 1x Art

 Army with all options shown.

As previously blogged last year I fielded a Burgundian Ordonnance army at Cangames. It was a hodge-podge collection of miniatures that were selected from various fantasy and renaissance units about an hour before I headed to the train station. In spite of having more than enough time, I failed to plan ahead. I flipped open the DBA rulebook and browsed for something that I could throw together in 15mm scale.  My object was to avoid the armies that I used in previous years. And that was how the army of Charles the Bold went to Ottawa.

I decided that I will bring the Burgundian Ordonnance army to Ottawa again, but it would have to be a totally dedicated force. I found some figures that I had not painted in my collection of renaissance lead, that would work for the period and the remaining were ordered from Essex Miniatures. The past two weeks were spent in preparation.

I am not content to just paint an element, I feel the deep desire to field units. The photo above shows all the elements of this DBA army, but the following photographs are the entire body of troops I painted. The primary colours for the Burgundians were Blue and White. Infantry were to wear a Blue and White surcoat  along with a red Saint Andrew cross  for identification. Knights were encouraged to use Blue and White for the feathers worn in their helms or on their horses. I have tried to incorporate these guidelines to some degree with my figures. I was not happy with my attempts to paint a small clear St. Andrew's cross and as a result painted over most of them. I just could not get a thin steady line that I was happy with.

1x3 Kn (Gen) and 1x 3Kn

When I searched through my collection I discovered I had 15 gendarmes without horses. I wrote to Essex Miniatures and they were very happy to provide me 6 horses, without riders for the same price of a regular package of figures. I asked for a 3 package mix of the horses used for MER52 and MER53. Enough horses to provide me with 5 elements of knights. Banners and Flags are by Warflag. These accessories help bring this unit to life. The General Element bears the banner of an ordonnace company.

3x 3Kn//4Bd (Mounted)

The army list includes 3 Elements of knights that can fight dismounted. Instead of using the same figures as the General and a second gendarme element I found I had another 16 figures in plate armour bearing a lance. Their horses did not have barding or caparison. From their squat appearance I labeled them as Mike's Models. I know that the Mike's line was purchased by Essex Miniatures in the late 1980s and these figures could have been produced by Essex Miniatures after their take over.

I painted 8 elements of men-at-arms. They have the same general appearance of the knights above and provide the needed 4 man Blades Elements. This unit (or two units) was built from 4 packs of Essex MER36 (Dismounted Knights).

3x 3Kn//4Bd (Dismounted) 

2x 4Pk or 8Bw

The two elements of pike (MER40 and MER41) may be replaced by two elements of 8 Bow. These double element units were an innovation of Charles the Bold and are represented by 4 pike placed in front of 4 archers on a 40mm x 40mm base. I tried to keep to the Blue and White colour scheme but added some red and yellows to add some variety.

2x 4Lb

1x 2Ps

The archers which were used for the 8Bw elements and the 4LB and the 2P are all from the same set. MER84 provides two main figures and I had 4 packs. One was used to make 4 elements of 2 man Psiloi, one for the two elements of 8 man Bow and two for 4 elements of 4 man Long Bow.

1x 4Cb

Two packages of Essex Miniatures MER45 provided the figures for the crossbow unit.

1xArt

I already had the artillery train, but I had to paint crew figures. I found 11 figures that had the appearance of  the Mike's Model line.  It is possible they were some form of Squat Football Team, but I drafted them for the Bleu et Blanc.

To complete the army list I needed a camp. An assembled supply train with escort fulfills this function.

As I stated I was not content to just paint one DBA army. The figures here allow me to field close to two and a half armies for a Big DBA game. With other figures I already I can easily field the 36 elements needed. Just to be safe I'll just have to pick up a few more packages of pikemen next weekend at Cangames.

What's on the work table

Work has progressed slower than expected. I hoped that I would be posting the final product today. Instead I must just leave you with just a taste of what's to come.

DBA IV/31 Nikaian Byzantine Army

As previously blogged, last May at the Cangames DBA Open Book Tournament I placed second and won an Essex Miniatures Nikaian Byzantine (IV/31) army pack.  Patrick Laffey provides an excellent commentary of the tournament from the POV of the Chanca (IV/70) Commander in the September 2010 issue of Slingshot (No. 272), The Journal of the Society of Ancients. In the article, I was one the four opponents he faced in the competition.

Nikaian Byzantine Army

With Cangames rapidly approaching I felt I should open the package and make the army battle ready. It will accompany my troops to Ottawa next month and will be made available as a loaner. As per DBA 2.2 the army consists of just 12 required elements, represented by Essex Miniatures by the following figures.

1x 3CV (Gen)  1 EMED43 (Cv General) with 2 CRU28 Bodyguard        

1x3 CV            3 EMED43

2x 3Kn             3 MID10  Kn (Franks) and 3 MID89 Kn (Eastern)

4x 2LH            4 CRU30 LH(Cuman) and 4 MID88 LH (Turkopoloi)  

 1x 4Sp             4 BZA25 (with Psiloi rear rank)

 1x 4Bw            4 BZA26 (with Psiloi rear rank)

2x 2Ps              4 CRU32 (See above photos)

David Kuijt provides justification for expanded army lists for a number of the Later Byzantine Armies.

His variants may be found at Medieval Armies DBA Page

Later Byzantine Armies: DBA 153 Army Variants

With those comments in mind, I purchased another 19 infantry figures which fellow blogger Sean of,  I was a Teenage Visigoth fame had offered for sale. Check out his blog .

Go West, Young Man! Part III

There is no doubt that the sacrifice of the poor bloody infantry of the Red Army led to final victory in May of 1945.

Platoon CO with Runners

In the words of Churchill ~ It is the Russian Armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the German army. In the air and on the oceans we could maintain our place, but there was no force in the world which could have been called into being, except after several more years, that would have been able to maul and break the German army unless it had been subjected to the terrible slaughter and manhandling that has fallen to it through the strength of the Russian Soviet Armies. (Aug. 2, 1944).

I spent my evenings this past week, when I was not playing Twilight Struggle, painting a WW2 Soviet Infantry platoon.  I bought most of the figures about the same time on eBay and they were mixed when they were primed.  The packages included figures by West Wind Line: Berlin or Bust (by Old Glory) and Harlequin Miniatures (now know as Black Tree Design). Together the two different companies provide a great mix of poses and figures.

1st Squad: 7 Riflemen and 1 SMG and a Sgt

On paper each Soviet Rifle squad would consist of a Sgt, with an Assistant Squad leader, 1 LMG (Gunner and Ammo Carrier) team, 2 SMGs and 6 or 7 Riflemen. Squads were rarely full strength or fully equipped. I have painted three 9 men squads, none equipped with the LMG teams.

 

2nd and 3rd Squads

The 2nd squad has 7 riflemen and 1 SMG, while the 3rd squad had 2 SMGs but only 6 riflemen.

Note: When I was putting the figures away, in my Soviet War Chest, I discovered I had already painted three LMG teams. I only had to add my yellow dot code so each team was matched to a squad. Now each squad can exercise various manpower  and equipment options.

LMG Teams Added to the Platoon

I still have another 50 primed Infantry figures to paint. These figures will allow me to bring a platoon in winter camo pattern, and a 2nd summer dress platoon up to strength. In addition, to a squad of Combat Engineers that need to take to the field with their flamethrowers and mine detectors, there is a newly arrived mortar section (4x mortars with crews) from BTD Miniatures to paint.

To complete this project I have one pack of BTD (WW2010) Soviet Character Set and four packs of Battle Honors WW2 Soviet Infantry unopened. The first, Russ-7 is a package of 10 tank riders. The second package,  Russ-18 consists of four 2 man Anti-Tank Rifle Teams.

Finally there are two packs of Russ-22 (each with 2 x Maxim MGs and NKVD Crews). If you watched Enemy at the Gates, you know you can't go to Stalingrad without them. It is amazing that despite such criminal encouragement, the heroic soldiers of the Workers and Peasants Red Army advanced into the heart of Nazi Germany.

Soviet Medium Tank Battalions 1943

Back when I was a poor student, my early purchases in the field of microarmour were from Heroics & Ros. I am sure I paid less than 20 cents per vehicle at the time. However I was always drawn towards the much greater detailed miniatures available from C-in-C and GHQ. A few years ago opportunity knocked, and I was able to purchase three boxes of GHQ Combat Command packages at a local gaming store for less than half price. This past week, two boxes were painted.

 

First Battalion Painted Russian Uniform WWII Vallejo 094 

Second Battalion Painted Russian Green Vallejo 096

Both units were given a black ink wash (1: 20 parts water) to bring out the details and tracks and running gear were painted various earth tones with a brown ink wash.

Each unit at full strength had 21 x T-34/76s and 2 x Stalinetz Tractors (Recovery Vehicles). The Battalion would consist of  two tank companies each with 10 vehicles and  the Battalion CO in the 21st Tank.

I do not know if the recovery vehicles were attached one per company or acted as a battalion asset.

Saracen DBA/HOTT Part VIII: Arabian Myth

This should be the final entry for the DBA Saracen or the HOTT Arabian Myth army, other than a camp or stronghold. To past the evenings during the last week, I painted the Black Tree Design Bowmen and Crossbowmen that I received in the early autumn of 2010. They have been sitting on the back burner for a while and I needed them completed in order to use them yesterday for some DBA gaming.

See Captain's Blog: Form 540, the blog devoted to my gaming activities.

Last year I order two of the Warriors of Islam army pack deals from Black Tree Design Miniatures. The first was AB1059 Warriors of Islam Archers (20 figures) which I used to make five 3 Man Shooter Elements and three 2 Man Psiloi Stands. The second package, AB1058 Warriors of Islam Crossbowmen (20 figures) provided five 4 Man Shooter Elements. For either DBM or WRG Ancients the Crossbowmen represent Regular Troops and the Bowmen Irregular.

 

Warriors of Islam 2 Man Psiloi Elements

AB1059 Warriors of Islam Archers

Based as 3 Man Shooter/Bow Elements

 

AB1058 Warriors of Islam Crossbowmen

Based as 4 Man Shooter/Crossbowmen Elements

I got the idea of how to paint them by looking at the Warhammer Ancients sourcebook on El Cid.

Games Workshop Palm Trees

Last weekend when I dug out the shoebox of palm trees from the storage closet for my Vietnam photo shoot, I discovered that fully 3/4 (21) of the trees still needed to be based and painted. I remembered that it felt like a daunting chore at the time they were assembled.

The Jungle Project was quickly sidelined the first time after seven trees had been painted and based. Oh well, the job had to get done. Over the last five days (and nights), I have slowly taken 15 or so minutes at a time, to complete this project in stages.

 

Warrior leads his horse to water, surrounded by lush vegetation.

I commenced by super-gluing one to three of the trees to each of ten plastic stands. I then applied a layer of texture paint to the bases. I then proceeded by working on 1/3 of the trees/stands at a time. First I'd paint the stands and then the palm trees. Finally I glued either sand (to four desert stands) or static grass (to six jungle stands) to complete the effect. Carried out in increments, the task wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Actually, it's rather easy to spend 15 minutes just before bedtime on a painting project like this, and then another another 15 minutes in the middle of the night after answering a call of nature. Thus when I woke up in the morning, the stands were dry and ready for the next stage.

 

Foliage for a tropic island or the mighty jungle. 

IMO these trees were one of the better deals from the people at Games Workshop. They were rather clever in the way these models were designed to be assembled in an endless variety of shapes. Unlike most plastic model trees these looked pretty good, despite being 100% plastic.

Tourists of Duty or My Time in Vietnam

Before he left Halifax, Rob Swan ran a fun series of Vietnam war games. I think they were partly inspired by the Tour of Duty TV series and were mainly played with the Gi'ac My rule set. I recently was reading my copy of Charlie Company and reflected fondly back on those games. Like the Charlie Company rules, the scenarios that Rob ran were based upon time spent in-country. My character was a US Infantry sergeant who survived his 12 month (game) tour, and was finally on his way home.

Sgt Rockwell, due to his good luck, and seemingly invulnerability started to be referred to as Sgt Rockwell, the latest product of Rockwell Industries. After each game, if your character survived, you received a D6 die roll (1-3 = +1, 4-5 = +2 and 6= +3) to augment the character's stats or skills. I was fairly lucky with my rolls. Victor Charles was not happy that I had survived my tour, and I was a recipient of a personal scenario. A VC hit team was waiting for me at the airport as I prepared to return to the World. These games were long before the digital camera and little, if no record exists of them.

 

Sgt Rockwell leads his squad out of the jungle.

As my contribution I painted up an US Infantry Platoon. I had over forty figures from the Charlie Company line by RAFM. They were divided into three ten man squads, accompanied by an under strength weapons squad and a HQ squad. I built four M113 plastic APCs and a M-48 Patton tank, all ESCI models, purchased from Squadron Shop. I later obtained two 105mm howitzers, which were never assembled or put into the field. Last year when I started to Blog about my WW2 Japanese I dug out the howitzers. I wanted to see how easy they were to assemble compared to  the B.P. Cast model guns. In two words, No Contest.

 

Two 105mm Howitzers with Camp and M-48 Patton Tank

 

Heavy Weapons Squad with M113 APC

(2 Hvy MGs, 2 M-79s, 1 LAW and I Sniper)

 

Understrength HQ Squad. Doc runs towards the Lt.

 

Shavetail used for scale 

(Above M-48 Patton Tank and Below M-88 ARV)

Having the guns on my painting table inspired some eBay purchases, all from the same seller. I won a M-88 Armoured Recovery Vehicle and a fifth M113 APC. I also gained two Roco M113s, but there is such a noticeable difference in scale compared to both the 20mm figures and the other M113 models that I will put these two APCs up for auction. Since there is no other piece to compare it to, I decided to keep the ARV, even though it too is by Roco Minitanks.

I finally painted the arty crews this past weekend and then decided to photograph the complete unit.  I dug out my box of GW plastic palm trees to provide a jungle like back drop.

 2nd Squad exiting a jungle trail. M-48 at the rear of the column.

Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant

At one point I decided that my Roman Army needed an ancient equivalent of the Army Show. According to Wiedenmann (Emperors and Gladiators 1992) "the military were great aficionados of the games, and supervised the schools. Many schools and amphitheatres were sited at or near military barracks, and some provincial army units owned gladiator troupes".

 I won these twelve figures in an eBay auction, about  five years ago. I do not know the manufacturer but they were made for slot bases.  After getting them half way painted they were put aside and forgotten. (Note: March 14 Today I was looking on-line at the Gladiators sold by Black Tree Designs and I am pretty sure the figures I have are from their line)

Recently I was going through one of my storage bins and found two items to reignite my interest. The first was the SPI Ares game Arena of Death. Arena of Death was a tactical combat system for Dragonquest, the SPI fantasy RPG System. 

The second was an old beat up rule booklet from the early 1980s called RVDIS, The Wooden Sword. rules for Gladiatorial Combat written by Ian Beck. Both sets depend upon a  hexagonal tactical display. RVDIS describes the various gladiators by there weapons and armour.

Cimachaerus: Gladius in each hand.

Dimachaerus: Long dagger in each hand.
Gaetulian: Heavy throwing darts.
Hoplomachus: Thrusting Spear and Gladius
Laquearius:: Lasso in right hand, may have a trident tied to left wrist.
Provocator:Spear and gladius
Pugiles: Armoured boxing gloves.
Secutor: Gladius in right hand.
Tatierius: Net inright hand, trident in left. It may not be thrown.
Thrcian: Sica in right hand (Curved sword 40 to 45cms in length)
Velite: Javelin in right hand tied to the wrist. Can not be thrown.

Gladiators were typically picked from prisoners of war, slaves, and sentenced criminals. Criminals were expected to die within a year but could earn release if they survived three years. Despite the low social status held by gladiators, there were also volunteers who fought for money, and the possible celebrity status, a successful gladiator could achieve. 

Who knows how much of the combats were choreographed or scripted in advance. Most professional gladiators were only expected to fight three combats per year. Alas that can not be said for the condemned criminals who fought to the death nor the helpless Christian martyrs, among others.

"The overall death rate among gladiators is unknown, but few survived more than 10 matches or lived past the age of 30. One (Felix) is known to have lived to 45 and one retired gladiator lived on to 90. George Ville calculated an average age at death at 27 for gladiators (based on headstone evidence), with mortality "among all who entered the arena" around the 1st century CE at 19/100. A rise in the risk of death for losers, from 1/5 to 1/4 between the early and later Imperial periods, seems to suggest missio was granted less often" (Futrell: A Sourcebook on the Roman Games 2004)

The following link has something to say on popular gladiatorial myths and the possible rates and causes of death. One argument presented here is that the death rate was caused more by injury and infections,  with euthanasia being a hammer blow to the head.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/09/20/2038358.htm

Suetonius, in the Twelve Caesars, recorded that after receiving the salutation, used as the title, at the start of a mock naval battle on Lake Fucinus that Claudius retorted back "Aut non!" (Or not!). I read somewhere that the combatants took this as a sign that they would not have to fight. Oars were stowed on the galleys and it took a threat of force to get the games to begin.

Note The Army Show was originally a CBC radio show developed in Dec 1942, featuring Wayne and Shuster. The show later toured overseas to perform for the troops.

For those who may not be familiar with Wayne and Shuster  I offer this skit with a Roman Flavour: Rinse the Blood off my Toga