Germs and Germans, Barbarians, Basing and Back Pain

German Barbarians

I need to have everything ready & packed for Historicon in a week. I started looking at some corners to cut. I broke down my doubles army into their exact units, since I finished some new magnetized movement trays last week.

I discovered that I could optimize it use some remaining painted Germans for almost 1/2 of the last warband I needed. So I concentrated on painting enough of the Wargames Factory figures that I had started to finish the unit. So the mix is WF, Foundry, and BTD, with one lonely Grenadier figure that I've always liked as the champion.



So that leaves me with just a unit of 10 cavalry to finish. My options are to finish the Renegade Celts I started -- they will take just a little longer to paint, and are the worst victims of the previously mentioned wookie-syndrome; or, I can assemble about 5 more Wargames Facory figures and paint a unit of them -- they are easier to paint, but I will have to spend the time assembling a few.


Germs and Back Pain

I've been sick since the weekend, I caught some sort of flu/cold going around. As a side effect of trying to sleep it off on Sunday and spending too much time in bed, I have been suffering from sciatica and unable to sleep or do much of anything else the past two days. However, on the "silver lining" end of that, one of the most comfortable spots for me to sit happens to be my painting table. Something about the stool, the way I rest my feet, my posture, etc. makes the pain disappear for a while. So last night at 3am when I couldn't sleep, I was painting sheilds (while trying to keep my eyes open.)


Basing

I think I have decided I need to change my basing. I spend too much time on it. I usually follow these steps:

1. Glue on sand & rubble.
2. Paint medium brown
   
3. Drybrush light brown
   
4. Light drybrush creme
   
5. Paint rocks/rubble dark drey
6. Highlight light grey
7. Highlight white
8. Apply patches of watered down glue
9. Dip in foam flock, then dip in static grass

I'm not certain how to cut that down yet still get a similar look.

Another warband finished. The light coming in the window messed with the colors a bit. As with others, I'll go back and detail the shields after basic colors are on the entire army -- or at least the first 2000 points of it. ;)

More Paint Frenzy

In the midst of the other painting previously mentioned, I've been working on a couple of figures "just for the fun of it."






I've only started Repanse.

Painting Frenzy

About two weeks to go. I have one half painted warband, one primed warband, and one primed unit of cavalry to finish.

Plus I need to finish a few movement trays. Not much work involved in those, I just need to remember to proceed to each step, since I glue them in stages in the basement and forget they are there for weeks on end.

My fiance is out of town for the next 5 days. My plans? Nights out with the guys? Wild debauchery? Nope. Probably going to hide out in the back room and paint toy soldiers like a man possessed. I lead the the exciting life, I tell you. ;)

I recieved myRoman command figures, as previously mentioned. Unfortunately my pack of Roman generals had two Pompeys, one Caesar, and no Consul. Also, Caesar's foot appears to have broken off and is MIA. So I emailed Caliver to see if I should contact Foundry about it, but they are taking care of it. So between the quick shipping and the helpful customer service in taking care of the minor glitch that wasn't even their fault, I'm pretty happy with Caliver and will use them again in the future.

In regard to the actual figures, I will give more details when I actually paint them (not until post-Historicon). But looking at the unpainted figures, the standard bearers all look decent, but the generals look really disappointing. The faces really lack the usual Foundry definition to the extent that they're bordering Mr. Bill territory. I'll wait until they're painted and post some pics before final judgment.

German warband

Finished a 30 man German warband. A mix of Foundry and Black Tree figures and shields. As with the others, I'll go back and add designs to the shields once I've got enough figures to field 2000 points.



After starting off strong & ahead of schedule, I'm now behind on everything due to various uncontrollable circumstances. I've got some commission work I need to finish too. So I'm worried about getting everything done for the WAB doubles.

I'm starting to consider which is the lesser of two evils, fielding a primed or only partially painted unit of warband, or dropping one and filling in the points with more chieftains. :/

Back to the miniatures... I did rush them a little bit, but I really like the sculpts. A few of the BTD figures don't seem to match the rest. They almost look like cavemen moonlighting as Germans. Some of them, though, are almost indistinguishable from their Foundry counterparts. I'm trying to keep the colors dark & earthy.

Barbarian rumble

Played a 1000 point game over the weekend. My Gauls using the HatPW list vs. a Warlord list from FotW.

My army was 3x25 warriors, 9 javelin skirmisher, 9 slinger, and 10 cav. A cheiftain in one unit of warriors, a high chieftain in another.

I faced 2x30 warriors (1 with chieftain, 1 with warlord), 6 steppe cav, two units of 9 skirmishers (1 with chieftain), and 8 archers.

I thought it would be a straightforward match of running forward, hitting each other and then one side becoming more disordered than the other -- game over.

Instead, first my cavalry got ambushed trying to fast march around some woods. I destroyed the skirmishers, but the pursuit was exceptionally enthusiastic, and that put them between the two lines of infantry. They ended up fleeing out of the game. A poorly timed "unruly advance" roll caused my infantry to move up into charge range, so I was charged by the slightly larger enemy warbands. I did OK, winning one combat, losing the other. In the combat I won, my opponent both lost his chieftain in a challenge with my general and failed his break test. So it was panic tests for just about everything on the board. I managed to roll 12 for both of my warbands, plus my skirmishers ran as well. The only thing left was my slingers. I managed to make some lucky rally rolls the following turn, and my warbands came back.

So both lines scattered a bit, realigned, and met again. I lost one more combat, and that was pretty much the game.

I had my general, his warband, and my slingers left.

My opponent had his general and accompanying warband, a his steppe cav, and his archers left.

Interesting game that highlighted the subtle differences between the two lists.