15mm Ghurid Army Completed

I haven't posted for a while as I have been busy working on sixty-five elements of two hundred and sixty pikemen to complete a Ghurid army, the last of the quartet of my middle Eastern armies for DBMM:

The Ghurid dynasty was another short-lived empire based in Afghanistan between 1149 and 1215 AD. They conquered the Ghaznavids and, like the Ghaznavids, pushed into India. There is therefore a fair bit of overlap between the Ghanavid and Ghurid army lists with the main difference being that the latter utilised mail-coated foot and were armed armed with a long spear, usually carrying a 'karwah' or pavise. Unfortunately no manufacturer makes a specifically Ghurid foot figure carrying a karwah, but Forged in Battle do a nice long-spear armed and chain-mail armoured Arab figure which ticks all the other boxes quite nicely:

There are six poses in each pack, and only four outside the two command figures, so by the time I got to figure two hundred and sixty I had seen a lot of the same poses:

These are however nice crisp castings so it was not as big a chore as it otherwise might have been:

There is an option in the army list to double-base the figures. This has the advantage of reducing the points cost of the second rank which can still lend support to the first, but a disadvantage in that if the first rank gets killed the second goes with it:

I opted to base forty-two of the elements on double bases:

And twenty-three on single bases. There was no way I was going to paint an additional couple of hundred figures to accommodate this variation and the double-based figures can still be nominated as single elements when required, with the single-based elements acting as loose change.

April also saw the completion of another fifty-two Daylami warriors to provide an additional thirteen elements to the thirty-three previously completed, just in case I ever need to field the maximum:

With the Arabs all now finalised I have commenced work on my remaining 15mm Forged in Battle army in the form of some 15mm Dark Ages Welsh, which I hope to complete over the next two months. 

15mm Arab Conquest Army Completed

 Just a quick post with a few photos of my recently completed Arab Conquest army. All the figures are from the Forged in Battle Dark Ages Arab range:

The real killer with this project was all the swordsmen I had to paint, with two hundred and sixty figures in total. Initially I thought that there was just blade or Bd(O) required, which would have represented a more modest one hundred and seventy-six, but then I flipped over the page and found I needed an additional eight-four based differently as warband. These are mutually exclusive in that if you want to field the cavalry as heavy cavalry (ie 'Knights') you lose the blade and replace them with warband:

 

Far more enjoyable to paint, probably because there weren't so many of them, was the cavalry, and especially the heavy cavalry as these are very nice little sculpts:

In total the army is comprised of one hundred and twenty-five horses and camels, four hundred and thirty-seven foot and riders, totaling five hundred and sixty two figures.

Next up is the last of my quartet of Arab armies; the Ghurids which was a Sunni Muslim empire centered in Afghanistan and lasting around a hundred years from 1148. It emerged just as the two-hundred year Ghaznavid empire was declining, to be eventually overthrown by the Ghurids. This one will require two-hundred and sixty pikemen, so at least I now know what to expect.

Arab Medium and Light Cavalry

After having completed the Arab heavy cavalry recently all that remained to complete the army was eight elements of medium and six of light cavalry:

I recognised a few of the figures from other Forged in Battle packs, but there were some new ones in there and all are suitably unarmoured:

The medium (or 'Ordinary' in DBMM parlance) cavalry have all been based with three to a base:

While two figures to a base signifies they are Light Cavalry:

The DBMM Arab army list also allows up to four elements of camels, classified either as Inferior Light Horse or the rather more useful Camel(X), so I thought I'd also include them. I'm not actually sure how I will work them into an army list as it means omitting other potentially more useful troops, but it is good to have the option:

These are one-piece castings and quite thin when viewed head-on, but perfectly OK from other angles:

That is the Arab Conquest army now completed, my third Arab army in a row and the largest of the three thus far. I'm about to move on to a Ghurid army which will be the last of the quartet, but will try to get all the Arab Conquest together for a few group photos in the meantime.

More Monday Midgard

This is the third game of Midgard we have played in a row in an effort to cement the rules in our heads, and it flowed quite nicely.

In this scenario my Vikings are defending (in a very un-Viking way) a ridge line against some advancing Saxons. To even things up the scenario calls for the defender to keep two units off the table until turn four of the allotted six, which means the Vikings are outnumbered at the start:

The obelisks represent objectives and the defender gains a reputation token for each where a Viking unit manages to maintain contact at the end of a turn:

The Saxons commence the advance. For something a little different they also include a unit of light riders which I can see are going to work their way around my left flank:

It takes two turns for the Saxons to get up into the Viking faces while the cavalry works its way around in a sweeping arc. This is when I decide that the Vikings should revert to type and abandon their position on the hill to charge the Saxons. 

The obelisks are only worth a single reputation point each, and you can gain a reputation point for initiating the first charge anyway. 

Likewise being uphill helps in turns of being allotted two saving throws, but charging gains the initiative and means that any dice rolls of a 1 can be re-rolled, with a five or six being a hit. Hits are then compared against the armour value of the defending unit, with light troops being a 2, warriors a 3, and up-armoured troops 4.

Most warrior units throw a base 12 dice so a charge seems like good value at this stage. The other nasty surprise I have prepared is that I spent a bucket load of points on the center unit to make them 'brutal' meaning they hit on a 4,5 or 6:

Before the first combat is resolved the Saxon leader calls out the Viking leader for single combat.

Leaders can refuse but the army then loses a reputation point, besides which I have packed the leader with several attributes including again the 'Brutal' characteristic which also allows him to hit on a 4,5 or 6. The combat is short  and the Saxon leader loses a stamina point before both return their units.

The rest of the combats are resolved with in some cases up to nineteen dice per unit once various factors such as attached leader status have been added in, resulting in three Viking wins and with all Saxon units pushed back. This means the Vikings maintain the impetus and will continue to reroll any 1s in the next round of combat. 

The Saxons do however have a win on their left flank and push back a Viking unit in front of the newly arriving Viking reinforcements. The scenario called for a dice roll to see where on the table edge these reinforcements would arrive, and it looks like they are entering at just the right spot, or so I thought at the time:

The combat continues and the Vikings continue their success, dispersing all three Saxon units in the left and center sector. The Saxons do the same to the Viking unit of warriors on the right flank, while their cavalry finally gets into position and smashes into the rear of the Vikings on the left flank:

The Vikings only fight back at half effect, throwing six dice instead of the usual twelve, but manage to hang on.

Meanwhile the Saxons, fresh from their success against the lone Viking warrior unit on the right flank, manage to force the two newly arrived units from the table and secure that flank:

In the middle the 'brutal' Viking unit continues its rampage, doubling back and dispersing another Saxon warrior unit:

The Viking skirmishers also do their bit, ganging up on and eliminating a unit of Saxon archers.

Each time a unit is lost, the owning player loses two reputation tokens. The Viking have lost three units, but the Saxons have now lost five which means their reputation collapses and they quit the field at the end of the sixth turn.

The action was certainly fast and furious and quickly devolved into separate skirmishes across the field, which somehow felt right. The Viking 'brutal' unit, costing twice the points of most other units, and accompanied by a Level 3 brutal leader, certainly did some damage and accounted for two Saxon warrior units without losing a single figure. 

A fast and fun game which took around two hours to play, but not overly taxing on the mental faculties. Just right for a Monday evening.

Arab Heavy Cavalry Completed

When I originally sketched out my requirements for an Arab Conquest army I thought that twelve elements of cavalry would be enough. A is often the case however I soon came to realise I would need double that so ordered another three bags of twelve cavalry each from Forged in Battle to bring the number up to twenty-four elements. 

Here then are the second batch of twelve elements:

Just in time too, as the week after I ordered them the cavalry pack sizes were reduced to eight mounted figures to enable them to be sold at the same price. I think the FiB Arab heavy cavalry are among the nicest figures of theirs I have painted:

There are nine different poses in each pack of twelve, so again more than enough variety:

They are also sufficiently armoured and can therefore easily represent the Fast Knight option in the DBMM Arab Conquest army list:

The only minor quibble is that they are difficult to seat on the generic Arab horse and I can foresee a few becoming unseated in the heat of battle:

Here are the latest batch with the previously completed twelve elements:

The completion of this army is now in sight with just another eight elements of medium cavalry and six of light to go, along with four elements of camelry. With a bit of a push I hope to have these done by the middle of the month.

More 15mm Arab Conquest Swordsmen and a Few Slingers

I feel as though I'm stuck on a rat-wheel of Arabs at the moment but nevertheless have managed to complete another forty-four elements of Arab swordsmen, this time with four to a base to represent 'blade' as opposed to the earlier twenty-eight three-to-a-base elements of warband:

That's one hundred and seventy-six swordsmen completed in this batch, and two hundred and sixty in total including the warband:

Since they are the same figures as the earlier warband I won't linger on them too long, but here are a few pictures of the new recruits:

Needless to say, I was glad that there was so much variety in the figure poses with eight different poses:

I also managed to complete ten elements of slingers, which make an appearance in the Arab Conquest army list but will also be useful for the forthcoming Ghurids, which I swore I would never do until Phil from Toy Soldiers Studio https://15mm25mm.blogspot.com/ put the idea in my head and which I then found I couldn't get out:

Just a small group of twenty figures but again with a satisfying amount of variety:

That makes three hundred and eight-two figures completed for January and February so far with another thirty-seven nearing completion, which is my best start to a year ever and the momentum would have continued if I hadn't dropped an army containing two hundred early Carthaginians and their allies on its end while trying to get the A3 storage box out of the back of my car. 

They had just suffered their worst defeat ever after my gaming partner lost five 50/50 melees in a row by managing to roll nothing but ones against our opponent's fives and sixes and resulting in five holes in our line, only to be followed by two more in the next round. So when I first heard the clatter of lead upon lead, my first thought was 'serves you right, you bastards', until I realised how much work would be required put them back together. Eighty shields and around sixty spears and javelins detached, numerous paint chips plus half of the wire traces I had originally painstakingly attached to the chariots broken off:

If you can imagine putting three hundred figures into an A3 box, shaking it a little, and then thumping it on its end, that is roughly the effect. 

I took me around eight hours but things now do appear to be back as they were. To be honest, it wasn't the worst experience as I again got up close and personal with the figures again.

Now on to the last of the Arab cavalry, which I hope to have completed by the end of March.