A Handful of Numidians and a 15mm Tibetan Camp

The recently-completed Roman command packs also included a figure of the Numidian King Massinisa and, as luck would have it, I found a spare pack of Numidian horse that had become lost in the Roman pile. This was perfect in terms of providing a couple of extra figures for another Numidian command element, with the others making up an additional element of light horse:

King Massinisa was the founder of the Numidian Kingdom and was initially allied with Carthage, marrying a Carthaginian noblewoman, although he later became a trusted ally of Rome (which is obviously why he was in one of the Xytson Roman personality packs).

While on the theme of utilising surplus figures, I also completed a couple of Tibetan camps using some left-over Tibetan figures, Forged in Battle livestock and a couple of Tibetan command tents I purchased from Baueda:

According to the Baeuda website, white tents were a sign of status and they were generally reinforced along the seams with strips of black cloth. I'll take their word for this as I am no expert in Medieval Tibetan military tent design, although I'm sure there is a PhD, or at the very least an Osprey, in there somewhere:

I have a fair bit more Baueda stuff to complete and really must do more of it as it is a very enjoyable diversion.

Now back to the Romans and the last unit in the form of some Itallian allied cavalry, which I should have posted by the end of the week.

15mm Tibetan Army Completed

The twelve elements of dismounted cavalry marked the end of this project, so I thought I'd gather the units together for a few group shots:

All the figures are from Khurasan Miniatures, with all from their Tibetan range except for the nomadic cavalry which are from their Mongol collection, and the two heavy rope-pull stonethrowers from the Sung Chinese range:

I painted up the maximum number of armoured cavalry allowed by the DBMM army lists, with thirty-three elements in all including the three C-in-c and sub-general elements:

We normally play 400 point games which would allow me to field most of these which I'd like to try depending upon the opponent, although it would probably not make for the most interesting of encounters and no doubt just be a case of line them up and roll forward:

In total, the army is comprised of the following:

3 armoured cavalry general elements
30 armoured cavalry elements
14 nomadic cavalry elements
18 nomadic light horse
12 elements of dismounted heavy cavalry
6 elements of spearmen
6 elements of bowmen
8 elements of Himalayan skirmishers
2 heavy roper-pull stonethrowers

All up this represents 299 foot and mounted figures and 177 horses, or 476 figures and two artillery pieces in total, and took me around three months which I am quite pleased with.

Some of the army has already seen one game, and we are lining up another for them once gaming has resumed, so it will be nice to roll some dice and see them in action again.

15mm Tibetan Dismounted Cavalry

The last unit in this army is twelve stands of dismounted cavalry, which can then be used as a superior spear-armed foot unit:

One of the elements represents a dismounted Tibetan king with a couple of standard bearers, just in case the C-in-C needs to himself dismount at any stage. That said, it is something I don't think I'd be going out of my way to do, especially as one has to pay the additional points for them being mounted in the first place and it is quite easy for them to lose their horses in combat once they are on foot:

As with the rest of the army, the figures are again from Khurasan:

That's the Tibetans completed then, and I'll try to arrange a group photo before I move on to the next project.

15mm Tibetan Nomadic Allied Cavalry

Rather than having to field an army of primarily knights, the Tibetan army list provides an option for Chi'ang or Sumpa nomadic allies, or Uighur mercenary cavalry.

This seems like a good option to have available depending upon the opposition, especially as they are regular troops of decent or superior quality, so I set about putting together fourteen elements of these:

The figures are again from Khurasan, but from their Mongol range. I selected these on the basis that they should fit the nomadic bill nicely:

There is a choice of six riders and three horses, available either as steppe or Mongol ponies with the latter having a broader head and shorter legs so I chose the former as being more generally applicable:

These are very nicely detailed figures, but are more 18mm than the true 15mm figures of the Tibetans. They have also been done by two different sculptors, but are as I say from two completely different ranges under the Khurasan banner:

They also will not be mixed within the same unit, so the size difference should not matter in the final analysis:

Only around another fifteen elements of Tibetan heavy cavalry plus a few dismounted figures to go now, and that will be the first army completed for 2020. Strangely, and in spite of the enforced isolation most of us are going through, my production rate does not appear to have increased. I can only put that down to my wife also spending more time around home and finding an increased number of jobs that need doing, some of which had been carefully hidden away from all but the most discerning eye and which of course one now cannot find a tradesman to do. 

15mm Tibetan Rope-pull Stone-throwers

The TIbetan army list has the option for two artillery pieces in the form of some large rope-pull stone-throwers, and Khurasan had a model which fitted the bill nicely so I couldn't resist incorporating them:

These were from the Khurasan Sung Chinese range and were, to my eye, modeled by a different sculptor as the figures are slightly rounder in stature, but height-wise they fit in nicely with the rest of the Tibetans:

The only issue with these are that the rules call for them to be mounted on a 40mm x 40mm base, but there was no way I was squeezing on of these onto something that small so went with 40mm x 60mm instead. The frontage is the main thing, so hopefully that should be easy to work around:

Nice models, although all the figures appear to be standing around waiting for something to happen. Hopefully they will be a little more active when they are in the heat of battle.

That's the artillery component finished, now on to some allied nomadic cavalry.

15mm Tibetan Nomad Tribesmen

I needed some mobile light horse to balance all the heavy Tibetan cavalry, and therefore completed eighteen elements of nomadic tribesmen:

As with most figures in the Khurasan range, there two horse and two rider poses, which is fine when there are only two firgures per base anyway:

Again, they are on the true 15mm end of the scale, but I was quite pleased with the result and they turned out a little better than I had expected when I first saw the bare metal:

They will be taking the table for this army's first outing this coming Saturday, so I was glad to have them completed in time:

Next up will be some Tibetan artillery in the form of two large rope-pull stone-throwers, which I am also hoping to have completed in time for Saturday's game.

15mm Tibetan Garrison Troops

There is not a lot of infantry in the Tibetan army list, and only two units of actual Tibetans comprised of garrison bowmen and spearmen which i have managed to complete over the past couple of weeks:

Upon reading this the first question that came to my mind was where were they actually garrisoned? The capital Lhasa was the obvious answer, but I was quite interested to find that the capital was only shifted there by the first great Tibetan emperor Songsten Gampo in the 7th Century. Previously the capital was Taktse Castle, a formidable-looking place high in the mountains with, to my eye at least, a far more mystical quality, but probably not conducive to trade and the protection thereof, which is why the I surmise the emperor must have chosen to shift the capital. Whatever the reason, it provided the spark for Tibetan expansion and the beginning of a 250-year empire. The six elements of spearmen are rated as inferior, but don't cost a lot of points and may still come in handy:

The figures are again Khurasan Miniatures:

The six elements of bowmen are slightly better trained and rated as ordinary:

Again they should come in useful and, in the absence of any other choices, suspect they will be making a few appearances.

That's the infantry done. Now back to some cavalry in the form of some bow-armed light horse.

15mm Tibetan Armoured Cavalry

My gaming group is planning a game for four weeks' time in which I aim to field as much of my Tibetan project as I am able to muster, giving me the motivation to get stuck into some armoured cavalry which form the backbone of the Tibetan army list. To this end I managed to complete eighteen elements over the past couple of weeks, including a general and sub-general:

The figures are again from Khurasan Miniatures and I was very pleased with the way they painted up. They were also a welcome change from having to glue on spears and shields:

The King is the mounted figure to the left forefront, with the sword-armed sub-general on the element to the right:

Tibetan cataphracts were recorded by the Chinese historian Du You as being completely armoured "leaving openings only for the two eyes", and that "strong bows and sharp swords cannot injure them", which I think is depicted well by these figures:

In DBMM they are rated as Knights(X) for eXception, which means they fight some troop types as Superior and others as Inferior, which presumably is intended to reflect the relative agility of the opponent:

DBMM also calls for three to four figures per base, with four being the traditional convention. Even though they are closer to a true 15mm figure however, there was no way I felt I could comfortably squeeze four of them on to a 40mm x 30mm base:

Besides which I intend to use the same army for renaissance gaming, and most rule sets there call for only three figures per base anyway:

While the bulk of the figure has been done using GW Ironbreaker for the armour, I tried to make use of a bit of colour on the non-armoured parts to make them interesting without (hopefully) turning them into a riot of gaudy colours:

I have another fifteen elements of these to complete but need to get some Tibetan garrison archers and spearmen finished first, which I hope to have completed within the next couple of weeks.