The Andalusians are ready to march

There's nothing like an upcoming deadline to speed up the work :-) 

At our next big club event AttritiCon which will be held in two weeks I have the honour to stage an El Cid - Impetus game with Christopher aka Axebreaker, known near and far for his beautiful armies. Just take a look at his fabtastic El Cid army and you will understand why to say I'm under pressure to present something adequate really is quite an understatement. 

Thus I have started to base and paint an Andalusian army that was for a long time in my mind and in my cuppord but for some reason or the other had not seen the light of day yet. Today I'm glad to say that it is finished. Have a look for yourself:

Impetus Andalusian Cavalry (figues by Musketeer, Gripping Beast, Artizan, Black Tree and Crusader)

 

Impetus Andalusian Infantry (figues by Musketeer, Artizan, Gripping Beast and Black Tree)

I have already written what there is to say about this army here, so this time I'll let it suffice with the army list and some more pictures. All together it is a 400p army consisting of two commands:

 

Command 1 (Horse): 227 p

1 Expert Commander (C-in-C), attached to CM below 30 p

4 Andalusian Cav CM 92 p

1 Mercenary Knights  29 p

1 Banu Birzal CM  30 p

2 Andalusian CL with Javelin 46 p

Command 2 (mainly foot): 173 p

1 Expert Commander (not attached)  20 p

2 Javelin Skirmishers 24 p

3 Andalusian Foot and Archers fielded together as large units  75 p

2 Mercenary Light Horse with Bow  44 p                                      

 

 

 Now all I have left to do is learn the Impetus - rules... And, ahem, finish some other figures I'll need for the event. But more of this later.

All the best to you, take care and thanks for your visit,
Tobi

Big

Strange caption, that is. Well, I couldn't decide whether to name the post for the news I want to break, the progress I want to report or the sale I'd like to announce. But as all of them go well together with "big", I guess that'll be this posts title for now.

Where to start? Let's begin with the news. I was at Tactica in Hamburg two weeks ago, and as many of you may already know, this wargames show really is a gem. I was there first time and wasn't prepared for such a big and great show on German soil. Also, I wasn't prepared to spent so much money, which is why I won't go to Salute after all. No need for it, really, my lead mountain has risen quite a step. But it wasn't only the things I've bought (more of that in a later post), but also the games were just great. Here are just a very few impressions of the eye candy available there...

But surely the greatest experience of the show was talking to the Perries, who are really very nice and amiably fellows. And now here is the first of the big news I've learned: Michael is doing TWO NEW WotR PLASTIC SETS. One will be dismounted knights, the other light cavalry. He was even so kind to ask me which set I'd prefer first and I opted for the dismounted knights - so I guess it will be light cavalry first out, then.

The Perry Twins Alan (left) and Michael (right) being interviewed at the Tactica by Magabotato

The second big news of the show I've learned from Alex Buchel: There'll be a SAGA SUPPLEMENT FOR THE CRUSADES this autumn with lists for several Arab and Crusader factions. Having proposed Crusader lists at the SAGA-forum myself I'm really excited about this news. Also, it definitly was the right decision to go for single based figures in my current project...

Speaking of which there is also big progress to report. The basing goes along nicely, and I now have multibases for the biggest part of my army. As you can see on these snapshots they are not yet finished, but the most time-consuming part (preparing the multibases and basing the figures so that they will fit into the slots - its harder than it sounds as a single corn of sand can obstruct the close-fitting connection) is done:

Andalusian Foot (Work in Progress)

Andalusian Horse (Work in Progress)

A close up on the command

 Now  I have to do some light horse and a few more other bases, than I can concentrate on the painting of the bases.

Speaking of concentration... I have to admit a little lapse of focus lately. With all the new  toy I've bought at the Tactica I thought it was time again to sell some, too. So I based and finished a few more figures and put them on Ebay. Among those are:

Arabs

WotR from Front Rank

Normans from Gripping Beast

Normans from Gripping Beast

Hundred Year's War

I'll probably miss some of them eventually, but even with my rather grand-scale approach to planing and starting projects there is a step where grandness and madness collide, and I want to stay well away from that step for as long as possible...

Thanks for visiting, have a nice evening and take care,
Tobi

Later Andalusians - Impetus Style

Flip Flap, says the Wargames Butterfly - and someplace it causes a storm.

Well, not a storm exactly, but at least a burst of activity. While January was very busy in real life and I hardly managed to paint anything at all, February proved to be much of an improvement. And a new project was started - since Christopher aka Axebreaker and me have finally decided on what we want to prepare for the next AttritiCon in Ulm. It will be El Cid - using Impetus rules, and featuring Christophers gloriously painted (and in the new "Impetus extra 5" - booklet deservedly honoured) El Cid-army as well as my less famous, but nonetheless quite nice Andalusian force. I may say so myself, because the collection does not only reflect my own humble painting efforts, but features the beautiful work of Monica Bello, Simon Bradley, David Millet, Jake Hallam and some others.

As you can see from these names, the project has been growing for some time now. I kept painting Arabs and also buying them painted or handing them out as painting comissions, but I really couldn't decide on what rulesystem to use, so I did not base the figures. Now, finally, it is decided for which project they will be used - and thus how to base them. Using my previously intodruced basing-system they will be single-based and then combined on Impetus-multibases. This way I can also use them for DUX or other skirmish games at a later time. Naturally, this basing-system is somewhat of an overkill and takes double or tripple time - first the figures have to based individually, then the multibase has to be prepared. But looking at the first results, for me it's well worth the effort.

What we have here are two bases of bowmen and one base of skirmishers. The pictures are not that great and I'll take some better ones with more background as soon as more bases are ready - which will be quite soon, I hope.

By the way, I didn't photoshop the bases, so while you surely can see that these are individually based figures, in my oppinion the effect typically associated with Impetus-bases (a small diorama) is not completely lost. But let me know what you think.

Have a nice evening and thanks for your visit,
Tobi

Dux Britanniarum Part 2: The Saxons

I hope you all had a good start into the new year, and may it be a happy and healthy one for you and your Dear ones. With us the start into 2013 was not a smooth as we had wished for - nothing serious, but our little girl had her first "big flu" and both my wife and I have fallen sick in turn, so it was a nice little sick bay around here. Well, now we are all better and ready for a late start into the new year.

It's been a while since I have shown my British force for DUX here, so as first blog entry of 2013 I'd like to show you the progress on that project. First, I have finished the British commander together with his champion and a standard bearer - as no standrads are required in DUX, he's just there to give flair and maybe to be removed as a marker for a wound given to the big man.

The DUX himself (original figure from the ruleset-release) with his Champion and Standard Bearer (both figures by Gripping Beast miniatures)

Next there are the Saxons: The gruel and bloodthirsty warleader with his champion and standard (yes I know, the christian symbols don't really fit in with the hammer amulette - but I liked this flag very much, and just look at the man: Isn't such a villain apt to use all advantages he can get? That probably includes being not overly choosy in religious matters...)

The Saxon high command - all figures by Gripping Beast, both the champion and the flag-bearer painted by Jake Hallam

And here we have the rest of the hairy horde: Three units of warriors with their captain (on the left)...

Saxon warriors - all figures by Gripping Beast (except for the one chap on the right, he's from Musketeer), all buildings by Grand Manner

...two units of elite hearthguards, the finest fighting men of northern Germany (and very fine figures, too - a real pleasure to paint)...

The hearthguard and their black captain (left). Figures are a mixture of Musketeer Miniatures and Gripping Beast. The chap with the green shield and the beautiful horse-freehand on the far right was again painted by Jake Hallam.

...and finally a few skirmishers.

Saxon skirmishers - all figures by Wargames Foundry, the two bowmen were painted by Jim Bowen

I've already played some games with those armies, but as a few figures have not been finished until now (and had to be replaced by stand-in vikings) I didn't take pictures of them before. But now that they are ready, I really enjoy having them. And I plan to use them as often as possible - thus I'm going to use them in my cunning ploy to infatuate my fellow club members to play DUX (a rule system I really can not recommend highly enough). Well, let's join the fight!

Next in line on my painting desk are a few finishing touches to several SAGA-armies, then I'll take up the task of transforming DUX into new eras. Best regards and thanks for your visit,

Tobi