More Caliphate Arabs

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…or rather Berbers!

The main difference between the early “Arabic” armies and those from Caliphate times is the composition of the main body of troops, with North African Berbers becoming the dominant constituents.

Havign painted 160 Arab infantry, then 160 Berber spearmen, it was time to add the other troops I’d need for a fully rounded force.

First up were the mainstay of many Berber armies: the javelin-armed light cavalry:

These are actually Moorish medium cavalry from 3D Breed, printed for me by Geek Villain. I couldn’t find any 3D printed Berber light cavalry, and the 3D Breed Moorish archers had proxied very well for Berber light infantry, so I thought I’d give these guys a go.

They are very nice figures that take the paint very well. The only problem is that they come without bases and, unlike every other 3D printed models I’ve bought (including the Moorish light infantry from the same range) I couldn’t get these b*ggers to stand up unaided.

This meant that I had to use Superglue to attach them to their permanent bases and paint them in two’s like that rather than use the lolly-stick temporary mounts that I would usually use. Not a catastrophe, but certainly a pain in the backside as, obviously, lolly-stick pounted figures are based to make them easy to paint and permanently based troops are not!

This was very disappointing as I have loved the other 3D Breed miniatures that I have bought without reservation. Still, they are done now, and look very good.

Next were some Berber archers:

These were Red Copper 3D prints: the last of those printed for me by Baueda Italy before they were sold to the UK. Nice figures with plenty of animation and very easy to paint.

All the above were painted in the same way as the other Berbers: undercoat in Grey Seer, then splash on a base coat on Contrast White paint. Leave to dry. Then dry brush a bright acrylic White over the Contrast White to give you the folds in the robes. Then paint the faces, eye slits and hands in a dark flesh Contrast paint. After that, the sash and headdress in a Contrast colour of your choice: here I used Stormfiend Blue.

Then it’s just a matter of finishing the figures. The Spear shafts are in Wyldwood, the pennants in a variety of Contrast colours. The shields are Wyldwood (painted at the same time as the spears) then drybrushed in bronze then washed with Agrax Earthshade.

Just some javelinmen to go now and then the Arabs/Berbers are finished…or as finished as any army can be!!

Adding to the Caliphate

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With my 15mm Arab Conquest army now veterans of several tabletop encounters, I am now in the process of adding units in order to expand it into one of the later caliphate armies such as the Umayyads who invaded the Iberian peninsular.

First up are the infantry, who transitioned from largely Arabic warbands to units of Berber spearmen sometimes incorporating archers. This was actually a real pain: having painted 160 Arab warriors, I now had to paint another 160 Berber spearmen!

The Black Guard veterans and a couple of the units had already been done (see post from 20th May) so it was now just a question of slogging through the rest. These are all Red Copper sculpts printed by Baueda in Italy before they were sold back to the UK.

Luckily the Berbers are easy to paint: or at least they are the way that I paint them!

Undercoat in Grey Seer, then splash on a base coat on Contrast White paint. Leave to dry. Then dry brush a bright acrylic White over the Contrast White to give you the folds in the robes. Then paint the faces, eye slits and hands in a dark flesh Contrast paint. After that, the sash and headdress in a Contrast colour of your choice: here I have used Stormfiend Blue.

After that, it’s just a matter of finishing the figures. The Spear shafts are in Wyldwood, the pennants in a variety of Contrast colours. The shields are Wyldwood (painted at the same time as the spears) then drybrushed in bronze then washed with Agrax Earthshade.

Easy and quick to do: about three hours per unit.

TTS AAR: To The Smallest Game 2: Arab Conquest vs Later Achaemenid Persian

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My second game at this year’s To The Smallest was a repeat of the warm-up game I’d had on Friday evening: my Arab Conquest army versus Adrian’s Later Achaemenid Persians. I’d won that game, so that had to be a good omen for this one…didn’t it?

Looking at the Persian deployment, they seemed very strong on my left, so I determined to hold back that flank and sent the rest of my army forward as soon as possible, helped by the fact that my infantry was all mounted.

The idea was that I used most of my army - all except a covering force on the left - to beat half of his army, then turned to fight the rest of his troops from a position of being in the lead coins-wise and having a attacking-the-front-and-flank advantage.

Things started reasonably well. My green flag Jund cavalry began pushing his horsemen back, the Daylami veteran javelinmen managed to disorder the mercenary Greek Hoplites and kill their general, and Adrian still hadn’t committed his troops on the right, meaning I was tying up more points than I had committed there.

Unfortunately, disaster then struck!

If you are pushing forward hard on one side of the battlefield, you need to make sure that you watch out for enemy troops from the flank turning through 90 degrees and then hitting your advancing units in the flank.

My two non-fanatic units of Warriors had got a square forward of the main battle line, showing Darius’ veteran lancers (plus army standard) a little too much of their flank. I had my covering force on the left ready to intervene should the lancers turn, but really needed to pull the left hand Warrior unit back one square to be safe.

Two goes (I had a general present) to get 4+ on the cards and I failed both. There’s only a 9% chance of that happening!

Adrian took full advantage, and smashed his veteran cavalry into the flank of the stuck-in-the-mud Warriors, smashing them from the field. Their General died too, meaning that I gave up five of my sixteen coins in one loss!

Worse, there was the second unit of Warriors also with their flank exposed. Adrian hit that too, doubly disordering it with other enemy troops sending it from the field shortly afterwards. For those keeping count, that’s eight or half my coins gone!

But I wasn’t giving up yet. As planned, I’d smashed Adrian’s left flank (i.e. on my right) and was within Ames Ace of taking his camp there too. I had taken seven of his coins so far, so although I was losing, it was not by a huge margin, especially as Adrian’s right flank, now committed as he could see victory in front of him, hadn’t achieved very much.

Unfortunately, again, Darius and his pooping veteran cavalry weren’t finished yet!

They carried on their rampage across the field and hit one of my Fanatical Warrior units in the flank. They rapidly lost their devotion to the cause and fled the field, taking another General with them along with my lst few coins!

Although a disappointing result, it had been a great game of To The Strongest.

I must confess that the early manoeuvres had left me thinking that, after a grind, I could probably win the game…but Adrian spotting the slightly too advanced warband, me failing to move it backwards, and then Adrian superbly taking full advantage not once, not twice but three times in a row rightfully gave the win to the Persians.

It just goes to show how one event can decide the course of a battle, and it’s perhaps fitting that the unit that won Adrian the game (and then some!) was the one I had destroyed to win the warm-up game, Darius getting his revenge!

Enter the Caliphate Arabs

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With my 15mm Arab Conquest army now complete, it was time to start looking at ways I could add units in order to run it into one of the later caliphate armies such as the Umayyads who invaded the Iberian peninsular.

First up was to look at the infantry, who transitioned from largely Arabic warbands to units of Berber spearmen sometimes incorporating archers. Some of these could be veteran, so I decided to paint up a couple of units as “Black Guard”.

Painting an entirely black-clothed figure is always quite hard so, if it helps, here’s how I do it. Undercoat in Grey Seer then Contrast black over the entire figure except for the spear, shield and any flesh. Leave to dry. Lightly dry brush a medium grey. Very, very, very lightly dry brush a white. Paint the odd bit of clothing a dark blue or dark purple to add a bit of variety. Then finish the spear, shield and flesh as normal (the shields are painted Contrast Wyldwood then dry brushed in bronze then given an Agrax Earthshade wash).

These I followed with a couple of “standard” units, one of which contained archers and one of which didn’t:

All the infantry are Red Copper sculpts printed for me by Baueda.

Having seen a couple of fantastic-looking Arabic armies at the recent Ewelme competition, I’m a bit disappointed I haven’t got any big flags with the units, but I do like the way these have turned out…which is lucky, as I have another four units to complete!

Arab Camps and Extras

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Now that the infantry and cavalry for the Arabs are done, it was time to fill in all the extras you need to actually get the army onto the table: primarily camps, a vital component of your To The Strongest force.

In the past I have tended to just use a generic square base for my camps - requires no effort and is practical in terms of a place to store coins, spare ammo etc - but seeing all the beautiful camp dioramas at competitions has inspired me to try and create the same for my troops. I’m sure they will fight better with nicer camps!

First up was the camp that comes with the Red Copper Arabs, here printed for me by Baueda and, as with all the camps you’ll see today, mounted on a 10cm x 10cm base.

The inside of the tent is detailed right to the back wall: laid out as if for a banquest, with sofas, cushions, rugs, a low table etc.The roof comes separate, so you can paint the inside without any difficulty and then glue the top on afterwards.

This is a really nice piece that is actually very easy to paint as the roof and walls have subtle markings for where the stripes go. The inside is easy too: everything is clearly defined and not difficult to get a brush to. Highly recommended.

The second camp is also from Baueda, and consists of a large tent. No markings for where the stripes go, but as it’s a big piece it’s pretty easy to get a decent stripe effect anyway. The model comes complete with relief folds and creases, so the base colour Contrast paint works well to show them off.

The camels and handler are from the Red Copper Arab civilians set and, as you can see, paint up very nicely.

The large space in front of the tent, by the way, is space for a defending unit or for keeping coins, ammo markers etc. I wanted to make sure the camps were practical as well as good looking!

I do sometimes field three camps, so here is a third comprising of two round tents and a tree!

I can’t remember where the tents came from (I think Khurasan) but they are metal and really make the base heavy! The tree came with the Baueda tent, above, but worked better here.

The three figures and the ‘shop’ also came from Red Copper’s Arab Civilians pack, and are lovely figures full of character and animation. I think I could have made a better job of the tents (maybe trying vertical stripes) but they look okay done like this.

Here’s a look at all three camps together:

Finally for this post I also needed some foot commanders and mounted heroes (for the Jund cavalry). These I sourced from Blue Moon Manufacturing via Old Glory as the Red Copper range is limited in terms of command figures, and the 3D Breed Moorish commander is £4.50 for one foot and one mounted figure!

I must go back and take another look at the rest of the Blue Moon range, as these paint up beutifully. The Heroes are from their Arab Personality pack, and I particularly like the chap with the hawk on the left as you look at the picture. I am, however, not sure about the chap second from the right: I have painted what he has in his hand as a stick grenade, as that was what it looked like, but it’s probably a torch or a mace of something…although I think the stick grenade would be more useful!

So that’s the Arab Conquest force done: on to converting it into some of the more ‘organised’ Arab forces by substituting Spearmen for Warriors.

Arab Light Infantry and Command

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I’m still working my way through all the peripheral troops required to field my Arab Conquest army.

First up are the light infantry archers, who I have painted as Berber types using Contrast Apothecary White highlighted with white acrylic, all over a Grey Seer undercoat. Sashes and turbans painted with Contrast Stormfiend Blue.

The models are 3D Breed Moorish archers printed by Geek Villain. I like their slightly squat, cartoonish look, reminiscent of some of the FoW ranges.

Painted the same way, but with the addition of a light blue wash on their trousers and cloaks, here are a couple of units of light infantry javelinmen.

These models are Red Copper sculpts printed for me by Baueda Italy i.e. before they were sold. They are beautiful sculpts with brilliant animation and detail. The best of their Arab Conquest range in my opinion.

An army needs its commanders, so here are two mounted commanders with some more ‘mounted infantry marker’ camel riders in the background.

The coammanders follow the paint scheme I’ve used for the rest of the Jund cavalry and Arab infantry i.e. a mix of bright colours specifically designed to contrast with the Berbers and Bedouin.

The figures are also Red Copper sculpts. Note the chaps holding the hawks on their wrists: really nice figures that Claudio at Baueda specially printed for me as a pack of five rather than as one of the models in a mixed pack of commanders.

The camel riders in the background are Forged in Battle.

Speaking of which, an Arab army sometimes needs some Daylami infantry: fierce tribesmen with javelins and big, multi-coloured shields. Neither 3D Breed, Red Copper nor anyone else I could find do them as a resin 3D print, so I had to go with a metal version from Forged in Battle.

After painting over 200 3D printed figures in a row, it was a bit of a shock to the system going from resin 3D sculpts to metal casts and not in a good way. Don’t get me wrong: the FoB figures are lovely, it’s just that the quality of characterisation and animation that are now being achieved with 3D prints is just incredible, and these just felt, well, bland in comparison.

I had checked what Daylami shields looked like, and they promised to be a real pain to do…so I cheated.

The front ranks have my attempts at Daylami shield patterns: hand painted in what I’d call a cell-like pattern. The back ranks use Celtic transfers from Little Big Man Studios over a variety of backgrounds. As the FoB Daylami shields are flat, and the LBS transfers have a hole in them for a shield hub, the shields have a bare patch in the centre sort of in the shape of a cross. This actually works quite well, as it makes the shields look unusual and different, something that is definitely the case with the Daylami. I know my shield patterns aren’t tip top, but they look okat at wargaming distance!

So just the foot commanders, heroes and camps to do now, and that will be my basic Arab Conquest army done. Then to start moving into the later “caliphate” versions: with Berber spearmen instead of Arab warriors as their main infantry contingent.

Designed by committee...

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Now that the bulk of my Arab Conquest army is complete (six units each of Jund cavalry and warrior warbands) it’s time to start filling in the rest of what’s needed.

First up are the camels, and the first of them are the two units of light camelry with lances. These are Red Copper sculpts printed for me by Baueda before they were sold.

These are lovely sculpts, and whilst I’m not sure how useful they are going to be on the battlefield, they will at least look good whilst doing so!

I then needed some bow-armed camel-riding arabs as Scouts. Red Copper unfortunately don’t do any of them, so I fell back on the Forged in Battle War & Empire range for these beauties.

For those interested, the camels are painted with a single coat of Contrast Skeleton Horde over a Grey Seer undercoat, which gives the perfect camel colour.

The riders are painted mainly in Contrast Apothecary White, again over the Grey Seer undercoat, but in order to make the colour ‘pop’ I then highlight the Apothecary with a standard acrylic white.

The final camel-mounted element consists more of markers than actual army-contingent figures.

A lot of the Arab Conquest infantry are mounted, and I wanted a representative marker that I could place with a mounted unit at deployment. Red Copper do a great army commander figure mounted on a camel that would do the trick and, as I had had to use plenty of packets of army commanders to produce the Jund cavalry, I had enough for my needs. Here are the front and back views:

So that’s all my camels painted. They were a lot more fun to do than the Jund cavalry: less furniture and something different, as I haven’t painted a camel since I built some late 19th Century Camel Corps for the sudan.

Arab Conquest: the Jund Cavalry

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Regualr visitors will know that my project for the new year is a 15mm Arab Conquest army based for To The Strongest.

I’m using the excellent Red Copper Miniatures 3D sculpts printed for me by Baueda, who I have found to be excellent quality, fairly priced, and with a single fee for postage and packing that works out to be very cost-effective provided you order in bulk).

Already painted were the Warriors that form the bulk of the army, the next task was the next big chunk of figures: the Jund cavalry.

Again I wanted to be able to use the figures for both a 15mm grid (what I usually play on) and a 10mm grid (the size used for the one 15mm TTS competition), so settled on using the 7.5mm bases for For King & Parliament available from the BigRedBat shop and designed to slot together to allow different combinations of pike and shot battalia to be put together.

I painted the Red Copper figures in individual colour schemes: which took a long time and was very annoying: no ‘paint the same uniform 100 times’ fugue state possible!

This gave the impression of random figures, but I then tried to group them by colour to make the individual bases easier to identify. This didn’t work as well for the cavalry as for the infantry, but I was happy enough with the result.

Here are the individual units:

Overall, I’m very happy with these. The sculpts are gorgeous, they seem pretty hard-wearing, and I think the paint jobs and bases that I’ve managed are definitely a little above basic wargames standard.

Now on to all the other bits and pieces you need to get an army actually onto the tabletop!

The Start of the Arab Conquest

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My project for the new year is a 15mm Arab Conquest army based for To The Strongest.

I’m using the excellent Red Copper Miniatures 3D sculpts printed for me by Baueda, who I have found to be excellent quality, fairly priced, and with a single fee for postage and packing that works out to be very cost-effective provided you order in bulk).

First up are the Wariors that form the bulk of the army.

Here I wanted to be able to use the figures for both a 15mm grid (what I usually play on) and a 10mm grid (the size used for the one 15mm TTS competition), so settled on using the 7.5mm bases for For King & Parliament available from the BigRedBat shop and designed to slot together to allow different combinations of pike and shot battalia to be put together (FK&P6)

I painted the Red Copper figures in individual colour schemes, and then painted the Essex command figures (leader, standard, musician on each base) in the same single colour for each 15cm grid double unit, basing the command figures all together in the second of four rows of models on each base.

This gave the impression of random figures, but with a predominance of one colour on each base, making them easily identifiable. The right hand base of each double-unit had the trumpeter, the left hand base had a drummer.

Here are the individual units:

The flags are all from Wargames Designs, who have an extensive range of “Saracen” flags. Each design comes printed on good quality paper that you then cut out, fold into flag shapes, and then use PVA glue to fix in place. The flgas come with instructions for those who are still baffled!

I’ve used the flags to allow identification of different commands. Four of the double-base-units come with the left base having a green flag and the right base having black flag; two of the double-base-units come with both bases with a flashy red and white banner. This allows me, at double-base level, to field six units in two commands: perhaps two standard units and a veteran “flashy flag” unit per command; or, at base level, to field a black flag command, a green flag command and a flashy-flag command, each with four individual bases.

Overall, I’m very happy with these. The sculpts are gorgeous, they seem pretty hard-wearing, and I think the paint jobs and bases that I’ve managed are definitely a little above basic wargames standard.

Now on to the cavalry!

Hittite City Gates from Red Copper/Baueda

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I needed a camp for my Hittites so thought I would follow what I’ve been doing so far and use the Red Copper STL of a Hittite City Gate that looked pretty good to me.

The only problm is that I wanted the camp to fit on a 10cm x 10cm base and the size of the full tower-gate-tower of the original was just over 15cm in width. No problem: those nice people at Baueda scaled and printed the components for me so that they fit beautifully onto one of my camp bases.

The individual pieces linked together well, with only a very slight bit of shaving to get a tight fit. Note that I left the rear end open to facilitate using the camp to store tokens etc during a game.

I painted the main towers and walls with a sponge (one of the sponges that protects figures in a blister pack will do the trick), then re-painted the stonework at the base of the walls in grey, washed with a Contrast grey, then highlighted with a lighter colour.

I did try drybrushing the walls in a light colour, but just couldn’t get the effect I wanted, so had to re-paint the test area again. On reflection, the un-drybrushed walls are a good contrast to the heavily drybrushed base.

I then painted the roofs and beams in a warm brown, and the window frames in what I would call a biblical blue.

All in all, I’m very happy with this kit: highly recommended.

Ottoman Command from Khurasan

Friend Rob was kind enough to paint some Ottoman command figures for me.

These are the Khurasan specials from their Ottoman range that I will use as officers and heroes.

Exquisite paint jobs!

Gasgans join the Hittites

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Battling Rob’s Siamese at 160 points made me realise that I needed a few more units for my Hittite army.

Not wanting to just get more of the same, I determined to get a couple of units of Khurasan Miniatures’ Gasgans to join them: the Gasgans were highlanders living in the mountains of Northwestern Anatolia at the time of the Hittite kingdom and empire who were both enemies of, and drafted into, the Hittite army.

The deciding factor was the snake priestess pictured on the right: a suitable Hero for my Hittites and available as part of the Gasgan chariot package!

Snake priestess aside, I now have a unit of Gasgan infantry and a unit of Gasgan chariots.

The infantry are nice sculpts. They are a little smaller than the Red Copper prints and the metal of the spears that some of them are carrying is quite thin, so bends very easily if accidentally bashed. They paint up very easily: only four colours of Contrast Paints (flesh, bone, wood, black) with bronze and a colour for the kilt edges to finish.

The chariots are okay sculpts: in that there was quite a lot of roughly finished areas on the chariot body sides.

As a positive, however, the main strut out from the body ends in the head of a snake, making them (if nothing else) very distinctive!

So a distinctive addition to the Hittites, making them all ready for the planned re-match with the Thais!

Last of the Red Copper Hittites

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As the Hittites were due to make their debut on the battlefield this weekend just gone, last week was spent frantically painting the last of them.

First up was a final chariot base:

I’ve tried to make all the heavy, three-man chariots a different colour and, actually, the grey one on the right came out quite well.

Next up are the slingers: two units of light infantry. These are amazing sculpts: both realistic and dynamic in equal measure. I just love the poses: look at the chap squatting on his haunches looking for possible targets, and all the different varieties of figures actually discharging their slings. Fantastic.

I’ve also sneaked a single ally-Syrian archer onto the left-hand picture, above. A bit of variety and a lesson in always making sure you order enough figures!

Keeping to a Syrian theme, here are three ally-Syrian light chariots. These are once again fantastic sculpts that are really full of life and movement. I decided to paint them in a way that contrasted with the brightly coloured Hittite chariots, so these use all the same colour bay/brown horses and a combination of dark browns and yellows for the chariot bodies.

So that’s the Red Copper Hittites done, although I am going to add some Gashkan (Anatolian mountain men) allies with figures bought from Khurasan.

Hittite Chariots and Chariot Runners

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The Hittites are coming along nicely now with the addition of another bases of chariots and two bases of light infantry chariot runners.

As with all the Hittites so far, these are 15mm Red Copper miniatures 3D printed by Baueda in Italy. Yes, the lead time is slightly extended, but I have found the Baueda prints very high quality and as there’s a set postage fee of €12.50 however much you order and wherever it’s going to, buying in volume makes the whole process very cost-effective indeed. Recommended as a source of the Red Copper range.

First up are another two heavy three-man chariots. It looks like the chariot on the left is only manned by two crew, but that’s because there’s a chap taking a breather sitting on the back of the chariot, presumably regularly asking “are we there yet?” to his two comrades!

I can’t emphasise how nice these models look in real life. They’re a pleasure to paint too, with the relief so clear that getting the ‘plank’ effect on the chariot bodies is easy (you just have to stay within the lines!) and the horse-armour just about paints itself (dry-brushed bronze over a Snakebite Leather base if you’re interested).

Then I’ve finished a couple of bases of light infantry chariot runners. In To The Strongest, these are light infantry with javelins, but I quite like the light axemen look of the Red Copper figures:

Again, very easy to paint and highly recommended.

Now onto the rest of the light infantry, the ally-Syrian light chariots, and more chariots…

More Hittites

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Here are the next few units for my 15mm Hittite army using Red Copper Miniatures, once again ordered from Baueda in Italy as there seems to be a distinct shortage of UK 3D printers doing the Red Copper range and I have always found Baueda very reliable and fairly priced.

First up is another unit of Spearmen, meaning that I now have all the regular infantry I need.

Hittite Spearmen from Red Copper Miniatures

And then we have two sets of Hittite chariots, meaning that I only have one set of Hittite chariots to go, although there are three bases worth of lighter Syrian chariots needed as well.

The second chariot in from the left is a command chariot.

Lovely figures all, and easy to paint up and base. Highly recommended.

So now a little wait until the next batch arrive for painting!

More Hittites

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A couple more units for my 15mm Hittite army using Red Copper miniatures printed by Baueda.

First up is the first of the command bases: a unit of 3-man chariots with attached General:

Next is the first unti of line spearmen: quite a chore to paint with all their different robe and shield colours:

Very nice figures: very easy to paint and enough variety to make the units look good.

Now to paint the same again for the next batch!

First of the Hittites

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I mentioned in a previous post that I was so happy with the 3D printed Red Copper New Kingdom Egyptians that I had printed by Baueda to fill in the gaps of my newly-rebased NKE army that I decided to do what I’ve been wanting to do for some time and get a 15mm Hittite army for them to fight.

I duly ordered the figures, again getting Red Copper 3D sculpts printed by Baueda (under a week to print the figures, only four days in the post from Italy) and went to work, starting with a base of Hittite chariotry and a base of the Royal Guard.

The chariots are, again, fantastic sculpts. The chariot bodies come with very clearly defined panels, making it very easy to get the striped effect you can see above. These were painted all over in a dark colour, then highlighted in a lighter version of the same colour, standard acrylics.

The crew are as easy to paint as the NKE infantry were, and are, as you can hopefully see, full of character. The three charioteers actually fit into the chariot body without being too crowded: snug but not rush-hour tube, and have plenty of variants to make the base look unique.

The horses are the most fun to paint. Again, clear relief and detail to show you exactly where to put the paint. I used Contrast Snakebite Leather highlighted with Bronze for the armoured coats, and a combination of the same colours I’d used on the chariot body for the tack.

The Royal Guard came out really well too. I decided to make them uniform to suggest they were regulars, intending to dress the Spearman units, when I come to do them, in different coloured robes and without the same uniformity in shield colours.

There are plenty of poses, they are easy to paint, and ther was only a minimal amount of 3D flash on them.

Both the chariots and the Guard are highly recommended.

Red Copper Miniatures: New Kingdom Egyptians

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One of the things about re-basing an army is that you almost always end up needing some more figures…and that was the case with my 15mm New Kingdom Egyptians, now based for To The Strongest but short one commander and one unit of Billmen.

I’m also a fan of 3D printed figures: I like the fact that they don’t weigh as much as metal, are often slightly cheaper, and can give a level of animation you don’t often get with traditionally cast models.

One of the manufacturers that I have long wanted to try are Red Copper Miniatures, who specialise in biblical period figures with ranges of Hittites, Sea Peoples, Ancient Hebrews and, of course, New Kingdom Egyptians.

The only drawback is that as I don’t yet have a 3D printer of my own, and Red Copper just provide the STL files not finished models, I needed to find someone to print the models for me. A bit of time spent on the Internet showed me several companies in the UK that would print them, many via Etsy, but they all seemed very expensive for what you get. Step forward our old friends Baueda, based in Italy, but with a flat charge of €12.50 for p&p, who will 3D print all the Red Copper biblical range no problem at all.

I put in a test order, and a couple of weeks later a nice little box arrived with enough models to complete my Egyptians.

So, what did I think?

Well let’s get what I don’t like out of the way first: the figures have no bases. Which is a pain when you’re trying to stick them on to lolly sticks to paint them. I had to revert to putting them onto individual little pieces of card (old business cards cut into six squares!) before I could undercoat them.

Second thing: because the models are resin, and mounted on little pieces of card, you have to be careful when undercoating that the force of the spray doesn’t blow the figures all over the place.

Right…next…no: that’s it. Those are the only two things I didn’t like about the Red Copper 3D Egyptians: the slight annoyance of no bases.

So what did I like?

Everything else!

These figures are superb, truly superb. Look at what I managed to produce even with my rudimentary painting skills.

These were undercoated in GW Grey Seer, then painted in white Contrast paint. The white was then highlighted with acrylic white, and then the rest of the figure painted with Contrast paints or, for the bronze, a standard acrylic metallic.

The animation and detail are excellent: and the only reason they don’t look even better is that I’ve based them (following how I’ve based the rest of the Egyptians) as two identical lines rather than a unit of mixed poses.

Pharaoh’s chariot is just as good. The only negative is the way the wheels attach to the body of the chariot: I’m not sure I did it right, but it seems you just glue the end of the axle on the main body to the end of the axle on the wheel i.e. two very small surface areas rather than some kind of pin-and-hole device.

Overall, these are an excellent addition to my New Kingdom Egyptians…and I’ve been so inspired by the Red Copper scultps that I’ve ordered a Hittite army to fight them!

Highly, highly recommended!

Re-Basing the Egyptians

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I’ve been thinking about re-basing my New Kingdom Egyptians for some time.

Their old bases (dating back to 2001) are made of cardboard and are just starting to curl up slightly at the edges, and whilst the Vis Bellica element system will work with To The Strongest (anything works with TTS!) it isn’t absolutely ideal.

Once that decision had been made, it was time to get the figures off their old bases. This is always the most nerve-wracking part of the job: will the figures’ paint be affected by the re-basing process? how many figures will I break as I take them off the old bases etc.

I use the tried and tested “soak them overnight in water” method, placing the figures in the packaging you get with terrain tufts: ideal trays about half a centimetre deep.

I was abit worried about the chariots: the old glue points of two wheels, two horses, and the yoke across the horses’ backs complicating matetrs a bit. In the end, however, although a few chariot wheels did fall off, they were easily glued back on, and any damage to the back-cloths draped over the horses was also easy to fix once I had correctly matched the colours needed.

I decided to go with the official Big Red Bat bases for TTS, which arrived very quickly after I had ordered them. The chariots would, as they were light, go two to a base, giving me eight individual or four “massed lights” chariot bases. The close order infantry would go 24 to a base: neatly matching two Vis Bellica elements. The lights would neatly fit on a TTS light base: seven figures for the akirmishing archers and nine figures for the javelin-armed chariot runners.

Once the figures were glued in place, I covered each base with GW Armageddon Dunes, left it to dry for a couple of hours, then dry brushed with whatever the GW bone colour is called these days, finally neatening all the edges with GW Tallaren sand.

The fifteen standard bases, four light bases and eight command bases used up three pots of Armageddon Dunes with the only issue being that each pot dried to a slightly different colour. Not sure why that was, but it was probably down to the different ages of pot: I was digging deep into my new pot depository!

Once all the paint was dry, I dressed the bases with as many different coloured tufts as I could find, placing them all in random positions.

In all I re-based nineteen chariots, 200 infantry and one lion…taking two days to do so. Well worth it, particularly as I discovered that I really needed another command chariot and another infantry unit to ensure I had everything I’d need for a 150 point army: any excuse to buy more figures!

So the Egyptians are now ready to rock, and will deploy in four divisions: Amun, Re, Ptah and Set. Can’t wait to get them back on the table.

TTS AAR: Timurids vs Sassanid Persians

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This June sees the inaugral 15mm To The Strongest competition, “To The Smallest” at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. The competition will be played on a large 10mm grid: the idea being to give it a significantly different feel to a standard 28mm game played on a 12x8 grid.

Always best to have a practice at a new format, so Si, Steve, John, Bevan and I gathered together to give it a go. Our first game was to be Steve and I playing the Timurids versus the others playing the Sassanid Persians.

The Timurids ahd four commands, three cavalry and one infantry, which, for some reason, ended up on the far right of our line. I’m not sure why: any cunning plan that we had for what to do with them has since escaped me!

The centre of the Sassanid line comprised multiple units of cataphracts, so as the game began I sent the Timurid lance-armed heavy cavalry right at them: the idea being to fire our bows on the approach to disorder and then charge in to polish them off.

Unbelievably, this worked really well, and one unit of lancers punched straight through the Sassnanid line, cataphracts flying everywhere, and ended up in a great position to threaten the enemy camps.

Meanwhile on the left, two units of Timurid heavies and two units of Timurid lights faced off against an almost identical configuration of Sassanid horse, the only (but key) difference being that my units were in a single, tightly-bunched command rather than slightly spread out.

This meant that when things went wrong - my veteran heavies going unexpectedly disordered - I had the troops available to protect them as they withdrew to rally, with the protectors, another heavy cavalry unit, actually smashing the enemy cavalry from the field. With my veterans rallied and on their was back into the fight, the left wing was now looking good.

The key unit in the pictures above is the Timurid cavalry with the blue flag bottom left in the image on the left and almost exactly in the centre of the image on the right: they smashed the Sassanid Savaran cavalry off the table before they could charge the rear of my veterans, reversing what looked like it was going to be a reverse!

On the right, the infantry there had yet to achieve much of anything, although they were keeping a couple of enemy cavalry units occupied and therefore away from the action in the centre.

Meanwhile, the Timurids were pouring through the Sassanid centre.

And had totally polished off the Sassanids on the left:

Back to the centre, and my veteran heavies moved into the enemy camp, reducing the Sassanids to just one medal remaining. They weren’t totally beaten, however, and a nasty moment ensured when my CinC’s unit (i.e. veteran heavies with Brilliant General and Army Standard - worth seven coins) was almost smashed from the table, fortunately making a vital save just at the right time.

A moment later, a Sassanid light unit was either KO’d or forced to evade off the table and the game was ours for a 13-3 victory.

So a decent victory for the Timurids…although it has to be said that the cards were running for us throughout the game.

As for the 15mm/10cm squares experience: not much change for me, as I usually play on a 15cm grid on a much bigger area than a standard competition table, but the others found it a significant change to what they are used to. Roll on the To The Smallest competition!

TTS AAR: Venetians Abroad versus Catalan Company (Roll Call Game Four)

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My final game at Roll Call this year was against Dene’s Catalan Company: an army consisting of Almughavar javelinmen supported by cavalry, allied light horse and Greek archers.

The Catalans had outscouted my Venetians and came forward rapidly in a ragged line.

As both sides had their horse on the same side of the field, the first clash came on my right, where my Knights clashed with Dene’s. Both sides lost a unit but the advantage in positioning was slightly in my favour.

In the centre, more of my Knights punched through the horse in front of them, with the decision now being how to take on the enemy’s central command of formed infantry happily ensconced on a couple of hills.

Back on the right hand side of the field, my Knights finished clearing the enemy cavalry away, leaving them clear to advance but a long way from the rest of the action.

Unfortunately, however, things weren’t going so well on the other side of the table. My infantry had definitely come off worse in the initial clash, not helped by the fact that my Halbardiers just couldn’t get the cards they needed to activate let alone fight…although they did stand heroically solid when attacked on the flank (top middle in the second picture, below).

My camp was now exposed, however, with Dene quite happy to take one half whilst threatening the other: things were critical as that represented an awful lot of Victory Medals.

We were just about to start another turn - a turn in which Dene had a good chance of taking the game, despite the success of my Knights on the right - when time was called: all the manouevring early in the game had used up the clock!

A very narrow escape for the Venetians: a losing draw 7:9.

What was worse (for Dene) was that not finishing off my Venetians meant that I pipped him at the post for the third place position, with him finishing fourth only a few points behind me!

All in all, a great day’s gaming: well done to Tim for organising, and to all the other players in competing in the usual TTS good humour and sportsmanship.

As for my Venetians, they will now continue their journey Abroad with a trip to historic Ewelme and the “England and St George” competition there.