Irish Heartguard

A small, and normally final, addition to my Dux force.

These two mounted Curaidh, or Hearthguard, are normally the elite bodyguards of the lords.

But I bought this two model Gripping Beast blister for other reasons.  Namely to represent my Lord (or a noble)  and a champion.

By putting them on horses, I can have them join my mounted regiments for games where speed might be of the essence, or a devastating cavalry charge might be called for.  Though as mostly the defender in the campaign, that won't be happening very often...

But heck, it at least allows me to have all options open...

Wiccan Ritual

While I painted up an old hag last month to serve this role on the Dux battlefield last week, these models are the actual Wicca High Priestess(esses) for my force.

And now that this little vignette is finally done, the hag can return to the role she was bought for (the model that is), namely that of the Crone my force has.

These models are from the Foundry range, pack AG018 - Germanic Women, and I thought it fun for the placement on the table to actually combine them on a larger base to represent their "status" on the field, namely as the highest ranking (un)holy powers in my force.

Painted like most of my dark age forces, in a simple colourscheme and making use of the Army Painter Strong Tone, they are now ready to spur my warriors onwards in the bid to win the campaign.

I just feel sorry for the poor horsey...

88th New York

The fifth and final regiment for my Fredericksburg OrBat Irish Brigade, and ready right on time for the Big Battle we are running this weekend at TSA.

I will be commanding my 5 regiments as such along the 85+ on the table...

The regiment is made up for now of 20 Perry plastic troops, though in the nearby future I`m pushing them all to 24, as that makes a more symmetrical look when they are placed on their 4 figure each movement trays.  Flags are by Flags of War.

Now the only thing left to do is order the Meagher figure from Redoubt to completely round out the brigade OrBat...

The Fighting 69

The most recent ACW unit I finished for my Fredericksburg ORBAT, the most famous regiment of the Irish Brigade is now done and ready for the big battle the 9th of June.

The 69th New York, better known as the Fighting 69, are mustered and ready.

Numbering 20 models, the size we usually use with our homemade club rules (though over time, I`m expanding all my regiments to 24 size) the smoothbore armed regiment follows the same colourschemes as the rest of my force so far.

Flags by Flags of War, and the models are Perry plastic troopers.

This now means I need to finish one last 20 man strong regiment for the big battle, something I`m going to be pushing forward on in the next few weeks, and while I might be cutting it close in the end, I`m not going to have to pull all nighters it seems to get it done.

Faugh A Ballagh!

Mounted Irish Noble

Et voila, the final model I need for the Dux campaign has been finished, in the form of a mounted noble.

He will be "drafted" for battles where I will be using my cavalry, to lead them from the front.

The model is from Gripping Beast, but I did a small weapon swap on him to give him a sword, which is far more heroic looking, then the spear he came with.

So now that force can be considered "fully finished", and I don`t have to lie awake of having to paint models for that anytime soon anymore.

Now to focus on pushing pinks...

Celtic Cross and Wandering Bard

Got some small items finished over the weekend for use in SAGA, including my "Crisis impulse buy".

Which tought me a few lessons...

The first of it being that MDF terrain, something that came to be "a thing" during my hiatus is quite a lovely and cheap medium for some good looking terrain.

The second is that I need to study YouTube apparently to find out how it is "sealed" during priming, as it tends to absorb the paint rather happily.

But in the end, with a mixture of grey tones and a Strong Tone ink, I managed to get a decent looking result for the first piece of scenery I bought and painted in literally years.  It`ll be on the board when my troops fight for glory in both SAGA or Dux Britaniarrum.

The second thing I finished is a Wandering Bard from Gripping Beast.  I got the upgrade in the Dux campaign, and even though he doesn`t "have" to be on the field, just like the crone I painted a few weeks back, he will be along her and the above cross when I go to war.

Just to well, look cool...

SAGA Mounted Fianna

One of the "must paint" units for SAGA / Dux I had to finish was a cavalry unit, and that means for the Irish a unit of mounted nobles, or Fianna.

Coming from Gripping Beast, these 4 lesser lords are ready to take the battle to the enemy in a fast manner.

In Dux they can also serve, as a 6 man elite unit on fott becomes a 4 man unit when mounted, and this is basically why I decided to add them to my force, to harass the flanks of the enemy forces and threaten the backs to break up shieldwalls.

Or I can use them as hired mercenaries should I go down that road to bolster my forces in the near future, to compensate for my battered Levy contignent for the army.

Next for the Irish will be a mounted Noble to lead them in battle then...

Kern Slingers

The first completed unit of the month, these are the last figures from the Dark Ages box of Warriors I bought to bulk my Dux force.

But in that game, you have 4 strong missile troops, while in the SAGA Irish list, the Kerns, who are either armed with a javelin or a sling, number 12.

So I assembled the final 8 models to bring my unit up to 12, and "tick" another point on my force, bringing it's total to 12 now at the moment, and another stack of points is still in the pipeline.

The models where done once again with Strong Tone from Army Painter, a great and swift way to finish these plastic models, while for the clothing I kept to the rotation I used for the whole box: paint a models tunic in the colour of the previous guys pants, to keep a sort of unified yet diverse feel to them.

This should cover my Dux bases for sure now, the next unit will be cavalry models to add more variety to the force and open some more options.

Dux Britanniarum

After reading the rules, getting a few games in, losing badly, and now having actually studied the rules, I`ve formed an opinion on this ruleset by Too Fat Lardies.

Dux Britanniarum is a ruleset that allows you to game the last vestiges of the Roman Empire in Britain versus the Saxon invaders, and it`s companion book introduces the Raiders, small nations that are around in the area.

These are the Picts, the Scotti and my beloved Irish (a Dark Age gamers dream army, as they remained unchanged bar perhaps Fianna with Great Axes from this era all the way through the Viking age) as well as a more mounted Romano British army list variant.

Now, the rules in the core are pretty simple, and a single playsheet allows you to game the whole system.  The subtilities are in the use of the Fate cards, special events that can influence the flow of battle.  And it is needed, as while the Romano British have a weaker unit in the form of their Levy compared to the Saxons, the ability to form a Shieldwall and ignore the first kill every round of combat or shooting is immense.

Though perhaps not that gamewinning, as there is also Shock, the effect of your units being engaged and slowly being battered in the battle, and this is a more determining factor in how the overal army fares.  Shock lowers your force`s will to fight, and the amount of dice you roll in every round of close combat, and not even the best of Noble's can keep that flow under the control once the floodgates open.

Now, for a control freaking, defensive line holding player like myself, these rules (well, it IS typical for the era) are a bit of a nightmare, as it favours the bold and the aggressive player if you look at them from afar.  And that sort of playstyle is absolutely not my forte...

There are some (minor) issues with the rules in my opinion, in that the placing of some things in the books isn`t exactly logical.  I think it would have been better that the upgrades you can buy in your "Career Path" (aka, the campaign ladder) would have been placed right after the tables.  Now they are somewhere near the back to see what you can do, and one of them, an Armoury Shop, is even in the raiders book instead.  But once you know where to look for them, it`s okay, just a small nicknack I though was a bit unhandy.

But so far I had great fun playing the rules, and have been painting up a lot of Dark Age models (at last) as a result of them, so yes, I`m happy with obtaining them.

Dark Age Spearmen with Shield

I haven`t gotten much paintwork in the past week, as I chose to spend some very good quality time with the girlfriend, but in between I did manage to paint a small unit.

And it was with a deadline, as I varnished them this morning, and they have to be on the battlefield tonight...

A rather basic and multipurpose unit, these are 6 plastic Gripping Beast warriors, armed with a spear and protected by a shield.  They will serve in Dux as a Levy unit, until one gets upgraded to Warrior status, in which case that will be them.

And they`ll be expanded over time with two additional models for starters, to make them SAGA ready as well...

And now, let`s pack them up so they are ready to fight for glory and honour this evening!

All ready to Dux it out!

So, that was a bit of hectic rescheduling on my paint desk...

But past monday, my box of Gripping Beast plastic Dark Age Warriors arrived, and I wanted them ready for use in the Dux Britanniarum campaign, meaning I needed to paint 22 of them in, well, 3 days.

And I managed it, mainly thanks to the Army Painter thingy, love that stuff for these figures, truly a welcome discovery.

So after the first batch of 6 Levy yesterday, I also painted up a second group of 6, again shieldless.  This is because afterwards they will be going into my Irish SAGA force as Kerns with javelins.

I also needed as second group of Warrior class models, so I painted up 6 with hand weapon and shield.

The final unit I needed to get was one of 4 missile troops.  I opted for slings instead of bows, again because afterwards they will be going into my SAGA force as more Kern.

So that leaves me with 18 models left in the box.  The first 2 will become an additional 2 warriors with hand weapons and shields, in case I roll the +2 models upgrade on the table.  And bring them on the 8 needed for a SAGA unit.

I`ll also be painting 6 with spear and shield this time, so to be able to upgrade Levy to warrior status should that occassion arise.

And finally, 8 of the remaining 10 will become 2 more groups of 4 slingers each, to "meld" together to a 12 man unit for SAGA.  No idea yet what the final two will become... oh well, actuallyIi do, because:

And Now?

Well, I was so impressed with the box, I ordered a second one, though mainly to boost my SAGA force.  This will add another 40 models, so together with the two leftovers that is going to be an additional 42 dark age warriors I can paint and distribute.  Now as SAGA works in units of 8 or 12, I got to see a bit how I`m exactly going to do it to make it all come out nicely, but otherwise I`ll have a few spare figures, no-one ever died from that xD

And my cavalry unit is also under way just to make certain all fields are covered...

Haul Report 85

A day earlier, as I`ll be out tomorrow very early morning, only to return late in the evening and probably totally knackered...

Oh well, the joy`s of the summer season upon us let`s say ;-)

The biggest purchase I did this week is a 6th vaper thingy.  While I don`t have any intention to quit smoking, but just reducing the amount of packs I soldier in a week, it was rather handy to finally get a small and robust one that fits in my pocket.  To many times, I "cracked" one resulting in all the liquid pouring out into my pants pocket otherwise.

Bit ironical though that none of my family have noticed I haven`t actually touched a cigarette for the past 5 days... and the GF only because I actually told her after 3 days... so yeah, I`m that impressive a chimney.

The parcel I have been waiting for also fell in my mailbox, with the flags by Flags of war for restoring my Irish Brigade.  They do only 4 of the 5 regiments though, 116th Pennsylvania is often not found for some reason in most manufacturers catalogues.

In the battle against "razor rash", I finally got my hands on a fresh pot of BlueBeards revenge.  I used to get that from my barber, but they don`t longer carry the brand, so I managed to get it directly from the manufacturer instead.

Talking the barber, they did give me a sample of another brand they carry now, and asked if I would test it "down south" and tell them the comparisons with my BBR experience.

The final thing that arrived was my blister of slottabases from Wayland Games.  I had ordered them a while ago but they where on back order, and of course in all irony, the day AFTER I found my old ones again (I thought I had them, I coulnd`t find them after weeks, then of course they show up in a closet I had rummaged through a dozen times).

Oh well, like a 2x4 brick for a Lego builder, you never can have enough bases in wargaming...

SAGA Irish Warband starter box painted

The first painting "goal" of the new start has been achieved, as I finished my SAGA starter Irish box yesterday.

This set, by Gripping Beast, grants you 25 models, and good for 4 points in the SAGA gamesystem, though of course I`ll be using them in a variety of game systems, as they are just that, dark age era Irish.

Now, said Fianna where once again painted in mostly mudded and earthly colours, but with some blues and such tossed in infrequently to better represent their higher status.

And that completes the full warband now, and they stand ready to march to war:

Now, the intricate weakness of the Irish is their general lack of armour, and in SAGA that makes them VERY vulnerable to enemy missile fire.  If you play in tournaments or tournament set up style tables, cover will be very limited and huge open spaces are probably predominant, so that is NOT a good position to be in.

To that end, I`ll be expanding the warband with it's two final points (6 seems to be the playing standard) with numbers over quality.  An additional unit of Bonnacht's and one of Kern's are on the shopping list now, giving me not only 20 additional figures, but some limited counter ranged attacks as well.

Worst case, they have to become "shields" then to get the better quality units into contact, though my main battle plan will probably revolve around trying to get the wardogs into enemy missile fire troops to disturb them...

I'll make sure to tell about the trashing defeats in the future!

SAGA Bonnachts

As I was watching a heap of movies while painting earlier this week (huzzah for multi-tasking), that means of course I got a couple of figures finished.

The first of the two remaining units I finsihed from my SAGA starter was the Bonnachts, or "regular warriors" for the force.

This unit numbers 8 warriors, primarily armed with javelins and I went for rather simple shield designs, keeping most of the more decorated shields for the Fianna. 

The occasional hand weapon was added in the mix for some variety, but the biggest difference with the hearthguard is the total lack of armour on these blokes, as the Irish had poor access to this.

Next up is the last unit of Fianna, who I just need to base and varnish, and the starterbox will be completed, making it just a case of thinking on how to expand the warband to the 6 point "battle ready" level.

Which, knowing me, will be more in the direction of Zhukov's famous "quantity is a quality in itself" and foregoing the more elite and flashy units like the heroes and all. 

Those will be for the general Dark Ages expansioning afterwards...

SAGA Irish Warlord and Fianna

I had some time this weekend to get a few painting hours "logged in", and I continued working on the starter set for my Irish in SAGA.

The box is now about halfway done, as I painted up the Warlord, as well as the first of two units of Fianna so far.

The warlord is a sort of "free unit" in the game as you don`t pay any points to field him, but at the same time he is the most important model in the force, as he basically represents "you".  The figure came with a larger base to distinguish him from the regular troops, and I went for a free hand design on his shield.

The Fianna, or Hearthguard, are the elite troops of the Irish warbands, and they come in units of 4 models for a point.

Compared to regular warriors, they tend to have better armour (read: at least some) and the figures depict this nicely with the odd coat of mail, a helmet left or right, and the models usually wearing tunics compared to just a pants and sometimes a cloak for the Bonnachts instead.

I added some javelins in the mix instead of just hand weapons, and the shields once more had some hand painted designs on them.  My regular troops will just have plain, tan variation shields, something the poorer warriors had anyways. 

Now, also on the contrary to popular believes, Irish troops in the Dark Ages weren`t all "greened out" in their colours, that came actually later as the "national" colour.  Predominant where earthen tones, with the occasional blue as that dye was unusual but not uber rare to get.  Red was reserved for the real rich warlords, so I`m avoiding that colour so far in the warband.

The next set of figures I`ll be painting for the warband will be the Bonnachts, see you then!