Rome for the Holidays

Boomshanka!

My non-denominational winter holiday greeting for the past few years. A Young Ones reference (definition 1), for those too young, old, or un-hip to recognize it. People get so sensitive about what you can safely say in order to wish people well. ;)


I'm working on a couple of things over the holiday, most of which are not my own figures. But I'm trying to sneak in a few for myself.

I canceled my pre-order for the Wargames Factory Celts, but switched to a box of their Romans, partially out of curiosity, partly out of a desire to paint some Romans, partly because I recently finished watching the Rome TV series and have almost wrapped up Caesar's Conquest of Gaul and have already started his Commentaries on the Civil War.

I was impatient with the first unit of 16 figures, so about 20% of the way through the process, I decided to just finish 4 of them entirely to see how they turned out. My impatience was not necessarily a good thing. I was questioning whether the figures were worth finishing. I was actually pleasantly surprised.





In the beginning... I decided to do a group of 16, including command, armed with gladius. I decided to leave the crests on, and mount them all on individual bases for maximum WAB flexibility. (I'll use move trays -- the bases are magnetized.)

I'd also like to start off my saying that a lot of what I've read in some of the other reviews is pretty much my experience. On the sprue, the figures looked a bit iffy, but the detail popped out a little better after a coat of primer. (I used black.) However, once I started painting I had mixed feelings about the detail... more on this in a minute.

The figures cleaned up quicker than the Warlord figures. The mold lines weren't bad at all. The plastic does seem almost a bit too hard. I like the feel of Warlord and GW plastic a bit better. But this is a bit of a nit-picky detail. Once I clipped & cleaned them, I didn't think about it again.

Having read some of the other reviews, particularly the one at MacPhee's Miniature Men, I wanted to make sure they based up OK. In the end, I didn't have much of a problem. I kept the shields tight (I like to paint with my figures fully assembled from the start), and posed them at a slight angle. Mine actually rank up better than the Warlord Celts, and better than many of the GW figures. (I've got over a hundred of those plastic Skaven and have to make sure they don't get out of order otherwise I'll spend a full evening sorting out the puzzle.) The photos should show that they worked out OK on the 20x20 WAB bases.

On to the painting... I painted these figures the same way I paint almost all other figures. I happen to almost always paint flesh first. So I started off on the wrong foot. One of the most disappointing features on the figures are the faces. The detail is so flat that my usual basecoat, wash and quick 2-3 highlights didn't work out well. I almost had to paint the features on. Considering how little flesh/face is exposed, this seems silly. I just wish the detail would have been more crisp and deep.

From there I went on to the mail and had the opposite experience. I was planning on having similar problems and expected to do some drybrushing, a wash or two and more drybrushing. To be honest, a simple & quick drybrush would have been enough. I went a little extra and added one wash and simple drybrush-highlight in spots. The mail didn't look deep/crisp to the eye, but it was a different story when I hit it with the paint brush.

Most of the rest of the figure was simple and I honestly don't have much to say about it other than they painted up quickly and turned out a bit better than I initially expected (after being disappointed with the faces.) I've read some complaints about the sandals, and I agree that they're not as detailed as some other figures. But to be honest, I preferred being able to just paint them all brown and not worry about tiny slivers of flesh colors showing through individual straps. I feel like I paint a little better than a "tabletop" quality, but I still paint armies, not individual show quality (Golden Daemon, etc.) figures. So I was OK with that level of detail.

There's been some grumbling about proportions, etc. and it largely seems based on a single photo of a single figure, from what I can tell. Having held, assembled and painted the figures, I think that many of the complaints have been overstated. I do agree that the command figures are definitely the weak point to the boxed set (I will get to them in a later review), but the rank and file troops pictured above look pretty decent. Especially considering the price of about 60 cents per figure.

Compared to Old Glory (in general -- I haven't painted their Ceasarian Romans), I'd take the Wargames Factory. The assembly time is probably a wash (considering OG mold lines & flash), the detail is softer but cleaner, and I prefer the poses and expressions. Compared to some of the "premium" UK lead (Foundry, etc.) they certainly don't look as good, but they're almost 1/4 the price, you don't have to screw around with lead dust from filing/flashing the metal. Most proportion issues are a trade off, since even the "premium" figures have some issues in that department. Compared to the Warlord Celts, I've got to admit there are some differences in expectations because of the type of troops. Overall, though, I thought the detail on the Warlord figures was better (more crisp). On the Celts, I expected more variety, but this wasn't an issue with the more uniform Romans. But I did prefer the more natural poses on the WF Romans to the twisted & gyrating WG Celts. Because of the different nature of the two types of troops, though, some comparisons are difficult.

Although I had some issues with the figures, I'm pleasantly surprised as far as the rank & file are concerned. Hopefully they'll sort out some of the problem spots (crispness & depth of detail) in future products.

Painted Figures

I'm going to make my own little statement inspired by this....

http://cursedtreasures.blogspot.com/2008/12/too-paint-or-not-part-2.html

...which was in turn inspired by this...

http://plasticlegions.blogspot.com/2008/12/gws-2009-tournament-circuit-doa.html


I haven't attended one of the GW GTs, but I have played in a few of the Indy GTs as well as a pile of RTT and other tournaments and events.

Honestly, part of the reason I enjoy going is the spectacle of the game. It's as much a part of the hobby as pushing figures and rolling dice. That's what makes miniatures gaming different from other types of wargames. I look forward to seeing the great tables many of these events build, and the armies people have modeled and painted as much as I enjoy the challenge of facing new opponents and the opportunity to meet new players.

When I started playing, my friends and I obviously started with unpainted figures. Actually, some of us moved into it from cardboard counter games. But we started with small armies and painted the figures as best and quickly as we could, and then moved into larger games as we painted more figures. Inevitably some of us would add in new units, most of the time waiting until they were painted. Once in a while impatience would win out and we would field something unpainted, but that usually only lasted a game or two.

New players were cut some slack and given a chance to play before finishing their armies. Figures were usually available for loan from other players as well. But again, there was a bit of an unspoken rule that you got your figures painted. I don't even remember any discussion on this. It was just part of the game/hobby.

But as I've gotten older and some of the games have become more popular, I've noticed an increasing number of not just unpainted figure, but armies that never get painted at all. Some even included unassembled multi-piece kits. Yes, I saw people playing with a bunch of metal pieces piled on bases, and watched them scoop up all the pieces that fell off their pile of "soldiers" every time they moved them.

I think it's sad and really dims the appeal of the hobby.

To me, it is also another aspect of the increased focus on the competetive aspect of the hobby above all else, which has been overshadowing other aspects of wargaming as well.

I don't expect everyone to paint to the same standards. I don't expect everything to look like it came out of a magazine or professional painting studio. But at least give it a try.

I don't expect new players to have everything painted overnight. But once again, at least try to make some progress.

Sometimes I miss my old hobby of wargaming.

Foundry Celts

An assortment of Foundry Celts. Actually, one of them is a mystery figure. Second guy from the left in the second pic below. He's bigger than the rest, and I found him in a small plastic bag by himself. Might have been a sample figure given away at a convention. I have no idea how long he's been sitting around. A couple of these figures have been painted for something like 10 years. Just finished the rest.

Painting Commissions

I've got a bit of time in my schedule for new paining commissions. Email me for details if you're interested in getting something painted.

zerotwentythree@gmail.com

.

Army ADD, eBay, weather, birthday

Army ADD

My rather scatter-brained plan is...

Step 1. Gauls & Germans for a mixed "barbarian" army.
Step 2. Expand one (probably Germans) into a full stand-alone army.
Step 3. Take the remainder (probably Gauls) and make Marian/Caesarian Roman army with barbarian allies.

I just canceled my preorder for the plastic Celts. If/when they ever appear on the market, I'll consider them. But my enthusiasm is a bit dulled by the wait. When I cancelled the order, I did switch it to a box of the Caesars Legion plastics. We'll see how they look when they get here. At least I know they've shipped. ;)

Due to economic doom, the holidays, etc. I've cancelled my plan to order Foundry's big German army deal. But I was going to still order two of the (big!) infantry units. Then I got an email about Black Tree Design's holiday sale. I may have to switch plans. I was hoping they's have a bargain pack of ancient Germans, but no luck. I'm going to email them and ask, anyway. Maybe a pack or two of Gauls and a few packs of Germans if they offer them. I'm familiar with their fantasy figures, through some old commissions in ages past. But I'm not familiar with their historicals. The pics on the web page look good, though.

http://www.blacktreedesign.com for those who aren't familiar.

All this typing. I should be painting.

Current project is some dwarfs for a friend and the small remainder of my Foundry Celts.



eBay Madness

I'm currently cheesed at eBay. (Or more specifically, the bidding market on eBay.) I listed my second batch of stuff to clear out and got next to nothing for most of it. When I paint on commission, I usually get about $10 per infantry figure (paint only, not the figure itself). All my painted stuff sold for less than retail price of unpainted figures. New GW stuff went for almost nothing. Why is it that whenever I bid on anything, prices go through the roof? Like new figures going for more than you would pay at the local store or from the manufacturer. I've never understood that.

Maybe I'm just bitter, but I suspect a bit of foul play in some people's auctions.

Also, I'm bitter because only about 1/3 of the people who are getting my bargains have bothered to leave any feedback so far.



Weather

I've been a mid-westerner (or Old Northwest, if you want my preferred history-geek term) all my life. But age must be creeping up on me. It's barely December and I'm sick of the cold. I talked to my fiancee about moving somewhere warmer. She's originally from California. I've never been there, but for some reason it's never appealed to me until now.


Birthday

Sunday is my birthday. Pearl Harbor Day. I'm going out Saturday night, getting together with friends. Probably eat some red meat, get a bit boozed. Another good excuse to order some figures like I've been talking about for weeks.

Warlord vs. Foundry

I dug up one of my old Foundry Gauls to compare their size (and a change in painting style over the past decade, it seems...) with the Warlord figures.

I was too lazy to move the unit I was basing out of they way, so you get them charging at you in the foreground.

As usual, click to enlarge.

Burgundian vs. Swiss Turkey Showdown

So I just took 2500 points of Burgundians against their best-friends-forever, the Swiss, and managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Charles would be proud.

I only snapped one pic, a bit blurry because my newer-better-more-expensive phone takes the crappiest photos on the planet.




This is at the turning point, from behind the Burgundian lines. On the left are some Swiss mounted crossbowmen and way back behind a wall by the farmhouse in the upper left is their ribaldquin that never fired a shot. To the right of the building are my coustilliers who had plowed through the shot-up remnants of some halberdiers, then through some skirmishers, and into the flank of a pike unit. Just to the south of them are some dismounted gendarmes waiting to join the fight above. Behind them are some skirmishing handgunners who had fled from the afore-mentioned but now annihilated halberdiers, but later rallied.

To the right of them is the Fustercluck Royale. (Pardon my French.) On the Burgundian side we have (from lef to right) ordonnance archers with hand+half swords, Low Countries pikemen, and ordonnance pikemen. A second unit of archers with hand+half swords has maneuvered around the flank of the Swiss line. On the Swiss side (again, left to right) are unarmoured pike, gewalthut with heavy armour, and more unarmoured pike. The Swiss were the chargers. My mounted general and BSB moved left, from behind the lines, just in case they needed to avoid the fleeing of their own troops. On the hill to the left are some Burgundian crossbowmen. Not on the table are some more Swiss halberdiers and a huge unit of allied knights and lighter cavalry in a combined formations. To the north of the hill are my gendarmes who were running down successive waves of skirmishers desperately throwing their bodies in my way in an attempt to slow me down. (Halberdiers had killed several gendarmes already, due to my inability to roll anything but 1's for their armour saves. This is a curse for me in WAB, as my Sarmation cataphracts always did the same thing. I can make saves for nekkid guys with wicker shields all day, but never for the tin-men on horses.)

So I was doing OK up til this point. The Swiss had a substantial pile of bodies, and I had lost a cannon, some skirmisers and a few gendarmes. Due to the loss of the skirmishers, though, the resulting combat above aligned funny and was one single combat involving six units. This was my downfall. I did OK with two of my three units, and considering that I had worn the Swiss down already, I would have probably won the two outside combats if they were three separate ones. The pain came from the gewalthut in the center. Not only did they still have all their ranks, they did a lot of damage in combat and my Flesmish pikemen were typically ineffective. (I notice they make a good scapegoat for the Burgundian dukes, so I'll work with what history has provided.)

In the subsequent break tests, my archers on the left stay, but all the pikemen run. And run fast. Off the table. Then the panic tests set in. My coustilliers, who had just beat the tar out of the pikemen (who were stubborn, so stuck around despite casualties) AND the mounted crossbow (who had charged them in the rear but then fled from the combat), take off running. The archers who were ready for a flank charge also take off running.

The subsequent turn, my dismounted gendarmes charge the pikemen, but with a less secure position than if the coustilliers had stuck around. The archers on the left lose combat again and are run off the table. The Swiss pike swing in to the side of the general, who panics from the loss of the archers, letting the pike hit the BSB instead. Except that the general is caught by pursuit. Dead, so more panic tests all around. Everyone but the dismounted gendarmes fail. The worst of it is that my mounted gendarmes flee from skirmishers. How embarrassing.

I get the last turn, so most of my fleeing troops do rally, but the loss of 3 big blocks of infantry plus the mounted gendarmes (who were below 5 figures at this point) hurt. The fact that I had beat up on several of his pike units didn't help, since they still had small remnants left. If there were half-points as in WFB it would have been a closer game.

So the big battle in the center was the pivot. Two things went wrong. One was the alignment of the combats. Second was bad break & especially bad panic rolls.

Fun game nonetheless! 2500 points in about 1.5 hours. That included a bit of flipping through the books as we were making sure not to confuse WFB & WAB rules. Afterward we both commented on how much more fun WAB feels vs. WFB anymore. We're alreay speaking of a rematch and getting a couple more people for either a mini-round-robin or team game in the Classical period.

Burgundian Banners from Imperial Forge

I recently received a preview set of Burgundian Ordonnance banners from Imperial Forge. ( http://stores.ebay.com/Imperial-Forge ). So here's the first set of photos & a bit of a review.

Actually, I'll get right to the photos (click to enlarge) of some heavy infantry...




...and Antoine, The Grand Bastard...


Those are the only ones I've got on figures right now. I've got some more that are "prepped" but are awaiting a few finishing touches on the figures on which they will be mounted, and a couple more still drying.

First off, a little background. I've been painting figures for, well, quite a while. I've gone through different materials & methods for doing banners, but I've always painted them myself. I want my Burgundians to look good (as I'd like all my armies) but after much consideration, I figured it would not be in my best interest to hand paint all the standards. So prior to receiving these standards, I tried printing my own on an inkjet at home with decent but unimpressive success.

So enter Imperial Forge's recent Burgundian banner preview. Even before I received them in the mail, I could tell from his own photos that they were more detailed than what I had pieced together on my own and definitely more detail than I could paint by hand. They're also right about the size I had scaled for mine.

So this week I started cutting & gluing the IF banners. Keep in mind that what follows is my first real experimentation with printed banners... I'm using brushed on watered down Sobo (PVA) glue. This has been a bit tricky for me. The paper drinks it up fast (the dry environment here probably doesn't help), so once I start sticking the two halves together, they don't want to move. I was afraid I was going to destroy one or two of them when I had to pull them apart a few times, but they survived intact. I'm getting better as I go.

While they dry, I am wrapping them around various plastic tubes, paint brush handles, paint bottles, etc. to get them to dry in a wavy manner. I tried giving one some more "extreme" folds, as I saw someone selling pre-fab banners at Historicon with severly wrinkled folds, but I was less successful. These banners appear to be on a slightly heavier paper, so the folds were creating some unattractive wrinkles/lines in the paper & printing when you looked very closely. I'll stick with the curvy waves as above from now on. The ones I saw at Historicon may have been on thinner paper, possibly regular stock, since they were a bit less colorful if I remember correctly.

Speaking of color, these are nice and bright. Almost a bit too bright compared to my figures. This may be a trick of the slightly gloss finish of the banners. This was helped by hitting them with a layer of clearcoat, and did take the edge off the gloss. You can still see a hint of it in the photos, but a second coat should do the trick. I also ran a thinned layer of paint very carefully along the edges of the paper, to hide the barely visible white thickness of the paper.

I think one of myh favorite things about the banners is the texture on some of the fields. You can see it in the photos above, but it's not overbearing. Definitely something I would not have had the patience to paint had I done this by hand.

My own inexperience with printed banners aside (though I've improving as I put more together!), the only downside is that some of the text is a bit hard to read on one of the banners. The one I'm looking at now (I'll post a pic in the next day or two) is the St. Judas banner, with the Je Lay Empirins motto and details in yellow (or/gold/whatever) on a black background. I notice a black outline helps define the details and lettering on the other colored fields, but I think on the black one is a little visually confusing. A similar thing happens with the more delicate/thin areas of the fleur-de-lis on one of the other banners.

Speaking of saints, I do like the level of detail on the saints' images and the tiny lettering identifying them (which is legible.) I hope to see a St. Thomas banner in the next set, since I share a name and occupation with him. ;)

So basically, I'm pretty happy with the banners. I'm a convert. After seeing the two above in place, I'm planning on using more for the rest of the army. As I said, I don't have a lot to compare these too, but compared to my own attempts at paper banners and the thought of trying to hand paint them, I'm digging the Imperial Forge banners and will be on the lookout for more.

Warlord Games Celts (part 3)

I'm more or less done with the figures. I still need to base them. I had considered doing some plaid/stripe/tartan/check patterns on some of the clothing, but I'm not sure I've got the enthusiasm for it at the moment. But I'm a moody painter, so who knows what tomorrow will bring.

After I transferred the photo to the computer, I noticed the menacing figure coming around the cardboard backdrop. I decided to leave him in. (He's one of a group of figures I'm touching up for a friend.)





So, after doing all of this on the Warlord Gauls, how do I feel about them?

Pros:
Price
Ease of convertability
Good detail

Cons:
Assembly time
Difficult to rank
Bad poses

Middle:
There's a certain ability to create variety with the figures, but considering the potential for multi-piece figures, there's a lot of same-ness to the figures. If the would have made the bodies single piece, but with a variety of separate arms, this may have turned out better. I don't know. I bitched about the heads already, more variety there may have helped also. Still, compared to something like a range of say, seeing the same 12-16 metal figures over and over, they're not really worse off.

The way I see it, they are nicer looking competators to Old Glory figures. They're both cheap and make it more affordable to buy a huge barbarian horde. The trade off is that although you get nicer looking figures with cleaner details than Old Glory (in my opinion), you end up paying for it through time spent cleaning & assembling the figures.

Maybe that gets quicker with practice. I doubt it, though. My WFB Empire army could probably grow to twice its size just with plastic kits hidden away in my basement. But after putting so many of those plastic figures together, I've lost the will to continue for the moment. In contrast, I just quickly cleaned up some more metal Front Rank medievals for my Burgundians. They're quality figures, and I pay twice as much for that. But I spent a fraction of the time prepping them, which means more time painting.

So while I'm not going to bash Warlord's Celts, I can't honestly say I'm a huge fan. I do look for a good balance between price and quality. Unfortunately, I think the frustrations of these figures listed in the "cons" column push them just barely over my tolerance. The newly announced mixed metal & plastic Britons don't help generate enough enthusiasm for me, as I'm not fond of mixed plastic & metal kits and can already image the problem, for example, of a plastic figure with a metal carynx or standard.

I still can't comment on Wargames Factory, as their Celts haven't shipped. I'm going to assume that they will still involve similar issues in terms of prep time. But if they manage a similar level of detail while avoiding goofy looking poses, and manage to rank up decently, they could swing my opinion the other way a bit. Addressing some of the variety issues would help, as well. Even better if they scale up with Warlord's figures, since that would help with varity already.

I'll post some final pics once these are based.


Coming next... more Burgundian Ordonnance. A preview of some new banners from Imperial Forge. And maybe a battle report from a Thanksgiving weekend showdown between Bold Chuck against those pike-wielding pussies from the Alps. The Burgundians are practically guarenteed a win. ;)

Warlord Games Celts (part 2)

I've got at least a basecoat and wash on everything but the weapons & shields. I've started highlighting the clothing, belts, etc. after this pic.

I'm going to try saying some nice things. The detail really is pretty good on these figures. Although I complained I was disappointed in the variety of heads, I do like the detail and expressiveness of the faces. There are a couple of awkward mold lines, but that's plastic figures I suppose.

The folds & details on the clothing are nice. A tiny bit on the smallish side for fast painting, but it's not a bad thing per se.

There was a little too much daylight coming in the windows (from the left) for the camera settings in the photo below.






I've recently re-read Agricola and Germania, and I'm about half way through Caesar's Conquest of Gaul.

Since I was "in the mood" I decided to reserve the first season of Rome on DVD at the library. I just got done watching the first episode. So of course now I'm thinking, "well, a Roman army wouldn't really require too many figures, and I could use Gauls or Germans to fill them out a bit. And I could do some civil war stuff with the one friend I've managed to get interested in WAB recently.

I've got the attention span and focus of a typical wargamer.

So I am seriously considering a small Roman force. I probably will go ahead and try out some of the new plastics. What can I say, they're the latest craze. And they're affordable enough to make my lack of focus somewhat acceptable. I just have to decide between Warlord & Wargames Factory.