Aventine Archers WIP

Didn't want to go too long between postings as last time (about four months!).

Here's what I've been working on.

I'm actually painting a batch of 16, but got bored and decided to finish the guys in red tunics rather than work through all four colours. The other colours are green, blue and yellow/brown. Once completed, I'll mix them up on the bases to give a slightly irregular look.

Also just spotted that visits have topped twenty thousand. Thanks for looking!

Successor Agema

Wow! Can't believe how long it is since I last posted! Time flies when you're having fun, I guess.

I started these just after our Heraclea game at Partizan in May. I've been distracted with several things since then, work not the least of them. These are once again Aventine figures and represent the Royal bodyguard unit of one of the strongmen who managed to carve out a piece of Alexander's Empire, or the successors thereof.

I've tried to paint the purple in a shade that matches the latest interpretation of what is believed to be what "Tyrian Purple" looked like. Might be a bit pink for some tastes!

Oh, by the way, I'm really pleased with these - I think they're some of my best work. Enjoy!

Thureophoroi Completed

Finally got around to finishing off the other dozen thureophoroi to complete a unit of twenty four (you know when you have that group of figures that keeps getting pushed to the back of the queue...?).

Here's the full unit. Couldn't resist painting a few in pink ;-)

Heraclea at Partizan

The boards and figures were loaded into the car and we made the trip down to Kelham Hall near Newark.

We'd met up with Keith and Adam from Aventine the previous evening for a couple of pre-game drinks and it was good to see them again on Sunday. Also taking part in the game were Simon Miller (AKA BigRedBat), his son Harry and James Symmons.

We used Hail Caesar, tweaked by Keith, for our refight. Keith was a real Saint over the course of the day; he was the only one of us with more than a passing familiarity with the rules and he was frequently called on to direct we no-knowledge Tyros!

Various people took pictures over the course of the day and I'm sure many of them will be better than mine! Unfortunately, the lighting can be quite strange in the building and some of the shots look to have been taken through the early morning mist! Quite atmospheric.. (no pun intended).

The quality of the pictures is a bit mixed, but hopefully will give you something of the flavour of the thing before far better photographers get to show off their snaps. Enjoy!

 Pyrrhic deployment, with pikes in the centre, flanked by Tarentine hoplites and cavalry and light infantry wings.

 Roman deployment, just after they've (mostly) crossed the river.

 Close up of the cavalry and light infantry on the Roman right during the initial stages of the river crossing.

 Roman left flank

 Pyrrhic right centre.

 Pyrrhic right wing cavalry

 Pyrrhic left centre

 Close up of left flank Tarentine unit

 Keith and Simon (L-R) get stuck in on the Roman left flank

Close up of the scene.

Overall, a great day in great company. Although we didn't quite play the game to a conclusion, we declared a Pyrrhic victory following some pretty freakish dice throwing over the course of the day...

Board Progress 7 - almost at Heraclea

With just a few days to go until the demo game at Partizan, the boards are starting to come together.

Just a couple of shots of one of the river/ford sections to whet your appetite (no pun intended!) You'll have to get along to Kelham Hall next Sunday if you want to see more...

Aventine Hellenistic Cavalry

Finally completed these. Not as quickly as Keith managed, but I got there in the end.

Just a week to go until Heracles at Partizan, so back to the boards...

Board progress 6

All six boards now at the same stage; roads and rivers completed.

As you can (hopefully!) see, the boards can go together in several different configurations and I'll leave it up to the day of Heraclea to decide what works best.

Next stage is to add some random flocking to some of the more open areas, around the roads, river, etc. I might even attempt some reeds in the water...