Make with the Mitanni

Another Chariot army beckons as I make a start one four more Mitanni chariots by Caesar Miniatures. These are the elite of the Mesopotamian power, known as Mariyannu, or Mariyanni. (Presumably the Egyptians knew them as Mrt, and the nation as Mrtt - I see references to Martu = Amorite.)

The next question is, what do I use for foot? The Mariyanni elite lorded it over a mixed Mesopotamian/Anatolian bunch. I think I can probably morph over my Syrian Ax and Mesopotamian Hd, and maybe add a few elements from the HaT Assyrian Allied Infantry I have yet to do anything with - I bought those to be the core foot for an Urartu army.

Taking a step back briefly, I have to admit that this is yet another of the slightly bogus, nearly imaginary armies the DBA lists are so full of. I'm not saying it's dead wrong mind you, only that the sources have probably not grasped its place in history (or geography to some extent).

Feudal English IV/23 are done at last

Continued fine weather saw me finish the (re)basing in short order. I've selected a beige ground base on card stock, covered with scattered stones, then fairly thick green cover and fine flock over that. I'm hoping the overall look mixes pretty well with the other North-Western Europe armies. Bases should suggest reasonably good going, suitable for the Arable nature of they and most of their opponents.

Here's the army on my Picasaweb album

And speaking of opponents what good potential I have for building a few more! Edward, one of the most aggressively evil English rulers, fought or sent his captains to fight in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, several French regions and Navarre, and of course England. So far all I can cover of those is Scotland, though some of my Crusaders will morph with French.

Edward I's Chivalry Has Nearly Assembled

Wow, how many months has it been since I started trimming out the Strelets "Edward I" pack? With the weather improved and other things under control I've been pushing myself to hit the basement after work each day, plugging away for maybe half an hour. Yesterday I finished lining out the knights and today, varnish all assembled figures and pasted flags.

The flags are a new thing for me. Most wargamers use them big-time but my pieces get a bit knocked around so I've been very conservative about flags and banners. I think to date only two other armies have a paper banner. These lads will have about half a dozen of various sizes.

Basing and re-basing beckons. The chivalry will become knights and cavalry for the Feudal English, and their foot have very bland flock bases, not up to my current standard.

Edward I assembles his chivalry

Finally! With enough down-time to relax, I've trimmed up all 12 of Strelets' English Cavalry of Edward I. As you'd expect from Strelets they are the opposite of attractive and some are truly bad. However, they are one of the few sets that fit the period.

I have brought in a couple of ringers from Itaeleri's Templars - they don't stand out too much next to the Strelets chunkiness.

Heraldry is going to be a challenge, but the result should be colourful.

Marian Romans

This little army is a good opponent for all sorts of opponents. It's strange that so many manufacturers offer Early Imperial armies with the lorica segmentata and semi-cylindrical shield, but virtually none offer armies from the late Republic, when civil war and vast expansion provide so many foes.

This particular army is created around Caesar Miniatures' Republican Roman offering, which - for Caesar - received a poor review from PSR. To cope with the poorly defined lorica and to speed up the painting process I decided to use a black base and white then silver 'smudge brush' to highlight detail.

Marian Romans require 8 Bd and may have 9 if a BdGen is used. The other elements were problematic. Because they fought all over Roman Africa Asia and Europa, Roman armies drew auxilia psiloi and cavalry from all manner of allies. I decided to recycle Numidian Cv and LH (HaT), throw in Augustan slingers (HaT) though I'll probably swap in Balearic slingers once they're ready, and Spanish infantry as Ax (HaT).

And then there is the Roman Cavalry problem. My understanding is that the Marian reforms did away with equites style cavalry, but the army list seems to expect up to 2 cavalry elements including CvGen to be Roman. I've compromised so far by using one CvGen from HaT's Roman Command pack. I may change my mind and swap in two elements from Zvezda's excellent but alarmingly large Roman Cavalry pack.

Gallic Camp completed.

Gauls defend the camp!

This "cross-section" design was inspired by one of the fanatici and I wish I could remember who so as to thank them. It allows a model in the correct scale to exist on a legal camp base size.
The design of the camp itself is taken from the "Oppidum" phase of early Celtic fortification illustrated in Viollet-le-Duc's Annals of a Fortress. Once again it is just as valid for an Ancient British camp.

Gallo-Briton Morph Complete

With the completion of the last two Wb elements, I finally have all options for either a Gallic army (II/11) or a Briton army (II/53). Here's the mighty army morph arrayed:

So, loads of elements! 6xLCh, 3x4Wb, 8x3Wb, 5x2Ps, 2x3Cv, 2x2LH. Enough for a big-battle double-size army in fact. I'm looking forward to testing out the light-type configuration of Britons in difficult terrain.