Steady On

Hope you like the new look! Work slowed a bit on the Crusaders this weekend due to real life. The 5Wb. element is primed and base-coated and should be finished this week. The Kn. element is coming along nicely and should be finished this week also. The wife is working late all week, so I’ll be able to get alot done. That work will put the army at 50% complete!

I purchased some Greek figs this week from Paul Hannah that will be fielded as either Phokians or Aitolians, not sure yet. They may be painted up for H.O.T.T, or painted up and donated to a friend, we’ll see. If that’s the case, I will be trying Dave Kuijt’s “dip” method for speed.

Last figure related news would be that I spent the evening last night dull-coating my Romans and they look much better now.

I have been reading a giant book by Theodore A. Dodge about Caesar. I’ve been paying special attention to how Caesar deployed his legions in the Gallic Wars, here’s interesting stuff I’ve learned that could apply to DBA, and the Marian list in particular:

• Caesar was almost always outnumbered. He dealt with that by trying to get the enemy to split his forces by using diversionary tactics. DBA does not really allow for such uneven match ups; however, sending Psiloi or Light Horse up a flank to draw units out of your opponents main battle line can never hurt!

• Caesar also evened the odds by very fast marches, forcing his enemy to fight on Caesar’s terms. Although I have never tried it, if you win the terrain roll, you could place a road that goes from your edge of the board to your opponent’s side, deploy in column and move twice. Good luck getting into lines quickly though.

• Caesar would park his army on hill to get an advantage in missile fire, and of course, to have his enemy fighting an uphill battle. Gentle hills work well for this effect in DBA. You can move your army onto one without breaking up your line (since it’s good going) and force your opponent to fight at -1, which is nasty against your blades (+5 vs +3, or +2 vs most foot and mounted with the negative modifier).

• Caesar was careful to garrison his camps. Pretty straight forward, a unit of Blade defending a camp fights at +7, making the camp a very difficult nut to crack. Definitely enough to run off those pesky Light Horse and Psiloi making a go at your camp.

I’ll post more nuggets as I come across them. Next update should have pics of completed elements!

Another Element Done, Plus W.I.P

The following are some new pics for the Crusaders, I also added a gallery page that I will be submitting to Fanaticus, go take a look!

Here is the finished Maronite Bow:

The close-up reveals my “impressionist” style of painting. With 15mm, I soon learned that alot could be achieved with simple splashes of color, as opposed to excruciating numbers of delicate layers that I use in my 28mm work (I’ll post a pic sometime). Anyways, it works really well at arm’s length.

Here’s some work in progress:

One member of my 5Wb element. I decided to paint them up as disgruntled Fatamids. Here’s another shot:

Last, here is a knight:

Here is the army thus far, 1/3 complete:

Alot of this blog has been photographic, and I am very open to suggestions if there is any specific content anyone is interested in, so feel free to comment!

Lots of Pictures

Hereare some better shots of my first three elements completed for my Early Crusader Army.

Two elements of 4Sp.

One element of 3Cb.

Here’s the lot of them.  Ahh…1/4 of my army is finished!  I love DBA.

Here’s a preview of a work in progress:

One element of Bw.  Represented as Maronite archers.  I also have an element of 5Wb., and 3Kn. on the table.  Pics are coming soon!