And Now... A Walk In The Black Forest!

Cue the music...

It has taken me a while to get back to my rebasing project and this time it's The Army of Forest Folk. The reason for taking so long is not that this was a difficult task but the fact that I've lost a huge amount of enthusiasm for wargaming. I no longer have a club that I like to attend and, as a result, I have no real need to create vast armies. Having said that I will start playing solo games as soon as the weather cools down and the heat in my upstairs hobby room becomes tolerable.

This is an unusual army and it's made up of figures from all over which I'll detail as we go. The army is very colourful and looks spectacular in the flesh. It has a lot of light troops in the form of fauns and centaurs. But it also has a tough core of Tree-Folk and some other big hitting creatures. I don't know how effective it will be in battle but they look impressive.

Okay... Starting on the left in the centaur cavalry. This wing is made up of light skirmisher riders and heavy rider cavalry. Although, as heavy cavalry they lack armour, I thought that being half horse, centaurs would have a better, natural, agility than riders and this could account for their prowess as "mounted" warriors. I added a unicorn as a champion/hero but I think I'll change that and try to find a better option.

The centaurs are from Eureka Miniatures. I modified a few of these sculpts for Eureka a few years back in order to expand the range. I can't remember which ones except for the king with the laurel crown. The unicorn is a Reaper Bones figure. I have two bases of mounted skirmish archers and three bases of heavy riders lead by the centaur king.

Here's the first of the big hitters - A mountain troll. He's big and if you look at the photo above you see how he towers over the centaurs.  I like this figure. He looks tough and grumpy.

I'm a bit confused as to the generalship of this army. I've included a troll as the army commander here, but I think this will change and he'll become a champion or maybe another big-hitter troll. Same with Luna the Moon Ogress. I was going to use her as the army's spell caster but I think I found a better option after I finished taking the pics. I have another army that I think she would be better suited to. The troll is from Reaper Bones and the ogress is another from Eureka Miniatures.

The Treefolk ~ These make up the heavy infantry core of the army. They are made up of GW Dryads, and Treekin from Mantic's, Kings of War range. Both sets of figures are fantastic. The dryads are one GW's best kits as far as I'm concerned. I saw a painting tutorial on youtube on how to paint the dryads to resemble Japanese cherry blossoms. I liked it; so that's what I did. The dryads will be heavy warriors with some traits to toughen them up. The treekin will be an elite type of unit so I want them to be very tough.

And then there's this guy, Greennuts the Ent. I sculpted this figure years ago when I had my own miniature business. I sold a few of him around the world but this is the original. He's made of several parts and towers over every other model on the table. I made another of these about 20 years back and I'll add a pic below if I can find one. The Treekin are spectacular models. I should get another set of them.

Here's another of my favourite models: The Jabberwock! It's another Reaper Bones figure and I think it looks fantastic. This was a difficult figure to do and it required special treatment (click here to see what was needed to put this figure together). Okay... now that I've said all that, I might remove this figure from this army. I think it fits well but I now have a better idea of where it will fit in even better.

The right wing is made up of fauns (satyrs). These units are all light infantry. The archers are obviously skirmish troops but the spearmen are going to be light infantry with good melee capability. There are six bases of each and they're produced by Eureka Miniatures. Once again I modified a few of these figures for Eureka several years back to help expand the range. 

This figure below is a Reaper miniature and, after taking these pics and having a rethink I believe that this figure would make a better general than the troll. I think what I'll do is; I'll make up a sabot base with a standard bearer and a musician and insert him onto the base like I did with my Elf King. He just looks so much more commanding than the troll. The troll can replace the Jabberwock

Three champions: The Faun commander, A beast headed warrior and the would-be new king/general, (And yes that is what you think it is on the faun commander ~ Be careful or he'll have your eye out!).

Two views: Right to left and left to right.

A top down view to show how the army fits on to a 6x4 table. They make quite a footprint although there are a lot of light troops and not many heavy warriors. The idea is to make the tree folk very tough and hope that the lighter flanks are capable of harassing, slowing and reducing the enemy by evading and attacking on their own terms. I don't know if this will work.

After taking the photos I remembered this figure and thought: "Oh yes. She's supposed to be the spell caster." So she might end up replacing Luna a Moon Ogress. Or maybe not.

As promised above: here are some pics of the original treeman I sculpted about 20 odd years back for my Warhammer Wood Elves. I sold the army and have regretted it ever since. I never played Warhammer but I use to like creating WH armies and painting the figures. I built several of them and sold them all. (Wish I hadn't)

Anglo ~ Saxons & Some Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders

The rebasing continues and this time it's my Anglo-Saxons (or generic Dark Ages if you prefer). Once again these figures were all on individual bases which made them difficult to use in large battle games. Even when put onto sabot bases mass amounts of singe figures are hard to manage as far as I'm concerned and I think they'll be much easier to manage as they are now based.

I also rebased my "Somewhat Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders." Until such time as I increase their numbers they should work well with the Anglo-Saxons to create a pseudo-dark age fantasy host.

There are 14 bases of heavy warriors: 7 bases of armoured thegns, 6 of fyrd and one of huscarls. There are also two bases of javelin armed light infantry (allied Welsh or Irish) and three skirmish bases armed with bows. This isn't a huge army but it is made up of about 200+ figures. The host is deployed with the thegns in the front line and supported by the fyrd in the rear. The kings' huscarls are also to the front, armed with Dane axes and supported by the kings own household thegns. 

To lead the host is King Ætholguy the Seeker, the heroes Ælefroth and Wilfred. There is also a priest and a handful of lesser heroes (see below). Ætholguy the Seeker features throughout this blog and is a name I chose for the very first warlord when I played Saga many years back. He has lead many warbands and fought larger battles over the years and it's about time he got elevated to the throne. Long live King Ætholguy the Seeker!

This is the right of the shieldwall. You can see the front rank of thegns and the fryd at the rear nice and clear. This host has only a few missile troops deployed as skirmishers. Their main strength lay in a solid shieldwall and little else. I have been thinking what kind of fantastic elements I can add to the army to create a fantasy version but I haven't come up with anything suitable at this stage.

You can see the kings' axe wielding huscarls standing right behind him in the image above. I actually had 14 Dane-axe figures so I decided to put all of them onto the base. It makes the unit look very big, heavy and tough.

The left of the shieldwall with the light infantry allies. I decided to keep these lighter troops on single bases and use sabot unit bases as I did with both my elves and orcs. If I want I can put only 4 figures onto a sabot and create another 4 figure unit is needed, but I prefer the 6 figure look. These figures are actually Wargames Atlantic Irish. 

Whilst on the subject of figures: the figures used here are from all over. The main bulk of figures are Gripping Beast but there are many figures from all over including, Eureka Miniatures, Footsore, Saxon (now defunct), and others.

Some extra heroes to add to the mix, and to go where they may be needed.

And here are the "Somewhat Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders," that might or might not hail from the lands of Rohan. These are my cheap-o "I'm not paying out a fortune to GW" fantasy rider. They are actually Goth Noble Riders from Gripping Beast. They look the part but they have a very limited range of poses (as do all Gripping Beast cavalry).

Visually they don't really fit with the Anglo Saxons but for the sake of creating a nice big host they can work together until I make something better. This is two  boxes so another couple of boxes would double their number an look pretty impressive. I think the Wargames Atlantic Gothic infantry would make good foot troops to supplement the horse.

One thing I don't have is Rider Leaders and I'm finding it difficult to find any suitable figures. These riders are 100% fantasy and bare very little resemblance to the historical Goths, so they need suitably impressive leaders and heroes to command them. I'm even considering GW options!!! (Gasp!)

You may note that I only put 4 riders to a base and that these bases are not as deep as my other cavalry units. I did this because I intend to make them heavy cavalry but not as strong as the armoured elf knights or orc boar riders. Heavy riders more in the vein of Roman equites.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that's it for this post. I'm contemplating which army to do next. I'm looking at either my woodland forces or undead. I'm undecided at this time. I also need to play a game of Midgard. But finding the time is proving difficult at the moment.

Thanks for reading,

IanKH

 

 

The Erlking and the High Elven Host

After a bit of a hiatus whilst I readied the orcs for battle, the elfin folk are now ready to take the field against them. Where the orcs are dark and grim, my elves wear burnished mail with bright banners flying and glittering spears held high. Whereas orcs are generally considered all-round evil-doers, I don't necessarily think of elves as being the good guys. I see them as aloof and removed, caring only about otherworldly concerns and their own elfish schemes. More like the elves depicted by Poul Anderson in The Broken Sword rather than the common Tolkienesque view. 

I had a few little elements to complete for this army and I'm still not 100% finished, I'm still working on the chariots and I have one more eagle that isn't based and I'm looking for another so that I can make a second eagle base (for a future big, big battle!).

I'll start on the right flank. This should really be the place of honour for the King and his guard but instead there are some chariots, light infantry javelineers, Swan Knights and The Guard of The Tower of The Sun. There are also some skirmish archers at the front but this army doesn't have many skirmishers and relies on formed archers backed by solid phalanxes of spears. They are lead by the shieldmaiden Ælfgifu at the moment as I'm a bit light of heroic male elf figures. But this is a striking figure that fits the role well... And so she may remain.

Eagles, the King's Guard (in blue) and The Rose Knight mounted on her steed: the war dragon Blue Fang. I'm of two minds whether to include the Rose Knight in this army or to put her in my army of Forrest Folk. She can fit in either army and I want her in one or the other as I do like to theme my armies and don't like to swap models between them.

The Erlking - High King of the Elfin Folk standing before the Royal Guard (in blue). These troops were originally made to be a large 36 figure phalanx but they have now been organised into three 12 figure units. I think I might have to create a 4th unit to balance the whole regiment. Beside the king is a she-elf spell caster and a low level hero which, in the past, I've usually used as the captain of the guard.

This regiment is the largest, having 6 units. They are organised differently to all the others in that they're mixed bow and spear. This can potentially make them pretty lethal on the battlefield. They are lead by The Prince In The Scarlet Robe.

Next in line, on the left wing, are some lighter troops. These are medium infantry warriors with sword and shield. I'm not exactly sure how to represent them in Midgard at this stage. With them are another two units of javelineers - light infantry skirmishers - straight out of the rule book but with some extra fighting ability. This wing also has a couple of bases of standard, bow armed skirmishers.

Knights of the Three Keeps - Heavy Riders (Knights). I've made them knights because they're virtually cataphracts which gives them a nice archaic aesthetic. Here' they are on the extreme flank although they could just as easily deploy in the centre as they are a hard hitting strike force. Their proper role is to charge the enemy with full force. They're not really suited to working around the flanks to harry the enemy.

Another shot of the Rose Knight and Blue Fang.

The whole host deployed for battle.

A close up of the javelin bases. I originally created these as you see in two 12 figure units and although the sabot bases they are on are 8mm wider than the standard bases I'm using (11.2 cm) they are close enough to use together (I'm not fussed over a few millimetres). Using these sabot bases also gives me the option to keep some of my elves on single round bases for other possible rules sets.

Scorpions - Just like with my orcs, these are from the WizKids range. A little modification and they work great. Again I'll say: A set of 2 for about $10/$12 and you can't beat them.

Another shot of my javelins, medium infantry and skirmishers. The sabot bases work well for the lighter troops and I have the option to keep a bunch of single base figures.

Another angle.

And, once again, The Erlking - High King of the Elven Folk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that's it. One thing I'm working on is this: I actually have three chariot models and I'm looking at putting each chariot on it's own base with a few chariot runners armed with bows. This will create an independent, strong chariot force of three units for fast skirmishing and flank attacks. A good match for the orcs and their warg riders.