Infamy Infamy off we go

The last of the figures (at the moment) for the Germanic Warband. These again were from Warlord Games and came from their leaders and heroes for SPQR.

First up I have to admit there is definitely more of a “fantasy” vibe going on with these figures and I feel more than a little bit of influence from Games Workshop in some of the sculpts. See the “foot on log” (instead of rock) champion later on.

Saying that they are characterful figures and painted up easily enough.

First up was a mounted leader with axe (don’t ask me how he uses it while mounted) I teamed him up with a couple of hunting dogs that were meant for another hero but as I never intend to play SPQR it doesn’t matter.

Then we have the rest of the foot command.

The same friend who got me the Germanic Infantry followed this up for my birthday with some supporting units. This time they were from Warlord in the form of their infantry skirmishers, cavalry and the heroes sets. These figures were in the “Warlord resin” and at the moment “the jury is out” as far as I am concerned. While the figures took paint well and were well detailed I have already had one breakage when I dropped a cavalry figure so do not know how well they will last with handling.

First up were the archers again I am not sure about some of the poses especially the “running shooting” that appears to be going on but they painted up OK.

Next up were the cavalry and for these I did not use the shields supplied but used some spare Gallic and for the sharp eyed amongst you a couple of captured Roman cavalry shields to add a bit of variety.

Next up were the cavalry command and again painted up easily enough.

So you think your nearly finished with a project and then someone buys you a present ?. This was in the form of the Victrix Germanic Infantry with the accompanying shield transfers.

There are sixty figures in the set with 48 warriors and 12 command figures. Apart from a few armoured figures in the command sprues the majority are mostly bare chested or in some cases just wearing loin cloths so flesh was the major colour needed.

I set myself the challenge (that I think I met) of not trying to duplicate any figure by using the weapon and head options available on the sprues.

So here are the complete infantry.

So walking around a wargames show with funds burning a hole in my pocket and I came across a set of Victrix Gallic Cavalry. The thought suddenly came to me that adding these and dropping the Chariots would allow me to field a Gallic Warband as well as a Celtic British one so why not. Shields as normal by LBM Studios.

For once they did not linger long on the painting table and here we are.

So it was at this stage that old Pelgwasgu unleashes her warband and with the movement one group that has been supporting has a clear path to the Auxiliaries. This time it does not go well for the Romans and after a couple of rounds of combat they break due to the amount of shock on the unit. The Romans force morale is now reached zero and they will march off the board.

Now I hear you ask while all this was going on what were the main men doing well due to the vagaries of the card driven activation used in the rules not a lot, Septicus and Gettafix spent the majority of the game facing each other and trading insults only. Gettafix was only activated twice and neither side had any signa cards left at the end of the turns to do anything. The Romans had managed to get their cavalry behind the chariots but again never got chance to charge or to be honest want to as they were badly beat up after seeing off the British light cavalry and reduced to half strength.

So for a first run out of the figures and rules it did provide an entertaining game with initially the toughness of the Romans wearing down the Britons but when it went wrong for the Romans it was spectacular. I need to give the rules a few more goes to see how they play but first impressions are favourable. But then again there is always Clash of Spears to try ?‍♂️

The age old question and I have still things to paint from projects I started years ago (for example my Very British Civil War started almost 10 years ago and still have stuff to finish) but once you have “broken the back” and got the figures on the table will do for a start.

With the easing of lockdown in the UK it gave me a chance to give the completed Infamy stuff a “run out” this week with 3 mates. Myself and Nige playing the Romans and Paul and “Broken Dice” David taking the Britons.

The random set up in the rules was used and had the Romans commanded by their Centurion Septicus Maximus assisted by his second in command Aggro Phobius and Optio Triceaus Richardus leading a raiding force into the wilds to try and capture some livestock for supplies.

The local Britons under their Warlord Gettafix assisted by his daughter Pelgwasgu (according to Google Pel means ball and I will let you guess the rest) are ready to object to this and send them packing.

Roman legionnaires supported by Auxilia  approach the village

While on the other flank Roman cavalry are faced off by Britons and they are soon throwing abuse and javelins at each other.

The main Roman force march onto the field to try and move towards the village and the cattle but are soon faced off by Gettafix and his noble warriors in their chariots.

Suddenly from the village the locals appear and the shout of “there thousands of them” (in Latin of course) is heard from the Roman ranks. But not to be discouraged the Legionaries advance, hurl Pilum and close ranks waiting to the Britons to impact. The initial fighting is inconclusive as the Romans using their defensive tactics avoid the worse of the damage to Britons inflict. But and there is always a but, I forgot I have given them a group of Fanatical Warriors who launch themselves into the flank of the legionnaires and proceed to “pacman” their way through both units.

Now carried away with their success the Fanatical warriors decide to head off and launch themselves at the Auxilia that were behind the legion but things didn’t go well for them and they were soon routed. However the rest of the Britons seem to have expected this and shrugged off the loss while the Romans force morale was falling like a stone.

Next we get to the cavalry contingent of the force 2 units of 6 from Victrix and a couple of mounted officers.

Thankfully the Romans only need a couple of deployment/ambush points so I went for a group of bored sentries and a medicus for these both from Warlord.

Now it was down to the objectives and to start we have the Roman traveling coach (and if you look carefully you can see the feet of the two figures at the start of my previous post).

And then we have some carts, you can tell the barbarian one as it has solid wheels ?. Just need to try and find some decent “loads” for the carts with a suitable look.

And finally for the livestock a load of bullocks

With the last of the current figures completed it is now time to decide what to dust off from my “mountain of pride” so sticking to the Italian theme it will be forward a couple of thousand years and some Italian troops for the Western Desert methinks.

Well slowly pushing on with the Infamy project over the last couple of months and it was now down to the various Auxiliary support for the infantry, deployment markers and finally objectives etc needed for the game.

But first we will start with two figures I painted for completeness even though you will struggle to see them in the game!!!

The high ranking government official and companion.

Next up we have the Auxiliary Archers (Western flavour)

Now in reality I only needed 6 Roman Engineers but somehow ended with 11 (a mix of Foundry and Warlord) but with the addition of a pack mule 2 units of 6 appeared so have pickaxe will travel as they say.

And whats a Roman army without artillery so a couple of Scorpions were completed.

I had a couple of additional officers (Warlord) given to me as part of a present so added, one being used to command the Auxiliaries.

With the British finished (at least for now) it was time to turn on the Romans, again for the Infantry I turned to Victrix and a couple of boxes of Legionnaires and a box of Auxillia.

Once these were made a quick coat of black undercoat was applied, and then a heavy dry brush of gunmetal for the armour, the rest were then block painted, washed and highlighted.

As with the British element of the project it was then down to completing the shields using Little Big Man Studios shield designs. What impressed me most was that weathering had already been completed on the transfers so another step avoided?

And of course to support the legionnaires you need the auxiliary.

Now it is onto the Roman cavalry and auxiliary archers and then the various carts, wagons, coach and farm stock that  make up the scenario objectives.

The next was the huntsman himself

Now we come to the “spiritual advisors” providing moral support to the tribe, the first a druid with followers and someone offering advice

And lastly a female druid with followers

Again slightly disappointed with photos as they do not pick out the highlights on the dresses but can’t have everything.

Well I finally managed to finish off basing the Ancient Brits and get all the shields glued on. One thing I will not miss is doing the sabot bases, I’m sure that it took me more time to complete the clean up than it did to paint and apply the basing material.

Anyway first up we have the armoured warriors who will either form the front ranks of the warriors or represent the Noble Warriors in Infamy.

We then had the “red haired” women herself (this is simpler than Boudica, Boudicca, Boadicea or Boudicea or if you want the welsh spelling Buddug) and her spiritual advisor with a fetish for heads. Slightly disappointed that the shading and highlights on her dress have not come out on the photo ?

Now no self respecting Noble wants to walk to battle so here are the “battle taxi’s” of the day.

Now we have the boys to provide the annoyance value to the enemy with a group of light cavalry skirmishers and slingers.

Now as part of the game you need deployment/ambush points for your force, I manage to locate a couple of pre-painted standing stones you can see lurking in the back of some of the photos but for others a trip to the Wargames Foundry site provided the rest.

First up are the huntsmen who are also doing a bit of scouting

The next stage to be completed were the Ancient British “battle taxis” again from Victrix. To get the best results there is a need to build most of the components separately, paint and varnish them, assemble and then touch up.

Again I used some of the transfers from LBMS but I must admit I didn’t bother with the wheel trims a bit to fiddly for my finders.

The chariots also came with a number of additional figures as alternative crews and it seemed rude not to make use of them so I know have an “angry women” leader and also a “friendly druid”

So now just need to get the right weather so I can give another coat of varnish and on to the basing.

With the last of the Britons painted it is now onto the Romans ?

Finally got around to basing and fixing the shields to the initial set of warriors. For basing it was a quick layer of tiling grout followed by an all in one basing mix (Moorland) and then the addition of a few tufts and the odd late fall blooms.

As I have said before the Little Big Man shield designs are really a blessing.

With the initial set of Warriors painted and varnished, awaiting the finishing of their bases and addition of shields it was time to move on the their armoured brethren. There are 30 in the Victrix bag and I think I managed to build them without getting any duplicates.

At the same time I prepped the skirmishing support troops (light cavalry and slingers) and the figures needed to complete the deployment/ambush points needed for the game all from Wargames Foundry.

It was now out with the airbrush to undercoat and for the armoured figures I used black undercoat while for the others I stuck with the grey.

Next the figures got a heavy drybrush of Vallejo Chainmail silver this was later knocked back with a wash of nuln oil.

Figures were then blocked painted as with the other warriors.

And finally a wash of nuln oil on the armoured and Army Painted strong tone for the clothes. At the same time I painted the light horse skirmishers (just for a change), I particularly like these figures as they are mounted on the smaller ponies.

It was also the time to start the shields, I am painting these on the sprue and then touching up later.

Back of the shields given a coat of foundry staffwood followed by strong tone wash, metal work completed and then the front painted off white.

Then it was time to break out the scalpel to cut out the shield transfers. Now here a HINT on the Little Big Man Studios transfers most of the bosses need to be cut out. Do this before cutting the shield from the main sheet as it is a lot less fiddly!!!

Once the transfers applied there is a bit of “touching up” to do if you have fingers like Mars Bars like me!!

3 down 45 to go.

So time to start applying paint and try to get them done as fast as possible, so the idea was to paint them in batches of 10. There would be two main colours per batch and although the Celts were known for plaids and stripes as these were the unarmoured warriors initially they would be plain block colours.

I went for various green, brown/red and unbleached wool/linen tones from the Wargames Foundry range.

So started with the flesh (Vallejo Sunny Skintone) followed by Army Painter Flash Wash. Then block painted linen and green for the main colours, this wash followed by a Army Painted Strong tone wash and quick highlight.

Next up was to apply the odd tattoo, this was done with fine drafting pen and although not the greatest close up does pass the “two foot” test and gives an suitable effect. (Doh! it was at this stage noticed pooling of wash on one of the faces so had a do a quick retouch).

With the first 10 complete moved to the second batch, the only difference going for a darker skintone as the first batch appeared a bit light.

What do you do when you have over a dozen projects on the go? Start another one of course!

The publication of Infamy Infamy by the Too Fat Lardies gave me the opportunity to return to one of my first periods in wargaming and also collect a force I always wanted but never added to the numerous 15mm Ancient Armies languishing in their storage boxes the Ancient Britains. It would also mean that I could get a force of Romans which again I have never collected in 40 years and gaming.

One of the first decisions made however was that I was going to use “shield transfers” as I was not going to attempt to hand paint that many designs. Also the use of these transfers make the figures “pop” and can hide a multitude of sins in the painted figures.

So after drooling over the Wargames Foundry Ancient Britains/Celts the first disappointment and Little Big Man Studios (LBMS) not producing shield transfers for them.

So the first decision and an order was dispatched to Vivrix for packs of both their armoured and unarmoured warriors with the accompanying LBMS shield transfers.

This then left me the decision as to what to do about the Romans and whether to go for a Caesarian or Early Imperial force and at the moment I still haven’t decided.

When they arrived I started on the unarmoured warriors and was pleasantly surprised at the ease of construction and the variety that can be obtained. The first 48 figures were soon built and based ready for priming.

So it was out with the airbrush and a coat of Vallajo light grey primer applied and I was ready for the off.