DBA/Hordes of the Things: Medieval Humans

 

For years my maps for potential fantasy campaigns have had a placeholder country for "generic medieval people" tucked away somewhere, under the assumption that I could piece some sort of army together if necessary. But about this time last year, I started thinking that maybe it was time to paint up some of the figures I had stashed away and expand the handful of units I had into a real force.

As usual, this got a little out of hand.

I figured I would use one of the DBA army lists as a model but not worry too much about the exact figures or the descriptions in the list. I could just about piece together what I needed for a medieval French army with what I had on hand, mostly the old Accurate Hundred Years War Knights and Men-at-Arms. But then I needed a few more crossbowmen, so I got a box of the Italeri French Knights and Foot Soldiers. And then I ran across some of the English Knights and Archers at a flea market... and you know, wouldn't it be nice to have a matched pair of armies?

What I finally settled on was a sort of conjoined-twin pair of armies: two lists with a reasonable amount of overlap that can also serve as historical opponents for each other. (For the DBA aficionados, these were IV/64b Medieval French and IV/74 Free Company & Armagnac. All the dedicated English lists needed more longbows than I had even after my flea market acquisition.) So here at last are the armies of Florlys (blue and yellow) and Brimarth (red and white): 

Mounted general (3Kn)

Mounted knights (3Kn)

Dismounted knight generals (4Bd) - here there is some duplication so that I can play the two halves against each other. Also, I actually painted up some pavilions to represent camps for the two sides!

Dismounted knights (4Bd)

Spears and other polearms (Sp)

Crossbowmen (4Cb)

Brigans or men-at-arms (3Bd)

Longbowmen (4Bd)

Additional longbowmen as mounted infantry (Mtd-4Lb)

Skirmishing bowmen (Ps) - some ubiquitous Airfix Robin Hood figures here, representing something close to their native time and place for once, not converted into ancient Canaanites or Mesoamericans.

Peasant levy (7Hd) - more of the Merry Men here.

Painting time remains easier to find than gaming time, but I do hope to try out these armies against each other in the not-too-distant future. (The Florlys contingent has had some fantasy adventures already, facing off against orcs and the undead...)

New toys for orc armies

As a little side project, I have been working on new units for some of my old Hordes of the Things armies in order to field them under various aliases for DBA. (Not the first time this has happened!) This time the orcs have been the primary beneficiaries - the last time they got an expansion was a few years ago now when I painted up a shaman for Orctober. Now they are adding a couple of chariots and some goblin... allies? subjects? cannon fodder?

The orcs are from the original Caesar set, with some minor conversion work. The chariots are spares from the HaT "Gallic Chariot with Warrior Queen" set - turns out I didn't really need all those Boudicas, but I've found a variety of uses for the figures over the years.

The goblins are also from Caesar - it took me a while to find any and then I ended up with multiple boxes somehow! Some got painted up as massed Hordes, and a few more got picked out to be skirmishing Psiloi (or perhaps Lurkers for HotT.)

Between all these and the Orcs I already have, I can now field a version of the DBA II/53 Ancient British army - albeit looking a little green rather than blue.

The other army to get a small add-on was my Byzantines. (I'm pretty sure when I was working on them a decade ago I had some notion of fielding them for DBA, but now for the life of me I can't figure out what army list I expected to use.) Anyway, they also got some Psiloi - not particularly historical, but I drafted some good old Airfix Robin Hood archers to fill the gap.

Next step... finally turning my handful of generic medieval troops into a coherent army? We shall see...

Mesoamerican DBA part 4: Chichimecs

Ah, the siren song of DBA armies - it wouldn't be that hard to paint just one more, right? At the beginning of last summer, there was a crop of "SKODBACs" popping up everywhere (Simple Knock-Out DBA Campaigns). I saw a few reports on these and thought they sounded like fun - but instead of putting one together with my existing Bronze Age or fantasy armies, for some reason the thought crossed my mind that I could paint another two Mesoamerican armies and have a nice little set of five for a SKODBAC of my own. 

One of the two additions that I settled on were the Chichimecs, DBA list III/41b. (Before I get much further, I do want to note: "Chichimec" is one of these probably-derogatory exonyms applied originally by the Aztecs and adopted by the Spanish, and is not what these people called themselves.) This list covers various desert peoples of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States; in fact DBA uses it for the Pueblo cultures as well. This was not the first time I had considered them; in fact I painted up a few as mercenaries for my Maya army a couple of years ago (though more on that later.) I figured I would take the same approach as before and convert them from the Caesar Libyans set; my dad had a bunch of spare bowmen left over from building his Libyan army which he was willing to contribute. Well, ten months later, here they are!

This time I did a bit more looking around for pictorial references; Ian Heath's book on the armies of the Aztecs and the Incas had some useful illustrations and I also tracked down a reference to the Ixmiquilpan murals which includes more-or-less contemporary depictions of Chichimec warriors.

All agree that the Chichimecs were habitually unclothed except for a belt or string tied around the waist, often a cape (usually of animal skins), and perhaps occasionally a loincloth. (Ian Heath asserts that the capes were not worn in battle; based on other depictions I am not so sure - and as most of the Libyan figures start off with capes it was much less work to leave them in place!) Their usual weapon was the bow, with which they were legendarily proficient, and to reflect this the DBA army list is mostly archers, either as Fast Bow or skirmishing Psiloi. The list also includes some "club-men" as Fast Warbands; I added in some spears and atlatls in addition to war-clubs of a couple of types.

Options for the general as either a Bow or Warband unit. The warband general has a back-banner of red and yellow feathers, similar to though simpler than those used by the Aztecs.

Two additional warbands. There is some discussion of face and body paint being used by some of the Chichimec peoples; I have opted to include some as it made them more fun to paint - mostly stripes in combinations of red, yellow, white, or black, but some more elaborate.

The majority of the army is the Fast Bow units; the DBA list permits up to nine; I topped out at eight (with the Bow general potentially subbing in for the ninth on days when he's not in command). I tried to vary the three archer poses as much as I could. Most have hair lengthened with greenstuff and hairbands added. Some have their cloaks carved away for a more nude look; the remainder are painted with a variety of animal hide or vaguely Southwestern textile patterns.

Some archers based as Psiloi instead. Again, up to nine are permitted; I figured four would be about the useful limit (and was also as many as I had room to fit neatly in my current storage box!) Here I have mixed in a couple of warriors converted to be holding bows and arrows instead; quivers also added where needed.

Another view of the whole army together. All in all, these ended up skewing a little more fanciful than historical; it's more fun to paint cloaks and bodypaint and feathers, but it's possible that a more accurate representation would be a bunch of naked men with bows. I also tried something I don't usually do and varied my basing scheme - no ubiquitous green flock, but a bunch of spiny-looking tufts and rocks for these desert-dwellers.

And finally, one bonus addition. Remember those Chichimec mercenaries in the Maya army? Well, it turns out they really ought to be "Toltec-Chichimec" mercenaries from city-states like the Tlaxcalans - not the same thing at all! So the original band was split up and sent to join the new army, and I painted these fellows to take their place:

So, what about that fifth army? Well... we'll see. These guys took a lot longer than I expected, and I don't have much appetite for further conversions at the moment. Maybe a four-nation SKODBAC would be sufficient fun for now...

Painting, gaming, and a new arrival: 2023 midyear review

Well, here we are, halfway through the year, and nary a blog post to be seen! While there's been a fair bit keeping me occupied aside from gaming, I have managed to get some painting done, and a few games on the table. First up, a few add-ons for previous armies:

The dwarven contingent got an artillery piece - still considering whether I might expand them into a full army some day. Crew are mostly from the same set as the rest of the dwarves, though a random MiniArt Germanic warrior got conscripted as a fourth. The cannon barrel and most of the carriage are from the same Spanish sailors set that supplied my conquistadors; the wheels and the mantlet are from a Caesar Assyrian chariot I'd had around for ages.

2022 painting round-up

Happy New Year, everyone!

Ever since I started tracking my painting a couple of years ago, I like to assemble it all at the end of the year for a review. For 2022, I painted 239 figures in total, down a bit from the last couple of years. The biggest contingents were two new DBA armies, who have previously been featured (Tlaxcalans, Undead), but my Proxian imagi-nations armies also saw considerable expansion (spurred on by several battles being fought over the course of the year.)

(There are a few absent from the picture - some chariot runners I painted for my dad as part of a rebasing scheme prior to a game at our local convention, a Leonardo tank painted for a club project, and a Scythian lancer borrowed to paint for a contest over at Benno's Forum.)

A few other highlights that I never got around to posting about on the blog:

Occiterran Red Hussars (from the Emhar Light Brigade set), painted up after the Occiterran defeat in April.

A proper Pharaoh for my Egyptians (from the Caesar set), painted up in time to lead the Egyptian army in my Battle of Djahy game at Barrage.

Camp followers for various DBA armies - Aztec and Tlaxcalan at left, Bronze Age at right.

A selection of Reaper Bones adventurers.

As for 2023, no big plans yet - I'll just have to see what the year brings as far as painting and gaming! My brother stopped by yesterday for a couple of rounds and DBA and HotT, so we are off to a good start...

DBA/Hordes of the Things - Mummies and Undead

I've been on a bit of a DBA kick for the past three years or so, but before that I used to play a lot more of the related fantasy rules, Hordes of the Things. With Dark Alliance having put out a set of Mummies a few years ago, it had always been at the back of my mind to pick some up and fit them in as a fantasy complement or opponent for my historical Egyptians. However, I wasn't quite sure I wanted to build the whole army out of mummies, and my first thought was to fill them out with some of the Caesar Undead. Sadly, these are long out of production and I have been unable to turn up any at a reasonable price. 

However, earlier this summer, I had a little brainstorm while looking through my collection of unpainted figures. I have a large stash of Atlantic Egyptians that was gifted to me some years ago; I haven't painted many of them because they're a little tall and thin compared to the Caesar figures that make up most of my armies. However, looking at their thin, almost gaunt features and slightly odd postures, I wondered: could I just paint them as zombies of some kind? Turns out, yes, I could.

The next issue was army composition. I decided that I wanted to base it on a DBA army so that I could use it for either set of rules. The question was, who is:

1. An enemy of the ancient Egyptians
2. Not an army I already have available
3. Matches the available figures as far as troop types and weapons

In the end I settled on the I/17a Early Hyksos list as the best fit for my criteria. Their army has a core of fast Blades and a Light Chariot general, with some lighter supporting infantry.

The LCh general. In Hordes of the Things, he might be a Rider or Knight, but likely a Hero General. The chariot and horses are from the venerable Atlantic Egyptian Cavalry set; lacking mummified or skeletal horses of the proper size I attempted to paint these as recently reanimated. The charioteer and his two followers are Dark Alliance figures; one has been converted into a standard bearer.

Four units of mummy warriors as 3Bd (probably still Blades in the HotT version).

Three units of Dark Alliance Anubis Army warriors as 3Ax. These end up being rather imposing; about 7 feet tall compared to regular humans, so to class them as mere Auxilia seems perhaps a little dismissive. In HotT they'll probably be Warbands instead.

Two stands of bow-armed mummies as Psiloi - probably Lurkers rather than Shooters in HotT.

One stand of zombie infantry as 4Ax. In HotT they might get played as Spears instead.

A solid Horde (7Hd) or another psiloi (Ps) round out the army. In HotT these will be a Horde and another Lurker respectively. 

I had originally hoped to have these done by Halloween (for which they might seem a more appropriate subject than Christmas) but better late than never! There still might be a few more HotT unit options waiting in the wings, but at least the DBA version of the army is ready to take the field - perhaps in the new year once my usual opponents return from the holidays!

Mesoamerican DBA Part 3 - Tlaxcalans

Even as I was wrapping up my Aztec army last year, I found myself wondering if I could pull together one more Mesoamerican DBA army - preferably one that could be an opponent for either the Aztecs or the Maya. As it happens, there was one plausible candidate - army list IV/19a. This list covers a whole swath of Mesoamerican groups, among them the Tlaxcalans. The DBA version of the army is heavy on bowmen, and as it happened I had quite a few archers left over from the Aztec project. I decided to see what I could piece together - and for those who are interested in the process, I wrote about it in a thread over on Benno's Figure Forum. 

(In brief: I took a great deal of inspiration from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, a record put together post-Conquest by the Tlaxcalans themselves to document their role as Spanish allies. It's made up of about a hundred illustrated panels which run together in a narrative almost like a comic strip. As far as the figures go, they are mostly a mix of the Revell and Caesar Aztec sets, with a lot of conversions.)

Now, at last, the army is complete!

First up, our Tlaxcalan generals, as suit-wearing warriors who can be either solid Bows or fast or solid Blades:

The IV/19a list includes two additional units of fast or solid Blades. Unlike their Aztec counterparts, the Lienzo depicts most of the Tlaxcalan warriors without animal headdresses - the exceptions tend to be either feline or canine rather than avian. (One thing I learned while working on this project: the "crocodile" headdress that shows up in both the Aztec sets is probably supposed to be a stylized coyote and not a crocodile at all!)

The IV/19a list also calls for three stands of solid Bow. Per the description in the DBA army list, I depicted these units with two archers and two warriors with shield and maquahuitl - partly to help distinguish them from the fast Bows, and partly because I didn't have quite enough archers and wanted to avoid having to buy more!

The fast Bows, of which there may be up to five. There are a few converted Robin Hood figures mixed in among here...

In the IV/19a list, one of the fast Bows may be replaced with a fast Warband unit of Otomi allies. Unfortunately I was not able to find any good pictorial sources on the pre-contact Otomi, so they are a little fanciful.

Finally, one unit of psiloi - these are actually Atlantic Egyptians, as I had used up my stocks of Aztec bowmen. 

A couple of views of the whole army together:

But wait, there's more! Although my primary goal was to build the IV/19a list for the pre-contact era, in the end I also put together the four Spanish units needed for the IV/19c list variant, which covers the Tlaxcalan/Spanish allied forces. 

Here we have the Spanish general, as a unit of knights. The rider on the left is from the old Revell set of conquistadors; the other two are from the more recent Caesar set - though the man with the raised spear has a substitute horse for size compatibility.

One unit of Spanish sword-and-buckler men, as solid Blades. While I kept mostly the same overall color palette for the Spanish as for the Tlaxcalans, it was quite a change to go from the intricate designs on the Tlaxcalan shields to the plain metal of the Spanish...

One unit of Spanish crossbowmen and arquebusiers as solid Crossbows.

Finally, the Spanish get to deploy a falconet or similar small cannon as a stand of Artillery. The crew, the gun barrel, and the carriage are from one of RedBox's sets of Spanish sailors; the wheels are taken from another set. (There are a few panels of the Lienzo that depict Spanish cannons; they are shown there as having spoked wheels.)

Here's a shot of the Spanish contingent all together, and one more of the combined Spanish-Tlaxcalan army:

And with that, I am just about done with my adventure into Mesoamerica! I do owe all three armies some camp followers, but I think I am about due for a break - hopefully both to work on some other projects and to actually play some games!