Hyborian cavalry reinforcements

I think (hope?) that I've finally finished my 15mm Hyborian Barbarian horde for Sword and Spear Fantasy games. The final additions are the rest of the cavalry. Here they are en masse, charging against some hapless enemy foot.

The front unit is one of Cavalry, as defined in the S&SF rules. They are a single unit, sized 8 cm x 3 cm. They will join my existing two units of Cavalry. They are supported by two units of Light Horse.

The next two units are the Light Horse, based on 4 cm square bases to give them a looser formation. Each unit is therefore 8 cm x 4 cm.

Obviously, they are all just the same excellent Copplestone figures, so the only way to distinguish between them is the base sizes.

I think that the last thing I need to do is photograph the entire horde, which should look pretty impressive.

Then, all that is left is to actually get them onto the table for a few games.

Barbarians with bows and arrows

Despite being away in France for a trip last week around the battlefields of the Western Front and various towns in the region, I did manage to complete some more Copplestone 15mm barbarians for my Hyborian Age horde once I got back.

First, there are three stands of archers, on 4 cm x 2 cm bases who will be added to the three stands I painted last year to give me three units of medium foot archers. These will be paired up to give a unit with an 8 cm frontage, but only one base deep. I think that this will look fine on the table.

The other bow-equipped troops are four stands of Copplestone Pict archers, on 4 cm square bases, who will form two units of skirmishers. In my imaginary Hyborian Age, these "Picts" represent cave-dwelling tribes who are allies of the semi-nomadic barbarian tribes. Of course, in Robert E. Howard's  pseudo-historical vision of the Hyborian Age, the Picts were described as being "small in height, squat and muscular, adept at silent movement, and most of all brutish and uncivilized" who had retained only rudimentary technology and language skills. I see these archers, together with the ones I painted last year as Neanderthals who have survived to co-exist with the Cro-Magnons who comprise most of the population of the world of Hyboria. Anyway, here they are;

All I have left to paint now are a unit of Medium Foot and three units of Horse. One of these will be based up as Cavalry (in S&SF terms) on 4 x 3 cm bases and the other two as Light Horse, on 4 cm square bases.

After I've finished all the units, I need to decide exactly how I want to use them on the table. I've recently decided that my trolls will be used as armoured Heavy Foot and being larger than humans they will have the impact and powerful attack characteristics.

I am also thinking that my human Heavy Foot (of which I have 12 4 x 1.5 cm stands) might be put together as two Large units, i.e. being three bases deep and two bases wide, as well as having them as three normal sized units, as described in my previous post.

I am wondering if I might need more units for variation, too. I like the idea of steppe mounted archers as fast skirmishers, but most of the available figures seem to look too "modern" to my eye, and I'd like a stand of mammoths or other big monsters to be used as Large Beasts. Alternative Armies have a rather nice monsters called Rhinosaurs which would look pretty good on the table, with perhaps a few barbarians in the howdah. They also do a version without the howdah.

More Hyborians join the Barbarian Horde

Following on from the two groups of trolls and the wolves, I have completed two more units of barbarian warriors for my Hyborian Sword & Spear Fantasy army. Like all the others these are from the Copplestone Barbarica range of 15mm figures.

These will join the existing barbarians that I painted up last year as HOTT Blades. and will form the core of the army. I intend all three units to be used as Heavy Foot with Average Protection, with the original ones being designated as Hearthguards, with the Shieldwall and Standfast attributes, and maybe Brave or Heroic as well.

These two new units will be less exalted Heavy Foot, also with Shieldwall. To distinguish them from the Hearthguards, these guys have standard bearers attached to the units.

In addition, I have painted up two command stands and three magic users. These are all on round bases. I do have other magic users and clerics in my original HOTT army, plus three hero/general figures on square bases. I will also include these in my S&SF army, probably as an army general, heroes and as a high level magic user.

The figure on the left, with a standard bearer and a drummer will be a general and the other stand will be a captain. The magic users will all be Level 1 magicians.

Next, I will be working on more archers to be used as Medium Foot missile troops and Pict (in Copplestone terms) archers to be used as Foot Skirmishers.

I am really pleased with how this army is looking. Once I've finished off all the new additions, I'll take photos of the complete army.

Making a start on the Hyborian lead mountain

I bought the Great Escape Games Sword & Spear fantasy rules last year, with the intention of playing games in 15mm. My original idea was to create a 15mm post-Roman army with an Arthurian theme, and this is still my intention. I have a load of Lurkio post-Romans and a few early Byzantines, plus a few Magister Militum wizards which will become transformed at some point, but it also occurred to me that I could expand my Hyborian Barbarian HOTT army into a larger force for S&SF.

The consensus at the club for S&SF in 15mm is that we should use an 80mm frontage for units, which means that any troops based for HOTT or DBA will be compatible. Therefore, a while ago I bought several packs of extra Copplestone Barbarica 15mm barbarians and other figures to bulk out my existing troops.

I have enough extra figures to create more cavalry units, and also heavy infantry, medium infantry, levies and skirmishers, but as I want this force to have a proper fantasy dimension, I also bought some wolves and trolls from the Copplestone range.

So, my initial foray into this particular part of the lead mountain was the wolves and trolls, and here they are;

I decided that I wanted my trolls to have green skin, but also to look like they could hide in the rocks of hills and valleys, so I thought that grey fur would work well. The wolves, of course, are just wolves and grey and brown shades are natural. In both pics I've put a stand of barbarians to show the scale of the new additions. The trolls have been based on 80mm x 60mm MDF bases and the wolves on 40 x 40cm ones, so that they could be used for HOTT too.

Next, I will continue working on some generals on foot and some magic users. I've also got 24 barbarians on the go, who will form two extra Heavy Infantry units. After that, I have more barbarian archers, some more troops to form medium foot and cavalry units and Pict archers to act as skirmishers.

I really like the Copplestone barbarians. They have loads of character and are excellent castings with bags of personality.

As a flying unit option, I am thinking about the Magister Militum Valkyries, which look pretty nice too, but this is something for the future.

A new Hyborian stronghold for HOTT

When I first created my Hyborian Barbarian army for HOTT, I scratch-built a stronghold that was the maximum 600 paces square. Now, I really like the finished article, but it has to be admitted that it takes up a lot of room on a 15mm HOTT battlefield. So, I've built a new, smaller one that will hopefully be easier to defend.

You will see that I've kept the detachable Cthulhu statue, because I think that it is a terrific model, and I've used a similar construction method, i.e. blue insulating foam, cut to shape, undercoated, with ballast glued on, painted and then drybrushed and flocked. The two rocky outcrops that act as a primitive gate are two pieces of resin rock scenery that I bought at Colours last Autumn from, I think The Square.This smaller stronghold is roughly 300 x 450 paces. 

It has a secondary purpose too, because I am going to use my Hyborian Barbarians as the basis for a 15mm Sword and Spear Fantasy army, and this will be the army's Baggage Camp. Of course, I will need to buy more figures to give me a suitably-sized army, but when did a wargamer ever have enough toys? At least it will give me a reason to buy some of the wonderful Copplestone Yetis and Wolves (to be Large Beasts and Beasts), as well as more warriors to bulk out my rank and file units.

Lincombe Barm Wargames Society All-Sunday session

Last Sunday the club had an extended all-day gaming session. There were a number of games being played and I think that there were plenty of happy gamers come the end of the day. Here are some pictures of the games (well, pictures of the ones I photographed).

First, here is an Alien Squad Leader game, with my 150pt Human Imperial army being massively chewed up by the evil Bugs of the Hive Mind.

This is Bolt Action Doctor Who, I think U.N.I.T against the Sontarans.

This is the first of two games of Congo;

And finally, two Hordes Of The Things outings for my Hyborian Age Barbarians.  First against and army of Elves;

And a more slippery encounter with a Frog army;

I'll write up the ASQL game in detail later, because it showed up the problems of fighting a huge swarming army of giant Bugs.

There were also games of Kings of War, with Undead against Elves and a Cold War Warsaw Pact  confrontation with the British using Squad Yankee rules in 6mm.

And the Hyborian Barbarians are finished!

I devoted a fair amount of concentrated time getting the last of my HOTT Hyborian Barbarians finished before I depart for foreign climes at the end of the week. There were three groups of elements to complete. First, three groups of Shooters with bows;

Next four Warbands, comprised of warriors with axes or swords and shields, but without any body armour at all (some of the Blades wear mail shirts). I see these as younger fighters, eager to prove themselves in battle;

And finally, four Hordes of primitive and savage cave dwellers, armed with stone weapons, tattooed in arcane designs and led by shamans and priestesses of the Elder Gods;

I am really pleased with this army. I think that it really does justice to Robert E. Howard's invented Hyborian Age. The figures really fit the concept perfectly. The miniatures, from Copplestone Castings Barbarica Fantasy range are really excellent and the detail on them is amazing, lovely and crisp and with a lot of definition. This makes the minis a delight to paint and they take ink well to bring out the details perfectly. I love ink as a finish to my minis. My preference is for Windsor and Newton Peat Brown drawing ink.

The minis are on the larger side of 15mm, chunkier than Essex and considerably bigger than Peter Pig or Magister Militum, but I don't think that is a bad thing at all. Not only does it make them easier to detail, it also makes them look like a really dangerous and powerful-looking force. Of course, whether that translates to success on the table all depends on the luck of the dice and whether I get the tactics right.

So, holiday time now. When I get back I'll really have to finish off all the stuff I've got either prepped on sticks or in various stages of undercoated and initial blocks of colour.