28 mm Greek / Persian size comparison

My second size comparison shot with a wargames factory persian made up this time with spear and shield. I have realised how hard it is to get a decent photo for comparison but you get a good idea of the relative sizes anyway.

Left to right Victrix Athenian, Foundry Carthaginian, wargames factory persian, warlord Greek but with Victrix head swop, wargames factory Numidian, crusader Celt/galatian and an old style Foundry spartan. I think head size is often the key issue as the natural variation in heights feels ok. The warlord heads and armoured bodies just look too small.

28 mm persian wargames factory size comparison

Now I'm not planning a persian army in the short term.....but I have been wondering for ages how the size of the wargames factory persians would compare with other figures in my greek collection. Then I found a guy on eBay who was selling them by individual sprue at 99p. Answer get some and compare. I have made up an archer figure and will make the other into a spearmen when I get a chance.

Left to right, wargames factory Numidian, wargames factory persian and victrix archer. Look like a fairly good fit to me.

Operation Sealion...........

Well in my dreams my, New Years resolution was to progress three projects along, Greeks, Normans (lion rampant retinue) and operation Sealion. The last of these has been the slowest, not beating myself up though as lots of stuff is moving forward. However, one of my early posts showed the warbases bank which I had made on Christmas Day and it was waiting for some paint. It got some finally today.

First thing is it is BIG compared to the other terraces and post office which I have. What you can't see in the photo is the sides and back are nice off white, so it gives really good contrast with the other buildings. For scale I have included a couple of my early German tanks. Interestingly this is a project which has started almost exclusively with terrain ? I may put something in the windows not sure yet.

Greek General 28 mm

These two have been half completed on the painting table for a while. So I thought before starting the next unit I would get them completed. I have used the two figures on the base to represent the army general. You can compare them with the Macedonian equivalent on an earlier post. Couldn't decide on his shield so in the end left it as polished brass. The stone on the base is authentic greek marble !

Ranulf de Gernon hires more men

Seem to have been busy this week with stuff but managed to get a few hours here and there to finish my next Lion Rampant/Saga unit. A dozen Norman crossbow men. They took slightly longer as I made a school boy error sticking the cross bows on upside down and I hadn't noticed till well into the painting. Luckily it wasn't too bad to fix. These are all gripping beast figures. They do 3 packs so you can have a 12 man unit with all of the figures unique. I have tried to give them all some red to tie back into the army overall colour, but without them being too uniform.

4 units down now, so I need to decide what next. I do have some more hoplites already on the painting table though !

The Lion Roars again....

Friday night we were able to have our second go at Lion Rampant. Ranulf de Gernon's force supplemented by some painted dark age figures for the two units which I haven't completed yet. They were again up against a Teutonic retinue...some looking very grey in the cold February weather !

Ranulf's retinue attacks from the right

We were straight into the first scenario, the mustard one which required the attacker to set on fire and destroy objectives held near the centre of the table. I had already decided that I wasn't going to complain if I failed any leadership tests and play as far as possible to the end of each scenario I would just have to hope that Ranulf's luck especially with his cavalry was better than last time. This approach worked and both sides had to shrug off lots of bad dice rolls. I also decided to put Ranulf in one of the infantry units as this felt a bit less vulnerable. The games are really quite quick to play so I didn't capture masses of Photos.

Heavy cavalry finally get moving into the battle

THe first two photos show Ranulf's retinue coming in from the right. They successfully pushed the grey sarjents out of the way and started burning the hut to the ground. His other unit of Sarjents (I had chosen to swop the Yeoman from last time to more dependable Sarjents) can be seen moving towards the further onjectives but sadly they never made it being flattened by the Teutonic moutned men at Arms. The scenario ends when the attacker is down to half points and as can be seen we had only managed to burn two objectives so a fighting draw and two glory points each.

Ranulf's horse finally get on the move.

Our second scenario was convoy, with the Teutonic Knights attempting to escort a baggage train of pack animals from one corner to the other. These are really hard scenarios but the Teutonic Knights played a very carefully thought out strategy of whittling down the normans before starting to move the convoy. Despite his best effort Ranulf couldn't break through and his retinue was defeated piece by piece. (I didn't get many photos as it was too exciting). The high point was our first official challenge when Ranulf called out the opposing lead and cut him to pieces, Despite this the Teutonic knights did really well. A final (and would have been grossly unfair) flurry from the norman archers was extremely close to turning things around but it wasn't to be and Ranulf's retinue slunk away for another day.

Ranulf sets road block and awaits the convoy

Overall two really good battles one close draw and a tactical win which nearly failed at the last. Have immediately decided to paint up my crossbow men next.

Boernward Oferheah

After his galant death Eadwulf the Good was put to rest. That means I needed a new lord for the campaign. My sense would be with the Vikings invading and The Lord dead local tribes would look to a strong man to lead them. Step forward  Boernward Oferheah.

If you can be bothered to search the name I have tried to give it some sense. Boernward is a giant of a man, clearly descended from strong mountain stock just the kind of man to push the Vikings back into the sea.

The figure came from the bring and buy at York show, where I picked up loads of dark age figures especially characters, to play in both Dux Britanniarum campaign but also SAGA. Pretty happy with the painting but I'm not great at eyes. The shield is a spare transfer of my viking boat, but I wanted something fancy !