Saturday 9 June 2018

Dark Ages from skirmish to massed battles

With my ACW project progressing well as you can see with the latest confederate unit I have filled a whole box ๐Ÿ˜€

I have been pondering where next to put some effort in, I am not quite ready for a whole new period so have been musing as you do on which of my current projects I could expand. There are several but I have decided to get stuck back into the dark ages.

All of my figures have originally been based for skirmish games but after much consideration I have purchased some 3x2 movement trays to allow them to be ranked up. This seems to give the most possible flexibility as they can be arranged in a number of ways. As shown in the previous post the completed Arthurian force can easily fit into my Saxon army.
With the new movement trays 18 man units seem to give reasonable feel for scale, they are of course spread out slightly thinner than I would like but I have a few double based figures which you can’t really see in the photo which definately help give a more cluttered feel, if I was looking to play a really large battle I could squeeze a few Vikings into the ranks as well.
The second force I am interested in is my Normans, they are woefully behind but luckily I have at least a unit and a half in the pile which would bring them upto 4 infantry units. I guess I am going to need another box of conquest cavalry...some time

Finally I am working on my Arabs no photo yet but I am obsessed with 11 Century Al Andalusia at the moment. I have lots of Arabs collected and ready to paint๐Ÿ™‚

23 comments:

  1. A magnificent sight Matt, they do look splendid in ranks.

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    1. Thanks Michael amazing how quickly the skirmish force has grown

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  2. Splendid Matt. Although I enjoy skirmish games you can't beat the spectacle of a massed battle.

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    1. Both of course have their place ๐Ÿ˜€

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  3. Cool. Have a lot of Normans and random dark ages types.

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    1. I know we can hopefully pull them all together sometime

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  4. Wow, that's an impressive collection Matt!

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  5. A box of of Confederates is a good thing! Could your new basing for dark ages work for Impetvs?

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    1. Thanks and yes I guess they would work for Impetvs, it isn’t a rule set I have tried would be interested to get your take as I have heard mixed reports ?

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  6. Beautiful hosts of troops, Matt!

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    1. Thanks Dean it is always nice to reward ourselves with occasional indulgence ๐Ÿ˜€

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  7. Nice big mob of dark age types, I'm going the same way, single penny skirmish and sabot base for battle.
    Best Iain

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    1. I am wrestling with myself now as to where the next set of Norman’s and Arabs go on skirmish bases or I plumb for larger group bases to match in undecided.

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  8. Some nice collections!

    My dark ages forces are like yours; started as skirmish warbands and just expanded from there. ๐Ÿ˜€. It’s funny, bc they’re all the individually based and now I have little interest in anything not massed battle.

    Since they’re all based on metal washers, instead of using sabot trays I have flat movement trays lined with a magnet sheet, so I can pack the guys in closer. Just a different way to go.

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    1. Thanks Stew, you will have spotted that the majority of my ancients are individually based but then ranked up.i do find this gives some flexibility. I am now wrestling with what to do with the next dark ages figures I already have some on individual bases so I m not going to change those but should I just multi base the rest. I need to keep thinking this through ๐Ÿ™‚

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    2. I ended up not going to multi bases just for the sake of consistency: however it was somewhat serendipitous in that now the collection can be used for any rule set. Mass battle rules seem to either use elements (HC for example) or individual casualties (WAB style) and I can do either. Though I don’t have a WAB style game I particularly like so tend to do just elements, but there might be some new rule set out there calling my name!

      Your idea of doing the 3x2 sabots is super flexible as well and pretty smart. ๐Ÿ˜€

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  9. Coming together nicely, its amazing how quickly skirmishing becomes major encounters :-)
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. Thanks Stuart yes the force is growing and the mere experience of getting them out has spurred me on to get some more painted. The next couple of units are individually based but then I might do some multi base unit to mix it up a bit

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  10. They look great on those sabot bases. I was thinking of doing something similar with 8x2 trays - I want to be able to play Saga and something like WAB or Swordpoint (essentially having my cake and eating it).

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    1. I often spend a ridiculous amount of time thingpking about these things. The reason I plumbed for 3x2 is the greater flexibility it gives you. The benefit for individual base figures is you can turn them around, so with 3x2 bases I can have 12 man units 6x2, 3x4 or 4x3 and then my chosen 6x3 18 man units. Worth thinking about the options

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