Individual figures

Well you can tell I've got a few days off work as I have time to put some pictures on here!
Again as can be seen by the quality, the photos were taken by John Ridley and not me.

L to R. Sir Raymond Deleval, Sir Henry 'Hotspur' Percy (English).

L to R. Sir James Douglas (killed at Otterburn) and his standard bearer Sir Archibald Dougles (Scots).

L to R. Sir William Ruthven and Sir John Swinton (Scots).

Front pic. Sir John Swinton (Scots).

Men at arms carrying Ralph, Baron of Graystoke's banner (English).

English Men at arms. Note the half moon recognition emblem carried by the Percy forces at this battle.

Scots spearmen.

English archers.

English Hobilars.

Much better photos than I could have taken, thanks John.
Dave.

Medieval mutterings

Finally the photographs taken by John for Aprils Miniature Wargames magazine have been published and I can now get them on the blog. Truthfully the Editor would have had no problem but I felt it only right to wait until the article was out before putting them on here.
It was a good game on the night with (if I remember rightly) a victory for the Scots!

Various views of the action, English Knights/men at arms:

Scots advance:

The main Battles clash:

The Hobilars sitting it out in the rear:

Most of the stuff is Old Glory, but I see that David Imrie is putting out a range for this period under Claymore Castings, also Flags of War are doing most of the various standards and shield transfers (wish I'd had them when I hand painted everything for Otterburn). They do look very good figures, must resist adding to this lot!
I'll put on some pictures of individual figures later.
Dave.

This was a large one!

As promised in the last post, here are some pictures of a humongous 15mm Greek/Macadonian/Persian game which took place at Mick's up in the borders. Mick has a very large home made hex based wargames table in his garage up in the wilds of wanny where men are men sheep are sheep and always the two shall meet (especially at night!).
An El Cid 28mm game was played on the Saturday of which later but on Sunday after a hearty breakfast battle was joined with Greeks and Macedonians (Neal & Scotty) on one side and Persians (myself & Mike) on the other with Mick umpiring. The rules were an in house version based loosely on DBM but using Mick's hexed marked table which defined movement and facing very well.
The pictures themselves will describe the action with a little bit of commentary from me:

A few of pictures of the initial Persian deployment, the left flank cavalry:

The massed Persian Cavalry/infantry centre:

Persian infantry with the Greeks advancing steadily (Darius himself in the chariot):

The Persian right flank cavalry sweeping round to envelope the Greek left:

An imposing view of the Macedonian infantry advancing in the centre:

From the rear:

The Greeks left wing (including elephants) face towards the flanking Persian horse:

The Greek centre advances closer until the clash occurs:

A view along the two lines as the combat begins, a gap has opened up as the supporting Greek cavalry refuse to engage the Hoplites:

The Persian left flank eventually drove off the Greeks to their front while the Greeks beat off the cavalry on the Persian right but they were too late and too far away to affect anything.

The battle would be decided in the centre. Crushed, Darius fought on until overwhelmed by Greek spears (and my crappy dice throwing):

An enjoyable game (and weekend) the rules though not my cup of tea (I'm simply not a DBM type fan) worked very well and fun was had by all.
As time allows I will post about the preceding 28mm El Cid game but that will do for now.
Dave.

It's all Greek to me!

Might as well get these straight on as I have ten minutes to spare!
Really the same situation as with the Persians posted before, these guys have been there or there about for fifteen or more years but I've never had the push to get them finished.
Going up to Mick's at the weekend was one reason to get them done, but with the other lads playing Hail Caesar then at least they will get used regularly.
So first up are the oldest, these chaps have been with me since about 1985! Now there no great shakes as a paint job but they've suffered my crappy dice throwing for so long that they deserve some credit. Greek Hoplites:

Lancashire Games Hoplites, these have Little Big Man shield transfers Link as you will see the next batch of figures have had their shields hand painted. In time taken to do it there's no difference, now my hand painting is ok but it has to be said that the transfers are great but 15mm.............soooo fiddly! You pays your money and takes makes your choice.

These are the old Outpost figures with the hand painted shields:

Xyston (I think) Spartan Hoplites:

Finally a few Outpost skirmishers:

Hopefully (if I remember the camera!) I will post some photo's of the weekends game when I get back.
Dave.

More firepower

A bit more fire power for the Persian army for the game this weekend, goodness knows they will need it against the Greek hoplites they will be facing!
Indian archers, figures by Outpost (just painted but years old):

Greek army on next.
Dave.