Kings of War Historical Greeks

I've mentioned a few times that I painted some Greeks last year.  It's long past time I showed them off.
I started with some old Chariot (now Magister Militum) Greeks left over from my 15mm Warhammer Ancient Battles days.  I used to have what seemed a sizable army for that system, but interest declined (partly due to the second edition, which neither myself or my opponent liked).
I bought Kings of War Historical when it came out but did nothing with it, but when I got on to my 15mm KoW League of Rhordia, I started wondering about KoWH in 15mm.  As you know, this became quite a thing, including working with Merlin to produce Clash!, our small scale KoWH system, and getting in quite a few battles before the interest fairy flitted elsewhere.

Anyway, enough waffle, suffice it to say I got more of the Magister Militum Greeks, especially the Hoplites, as they rank up nicely into phalanx formation, and I tried out some of the newer Forged In Battle light troops from Westwind.  These are great, lots of variety and character.  I'll replace my older single pose light troops with more of these over time.

 Forged in Battle slingers and javelins flanking some older Chariot/Magister Militum (Cretan) archers.

Two hoplite phalanxes with hero.

The whole army so far including a troop of cavalry and various single miniatures to use as objectives or heroes.

When I look at the army set out like that, I've probably got more than I had for WAB.  They are certainly better painted, and nicer looking as an army as well.  I had a mixture of different minis, including some poorly detailed (but cheap) hoplites.  I can't remember the manufacturer, and if I could, I wouldn't inflict them on anyone else.

I've got some more hoplites, including a couple of phalanxes of light hoplites, still to paint, and I'd like to get some more light troops and maybe some more cavalry.  As I said, the inspiration fairy has moved on for now, but I'm sure I'll be expanding this army before the year is out.

Oh, and this is my 250th post.  Not much compared to some blogs, but I'm pleased to have kept it going for so long.  Now all I need is a few more followers.

The omens will be good for the Spartans!

I am hoping that the gods will look favourably on my Spartan army now that we can sacrifice before battle.

3rd phalanx finally finished.

It has taken a while but I finally finished painting the third phalanx of greek hoplites. I also include a group shot of all the hoplites so far...

A Greek Tragedy

The other day I got another of my infrequent game days in against Merlin.  I hosted this time, and we managed to get in two games, a Clash! game and a 1520 point KoWH game.

I used my newly painted, never before seen Greeks (with a couple of units of Scythian allies) and Merlin used his Spartans with mythological help from a regiment of Centaurs plus hero.

The Clash game was a straight up fight, with honours going to my Greeks.  My two phalanxes of hoplites gave me a strong core to my army, and along with the incredibly lucky chance of routing his cavalry early on, the game went very  much my way.

The two Clash! forces face off, Merlin's Spartans at the top, my Athenians at the bottom.

Merlin's Spartans (L to R): Light Cavalry, Kryptea, Commander, Spartiate hoplites and Slingers

My Athenians (L to R): Skirmishers with a Phalanx of Hoplites behind, Commander just peeping out from behind a second Phalanx and Slingers

Sadly, the dice gods deserted me then, that or my planning and tactics were poor.

We played a variant of the Loot scenario, since I had enjoyed it so much against T'Other One in KoW.  This time we were trying to capture, or save, three civilians.  Had it been necessary to determine an outright winner, one of them would randomly turn out to be a spy.  In the end, Merlin won so comprehensively this was unnecessary.  Alas, we wree so tied up in the game that I only took a couple of photos.

The game started with Merlin grabbing one objective with his Criptea Vanguard moving into contact with it.  One of my skirmishing units quickly claimed another, but soon lost it to the marauding herd of Centaurs, these, plus there hero, were a tough proposition, and thoroughly destroyed my attempt at a flanking maneuver with my Skythian allies.  On the other flank, the Spartan cavalry easily snatched the remaining civilian, and held onto him, despite running down a couple of my units plus my poor priest.
It was only in the centre that I really had any luck, and my three phalanxes held out almost until the end against Merlins Spartan king and routed all his main infantry.  Still, it was far too little too late.

A great fun day of gaming, and we both decided to do more KoWH.  it was, perhaps, a mistake to go to just over 1500 points; if we had kept it back to 1250 or so we could have fielded entirely historical forces.

We have both given a lot of thought since the battle to how the lists are built, and have, inevitably, drawn up our own lists in an attempt to reflect how we believe armies of the time were fielded and would fight.

Spartan Light Cavalry

Just completed some light cavalry for my Spartan army. 15mm Westwind/Forged in Battle figures.

More Spartans

I just finished a couple of new units for my Spartan Army, some hoplites and a unit of slingers. I thought it was about time for a group shot. I am really pleased with how this army is coming together with more yet to come.

Something Ancient, Something New

A quick aside from the War of the Crown AARs.
As I mentioned recently, I was due a day's gaming with Merlin.  Well this happened last week and we got the opportunity to try not just KoWH, but our Clash variant (details here).

Merlin used his Spartans and I used my Scythians.  After the usual 'show and tell' we got down to the first of three Clash games.  As we had both anticipated, it was a pretty quick game, with my cavalry running rings around his infantry.  The game was an Ambush scenario, with one of Merlin's units hidden somewhere in a patch of Difficult Ground.  I managed to stay away from most of the potential hiding places, and pulled of a convincing victory.

This is what can happen when an entire cavalry army takes on a largely infantry force.

The second game was closer, and the third game, where we both had flanking forces was a Spartan victory as Merlin's flanking force was able to take out mine.

We really enjoyed the scale of these battles, and the KoWH system generally.  Being able to get three games comfortably in four hours gaming time (including chat etc) was a bonus.  It occurred to us that this would be ideal for a multi player club game, with each player bringing their own Clash force.

Greek Houses

Just finished a couple of Greek houses to help create the right atmosphere for our up coming battles. These are a part of the Westwind, Forged in Battle scenery range, lovely buildings to paint.

Spartan Cavalry and a couple of photos of the Spartan army so far.

I completed two units of cavalry for my Spartan army today, so now I have actually painted more figures than I need for my 500 point force for Clash-our small scale KOWH battles.

I can't wait to get these little guys on the gaming table.

Watch out, the Krypteia are about!

So in KOWH you can only have one troop of Krypteia (a sort of Sparta secret police) and the sword armed Spartans from the Death of Leonidas set work perfectly for this unit. I bent a few arms to vary the poses a bit. So those Scythians had best watch out, these guys are pretty tough.

Crimson cloaks - Spartans are ready for Battle

Here are a couple of photos of the Spartans based and ready for action. Plus a rare rear view of Spartans, who never run away of course! Just to see their crimson cloaks.

The bottom photo show some of the Greek Myth themed 'Herd' army I am also painting.

Here come the Spartans.

My thanks to MisterC for letting me post some of my figures on his blog as we both work on a KOWH project. Here we have the first phalanx of Spartans, just need their base texturing and painting. Alongside we have a musician and Argilus, the Spartan Hero who will lead them. All 15mm War and Empire figures.