My 6mm DBA/ADLG armies in pictures.

As yesterday’s weather was nice and bright I took the opportunity to take some photos of my Pre-gunpowder forces.  These are based to do dual duty for DBA and related games in that family as well as for Arte de la Guerre (ADLG) so descriptions will tend to blur between the two a bit.   I’ve done this for two reasons, first is vanity pure and simple.  Second is to have a record for insurance purposes just in case.  Sorry the images are a touch on the small size but you should be able to click on them to see larger versions.

I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of progress I have made.  At one level I knew what I had painted, but at another it wasn’t real until I saw them altogether.  So without further ado.......

First up are the 9th Century Anglo-Saxons.  General Fyrd (Horde) at the back in three ranks on each base.  Select Fyrd and Hearth Troops at the front.  To me this really looks like a shield wall army in a way that my old 25mm troops didn't. Tactically it’s a bit simple minded as there isn’t a lot of subtlety available when all you have are melee focussed infantry to play with.

Middle Anglo-Saxons 

Next up are the Vikings These are intended to cover the period of the initial raids at the end of the 8th century through to the invasion of The Great Heathen Army and its campaigns in the 860's onwards.  They have a lot of fast swordsmen plus some Axemen (a different class in ADLG), and Hird who are close order for ADLG but 4Bd for DBA.  They also have the option of berserkir, who doesn't love to have an option to use loonies with axes once in a while?  In time I will add more close order swordsmen to cover the armies of the Danelaw from the end of the 9th Century onwards.

Vikings - the loonies with axes have been made to stand by themselves 

Following on from the Vikings come the Strathclyde Welsh.  These are the last of the Sub-Roman British sub lists and are actually a decent bet against other British Dark Age armies.  They have cavalry , both heavy and medium cavalry in ADLG terms along with some halfway decent spearmen, both medium and heavy infantry options in ADLG.  DBA with its 12 element armies over powers them as historically they struggled to hold their own as they were always over faced by the sheer numbers facing them.  in reality they only survived by the careful use of  off of alliances and accepting client kingdom status.  A fun option to use in a Dark Age campaign though..

Strathclyde Welsh - almost combined arms by 9th Century British standards

The Welsh Princedoms or more simply the Welsh are culturally the same people as the Strathclyde Welsh.  The two groups were separated by the expansion of the Anglo-Saxons into three geographical areas wales itself and modern Cornwall who are covered by early welsh lists and the strathclyde welsh of south west Scotland and North Western England.  The  southern Welsh seem to have reverted to a more traditional tribal way of fighting while their northern cousins retained some Roman ideas probably because they were more more romanised in the first place. Their main strength in DBA is in their fast warbands.  ADLG makes them medium swordsmen.  Personally I think a LMI javelin option would suit them quite well.  I haven't tried them out on the tabletop yet.

The welsh Welsh - Fast Warbands are us 

I haven't included the other main forces in Dark Age Britain, being my  the Picts and the Scots-Irish as those armies haven't been worked on since I last posted about them.  Pictures will follow in due course.

Moving on to the more traditional 'Ancient' period we have the ever popular Late Imperial Romans.  I have always had these in my collection going back to the middle 1970's, first in 25mm from Hinchcliffe, then as Irregular Miniatures 6mm and now I am upgrading to Baccus figures. 

As you can see this is an army in transition.  The heavy cavalry and the legionaries at the back are going to be replaced in the very near future.  You can see the difference in basing styles between the Irregular Miniatures castings and the Baccus equivalents in the front ranks.  I have salvaged some light cavalry and Auxilia which have been rebased but the close order castings from Irregular will be retired as soon as the Baccus figures leave the painting table.  This is a true combined arms force with shock heavy cavalry, Cataphracts, artillery. and good heavy and medium infantry options supported by light cavalry and light infantry.  My go to ancients army and it will only get bigger.

Late Imperial Romans - Western Empire

Of course they need something to fight so here are the Early Sassanid Persians.  Levy at the rear of the elephant corps.  You can't see it but the front rank of levy have shovels while the rear ranks have buckets, very big buckets for collecting elephant dung!.  They all have really nice rose gardens at home!  Cataphracts and heavy cavalry backed by horse archers give this army its punch.  Awaiting a couple more heavy cavalry and some LMI javelinmen to complete the basic ADLG 200pt army.  This is another army I used to have in Hinchcliffe 25mm.

Early Sassanid Persian

Last but not least are the Dacians.  At some level I must really have a taste for barbarian infantry armies and this one is better than the average uncouth hairy non Roman.  After all they have a large proportion of semi naked loonies with big choppers, AKA Bastarnae falxmen.  This is an army where you either have to think very carefully or not at all when deciding on how to use them!  For extra oomph Dacians get a Sarmation ally with heavy cavalry, in this case they are Irregular Miniatures and need replacing so they are not so clumped together on the bases..  Again this army needs some expansion but it is a fair way down the to do list so may not get the attention it requires until the back end of the year.

Dacians - We have a cunning plan....rush forward and chop the enemy into teeny weeny pieces

I haven't included the Maurician Byzantines which were my first 6mm army.  They were bought as an Irregular Miniatures battlepack and really need updating  as a lot of the figures are close order castings and don't work for my current basing style.  I'm currently looking around for available 6mm figures (but with no success) or at least decent proxies.

That's the current based and ready fight troops there are a goodly number of additions on the painting table or at least in the queue to get onto the table as listed in the previous post.  Hopefully I can make some serious in roads into those in the next few weeks.