It's alive!

The new Kickstarter for War and Empire II is now live and can be found here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/832150598/war-and-empire-ii-legions-of-rome. It looks like the starting goal will be reached very soon and the stretch goals will be unveiled. The first one is a ruined round temple followed by barbarians and figures of different Roman emperors. If you are into Rome under the emperors then this is the project to back!

War and Empire 2

Hi Guys,

It's been a while since I posted anything on the blog but it has been very busy for the last few months. Anyway, Forged in Battle, the guys behind the original War and Empire range, are doing an expansion which will cover the early Imperial period from the 1st to 2nd Century AD. They plan to do a new Kickstarter campaign that will be launching on the 28th of November, so start saving now, I know I am!

Here is the link to the Facebook page with the announcement: https://www.facebook.com/Forged-In-Battle-167394450031322/

They've already posted a picture of some of their figures and they look as great as the ones for the previous range. See for yourselves below.

I'll post up the link to the Kickstarter when it launches, in the meantime I'm working on some of the buildings from the original Kickstarter and will post up some pictures of them soon.

Salute 2015

Salute was almost a month ago now, but I've only just got round to posting the pictures up. These are of the painted example models from the West Wind/Forged in Battle stand that was against the back wall of the exhibition hall. The guys at Forged in Battle had an early launch event for the entire range of their new War and Empire range, and it was great to see the sheer size of it all displayed in one place. The war and empire range is now available at http://www.forgedinbattle.com They do some great starter army boxed sets and a set of rules are due to follow soon, so check them out if you are interested in ancient warfare in 15mm! The figures they had on display were the same ones they had from last year's Salute and are painted by the talented Rubén Torregrosa, whose website can be found here - http://www.heresybrush.com . 

Starting with the best ancient civilisation - the Romans. Here we have in the foreground some velites (R) a Roman officer (L) and in the background a Roman princeps (L) Gallic warriors (C) and a Numidian horseman (R).

Another view of the same with a veles to the right, the Roman infantry officer and a squad of principes with Gallic archers to their right and the Gallic warriors to their left.

Elements of a Gallic army. warriors, skirmishers and cavalry.

From North Africa we have Numidian skirmishers (L) and cavalry behind and in the foreground the more heavily armoured Carthaginian infantry.

Romans, Gauls and Numidians again.

The Cathaginian infantry again with a Persian horseman and peltast to the right. The guy with the shield curtain is an Indian infantryman, with two Greek hoplites to the right

More Greeks on the left and a block of Seleucid sarissaphoroi. I think the horseman behind the Greeks is the model for the Carthaginian mounted commander and the one behind the Seleucids is a Sucessor mounted commander

Another view of the same. You can see the unarmoured javelinman and his command better in this shot.

Wendy and Andy from West Wind/ Forged in Battle did an interview with the guys from http://www.beastsofwar.com which you can see here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmn7W6YMlQ0 . The guys at WW/FiB are really nice bunch and their customer service is great, so again I really recommend them and their new range!

Despite the big box from last year, I still ended up getting another few purchases on the day. It was mainly some of their great shield transfers but I also bought the ruined temple, which looks great. I'll have to post a review of it later on as well as some work in progress  

Attic Nights

Here are the buildings that I stated would be posted yesterday (Sorry it got delayed). As before all the models are fresh out of the box and have only had a quick brush down.

First off: the cool temple: 

Horatius for scale once again

I was particularly excited about this model as it would really add character to a battle field. The great thing about temples is that you can have them in isolation, so if you are going to get just one building this would be a good choice. You’ll have to forgive the wonky columns in the picture as none of this is assembled properly yet or glued down. I really like the tympanum on this temple with its decoration of spears and shields; of course this will mean that it has to be a temple to somebody warlike, such as Mars! The freestanding braziers that come with the set are a great addition too; you needn’t place them how I have and could even place them on the roof at either end. I really like the columns in this set and think they would be really useful if sold separately so that you can add them to your own constructions. 

Here is an above shot for scale. I would place the braziers over the two holes at the top of the pediment. Another option would be to use one of the figures from the civilians set as a statue.

The villages:

Each village comes with one major building and a combination of medium and small sized structures. The Greek village comes with 6 buildings: One major, 2 medium, 1 medium lean-to and 2 small. The Roman village also has 6 there is: 1 major, 2 medium and 3 small. The Eastern village has 5 buildings: 1 major, 1 medium square, 1 medium rectanglar, 1 medium flat roofed and 1 small flat roofed.

There is a Celtic village, which consists of a number of different size huts. However as the Celts lands are not somewhere I plan to fight yet I haven’t got that one, nor will I have it anytime soon, so the best place to see it is on the War and Empire kickstarter page at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/832150598/war-and-empire-the-miniatures-game-of-ancient-warf/description . 

The first village we will look at is the Greek village.

This is the major building for the Greek village; it is fairly generic being a long hall with an annex at one end. To would make a good farm house with the courtyard leading off the annex and forming the other sides. All the buildings have details on every side, normally just doors and more windows. 

Here is a top view for scale. It is probably the smallest of the three major buildings we will see here. 

The first medium sized building:

This, like the larger building, strikes me as a suitable farm building due to the abruptness of the left hand wall. There are some windows higher up on the wall, which would make it hard to have it butting up against a city wall but with a small wall added on, it would make a good addition to a courtyard farm complex.

The above shot shows that the building is a fairly decent size, but nothing palatial!

The second medium sized Greek house has the a straight back wall, which you could either file down or cover over the details of to have it sit flush against a city wall. 

The rear shot here shows the strange attic - perfect for keeping Bertha Mason and/or haunted wheelchairs.

The small house

This house looks like the perfect peasant abode, nothing too big and nothing to fancy, just a stand-alone house. Unlike the two medium houses this one has no abrupt sides so it can just be placed down.

The Roman village: 

The major building for the Roman set is my favourite out of all the sets. To me this looks like some kind of civic structure, either a basilica (minus an aisle) or part of a forum/market place. Whichever it is, it would be well placed in the centre of the village or town. Perhaps a creative paint job could be given to this model with some electioneering graffiti? 

Another idea would be a block of flats with a shopping arcade in the bottom portion.

The medium house. 

This, like the Greek options, strikes me as an out of town dwelling by its size and shape. It looks very basic and I would even consider using this as a barracks in a stone fort or a mile castle on Hadrian’s Wall (even though this is way beyond the period of the range). 

These would line up nicely for making a street of barracks. The exposed timber work gives it a nice cheaper feel, and indeed many buildings in more rural settlements (such as in Britain at Silchester) did have a predominately timber construction rather than brick.

The small house

The small house is almost identical in design to the medium house and could be used in the same fashion. The Roman village set is probably better than the Greek for making a village of lots of separate dwellings. The shape of some of the Greek buildings makes me feel like they have to be arranged in a certain way. The Roman ones, however, seem to be designed more for separation and placement along a street. 

  

The Eastern Village.

The major building for the eastern village is also a great piece, although less of a multipurpose piece like the major Roman building. The Eastern major building is clearly a large house. As you can see from the picture, this building is the largest of the three options here. 

The roof terraces and the staircase up to the second floor are nice touches that add to the character of the building. The addition of a canopy and some furniture or bed rolls would complete this building.

The square medium building; like the major building roof furniture could be added to give this more character. However, this would be fine as it is. 

The rectangular medium building. This is another nice addition to the set. The eastern village has 5 unique buildings unlike the Greek and Roman villages which have less variety. 

The small building. Due to the lack of a roof terrace on this building it could be used, with some adjustments, to form another level to one of the other buildings in the set. Alternatively it could be a dwelling in an area less suited for sleeping on the roof.

 The Eastern village buildings are flexible enough to be enable use both as a village (perhaps around an oasis) or in a city setting, such as the outskirts of Carthage.

Hopefully the pictures give a good impression of the quality of these buildings. The casting is very good, with only a few minor bubbles on some of the small gaps between the roof tiles. These are very hard to see by the naked eye, and I only spotted them when adjusting the photos that I've added here. Other than that any flecks of resin that are on the smooth areas like walls can be easily picked off with fingernails.

Tomorrow I'll try to get something painted (I'm thinking about the battering ram) and I'll try to post pictures of the completed piece soon!