Koyote

I just wish the rules for Sarissas were a bit better. I think that Studio Tomahawk just missed mark with them.

Making each one from scratch seems like a waste of time and resources to me.

The coupling sleeves could have been made in mass and transported with the army as a way to repair broken sarissas. Depending on the type of break and where along shaft the break occurred, they could have cut a way the damaged portions and made a slightly shorter sarissa or kept the longest surviving length and matched it with another recovered piece or even with a new length cut from local timber or spare shafts.

With one exception, the Epirote Graeculi (Greek) warriors, are the only unit in Age of Hannibal that can be armed with sarissas. The sarissa is a pike, measuring between 16 and 22 feet long. Phillip II of Macedon first equipped his infantry with it in the mid-4th century BC. The armies of Macedon and the Successor kingdoms continued its use for another 200 years thereafter. I didn't know of this until recently, but there exists a controversy about whether the sarissa's shaft was made from a single length of wood or two pieces connected by an iron coupling or sleeve. The argument for the 2-piece sarissa is based upon what is thought to be a the metal remains of a sarissa recovered from a Macedonian royal burial cluster in the 1970s, in northern Greece. The diagram below shows how the coupling sleeve would have made it easier to transport the sarissa. Victrix Miniatures elected to to model its plastic Macedonian and Successor phalangite models with sarissas that incorporate a coupling sleeve. I like the look of the Victirx sarissas, so I reproduced it using short lengths of rubber wire casing from a spool of copper wire. The "couplings" are a bit thicker than I'd prefer, but overall I am please with how they turned out. Below is my first go at a 6 point Epirote list. I'm unconvinced the the benefits of the sarissa outweighs the weapon's drawbacks, so rather than invest a third point into warriors armed with sarissas, I've opted to field a second unit of Samnites. As mercenaries, the Samnites come with their own drawbacks, but their speed (up to a 10" move) and ability to move freely through uneven terrain, helps to offset the slowness and terrain penalties suffered by my sarissa armed infantry. Also, since the Graeculi's advanced battle board ability, Aspis, is an Orders/Reaction that doesn't trigger an activation, the javelin armed Samnites can gain its benefits -namely, the ability to close ranks plus 2 bonus defense dice.

I've started to assemble my Age of Hannibal Epirus Graeculi (Epirote Greeks). The cavalry and Samnite warriors are Victrix minis. The elephant is made by Aventine Miniatures. I am currently assembling my Greek infantry armed with sarrisas and another unit of Samnite warriors.

I hear that Dark Tower is now charging a fee for using their tables. What are the fees? Do they accept reservations? If so, how does it work? I understand Dark Tower's business reasoning for this change, but I'm curious to see what the other Warhamsters think of DT's pay-to-play policy.

I too would like to get back to Necromunda, eventually. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on House of Faith.

I have recruited three local Warhamsters to play SAGA: Age of Hannibal, so hopefully, by late Summer or early Autumn, Dark Tower Games will become the scene of rampaging war elephants, disciplined ranks of Roman maniples, waves of berserk Gauls, and forests of sarissas, hoplons, and bronze. When the reaping time draws near, the Bellingham Warhamsters shall rise from their restless slumber and once more be a (metaphorical) plague on the Earth. Bwah ha ha...!

The new Age of Invasions book (aka Aetius & Arthur) is scheduled for release in September. Studio Tomahawk previously teased that the new version will include the original factions plus battle boards for the Franks and an additional surprise faction. The photos accompanying today’s Studio Tomahawk Facebook post seem to confirm that the new faction will be the Sassanids. Elephants!!!

I used a rotary tool to carve away the riders' original saddles. For those who sit with legs on either side of the camel, I had to widen their stance as well. Once fitted to their mount, I used greenstuff to rebuild the parts that were damaged or carved away. All that's left to do is to add texture to the bases and my camel cavalry are ready for paint. I don't yet have good recipe for painting camels, so I will primer a test model or two to practice on. Good thing I have plenty of extras.

Both Ish and Torg are SAGA players who live in the Portland area. If you are looking for SAGA players, you should connect with them.

One down, four to go.

Where do you play? Bellingham? Portland?

Aside from sorting out the reins and adding a forward saddle horn, I'm almost done with the camels. Some of their feet are a bit too big, so I will have to trim them with a hobby knife. Each model had a loop of rope around it's neck from which hung a tassel. The tassels and ropes were severely deformed by the poor castings, so I removed them altogether, and covered up the scars left by their removal with greenstuff. As for the riders, I'm going to use two Gripping Beast camel riders and 3 Footsore Miniatures minis from their Arab Heavy Cavalry kits. The model on the far right will most likely be my Warlord. It's pose is quite static, but its the most heavily armored and thus the most impressive of the five.

Another gorgeous Age of Hannibal Graeculii warband using Victrix and Warlord Games minis. I am SO jumping on this bandwagon. I've already ordered the bulk of my warband from Aventine Miniatures and Victrix. https://jaiunplanningcharg.wordpress.com/2020/12/13/epire-kingdom/

I haven’t played an AoH game yet, but I am eager to do so. I’ve purchased a number of model kits directly from Victrix. It usually takes around two weeks for them to arrive. The quality of the sculpts and casting is quite good. They are probably the best 28mm historical plastic kits on the market. The only downside to Victrix kits is that they don't include round bases -but they do sell them separately and they do so at a very reasonable price (96 25mm round bases for $12). And the price-per model is amazing, especially if you’ve become accustomed to paying GW prices. For example the Warriors of Carthage kit is 25 pounds. That’s about $35. That gets you 62 infantry models at a price of 56 cents per model. Even if you add another $15 for VAT and shipping you are still at 80 cents per model. What faction(s) are you thinking about playing?

The camels have been shorn and based. They are now ready for greenstuff.

Now that I’m satisfied with my prototype, it’s time to start shearing camels.

Wow, that was fast. I am truly honored by my namesake, but shouldn't his name be Biercþwulf or Beorcanwulf? You don't want other Anglo Saxons to think he's being named after a birch tree. 😉 I included the bag of Cinders Ballast so replace any that wears off during shipping or painting. Also, if you decide to use this material to texture your other bases, you will know what particle size to use. It's sold by Woodland Scenics. I believe that they call it "Cinders Fine Ballast". May King Æthelflæd lead you to many victories.

Camel's feet are big and wide to keep the camel from sinking into loose and shifting sands, and the webbing between the toes unites them into a single surface to further resist sinking. As you can see from the picture below, the feet of the Irregular Miniature's camels falls far short of proper camel feet (they look more like deer hooves), so I made my own. I also used greenstuff to repair the tail tuft, which was deformed by the model's poor casting.

In my Mutatawaii'a warband, the warlord will be mounted on a camel as well as a single unit of 4 hearthguard. As I posted earlier, I struggle to find dark age or medieval camel and rider models that are well sculpted, properly proportioned, and well casted. I've purchased camel models from Gripping Beast, Perry Miniatures, eBob Miniatures, Irregular Miniatures, and even an Aussie company called Castaway Arts. I've looked online at what's available from Eureka Minaitures, Black Tree Design, Warlord Game, Wargames Foundry, Essex Miniatures, Alternative Armies, and others. In my opinion, all of the models are either too small (most companies), hideous and too small (e.g. Black Tree Design and Alternative Armies), poorly proportioned and too small (e.g., Gripping Beast), and/or casted poorly. I've come to the conclusion, that models fitting this description simply don't exist, so I am going to have to make due with what's out there. The camels from Irregular Miniatures are the correct size and except for their feet, are well proportioned. The quality of the sculpts is meh and the quality of the casts ranges from poor to absolute crap. Nevertheless, equipped with a rotary tool and greenstuff, and fueled by my peculiar form of modeling OCD, I'm confident that I can make the Irregular Miniature camels presentable. Below, for purposes of comparison, is shot of the Gripping Beast camel, a WIP Irregular Miniature camel (I still need to fix the defects on the legs and sculpt proper feet), and a second Irregular Miniature camel. The sculptor of the Irregular Miniature camel added patches of long hair to the model's head, top of the hump, and to its left fore flank, but oddly enough, not on the right fore flank. The patches of hair aren't especially well sculpted and thanks to the quality of the cast, much of the detail has been lost. Rather than try to repair the lost detail, I used my rotary tool to file away the patches of hair on the body. I then used greenstuff to cover up the file marks, fill in holes and cracks created by the poor casting, and better portray some of the camel's musculature. BTW, the Irregular Miniature on the right is an example of one of the best casts I received. the tassels on the bottom of saddle blanket are deformed and mostly missing, but at least cast of the blankets are sharp enough to distinguish between the upper and lower blankets. On half of the models I received the tassels are completely gone and the two blankets look like they've melted into one blurred mess dripping down the camel's side. I continue to be amazed that manufacturers will allow such crap casts to leave their factory (or in the case of home casters, their garage). Personally, I'd be ashamed to charge full price for such crap casting.

Ish, I've added texture to the base. If you paint this model, I recommend painting it in the three separate pieces pictured below. A portion of the hounds' base is built into the Apoxie Sculpt that I used to sculpt the base's contours, so if you try to remove it, you will pull the base apart. I added pins to the bottom of banner-man's feet to strengthen it's bond to the base once its glued in place. If you want to play with the model unpainted, then add a tiny dab of super glue to the banner-man's toes (not the pins). This, along with the pins will keep it in place, but the bond won't be so strong that it will be difficult to remove the model from the base for painting. If you decide to paint this piece, I recommend using a couple of coats of matte varnish in the recess where the warlord's smaller base fits into the larger base AND on the sides of the warlord's smaller base. Over time, inserting and removing the smaller base from the larger base will cause the paint to chip were the edges of the two base rub together. I'm not one of those people who regularly varnishes/seals their figures. I use brush on Vallejo Matt Acrylic Varnish on the edges of my models' bases and on pointy bits and edges that stick out, such as the the ends of weapons and sometimes cloaks.

I finished my Borderers (Age of Crusades mercenaries) armed with javelins.

Once the plague passes, you and Ish should get together and play some SAGA. Vikings vs Anglo Saxons is a classic SAGA match up.