AHPC XIV Post 6 Scots-Irish Slingers

 A small post from me this week.  I was out of town at a actuarial exam meeting in Charlotte NC this weekend and I'm still struggling to keep up on my extra teaching load.

This is a unit of 6 Irish slingers for my Late Roman Britain project, based for To The Strongest.  I did some kit bashing using plastics here.  The torsos and heads are all from the Gripping Beast Irish set and the arms come from the Victrix Late Roman Archers and Slingers set.  The two kits mesh reasonably well and I was able to get a good mix of loading and firing figures.  As noted in my last post, the Victrix pack has more archers than slingers and many of the sling options are staff slings, which is a higher level of tech than would be seen in 4th Century Ireland.

Slingers are the only long range missile troops available to the Scots-Irish in TTS. They would typically be the fellows who lacked the minimum equipment (shield and spear) to form up in the war band.  Often they would be beardless yutes, as Cousin Vinnie would say. However, I prefer the GB heads with beards to the clean shaven heads.  I painted them in basic tunics with no decorations.  I left room for a lable, but I am overthinking tribal names for my Scots-Irish and haven't decided which ones to use.

Like the tunics, this is a basic minimalist post.  Six 28mm foot figures for 30 points and no room bonus.

Late Romans vs Barbarians AAR

 I knew it had been a while since I posted anything, but didn't think it had been as long as five months.  I had a busy end of term (176 students in a first year calculus class with many suspected cheating incidents) and then a busy spring with Garden prep and travel.

A week or so back I ran a To The Strongest game over at Curt's clubhouse feature my late Roman era British toys.  Player numbers were down due to stomach issues (must find a better place for the latrine) but we had Curt running a conspiracy of Scots-Irish, Picts and Attacotti vs Sylvain's Romans.  it was a straight up class with roughly equal armies and no particular scenario objectives.

After deployment.  The mass of barbarians to the left, the defenders of Britannia to the right.

Close up as the Roman cavalry commander gives a pep talk.

The Irish on Curt's right.  We had to adjust things a bit as his war bands are deep and he couldn't fit two of them in the same box. 

Sylvain ponders his moves.  The hills were gentle but the woods were rough terrain, as was the stone circle.  Note the cup with the victory medals.

Sylvain pushed his luck and advanced his cavalry.  We pull numbered chits from a bag rather than roll dice but the gods were definitely with Sylvain this game.  Note the blue marker marking the edge of the world which Sylvain is using to advantage - I'll be making the battlefield wider and deployment areas narrower to counter this cheesiness in future.

The Pict commander rides past the stone circle in his chariot along side accompanying a unit of light cavalry.  This warlord had disastrously bad luck.  Kudos to terraformer Sylvain who sculpted the neolithic monuments for me.

Another shot as the cavalry ride along the edge of the world.  Sylvain sculpted the dolmen too, which we also classified as difficult.

Things were looking good for Curt here, he swung a war band into the side of the cavalry before they could turn.  The cavalry were disordered but Curt missed several chances for the kill thanks to Sylvain's saving rolls.

The Picts advance.  Sylvain refused his right flank ala Freddie the Great.

The Atacotti charge the fortified Roman camp.  They took out the original ballista crew defenders but by that time Sylvain moved some veteran Auxiliaries in behind.  Again Curt was inches from glory but couldn't quite get the kill.  Note that the camp should have been back a grid row on Sytlvain's baseline. 

Curt's javelin men occupy the dolmen as the cavalry rushes by,

The melee with the Cavalry wing gets messier.  Having held on the lead unit turns, and the following unit advanced up to take one Irish unit after another in the flank, taking down Curt's senior general in the end.

More glory for the Attoctti who have eliminated some archers and are coming on the flank of an Auxiliary unit.

I somehow managed to miss the key moment, the end of which can be seen behind the camp in the last photo.

Curt brought the Pict Light Cavalry up with their attached general to skirmish with and threaten the Roman missle troops to the right of the camp. Unfortunately they halted just short of caring, but had time next turn unless Sylvain achieved a miracle.  He made two difficult maneuvers running to charge the lights with an infantry unit.  Curt failed to evade (needing 3+ out of 10) and then doubled down by failing the reroll afforded by his general.  Sylvain hit and Curt missed his save, killing the unit.  He then had to roll for the general needed a 3+ to survive, and if course failing that two.   

There was lots of drama and it was at times a close run thing, but in the end Curt couldn't overcome the loss of two generals on top of his other unit losses.  A victory to Sylvain who best not push his luck with the dice gods (or his GM) next game. 

AHPC XIII Post 5: Attacotti

 

Hey look Curt I used the watered down white glue to stick down my scree before photos this time! 

This week I have a unit of 12 Attacotti fanatics as foes for my Late Romans in Britain.  The Attacotti are a shadowy Celtic people who were most likely based in the Western Isles of Scotland.  The historian Ammianus says that they took part in the Barbarian Conspiracy of 367 (along with Picts, Scots-Irish, Saxons, Franks and Roman deserters).  Later the Notitia Dignitatum lists Attacotti Auxilia Palatina units among both the Eastern and Western Empire armies and there is a funeral dedication in Illyricum to one of these Auxiliaria soldiers.  The writings of St Jerome mention Attacotti, who are at one point he describes as being cannibals. 

Tail end Diarmaid in the blue hood turned out to be a bit needy.  His shield arm kept requiring regaling, including just before photo time.  

In war-gaming terms, the Attacotti are typically lumped in as an option for fanatical war bands in the Scots-Irish list. I've modelled them mainly using Gripping Beast plastic Picts with add ons from GB Irish and Victrix Late Romans sets.  Gripping Beast put out plastic box sets for Irish, Picts and Welsh which all have a common set of torsos with differing heads, weapons and shields.  For instance the Picts get Emperor Palpatine hoods, crossbows and oddly shaped shields.  The Irish get bare heads and round shields and I don't what the Leek lovers get as I haven't bought a box!  A couple of figures have wrap around cloaks from the Victrix Romans.  There are also two metal Gripping Beast figures, the horn blower and standard bearer.

I will add unit tables across the back of the bases shortly.  Still tinkering with font and colour options.

Most of my Scots-Irish have beigish tunics to represent plain wool, but I've painted my Attacotti in an indigo blue for easy identification (they're in blue they must be fanatics).  I've no historical basis for this, but the seam of historical ore that I am mining is pretty thin at best.  This summer I read a novel by Adrian Goldsworthy (better know as a very good Roman historian) about the Usipi .  These were Germanic auxilaries in the Flavian era who revolted and turned cannibal and pirate in the Irish Sea.  Goldsmith has them wearing black, which I lightened to being an indigo.

There's some pretty good motion in some of the plastic figures and lots of head and arm combinations to add variety.

I had some fun trying out plaids and stripes on the cloaks and added freehand shields and a flag.  I am a little annoyed with myself on the flag as I had to a point that I was happy with it and decided to add a wash for texture.  Unfortunately I rushed the timing and the design bled a bit under the wash.

Seamus on the right has one of the Victrix cloaks round his torso, as does Feargal in the middle of the left base..

As Challenge veterans will remember (and Curt will remind them).I am firmly in the free hand shields over transfers camp.  Some folks seem to get truly wonderful results from transfers (BenF) but I can't put a sticky label on a freezer container or a name badge to save my life.  And a reply enjoy researching and painting the shields.  I timed myself this week and it took me 45 minutes to go from beige base coat and plain paper to 11 shields plus the flag, including some time searching Google images.  It is not a matter of a fine eye as my handwriting's unreadable and I can't draw worth beans.  Simple geometric designs and focusing on getting the overall feel right are way more important than precision.  In my younger days I would paint a variety of shield backgrounds for each unit, but I've long since changed to a uniform background so as to identify units with varied designs.

No theme points for me this time, but 12 28mm foot figures should be good for 60 points which also count for the Carausius Emperor of Britain Side duel.