AAR: Sea Peoples First Outing (ADLG)

The best thing about not working is that I am available for afternoon gaming. I had my first game for several months on Monday afternoon, which was the debut for the Sea Peoples army I painted up earlier this year. They were facing Libyan Egyptians.

Initial deployments. With hindsight (and ain't that a wonderful thing?) my big mistake was not spreading out across more of the table - that hit me hard later on. I should have stuck the medium foot from the central command as a reserve behind the heavy foot (and able to move to cover their left flank) and put most of the medium foot from my right flank command into the front line rather than having them in reserve.

The terrain deployment wasn't the best. The rolls for position meant that two items had to be discarded as they wouldn't fit into the sector they should have been in. that left a road, a field (the brown patch) and a village (the grey patch).

I'd lost the initiative, and my opponent moved forward quickly to close me down.

I forgot to take pics for a turn or two. I'd lost two light foot in the meantime. Here you can see that I've charged in, with mixed results.

My chariot command was suffering the effects of shooting from the Egyptian chariots and bowmen.

My heavy foot charged forward to fight some crap medium cavalry which was blocking them from attacking the enemy heavy foot.

An almost equal fight - all impetuous medium swordsmen, but the enemy were "elite".

Some dreadful dice rolls from my medium foot charging light chariots in the open saw the predictable damage marker appear.

And more damage markers sprout among my troops. the enemy heavy foot have now charged into mine, who didn't really seem to notice. Unlike my medium foot who are mostly dying. On my right flank I detached the javelinmen with the intention of getting them round to make a flank or rear attack on the Egyptian chariots.

More of my troops are disappearing or taking damage.

Not looking good for my chariots.

Definitely not looking good for this chariot.

My heavy foot on the other hand are doing a splendid job. 

Chariot and general killed.

And you'll be chocked that the chariot which had been hit in the flank and the rear also died.

The heavy boys are doing what they're best at.

Unfortunately by then enough of my units had either been killed or damaged that I reached army break point.

I had terrible dice throughout most of the game. It didn't seem to matter what the dice were for -command pips, shooting, melee or rallying - they were almost all bleedin' awful. Unlike my opponent's dice which were consistently rolling 5s and 6s.

It was a good game though and it was great to get back to gaming after such a long break.

Army Shots - Sea Peoples

It's still Saturday somewhere in the world, so I haven't broken my promise to post them "today"!

LI javelin skirmishers out ahead; "common warriors" in the first battle line; retinue warriors and chariots in the second line with LMI javelin troops protecting the flanks; generals and baggage at the back.

Yes, one of the javelinmen bases is facing the wrong way

In their boxes:

Still plenty of room for more!

Hope you enjoyed the review!

Finished: 15mm Sea Peoples Chariots, Generals and Baggage

After nearly 7 weeks, the odyssey that was painting my Sea Peoples army is finally at an end. Well, until I decide to add some more chariots and some archers so that I can use them as Philistines as well. Or to add some heavy chariots. Well, you know how these things go.

But the last few are done, and here they are. I will do a group shot of the whole army tomorrow or Friday.

Chariots:

Baggage element:

Generals:

I'll be taking a short break from 15mm historicals to focus on some other things. Stay tuned to see what I'm doing.

Sunday Workbench 15 April

I've got a fair bit done today in the aftermath of Salute.

Sea Peoples

This morning I got the varnishing done on the chariots and ox cart.

They just need their crews now, speaking of which:

I haven't quite finished them - highlights, touch-ups and varnishing still to do. Also, I might try something a little delicate and fancy on the generals' armour; I haven't decided yet. I should get the painting finished tomorrow; the varnishing done on Tuesday and the basing on Wednesday, so watch this space.


Assembly and Priming

Last night, while watching TV and reovering from Salute I decided to assemble the MDF bridges from Warbases and the Gaslands gates. With the gates, I did make the mistake of starting to pop the hazard tokens out from the frame before realising that it would make them awkward to spray prime.

Once the bridges were assembled and the glue had dried I went over the road surface with Vallejo Dark Earth to give some texture and to fill the gaps between road sections. Note for next time - mix a little water into the Dark Earth when doing this - it will make it much easier to control.

The bridges still need to be primed - I'll probably take them into work and spray them during a lunch break.

As the weather was quite nice this morning (Spring at last! Hooray!) I took the gates and some other bits outside to spray prime.

King of the Battlefield templates and Gaslands hazard tokens:

Gaslands gates:

Some cheap diecast cars I'd disassembled and stripped during the week:

I'll be using these to test out different rusting and weathering techniques - I'll need a few rust-buckets for Gaslands.

Friday Workbench 13 April

As I had a "finished" post on Wednesday, my midweek "workbench post had to be put back until today.

I got the painting of the chariot horses finished yesterday evening (I was out most of the day - birthday lunch with my brother and sister), but the varnishing had to wait until this morning.

After doing some chores, I made a start on the chariots and the ox-cart. And would you believe it, I finished painting them. They just need a coat of Klear (no ink!) and varnishing.

With the chariots out of the way, I have made a start on the crew figures and the oxen for the cart. I'll probably manage to get a little bit more done later this evening, but I don't expect to finish them until Sunday.

I was going to do the oxen white, but I quite like the colour they've come out after the wash, so I might just stick with that.

Salute

Of course, tomorrow is the biggie and I'll be up early to head down to the ExCel for Salute. I've got my shopping list, my ticket and the email confirmation of my Eureka pre-order.

Hopefully I'll see some of you there, at the bloggers' meetup (12.30pm - see my post from earlier this week for location) or around and about during the day.