This time it is all about new units for my Hellenistic armies. The Thureophoroi were painted last year, while the pikemen and general got their paint this year.

Thureoporoi are named after the shield they use: thureos. Most of the times these shield were painted white. But don't confuse them with leukaspides, which translates to white shields and were heavy pikemen.
 It is a troop type which became very popular in the third Century BC till the fall of the Hellenistic empires.

I'm not 100% shure if they were uniformed, but there is some proof for it.
Anyway, I picked inspiration for this unit from the cover of a recent issue of Ancient Warfare. Which is an excellent magazine for any ancient wargamer by the way. More info here .

The second unit of thureophoroi got a slightly different uniform, but still kept the white thureos.

The uniforms of these are based on a picture in "The Seleucid army", written by Nick Secunda.

It is the image on the right.
The commander of this unit got a bit of a differnt uniform. I imagine one of his forefathers was a Greek hoplite in service of Alexander the Great. Who knows!

This book, originaly published by Montvert Publ. in 1994 is now much sought after. If you find one for a reasonable price, do buy it! (I bought my copy in 1994...)
ISBN 1-874101-02-7.

Then there are the 16 new rercuits for my Argyraspides (silver shields), an elite unit of heavy pikemen. I had a unit of 32 of them, but now expanded to 48.

The complete expanded unit.

My other 32 men units of pikemen will also be expanded to 48.
Miniatures of the thureophoroi are from Old Glory.
The pikemen are from the Foundry range World of the Greeks. Still a favorite of me.

For some reason, I cannot add more pictures here. So the new general will get his own update.

Off to War (Part II).

After a few pictures of the "rebel" army, here are a the pictures of the Macedonians.

Some lighter troops, as the Agrianians and the Thracian peltasts have crossed the river to protect the left flank of the column.

The Thracian commander has sought higher ground, to check if he can see any enemy troops.

On the right flank, Alexander with a few of the Companions is doing the same.

First troops in the column of heavy infantry are the Hypaspists, followed closely by Philip, the commander of the army, with his elite phalanx unit.

After them are 5 more phalanx units, making them look like a moving wood of pikes.

For those interested, the miniatures are mostly Wargames Foundry, with some Old Glory, a unit of Gripping Beast (Polemos) and a few A&A Miniatures as Hypaspists.

The scene is set, battle is upon us.
We don't have a date yet, it is not easy to get a date we (the friends and me) can come together to play the battle.
Who will win???

Off to War! (part I)

Due to personal reasons, and a few minor relays, it has been a while since a new update was posted.
I hope to be more regular in the future, but you never knows what will happen...

Anyway, I have been painting ancient Greeks and Macedonians for several years now, and think it is time to play a big game. The battle I would like to play is Chaeronea, taking place somewere in the middle of Greece, between a greek Alliance and the Macedonian army of Philip, aided by his 18 year old son Alexander,  in 338BC.
The battle took place between the Kephissos River (nort-east) and Mount Petrachos (south-west), so it would be difficult to catch a flank.

The rules we will use are Clash of Empires, with around 5000 points a side. That is a couple of hunderd figures a side.
The set-up of troops will be at the players decision, but the battle field will be more or less historical.

The Greek Alliance was made of mostly Athenian and Theban hoplites. I'm not going to give away too much details now, as some of my gaming friends are probably reading this. But a few pictures won't hurt.

Here you see the allied Greek army marching by a hero's shrine, set up to honour Perseus, who took off Medusa's head.  A priests is offering a lamb for good fortune of the army while it marches along.
The officers are checking and discussing the troops and the way they wil try to overcome the Macedonians.

 



Apart from hoplites, there were of course also a few mounted troops, peltasts and skirmishers.

The most famous of Greek hoplites, the Theban Sacred band is leading the rather large column of hoplites.
There were only 300 of them, so a much smaller unit than the other phalanx units!

The Greek forces as seen trhough the eyes of an eagle passing over.

Two more units of skirmishers are to be added to the forces, making the total over 300 miniatures.

The Macedonian army will be shown here soon. (I hope)

Last unit for the Macedonian army.

Hello again!
My last unit from my Macedonian army is now ready. The figures come from the Gripping Beast "Polemos" range.
(it is actually a Seleucid guard phalanx unit, but it was the only phalanx I had for the moment)

I used the famous LBMS shield transfers for the first time. The first transfers took a lot of time to apply, but a few shields further in the line, I got it under hand. It still took me a whole evening to apply the transfers.
I had then to paint the edges of the shield, first in black (the transfers are to be used on a white primed surface) and then with gold, as this unit was called the Chrysaspides. Which is classical Greek for Golden shields.
I don't know if I did something wrong, I don't think it looks perfect. But it is certainly good enough to play our games. No one will notice when there are a few hunderds of toys on a gaming table!

Do check them yourself.

It is the last unit I had to paint for a soon to be played historical scenario. More on that will follow as soon as we (me and the wargaming friends) have a date when we can play the game. Rules will be "Clash of Empires".

Unfortunately, I forgot to take some close-ups of the unit.
Maybe in the next update. If I don't forget...

Fresh troops!

Photo update of my blog, for those interested.
I have not painted much at all this year. And since the year is almost over, I post now what I have.

First a 48 fig unit of Seleucid/Successor phalanx. All Foundry figs. They are from a lot I bought very cheap second hand. These were actually painted some months ago. I really should update my blog more often...

Next is my first unit of Macedonian Companions. A 12 fig unit, also Foundry and bought together with the phalanx figures at an equally low price. I added a musician (small conversion) and, the horror, a standard bearer!
He will come in handy for early successor companions. The design on the standard is made of the inner part of a LBM shield transfer.

The last figure painted is the big man himself: Alexander the Great.

I bought this miniature a few years ago from Newline Miniatures, but they sold this line seveeral years ago. It is now owned by SHQ, I believe.

I hope you like the newly painted miniatures, and will try to update on a more regular base.

Oh, did I mentioned that I made a trip through Greece last summer? Most part crossing the Peloponnesos. It was a great vacation, but two weeks is far to short to visit all that I wanted. Maybe more on this next time.

Tomorrow I'm going to a wargamers feast: Crisis at Antwerp, probably the largest wargame show in European mainland. And it is only 25kms away from my doorstep. Lucky me I guess!

A few left over figures for sale, mostly Foundry.

Is it actualy that long ago that I updated my blog? Wow!

Anyway, as my Macedonian/Hellenistic armies are now almost ready, I would like to sell the unwanted leftover figures. All are unpainted.

LOT 1
-11 Macedonian/Successor phalanx, code WG 143 (Pike up) These are with cast-on shields.
-6 Macedonian/Successor Royal Guard, code WG144 (pike up) Also with cast-on shields.
-6 hypaspists attacking, probably code WG 09. Unfortunately, I can not find the shields, but if you like replacements, I have some Crusader hoplite shields, which are almost similar.
-3 different foot command figures. Two Foundry and one Crusader or A&A (I'm not shure which one).
I would like to have €25.00 or £21.00 plus postage. Take note, I live in Belgium.

LOT 2
A 10 fig unit (unpainted) of Companions, Alexander fig included.
These are from the now defunct Vendel range.
For these I would also like the have €25.00 or £21.00 plus postage.

It is also possible to hand the figures over at the Crisis wargames show in Antwerp (on 3 november), which saves you postage cost.

If you would like to buy anything of it, simply leave a message, or contact me at wDOTvdbergheATpandoraDOTbe. You know what I mean .

I will update my blog soon with some pictures of what I have painted since the last update (not that much).

We plan to play a 3000 points Clash of Empires battle next friday, so maybe a battle report may follow also. Maybe...


ALL SOLD NOW !!!