Re-basing commences

The decision taken on the hoplites I got to work. First step was to prise them off their original base. That wasn't too difficult.

Then I zhuzhed them up a bit with a little decoration of the shields. That done, I got them stuck down to the bases. The figures were in units of the same shield colour and initially I was thinking about mixing them up so there was no uniformity, but cutting the figures off the strips and glueing them individually would have been a task too far. So they're mostly in units with the same colour shield, just different patterns on them.

I'm waiting for the arrival of the dice trays so I won't texture the bases yet. I had a false start with a couple of bases when I realised that I hadn't left enough space for the dice trays.

Figures as they were once they were off the original bases

I wanted to re-base the figures because they were based one rank deep with a fair amount of space fore and aft, whilst I wanted to have denser formations. In addition I wanted to re-texture the bases in the house style, similar to the Punic Wars figures.

First stage: shields edged in gold (for 'bronze'), white, red or green. Second stage: dab on various 'patterns' in contrasting colours. Some were effectively just blobs and then I started to get a bit more adventurous.

Third stage: figures glued to their final bases. Not quite enough for 8 units.

Close up of the 'Blue Shields'

This unit includes some of the legendary Finnioi tribe.

Unit containing the Grimonids (front right), with their own distinctive alphabet letters displayed on their shields.

Good news story

About wargaming too.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8d73e16qgno.amp

After 1100 years….

…..has England split or was it a myth that Athelstan united all England?

Or is it just a sign of declining proofreading standards at the Beeb?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewnpjjlxx4o.amp

The Big Re-basing: Final Options

I've been going round and round in circles on this for nearly two weeks now. I need to make a decision. So here are the final options swirling around my head.

Option 1: Shallow bases each with 2 ranks.

• 1a: Alala! 2 bases deep. Each row made up of bases 60x15 and 30x15mm
• 1b: Basic Impetus: 1 base deep. 2 bases of 60x15mm.

Option 2: Deep bases each with 3 ranks.

• 2a: Alala! 1 base deep. One base 60x30 and one base 30x30mm
• 2b: Basic Impetus: 1 base deep. Two bases 60x30mm

Oh to clarify....I intend to use Alala! for inter-Greek battles and BI for everything else (Romans-Carthaginians; Romans-Greeks; Carthaginians-Greeks; Persians-Greeks).

Option 1a: Phalanx for Alala! Two shallow bases deep, 2 ranks per base. I might drop 1 or 2 files from this as they are too near the edges.

Option 1a: From above. I might open up a bit of a gap between the ranks on each base so they are equally spaced when they are placed two bases deep.

Option 1b: deployed as a 'unit' for Basic Impetus. 1 base deep. 'Spares' in the background will go towards other units.

Option 1a: Alalas phalanx from above showing how the losses can be taken off. This gives me up to 12 elements so lots of flexibility.

Option 2a (right): 3 ranks per base, 1 base deep. Against 1a. Alala phalanxes. As with Option 1, I'll drop a couple of files off to make them easier to handle.

Option 2b: on the right: 3 ranks per base, 1 base deep. Unit for Basic Impetus.

Options 1b and 2b: Basic Impetus shown against a Roman Principes base. If I were to bring the 3-deep Greeks up against the Romans I'd probably have to beef up the Romans a bit from the odds and ends pile. The Hastati and Triarii (not shown) don't look as underpowered by comparison.

Options 1a and 2a together. To make 2b flexible enough I'd have to split the large base into smaller ones.

What the options mean for Alala!

• Option 1 would give me 7 or 8 units of c.60 for Alala! Roughly 1 figure:20 men.
• Option 2 units would be c.48 strong and I'd be able to make 9 units. 

A unit in Alala! is supposed to be around 1000-1200 hoplites. I suppose 3 or 4 units a side would be enough for battles between competing poleis.

What the options mean for Basic Impetus

• Option 1 units would be 40+ figures strong. Roughly 1 figure:30 men. I'd have enough for 10+units. Plenty.
• Option 2 units would be 60+ strong and I'd have 7 or 8. Probably enough.

This excludes all the Peltasts, psiloi and cavalry floating around that I haven't even got around to thinking about yet!

Post Script

I finally made a decision. Three ranks on 30mm deep bases. Two bases 60mm wide for Basic Impetus and one base 60x30 plus one 30x30mm for Alala! I like the look of 3 ranks best.  A total of 60 figures for BI and 45 for Alala! I'll tackle the weedy looking Roman units at a later date.

I played around with different ideas on how to take casualties from a phalanx. Having more smaller bases didn't really look right because in order to avoid handling damage I'd need to have small gaps around the side, and this led to gaps in the wall of shields. 

I asked myself what other way could I track strength without hordes of casualty figures and the answer was in front of my eyes - use tiny dice in dice holders on the base. I do this anyway for BI. A standard Alala unit is 24 figures, or 6 elements of 4. The 30x30mm base, 1/3 of a unit, would therefore be two elements. So once 8 pips had been built up on the D sixes, the small base could be removed. A total of 16 pips would mean the removal of the large base instead. Sorted!

So an order was duly placed for more bases from Pendraken, plus a few other bits and pieces not necessarily related to the Ancients project.