Byzantine Dioramas by Jack Ladd

One of my favorite aspects of Impetus is the creativity you can show on the bases. My friend Jack Ladd is a great modeller, and is always thinking about how he can use figures he finds out and about in the army he is currently modelling.  Another example of Jack's creative use of figures and materials can be seen in the Irish diorama featured in one of my earlier blog posts - "Who will you send against me now!"

Jack's Byzantine army has a hard contingent of Varagians.  One day Jack saw a group of crows for sale as part of a fantasy line at the Source, a local game store in Roseville, Minnesota.  He thought he could incorporate it in his Byzantine Varaginians --  here is the result.

ODIN!!!!!

I regret I didn't get shots from more angles.  There is a decayed body beneath the flight of crows, the varagians next to the crows are looking at them, and the officer is facing them, and appealing to the god Odin.

Another diorama Jack made as part of the army is of the leader, George Maniakes - Strategos.  George is pictured in the act of charging a Syrian foe, caught at the moment his stallion is bowling over the Syrian's mare.

This piece is outstanding.  The more you study it, the more you see.  I'm confident we'll see more of Jack's dioramas in for future armies.

Konstantian or Nikephrian? Ladd's lads . .

Jack Ladd is another St. Paul Irregulars (SPI) member working on 28mm Impetus armies.  Jack is building a Byzantine army from Volume 15 army lists found in Impetus Supplement 2.  I believe it will be able to be either Nikephorian or Konstantinian.  The majority of the army are Crusader figures.  Jack has some of his army painted and on bases, but without the basework.  Jack's shared his WIP before a game -- so, here's some more visual stimulation!

First up are the Varangians.  The shields and banners are primarily provided by Little Big Man, but I believe the Madonna and Child is a postage stamp.  (Jack never forgets his projects!)

Jack also had his horse archers along, and several stands of Thematic cavalry units.  I really like the portrayed movement of the light horse.  The Thematic cavalry are depicted with four figures a base.  i believe the Thematic (higher quality standing cavalry) will be five figures a base, and the Kataphractoi will be six.

Light cavalry archers, front and back views

Thematic cavalry

Jack also brought some personality figures he plans to use as game markers.  These include the Gripping Beast Harald Hardrada figure.  Harald's the guy who absolutely towers over the rest!

The tiny guy with the axe resting on the ground is a Crusader figure, which is a big 28.  The others are Gripping Beasts, so these beasties are really large personality figures.  For Harald, that's totally appropriate.

We'll leave Jack's Byzzies in Progress with a final view of the Varangians in a nice setting . . .

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For the past several weeks I've been working on my 2012 LIttle Wars game, the Vikings in Ireland.  I am working out the forces, terrain, and objectives.  Some obstacles have been encountered, but shall be overcome!  More on this task will follow in the days ahead.

TAFN

Anglo-Danish (Saxon) deep impetus units

I liked the look of the rebased Vikings so much I redid the rear bases of my Saxons (Anglo-Danish in the Impetus army lists).  While I was at it, I added a few LBMS banners to the army.

Harold's Huscarls -- 10 figures on front base, 6 on rear

The reason for the change was visual.  I originally based this army for a different rule set, where these were not deep units.  I've been really enjoying Impetus, and am committed to playing Impetus for a while.  My unit bases, the front ones, are 12 cm by 6 cm, and this is standard across all my 28 mm dark age armies.  I usually put 10 figures on a close order infantry base, organized in two ranks, and crowded together in the center of the stand.  This creates a visual density in of figures, and a buffer to protect the figures in play.  When I was using two of these as a deep unit I always saw one unit behind another -- the appearance of a SYW second line in close support.  Not good!  I went to a dedicated rear base that is 12 cm by 4 cm in size, with the figures organized in one line on the front of the base.  I'm not totally satisfied with the look of the deep unit as there is still a gap between the second and third rank, but it is visually a huge improvement.  Time will tell if I rebase the entire army or not -- although I've felt very postive about my rebasing efforts so far, I do share the common despair about rebasing. The new look is very good from the front and back (which are, after all, the primary way we see the units in a game), and better from the side than the old appearance of two unit bases.

Side view, old deep unit (2 12x6 bases) and new deep unit (12x6 & 12x4 base)

There has been a discussion of how many figures to but on a 28mm FP (foot pondorous, or heavy foot) base on the Impetus Forum.  I use ten 28 mm figures for most of my armies, but for the Saxons I used twelve figures.  It does make the unit look dense!  I only used ten figures on the Huscarl units, as these are warriors fighting in the Scandinavian tradition.

Select fyrd (12 fig/main base) & Huscarls (10 fig/main base)

Finally, because a picture is worth a thousand words, and ours is indeed a visual hobby, here are more gratuitous pictures of figures!

New deep unit on left, old deep unit on right

Upcoming future posts will include some AARs and photo-presentations of other SPI members (St. Paul Irregulars) 28mm Impetus armies.  Your welcome to come back and visit soon . . .

Irish army photo study

I have to share some photos of the finished Irish lads. One of my goals was to ensure that the different unit types were easily recognized. I differentiated them with figure selection, paint job, and base compostion.  I made skirmishing (S) kerns four figures from a limited pose, light foot (FL) kerns six figures from a limited pose, bonnauchts (also FL) 8 figures from a diverse pose, and nobles (also FL) 9 figures from a diverse pose selection.  I composed the nobles from my choice for best painted in the army.

S kerns in forground, FL kerns middle, FL nobles center rear, and bonnauchts outside rear

S kerns front, FL kerns middle, FL bonnauchts left rear and FL nobles right rear

S kerns front, FL kerns middle, FL nobles left rear and FL bonnauchts right rear

I've painted six noble units, 12 bonnaucht units, 6 FL kerns, 6 S kerns, 2 S slingers and 2 S bows.  A sampling of the bonnauchts and kerns follows.

 Some rear views are shown below.

My favorite lads, those who made the grade as best painted, formed parade for a photoshoot.  The results follow.

That's all for now!  I intend to post an AAR of the Irishmen's first engagement with the Vikings and a photo-review of my Saxon army soon.  The Saxon's are currently undergoing the same rear-stand rebasing for the deep units the Vikings underwent.

Viking 28mm army - rebasing deep units for Impetus

I collected my Viking army over several years, and based it up awhile ago to play "It's Magic" and "Might of Arms" with.  It's Magic is a local game with a lot of play testing that Peter & I enjoy playing, and Might of Arms is a fine set of published rules -- really old WRG rules made playable in an evening.

Both rulesets do not reduce unit sizes by removing casualties -- so I used big bases.  I have subsequently discovered Impetus, and like this ruleset a lot.  In Impetus many armies have units that are more than one stand deep, or deep units.  The Vikings are one of these.  So I played my Vikings as deep units but didn't like the look -- I based them as one-base equals one-unit.  Therefore, I compacted the figures in the middle of the base to both protect the figures from handling during play, and to visually make a tight formation on the base.  As single-base units this works great, but makes the deep unit look like one unit behind another, not one unit.  I never liked this, and finally determined to see if I couldn't improve the look (my pride in the Irish encouraged me to raise the appearance of their opponents, I believe).  So I unbased some of the figures from their 6 cm x 12 cm bases, and rebased them on 4 cm x 12 cm bases, in one rank on the leading edge of the base.

New deep unit basing on the front left unit and rear units, old deep unit "stacked unt" basing on the front right unit.

 You can see that the effect from the side is very improved.  However, it isn't perfect.  The ranks should be even.  I may rebase the rest of the army later, burt I will certainly base all future deep units at the same time so that I can compose them to appear as one unit.

I think that the view from the front is now much improved, however.  The following pictures show that.

The new basing system seen from the front.



The Viking envassion of Ireland had three Viking divisions.  The left wing was commanded by the least inspiring Jarl in the army.

Vikinng left wing division

The center and right had commanders of far more reknown, known and respected throughout the land.

Center and right divisions

The hard fought battle between the invading Vikings and the local Irish will be discussed in a future post!

Viking host desending on the peaceful Irish village

Who will you send against me now? -- Irish dark age camp

I have all next week off!  My intention is to finish painting the Irish portion of my Irish Impetus dark age army, and get it based up.  I shall certainly make good progress on that.

I wanted to share a camp diorama my good friend Jack Ladd did for me back in July.  Jack and I were going over figures I had in my basement, and Jack developed an idea he insisted he run with.  The basis of the setting is a fine bear by Trent Miniatures, a hero from the Crusader Irish line, and a handler, archer, and standard bearer by Gripping Beast.

Views of the front and side show the Irish/Viking area above, and show the Irish view of the hero and "tamed" bear.

The suprise Jack envisioned and created is the enemy archer.

I hope you enjoy.  I will share pictures of how I intend to organize my army soon.