Sons of Spartacus - The Faithful

Viducius, called Bellicus, smiled, his face covered by his heavy helm - recalling how it had been a simple thing to manipulate the hulking Gaul into leading a revolt at the ludus back in Quintilis.

Now, months later, Viducius had the band of fugitive gladiators searching the ruins of a long-abandoned village somewhere near the coast.  The cunning Priest of Mars was skilled at using his position of trust as Talavus the Gaul's advisor to use the force as he sees fit in the service of his god - although in reality it is serving merely to line the Priest's purse.

The Priest snapped out of his thought when one of the Murmillones called out in thanks to the gods and held aloft a small statue - Viducius was pleased; the golden trinket would fetch a good price. "Bring it to me, Carabus - Mars will be most pleased with your efforts this day!"

Next up in my little corner of the Broken Legions world are The Faithful - poor, manipulated chaps!  These are all (except the 'lion') from Crusader Miniatures' Gladiators range and have a nice heft and charm to them.

First, the warband's leader - called an Arena Champion in the rules - Talavus the Gaul:

Next another two hero level warband members - on the left the Acolyte of Mars, Viducius Bellicus and the right the Doctore, Arabio the Numidian:

Finally on the hero level a Venator Beastmaster called Gallio the Carthaginian and his hyena (counts-as lion - mini from Ral Partha Europe) Ferox:

Now, four dudes and a beast wouldn't be much of a warband, so we turn to the henchmen choices - all of them taken as the Gladiator option (Viducius clearly isn't too bothered about freeing any slaves on their travels), but given various options for weapons and armour to suit the different gladiator archetypes.  First, the classic Murmillones (well, two and a Secutor on the left!).  From L-R these are: Curculio, Forficula and Carabus:

Next a pair of Retiarii (aka the other classic gladiator).  L-R these are Lyconides and Alcaeus of Macedon:

And finally a spear-toting Hoplomachus called Patera the Nubian:

I'm keeping the same basing scheme for all warbands (and other minis required for the game) to set them clearly in the same world.  Although I started slow on these I ended up really enjoying them!

Wargaming Idea Stew

Like all good hobbyists I have tonnes of ideas reaching far beyond what I already have - I think of it as a kind of wargaming stew on the stove being slow cooked - some of these bubble up to the surface with more regularity than others and are likely to be dished up sooner rather than later (keep stretching that metaphor Alex!).  

Photo by Shikhar Singh from Pexels

Anyway, I thought I'd ramble a bit about the current ideas that just seem to keep popping up!  These are in no particular order, they are just what most commonly comes to mind when I start thinking about that 'next project'.

Germans vs Black's Division (Černý oddí)
A very small BA project to pay tribute to my Romani heritage in some small tabletop way (I have plenty for my Irish side already after all!).  This idea had floated around a little while (largely inspired by the article on Romea.cz - They weren't just victims: Roma, forgotten heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance) and the freebie Winter German sprue that came with an issue of WGI cemented it a little bit more.  So for the German side, I plan on sorting a very small list on Easy Army to guide the purchases to finish that half.  For Black's Division I'm toying with a couple of options - Artizan's Resistance and Partizans range and/or Crusader Miniatures Partisans. I'm going to keep this very small - couple of small squads of Germans and then a Resistance force of equivalent points - around 500 points I think should give a few options each side but not break the bank.

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth vs Ottoman Empire
I spotted the 16th century Polish and Ottoman ranges on Pendraken's site whilst ordering my Tyrone's Rebellion stuff and haven't been able to shift it from my head since. Seriously, it just keeps on popping back into my brain! I think I'll see how I feel painting up my Tyrone's Rebellion stuff - if I take to 10mm, this could shape up to be a decent sized project.

Post-Human Republic
I'd toyed with the idea of starting Dropzone Commander a few months ago, but couldn't quite make the value for the Post-Human Republic work out enough to convince me to take the plunge and I didn't want to 'make do' with one of the others that offered a better value starter.  Well, TTCombat must have been reading my mind or something because they are releasing a PHR Starter Army in a couple of days time that looks a great value starting point! This is definitely on my radar now - might not even need much beyond that starter set... who am I kidding, those walkers all look awesome!

Achaemenid Persians
I mentioned about 6mm catching my eye on Twitter and ended up having a conversation with Trials... about it - he mentioned that he had eyed the Greeks for this scale, which as luck would have it would be a perfect foe for the Achaemenid Persians that had piqued my interest! Not sure what ruleset to use for this project, which is a bit of a sticking point to this moving forward at the moment.

Between all the existing stuff and this little lot I think that should keep me going... yeah right! 😉

O:WiC - Mercenaries!

As part of Operation Winter is Coming I've prepped and based some mercenaries for a few of the games in the collection.  First up is Onkólithos, a Cyclops for Broken Legions:

It turns out (with a bit more detailed digging) that this sculpt was done by Bob Olley for Ral Partha (as part of the Crucible line).  It's a big mini and a nice chunk of lead.

Next up is William de Chartres, a nasty mercenary foot knight without morals for Outremer:

Like some of the other metals in my Outremer collection this one is from Crusader Miniatures.  It's a nice simple mini with a classic attacking pose.

Finally we have Zit Turnip, a goblin highwayman for Mordheim:

This little chap came as a freebie when I ordered a warband from the ShortWars range.  It's a mad sculpt with a shock of spiky hair - but he'll fit in well with my eclectic collection of mercenaries for Mordheim.

The Crusaders - Getting Started

Just like with my Broken Legions stuff, Outremer: Faith and Blood (again from Osprey's blue series) offers me a chance to enjoy a different game, exploring a different era, with different styles of model in a very affordable way. Of course, in a game ultimately about the Crusades, it would be a bit weird if I didn't have a Crusader warband!  So, picking up a few sprues and some metal minis I put together a warband of Frankish zealots.

Of course, every warband needs a leader and in this case it is a Knight who I have named Adelbert de Stavelot (centre).  He is joined by his loyal, but possibly psychotic squire Bernard de Stavelot (left) and the ranting preacher Farther Norbert (right):

Adelbert and Bernard are from Crusader Miniatures (their Later Crusades range) and the priest model is from the always-superb Perry Miniatures (Crusaders range).

The next tier of fighters are the men-at-arms type; I've gone for one ranged specialist and one melee focussed chap.  Here's Médard (left) and Letard (right):

Médard is another Crusader Miniatures model with an added shield from a Fireforge sprue for some added survivability.  Letard is made from a Fireforge Foot Sergeants sprue and carries a rather wicked mace.

Further down the chain we have a couple of hairy pilgrim types.  These are Poppo (left) and Ebbo (right):

These guys were made from a Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warrior sprue.  Nothing fancy, but give me some low-cost melee support options.

Of course, it'd be a bit silly not to have some ranged options, so some bow armed pilgrim types were in order.  L-R we have Dudon, Fulk and Brice (not of Nice):

Again these are Gripping Beast minis, this time from a Dark Ages Archer sprue.

Finally I thought it made sense to have some low-tier fodder - over the course of a campaign these guys (if they survive) can specialise into tradespeople giving all sorts of useful skills.  L-R we have Abbo, Odger, Pepin:

Handsome chaps aren't they?! Handily, these nicely used up the remainder of the Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warrior sprue.

I'm aiming to give these guys a colour scheme tied to one of the coats of arms associated with my family name - no way I could recreate the real coat of arms though!

Sons of Spartacus reinforcements

I've got a Sons of Spartacus warband for Broken Legions assembled and primed, but wanted to add a couple of pieces before I get painting them.

The existing warband is all from the Crusader Miniatures gladiators line and thanks to eBay I was able to get the single miniatures I wanted for the list - I decided to get a Secutor to give another 'standard' Gladiator to pad the warband when necessary

Like the Crusader Miniatures gladiators I already had, this has a solid old school feel which I really like.

I also picked up the Laquerius miniature for use as a Beastmaster in the warband - he can't have a spear in the game, but it'll do to represent the hand weapon upgrade.

Of course, a beastmaster needs a beast, surely? I didn't fancy any of the stock options in the list (warhound, bear or lion) so had a browse with one of my favourite sellers (Second City Games) of great value random old minis for some inspiration and found a Ral Partha Giant Hyena from 1994 - now, this would be on the same size base I'd use for a lion and hyena are pretty savage things so figured this would make a perfect (and rather cool) proxy lion for my Sons of Spartacus!

I'll be basing these in the same style as their comrades - Warlord Games bases (you know, the really low profile ones) textured in my sand dip box I use for everything.  When primed I think the Sons of Spartacus will be the first of my Broken Legion bands on the paint station!