Otonia, Favoured of Hera

I backed the Mortal Gods Mythic Kickstarter at a token level to offer some support - but I did take the opportunity to pick up one of the new Temple Guard Leaders - namely the one for Hera.

It's a nice sculpt - typical of Footsore style really (bit more cleaning up on the thin sword blade than I would have liked but otherwise not bad on the prepping).  I've based it and will give it the texture dip treatment prior to priming:

A particularly nice detail is the peacock feather on the shield:

I intend to use her as a 'Demigod' hired sword - I plan to call her Otonia, Favoured of Hera.  Clearly she clings to the original version of the goddess - rather than a strict Demigod (as Hera wasn't known for that kind of shenanigans!) I'm viewing it as a profile to build a heroic individual blessed with specific attention by a deity in this case.

Thessalus and Tisiphone

I've got a little stash of Gangs of Rome stuff to work through - but there were a couple of gaps in the collection that I wanted to plug.  I found them available from Board in Brum online for a good price so took the opportunity to round out our Gangs of Rome collection for now.

First up, Thessalus the Back Street Healer - a rather sketchy Incola.  Not sure I'd trust this chap to patch me up!

I also grabbed Tisiphone - she's a special named fighter for inclusion in a gang.  I think it's a fun sculpt without being over the top - and actually have a second that will be used in Broken Legions as an Oracle in The Argonauts:

Sons of Scylla - Heroes

Now, it's all well and good having my companions done for my mercenary Lochos, the Sons of Scylla, but let's be honest, Greek Myths and Legends don't dwell on that third peltast at the back - they are about the heroes!

So, to lead the mercenaries, here's Theasides the First Son:

In the Footsore range he is 'Heavy Lochagos 1'.

His most-trusted second-in-command is Kallikles of Attika:

He can be found as 'Medium Promachos 2'.

Finally there's the certainly murderous Pelegon the Wild:

He's got a rather wicked kopis-style sword - from Footsore he is 'Medium Lochagos 1'.

I knew that the Athenian and Spartan Lochos would have special rules - so to offset that I picked up a couple of the more unusual character types to add to the mercenaries.  First up, a healer - I'll call him Phausius the Iatros:

Finally for the Sons of Scylla, I added a Seer to interpret the omens to assist the Lochos - he can be called Karipos the Mantis:

This mini came with two hand options - the other has a staff.  I first tried to attach that hand but as it wouldn't hold I paid heed to that omen and switched it to the torch instead!

Sons of Scylla - Companions

For my birthday last year I received a whole bunch of Mortal Gods stuff - well I've finally started prepping the minis!

As I mentioned in my post last year, I planned to use the majority of the starter set to form a mercenary Lochos - I've called them the Sons of Scylla to make them sound dangerous...

The bulk of any Lochos in Mortal Gods are the companions; the hoplites and skirmishers form the backbone of the force.

So, here's the light hoplites for the Sons of Scylla - three bases worth:

The 'leader' type guy will potentially be used as a veteran or if I need a lone dude at any point - so the lucky guy gets a name! He can be called Sinon:

I also made up three bases of heavy hoplites (well, proper hoplites I suppose):

The guy in the transverse crested helmet can be the veteran/solo guy when needed - so his name can be Onetas:

Finally for the companions, I went for two bases of peltasts (Athenians are getting archers and Spartans are getting slingers, so the Sons of Scylla get javelins!):

All these are Victrix miniatures - I found them a chore to do to be honest; not because of any issue with them (they are solid sculpts with enough detail to be interesting), just hard work!

Coming soon - the Heroes!

Test of Honour second edition

I'd had the Test of Honour starter set from its original Warlord release, but hadn't got round to a game - despite having a painted force of Perry Miniatures samurai for it (really should post about those soon!).  Well, Grey For Now took over and released a second edition - and my better half picked up the Gaming Set for me from Footsore so I can make the switch over to the current ruleset.

It comes with the rulebook, the custom dice for the game and all the cards you need - recruitment, upgrade, skill, injury, quest, honour and dishonour.

It also includes a sheet of tokens - basic, but functional.

Finally, it includes an unarmoured samurai mini:

I have the unarmoured samurai that was a pre-order bonus from the Warlord Games release so it's cool to have this version too!  As an aside, that one is now available from Warlord in the Samurai Heroes box for Warlord of Erehwon.

Mortal Gods - getting started

I had my birthday recently and my wife got me a bundle of Mortal Gods stuff! If you haven't heard about the game, it's from Footsore and is a skirmish game set in ancient Greece. The game uses a mix of metal (or limited resin runs) miniatures from Footsore or the range of Victrix plastics.

Starting with the Core Set:

This has got the rulebook (obviously), dice, cards and the like to get playing - along with a nice selection of plastic Victrix sprues:

16 Mercenary Hoplites
8 Unarmoured Hoplites
8 Peltasts
6 Slingers

Add a Lochagos and a Promarchos and it's a nice Mercenary Hoplites Lochos ready to fight for glory!

But that's not all - I also received both the Spartan and Athenian boxes too!

These each contain a booklet, cards and a selection of miniatures.

In the Spartan box there was:

Meonas the Harvester (Spartan Lochagos) - metal mini
Spartan Hoplite - metal mini
Helot - metal mini
8 Spartan Hoplites
8 Unarmoured Hoplites

The Athenian box has:

Andronikos the Defender (Athenian Lochagos) - metal mini
Athenian Hoplite -metal mini
Light Hoplite - metal mini
8 Athenian Hoplites
8 Unarmoured Hoplites

Both boxes also include 19 metal shields each - the Athenians' shields feature the Owl symbol of their patron goddess, while the Spartans have the famous Lambda.

Add a few more options (I want some Marine Archers for the Athenians and some Krepteia for the Spartans!) and that's another two Lochoi!

But that wasn't all I got - included in the bundle were a couple of metal miniatures - the first I believe to be a Medium Promarchos; he can fit in with the mercenaries I think!

The second definitely has a touch of the Leonidas I about him! He's got a couple of weapon options and some head options too.  I think he's got to go with the Spartan Lochos really doesn't he!

I'm looking forward to working out what I want to pick up to round out each of the three Lochoi I've got minis for!  Footsore are also releasing other factions - Persians are already out and the Thrakians are on their way too.  I might not be able to resist the Persians...

Gangs of Rome - getting started

OK, so I'm a little late to the party with this one - but when I found the Blood on the Aventine set for a really good price it was kind of a no-brainer:

6 single-piece gang fighters, an NPC guy, all the gubbins you need to play (including rulebook obviously) and a rather awesome 'temple under construction' scenery piece by Sarissa Precision.  This alone was almost worth the price of entry - it'll certainly be used for Broken Legions as well as Gangs of Rome, and possible even Of Gods and Mortals should I ever go that route.  Here's the official pic of the piece when made up and painted:

I won't lie, it's pretty intimidating!

So, here are the gang fighters that come in the starter set - first up the women:

And now the men:

I didn't like the guy with the Scissor gladiator weapon so while I have him made up I decided he didn't deserve to be in the picture.

Here's Talavus the Gaul, a special Incola (special character citizens of Rome that your gangs can interact with in some way in game - in this case he'll attack you with roof tiles):

While this would allow us to play the game I thought we needed to get up to the 5 gang members per side size.  I found an independent seller that was having a clear out of their GoR stock (lucky for me!) so picked up enough to add to the men and women above.

Here's the two fighters that will be joining my gang:

I like to think of the female fighter as a pychotic chef.  Each fighter comes in a blister with their unique card, item cards (and denarii) and some head and arm options - I tried to pick the coolest looking head/weapon combos for all of these multi-piece minis.

Next up are three female gang fighters that will join the Wife's gang.  There's a cool piece of background text in the rulebook about an all-female gang that was just too cool not to emulate a little on table:

Axe, mallet and sword/rock-for-braining combo... pretty gnarly stuff!

A cool and unique (well, it's the first game I've come across that uses it as a mechanic) part of Gangs of Rome is the Mob.  These represent the living nature of Rome as a bustling city.  I picked up one of the Mob packs from the seller I got the fighters from:

These will even come in useful as NPCs in Broken Legions - I do like getting multiple use out of my minis! 

I think I'd like another Mob or two, some of the other Incola models and at least a little more scenery (seeing as it can be used for Broken Legions too!), but this is certainly enough to be cracking on with in the meantime!

Dark Ages Irish - Forannán's War Host

I grabbed the Saga rulebook a while ago, and had been eyeing up the War Banner (Footsore) Dark Ages Irish minis since then.  Well, I took the plunge and picked up their starter warband deal and a couple of other bits and pieces.

Of course, every army needs a leader - and mine is Forannán, a mighty warlord (or so he says):

I also picked up the Irish Infantry Command blister - primarily for these two chaps, which I inted to field as Curadh:

These I will call (L-R) Éogan and Dunchad.

The Warlord and the two chaps above came with banner bearers (and in the case of my Curadh a hornblower).  I've based these up ready for inclusion in units however is needed:

The army deal included two units of Fianna (Heathguard) with Axes:

These can be Cormac's Fianna and Rónán's Fianna.

The deal was rounded out with two units of Bonnachts (warriors) armed with shield and javelins:

These I'll call Fintan's Bonnachts and Dáire's Bonnachts.

Finally I picked up a unit of warhounds, couldn't really miss out on these:

The hound master I'll call Lugaid.

These are mostly single piece models (except the shields of course) and the javelins/standard poles needed to be purchased seperately and the hands drilled through.  Nothing too taxing - although the axes were quite bent and almost impossible to get back straight which is a shame.  A couple of the Bonnacht have mould lines right down their faces which has reduced the detail a little.  Still, for the value these minis offer they are still fair in my opinion.

Now these have been prepped and base dipped they can join the priming queue!

Soldiers of the Eagle - getting started

So, I've already got a Sons of Spartacus warband underway but one of the benefits of skirmish gaming is that it's feasible to have multiple forces to give a chance to try different tactics and painting styles in an affordable way.  For most forces in Broken Legions a Warlord Games sprue or two and some metal characters (if you fancy it) set you up with all you'll need and a few extra optional warband members too.

As the game is Broken Legions it felt a bit wrong to not have some of the Roman Empire's finest - called The Soldiers of the Eagle in the game so I picked up a few bits and bobs to put together a warband - the backbone is the Imperial Roman Legionary sprue from Warlord games.

Here's the leader of the warband, the Centurion, Gaius Vinicius with his loyal wardog Cerasus:

Gaius is the 'cover figure' for Warlord Games' Hail Caesar picked up on eBay and Cerasus is a spare mastiff from the Celt range.

Next we have (L-R) Flavius (a Praetorian), Aspasius the Shadow (a Frumentarius) and Titus (a Praetorian):

Flavius is a Warlord Games Optio, Aspasius is an Agente miniature from Gangs of Rome (I especially like the mask he is carrying), Titus is a Primus Pilus mini (and was originally going to be my Centurion until I got the Hail Caesar mini so cheap!).

Of course, you can't just have heroes in a Broken Legion list, you need some henchmen to give you some numbers. Here's (L-R) Sextus, Marcus, Appius and Placus.

The three plastic minis were all made from the Legionary sprue and are armed with a pilum each to give a bit of a ranged option.  Marcus is an Aquilifer from Warlord Games - I figured if they are the 'Soldiers of the Eagle' they needed to fight under the gaze of the Aquila!

Next up we have (L-R) Caelus, Tertius and Oppius:

These three chaps are unupgraded Legionaries - but that's still heavy armour, tower shield and gladius! Obviously these were from the Legionary sprue.

Finally, and to give a bit of variety to the force, we have the Baleares (L-R) Lyco and Citro:

This was made from a Balearic Slingers sprue from Victrix.  Now, Victrix minis tend to run a bit larger than Warlord - but these guys aren't too bad and help bulk the warband out as they are cheap points-wise.

Ideally I'd like a couple of Numerus/Sagittarius to round out the options available for the Romans but it's not urgent and until I find a box splitter or suitable random mini or two it can wait!

Next up these will get the standard base texture dip I do before being primed and joining the paint queue!