Sunday, January 20, 2013

From BurkhardS: 28mm Byzantine Warband (290 points)


Burkhard sends in this beautiful force of Byzantines for use with SAGA. 

From Burkhard:
Here is my next entry for the painting challange. My Byzantine Warband for SAGA. All minis are Gripping Beast metals in 28mm. I had initially planned to post them by units, but due to the cold weather here in Germany I did not want to varnish them, which is the step before doing the basing for me and meant I could not enter them. After the whole unit was finished I lost patience and varnished them in-doors. So as a result they all get presented in one go.
The lowest units are two units of Toxotai or foot archers (Warriors) and one unit of Kontaratoi or foot spearmen. These are the rank and file soldiers raised and maintained by the Byzantine state. As such I wanted to give them a uniform look, so the all got tan trousers and dark red shirts. This is also meant to show their origins as a successor to the Roman Empire. As such they received the colours historians (tan) and Hollywood (red) associate with the Romans. I guess IO will eventually have to get myself another unit of spearmen to give me th flexibility I want for my Byzantines, but for now it shall do.


The next highest units are the Kavallaroi or mounted Heathguards. I chose two, four-man units each of archers and regulars cavalry. While historically these are equipped by the state as well, the were also the most prestigious units in the army. So I wanted them to look like lesser nobles and gave each of them a different tunic with intricate patterns. 


Now those of you who know SAGA will realise that these seven points are too much to field a regular warband. The plan is that I will use all cavalry and only one unit of foot archers if I want an offensive set-up. by contrast I will remove one unit of mounted archers if I want a defensive set-up. Once the second foot spear is finished, I could also remove a unit of mounted close combat as well, but first I want to see how this one plays out.

All of the above troops were done using the Army Painter Dip and touched up and detailed once it was dry. The shields are transfers from LBMS and applied after the army painted as well.
Last but not least to lead the Warband is the Warlord or Basileus in this case (although I will not use the special rules fo him, since I feel this option actually weakens a Byzantine warband in SAGA). I gave him fine clothing with a purple cape, again to show the Roman origins of the Byzantines. He was painted the classic way with highlights to set him apart from the rest of the Warband. 

Really lovely work Burkhard. The painting is very smooth, bright and has great colour.

This force will give Burkhard 290 points to add to his total which will shoot him forward to 14th place and bring him much closer to his Points Par Target. Well done!

15 comments:

  1. Brilliant job Burkhard, they look great.

    John

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  2. Now they are nice!!!! Love them shields! Nice one Burkhard!

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  3. A fantastic warband. How do they play?

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  4. I initially thought you had painted a 290 point Saga army! That'd be 45 normal 6 point armies.

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  5. A fantastic work,brilliant colours!!!

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  6. My god, this is terribly fantastic and demoralizing at the same time!

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  7. Stunning work!

    It just goes to show how excellent brushwork and Army Painter Dip can produce great results. The faces including the eyes are very nice :)

    Fantastic job on every figure! Is it bad I want to add a Byzantine Warband to my SAGA models now?

    Happy Painting,

    Allan

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  8. Thank you all!

    The positive feedback means a lot me. For one I never like using the Army Painter. I always feel I spend ages painting the mini never knowing if it will turn out the way I want it. The other thing is, that this unit got pretty frustrating. Due to the varnish hold-up, there was never anything to show, which meant it felt like I was doing nothing. So all these comments are a huge lift and give me new drive for the next one!

    @Phyllion: No idea yet. i have made it a habit never to play with unfinished minis. From their abilities it ready like they really depend on units supporting each other. Especially then Archers, which will be able to fire into close combat or fire through other units with the right SAGA dice. If you want, check out my log @ www.dhcwargamesblog.wordpress.com . There should be battle reports there soon.

    @Baconfat: that would really have overdone it! ;-)

    @Allen: by all means do it. For one they look real different from the other SAGA factions. Plus (at least from how they read) they should play quiet different from most factions in both the Core Rules and the first expansion. Which is why I picked them... I guess you can hardly get more variation from Vikings than this (unless you take the Viking bodyguard option with the Basileus).

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  9. These look great, hope it gets warmer for you. I know the frustration as I have a bunch of figures waiting bases so I can send them into the challenge

    Ian

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  10. I know what you mean. The Army Painter looks awfull until you spray the matt varnish on it.

    Once done though the figures really shine. I use it on all my rank and file figures now. Mainly because of the horde of unpainted lead I have lying around - lol

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  11. Thanks again!

    @Ian: Same to you... one can only hate this time of year for varnishing... unless you are on the southern hemisphere of course.

    @Allan: I still can not get my head around to using it all the time, even in spite of the lead mountain I have. Maybe with my Napoleonic Austrians.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)