Over the past couple of weeks I have been steadily painting most days and have now finishing painting and basing my remaining unpainted Gaul figures. This meant I was able to set up a quick game on the tabletop. I always want to get the newly completed units into a game as quickly as possible and see them get pushed around the tabletop (hopefully giving good account of themselves).
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| A Gallic Warband appear from the woods. |
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| The tabletop set up for a game. |
I am currently trying out using larger unit sizes for my Ancient armies, where infantry, warbands and cavalry have four bases (rather than two bases). With the newly painted Gaul bases I can now field four warband units each of four bases, two cavalry units of four bases, two chariot units of two bases, and three skirmisher units of two bases.
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The Gallic force using larger units for warbands and cavalry.
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| The same force using two bases for all units. |
The Gallic force is a mix of HaT and ESCI 20mm plastic figures, all painted simply with minimal detailing. My choice of soft plastic figures in my Ancient armies is partly driven by cost, speed to paint, and also by nostalgia. Back in the early 1970s, when I was in my early teens, I was inspired to collect Roman and Carthaginian forces after reading "Introduction to Battle Gaming" by Terry Wise, with its wonderful approach of using cheap Airfix figures and advice on how to convert them. As an aside, some of these classic figures are set to be relaunched by Airfix in 2026, including the Romans, Ancient Britons, Robin Hood, and Sheriff of Nottingham sets.
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| My first book on wargaming - which I still own. |
I may have overdone it slightly with painting up four bases worth of chariots, but I have always liked chariot units. Along with elephants, they are among the more interesting units to have on the tabletop, adding both character and visual interest to an army. I did have one spare chariot, which I incorporated into a warband base to identify the commander.
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| One of the two chariot units. |
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| The commander base is identified with a chariot. |
My current painting effort has been now turned to some Star Wars Legion miniatures that arrived at Christmas, which seems quite a while ago.
