Victrix Gauls

Saga Age of Hannibal gave me a reason to finally paint naked Gauls in 28mm...bucket list item checked! Seriously, these Victrix plastics are quite lovely.  At the finish line, this warband is 48 warriors, 12 levy archers, and 6 chariots. The LBMS shield transfers make them shine. I couldn't find naked archers so I had to sub in Crusader Miniatures archers in pants. Not being warriors leading a from the front, they're not allowed to be sun clad.  After a year of Age of Hannibal, I can say the Gauls live up to the motto "When in doubt, charge!" 

Thistle & Rose Gallic Army

A new owner is bringing Thistle & Rose (T & R) 15mm miniatures back on line. I haven't painted 15mm ancients in ages so it was a great opportunity to get back in the saddle by painting a T & R Gallic army for Triumph.  

T& R are true 15s, comparable in size with Corvis Belli.  Not too tall or plump and very detailed. I don't know how they managed such fine detail on 15mm figures.  Some of the shield work was so intricate I used washes and glazes to highlight the handiwork. The "Dying Gaul" figure is a great touch too.  

The T & R FaceBook page is up here.  When they go live, they'll have a deep bench of periods and armies.  In fact, I should have another round of 15mm painting in the Spring with Saxons, Normans and Vikings.  

This project was a good reminder that one can never paint too many Gauls.  I do miss the days of playing ancients with our disbanded ancients group.  One day!

The Goodbye Gauls

I've painted and played 3 Gallic armies in the last 4 years. They were the first army I ran in our local Field of Glory group and they were an exceedingly poor choice for these rules. Average, undrilled and outclassed by nearly everyone in their era, my Gauls were like Milk-Bones in a dog pound. Everyone wanted to play my Gauls and why not?  I lost over and over again.  When the beat-downs became too painful, I sold the army off to a good fellow in Australia.

Within a year, I painted Gauls for Impetus and that was a great change-up.  They were fun to play under Impetus and the extra "impetus" dice in impact gave them a fair shot every time out. Unfortunately, Impetus didn't catch on with our club so I sold these off as well.

The FoG v2 update made Gauls slightly less rubbish and that was enough incentive for me to paint them once again, this time sans pants. At the time, I was getting army lists and tips from a father and son FoG tournament team and I'd hoped to leverage their knowledge into success on the battlefield. I also read the rules repeatedly and kept a folder with ideas for running my Gauls.  I had some success initially but then my opponents started neutralizing my large units of heavy foot with loads of terrain. In our 2014 campaign, I managed a single win and it was a lucky one at that. Updated rules + new Gauls  =  the same sorry results. Once again, off to market!

My FoG customers all passed on the Gauls when I posted them for sale, confirming how poorly they're thought of.  Oh, the shame of being unwanted.  Luckily, I found a buyer who wanted this army and a lot more. Mustering off the table are 32 bases of medium foot, 16 bases of light horse and archers to buff out the Gallic army. They'll face off with a large West Wind Roman army I'll be painting in January. The Gauls will run under a tabletop adaptation of Command and Colors Ancients, meaning they have a fighting chance!

To close out the third and final chapter of my Book of Gauls, here are pics from their sole victory this summer. A heavy foot army has slim chances against a shooty, mounted foe. Here, I managed to steal a victory when my Gallic cavalry decisively beat armored Steppe cavalry in impact and melee too. The Steppe cavalry wing broke and ran after their General died in combat. Meanwhile, my Galatian foot spent the game slogging across the table and soaking up arrows.

Reading about the Gauls, planning a Gallic army and and painting them up was great fun. Playing them in FoG is painful so I won't miss that a bit. Goodbye Gauls and good luck on the West Coast. Before stepping out in the California sun, do put on some sunscreen, or pants!

Everything's coming up Galatian

Back at it with 15mm.  I've managed to get in some Field of Glory with my Galatians and they've performed well above expectations.  After a loss against the Romans, they broke a Spartan army after a grueling, see-saw struggle and crushed Klay's Pontic army, pike and all. Mind you, it's only the 2nd time I've beat Klay so that alone was cause for celebration.  They also beat a Thrasian army this weekend as well.  Following the military maxim of "reinforce your successes," I've been buffing out my Galatians so I'll have more options when I run them.

Cavalry.  The Galatians and Gauls can each run cavalry-heavy armies. With this batch, I've doubled my cavalry from 6 to 12 bases .

Javelinmen.  The Galatians don't get many skirmishers so I need to make these 8 bases count.  

Soldurii.  Soldurii only appear in the Gallic list and among the Gauls, these fellows are tops. They represent troops sworn to die for their chief in battle. They are elite, armored  heavy foot.  That's as good as it gets in FoG.  Soldurii are the Hammer of the Gods in a Gallic army. Use your hammer wisely!

Thracian Bowmen.  The very worst thing about the Old Glory15 website is a lack of pictures.  I wanted Paionian javelinmen so I clicked on and ordered javelinmen (with no picture).  I got Thracian bowmen instead. Gauls can field bow so I painted these up and won't look back. Dammit, I accidentally looked back and now I'm angry all over again!  How hard is it to post pictures of the products you sell on the web? 

My last bit of Galatian reporting is that "The Dying Gaul" is going to appear in Washington DC at the National Gallery of Art through March 16.  This is a big deal as the statue has not left its home in almost 200 years.  The Wall Street Journal posted an excellent article on the statue including these two delicious tidbits:

• Experts think his hair was a foot longer before being cropped in the 17th Century. 
• The original was painted.

To top off my 15mm painting run, I've got a workmanlike Union army for Longstreet to post up. Longstreet popped up quickly and I decided to throw in with a pending campaign.  I had 2 weeks to turn a pile of mediocre lead  into a slightly less mediocre army.  I finished just in time for our test run but  that's a story for another day.  After Longstreet, it'll be a steady diet of 28mm warbands for SAGA. 

Commanders, camp & the whole Gallic army

At the finish line, I realized I didn't have any naked Gallic commanders so I put in an order for Xyston Gaesati.  The Xyston figs are a touch bigger than the Old Glorys but they seem to mix well enough. I love painting Xyston and considered doing this army with their figs, but .75 a figure is spendy for a large 15mm army.  If I were to paint Gauls again, I'd use the Blue Moon line.

Now, about the fellows with clothes.  Other than Lady Godiva, horseback riding and nudity don't mix well. It's also possible that the fellows with pants suffer from a condition known as "never-nude."  Lastly, the historical accounts of Galatians fighting naked says "all but the tribal leaders generally fought naked." There you have the truth of it.  Even in 250BC, management preached from the "Do as I say, not as I do" gospel. Some things haven't changed in 2,000 years!

The Gallic camp is composed of an Essex cart, Old Glory civilians, a Splintered Light dog and a Xyston Gaul.  It was a full-on sweep of my shrinking ancients pile.  

I can't wait to bring the Gauls down to The Source for a game.  I don't expect to win but I do hope there'll be a good amount of walk-up traffic and comments.  When I'm losing badly, those visits can be the best part of a game. To put it another way, my friend Klay once said, "Monty loses a lot but his armies always look great running away!"    

Saturday is the local ReCon in Coon Rapids.  I plan on going early and staying late for a full day of gaming. Last time I went, a fellow introduced himself by saying, "Aren't you the guy who keeps the Twin Cities Gamer blog?"  I almost fell over from surprise to meet someone reading my blog AND recognizing me from my avatar. If you're a local reader and you're going to be at ReCon, look for me at the Saga tables. And game on!  

128 Gauls streak across the finish line!

With a bit of fortitude, I managed to push an additional 32 bases of heavy foot warriors across the finish line for my Gallic army. Multicolored pants and shirts didn't hold me back but the 2-tone shields with 2 - 4 squiggles each were quite trying. It was more work than pleasure to finish this bunch.  As Vercingetorix is my witness, this is the last time I paint Gauls in 15mm!

While I can run these fellows as any Gallic tribe in Field of Glory, they're especially suited to be Galatians. I'll let Philip Matyszak explain why from his great book, Mithridates the Great:

“It appears that the Galatians still fought in the traditional Gallic style. Though skilled metalworkers, all but the tribal leaders generally fought naked.  The Gauls made excellent shock troops, as it took experienced opponents to stand firm against headlong charge by hundreds of large sword wielding warriors who were nothing but spiky line hairstyles and ferocious expressions. The bad news was that the Galatians had only a rudimentary grasp of military discipline and tended to regard setbacks as an invitation to go home.”

The bonus in running them as Galatians in Field of Glory is that they're all rated as superior heavy foot. This plus their impact bonus I'll have a fighting chance IF I can win on impact.  That's really all I'm looking for in a game. I'm a sucker for the "Lost Causes" of history.  As I told my friend Mark last week, when I run Gauls, it is indeed a lost cause.

Here's all 48 bases of heavy foot ranked up. I kept the palette a bit tight by repeating color combos. I think it achieved an irregular look without being hard on the eyes. Front or back, they provide an interesting view! While they were a trial to paint, I'm happy with the look of them all massed up.

Once I finish the Gallic camp and 4 command stands, the Gallic/Galatian army is done! And then, finally, back to Saga.

Barbarians at my gates!

And I'm not talking about the graduation party we're hosting today for my son!  Here's a quick post up of Gallic & Spanish units off the painting table.  All are Old Glory 15mm and painted for my Field of Glory armies.

Gallic Cavalry:  Since I have 12 bases of chariots painted up, 6 bases of cavalry will do for my Gallic army.  The Greek historian Strabo said of the Gauls, “They are better as cavalry than as infantry; and the best cavalry-force the Romans have comes from these people.”

Gallic Slingers:  8 bases of slingers to screen the Gauls as they go in.

Spanish Large Shield Cavalry:  These are replacements  for Spanish cavalry I sold off with my Carthaginian army months ago.  I have got to find an opportunity to get my Iberian army back on the table!

In his account of the Battle of Cannae, Livy mentions how rare it was for cavalry in the ancient world to meet head on:  "Soon the Gallic and Spanish horse on the Carthaginian left were engaged with the Roman right.  Lack of space made it an unusual cavalry encounter: the antagonists were compelled to charge head-on, front to front; there was no room for outflanking maneuvers, as the river on one side and the massed infantry on the other pinned them in, leaving them no option but to go straight ahead.  The horses soon found themselves brought to a halt, jammed close together in the inadequate space, and the riders set about dragging their opponents from the saddle, turning the contest more or less into an infantry battle.  It was fierce while it lasted, but that was not for long; the Romans were forced to yield and hurriedly withdrew."

Here's hoping the food line at Grant's graduation party today doesn't resemble this ancient mashup! 

Gallic Chariots on Parade

I suspect the Gauls were not so different from us. Then and now, people want to be entertained. Chariots massed up and on the move would've been high entertainment in an age without TV and internet.  Perhaps the Gauls pulled their chariots out of storage for nonmilitary events.   Gallic chariots driven up and down Main Street in front of a cheering crowd might have been the original May Day parade.

I highly recommend Splintered Light Miniatures chariots, shaggy ponies and all. Great figures and great service over at Splintered Light. To tie these better into my Naked Gallic army, I filed away the pants' line on the drivers and painted them au naturel. With the upper body shirtless and the lower half mostly hidden from view, this trick worked well enough!

The original Pimp My Ride.  

In Field of Glory, Light chariots are a must have tool for the Gallic toolbox. They don't get missile fire but they do get 2 dice per front base in melee, which is a bonus over most other unit types.  If you're going to run Gauls, make sure to add light chariots to your list. Then whoop and holler when you send them crashing into your opponent's line.  And remember that as a Gaul, pants are optional!

Gallic May Day parades often ended badly.