Method Painting

You're probably familiar with the term "method acting." In case you are not, method acting is a technique used by actors to immerse themselves in a character so deeply that they'll sometimes continue to portray them even when offstage or off-camera.  I've been utilizing "method painting" lately while painting my Romans.  In my version, I immerse myself in the era and army which I'm painting so deeply that I can forget what period I'm inhabiting! Method painting is the first step to creating the Perfect Gaming Trifecta:

Step 1.  Immerse yourself in the era and army.
Step 2.  Paint the army.
Step 3.  Bring it all home by fielding the army on a tabletop!

The great thing about method painting Romans is the enormous amount of material available to immerse yourself in. I'm going to give a Top 3 recommendation for my favorite sources of inspiration for painting Romans this month.  If you sample any of these, don't be surprised if you get sucked in and discover a Roman army project has appearred on your plate. The list please!

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast, Shows 34-39 "Death Throes of the Roman Republic."  Dan's 5 shows give you a thrilling 13 hour ride through the end times of the Roman Republic. I was so smitten with this excellent series that I've become a subscriber to Carlin's podcasts. He is off the charts good and I'm working my way through all of his podcasts.  I like to listen to them while I paint and I'll listen two or three times through just to make sure that I catch everything. Did I mention that his current shows are free?

Greece and Rome at War by Peter Connolly:  This is a superbly illustrated study of a tactics, soldiers, equipment and campaigns of both the Greek and Roman armies. Connolly is an excellent illustrator and his art is an inspiration for any hobbyist or historian.   This book serves as an excellent reference source and inspiration.  As a painter, you can never have too many reference books and this one earns an A.

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland: This book is a riveting narrative of the final years of the Roman Republic. It is full of larger-than-life characters like Marius, Caesar, Pompey, Mark Anthony, and the Poison King, Mithridates, just to name a few.   To give you just a small taste of what's in store,  here is a quote directly from the book:

"The mines that Rome had annexed from Carthage more than a century previously had been handed over to the publicani, who proceeded to exploit them with their customary gusto. A single network of tunnels might spread for more than hundred square miles, and provide upwards of 40,000 slaves with a living death. Over the pockmarked landscape there would invariably hang a pall of smog, belched out of the smelting furnaces through giant chimneys, and so heavy with chemicals that it burned the naked skin and turned it white. Birds would die if they flew through the fumes. As Roman power spread, the gas clouds were never far behind."

Wow!  So there you have it.  3 recommendations that'll put you knee-deep in the Roman era.  I confess that I just discovered a downside to method painting.   Today, I went down to the kitchen in my purple trimmed toga expecting a breakfast fit for a Caesar.  Instead, it seems I interrupted my wife and two children conspiring against me in whispered tones. I think they've read "Rubicon" too and now they know how Caesar meets his end.  I've only got until March 15th to figure out which of them is Brutus!

The Black Army takes the field

Today saw my Later Hungarian army on the tabletop for the very first time.  Brandt promised to bring down an army to "help" me field test my army and he did not disappoint.  

My Later Hungarian Army:
Hungarian Nobles (Knights) x 2
Szeklers x 3

Serbian Hussars x2

Hungarian Light Horse Archers x2

Clipeati & Armati x 2
Handgunners x 2
Foot Archers x1
Troop commanders x 4


Brandt's Mamluk Egyptian army:
Mamluks x2
Halqa x3
Sultans own mamluks x2:  Armored Elite drilled bow swordsmen!
Turkoman x2 
Bedouin  x 1
Field commander x1, Troop commanders x 2

His list was a rude awakening for me because it was all mounted with mostly armored, superior, drilled, bow, swordsman and four units of Lancers!  Unit for unit, his cavalry generally outclassed mine except for my Knights.  I had a lot of foot troops and I realized my Defensive Spearmen were going to have trouble getting into a game with mounted troops.Brandt's quality army versus Monty's quantity. As they say in Canada, who will win out, eh?

The first twist of the game was that of the 10 pieces of terrain, 8 ended up on Brandt's side. Since I lost initiative and had the first move, I decided to try to jam Brandt's army as moved up and out the terrain on his half of the board. There was a vineyard in the middle of the table which counts as difficult terrain and it basically cut the battlefield in two. I stacked my Knights on the right side of the battlefield and planned to conduct a delaying action on the left side against Brandt's best troops, The Sultan's Own Mamluks.   

I paired each Hungarian light horse with Serbian hussars and sent them on double moves to delay on the far left and right flanks. The downside to this strategy was that my Hussars took a great deal of bow fire and each ended up disrupted, neutralizing them.  The upside was that they did slow the Egyptians out of the gates and made a nuisance of themselves.

On my right flank, my Knights made good progress, although one battle group almost got sucked into a trap due to its impetuousness and a charge without orders.  One more inch of pursuit and they would have been in trouble from the start.  As luck would have it, they ended up just short of offering a flank to the Halqua and their lances. My second unit of Knights got extremely lucky and was able to catch an evading unit of Halqua from behind.  In short order, the Halqua were broken from the field.  The saving grace for the Egyptians was that the pursuit phase put my Knights far away from the critical action on my right flank.

In what would turn out to be the critical match up of the game, 2 units of Halqua charged a single Knight unit.  Against all odds, this matchup would grind on for 4 or 5 turns. Brandt's dicing was insane at times, with him rolling a 12, a 12, and 11 for morale checks in 3 consecutive turns.  Whichever side broke first would open up a hole which the other side could exploit and win the day.  

On my left, the 2 units of Sultan's Own Mamluks each got in a charge against Szelker Cavalry.  I knew I had to hold these guys up if I wanted to have a chance so I threw my commanders into the front lines in each of the melees.  In one  turn, Brandt killed 2 of my 4 commanders!  Ahhh!  Fortuna was starting to frown on me.  How could I make her smile instead?  The game teetered on a knife's edge!  Could my Szelkers hold long enough for my Knights to win on the right? Things were so desperate that I did the unthinkable and threw my King into the front lines to rally the weary Knights.  Brandt Kingslayer salivated at the chance to collect the head of Matthias Corvinus.

Finally, my superior numbers kicked in. I was able to sneak foot archers through a vineyard and up into the Egyptian camp for a quick 2 points. I threw a unit of Szeklers into the all-important scrum with my Knights and King, giving me extra to dice for melee. And I was able to bring my 2nd unit of Knights in with a rear charge on the enemy, putting Brandt over the break point as I myself went fragmented. Game goes to the Black Army!  And the King lived!  Long live the King!

This was a close run thing.  I was mentally exhausted at the end of this 5 1/2 hour marathon match. Medieval match-ups tend to be quicker than ancient games in Field of Glory but this was the exception!  Plus, I have to say that Brandt is one of the toughest match-ups in our club and proof is that this is was the very first time I've beaten him.  Great game, fascinating match-ups and both Brandt and I plan to tweak our lists just a bit.

Lastly, let the record to show that the Mountain Dew vending machine was broke today and I was unable to sustain myself with the sweet nectar of the gods as is normally my practice when I get tired. In the alternate, I tried a can of Red Bull and wow, does that taste bad!  Plans for a Red Bull sponsorship for my Hungarian army in Field of Glory tournaments are definitely off!   

Mid Republican Romans-Impetus style

After my first game of Impetus, I decided to use my Xyston Mid Republican Romans (Christmas present!) to create my first Impetus army.  Despite the obvious hazards of embarking on a solo project like this, I had good reasons to do so.  First, I really wanted to try the modelling and diorama aspect of Impetus, with each unit set on a single large base with less figures.  Second, Impetus has intriguing rules for Mid Republican Romans.  Hastati and Principes get pilum prior to melee as long as they're not disordered and Hastati and Principes from the same legion can swap places (Line Relief) in some circumstances.  Also, the Roman versus Gaul match-up looks excellent with the Gauls having a chance to win.  I have a huge Gallic army that is sitting and gathering dust so Romans will give them a chance to get back on the tabletop. Did I mention that Impetus is fun?  Oh, yea, that too!

So, how did it turn out?  I'll let you be the judge with a spoiler pic of the finished product and then we'll work backwards...kind of like a movie where the end is played out in the first minutes of the film!

The first step of MRR project was to decide how many figures to put on a 80mm x 40mm base to represent the Hastati and Principes units.  The authors' suggest that Heavy Infantry should be depicted in close ranks.  Other than that, the number of figures is left up to the player.  I started with a minimalist option.

I posted this picture at The Miniatures Pages and asked Impetus players for their input. Could 6 figures represent a unit of Hastati?  Nope, it was unanimously voted down.  The consensus was that 9-10 figures looked about right for heavy infantry.  It was also suggested that I get away from putting every figure in a neat and perfect line to make the unit look more alive and vibrant.  Check.    

Having cracked the code on basing, I moved on to painting. Like many hobbyists, I sometimes get compulsive, even obsessive, about painting. Once I pitched in, I went after it with a vengeance.  In 8 days, I painted, based and flocked 5 units of Hastati and 5 of Principes.  For the folks keeping track at home, that's 100 figures total. I've never pulled so many hours of painting in such a short window of time.  The thing is, once I started, I just HAD to know how the finished product would look and the only way to satisfy my curiosity/obsession was to push to the finish as quickly as possible.  I'm very pleased with how these turned out!  

The front rank units are Hastati in red and white tunics.  The second line is Principes in chainmail.  I put commanders and standards on only two of the units, both Principes, because in Impetus, the commander can be with a unit and the visual representation tells your opponent where your commander is.

Before I wrap up, I want to make a few comments about Xyston Miniatures for anyone who is thinking of painting up an army of their figures.  Much of life is about managing expectations and fair or not, my expectations were sky high for these figures as I'd read Xyston has some of the best sculpts in 15mm. My enthusiasm was initially dampened when I had to use a pin drill to drill out the hands on 100 figures to glue a spear or pilum.  Then I glued on 100 shields.  There was a quite a bit of flash on the figures but after two nights of cleaning flash, drilling and gluing, the fun began.  These are excellent figures with great detail and that made painting them a joy. Prep work aside, I plan to buy more Xyston armies and  I highly recommend their 50mm wire spears.  They're a very nice upgrade over the wire spears I was using.  I also really love all of the extras they sell such as casualty figures, extra shields, swords and even dogs.  Up next, 5 units of Velites.

Last but not least, I had a package today all the way from Italy.  Mailing was 17 Euros and at that price, I suspect the Impetus rules and supplement came over on their own container ship!