Micro Armor Eastern Front at Relentless Dragon

David had set up a scenario for Thursday night at the Relentless Dragon.  The scenario is one where a brave an skilled Soviet LT turned the tables on a German ambush.  I believe the rules were GHQs micro armor

Sadly Nick here broke the scenario by sting back in his corner, I tried to maneuver but well...

I used the little cover available to get close...

But eventually you just can't hide

Nick got a hit on my leader and the scenario ends in a German victory.  We all agreed the scenario was  good one but that it needed a little more tweaking.

So we reset this time numbers have been equalized the German's also had to devend the village so they couldn't use the "edge of the world" to protect their flanks

Three panthers protecting the village

I was able to use the woods to keep my ooponent form getting clear shots.

Once I moved a unit in the open I had some trouble.

I lost two T-34s but got one around behind the Germans.

The responded with forces moved down from the hi;; 

I had some good luck shooting getting 3 panthers in one turn.. shooting from behind really worked well.  Micro Armor is a lot of fun I still prefer Flames of War but their is a lot of fun to be had with small tanks.

Yankee Heroes for Longstreet

Two hero markers for Longstreet.  On the left is one form Old Glory the one the right is form Blue Moon's Iron Brigade set.  The Roman Eagle isn't really common to Union Regiments but it should work as a Hero marker.

Dark Age Light Horsemen

These are more Footsore Miniatures.  My intention is to use them as the light cavalry.

Again I really like these figures though I have one complaint, they sell them in packs of 3 and that's minor inconvenience when you only need 4... oh well I have two extra.

First up is one of my favorite figures, Ariana consulted on the color mix and at one point said "make him ginger like my brother!" So I did and I am very happy with how his hair and beard look (he does look a bit like Ariana's brother too)

I liked the wooden shield and I drilled a hole in left hand to give him an extra spear/javelin

I was very pleased with how a the paid cloak came out, painting this sort of pattern is both harder and easier than it is in 15mm.

I mad my second rider blond and gave him a rich blue tunic.  This sort of rich dark blue was probably expensive to make in the old days. Any man who can afford weapons and a horse can probably aford a good tunic.  I like how the red and orange shield came out.

This guy gave me one headache his spear kept popping out and having to be re-glued.  I would have prefer they make solid hands even if I had to drill through them to let them hold spears.

My final unarmored horseman this fellow is certainly heading for a fight wearing a helm and carrying the spear ready to throw.  The other two could be hunting as easily as riding into battle.

The shield look a bit like the Swedish flag which was not what I had in mind but its a nice look and a splash of color in this fellows drab out fit.

My first armored cavalryman.  I plan to use him as Bern Thorkellson from the Last Light of the Sun novel. A theme I am using a Gods and Morals Army.

The bare armor and horse hair steemer on his helmet says hero to me.

This is one of my more colorful shields even if the pattern is very simple. I put a little gold on his helmet and on the clasp of his cloak.

Again I did a paid cloak, I am not sure how common these were in the Dark Ages but I like the look. Since Dux uses 4 man cavalry units this fellow will ride with the unarmored men as the "leader" of the cavalry group.

The alternative leader for the group is this fellow (or if I get 3 more unarmored men the leader of the second group).  The blue cloak and red and white shield make a nice color mix.

The gray horse will also make this fellow stand out and I gave him an orange and red striped tunic (not sure how common an orange dye would be  but I will go with it)

This spear also gave me some issues but I hope I have them fixed its the one real flaw in the figure design a closed hand (even if it didn't come drilled out and I have to do them myself) rather than the open hand they are cast with.

Footsore size comparison

One of my friends asked how the Footsore figures compared to other manufactures so I got out the camera.

 Left to right War Games Factory, Artisan, Footsore and Gripping Beast

 Artisan the figure is on a slightly larger base but they are of similar size and proportion.

Hear is the Footsore figure next to an old Ral Partha figure a true 25mm its a touch shorter and his legs and arms are a bit smaller. 

Here next to the War Games Factory figure on the same base they are a good match but Factory figure is much lower quality (hey its plastic) 

My Gripping Beast Saga Bard.  The Bard is on a slightly thicker base but even so the bard seems a little taller. 

Finally next to the Griping Beast archer again they are on the same base and both are the same size though the Footsore figure might be a bit bigger in the body. 

(I have added the examples below to the original posting since its proven quite popular) 

 Old Glory, the now familar Foorsore figure, Games Workshops Lord of the Rings, DGS Freeblades figure and a Reapers Bones miniature. I tried to equalize the bases here.

 The Old Glory figure is a touch shorter and a little stouter but other than being form about 500 years later I might even try mixing these together.

 Here we have Bors next to Boromier again its a very close match the main difference being in the face but... well real faces are often very different from one person to another.

 Here we have the Footsore miniature next to Dead Generals Society and is one their Freeblades figures these are 32mm figures and he is appropriately large. Even so he seems almost in scale if he is being used to represent a big tall man.  Again his costume isn't right but if they could work in fantasy setting.

Last of all we have a Reaper "Bones" figure I couldn't quite equalize the bases but even so the Bones figure is a little bigger though this particular figure (an elf that I use to represent a female human, a witch/priestess) is smaller in the arms, and hands (and body, though the cloak doesn't make it obvious).  

Dark Age Reinforcements Footsore Minatures

Here we have the first of my purchase from Huzzah. They are all Footsore Miniatures from the Romano Britain lines.  From left to right you have the figures Tristan, Galahad, Gawain and Bors as they are named by Footsore.  I of course have used my own designations as I plan to use these, for now, with my Dark Age Saxon force and eventually I will use them as the leadership for my own Romano-Briton force.

 

The first figure is the Tristan in the Footsore line but I painted him as my Briton Noble for the Dux Campaign Vortimer. Sadly Vortimer was killed in the last battle before I could finish painting him.

So he'll get renamed Eaglmund and be changes race from Briton to Saxon.  The shield might have an old roman eagle or Saxon/Viking Raven

I did the cloak in a plaid dark brown, golden brown and light blue to give a splash of color.

The Galahad figure I don't have a game name for him yet and I am not sure if the Dragon "banner" is standard with the miniature.  Here is a true throw back to Rome with his horse crest helm..

and reddish/purple cloak complete with wolf skin lining.

I tried to give the dragon wind sock a sense of scales colors are red yellow with some bright orange bits put in.

The tunic I did in light gray with sky blue striping for a bit of color

This is the Bors figure from Footsore in my game he will be my new senior noble Wulfgeat.  I really like the facial features of this figure with his broad noes.

I tried a new design on the shield.  I was going for something like a Celtic Knot, it doesn't have that complexity but it works.

Going into battle with out a helm seems odd but when have such great hair... I really like his armor, Mail, a scale "breast plate" that I did in Bronze, I also like the leather bracer on the his right arm and the leather at the shoulder.

Last of all we have Gawain (no specific name in my campaign).  I real love this pose its a bit flamboyant but its also very similar to a couple of historic fencing stances. The idea is to keep the body be hind the shield and the sword back so your opponent will have hard time keeping track of were it is.

I wanted to suggest a cross with this shield so he will look proper with a Romano-Briton Army.  I like addition of the leather covering the mail and the no nonsense helmet.  It say to me that this fellow is a real warrior how ever flamboyant is personality.

The pose suggested this fellow need a special out fit so while I gave the tunic a plain silver gray base cover then added strips/zig-zags in blue and yellow brown.  This was the first time I have painted Footsore figures and I am quite impressed with the quality of the sculpts and the personality they show.