Cricket, WAB and eBay

A couple of non-gaming posts coming up, mainly because gaming and painting time is getting pretty squeezed by all the packing for moving home.

One of the year's big time thiefs arrived a few days ago, namely the Indian Premier League.  Now I know that I've instantly turned off a load of people reading by mentioning cricket, but the IPL is one of the highlights on my sport (watching) calender.

In my humble opinion, the IPL is almost the perfect TV sport.  Lots of action (and its not all batting, despite what many people say) and tension, exactly what you want.  The coverage also makes a refreshing change from other sports, in particular the commentators remotely interview players and umpires whilst they are still playing, and the video replay/analysis is usually excellent.

I've just finished watching my adoptive team, Kings Eleven Punjab, put a terrible Pune Warriors side to the sword, but its only another hour until the next match.  The Kings XI are a bit of a Dads Army team (the captain Adam Gilchrist is 41) and it always makes me feel better seeing people older than me still playing professional sport (dreading the day I see the first footballer younger than me retire!)

Being a cricket fan in Scotland, cricket is presented to me in a very England-centric way (not a complaint mind you,) but the IPL gives a glimpse of the wider world of cricket; aussies, kiwis, saffers and, er, windiers(?) are all present.  In fact, the only cricket nations you won't see much of are England (who haven't adjusted to the IPL yet) and Pakistan (politics.)  There are another five weeks of games, at least one per day for the next four weeks.  If you've a free afternoon or evening, you could do a lot worse than sit through a match.

Not played WAB in a couple years, don't remember the Romans being this crap!

Not that gaming has completely ground to halt.  I sat in on a game of WAB at the club last week, Syracuse against Republican Rome.  Despite an impressive number of legionnaires on the table, in proper manipular formation too, they didn't make much of an impact once they eventually got into melee with the Phalanx.  Great fun and a real blast from the past, although, I'd forgotten most of the rules; I was chided early on in the game for pre-measuring!  Thanks to Sholto and Carlos for providing the armies and Adam for whining a lot.

Carlos' Syracusian army (left) was built using two boxes of Immortal Hoplites
and one box of Wargames Factory Numidians - Bargain.

Lastly, the last of my eBay auctions go live tonight and tomorrow.  Mainly Warhammer 40K stuff (seriously, why do I still have this, haven't played in years,) but some rulebooks and some bits and pieces too.

Hoplites WIP 2

I managed to get a couple hours painting on the Hoplites today.  Finished the skin tones and most of the armour/tunics.

I'm really out of practice on 28mm figures and keep letting the paint run into areas I want shaded.  Although I'll probably go over the recesses with some inks, I really don't want to get too hung up on every little detail.  Another job finished today was cleaning up the 24 shields for these guys and it took *$&$%"&£*$ ages!!! Next time this is the first job I'm doing!

 
Lastly, and keeping with the Greeks, check out this weekends Pearls Before Swine comic. Nothing like a good pun and some cartoon violence to brighten your day!

Hoplites - Work In Progress

Not a bad days work, 24 Warlord Games Hoplites assembled and undercoated.  I'd forgotten how long it takes to get plastic minis assembled!  Overall, the figures go together easily enough, some of the spear arms don't line up flat against the body, but that wasn't really a big deal.  I've left off the shield arms to make painting easier.

Sixteen of the Hoplites have linen linothorax, while the other eight are unarmoured.  The best (and most elaborately) armoured Hoplites would be at the head of the phalanx with the less well armed would be at the rear.  This mix should give me two ranks of armoured and one rank of unarmoured Hoplites, although I may mix them around when it comes to basing them.

The skin has been basecoated and washed and the tunics have been basecoated in a couple different colours.  One thing I've noticed about using the wet palette is that it makes doing multiple thin coats of paint a doddle!

Most of the helmets come with separate plumes and this does give you a nice variety to use, but these helmets all have a groove cut in them for this.  As I wanted some of the helmets to be plain bronze, I filled in some of the gaps before painting.  It's just a little detail, but I think it looks appropriate 

Hoplite Headache Solved!

Last week I wrote about the confusion I was thrown into by a simple box of Warlord Games plastic Hoplites.

The big issue, apart from the confusing box and sprue names, was the box only containing thirty two shields to go with forty figures.  Fortunately, Dave at Warlord Games replied to me saying that this box should have also contained eight metal shields in addition to all the plastic sprues.

After a bit of poking around the internet (some of it wargaming related,)  I've also been able to confirm that all three of Warlord Hoplite boxes (Ancient, Classical and Spartan) have the same main sprue, with the specific themed components coming on a smaller custom sprue.

So now I've cleared that up, I think I'll order a box of Spartan Hoplites and a pack of metal Hoplites. With that mix of figures, I should be able to make two units of Hoplites in linen armour, one large unit of levy Hoplites in tunics and one unit of Spartans in bronze armour.

The only thing left to do is start painting. . . .

Hoplite Headache

   

I mentioned earlier that I've been a bit fed up lately.  So in an effort to pick myself up, I did what any self respecting wargamer does in that situation. . . I bought some more toy soldiers!

Thanks to Maelstrom Games 25% discount offer, I picked up a box of Warlord/Immortal 28mm Hoplites.  Never painted any hoplites (at any scale) so these should be something fresh to get my teeth into.

I had, however, to choose between the Ancient and Classical box.  Officially, the difference seems to be that the Ancient box is more suitable for the Persian Wars, whilst the Classical box more for the Peloponnesian and Alxandrian Wars.  Looking on a few forums blurred this distinction however, with most people happy to use both boxes - but the odd vocal individuals raising their voices about using Pilos helms at Thermapolae or bronze cuirass at Ipsus.

So I opted for the ancient box, seeing as I'm more interested in the Persian Wars than in any other Hoplite period, and waited for the box to arrive.

Arrive the box duly did, but I received a Classical box.  Never mind I thought, they were bought as a distraction, so I'll just carry on regardless.  So I started sorting through the sprues.

Eight figures with eight shields

Four large sprues have components for eight Hoplites each, with multiple helmets and spear options - confusingly, the sprues are marked as "Ancient Greek Hoplites".  Four smaller sprues, marked "Classical Greek Hoplites" have two torsos each with multiple helmet options.  I assume that the three Hoplite kits available from Warlord Games all have the same big sprue and four small sprues with the specific components (Ancient, Classical or Spartan.)

Two figures with no shields, what am I missing?

What I can't work out, however, is how you make forty Hoplites out of one box - there are only thirty two left arms in the whole box!  It's not like there are any musician or skirmisher parts you can use, so have I missed a really obvious solution to this or is there a missing sprue or two?  Confusing.  I've emailed Warlord Games, so I'll wait to see what they say.

Lastly, to finish on a positive note, what a great set of plastics though.  Great sculpting, excellent casting quality and lots of options make this a superb kit.