Men In Boxes

December ushered in a whirlwind of work and I haven't been able to game nor paint for a week. Arcane Legions made an appearance at my local gaming shop and I'm considering picking up some army packs first. Personally, I'm not planning on trying out the rules. Warmaster and Battlesystem seems to suit our needs quite well already and most of our minis are being based using these rules. On the other hand, I may buy these figures to bulk up my 1/72 plastics, especially with the magical/mythical troops. I've gone thru the Arcane Legions website and would like to get my hands on these models, especially the centaurs, guardian lions and bear cataphracts. Most of the cavalry and infantry though look uninspired and with only 1 pose per figure type, it gives more of a boardgame feel rather than a miniature wargame.

I've set aside the plastics for a while and have resumed work on the metal mageknight figures for my woodland themed army, save for the golems. These guys will be recruited to another themed fantasy army, this time for a steam-powered Atlantis. The figures have been cleaned and assembled and are now ready for priming and painting. The Firbolg and the Tree Men The Iron Golems

(click the pictures above for bigger versions) The Manipular system was adopted at around 315 BC, during the Second Samnite War. The rugged terrain of Samnium where the war was fought highlighted the lack of manoeuvrability inherent in the phalanx formation which the Romans had inherited from the Etruscans. After suffering a series of defeats culminating in the surrender of an entire legion without resistance at Caudine Forks the Romans abandoned the phalanx altogether, adopting the more flexible Manipular system. For the next two hundred years until the Marian reforms of 107 BC,  the Roman army was organized into three lines: the hastati, the principes, and the triarii. These were divided by experience and fighting ability, with the youngest soldiers in the hastati making the first engagement. Where resistance was strong this rank would dissolve back through the Roman line and allow the more experienced soldiers in the principes to fight. In turn, the principes coul...

( you can click the pictures above for  bigger versions) Principes (Singular: Princeps) were spearmen, and later swordsmen, in the armies of the early Roman Republic. They were men in the prime of their lives who were fairly wealthy, and could afford decent equipment. They were the heavier infantry of the legion who carried large shields and wore good quality armour. Their usual position was the second battle line. They fought in quincunx formation, supported by light troops.  Principes carried swords, or gladii, instead of spears. Each princeps also carried 2 pila, heavy javelins that bent on impact to prevent them being removed from the victim or thrown back Triarii (Singular: Triarius) were one of the early Roman military Manipular legions of the early Roman Republic (509 BC – 107 BC). They were the oldest and among the wealthiest men in the army, and could afford good quality equipment. They wore heavy metal armour and carried large shields, their usual positi...

( You can click the pictures above for bigger versions) Hastati (singular: Hastatus) were a class of infantry in the armies of the early Roman Republic who originally fought as spearmen, and later as swordsmen. They were originally some of the poorest men in the legion, and could afford only modest equipment — light armor and a large shield, in their service as the lighter infantry of the legion. Later, the hastati contained the younger men rather than just the poorer, though most men of their age were relatively poor. Their usual position was the first battle line. They fought in a quincunx formation, supported by light troops. Pitched battles would begin with the velites gathered at the front. The light troops would fling javelins to cover the advance of the hastati. The hastati were leather-armoured and wore a brass cuirass and brass helmet adorned with three feathers, carried an iron-clad wooden shield, 120 cm (4 ft) tall and a convex rectangle in shape and wielded swo...

 ( You can click the pictures above for bigger versions) Velites were light infantry and skirmishers who were armed with a number of light javelins, or hastae velitares, to fling at the enemy, and also carried short thrusting swords, or gladii for use in melee. They rarely wore armour, as they were the youngest and poorest soldiers in the legion and could not afford much equipment. They initially used hastae velitares , light javelins with tips designed to bend on impact to prevent it being thrown back, similar to the heavier pila of other legionaries. They fought in a very loose, staggered formation like most irregular troops. They did carry small wooden shields for protection though, and wore a headdress made from wolf skin to allow officers to differentiate between them and other heavier legionaries. Velites did not form their own units; a number of them were attached to each maniple of hastati, principes and triarii. They were typically used as a screening forc...

The Polybian legions of the early Roman republic was a manipular army whose structure was based partially upon social class and partially upon age and military experience. The army is based on units called maniples (Latin manipulus singular, manipuli plural, from manus, "the hand"). Maniples were units of 120 men each drawn from a single infantry class. The maniples were small enough to permit tactical movement of individual infantry units on the battlefield within the framework of the greater army. The maniples were typically deployed into three discrete lines (Latin: triplex acies) based on the three heavy infantry types of hastati, principes and triarii.  My Polybian legion is currently composed of various HäT Industrie 1/72 plastic scale models. The company is a designer & manufacturer of 1/72 and 1/32 scale soft plastic and 28mm hard plastic military miniatures designed with the plastic toy figure collector, wargamer or hobbyist in mind. I've worked around th...

A couple of Elven Riders made from old Mageknight rubber/vinyl figures. I encountered a binfull of these figures along with their metal counterparts at one of my local hobby shops. The rubber/vinyl/plastic ( I really don't know which) figures averaged less than a dollar each while the metal figures went for around $1 each. Seems like kids have been unloading these models since the games lost company support and tournaments. Even the hobby shops seem to be unloading a lot of products from the defunct Wizkids at bargain prices. I wonder when GW would do the same? Wishful thinking... (Click the pictures for bigger versions) The originals held swords but I substituted bows for some. In addition, the elves rode unicorns -- yeah, unicorns, I know that sounds really lame -- and since everyone knows that no self-respecting male member of the wild Sindar would ever ride unicorns and be mocked for not having had pie yet, I chopped off the horns. It was the right thing to do. ...

Here's another toy I plan to repurpose and rebase -- two mammoths I found at the animal toys section of my local department store. I picked up two of these megafauna and up close, they look pretty good with a very decent paint job. It seems I'll be saving some time painting and could pour the hobby time instead on developing a suitable howdah. The pictures show the toy with a 28mm GW LOTR Elvish spearman as well as two 1/72 Ancient Spanish from Hat Industrie. These guys could stand for Mumaks in my 1/72 Middle Earth project!

The WoW Bog elemental joins my sentient woodland army! The army is currently composed of a mix of metal and plastic figures from Mageknight, Games Workshop and Gormiti. I picked up three of the bog elementals during a toycon for PHP 50.00 ( around a dollar) each and just textured the bases. The current paint job seemed o.k. and I decided to leave well enough alone. The WoW minis are scaled at 40mm I believe and would normally not scale well with most of my models which range from 25mm to largish 30mm. This being a monster though makes any scale suitable. You can click the pictures for bigger versions. The next job is to get the leaders speed painted and based as well as to draw up an army list for use with 2nd Ed Ad&d Battlesystem. Feel free to leave helpful comments, thanks!

  WoW's bog elemental gets recruited in my People of the Woods army. A recent trip to a local toy convention yielded 3 of these going for around a dollar each. They'll be joining my wood spirits and elementals in my themed army soon.

Here's another dragon I plan to use for 28mm gaming. It's made with a different rubber from the previous two dragons I featured and its card does not show any branding save for a stylized title " Dragon Fantasy" and just the place of manufacture -- "China." The rubber is softer and more jelly-like though not too bad that it wont stand on its legs. Its the biggest among the three and the longest. Detail is good and the painting seems better with some shading work evident. I labeled this dragon red because most of its neck, torso and legs have that dominant hue but the back has a long shiny black stripe that blends to the red which then blends to orange then yellow on the sides. The underside of the wings are in beige and some of the horn/claw details are in an off-white. Over-all, the model is a very nice  addition to my wargaming collection of behemoths. “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him....