"Cos Breaking Up Is So Very Hard To Do".

 

 

(a)  Breaking Up the Ottomans - Part 4

An entertaining book about the Mongols.  Typical pattern - Break Out - Expand - Conquer - Fight Among Themselves - Fragmentation - Demise.

Now that I have separated out the Ottomans and Turkomans I have the 'rump' to deal with.  Islamic Persians may be a possibility but I would need to purchase models to fill out certain gaps.  

Many Lh and a few Cv are, as yet, unidentified. Looking not too closely at the illustrations in the above book I considered raising a Mongol army.  So what are the requirements?

Cumulative list for 3.44, 4.35, 4.47  & 4.52:

1 x Cv(g);  4 x Cv (Mongol);  1 x Cv (Georgian);
3 x Cv (Uighur, Khitan, Khwarizmian or Chinese);
9 x Lh (Mongol); 4 x Lh (Tartars); 3 x Lh (Cuman);
3 x Lh (Uighur, Kipchak or Turkoman);
1 x 3Bw (Armen); 2 x 3Bw (Bessemeni); 1 x 3Bw Tajik);
1 x 4Xb (Italian); 1 x 3Wb (Siberians); 1 x 7Hd (Tajik);
1 x Art (stone-thrower)

That's a lot of figures [92 + Art]
                30 Cv, 36 Lh, 12 Bw, 4 Xb, 3 Wb, 7 Hd, 1 Art

Interestingly, list 3.44 is exclusively Mongol whereas 4.47 only has 1 x 3Cv.  Perhaps I should give the Golden Horde a miss!

(b)  Breaking Up the Aztecs - Summary

4.19a - Tarascan or Toltec-Chichimec - a/w painting
4.19c - Spanish & Tlaxcalan - ready for use
4.53 - Mixtec, Zapotec or West Mexican - a/w painting
4.63 - Aztecs - a/w shield painting
4.71b - Coastal Peruvians (Tallanes) - a/w painting

Most of the remainder has been swapped.  So that's the end of my old (6th Ed) killer army.  Ho hum - life goes on!

Time to get back on the horse....

 

You know how it is! As a wargaming butterfly I have so many projects on the go all at the same time.  Seems like I need to take stock of the many half-finished jobs (or at least some of them).

Turkomans - I still need to identify many of the 'strays' - take pics - post on Fanaticus and DBA Facebook group.

Americans - sort out the last of them - decide which armies are going to be ignored - Toltec for a start (11 x 4Bd & 1 x Ps).  Paint up the 'additions'.  Dispose of the remainder.

Indians (Asian sub-continent) - haven't really looked at these yet.  Another victim of DBMM army list changes.  Maybe park it for a while (or indefinitely)!

Russians - still on my paint table.  Get on with painting them - check on the shortages - purchase extras where necessary.

HotT - opponent for my 15mm Garden Gnomes.  Put some more paint on the 20mm figures.

Of course I should rationalise all my stocks.  Sell off anything I haven't used for a while.  Throw out all those 'parked' projects (e.g. WW1 East Africa).  Then again I am a wargaming butterfly.
 
Just seen a 3D printed ziggurat on Tony Aguilar's channel...Oh! Pretty!  Pretty!

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DBA v3.0 - Gt.Houghton - Sat 19th June 2021

1)  2.20a Ptolemaic v 1.56a Early Kyrenaean Greek        4:2 loss
2)  2.60  Caledonian v 2.53  Ancient British                    4:1 win
3)  2.48  Mithridatic v 2.37  Parthian                                6:3 loss           

I was 3:2 up at one stage
 

4)  2.64a  Western Roman v 2.65b Tervingi                     4: 0 loss          

My troops were useless - movement was erratic - very poor shooting and fighting dice.  Clearly they hadn't wanted to turn up at all.

A reversal of last week's results

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DBM - Wrenthorpe - Mon 21st June 2021 - COLD

2.32  Later Carthaginians v 2.20 Ptolemaic        Draw        

Loss of all expendables (elephants) but we were starting to turn Al's flank.

We 'pulled stumps' when Chris left.  Not getting a conclusive result is probably my biggest gripe with DBM.

DBx - Bits & Pieces

 

 

(a)  Just a few oddments leaving the painting table:

Left & Centre: Polynesian & Melanesian - 3 x (3Ax/3Wb/3Bd) & 1 x 7Hd.   

Right: Incas - 2 x 5Hd (hopefully these will fare better than my Pk(F)) - originally Naismith Aztecs.

(b)  Stuck in the queue:

Aztecs - all figures need their shields done
Tarascans - slow re-paint job
Russians - a bit of colour on them

Spanish - 1 element - mixed arquebusiers & crossbowmen (to replace the 4 x arq)
              - 1 element - Conquistador knights (to replace the mainland Sp general).
              - 2 elements - Ginetes/Jinetes (Minifigs)
So after all the transfers have taken place I will have 1/3 of a Spanish army (Conquistador period) available.

Mound Builder American - bare metal
Hawai'ian pikes - bare metal

French crossbow - 23 figures part-painted - seem to be dark ages rather than medieval


DBA v3.0 @ Gt Houghton (Sat 12th) - 4 games:

1.6b  Midianite 1500-312 bc v 1.27  Early Hebrew                                  4:3 loss
         I didn't get the terrain - camels are not much use in woods
1.17b  Later Hyksos 1590-1537 bc v 1.7a Early Libyan 3000-1251 bc    4:3 win
1.25a  Middle Assyrian v 1.34a  Later Hebrew                                         4:3 win
1.29b  Later Philistine 1099-600 bc v 1.45  Neo-Assyrian Imperial         4:3 win
           How I scraped a win on this one I will never know.

Every game a 4:3 result - don't think that has ever happened before!
 

DBM @ Wrenthorpe (Mon 14th)

North Welsh v English
Two enemy commands broken for no loss - decisive victory.

Whilst waiting for the host to finish his dinner a couple of new residents came to the garden gate and asked which of us was the owner.  In almost total unison we said "none of us".  Just shows how long we have been wargaming together.

 

Breaking Up The Aztecs - Pt.3

 After painting up the 'Spanish & Tlaxcalan' DBA army I researched other possible morphs:

    4.19a - Tarascan or Toltec-Chicimec - additions required:  20 Bw; 6 shield-bearers
    That's a lot of bow but I have them part-painted.
    Plenty of info - shields and uniforms.

    4.53 - Mixtec, Zapotec or West Mexican - additions required:
    1 x Ax(g); 9 x Ax (suit wearers); 6 x Ax; 6 x sling
    Again I have these in stock
    Less info but still adequate.

   4.71 - Coastal Peruvian - no additions required
    A nice bonus army
Very little available information on the Tallanes - this will have to be the subject of a future 'In Search Of' posting.

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Even after all this work there will still be a 'rump' to be disposed of.  I did consider using the 'Irregular Warfare' rules for my 15mm but I already have plenty of figures in 20mm for that.  Clearly I need to find someone who is familiar with Ebay!

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DBA games - Sat 5th June 2021 (Gt. Houghton)

1)       4.19c Spanish & Tlaxcalan v 4.63 Aztec                                    4:0 win
          A good result for their first outing - the Kn did nothing but observe
 

2)      4.37a Malay v 3.23a    Khmer                                                     4:1 loss

3)      4.40 Siamese v 3.9b  Burmese                                                    4:3 win
 

4)      4.81 Inca Imperial v 4.63  Aztec                                                4:2 loss
         Another Inca failure - on paper it should be a good(ish) army.
         I am now painting up 2 x 5Hd to replace the 2 x 3Pk.

5)      2.1  Republican Indian v 2.15  Alexandrian Imperial                4:3 win
         I thought the game was over when I had lost 3 elements (to 1 kill).  
         The dice gods decided otherwise.

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Sources:

(1)  "Armies of the Sixteenth Century - 2"  Aztecs & Incas
    Foundry Books 1998 - Ian Heath

(2)  FoG - Blood & Gold - the Americas at War - ISBN 978-1-84603-691-0

(3)  FoG - Cities of Gold - Africa and the Americas - ISBN 978-1-84908-235-8

(4)  DBA v3.0 (2014) - by Phil Barker & Sue Laflin-Barker

(5)  DBMM Army Lists (Revised Edition - 2016) - books 3 & 4 - by Phil Barker

(6)  DBR Army Lists (1995) - book 1 - by Phil Barker

(7)  Stevens Balagan (website) - multiple articles on uniforms and compositions of 'American' armies e.g.     https://balagan.info/painting-guide-for-an-aztec-army

(8)  Weapons & Warfare - another website with multiple articles e.g.
     https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2019/04/23/aztecs/

(9)  Meshwesh - army lists for 'Triumph' ancient rules e.g.
     http://meshwesh.wgcwar.com/thematicCategory/5fb1b720e1af060017701946/explore

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More Americans

 

 

Looking through the blue box I discovered a hotch-potch of figures - old Minifigs, Gladiator and...I don't know what else.  So what to extract from this mess?  Turns out that the Tlaxcalans wore similar outfits to the Aztecs with the exception that there were fewer 'suit-wearers'.  The 'common man' also had a plain shield.  Sounded good to me!  Unfortunately, DBA list 4.19c is for a Spanish & Tlaxcalan army.  Nil Desperandum - dig out those Conquistadores that I bought at Phalanx years ago.  The bases need flocking but otherwise that's another DBA force marked off the spreadsheet.

There were some Naismith Incas in the box but not enough.  I ordered the missing troops from Lurkio.  With the new recruits I could put together list 4. 81 Inca Imperial.  Easy enough to paint if you simplify the designs on the uncu and shields.  Two down and many more to go.   

En passant I finished an element of armoured snails for my HotT Garden Gnome army.  Normally I field these as knights but I suppose behemoths would be just as appropriate!  Now if only I could find an opponent for them.

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So what's left?  The yellow box contains my WRG 6th Ed Aztec army - all figures are Tin Soldier.  These do not mix well with others (the eagle-eyed could spot a psiloi element amongst the Tlaxcalans).  They have suffered from years of handling and so needed more work than I, at first, thought. Brushes were engaged but work stalled when I realised just how many shield patterns and suit-wearers there were to do.

The non-TS 'rump' has some very simple, but small' (probably Naismith) warriors with spears or blades plus an assortment of 'chiefs' (many manufacturers). Cannot see what I am going to make of them!  What to do with the bulk of the TS Aztecs as well!