Thursday, May 30, 2013

28mm Ancients Project - Oscans

Off the painting table this week are 24 BTD Oscans.  Make that 23 BTD Oscans and one Aventine officer.  These figures are based on standard 60mm x 30mm stands with three figures per stand and can form two Impetus units or one or two FoG allied Italian units.  Now, I have three such infantry units in the project.   

Although Impetus is drawing me towards it like a siren, I maintained restraint and based them (for now) in the old way.  If based in the Impetus "big-block" way,  one of the allures of Impetus is apparent. With 60mm base depths, javelin protrusions from the two ranks no longer prevent two bases from forming up front-to-back.  Until I wrestled with the front to back javelin alignment problem, my Impetus plan was to use 120mm x 60mm sabots on which to temporarily mount these stands.  This spear jostling  pushes me even more strongly into thoughts of rebasing. 





Field of Glory was a system that members of the group highly anticipated before its release.  FoG is still played regularly by some in Spokane although I haven't sampled the new, v2.0 rules.  While the production values are high and I enjoy re-reading the books, the game itself never produced much inspiration.  The books, themselves, are useful simply for the army lists and purchases can be justified for those lists alone.  Add in the hardbound and full color and the books are a nice addition to a gamer's library.  I found the game to be tedious and much more work than I was willing to suffer.  Mechanisms seemed too cumbersome and I left many a game feeling battered by both opponent and text.  I should note that I occasionally still get in a game of FoG but most of my ancients gaming has been spent with Commands and Colors.   

10 comments:

  1. These look great, Jonathan! White shield can be tricky but you've nailed it with the thin coat of white.

    I do love the diorama style basing of Impetus. I love how fewer figures represent a unit so you can spend more time painting each. I also love it's quicker, decisive results. It never caught fire here. :-(

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    1. Thanks, Monty!

      As for Impetus, I have yet to try the game, proper and no one I know locally plays it. Until my 28mm collection reaches critical mass, my thought is to use my 6mm collection and give the rules a whirl.

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  2. Very nice looking units, the shields are impressive, great use of the white(s)...
    Phil.

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    1. Thank you, Phil! Next up onto the painting table will be Aventine heavy infantry.

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  3. La-la-la, the siren song of Impetus is calling . . .

    FMB

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    1. I am typically a late adopter but, yes, I hear the tune too!

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  4. Very nice looking figures, nice basing too!

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    1. Thanks, Ray! Being somewhat of a minimalist, my bases are not quite as decorated as some but still aesthetic.

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