Thursday, October 14, 2021

Babylon 16

A funny thing happened on the path to fielding these light infantry skirmishers.

In preparation for playtesting Ian's Rein-Bow Warriors, his rules require more skirmishing troops than does either Impetvs or To the Strongest!.  Ian said, "I need more Hittite skirmishers."  I snapped into action and pulled javelinmen from The Lead Pile and set to work.  It was only after I was part way through with painting these sixteen figures that I realized the figures on the workbench were not Hittites at all.  The figures were actually Babylonians.  Sigh.  I pressed on and finished them.

Off the painting desk today are four stands of four Babylonian javelinmen.  These sixteen figures are Newline Designs.  Next time, I will double check the figures before slapping on the paint.  More Biblicals are in the painting queue but work returns to the Sumerian project.

On the gaming front, a second remote battle of Brawner's Farm is on today's agenda.  This time, I face off against Peter (Grid-based wargaming but not always).  Peter will step into the role of Stonewall Jackson while I try to lead the Iron Brigade to victory.  With a time zone difference of 20 hours between us, I am playing on Thursday while Peter is playing on Friday.  Should be fun.

42 comments:

  1. Another nice unit….at least you got figures out which were in the same era….what if you had pulled out Napoleonics ?

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    1. Yes, similar figures and close to the correct era. I will use them for Hittites and assorted other skirmishers, no doubt. Napoleonics? Those I can still distinguish from Biblicals!

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  2. I know very little about this era but apart from Greeks and Egyptians, wouldnt most of these Middle Eastern empires - Assyrian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Philistine etc - have looked quite similar to each other Jon....?

    I expect more knowledgeable Bloogers will shortly put me right on this misconception!

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    1. They would have looked similar, for sure. Looking in on a remote gaming table from four thousand mile away, I can pull off a lot sleight of hand.

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  3. Well, they look good! Biblical armies and interwar pulp share the confusion factor as genres. Never really sure, ya' know.

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  4. Great looking ancient middle eastern troops, Hittite or Babylonian!
    Best Iain

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  5. Well, they were in the queue anyway, right?

    I look forward to the next report on Brawner's.

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    1. In theory, the entire contents of The Lead Pile is queue!

      Brawner up later today.

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  6. I think with this period it is both nice and helpful to have units that look different enough to instantly give their character, training, role etc. These Babylonians do that with those lovely shields and head band.

    From following your posts, I think you could have a very interesting parade with ……… your lead pile :-)

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    1. Thanks, Norm! An accounting of The Lead Pile would be embarrassing.

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  7. They may be 'wrong', but they look good, which is the most important thing. As to exactly how any 'unit' looked some 2,000 years ago, whose to know for sure? You know they are skirmishers, so that's the most important thing once they are on the table.

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  8. A very nice looking group of skirmishers

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  9. However it happened Jonathan
    You have still got yourself another lovely Biblical unit…

    All the best. Aly

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  10. Babylonian/ Hittite- tomato / tomaato. (Those are spelled phonetically, jokes are hard write out!).

    😀

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  11. If you hadn't said, I would never have known. Lovely work Jonathan. I would love to see an account of your lead pile on a post one day, if only to make myself feel better.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence! You might feel better but at what cost? I cannot bring myself to a Day of Reckoning, yet. Perhaps one day?

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  12. A splendid looking unit Jonathan, Hittites, Elamites, Sumerians, Assyrians, Egyptians its still Biblical to me.

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  13. Very nice looking unit Jonathan. I like that ironstone red of the shields.

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    1. Thank you, Mark! The "Barn Red" is a perfectly dulled color for this period.

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  14. Well, except for the chariots, everything in the Biblical era is pretty much all Greek to me. So to the discerning (if uneducated) eye, they look splendid.

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    1. I appreciate your encouragement to forge ahead with my misplaced Babylonians. On the plus, my Babylonian army got a little boost!

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  15. Great looking spearmen, Jonathan. They really have an intimidating look from the front.

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    1. Thanks! They do look like baddies from the front with their large shields.

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  16. Another unit moves from the Lead pile to the "completed" column of the ledger. Nothing wrong and a lot right about that!

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  17. Lovely Jonathan. The shields look particularly impressive; large even. Is that a trick of the light, the lovely colour scheme that you have used or the conical shape?
    You were gonna paint them anyway, yeah?!
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks, James! The result is due to conical shape and lighting. Certainly not anything I did!

      Yes, I was planning to paint them anyway; just not so soon.

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  18. Very cool Jonathan! Recently grabbed some of their 1/72 Babylonians standing, but to be made into unarmoured pikemen for the Hellenistic period.

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    1. Thank you, Tony! I look forward to seeing your Babylonians as Greeks soon.

      I keep waiting for another Newline sale to restock the storeroom.

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    2. tends to do one in November for Christmas so hopefully he'll do the same this year *fingers crossed*

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    3. I hope so! Still, I have enough of his figures to keep me busy for many months.

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  19. One Biblical skirmished looks as close to another from here. Colour me ignoramus!

    Regardless, they look very smart and will be good additions To your Babylonian force.

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