The Ultimate Historical Gaming Thread

[Lord-Marcus]

I wouldn't think so, from what I can see Persian dress didn't change that much from the Achaemenid to the Sassanids, it was more their ways of war and equipment that changed. I notice you're particularly unsure about the scale-mailed bodies - this can easily be solved by putting those to one side as more Immortals for your Ancient Persian army, and waiting for the Lorica Squamata WA Legionaries box to arrive from which to make your armoured Auxiliaries with Persian heads. You're already confident with the unarmoured and gambeson-clad bodies being suitable, so you're still getting your money's worth from that set.

Roughly confident. but you are right.

Lets see where we go with this.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

The Gripping Beast Cataphracts have arrived:

 

[Imrahil]

The Gripping Beast Cataphracts have arrived:

Very nice models, also a good paint job.
I love the completely armored horses.

How do these compare to MESBG Kataphracts in size?

Grrr, !mrahil

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

Very nice models, also a good paint job.
I love the completely armored horses.

How do these compare to MESBG Kataphracts in size?

Grrr, !mrahil

Hmm, good question...

*A bit of Google-Fu later*

Here's one of the Cataphract horses alongside a Wargames Factory Samurai Cavalryman, a Perry Wars of the Roses Knight and a Middle-Earth Morgul Knight:

The horse is pretty much the same size as a Morgul Knight steed, so should work fine as a mount for a GW Easterling.

 

[Tk'ya'pyk]

Hmm, good question...

*A bit of Google-Fu later*

Here's one of the Cataphract horses alongside a Wargames Factory Samurai Cavalryman, a Perry Wars of the Roses Knight and a Middle-Earth Morgul Knight:

The horse is pretty much the same size as a Morgul Knight steed, so should work fine as a mount for a GW Easterling.

Thank you for posting this. Size comparison pics like this are incredibly useful.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

A bit more intelligence on the Gripping Beast plastic releases coming next year:


Most interesting - they plan to continue their new Parthian theme with a set of Horse Archers to accompany the Cataphracts released recently, but before they do so they're planning three other sets to arrive before them!

The question is, then, will these also tie into the Parthian/Sassanid theme they've got going over this Autumn/Winter season, or will they be for a different faction, perhaps one from the same era? The Parthian Dynasty existed from around 200BC to 200AD before being replaced with the Sassanid Dynasty, so it looks like Gripping Beast have started a shift toward pre-Dark Ages Ancients with these new plastics. They certainly confirm that these other boxes will be a 'brand new block', so it looks like they are making some brand new moulds for something they haven't made before:


It'll be most interesting to see what else they have up their sleeves!

 

[Lord-Marcus]

The Aztec back banners set from atlantic digital works nicely.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

 

[Lord-Marcus]

My 9th age gift exchange present showed up.

Suffice to say the emperor has sent a representative magister militum, accompanied by a detachment of Comitatenses palatina and cataphractii to assist my Comitatenses legio.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

My 9th age gift exchange present showed up.

Suffice to say the emperor has sent a representative magister militum, accompanied by a detachment of Comitatenses palatina and cataphractii to assist my Comitatenses legio.

View attachment 125362

You lucky devil, someone must have been a big fan of your Late Roman project!

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

A bit more intelligence on the Gripping Beast plastic releases coming next year:
View attachment 124948

Most interesting - they plan to continue their new Parthian theme with a set of Horse Archers to accompany the Cataphracts released recently, but before they do so they're planning three other sets to arrive before them!

The question is, then, will these also tie into the Parthian/Sassanid theme they've got going over this Autumn/Winter season, or will they be for a different faction, perhaps one from the same era? The Parthian Dynasty existed from around 200BC to 200AD before being replaced with the Sassanid Dynasty, so it looks like Gripping Beast have started a shift toward pre-Dark Ages Ancients with these new plastics. They certainly confirm that these other boxes will be a 'brand new block', so it looks like they are making some brand new moulds for something they haven't made before:
View attachment 124949

It'll be most interesting to see what else they have up their sleeves!

After looking up the Gripping Beast Late Roman Cataphract sprue to discuss it with @Lord-Marcus in another thread, I found a Wargames Illustrated news article from 2019 talking about the release of the corresponding Cataphract cavalry made by the same company for the Goths:
https://www.wargamesillustrated.net/28mm-ostrogoth-heavy-cavalry-and-norman-foot/

Interestingly enough, as well as discussing said Goth Elite Cavalry, Gripping Beast at that time had been kind enough to leak Wargames Illustrated a test sprue for Norman Infantry:

Curiously these chaps were evidently pushed quietly into the background for a while, as Gripping Beast released the Late Roman Cataphracts in 2020, their Dark Age Irish in 2021 and the Dark Age Welsh, Picts and Parthian Cataphracts in 2022, all without a peep about these chaps.

Therefore, I'm wondering if the three sets they mention that should arrive in Feburary/March time this year, mentioned in my quoted post above, are going to be these delayed Norman Infantry, alongside Norman Knights and Norman Archers? I have a hearty respect for Gripping Beast for making Dark Ages their forte, and Normans are certainly a big Dark Ages faction they haven't yet attended to. Maybe they delayed these Norman Infantry until a time when they had come up with suitable Knights and Archers sets as well.

"But what about Conquest Games?", you say, "They make some fine Norman models, any Gripping Beast plastic Normans would be a waste of their time!"

Personally I would disagree, principally because the Conquest models seem to be of the 'Heroic 28mm' scale companies like Victrix (who also have started making Normans) have done, which is great if you like that scale for your historical models, but personally I prefer the 'True 28mm' scale of Gripping Beast and Warlord, as an additional way to separate these from my Warhammer collection, so it would be great if Gripping Beast made some to fill that niche. Not to mention that variety is the spice of life.

Thus I'll be very interested to see what the sprues for these Normans look like when they finally arrive. I would say don't worry if you think the weapons on the sprue I showed above look too much like something out of Wargames Factory's book, the fact that it was a test sprue and that these have been in development limbo for the past 3 years suggests Gripping Beast Towers must have decided to give them a rework. Certainly the weapons on all their other figures so far look suitably solid and not like toys, so I'd be very surprised if these upcoming Normans turned out to be very different in that respect.

I personally am mainly looking forward to seeing if they make a Norman Archers set that has a lot more poseability options than their existing Dark Ages Archers set, which is fine for mass battles where you'd want Archers to be raising their bows to fire as one, but not for skirmish where you'd want them to be more dynamic. Currently the Wargames Atlantic Goths are the candidates with biggest potential for making Helwyr and Saethwyr for my British/Welsh, but if my prediction turns out to be true and a set of Gripping Beast Norman Archers comes out with a suitable level of dynamism, then the latter might just end up being my choice.

 

[Lord-Marcus]

All I need is an accessory sprue and Wargames Atlantics goths can be Saxon Fyrd

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

All I need is an accessory sprue and Wargames Atlantics goths can be Saxon Fyrd

I would have thought they are fine as Saxon Fyrd as they are? Except perhaps with some larger shields, the one flaw with the WA Goths is that their shields are a bit puny.

 

[Lord-Marcus]

I would have thought they are fine as Saxon Fyrd as they are? Except perhaps with some larger shields, the one flaw with the WA Goths are that their shields are a bit puny.

Swap with the Irish.

I guess you could run them as Fyrd. Id prefer different helmet options though.

It's a very versatile kit

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

Swap with the Irish.

Good call, they've got Dark Ages shields of a bigger and more suitable size.

I guess you could run them as Fyrd. Id prefer different helmet options though.

Sounds like all you'd need are some Gripping Beast Saxon Thegn heads, which I'm sure you must have in quantities given I know you have at least one of that box.

 

[Lord-Marcus]

Just updated my blog. These guys may get some paint tonight.


Although I've just realized I primed them tan instead of black. Ah well, just another step to basecoat

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

Just updated my blog. These guys may get some paint tonight.


Although I've just realized I primed them tan instead of black. Ah well, just another step to basecoat

Interesting that you've put some of the riders on unbarded horses when you could have just got the Late Roman Heavy Cavalry box to have even more cavalry, unless you're painting them separate from their barded mounts and are using some WA horses as placeholders?

EDIT: I see you've answered that question for me in your Painting Blog:

Using some of the wargames Atlantic horses as priming stands for cavalry (plus an extra WoTR perry horse because it was nearby.)

 

[Lord-Marcus]

Interesting that you've put some of the riders on unbarded horses when you could have just got the Late Roman Heavy Cavalry box to have even more cavalry, unless you're painting them separate from their barded mounts and are using some WA horses as placeholders?

EDIT: I see you've answered that question for me in your Painting Blog:

Indeed.

 

[Tuchanka]

We're quite obviously a fantasy gaming forum with a healthy dose of sci-fi interest, but I have noticed a significant amount of historical gaming interest on the forum too, so I feel it deserves its own thread. @Killer Angel once again I'd be grateful if you'd do the honours of pinning this.

As with my Middle-Earth thread, this is the place to discuss anything historical, any period, any scale, any ruleset. Feel free to post painted minis and units, share army lists, discuss conversion opportunities, post house rules, suggest alternative history settings (always fun to speculate!) and report on news from the historical gaming community.

I'd love to hear what everyone's been playing in the historical community. I know @Warden is a big fan of Samurai and Test of Honour (as well as dabbling in the Caribbean warfare game Blood and Plunder), @Lord-Marcus has a frakload of Persians from his support for Wargames Atlantic, @ChapterAquila92 has been getting involved with some WWII stuff and @Gauntlet has been playing around with a fantastic 'Fantasy Ancients' setting, yet I also look forward to hearing what others have to say about their favourite historical periods.

I'm currently getting into SPQR and am considering using my vast collection of 1:72 plastics for Hail Caesar at some point. I'm also interested in playing a Dark Ages ruleset, and am currently working on my own fan expansion of SPQR for that as no modifications would be required to the main ruleset for it, just some additional army lists (I did look at SAGA but I really don't like the points system for it, '1 point for a mob of six blokes' just looks and sounds unnatural to me). Also I'm getting into English Civil War gaming with my dad who's a massive fan of it, through a mixture of The Kingdom is Ours and his own old ruleset written by one George Gush in the 80s (and apparently still popular as of 2016).

Woe to the Vanquished! - Brennus of the Senones, 387BC

Has warlord games come out with new rule book for hail ceasar?

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

Has warlord games come out with new rule book for hail ceasar?

Indeed they have:

I don't know the full specification of differences between the first and second editions, but according to reviews Warlord have definitely pushed the boat out with the illustrations and so on. It definitely looks a good read, and I deliberately missed out on getting the First Edition book because I knew the Second Edition was coming.