Greeks and Persians.

During this lock-down I have attempted to paint units, terrain etc that would be of use to my existing armies. The thinking was simply that Im not sure I needed a new set of armies to buy and paint up given that I have a lot of units that have not be used in battle.

 Normally I rely on John to suddenly produce a new set of rules he has bought and then have a small game with them that may lead to me buying and painting up some units to play, using the new rules. If I dont like them I will simply not bother although to be honest that rarely happens. 

 However during this imprisonment John has been play-testing the Sword and Spear wargame rule book and because of his recommendation I treated myself to a set. I know they have been around a while now, but its a longtime since I possessed Ancient armies and didnt expect to be owning some new armies anytime soon.The rules look very playable.

 So guess what, here are my first new ancient units. When I was a young wargamer I owned a large Achaemenid Persian army using Garrison and Hinchliffe figures inspired by the massive ancient Persian army of Derek Sharmen the then owner of the Wargamers Den in Durham City. 

 Derek was a bit of an expert on Persians and his army was a host of obscure units ranging from Indians to Ethiopians painted black and white and armed with little else. Naturally I will need an opponent for the Persians hence the Greek hoplites. These are my first batch so please excuse the shields. The transfers are a bugger to put on the shields.The figures are from the great Victrix range and are lovely figures.

The long awaited Wargames Atlantic Persians were released a week or so ago and I got my pre- ordered box from Caliver. They are surprisingly good quality figures and well sculpted. The plastic is different from Victrix, Perry and Warlord but paint up well. Normally I splash the paint straight onto the plastic figures but with the Atlantic ones I would recommend that they get a wash with some soap and water. Im hoping that with the relaxation that Victrix will be releasing their Persian figures very soon. 

 Naturally I couldnt just concentrate on the ancient period and dug a couple of renaissance figures out of my store. I simply fancied having another cleric to attach to my renaissance armies. To be honest I wanted another beautiful standard on show using Pete's Flag range.

 I hope to make real progress with the ancient project so I can get back to painting my newly cast Garrison English Civil War figures very kindly created by the old companies owner, Rob Young. They are quality figures.