Slitherine

Hi all,

I have a short list of armies that wouldn't take too long to build and paint and wonder how usable they are outside their period
and wonder what other choices would fit those few criteria (not looking for a competitive army but not a road kill either):
. mainly foot units
. minimum/no clothes to paint
. drill units
. not completely one dimensional
. not completely crap outside their period
. Found in one of the following books: Rise of Rome, Immortal Fire, Legions Triumphant, Swifter than Eagles, The lost Scrolls(from the lists before Dark Age)

I like Libyans but they are not drill( big number of figs is ok as long as i just have to paint the skin), Akkadian is another one, Classical Indians((Mauryas),
Old or Middle Kingdom Egyptian (don't know how usable they are outside their period).
Basically, foot units, naked with a shield or none, drill, and not completely useless outside their period. What would you chose from the above list or
what would you add to the list?

I don't think there are any naked drilled armies. Getting a uniform, or at least not fighting naked, would be my first request if I were to join up again. Then food, pay, shovel, gun.

Although Classical Indian is nearly naked.

How about Christian Nubian?

Peter C

I say the Indians, I am actually starting my own at present and find them quite quick to paint. Got 2 units 12 stands 25mm painted up and ready for dull coat in about 2 nights, and that was only because I get picky about the skin tone looking right on them. I find that's the hardest part. Other than that pretty much half naked, white skirt thingy little equipment pretty fast to paint units. Now buying them is another challenge which will take a lot longer than getting them painted will.

Spartans?

Ny next brand new army is slated for Summerian. I think there is a decent tourney list in there but have yet to try this out.

The up side is it will be very quick to paint as very little clothing and many of the core troops are medium foot so only three figs needed.

Anthony

Christian Nubian are undrilled but you sure can have plenty of bowmen sup , and might require some heavy cav to balance the
army i think.
Spartans, well i already have plenty of hoplites and am looking for something different.
Sumerians and Classical Indians still look like good contenders, maybe Lost Scrolls could
provide some additional clients?

spring wrote:Christian Nubian are undrilled but you sure can have plenty of bowmen sup , and might require some heavy cav to balance the
army i think.
Spartans, well i already have plenty of hoplites and am looking for something different.
Sumerians and Classical Indians still look like good contenders, maybe Lost Scrolls could
provide some additional clients?

Check Paul Brandon's list from the IWF, it was a nice army, with protected Cv IIRC

How about early Mycenean/Minoan?

The spearmen are mostly naked or have brief kilt, plus a helmet. The front ranks have the big tower shield, but they are easy to do.

When I helped a mate paint his, we primed them all white, and then airbrushed two coats of the GW Flesh Wash onto them (three coats on the Libyans to make them a bit different)

After that, painting the helmets, kilts and swords on baldrics went really quickly, and we glued the shields on those that needed them after we based the figures. This made it easier to get at the bases to paint them, without risking getting paint on the shields.

The chariots took a bit more effort, but we still put the whole army together pretty quickly - something forced on us by Chariot Miniatures forgetting to post out the order until four weeks before the competition we were taking them to, I seem to recall!

johno

Check Paul Brandon's list from the IWF, it was a nice army, with protected Cv IIRC

He used a much better version at Britcon - if you ask nicely he might post it! Or if Tim played him then it might be on the madaxeman website.

I'll second classical Indian. I'd also suggest MRR: tunics are no harder to paint than skin. Unless you could come up with a naked army that meets your foot+not terrible+ not more terrible out of period you'll have some clothes; waist down or all-body clothing makes little or no difference in the mass production painting process. "Dip" and stain painting can also speed up things quite a bit.

Now, if speed painting alone were the factor I'd say go for Early Lybians!

Would suggest chichimecs -- although it's a blood and gold army, it's totally naked chaps. Using a dip method you could literally spraypaint the models in a lighter shade of brown skintone, block on the quivers (deerskin, brown with some white spots), bow, dip, dullcoat, paint hair, start rolling dice. Perhaps Hammy can give advice on how to field it.