Wednesday 15 February 2017

From Micheal D -- 28 Burgundian Pike (145 Points)

This time last year I was finishing up a Burgundian Ordinance army for use in Warhammer Ancient Battles. (Yes, I still play WAB!) I had been inspired for years by the work over at Je Lay Emprins and the excellent Perry minis for the range. So, I painted up some pike, longbow, knights and retainers and took them off to Cold Wars where they performed up to their historical reputation as perhaps the most overpaid/under performing army in European history. This past November I brought pretty much same army to Fall In where they fared equally badly. As anybody who runs a pike army on the tabletop will tell you, when it comes to tweaking your list the answer is always "Needs More Pike" So I cut back on the fancy Gendarmes, got rid of back rank longbow men, and put the points into more bigger blocks of pointed sticks. So here are the new recruits.





So there are a total of 28 figures here for 140 points. 

ByronM: Thanks for the awesome entry Micheal, and yes I agree, "I feel the need, the need for more Pike" <said in a Christopher Walken voice>.  No matter how they perform on the table, these figs look good on the table and that is far more important!  There is nothing worse than wargaming with unpainted or poorly painted figures, you miss at least 80% of the joy of the game! These are lovely looking pikemen, and I like the guys done in quarters, they look great.  

As for WAB, it's a great little system, certainly better than were GW has been going lately!  It has all the best parts of Warhammer, and drops all the worst bits (crazy insane heroes that are better than whole units, and magic that destroys whole units for 1/10th the units cost), I call that pure win, and is the reason there are large groups that still play it.

I would have liked to hear a bit about the banners though, where are they from and could we get a side shot? Be nice to see them.  I may have even been able to grant a few bonus points, but I have no idea if you made them or bought them, or anything, which is a shame, as they look good from what I can see...

EDITED: Home made banners (and nice ones at that) give you a bonus 5 points.

20 comments:

  1. Byron, on the banners, I'll post some pics in the next couple of days or so, but I made them. I'm a big believer that basing and banners adds about 20% to a paint job and I try to get all the advantages I can. The "secret" is using Ink Jet Cotton printer paper. It's essentially thin cloth backed with paper that can be run through a home printer. They sell it office supply stores and on Amazon. The brand I like is Jacquard.

    I get images of banners from the internet, scale and otherwise tweak them in MS Paint, and then print them on the Inkjet Fabric sheets. They hold glue really well and can be molded much better than paper can. Glad you like them.

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    1. See, that is kind of what I thought, with the cloth look that I could see they looked home made! Very nice work and I will be looking for some of that paper as it look really nice and while out of scale for the weave, the weave actually in my eyes make it look better for being able to see it, I really like them.

      And, knowing they are home made and look great from what I can see... 5 bonus points!

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    2. Thanks. Like a lot of things of this sort, the cloth effect (providing by the actual cloth, no less) is actually better from 3 feet than close up. In this case, my printer was low on ink, but the faded effect also works, IMO. One thing I haven't tried yet is painting over the design once it's printed, I think that might look good.

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    3. I've played around with prinatble cotton, as well as iron ons. Your results are very nice.

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  2. Nice looking pike block, this Perry set is a joy to work with I think, lovely banners as well.
    Best Iain

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  3. Well done Michael. I love these Perry plastics and you've done a great job on them, nice work on the livery. The great thing about fielding Burgundians is that there is no where but up from the historical record!

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  4. Peter's absolutely right (how did that happen?), you can't help but do better with this army.

    Great work Michael! These figures look terrific and I really like your banner (but you need more!) I love these Perry plastics for many reasons, the least of which is that the pikes are straight, resilient and already cast on the arms. So easy to build up a nice block of the blokes.

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    1. Hey I've been known to be right on occaission!

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  5. These turned out really well! Hopefully more pike will help your army :)

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  6. Really nice work. Great stuff. cheers

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  7. Nice group of big men with big sticks! ;)
    I really dig those banners you did for them, there is Sooo much in good plastic kits out there, you did these up far better than I've seen on the store pages too!

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  8. Nice work, I like the basing as well.

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  9. Really nice stuff, more pike is always better!

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  10. Great work - pike blocks always look menacing and impressive!

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  11. Great stuff, another really interesting period.

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  12. Next project ..... more pike but SWISS ??

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