ByronM: Start of a New Era - Ancient Greece (80 Points)

Last year I decided that I wanted to do something for this challenge that would allow me to get a bunch of figures done fairly quickly and bring a new era to our wargame group.  The era I chose was one that has interested me for a long while, Ancient Greece.

As a kid I loved the Greek myths and Gods and thought they were amazing. By choosing Greeks as a force, I could just do Greeks as they constantly fought among themselves between the various city-states, or expand at another time to paint Persians and bring in another element.

To start the force I chose to pick up a few boxes of the Warlord Spartans and Greeks, as they are readily available and fairly inexpensive.  I have always liked Warlord plastics so had high expectations...

Well, those expectations meant nothing as Warlord has 3 different boxes of ancient Greeks, yet all of them have the same contents other than a few small character sprues and decals.  Worse, the poses are not varied at all, and have no thrusting arms only throwing arms or at rest arms. The sprues used by Warlord are old Immortal figures sprues and are not even really 28mm they are more like 25mm figures.  I have since ordered a few boxes of Victrix Greeks as they have proper thrusting arms and more varied poses, and will mix them into other units and try to keep the same height by leaving the Warlord figures on their bases and removing the Victrix from theirs.  I would strong recommend against anyone getting any of the Warlord Greeks.

I plan on using the Hail Caesar rule set, and while it recommends 40mm x 40mm bases for 4 figures, I decided on using 40mm x 60mm to allow for some extra ground work in front of the figures for both looks and protection of the spears.

Since I plan of painting at least 10 units of these over time, I wanted to keep the paint jobs very simple and quick so that I can get them done in a reasonable time.  Therefore these were painted by simply blocking in the colours, washing and then highlighting.  Super simple and basic table top level, as I don't know that you actually see much more than the shield from the front or some bronze and cloth from the back.  I will however spend more time on the command stands for the game as you will be able to see the figures there.

This first unit is 16 Spartans, of which probably 1/4 - 1/2 of my final force will be made up of.  I also plan on making heavy use of units from Athens and Thebes.

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I know you're not wild on the figures, but you've done a very nice job with these, Byron. The warm bronzes and vibrant reds are excellent. The slight variation in the weapon arm helps to add a bit of visual interest to the unit. I also like the proper dory spears with the reverse spike 'lizard killers' - all my old hoplites are just plain old brass wire. 

If you want to try something different, and want to break up the monotony of similar figures, you may want to try adding a few wounded figures in the ranks, or perhaps a water carrier skirting along the rear, or maybe a helot armed with extra spears or a spare hoplon shield to support the fighters. I might help save your sanity if you're planning on doing a load of these.

I look forward to seeing how you integrate the upcoming Victrix models with these ones from Warlord.