UPDATE - Henry Brewer-Gus Sailors Memorial Ancients Tournament 2021

Due to city of Birmingham Mask Mandate and projected limitations on capacity, this year's Brewer-Sailors Ancients Tournament is postponed.  The hope is to hold it in July.  Stay tuned for more information.

The Birmingham Bunnies (of Birmingham, AL) have announced the Henry Brewer-Gus Sailors Memorial Ancients Tournament will return in 2021 and will be an 800 point Field of Glory Open Tournament.  The plan is to hold the event in late April/early May.  Vince Solfronk will referee and is working on a venue.  Details will be posted as soon as things are finalized.

Cold Iron VI Final Results

 Cold Iron VI Average Joe is in the books.

With three players unable to return for Sunday, we decided to call it a day after 3 on Saturday.

1st Place - Gino Agnelly (he edged Joey by 3 points)

2nd - Joey Miller

3rd - Willard Moore

4th - Scott Allen

5th - Vince Solfronk

Referee - Christopher Anders

Each player still present at the end received a colorful pin I found on Ebay.

Gino took a Roman one, Joey took a Teutonic Knight one and Vince grabbed a harry barbarian one.

2021 Cold Iron Champ - Gino Agnelly

2nd Place - Joey Miller

5th Place - Vince Solfronk

Full round by round results are here.

Round 1 Pictures

Round 2 Pictures

Round 3 Pictures

No much in the way of action shots as I was playing as well as refereeing.

Cold Iron VI Field of Glory Average Joe Tournament Runners and Riders

Here are the Riders for this weekend's Cold Iron VI Field of Glory Average Joe Tournament (in alphabetical order):

Gino Agnelly

Scott Allen

Christopher Anders (Referee)

Joey Miller

Willard Moore

Vincent Solfronk

The Runners in order by date are as follows (I'll let you figure out who is riding what):

Early Successor

Early & Middle Republican Roman

Classical Indian

Dailami Dynasties

Anglo-Irish

Medieval Scandinavian

Successor Wars Supporting Material

 As a typical wargamer, I see gaming squirrels everywhere (usually spawned by a new book article I stumble across). which will lead me to travel down campaign tangents from time to time.  These will usually run their course when the inspirational material runs out.  One such campaign era that I revisit from time to time is the Wars of the Diadochi.  Most specifically the first 20 years after Alexander. I have a campaign called "To the Gates of Babylon" that I have worked on for close to 3 years now covering specifically that period.  Jeff Jonas is partly to blame with his Syrian Wars campaign.  Later than I like, but still provides a lot of inspiration and formed the basis of my campaign rules that still bear a semblance of what he used. 

Those of you you have followed my blog for a while will see the footprints of Jonas' work in my Broken Rays of the Sun Campaign.  Although it is set around 500 years after Alexander, the area is the same that Alexander marched across and his successors fought over.  With the Broken Rays of the Sun, I collected a reading list of supporting documents that helped me put the campaign together.   Realizing that I had amassed quite a plethora of material of the wars of Alexander and the first 20 years after him, I started putting together my Successor Wars Supporting Material Compendium.  Maybe some of you will find it useful.

Successor Wars Supporting Material 

Note:  This is a shared Google Doc for the purpose that I can go back and add more information as I gather it without having to reshare the link.  Anyone on the web, using this link can view the information.

Broken Rays of the Sun V2 is coming

 I have been working again on the Broken Rays of the Sun Campaign and V2 will be along in a month or so.  The map has been redone.  The original was a completely hand drawn affair and in retrospect include too much of the Arabian Peninsula and the Roman Empire when the lands of the Parthian Empire should have been the focus.  I also found some free icons on the web to replace the circles, pencil marks and coloring to make it look better.  I will let you decide.

Version 1 Map

Version 2 Map

As you can see, I also added a map key to the right hand side.  Hopefully, this will be something someone out there finds of interest.  Until next time, enjoy...

Parthian and Sassanid Combined Force

Having played out the Broken Rays of the Sun Test Campaign, I have given everyone glimpses of the figures used in the campaign but never all at once.  To rectify that, here is the gallery of all of the horde that are currently finished (painted, bases, flocked and sealed).  This army started as a Sassanid Persian and it was the first army I purposefully built for FOG.  Played well over 100 tournament games with it finishing 2nd in period at the International Team Tournament in 2009 at Lisbon.  Over the years I have added other pieces so that it can be fielded as a Parthian host as well.  I will add captions to let you know where I got the figures and who painted them.

The entire completed host on a 3' x 2' gaming mat.

Two shots of the Parthian leader stands.  All of these are OG15 figures that I painted.  I believe all of these came for PA01 Parthian command.

Parthian Cataphracts based 4 per stand.  All OG15s from and painted by your truly.  The flags I made myself.  These are a combination of figures from PA03, SA02, PL03 and ES03.

Another angle of the two BGs of Parthian cataphracts from the picture above as well as the dreaded Camelphracts in the right foreground.  The Camelphracts are Peter Pig Ancients Pack 72.  They also work as part of a Hatran ally for the Parthian and Early Sassanid list. I painted all of these figures.

The last two BGs of cataphracts in the army.  These are the first two cataphracts that I painted when I was running the army as Sassanid.  The flags are ones I made myself and, yes, they are oversized as I wanted an in your face look for them.  These are from ES03 from OG15s.

These three shots are mostly of the Parthian Horse Archers in the army although the Camelphracts and one of the Parthian Cataphracts made it into the foreground of the last picture.  The basing color of the two Cavalry Horse Archers are different than the light horse as I had to paint up more horse archers when V3 came out as 8 stands are now required.  These are all OG15s that I painted and are from pack LA10.  These are actually from the Later Achaemenid range but I liked the way these looked and stayed with them.  Not to mention I seem to have acquired about a hundred of the buggers.

Some of the Parthian support troops.  In the foreground are Greek City Militia mounted as medium foot.  The are OG15s.  I bought these as Greek Mercenary Thureophoroi from pack IGBG118 but they are in fact the Javelinmen from Thracian pack TH03. I think they look great.  I painted them myself.  In the background are two BGs of archers that will be described in the next picture.

Here we have two BGs of Hatran foot archers.  In V1 and V2, a Hatran ally was allowed for the Parthians that could have these.  I added the Hatran list to The Broken Rays of the Sun Campaign so I had to have these.  These are mostly the archers from FIB WE-PA09 Arab Skirmishers and the Arabs from OG15 SS20 Elymnaian Archers and Arab Archers.  There maybe a few other random figures in the mix as well.  I painted half of these and Thomas Demers of Mad Monkey Painting painted the rest.

These are Hatran Horse Archer cavalry from the Hatran ally.  I have 4 stands of Hatran light horse archers (FIB WE-PA08) and a mounted command stand (OG Parthians) waiting to be finished that will round out this ally command.  I painted these and they are all OG15s.  The riders are from pack SS21 Arab Camelry Riders and the horses are a mixture of OG15 horses I had laying around.

These two pictures are part of a Mountain Indian Ally command I have been working on as I could find suitable figures.  I wanted a more Afghani look for these so for the light horse I went with the OG MC08 Hippakantistai.  The command stand has one of the Hippakantistai and a left over figure from the LA02 pack that I had already replaced the javelin on.  I have several BGs of the Mountain Indian foot and some archers in the works but have yet to finish them.

Here we have a Saka ally for the Parthians.  Again, all often mounted are OG15s from the Skythian range. The Noble cavalry have all had their cast javelins replaced with lances.  The two wagons in the top right of the picture are two steppe wagons from FIB WE-SK06 Skythian 2-Horse Wagons.  There was a third but I broke it.  I have been working on a third camp base but it is no where near complete.  These work as FOG 300 camps or (if I have to play it) ADLG camps.  The two bases next to the wagons with camels are other FOG 300 camp bases for the Parthians.  They are mainly from Xyston pack ANC20282 Parthian Baggage Camels with a couple of figures from Xyston ANC20056 Persian Leavies in Persian Dress thrown in.  

These two pictures show the three bases of Sassanid leaders I have for the later morph of these troops.  These are all OG15s from ES01 Sassanid Command except for the foot figure on the stand to the left.  He is another from Xyston ANC20056 that I added a standard to.  I painted all of these.

These three pictures are of the Sassanid Armoured Horse Archers that dominate the Sassanid list in the latter part of the era.  I painted all of these and they are all OG15s.  Originally, I bought a boxed FOG Sassanid Army from OG and that is how I acquired most of these.  The four BGs with full horse armour came in that box.  The one above with the colored dots on the half horse armour I could only get by ordering LTBG75from the Field of Glory Battlegroups section as they are not in the normal Sassanid range.  You can have three of these in the Early Sassanid list.   

Here we have 10 stands of Levy Spearmen (Horde).  I picked up a painted Sassanid army from Hinds Limited when I was first getting into FOG and most of these came from that army.  I have since sold almost all of it.  There are a few I painted later as I was fleshing these out and they are from 50Paces (I think) and a few OG15s.  In V1 and V2, they could be Poor PROTECTED Mob or Poor Defensive Spear. In V3, you can still get the Mob and Poor Spear but you have the option of getting some real Persian Infantry.  I have the lead from FIB but have yet to get around to them.  In ADLG, the Sassanid list is broken as you have a mandatory two stands of these you have to bring which makes it impossible to run historical lists from the later period.

The Daylami Guard:  In the later years, you are allowed six stands of these.  You could also use them in the Later Pre-Islamic Arabian list from Lost Scrolls.  These are all painted by me and are OG15s from pack AC11.  In V3, you can have 8 stands of these so I need to get around to painting up two more bases.

The Elephant Core:  The two BGs on the left are OG15s and the one on the right is Essex.    The Essex elephants are from pack SAE9A and are remnants of the Sassanid Army from Hinds Limited.  The other two, I painted and are from ES09 Elephants and crew. 

The full sized Sassanid Camp:  a Fire temple of sorts with the eternal fire in the center.  This is scratch built by your truly.  The columns I picked up on E-Bay.  The fire are some beads I picked up at Hobby Lobby and put together and then added the red stone on top.  The three priests are some more of the left over Xyston ANC20056 Persians.

I have an ally of Dilimites (using FIB WE-PS09 Daylami Hillmen) that are on the prep table that I plan to also use as Mountain Indian spearmen, another BG of OG Saka Horse Archers and a boat load of FIB WE-PS08 Levy Spear that I want to add at some part to give the Sassanids some real foot but when that will happen is a real question.  I can have 4 more bases of cataphracts but drilling out those hands are holding me back.  Until next time, enjoy.

Sometimes you just look for things to do rather than paint - Arab Photo Gallery

 Just not feeling it today for painting so decided to pull out my Arabs to take a few pictures and make stir the juices.

These are a mixture of Old Glory 15s, Khurasan and Essex with one or two random others I found in the lead pile when putting them together.  The army itself started as a boxed Arab Conquest Army for Old Glory 15s.  Paint jobs are also a mixture my own and several other painters.  I will try list all of that in the captions of each picture as we go through these.

This is the overview of the entire force.  Originally this was built as an Arab Conquest list for the last US FOG Team Tournament in 2015.  Since then I have replaced most of the cavalry but more on that later.

Arab Generals 1

Arab Generals 2 - The three horse mounted command stands are from the Early Medieval Arab range from Khurasan.  The banner holders are one of the unarmored lancers from the same range.  The camel command stand is from Essex.  I use this army as a Pre-Islamic Arabian, Pre-Islamic Bedouin, Dynastic Bedouin and other Arab based Dark Age lists.  I painted all of the command stands.  The flags are some I found online and resized for 15mm.

Arab Archers - These are a mix of OG15s and Khurasan Early Medieval Arabs.  The OG figures were painted by Larry Reeves and I painted the Khurasan. 

These are Bedouin Cavalry OG15s from the Crusades Range.  Originally all of the cavalry in this army were from OG but I found the poses and sculpturing sort of bland.  This is the last BG from the original build.  I painted these.

Arab skirmishing archers.  Old Glory 15s painted by Larry Reeves.

Arab slingers from Khurasan.  I painted these and think they turned out well.  OG15s does not have an Arab slinger casting.

Bedouin Light Horse - These are Khurasan unarmored lancers mostly painted by Thomas Demers of Mad Monkey Painters.  I added a few figures as I needed more to flesh them out to three BGs.  The next BG follows in the next picture.

Bedouin Light Horse and Arab Camelry with Bow - The Bedouins are again from Khurasan and mainly painted by Thomas Demers.  The camelry are from Forged in Battle painted by me.  Love the way these turned out by I learned I hate painting camels and these casting in particular.  The figures are split waist with two different torsos and two different camels.  

There are 5 BGs of Jund Cavalry or Bedouin Cavalry all from Khurasan.  Thomas Demers painted most of these and I added one or two to fill out the ranks.  

City Cavalry Lancers - These are Khurasan Armoured Lancers from his Arab range.  I painted these myself and the flag is something I created.  You are only allowed 6 total of these and I may add two more stands later.

5 BGs of Arab Heavy Foot - all Old Glory painted by Larry Reeves with the exception of 1 command stand that I added later.  Eventually, I may replace these with the new Forged in Battle castings.

In V1 & V2 of FOG, the Average Jund Cavalry could dismount as Superior Offensive Spear so I built this army with this in mind.  In V3,  they dismount as how you buy them so not such a get over anymore.  I may add another command stand and a stand of spearmen to flesh these out to a 6th BG of Arab foot.  Larry Reeves painted these.

A battle group of Arab Javelinmen - all OG15s painted by one of the Chinese painting companies that I picked up off Ebay.  I picked these up several years ago before the Chinese decided their paint jobs were as good as gold and liked the paint job so much I rebased them and kept them.  In later armies, I use these as Ghazi volunteer foot. 

Dailami foot - These are all OG15s that I painted for my Sassanid and Pre-Islamic Arabian armies.  These were a labor of love and took quite awhile to finish.  I may add two more bases some day as they can by 8 stands in some of the later Arab lists.

Ambush markers for FOG - sometimes I use just two of these together to form a camp for FOG 300 or ADLG.  I painted the figures on these and found them in the figure bin.  The one in the center is an Essex javelin man.  I think the other two are Museum.

Full size FOG camp that I painted and created.  The foot figures are all Essex.  The tent is from Baeuda.  The well is one of the OG15s camp sets.  The camel is Museum (I think) that I found in the figure bin and the palm tree is one I picked up in Hobby Lobby.

FOG 300 camp (or if I have to ADLG camp).  The figures are all Essex.  Originally, I had 6 bases of these that I picked up off Ebay from one of the Chinese painting companies.

While these started life as an Arab Conquest army, I use it now as Pre-Islamic Arabian, Pre-Islamic Bedouin, Muslim North African and Sicily plus a few others.