Ottoman soldiers

I painted the azaps from earlier. Post is terse and pics uncropped because my keyboard broke so I'm on my phone.

The grubbiest of peasants

Not my best gs work or painting, but who really examines peasants close-up anyway? All based on Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors, with the occasional head and arm from elsewhere.

a whole mess o' moloitsy!

More kitbashing with the same sets as last time. These are all the guys I need to bring my moloitsy (non-registered Cossack infantry) up to six units. The first picture has musketeers and one spearman. The second is all the standard bearers I will be distributing among my regiments. Sorry it's so blurry, but you get the idea.

Kitbashing szlachcic, strelets, azaps, and serfs

Man, spellchecker hates that post title.

So I broke down and bought some of the newer plastics that weren't around back when I was building my armies. I got the Gripping Beast Arabs and their Dark Age Warriors, and also the Fireforge Mongol infantry. Seriously good stuff.

The simplest and most immediately useful application is using the Dark Ages minis as peasant rebels. Just give 'em furry hats and even worse weapons.

Next up, also easy but less relevant to my immediate projects, azaps made from medieval Arabs. Muskets taken from both Warlord's storming party and Perry zouaves, because they're a ramshackle bunch. More variety on the command, ask if you have questions about specific bitz. Even though I don't have plans for an ottoman army any time soon, these guys may come in handy for skirmish stuff.

Finally, two moderately difficult conversions. A szlachcic (singular of szlachta) and a strelets (singular of streltsy). The first is for skirmish gaming (or possibly a dismounted cavalry storming party), and the second is the first of an intended unit. Both are a bit involved, primarily because of the fiddly embroidery on their chests.

Another test game

The good news is, I played a more complete game than my long-ago first trial run. This one has multiple battalias, some terrain, and a little bit of artillery. Unfortunately, I rolled absolute garbage for both sides' command tests, so the game itself was super lame. That's where there's no proper battle report this time. Just a few of the better pics, and some random thoughts.

I lost my own D6s a while back, so I borrowed the dice from a housemate's Farkel set. This gives me a dozen flag-themed dice per army, with another dozen (green and black) for casualty counts.

My table is only about 3'5" by 5', so I halved all distances (movement, ranges, etc.)

I used my own Cossack list, available here. I guess Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy just published a Cossack list, I'll have to check that out some time.

While I blamed my luck for the dullness of this game, I also could have played better, remembered to use initiative moves, and maybe included some Cossack horse for a more dynamic game. Oh well, live and learn.