No Paint Armies Primer

   I am a 68 year old gamer. My eyesight, even with magnification, and hand aren't what they used to be. Painting armies is no longer a pleasant part of my gaming hobby (was it ever ? ). I am also retired, which makes me cautious with my finances. But, I remember back to when I started in this hobby, when 54mm figures were imported and conveniently primed with black and white primers. In fact, they were probably used more in that state then when they were finally beautifully painted. "Get them on the table and let's play."  Yes, I have a very nice collection of painted 15mm figures for AWI, ECW, ACW, and DBA/Triumph!, as well as 25mm fantasy armies and smaller scale WW2 and Modern. But, you know, I still want to die with the most toys 8-) I'm retired and a widower, so I have time to expand my hobby interests. Hence, No Paint Armies (NPA). [Remember photos can be enlarged by clicking on them]
 

     I recently found some new Needlepoint plastic mesh in Gunmetal, Silver, Gold and Copper. Still haven't found gray or olive mesh for my No Paint Armies.  How to cut Needlepoint plastic mesh figures.

     No Paint Armies can also be made from repurposed Risk (tm) replacement parts, which can be found inexpensively on Ebay, at Goodwill stores, yard sales, or second hand stores.

 Risk (tm) 2003 replacement parts (above). Blue, Red, White, Green, Yellow/Gold, Dark gray. Tricornes and flags.

Risk (tm)1998 Replacement parts (above). Black, Blue, Red, Gray, Yellow, Green. Shakos and kneeling infantry.

   Quick and easy Napoleonic No Paint Armies. Red (British), Blue (French), White/light Gray (Austrians), Green (Russians), Black/Dark Gray (Prussians), Yellow/Gold (German states).

                   Testing various mounting methods for use with The Portable Wargame rules set.

    The 1998 Risk (tm) figures are approximately 10 mm and the 2003 figures are approximately 15 mm, while the Needlepoint mesh armies are approximately 6 mm. Both sets of Risk (tm) figures contain 40 infantry, 12 cavalry, and 8 artillery figures per color.

     Cost comparison: A Needlepoint mesh army costs under $1.00, and the best I've done so far for a Risk (tm) replacement army is $1.34 with free shipping (but on average around $2.00).

                   Risk(tm) is a trademark of Hasbro. I remember who paid me royalties  8-) 

No Paint Armies take the table for the first time

Tonight's Battle of Gaugamela/Arbela will be using my needlepoint mesh No Paint Armies and using the Triumph! rules set played on an old canvas battlefield. Enjoy the photos. Remember, photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.  Battle report to follow in the next few days. 

                                             Alexander                                      Darius III

                                         Macedonian Sarissa Phalanx and supporting Auxiliary

No Paint 6mm Plastic Mesh armies for DBA or Triumph!

Yes, I said no painting needed. My experimental work continues on making DBA/Triumph! armies with different colored needlepoint plastic mesh.  Any additional color will be done with Sharpies, and that will be limited to helmets and shield decoration (Easy peasy). The armies pictured here are Alexander's Macedonians (purple and blue) and Darius III's Persians (red and black). The sarissa troops are made with black craft wire and shields are made from different colored card stock. Cavalry are made with black, brown and white (for Darius's chariot) plastic mesh. The main figures are made with different colored #7 needlepoint plastic mesh, which is 6mm scale. 

   Yesterdays check of the Essex site indicates complete 15mm DBA armies cost $105 without shipping and still needing to be painted. I estimate one of these armies cost $1.05 and an hour slicing plastic mesh and gluing. I will be using some pre painted balsa bases 8-)

Home made gaming Miniatures for years to come 8-)

                                                       "Man up and go to the Craft store"

Battle of Issus DBA 3.0 on 8 1/2" X 11" board

Wednesday nights game was the Battle of Issus using modified (movement distances halved due to scale) DBA 3.0 rules  and played on a piece of paper ( 8 1/2" X 11" board) using Plastic Mesh armies.

Initial deployment. Top of the screen are the Persians. Cavalry and Light Horse on their right wing, the Scythed Chariots, Spears flanking the Persian leader Darius III with his chariots, and Psiloi on the Persian left flank.  The Macedonians on the bottom of the picture have Parmenion's cavalry on it's left flank. The sarissa Pikes (phalanx) are deployed in the center. Alexander and the Companions are on their normal right flank with Auxilia to their left.

                                       A look at the Plastic mesh Macedonian sarissa troops

                                                                 The Macedonians advance.

                                Alexander attacks the Persian Psiloi across the Penarus River.

Having destroyed the first Psiloi element Alexander turns to battle the last Persian Psiloi. The Persian spears and Macedonian Pike prepare to engage. Darius III does not rush into the Macedonian trap in the center but waits to face Alexander.

            The Cavalries engage on the left side of the photo. Darius prepares to face Alexander.

Mixed results with the cavalry battle, but the Persians turn the tide when their Spears defeat some of the Macedonian Pikes in bloody fighting in the center. 

Darius and Alexander face off and the Macedonians finally get themselves better organized with rear support against the Persian Spears.

Darius recoils, his supporting Psiloi are finally eliminated and the Macedonian Sarissa prove their power when properly organized.

As with history, in a very close battle, Alexander defeats Darius III and prepares to chase him across the Middle East.

Frank has been my gaming opponent for over 45 years. I have asked him to play some strange games and playtest many of my crazy gaming ideas. Playing DBA on a "piece of paper" board has to rank right up there. However, it did work and was a great deal of fun. I'm not sure I'm ready to try a miniatures battle on a 4X6 index card, but who knows.

I spent some time looking at the pricing of both 6mm & 15mm DBA armies, this week. Continuing to use Plastic Mesh at under a $1.00/army is a very attractive way to go. Please look back through this blog for details on making your own Plastic Mesh armies for DBA play.  How to ... Needlepoint Mesh Armies

The revised Battle of Chaeronea, 338 BC

Our version of the The Battle of Chaeronea . Due to the victory by Sparta in our last game (a reversal of history), the Spartans under the command of the venerable General Phragkiskos faced the Macedonians led by the legendary father and son duo of Philip II and Alexander.

                     Early dawn, the Spartans (top) and the Macedonians (bottom) assemble.

                          Alexander advances on the left, while Philip II advances on the right wing.

After inflicting early casualties to the Spartans, Alexander is wounded and his troops captured. Philip continues his assault on the right wing.

        Philip II deploys his sarissa against the Spartan spears and threatens the Spartan flank.

The Macedonian sarissa proves superior to the Spartan spears and Philip's horse turn the Spartan flank, capturing the Spartan force and freeing Alexander.

As it was in history, Greece as a political and military power was finished to be supplanted by the Macedonians who now looked to the east and the ancient superpower that was Persia. Sparta proved, in our battles, to be the superior City State of Greece, but it was no match to the superior technology the Macedonian possessed with its 20 foot pike/spear. 

Our rules held up, but still need some tweaking. We may revisit these battles using DBA rules and the new Triumph! ruleset for comparison.  

  

                   

Final testing new mounting system

http://rixxk.blogspot.com/2012/05/clothes-pin-air-force.html.

Needlepoint Armies

The blog is back.  Working on a set of basic rules that covers several periods of warfare. Wednesday night, we began with play testing a hoplite subset of the Ancient rules. Our combatants:

The Spartans

The Athenians

These 4 mm "miniatures" were made with Needlepoint mesh, punched card stock and craft wire. The battle was the Battle of Mantinea in 418 B.C. 

 The forces engage when the Spartans (top) exit the woods.

Initial play test resulted in a historically accurate re-creation of the battle. The Athenian general Laches was slain early in the fight and the battle turned into a major route of the Athenians. However, the rules while accurate were not fun to play. After a rules review, some changes in the rules were made. And the battle re-fought.  

This time it was an extremely close battle in which the Athenians won a narrow victory and we agreed the hour long rematch was fun and played much better. A few more tweaks and we may have a set of hoplite and ancient rules for the future.  

3 mm Cavalry

Lost 2 days while experimenting with different ways to make cavalry for my hair roller armies. I was looking for a quick way to assemble large number of mounted troops. No luck. So I Returned to using a modified Van Pelt cut. I am using #10 plastic mesh used for Needlepoint. As my hair roller infantry is only 3mm high I opted to use the smallest mesh I could find. I choose to leave them as strips to make them quicker and easier to paint. Will cut them 5 deep on a 30mm deep base.  Still not sure how many units on a base for the different cavalry types, as I prefer a more massed looked.