Two Warlords and a Greek Horseman walk into a pub...

And then a joke ensues.

Amid the chaos of my useless joke, I managed to get some painting done over the last few days! I have been tinkering away at about 4 projects at once, so I finally managed to finish some of them!

First Warlord up?



The free Scottish Warlord that came with my copy of SAGA Northern Fury from Gripping Beast. I did a really close up shot of his face, to show the fact that I was trying to copy this guy...



I am pretty happy with how it looks, was a bit tricky because the whole model has so many other colours, that the blue didn't stand out! I had to tinker with the colours a little (and with much frustration). All in all, I like him!



And a shot of his chainmail...

Warlord Number 2 is a mounted Greek Hero, from 1st Corps Miniatures.





At the start, I was skeptical about this guy, but he turned out actually pretty good! I did only little modifications, so that head with a fantastic face is all 1st Corps' doing, I might not like their helmets, but I really like their bare heads!

The only modification I did do was on his helmet, I swapped the face of the helmet from a later, more Attic style helm, for the same atypical Greek helmet of the rest of my force.





Now, lastly there is a Greek Horseman from 1st Corps. This is the chap who was modified by me (linky) and I did finally get him all painted up.




I am pretty happy with how he looks, the 1st Corps horses are really nice, no scaling issues etc.

Now, back to painting...... must... finish.... projects....

CP

SAGA Trojan War- On Heroic Greek Characters Part 3: Odysseus

Following on from Part One and Part Two, I humbly present Part Three of my "On Heroic Greek Characters" series, and it's all about that cunning Ithacan, Odysseus. Favoured by the gods, especially Athena, Odysseus is really the model for all Greek Heroes.

Odysseus was initially reluctant to join the Trojan War, going to the length of faking madness in an attempt to get out of it! This was less a cowardly act, rather a kingly one, preferring to remain in Ithaca with his wife and newborn son. His ruse was uncovered, and he was honour bound to travel to Ilium to be part of the war.

During the war, Odysseus fought with much honour, both as a leader of men on the battlefield, but also enacting guerrilla style raids against the Trojans with Diomedes (the second most cunning of the Achaeans). Odysseus and Ajax were the ones to recover Achilles' body after his death, both claiming his armour as their own. So a challenge was undertaken, which Odysseus eventually won. Although Achilles was the "best of the Achaeans", the position as second best fighter was a bit more disputable. In Part 2, I gave that title to Ajax; as his victories were done without the help of the gods, as well as he was the only other Greek Hero to encounter and best Hector the breaker of horses in single combat. However, Odysseus does have to lay claim to that title too, he was able to draw a wrestling match with Ajax (with Athena's help).

His primary reason for fame at Troy was the Trojan Horse itself. Odysseus was the one to come up with the cunning ruse and was also one of the fighters inside of the horse. The ruse was simple, war had been on the shores of Illium for years, so the Greeks would feign withdrawl of their ships, leaving behind a large statue, dedicated to the gods to grant them safe passage home. Instead, the ships sailed off out of sight, and the offering was filled with armed Greek soldiers! It was only one of the Trojans who anticipated foul deeds, the High Priest Laocoon. Luckily for the Greeks, Athena was on their side, and so sent two sea snakes out of the ocean to kill both Laocoon and his two sons.

The Trojans took it as a sign, and took the horse inside. The rest, as they say, is history.

After the Trojan War is where the real adventure for Odysseus begins, at the start of his 10 year Odyssey to get home to his loving wife Penelope, who is beset by suitors searching for her hand in marriage!

Odysseus sets sail for home, but Poseidon is a little cranky at the whole dead Trojan thing (he was a fan of them), so he takes it out on Odysseus by sending him basically everywhere in the Aegean but home!

Odysseus had many adventures on the way home, but I will recount just one here which speaks much about his character (if you want to know more, stop being lazy and read the Odyssey!).

The first is when Odysseus and his men became stranded on the island of the Cyclops, Polyphemus. Odysseus and his men became trapped in Polyphemus' cave, where upon the Cyclops began eating Odysseus' men for dinner. Odysseus tricked him, by making him drink a bit too much wine, and passing out. Odysseus was unable to roll the boulder away from the door, so instead blinded Polyphemus.

Odysseus taunted Polyphemus, saying that "Nobody" had blinded him, making his cries for help ridiculous, ensuring no other Cyclops would be drawn to the cave. This allowed Odysseus and his men to escape wearing the pelts of sheep, as Polyphemus did open his cave to let his sheep out. As Odysseus sailed away, he yelled that it was he, Odysseus who blinded him. On the surface of it, it was a dumb move. Polyphemus cursed his name, getting his dad to wreak some vengeance on him (his dad was Poseidon). But this incident relates to what was discussed in Part 1, that Greek Heroes had a pathological desire to be remembered. Odysseus then, deliberately opens himself up to harm, simply to be remembered. He goes on to lament the ignobility of dying in a shipwreck, lost at sea. In fact, without a proper burial it was believed that the shades (spirits of the dead) were unable to enter the underworld.

When Odysseus finally returns home after spending 7 years with a nymph, Calypso, a year with the Sea Witch Circe, seeing the Sirens, avoiding cannibalistic Cyclops, visiting the underworld, avoiding Scylla and Charybdis, visiting the Phaeacians, accidentally eating the cattle of the Sun God Apollo and getting hit by a thunderbolt for it; Odysseus finally returned home.

But all had not been well in the around 20 years he had been away, his son, Telemachus had grown up (and had his own adventures in the Odyssey. You should read it). His wife Penelope was at her wits end, trying to get rid of suitors for her hand in marriage. The suitors were attempting to eat her out of house and home, and are generally portrayed as totally reprehensible characters.

Odysseus does not return in glory, he adopts (with Athena's help) the guise of an old man, to check the lay of the land and to check her intentions. She had been faithful to him (not like he was to her), so he creates a plan to be rid of the suitors. A competition is set up to decide the best of the suitors, shooting an arrow from Odysseus' great bow through 12 axe heads. All of the suitors attempt, and fail to even string the bow. Telemachus has a go, and would (probably) have succeeded, had Odysseus not intervened. He took the bow, strung it, shot the arrow through the axe heads, then turned the bow onto the suitors. Odysseus' plan was ruthless, all the weapons were hidden earlier, the doors were locked and boarded and he and his three helpers (a shepherd, his son and his dad) they slaughtered the suitors. It was the ultimate sort of action movie endind, he reveals himself to his love lorn wife, they embrace, roll credits.

Of course, the suitors families are a bit unhappy, but again, Athena comes through to calm everyone down.

For more about this, really, really do read the Odyssey.

But, for SAGA, here is my take on Odysseus.

I decided to show him with the traditional Greek Statue head, with his helmet atop his head. The shield design is an owl, Athena's favorite animal. The model was converted from an Immortal Games hoplite, with his right arm taken from an Ancient Briton.

The two hoplites flanking him are some Ithacan Royal Guard. I needed 2 different looking hoplites for Impetvs, to show an elite hoplite base, so I made these two guys up.

The one with his shield up has his arm from an Ancient Briton (again).

I thought writing about Odysseus was going to be easy, the Odyssey was the first classical text I ever read and Odysseus is one of my favorite characters, but writing all this down was much harder than I thought!

If you have an idea which Greek Hero I should make next, add it to the comments.

CP

SAGA Trojan War- On Heroic Greek Characters Part 2: Ajax

Following on from my earlier post about Greek Heroes , I humbly present Part 2, all about that loveable chap from Salamis, Greater Ajax (or Aias).

A painted representation of Ajax from the 1800's

Ajax (Aias in Greek), son of Telamon was known as either "Ajax the Great" or as "Telamonian Ajax", to differentiate him from Ajax, son of Oileus, who was known as "Ajax the lesser". Which must have been a real ego killer for him!

Ajax was a King of Salamis, and as a suitor of Helen, he was called into battle against the Trojans during the epic struggle that was the Trojan War. On the battlefield, he was a brilliant warrior- second only to his cousin, Achilles. Ajax is described as having great strength and bravery, known as "the bulwark of the Achaeans", he went into battle carrying a massive shield as well as an axe or sometimes a spear. In terms of the heroic poem the Illiad, Ajax is unique because he receives no help from the Gods, which is totally unique among the heroes on either side of the conflict! In that then, Ajax comes to represent hard work and perseverance, of earning the right to have glory.

Ajax's great strength is displayed twice in the Illiad while attacking the Trojan Prince, Hector while Achilles was sulking. In Book VII, he gets the better of Hector, wounding him with his spear in a duel. The only thing that saves the prince of Troy was that the heralds called the duel a draw; at the request of the Trojan loving Zeus. Ajax and Hector again battle in Book XIV, when the Trojans make a brutal assault onto the Greek ships. Ajax hurls a massive rock at Hector, gravely wounding him. Apollo revives Hector, who returns to attack the ships again. All the while, Ajax armed with a spear and his massive shield is leaping from ship to ship, holding off the Trojans without any aid. Hector returns and disarms him, but by this stage the destruction of the fleet has been avoided, and Ajax survives without a scratch. As well as fighting Hector, Ajax kills another named 27 Trojans or their allies, in addition to the nameless ones.

It is Ajax assisted by Menelaus, who recover the body of Patroclus from the Trojans, who were to feed it to their dogs for Patroclus being a liar (pretending to be Achilles).

So, Ajax was a brilliant warrior, second only to Achilles. He was equal to the best of the Trojans (Hector) and was able to defeat many of his enemies in single combat. He also displays eloquence about the true path of the warrior, acting as an embassy to persuade Achilles to rejoin the war. In combat he has no equal, but he is known to be not as cunning as Nestor or Odysseus.

Ajax, as with all Greek Heroes is a tragic character. Although he survives the Illiad, he is not to live long into his old age.

Upon the death of Achilles, the Greeks have a competition as to who is now the 'Greatest of the Achaeans'. As is was Ajax and Odysseus who are the ones to rescue Achilles' body, they are the two who claim the title and Achilles' armour as their own. In the end, it was Odysseus' eloquent words that won out the other Kings, proclaiming the armour to belong to Odysseus.

Now, Ajax in later poems was a character who disregarded the gods. In Ancient Greece, the gods were a force to be appeased at every turn- for example Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to have fair winds for his fleet's sailing to Troy. Odysseus' odyssey was caused by Poseidon being angry with him. For Ajax then in his hubris to disregard the Gods, he became at their mercy. And it is after the loss of Achilles' armour, that the Gods punish him for his hubris.

Upon waking the next morning, Ajax is beset by madness (god inflicted)and attempts to slaughter his comrades, only to be tricked by the gods into slaughtering some nearby cattle. His wits return, and upon seeing what he had done in his madness, he commits suicide. That decision, makes Ajax completely different to other heroes, and helps explain the code by which Greek Heroes (in poems) exist. Ajax, the great warrior displayed his arete through his strength, his courage and his honour on the battlefield. But he became too proud, in his hubris, his pride he dishonoured the gods and as such, was punished. Upon realizing his mistake, the loss of honour was too much for Ajax, it was unbearable, and so he falls upon his own sword, akin to what the Japanese would call seppuku.

For the Greeks then, his story is a warning, a tale against hubris. Why am I talking about him? Well, I constructed a version of him to use in SAGA

His body comes from the Immortal Games box, as does the head. His arms are from a Warlord Games Ancient Briton, his axe head from a Viking, and his cape comes from a Saxon, with a redesign to make it fit.

So, I have decided to make more Greek Heroes of the Trojan War, and will write a bit of a biography for them too. Question is, who would you like next?

CP

SAGA Trojan War- Teaching Odysseus a lesson for calling me "emo"

Achilles and Odysseus squared off last night in our first crack at SAGA- Trojan War.

We played a 6 point game, I was using..
Achilles (the best of the Greeks)
8x Myrmidon Elites
12x Myrmidon Hoplites
12x Myrmidon Hoplites

Jamie's Ithacans looked like...
Odysseus (the cunning)
4x Ithacan Nobles
12x Warriors
12x Warriors
8x Warriors

The Myrmidon battle line.

We were playing the "Kill the Warlord" scenario- seemed only right to describe the meeting between these two, after Odysseus' claims of Achilles being "emo"! The terrain was pretty simple, the Ithacans are good in the rocky ground, so naturally when we rolled, there was a massive bit of rocky ground in the middle of the battlefield! Cunningly, I put all other scenery on the outside, where it would have no impact on the battlefield at all.

The Achaean battleboard (here) is relativly straight forward. Achilles is an absolute combat monster, so what you want to do is get him into combat. Alot. If you keep him alive in combat, he will probably kill everything in combination with the Heracles ability, so you need nice little ablative hoplite armour kicking around with them. My plan was simple then, get Achilles in combat, get the Myrmidon Elites in combat, fluff around with the warriors.

The battle started pretty slowly, Odysseus reduces my amount of SAGA dice to 2 for turn 1, 3 for turn 2 then back up to full from there. So basically turns one and two were pretty low key, getting my troops forward to get into position to attack the Ithacans in close combat.

Myrmidons have captured the rocky ground!

The start of turn 3 saw me roll 2 6's- perfect for the Heracles ability! So there was nothing to do but to charge Achilles blindly into the intervening Ithacans in the rocks.

"Achilles SMASH!"

And smash he did. Killing a fair swag of Ithacans- 10 dice hitting on a 4+ is ruthless! Combined with his "no fatigue" makes him an absolute monster. Soon, the battle of the rocky ground was so bad that Odysseus himself was forced into the fray to save his warriors! Unfortunatly, Achilles and his Myrmidon elites had far too much fun slaughtering them, until there was only Odysseus left.

"Hey, Achilles, could we have a time out?"

All the while this was going on, I had sent one of my Warrior units on a massive flanking mission, sweeping away the Ithacan Nobles and then laying into the smaller unit of Ithacans.

Get them! Kill the unpainted ones!

But by this stage, I had lost a few of the Myrmidon Elite, giving their lives willingly (ish) to save Achilles. They were at least allowed the honour of killing the last of the Ithacan infantry!

Weren't there more of us? Fatigue sucks, why can't we be like Achilles?

The merry slaughter of Ithacans continued, until only Odysseus remained.

In spite of killing one of the Myrmidon Elite, Odysseus fell, was put into a headlock by Achilles until he said "uncle". Now the two could go off and sack Troy together, honour intact!

So, Achilles killed no less than 11 enemy models, including Odysseus.

My thoughts on SAGA? It is brutally simple in a lot of ways. Rolling to hit is simple, no great modifiers, changes or anything like that. But, through the battle board, you find some real complexity, I think I will use my battle board much more effectively next time (I think), the Achaeans don't have too much finesse to go along with them, certainly if I can keep the Heracles dice ready to use at any time for my Warlord, I will kill a lot of stuff, but I think the cunning Odysseus might have some new plans and machinations of his own.

SAGA is fun. Hoplites look awesome, the Pro-painter is doing a great job on the Ithacans, expect more games of this in the future!

There was a Day of Days update on here earlier today, make sure you check that out too.

CP

SAGA Myrmidons- Completed

In the Illiad, the Myrmidons were the bravest and most skilled warriors of all the Achaeans, led by the best of the Greeks himself, Achilles. The Myrmidons were regarded highly for their loyalty- they refused to fight when Achilles sulked, only going into battle without him because they thought the Patroclus was Achilles. The eventual killer of King Priam was also a Myrmidon, a chap called Neoptolemus (he was also the son of Achilles), described in the Aeneid (a shameless pro-Trojan story) as having done the deed with the Hector's son as a weapon. And they made a lovely vase of it, now in the Louvre in Paris....

In other myth, the Myrmidons came into being after a great plague, which left the lands of King Myrmidon destitute and without any life. Naturally, he prayed to the Gods, and Zeus turned all of the ants from a sacred oak tree into people, the Myrmidons. So the word 'Myrmidon' actually can be translated into "ant people".

But, all the myth and legends aside, I have painted my full Myrmidon warband for SAGA.

First up, is the big man himself, being played by Brad Pitt in this movie. The miniature comes from the Wargames Illustrated "moments in time" range- give it a week and you will see Hector from the same pack appear on another blog...

Next up is my generic Warlord, for use when Achilles is dead or sulking. Or he could be Neoptolemus, for when I want to kill kings. The model is the Immortal plastics, note the piper in the background, his funky headgear was not just fashionable, it was also functional to keep the pipes playing properly!

This is my 8 Elite Hoplites, Achilles' chosen ones. They get the best armour, and the oh so classy shield curtains! More of the lovely Immortal plastics (now from Warlord Games).

Then we have 2 units of 12 Warriors. These guys are again Warlord Plastics. To tell them apart, one unit is based around red colourings, the other based around green. I plan to add more hoplites to turn these into a full army of Impetvs Hoplites.

So, that's it right now for my Hoplites. I plan to get a game in with them next week, I think Odysseus' Ithacans are in need of a reminder who the best of the Greeks is!

Day of Days is this weekend, will post up something about that Friday I think, and I painted the start of Secret Project No. 5 (Operation Cassowary), so pics of those to come too...

CP

SAGA Trojan War- On Heroic Greek Characters Part 1: Achilles

With the dawn of our modifications to SAGA very nearly ready, Jason's Trojans are underway, as are Jamie's Ithacans and my Myrmidons are very nearly finished (here and here) and I will post the whole force once I finish the last of the army.

Achilles and Ajax play a simple game, in the down time between killing Trojans

I thought that I would write a bit about what it meant to be a Greek Hero in ancient times.

So, on the face of it, Greek Heroes were selfish, power hungry, defiant and frequently, not very heroic at all.
To take the example of Achilles- He was the hero many Greeks wanted to be. He was vaunted as the "best of the Achaeans", a title he earned through being the greatest fighter- to quote the (terrible) movie- he was "born to end lives". In the Illiad and other epic poems, Achilles certainly does that.

Achilles doing what he does best

But Greek Heroes are not one dimensional killing machines, which is in part why they have survived so long into popular culture.

Achilles in the very first passages of the Illiad is actually having a temper tantrum worthy of the foulest two year old- Agamemnon has taken his prize and he wants it back. So what Achilles does is he simply stops fighting. This works out very, very badly for the Greeks, because on the Trojan side, Hector the breaker of horses is breaking many, many Greeks and turning the tide of battle, right to the point where the Greeks are actually looking to withdraw from the invasion itself.

So, while all this is going on, what is Achilles doing? Well, nothing. Up until the point where his aide/partner (I am not going to explain the debate, it's a long rant) Patroclus takes his armour, and enters the fray in his stead to rally the Greeks.

But of course, Hector the breaker of horses kills Patroclus, causing Achilles to reenter the fight, simply to slay Hector in his rage.

The battle over Patroclus' body: Achilles on the left, Hector on the right

And slay Hector he does. Then drags him about the city walls behind his chariot. Then, years later Achilles himself dies, before Troy falls.

What can we learn about Greek Heroes then?

They are tragic characters. Achilles is offered the chance of living a peaceful life, not going to war in Troy and living out his years in peace and happiness. He instead, opts to go to war to seek glory and well, die early.

This desire is described by Aristotle as the ideal being a term called "arete". This term is a concept of essentially excellence of what you are doing, through excellence of self. This ideal manifested in competitions such as the Olympic Games, where the fastest runner was the one with the greatest arete. But, as Aristotle points out, arete is not simply winning, it is excelling at a purpose. He describes a chimeny having arete by being straight, and taking the smoke away from a fire. Simply put, arete is exelling at the purpose.

Through arete, a warrior (or person) achieves kudos from their peers and others- kudos meant the same then as it does now, kudos is honour bestowed on another in admiration of a particular deed.

The Greek Heroes then, desire to excel at their purpose- Odysseus in his Odyssey complains about dying an ignoble death, dashed on a rock where no one would remember him; in fact he yells out his name to the blinded cyclops Polyphemus simply so that his name will be further remembered.

So, there it is. A short introduction to the mindset of the Greek Hero, I could (and probably will) write more, but for now, that is enough.

Over the weekend I will put up some pictures of the Myrmidons.

CP