Full army of Hephaistos and Hephaistia

I have now used the holidays to finish my second battleboard - the land of Hephaistia and the remaining army of Hephaistos troops, of which I had previously done a sample of each type. I also did a spur of the moment call on four elements of lurkers, specific to this board.

 

Here's the full battleboard, 3 feet by 2 feet

close up on the open sided volcano, helping to feed the lava river, with bridge and ruins.

here are two areas of bad going; one the dead forest, the other a lava field,sort of like the Campi Flegrei in Naples.

Distant view of the two big volcanoes in the distance.

A better view of the field, with the stronghold visible beneath the biggest volcano. The field is designed for HOTT, with bad going, river, stronghold and lots of nominally open areas, with some roads and other BUAs.

Having now the right terrain; here is the college of Hephaistian magicians. I plan on expanding this army, so I made a whole load of extra magicians and heroes.

Here are the extra heroes. They look like aerial heroes, but could be used as normal ones too.

Nine hordes, each led by a spare knight figure, intended as a hero from the microworld leaders pack of the dark alliance.

A closer view of a horde. These are fun to do, as they should look a bit different, allowing many different looks. I was going for the "Napoleonic" look here.

Three artillery elements

ogres - based and to be used as warband.

After painting up the first samples, I thought there needed to be some sort of badge on every unit, so added little shoulder colours to these ogres. The idea is that these units on their own turf should look camouflaged.

rise of the beasts. The dark alliance has these as ridden mounts. I prefer not to attach the optional riders. I will get more of these; they are awesome.

I intend to get a whole bunch more of these.

I love cavalry. These knights seem very Napoleonic to me and so I tried to give them that look when basing them.

notice here how the right hand element shows the over use of red glaze, corrected for a much more subtle use on all the reinforcements.

The riders are superb. The horses are outstanding.

Better angle?

Like a charging Napoleonic light cavalry regiment.

Shooters, lots of them.

The mass of the blades; six each of sword/axemen and halberdiers.

close up to the blades. Quite an imposing mass.

The lurkers. I am not sure if they work, or if they should be regular or water lurkers.

The army assembled in its terrain.

 

On the march, led by the four big ticket units.

 

the "big ticket" units. I need more of the dragons and behemoth/Gargantuans. I only ordered one of each, so as to discover which ones I liked. Imagine this army led by five more dragons.......

Send in the lurkers.....do they work like this?

The ogres make a dash for the bridge.

 

the cavalry attack together. Three types - beasts, riders and knights.

The mass of the infantry in the centre, minus the hordes.

 

the army from behind, looking towards the hordes on the extreme left.

Slightly different angle. Must say I am quite pleased by this paint job.

Next up terrain and troops for the firmament, as a desert army. Will take a while.

Terrain time today

I needed to give the figure painting and basing a rest for a while. So here is the first terrain board I have made, out of a planned series of four, or five.

It is designed as a testing ground for me to learn what works and so on. It is also meant to be a base for three of my HOTT armies - the Dread Elves, the Woodland realm and the Vikings as well (until I make them proper mpuntainous, fjord type terrain - not this year).

 

first up the whole three feet by two feet board.

Next, a closer view of the stronghold, complete with base of cows and two bases of sheep.

The buildings, animals, hedges, fences, bridge, haystacks, hay carts and gibbet with victim are all irregular and very suitable.

next the trees of a forest section. This will be bad going. It can also act as a no go zone for flyers and  a place for my woodland realm pixie lurkers to do their stuff. I wanted the trees to be widely spaced, so as to allow the troops to be visible and easy to move through. The change in flocking shows the boundary of the bad going. 

a close-up towards the bridge, taking in the hill, made from polyfilla, glue, flock and the tree. Also visible are the irregular fence, house and pig pen. I love the pig pen. That's an unusual, but somehow, lovely terrain feature.

The bridge, river, road, gibbet with victim, and the stronghold in the distance. I mucked up on the river, as I wanted to do all this quickly and forgot that the water effect stuff wasn't dry. When I put the flock on the rest of the terrai, the water effect caught some of it and had to be re-done, leaving a sort of green tinge to the water. Maybe for the better - ho-hum.

Here's what the terrain loks like with dread elves in it.

a selection of dread elves near the stronghold. The terrain will be used in many battles from the new year onwards. Being 3x2 feet it will look fine with a normal size command, a large 36 pointer, or even two commands. I wonder if 3 commands per side will be too big.

river, bridge, sneakers and wizards

dread elf hero, blades and shooters behind.

the dread elf wizards, daring the water to stop them.....

So next up I plan to do another terrain board. I reckon it'll be the Hephaistos volcano land, or the desert. We shall see. Not a perfect start, but good enough. Much still to learn. Hope you like.

for thecurious, here's those rainbow sneakers from the dread elves.

This is the army of Hephaistia

I have just finished the army of Hephaistos, painting up elements representing all the HOTT troop types I intend to use. They are, of course, the Dark Alliance of Microworld miniatures and are quite superb - inspirational even. The war dragon, nightmare beasts and wizard are quite amazing, beyond even he usual high standards I have found. I went way overboard on the bases, as I always do.

 

 

The wizard of Hephaistos, riding a trail of lava, which he summons and controls.

These are the Dark Alliance ogres, painted as a warband element.

The war dragon, with rider

From the front, with a better view of the awesome profile with the wings spread. This thing looks ready to do some real damage to the enemy.

Cannoneers. Love the mouth sculptures on the muzzles.

Dark Alliance hero and two standard bearers, painted and based as an aerial hero for HOTT. The idea is that the hero is standing on as base of lava, spewing from the erupting vulcano. I call them the army of Hephaistos - the Greek Vulcan -god of fire and forge.

Hephaistos knights, heavily armoured and showing the red glaze, I probably applied too liberally.

Hephaistos halberdiers, which I have not yet decided to make either spears or blades.

Hephaistos shooters

the hordes of Hephaistos, led by a mounted hero. I have enough Dark Alliance barbarians and warriors and heroes to make another 12 of these.

Now these were Dark Alliance knightmare beast riders, with two options of riders to attacj to the saddle area of the beats; but I found they work better for me as an element of beasts for HOTT - the first time I have made that troop type. There's a spare magician and hero acting as handlers for the huge, scary things.

The war gargantuan - great look from this angle. It will be a behemoth

and again

and again -  Love this guy. Imagine facing a phalanx of four - I have to buy some more of these and the dragons. and the beasts and.....

barbarian Hephaistos riders

wildly charging

Hephaistos blades, half swords, half axes.

The full range in review.

closer up of part. Does the dragon draw the eye?

Lovely angle here. My most complex work yet. i think I have found my creative muse.

I now plan to rest the metal soldiers for a week or two, as I have some scenery boards to make up. Will try first to make a 3 foot by two foot HOTT lizarmen/Aztec?/swamp battlefield. Watch this space.