The Positive Impact of Largesse

Ancient Britons - chariots, skirmishers with cavalry and the all important warbands in the rear

How outrageously good are they?

Late Romans - the legions ready to do battle

So there is the full panoply of the Late Roman army - six bases of the legion, including the C in C, four bases of auxiliaries flanking the artillery and two cavalry units - light on the left and the heavies on the right/

This is not the post I expected to be writing - sadly my naval encounter will need to wait an extra day or so - but it is a post that has given me an enormous amount to think about!

Indulge me a little, if you will, as this personal history is relevant to this post but it will help to things into context. 

When Irregular Miniatures first launched their 2mm range (back in the 1980s I recall) I was hugely excited at the prospect of the potential these models would have. I remember buying substantial amounts of the horse and musket range along with ancients when these came out - at the time I was still on the end of my WRG 6th edition adventures - but never really had a clear idea of what I was going to do with them. Was it a step too far for the mainstream? Possibly - but for me the seed had been sown. 

Anyways, fast forward to the current century and I have continued to dabble in the 2mm and 3mm world which means in my case buying stuff, doing nothing with it for one reason or another and then selling it on. Having said that I still have a bag of Peter Pig ACW figures from their Hammerin’ Iron range that are looking for some TLC at some point….

The seemingly monotonous round of buying stuff, hanging on to it for six months or so and then offloading it showed little sign of abating but the 3mm stuff still lurked in the collection - unloved but promised to better things at some point. 

The ‘some point’ was running an idea past that all round good guy and brush master extraordinaire Lee - as in A figure painting therapy project

Some time ago I approached him with an idea about painting some ACW stuff for me for the naval project. The idea was to use the Peter Pig troops for the land side in support of the ships. Anyways, we bounced a few emails around but for reasons too boring to discuss it never happened. We stayed in contact though and like many other bloggers I have really enjoyed seeing his various painting projects and just staying in touch.

Imagine my surprise then when a cryptic message from Lee arrived earlier in the week telling me that a package was en route and arrived yesterday - the contents of which you can see above.

So, a pair of DBA armies - Late Roman and Ancient Briton in 3mm. What can I say? Where to start?

The two armies are quite incredible to look at - Lee’s skill with a paintbrush is very much at the Olympian level of awesomeness - and the models really ‘pop’ off the bases. They are recognisable as what they should be and the only thing I will do will be to add them to a slightly thicker base for ease of handling.        

The figures themselves are from the range produced by Oddzial Ozmy and available from Magister Militum in the UK. There is also a whole world of other periods covered in this scale and the models themselves are outstanding.

So what does all this mean then? Well for one thing the use of 2mm and 3mm armies has certainly come along leaps and bounds since those early days of Irregular Miniatures. We now have dedicated rule sets for the scale - Strength and Honour for ancients springs to mind, their game at salute was incredible to look at - and it seems that more and more gamers are looking long and hard at the scale. Ray Rousell , a dyed in the wool 28 and 15mm gamer,  has been busy beavering away with some 2mm armies for the battle of Almansa 1707 and they look outstanding - his rules of choice being Volley and Bayonet. There are many others in the blogosphere that have dabbled or are dabbling in these smaller scales so to speak so the scales seem to be easing into the mainstream alongside their larger counterparts.

Seeing the armies that Lee very generously sent me ‘up close and personal’ has really given me a lot to think about along with the pang of regret at all the stuff I had in this scale that has long gone! I need to dig out the Peter Pig ACW blocks and have a mess around with them methinks! Packing a base with small figures certainly helps to make the twelve elements of a DBA army look rather more like a real army as the pictures above show.

My sincerest thanks to Lee for this incredible gift - there will certainly be some DBA games in the near future - and for showing me just how good these models can be made to look. He does work on a commission basis but currently has, unsurprisingly given the quality of his painting, a pretty full order book for the next century or so so I consider myself to be doubly fortunate!

Cheers Lee, I owe you a beer or two!