Blood, Sweat and Cheers

I have always been interested in "wargaming" gladiator combat but never found rules that I liked. Recently I purchased "Blood, Sweat and Cheers" by Nic Wright. Nic is the author of one of my favorite rulesets, "Irregular Wars" so I felt pretty confident I would like his take on Gladiator combat. BSC is a card driven game with two pages of rules, thats the type of game design I like! Next I needed some Gladiators, I preferred Crusader Miniatures range as they don't look fanciful and have a great style to the sculpting. I am not a fan of 28mm in general but these were very enjoyable to paint up. Here are my first three completed fighters:

 Hoplomachus on the left and Thraex on the right.

 My Murmillo on the left against the Thraex, a traditional enemy. I hand painted the design on the Thraex shield, which is from the North Star Jugula gladiator accessory pack.

Same pair, different angle. I used two white snake decals on the Murmillo shield, which is also a North Star shield. 

Blue Murmillo versus Purple Hoplomachus. Another traditional matchup.

The full lineup so far, more to come. Hopefully I can get some practice games in sooner rather than later.

...and now the Kaiser's Finest...

After finishing three French regiments (9 battalions) along with some divisional cavalry and artillery assets, I moved onto some Germans. The process for the Germans hasn't been quite as efficient or speedy as it was for the French. I haven't been prepping figures in advance during so I haven't been able to move from painting one battalion to the next. Right now I have six German battalions painted and based and am working on French regimental commanders and a mix of French and German artillery batteries. Anyway, here are some Magister Militum 10mm Germans kitted out for 1914:

Here is a battalion with four company stands, an HMG detachment and a battalion command stand.

Closeup of some German infantry in advancing pose. I used a Micron brush marker to paint helmet straps, red regimental markings on the helmet, red uniform piping and backpack straps. I added some mustaches to a few of the guys. I may add more later.

As you can see the chap in the middle has a neatly trimmed mustache.

Heavy machine gun detachment. Magister Militum HMGs are a single casting and very easy to paint and base. I like that.

 Battalion commander stand. The fellow on the left has a bugle and rifle. The officer on the right is gripping a sword and looking thru binoculars.

Magister Militum have two officer poses per pack, here is the other officer in a very martial looking pose.

 

A view of the backpacks, straps were "painted" on with a marker.

A few people have asked me why I use thick bases. There are three reasons: 1) I find them easy to move and handle, 2) I like the look and 3) It allows me to paint unit markings on the back of the bases in a subtle fashion. Here are two companies from "Red" regiment, the one on the left belongs to white battalion and the one on right is yellow battalion. A very easy way to know which companies belong to which regiment and battalion which is important for purposes of battalion and regimental morale for the rules I use.

I hope to have more updates with more pictures of painted artillery and officers and German cavalry!