The Grande Age of Hyboria

Black powder wargames between imaginary nations (or imagi-nations as they are often called) have been a wargame staple for decades, popularised by the likes of C.S.Grant in Charge! Taken with the idea and the availability of cheap 28mm scale Napoleonic plastics I have decided to have a go at my own imagi-nation games, but rather than devise my own pseudo-Europe I have taken Hyboria, the wonderful creation of Robert E. Howard, as a template for my games. Conan may now be long dead and his exploits just the stuff of legend, but the land he knew is still gripped by war...

Saturday 28 August 2010

Argossean Test Pieces

Having settled on a uniform for the Aquilonian infantry I decided to have a crack at the Argosseans. As previously stated they would be my "British" parable in the Grande Age of Hyboria, but I didn't want them to look British. Consequently I am using HaT's lovely Bavarians.


Doing some research on Hyborian flags, Argos apparently has a purple flag with three yellow/gold balls. This led me to consider purple as a colour for the Argossean infantry tunics but in the end I went with purple for the tunic facings and plumes and green for the tunics themselves. Initially I also painted the breeches green but this made the figures far too dark so I switched to white. For the Raupenhelm I decided to go with gold, rather than the Bavarian black, which has been toned down by the dip. Overall I think the scheme works nicely, now I just need to get some complete units painted up!

12 comments:

  1. Nice. Very imaginative and doing nothing to help me make my decision about Hyboria 1600 or 1800!

    Old Bear

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  2. Why don't you paint up a couple of minis for 1600 and a couple for 1800 and see what floats your boat (so to speak). You might find that helps the decision making process...

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  3. There is, of course, a gap in the Hyborian history at around 1600...

    If you are looking at dark coloured breeches, the way to lighten the figure is to give him long (over the knee) white gaiters. That scheme can look very attractive - supposing, of course, the dude is wearing breeches and gaiters.

    Trousers need not be white, either. It's not a bad idea to give one or two members of a unit 'bed ticking' trousers (or breeches, whence comes to that), with vertical blue and white stripes (or blue-white-red-white striping). A few of my Napoleonic figures are done this way.
    Cheers,
    Ion

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  4. Steve: a fascinating project and a promising debut! Looking eagerly forward for the next instalments.

    Ian: 1600? 1800? Then what about 1700?
    Anytime between 1710 (WSS) and 1760 (SYW), actually: since 'Charge!' and 'The War Game' the 'Lace Wars' are the period par excellence of Imagi-Nations (do you know the "Emperor vs Elector" collective blog / 'tribune'?

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  5. Nostalgia... in the mid-"70 we had in Lyon a Tony Bath-inspired (I would not dare to write '-like') 'Hyboria' campaign...

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  6. I wonder what will be the next step? "Historically" Aquilonia's main enemies are Nemedia (Hour of the Dragon), Koth and Ophir (Scarlet Citadel). Nemedia is 'Germanic', at least from its location. Ophir -I don't really know: in our 'Hyboria' its ruled fielded Elves [!] (mainly Ral Partha); Koth would probably be harder to 'translate', if one wants to keep the 'Shemitic' element... some kind of early Zouaves / foot Mamelucks for the Shemite 'Tirailleurs'? I'm afraid Hät hard plastic is less propitious to conversion than the 'traditional' soft one: I fondly remember Bob O'Brien conversions (some 35 years ago, already?) of Airfix Waterloo cuirassiers to many types of Ancient cavalrymen...

    I wonder where Chad get some of his uniforms colors; and some of his assertions are quite debatable: for instance Nemedia fielded crossbowmen, not foot archers...



    Cheers,
    Jean-Louis

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  7. I hope you'll keep this up-- I find it utterly fascinating.

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  8. I, being North American, associate the three gold/yellow balls with pawn shops, and I've heard some stock origin story about that which may go back to "Venice". Any bearing on your Argosseans?

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  9. Jean-Louis: Elves, eh? You sure they weren't from Elvetia? Mountainous country, I hear.

    I'm looking forward to more on the Late Renaissance/Early Modern history of Hyboria...
    Cheers,
    Ion

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  10. I'd love to see some updates on this project?

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  11. Er, I didn't mean to make that a question; it was meant to be a statement. I really would like to see updates.

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