Painting table July 2022, and more

 Hmmm, 3½ months between posts... the interval is dropping so that is good, right?!

Let's start with an old tradition around here, the painting table pic:

The table is filled with the usual medley of stuff.  By my count, there are seven different projects in the picture!  The biggest change from my typical work process is that there is much more organization in everything, from paints to the figures themselves.  I just need to sit there more often and get stuff done.

The 2nd Mantinea Battle Day project has taken a large step forward after languishing for too many months.  I have finally settled on a rules system for all of my Greek/Persian struggles, and that is going to be Triumph.  After reading through several sets, I find that Triumph makes more sense to me than other rules.  Triumph does use the 'standard' DBx basing system for the most part, so I can easily switch to other rules in the future if needed.  I am making one adjustment - the base sizes are going to be much bigger, using a frontage of 80mm.  This will give a figure density that, to me at least, is more pleasing to the eye.

The army lists for the Thebans and the Spartans have been sorted as well.  I used the description of 2nd Mantinea from Lost Battles as a baseline, and worked to adjust the army lists from Triumph (found online here at Meshwesh).  After a bit of translation - Triumph is a bit different in its descriptions of units - two lists were made that seem to be consistent with the battle.  The Thebans come out with a slightly larger force, which is suggested by contemporary writers, Xenophon and Diodorus, and modern historians.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the basic lists from Triumph fit quite well with Prof. Sabin's analysis from Lost Battles.

Now comes the mustering of the units, with the PSC figures pictured above being amongst the first to answer the call.

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