Age of Empires THREE DEEEEEEE

[howlingwolfpaw]

Hellow, I want to share with you all my dream and vision of a table top game experience using ancient armies in a battle of wits over land, resources, and logistics. Realized in the wonderful 1/72 scale using plastic models from various makers spanning several decades. It was inspired when I was 16-18 to make a game like chess out of the French and English knights I got at my local modeling shop. I imagined a grid game where 2 armies would advance to each other and could move so many squares etc.... not even knowing the world of table top gaming existed. Now in my adult life that dream was rekindled and with the love of AOE and other games have put a lot more work into it for much more dynamic fun. Its sort of a retirement project... so then I can host live parties.

The rules are a bit loose at the moment, units will have reliable speeds and stats but how they are used I want to have some more creativity and allow for some story telling and character development. There will be republican Romans along side ships manned by Imperial Romans, and allow for some other creative liberties.

My main interest has become the naval battles though, because they are like land battles but the land gets to move and position itself too. As craft will have several types of projectiles, ramming abilities, boarding action, fires, listing, etc... to deal with.

In the next parts I will post pictures of finished models or works in progress as each ship will have its own strengths and weaknesses.

If you are interested in painting your own armies a great resource for what is available and to compare quality of makers can reference this site.
https://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/

[howlingwolfpaw]

The characters of the game....

The Ancient Greek Tower Bireme.

It has a slower yet nimble and devastating ram attack due to its shorter length resulting in less rowers and heavy front armor to its beak ram, its job is to maneuver and use its momentum to power through any craft on a direct strike. It also has a contingent of slingers, archers to rain down on its encroaching target or protect from flanks. Its high walls resist small craft boarding but its troops are lightly armored so they can be out matched easily if that boarding does take place.

The model used here is from Zvezda, and is their Greek Trireme which is heavily custom built with other scrap plastic parts from other kit bashed models.

[howlingwolfpaw]

Side Quest.... Ancient Siege weapons....

well the first one I think is a Chinese inspired castle siege claw. the other is ancient Greek inspired and uses a board that slaps projectiles to throw them, a less efficient method. this model can throw 4 darts at once. Both of these are scratch built.

[howlingwolfpaw]

The Republican Roman Bireme

A quick and fearless crew, they move fast and have one main tactic they do the best... which is get along side a ship, use the corvis (bridge) to attach and fight on the decks. And they are good at what they do.

[howlingwolfpaw]

Ibernium

This ship is inspired as a Ancient trade ship, perhaps Greek or Carthaginian. It can be used as a missile platform, or as part of a protected convoy. Or part of a trade economy for other adventures.

Entirely scratch built this one is from left over parts.

[howlingwolfpaw]

The Imperial Guard Bireme

This one is meant to be like a elite imperial guard unit that will stay with the Giant Roman flagship to guard its flanks (more to come! but this one is far off from complete) its some of the battle hardened elite warriors that are boarding experts. It may not be the biggest ship in the sea but its one to have to worry about just like the big ones as they trade nothing for their armor and discipline.

[howlingwolfpaw]

This is an ancient Greek Bireme

Its model is from IMAI and the minis are Atlantic toys from the 1960's

This ship is also a entourage for a female VIP.

These guys are pretty good at everything but not excellent in anything. Though it does have a forward hot/ flaming oil piston weapon at its bow to take on any larger ship.

[howlingwolfpaw]

Assyrian siege machine

The Assyrians were expert siege engineers but for the right amount of wheat and wood this weapon can be leased out to any army.

Essentially a ram with an archer tower to protect it.

[Oliveza]

i like how the paint job and the photo quality kept improving over time

[howlingwolfpaw]

i like how the paint job and the photo quality kept improving over time

Thank you,

these aren't exactly posted in order I made them but pretty close. The first finished piece was the trade ship which I did the water differently then. It is pretty tricky to get browns to look like woods in 1/72 scale. But my layering and color mixing has gotten much better. I have actually taken a break from them but about to get going again to finish some ships that are ready for paint or half way painted.... but they can take so long to do each of them. The last to complete is the Ancient greek smaller bireme. that one I do think is painted the best

I can not even estimate how many hours went into the Greek tower bireme. It was I think second to complete. It does really suffer from bad pictures, as a lot of my early ones do before I started to borrow someones smart phone, the camera I had did not want to do the close up details for me.

Recently I got an airbrush and compressor so I am excited o see how I can use that and help save me some time in base coating. and invested in some new acrylic inks that could improve some color vibrancy and retain details better than the thick paint I am using.

Thanks for commenting!
The home city has unlocked for you the flail elephant!

[ocemilky]

These are awesome man. Nostalgia hitting hard

Keep up your hard work

[howlingwolfpaw]

These are awesome man. Nostalgia hitting hard

Keep up your hard work

Thank you,

yeah I just can not let it go... a game for kings. Now I can make it character driven and implement strats and tactics that happen too quickly in computer games. and focus on one single battle.




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