Energy Drinks are the devil - Planning for Mortal Gods: Test of Courage

Hello everyone.
I've been under the weather.  About two Thursdays or so ago, I was playing Frostgrave with Tim.  I decided for some odd reason that day to try a small beverage - a Monster Energy Drink.  It was the small canned version and I just slowly drank it while we were going through our first round.

 I used to be addicted to these garbage drinks when I used to work retail. And I one day quit. The withdrawal symptoms were severe and I had a massive migraine for a day or two.  Since that day (about two years ago or so) I never had another. 

But this drink was some new flavor, one I hadn't tried, and I was confident that the addiction would not return so I just decided to drink one... but sometime during the gaming, I started going numb on my left side and half my vision blurred out.  I could only see half of Tim's face and half the board!

I ended up playing out for the rest of the day and we ended our game early.  I went home, slowly recovered from the numbness and lack of sight, but I had a very small, but constant niggling headache.  Since that Thursday, up until now (two weeks) I've had nothing but headaches all day and all night, and their severity has been up and down. Earlier last week my body would go numb in some spots, and other times my vision slightly blurred.  It felt like I was having strokes or something!  

Even my eyes hurt and it is not easy to paint for long extended periods of time, so it has really slowed down my painting progression.

Needless to say, I am not rushing anything. I had originally planned to get most of my Republican Roman army done for Hail Caesar! by the end of the year but this will not be happening.  Luckily, the doctors have prescribed me with heavy medications that seem to be working a little bit.  The head issues are still there but its much more bearable than before.  .  . Strange to think that they believe this was triggered from some stupid drink.

Do not drink Energy Drinks. They will harm and possibly kill you.  Stick with water.

Anyways, now that all that has been said, I am excited to say that I have bought into two upcoming wargames for 2019 - Mortal Gods and Men of Bronze.

Mortal Gods: Test of Courage is a very interesting looking game and looks similar to that of Test of Honor (which I did not get into since Japanese / Samurai are currently not in my interests). Ancient Greeks on the other hand I am ready to throw down with so I ended up buying an early bird limited edition Lochagos

He looked too unique to ignore. So I bought this one. He's got this scimitar like weapon and I think he looks as though he is not from "mainland" Greece.  I think I'll do him up immediately once he arrives.  I also bought two of the resin Styrix since I need more for my future rank and file Hail Caesar! armies.  A

I  also notice that in this game, the Greek Lochoi seem to be made up bands of Hoplites and Skirmishers and also include some minor commander characters : two promachoi and then there are also healers, seers, and probably other characters.  I am not sure what roles the later characters play, but I've got a few things in my collection that can stand for those roles.

From what I have seen, the resin cast miniatures sold by Footsore Miniatures seem to be akin to the size of what Victrix produces, so I've pulled a few models out of my collection that are of similar sizing to what I think this Lochagos' scale will be. 

Here's a whole wack of guys that I think will be of similar size. My plan is to build a very Cretan heavy Mercenary Lochoi.  

First of all for my promachoi  I think I will use this Foundry Argonaut Laertes.  He's got a Minotaur emblem on him which I think is suitable for a warband from Crete. I'm not sure his gear really passes historically accuracy but I think he is too epic to not use.  My other fellow is a Warlord Games Spartan General, so I'll make him a Spartan Exile or something of that sort. 

If they're from Crete they're going to have to be Archers. I'll be using Black Tree Design Archers. I have lots of these so I need an excuse to paint them. 

For the hoplites themselves I'll be using unarmored Victrix fellows.  I bought a whole wack of them on eBay. Some guy had badly assembled a bunch of them and was selling them with a mess of Carthaginians and unarmored hoplites still on their sprues, so I jumped on the deal quick. Some fix ups and a nice paint job will make these Greeks look great. 

Finally, in case I need them, I'll be using these Black Tree Design Greek civilians. They're all elderly and I think they'll do if I need Seers or Healers. 

I've also ordered the basing kit for this game from Sarissa-Precision, except I had them adjust the larger triangular and skirmish bases that they come with to hold 20x20mm square bases instead of the round ones they have... I am not a fan of basing on round bases if soldiers can be on square rank and file bases (Commanders and generals are fine on circles, since I can use them in Hail Caesar!) .

So that is it.  My prep for Mortal Gode: Test of Courage so far.  Once the Lochagos arrives I will start them up... However,  I am heavily into painting and finishing my Republican Romans for Hail Caesar! right now as well.  Painting the same models over and over can get quite dull, so I have chosen the "easiest" Greeks possible to paint. Easy for me means not so much armor, battle gear, side arms.. if you look at most of these guys, they're mostly just tunic, shield, spear, sword.. maybe helmet.  Armored Greeks and Armored Romans have so many bits and pieces and things to be careful of! I still want to get my Republican Romans done as soon as possible while also painting something else up, so this will do nicely.

Finally, Men of Bronze is also coming out in 2019.. which is published through Osprey and is also a Hoplite based wargame with few models needed to play (or so what I have read). I don't have much details on it but I do know my rank and file hoplites will fit into it... seems 2019 is going to the Greeks!

So many projects!  I'm working on finishing the Republican Romans for Hail Caesar!, going to be painting these Greeks for Mortal Gods.. and also plan to do some 100 year wars stuff with Lion Rampant.. not to mention, I still want to work on my Poseidon's Warriors ships!

It is good to have stuff to do.. so no complaining!

Cheers, and thanks for reading!