Montgomery 1644

I have a very enjoyable day, today, experimenting with ECW rules with Andrew Brentnall. Andrew has a fabulous 10mm ECW collection. We fought Montgomery 1644, above. I was defeated, but it was a close-fought battle. Below is one wing of Marston Moor, which we didn't have time to play. I have come away with some ideas for version 2 of the TtS ancients rules...

Thorakitai and t'other Partizan

This (clickable)  photo is of the latest unit to join my Hellenistic forces- a phalanx of early thorakitai. These are the armoured equivalents of thureophoroi, wearing a mixture of linen and bronze cuirasses (which were later replaces with mail as it became more common). The shield designs are based on Ptolemaic grave paintings. In To the Strongest! they are represented as spearmen, deep, veteran.

These boys will represent the Greek Mercenaries on the Seleucid right, tough fighters who defeated the Ptolemaic agema and peltastoi guards (who had, admittedly, already been trampled by their own elephants). Most of the minis are Foundry hoplites and hypaspists with replacement thureos shields. Some were painted by Shaun McTague and others are drawn from the boxes of "reserves" in my loft.

I'll be running my "too big for Salute" Raphia game at t'other Partizan in Newark on Sunday 21st August. With over 1600 minis, and with improved terrain, the extended game will be even bigger and better than the version played at the Wargames Holiday Centre, shown below. If you would like to play, please drop me a line and I'll book you in for a game. I'll also be in town the night before if anyone fancies a beer and a curry!

Battle of Horn Gate

Today we played a jolly game set in Prax, using modified To the Strongest! rules, at Broadside in Sissinghurst.   It went very well and there were some hilarious incidents.  One poor young player drew a string of Aces, culminating in the loss of his general who I had nicknames Acus Maximus.

Above massed bison riders and below the Lunar centre, screened by expendable scorpionmen allies.

Above, the Bison riders tended to get the better of the exchange.  Below a view from the sable rider camp.

Above, Batty made a brief appearance; lots of people can over to talk about him.  Below, the sable tribe's ancestors turn up to lend a hand.

The magic rules worked pretty well and I have some excellent suggestions that Ian made on the way back, to digest.

The Broadside show was really excellent and I'm sure we'll be back next year!

Scorpionmen

Here are the finished Scorpionmen for my resurrected Glorantha project, it has only been 11 years since Sebastian gave them to me.  A slow burner.

I have some more plans for there; a Queen, a hero and some swarms of smaller scorpions.  The balance of the army will consist of broo.

The minis are from Rapier and they are based on my BatBases, the deep unit-sized ones, which are just over 12cm wide. This means the bases will be roughly twice the size of the old Hordes of the Things bases, leaving plenty of room for modelling and accomodating the odd extra-large model (like Greg's 12" Gonn Orta and Batty!). Until we get the re-basing sorted, we will be using pairs of HoTT elements.  

Chitin dryin' in the sun

Here's another WIP shot of some of the fantasy minis I've been working on this week, with their matt varnish currently drying in the sun. The Scorpionmen are the first Gloranthan minis I've painted in a decade.

There's still a deal of flocking to do. For the scorpionmen, I am conflicted about base colours- I wanted to base them in a desert environment, but then the bases won't match Ian's Praxian minis, or indeed any of my other minis.  Ho hum. The werewolves will have their own portable Birnam Wood; they will be able to fight in the shade.

This week I've been working on the draft of V2 of the ancient rules which I'll use as the basis of the fantasy rules I will be writing. I've been giving some thought to magic systems and expect to have a very rough version ready for the game on Sunday at Broadside.

Scorpionmen WIP

A really terrible shot of some Rapier Miniatures scorpionmen that I'm working on for my recently-revivified Gloranthan project. These were given to me by Sebastian Rogers c2005. I'm completely re-painting and re-basing 2016-stylee, on deep-unit sized magnetic Bat Bases. So far they are just blocked-in, but I hope to field them at Broadside on Sunday.

In other news, I have a piece on Caesar's Legions in the latest WI; enjoy!

Magnesia 190 BCE

Here's a shot of a scaled-down test game of the battle of Magnesia that Ian Notter, Andrew Brentnall and I plan to take to Crisis in November. The scenario worked very well- Antiochus smashed through one legion, whilst another legion did a number on the phalanx, so all in all pretty historical. We used 15mm minis and chits instead of playing cards. The cloth is a 4' x 3' Deep-Cut Wasteland mat with a 10cm grid.

We used the alternative Polybian list (which replaces the small hastati and principes unit with a single, special unit) - this worked really well. Do please drop me a line if you'd like a copy. In due course I'm likely to make this list "canon".

In other news, I will be at Broadside in Sittingbourne next Sunday with an experimental To the Strongest! fantasy game; hope to see some of you there!

Hexing the square

Ray Ashton in Melbourne has been playing TtS! on a hex grid. This game used the TtS! Sengoku army lists, Baccus samurai miniatures on Hexon terrain. It looks very pretty and apparently it worked very well, with the required changes being pretty minor. I really should give hexes a try, myself.