Friday, 4 August 2023

Late Knights


The Britcon tournament is coming up like a train, and I realised that I urgently need a unit of dismounted knights for my army. Luckily, I found 20-odd prepped minis and am doing a rush paint and base job on them. Knights in full plate are relatively easy to paint, essentially inking over a steel primer, then faces, leatherwork and the wooden bits of the weapons, ink again and highlight the metal. I'm going to leave these as fairly generic later knights, later I'll build a few command stands, and I'll also do some specifically Burgundian knights.

Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Herding Cats


I'm currently working on a Parthian army, but I've been enjoying the build stage (maybe it's the plastic glue fumes) and may be overdoing it. I have around 60 assembled and primed, so far, against a target 80. They are a mix of Gripping Beast plastic and Aventine riders on GB horses. Most will have steel horse armour, some will have bronze and some (the grey-primed) a fetching red. I hope to have at least 40 ready for the TtS! Open tournament in Edmonton on Saturday 13th October.  

Today I released the latest version of the TtS! Ancient Army List eBook; a bumper edition with two new lists and loads of updates with a lot of background material. It's turning into quite an encyclopedia- 164 lists, 331 pages long. I've already started work on the October release, which is going to be a Late Antiquity Special with lots of material about the Goths, Franks, Saxons and Vandals. If you've previously purchased the lists you should have received either a copy or a download link, if you've not yet purchased it, you can find it here.

In other news... my friend, the talented military historian Brent Nosworthy is pleased to announce the availability of an uncorrected, unedited beta version of his latest book, The Advent of Linear Warfare: Circa 1580 to 1648. This book traces the evolution of linear warfare first through the Spanish/Italian phase and its continued development next by the Dutch during the Nine Years’ War, then under Gustavus Adolphus’ leadership during the Polish-Swedish Wars, before assuming its final form under French leadership when they entered the Thirty Years’ War. It is available for free in PDF format for everyone who subscribes to Nosworthy’s Encyclopedia of Battle Tactics Patreon Page. Subscribers also have access to an ever growing number of highly detailed articles that analyse tactics and grand tactical issues during the age of muzzle loading small arms. I recently subscribed- got the book- less than three quid a month, money very well spent! You can find it here. 

Here are some Saleh Early Imperials that I need to finish off to complete last week's units. I am trying something a little different- grey primer and a white spray highlight from the front, as getting the shields properly smooth and white has proved to be both challenging and time-consuming.

Finally, some of you must have already encountered Yarkshire Gamer's World Cup of Historical Wargames Rules on Facebook. I say this with some confidence, because both the TtS! rule sets have made it through to the second round, where To the Strongest! is currently pitted against Saga, and For King and Parliament will shortly be head-to-head with Hail Caesar! It is an extremely silly idea to compare sets from different periods against each other, but at the same time a whole lot of fun. You can vote for TtS! or, indeed, any of the other rules systems (there is some really high-calibre opposition; not least Saga!) here.

Thursday, 27 July 2023

Black Shields


Here are a couple of work-in-progress shots of the black shielded-twins of yesterday's yellow shields. again I've extended the transfers (which are designed for the slightly smaller Perry shields) to the edge of the shields. These give a rather more sombre appearance to the unit, by comparison with yesterday's jolly yellow shields. I still need to detail the minis, themselves.
 

Wednesday, 26 July 2023

Yellow legion progress


I'm making some progress with the veteran Saleh minis, which will be part of my 2024 Salute game. Yesterday, now I have my trusty painting light* back, I extended the lovely LBMS shield designs to the edge of the shields. A careful job, but well worth taking care with it as the shields dominate the unit. I need to highlight and ink all the minis, but I think I might ask Shaun McT. to paint 24 more all in red tunics and then mix them together. I prefer red for Romans.

*My painting lamp is a Serious Readers lamp. I can't recommend them too highly, although they aren't cheap. Mine gave up the ghost after 10 years- they repaired and upgraded it to LED, and it's good for another decade or so.

Yesterday I was delighted to read that both To the Strongest! rules and For King and Parliament made it into the group stage of Yarkshire Gamer's World Cup of Historical Wargames Rules- many thanks to anyone who voted for them! It looks like there will be more votes to come in the coming days. Here are all the contenders, some great games there, of which I've only played three, including my own two sets! I'll make a personal resolution to try some of the other systems after the summer.

Tuesday, 25 July 2023

Wofun II

Last night we played a very entertaining game at the London Wargaming Guild Guild in Seven Dials. This time we pitted some of my newly-acquired (and very portable) Wofun Caesarians against a Wofun Gallic army. It was a very interesting game because the two armies are quite asymmetric, the Gauls having 3 hits and a hero each, whilst the Romans have pila, a better save and greater manoeuvrability. In the end, it was the latter feature which told; as the lines broke up, numerous warbands were successfully "civilised" by Roman flank attacks. Son'n'heir came as bag carrier and co-general, this photo must be from one of the other players.

There was a cracking Romans vs. Carthaginians game going on the next table; the Carthaginians eventually flanked the quincunxs and prevailed.

In other news, there's an interesting "World Cup" poll of historical wargames rules on Facebook here. It is well worth a look; it's interesting to see how many historical sets there are about- also to encounter some old friends like "Science vs. Pluck or Death to the Mahdi!", still popular after all these years! It has also been very pleasing to see how popular the TtS! games remain (particularly as I'm currently making steady progress on Renaissance, my "difficult third book"). The first round might have ended by the time you read this.

Lastly we popped into the China Missing Century exhibit at the British Museum. This was a nice little show, and worth a visit. There was some material of interest to the wargamer, they had this nice flag, for starters:


Also a matchlock rifle, a super painting of 1820's Manchus fighting insurgents, uniforms and more.

Saturday, 22 July 2023

Test Ostrogoth Lancer

 

Recently I've come to the conclusion that I need some portable armies that I can take to wargames clubs or carry on the train, to tournaments. These will need to be primarily plastics, for reason of weight and toughness. Luckily I've started to find some plastic sets I like.

I've bodged together a test figure from a Gripping Beast Parthian rider (there's one spare per sprue), with a Parthian head on a Wargames Atlantic horse and with the plastic spear replaced with a slimmer metal one. I want to have most of my projected Ostrogoths on unarmoured horses. I think it came out pretty well. Unfortunately, I don't like the WA horses very much. There's something a little "off" about their build and the poses of their legs, so I'll probably use GB Goth horses instead; it's not worth spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.



Wednesday, 19 July 2023

Very Late Romans

Here are two units of Early Imperial Romans that Shaun painted for me some 4-5 years ago. They've been waiting patiently in a storage box for their transfers and finishing, for far too long. They are mostly the old Foundry Saleh units, including some rare variants and some head swaps. The LBMS transfers are even older than the minis, and some of them have deteriorated- but I'm managing to salvage most of them. The yellow design is really super!

When these are completed and based, they will join the four-cohort vexillation, above. Eventually, I might take them up to a full legion in strength. I also need to do a 5th cohort of I Adiutrix, also shown above (from behind, in the blue gear).


One day I'd love to revisit the old Cremona game from Partizan in the Park and Salute- but rather larger....

Tuesday, 18 July 2023

Wofun Fun

Recently I've bought a collection of the Wofun printed miniatures. I wanted them because most of my armies aren't portable in anything less than a large people carrier (!), whereas I can pack two large armies of 15mm Wofun with terrain, rules, chits and cloths in a single holdall.  There are pretty forgiving to damage, too, compared to a lead miniature. Last night son'n'heir and I played a game with a couple of fine chaps from the London Wargaming Guild at Seven Dials (I've "borrowed" a couple of Daniel's photos, below, as I too no closeups).

First thoughts are that some sort of sabot would be quicker to set up and play with than the current individual stands. I think I will print some laminated bases, with unit names, saves, etc, colour-coded for commands and tack the bases onto them. Secondly, we had some issues with the cloth rucking up- I'll pick up a couple of 3' x 4' neoprene mats for use as a playing surface. Thirdly, I need some camp markers.

Had a blast! I'm definitely going to use these for playtesting and when I need a portable game.

Friday, 14 July 2023

Some of our cataphracts are missing


I finally managed to get hold of some decent metallic spray primers and seized a narrow window in the weather (between too hot and too wet!) to prime the cataphracts. I went mainly steel and gold, with some grey which I'll paint them in reds depicting lacquered or enamelled horse armour.

Here are some of the humbler horse archers. I bought most of these assembled, on eBay, but they needed a little repair work which I did last night. I am going to need a whole lot more of these- I have a hunch there's a bag of them somewhere in the loft.

I am also searching for some Parthians I was working on earlier this year. I stored them away, for safety, but I cannot for the life of me locate them; they are probably in one of five hundred unlabelled Really Useful Boxes. :-/

Realistically they won't be finished in time for the Britcon tournament next month in Nottingham, so I'm eyeing my collection for other relatively portable armies. Incidentally, if you are free on the weekend of 12th/13th August we are very keen to find another player as we currently have the Dreaded Odd Number of players. It's a relaxed event, not too competitive, pint of beer at the side of the table sort-of-thing. Last year I quite enjoyed seeing the Lardy stuff in the annex, and spent too much on books and the Bring and Buy. If you think you might be interested, please email me.

Friday, 7 July 2023

Nine out of forty cats

One of my four major projects for this year is to get a long-projected Parthian army on the table. Phase I includes these forty cataphracts, which is more than enough for a standard To the Strongest! game (the photo is "clickable). So far nine are partially painted. Phase II will provide 24 horse archers, most of which are happily already painted by chum Nick Speller, and phase III will double the numbers of cataphracts and triple the number of horse archers, and add some stalwart Daylamite hillmen and foot archers.

The miniatures are a 50/50 mix of Aventine (back) and plastic Gripping Beast Parthian riders (front), all on Gripping Beast horses, for reasons of portability (it is intended to be a "travel army"). The two types of riders match well stylistically. The Aventines fit neatly onto the GB horses, and provide a variety of poses and the necessary command minis and standards. The only major changes I'm making is to replace the plastic konti with metal ones, because they are slimmer and more pleasing to the eye.

With any luck I'll have them finished for our TtS! tournament at Britcon in August- I hope to see some of you there - please email me if you'd like details.

In other news... I've just updated the Free To the Strongest! Army list eBook, and am in the process of sending a copy out to everyone who has ordered a copy in the past. If you want, you can download it for free from here.  I've also put the Ancient and Medieval Army list books on promotion for a few days, and some of the chits are 25% off.

Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Portable Parthians

 
I have, perhaps unwisely, started another army. I have a gap for a lightweight ancient army that I can carry on the train to distant tournaments such as Britcon and Godendag or Glasgow. These are the horses from the Gripping Beast Cataphract set combined with (mostly) riders from the super Aventine Miniatures range. I'm experimenting with basecoats; a couple have gold and chrome primers, above.

Below, for a bit of a laugh, I'm trying the "nail varnish" metallic shades from my ScaleColour 75 boxes; paints I have never previously used, and, frankly, never expected to ever use.  They are really odd, but I have a feeling that they might just work. If they do work, there are some other even bolder colours I might try later on, some pinks and a green... it might become a very flamboyant army!

Friday, 23 June 2023

Racking II and prepping

It has been on the hot side for painting, so I've either been writing TtS! army lists (for the July-Ancients  and August-Medieval releases), racking the BigRedBatCave or prepping minis. 

Above is the main area of the cellar, now racked along one side with six 90cm wide storage racks. There is potentially room on the other side for some more- perhaps three or four. That is pretty much the last storage space I can generate in this house. Once that's full, I'll have to start selling stuff in order to fit new things in. And I still have a ton of boxes in the loft that I need to move down into the remaining spaces, perhaps enough to fill them.

Below are some minis which will become Parthian cataphracts. My plan is to use (mostly) Aventine miniature riders on plastic Gripping Beast steeds, alongside some of the GB riders from the new Parthian set. The advantage of using the plastic Nisean chargers is that the army will be light to transport, so I can use it at tournaments like Britcon or Godendag to which I travel by train. I will spray paint these in metallics (per the two test figures on the left, Gold-fingerrrr) and then paint the non-metallic areas and ink wash. Sounds simple- probably an awful lot of work in it, for which reason this army may not be ready in time.

By the way, I just booked my tickets for the To the Strongest! tournament at Britcon in Nottingham in August- it's a great show, and I really like Nottingham, too. I hope to see some of you there!

Sunday, 11 June 2023

Racking


Above, today I've been racking the BigRedBatCave. The main cave is around 30' long by 6' high and should take a good few minis, although, I fear, by no means all of them. It should enable me to reduce the number of minis in the house, somewhat, to the relief of my beleaguered family.


I'm also working on a new project, of Teutonic bent. Here are some new standard bearers; mostly Foundry, some Black Tree. Later they will be joined by some Victrix. I'm trying to build in a lot of variety in the standards, and as many horns as I can find.

Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Last 48 hours of the Early Summer Sale in the BigRedBatShop


It's the final 48 hours of my early summer sale of various to the Strongest!-related products, including the rules, army lists, various wobbly-edged bases, chits, magnetic basing materials and terrain. Discounts vary from a modest 10% to a mighty 50%.


Get them while you can! You can find all the Sale products here.
 

Thursday, 25 May 2023

Ipsus at Partizan- the close-ups!


Chum Ian Notter shot some great images of our huge "To the Strongest!" Ipsus game at Partizan, which was a slightly extended version of the Saltue game. All the photos will enlarge if you click on them. Above the pike phalanxes clash; the Antigonids are in the foreground and to the right. One of my favourite image of the whole battle; almost abstract!

     

Above are some of the allied phalanxes. They are screened by Asiatic archers- I need a whole lot more of these. Below, Thracian light horse skirmishing. I need more of these, too. :-)



Above are some of Demetrius' cavalry squadrons. These performed well on the day, wiping out the opposing wing and turning onto the flank of the phalanx which was (fortunately) protected by elephants. Below is a shot of the remainder of the cavalry wing; you may be able to make out Demetrius in front, with his kontos.



Above is part of the Antigonid phalanx; most of these minis are new, this year. The argyraspides are on the left of the image. That's Antigonus and his litter beyond the phalanx. The elephant screens are deployed in the foreground- each side had one, 20' in all. Below is a better view of the "no man's land" between the two phalanxes. Most of the lights and elephants shown here were to perish during the course of the morning session.



Above, the phalanxes clash. To the rear can be seen part of the Allied elephant reserve and (below) in front of them some Thracians from Lysimachus'contingent.
 


Elephant screens were able to withdraw behind the phalanx (as above) by some mechanism that, alas, the ancient authors alas do not describe. Presumably intervals were left that were later closed up.

Below, hoplites advance to the fray, screened by lights. They did a pretty good gob of resisting the pike phalanxes- honours were broadly even.



Above, a late-in-game shot from behind Antigonid lines. The Antigonids did really well, wiping out both Allied wings and then breaking the centre of the Allied line, winning a convincing victory and reversing history!

Huge thanks to Ian for the photos, and for all his help with basing. I'd also like to thank all those who helped to run the game (particularly Andrew and Andy), played in it or helped with the set up and knock down, which were considerable exercises, as you can imagine! Partizan is a splendid event, very well organised and a whole lot of fun. the highlight of the gaming year, in fact.

In other news, I've put a number of products on sale for the next few days, including the To the Strongest! and For King and Parliament rules, the army lists (which I'm really proud of, there are hundreds and they represent great value), chits and lots of bases and basing products. Get them while they are hot!

Friday, 19 May 2023

Ipsus at Partizan

Hello all, I'll be at Partizan in Newark-on-Trent on Sunday- the award-winning To the Strongest! Salute game, as above, but slightly larger. If you wan to drop by for a chat, please do! Better still, if you'd like to play in the huge game- now with over 3K minis- please drop me an email and I'll book you in!

Wednesday, 17 May 2023

Thessalians for Partizan


I'm dashing around basing a few final things for Sunday's huge Ipsus game at Partizan in Newart-upon-Trent. Above are two new squadrons of Thessalian cavalry in their famous rhomboids, freshly wood-glued to their bases. They have been assembled from my "reserves" (storage boxes of painted minis sourced from eBay) and represent the work of at least three different painters, but they came together well with a little overpainting and retouching. I'll be grouting tonight, dry brushing tomorrow and Ian will flock later in the day.

In total, I've managed to base an additional sixty cavalry figures for the big game on Sunday, which now involves a tad over 3,000 miniatures. If you'd like to play at Partizan, in what must be one of the largest ancient games ever run at a show, please drop me an email. 

If you want to buy anything from the BigRedBatShop for collection at Partizan, feel free to order, and drop me an email- I'll refund postage, bring it with and add some free extra chits or whatnot.

In other news there's a date for a TtS! tournament in Glasgow, below.  I'm assured that the recent event was a blast, please contact Dave Soutar at the address below, to reserve a place.