Red Romans

To finish my yellow and black shield cohorts, I find I need to paint a few more legionaries in red (the colour of Mars) tunics, because I don't want the two units to be mostly in white tunics as it seems a little unmilitary!. These are they, still only partially blocked in after two nights work. Starting to paint 7 minis from scratch has served to remind me why I like to get Shaun McTague (or Redzed) to paint most my minis! I think it'll take 5 or even 6 evenings to finish these 7 minis, and I need 234 more to finish the two legions. :-/

In other news, I'm pleased to report that FK&P made it through to the next round of the Yarkshire Rules Tournament on Facebook- pretty good going for such a niche set! It'll be up against "In the Grand Manner", next.

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.

 

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.

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....

Mancetter to Salute- Part II

Apologies for the delay in posting the second part of this- I have been frantically busy since Salute! All of these lovely close-ups of our Mancetter 61CE  To the Strongest! game were taken by Alan Daniels.

The chariots are mash-ups of the Wargames Factory kits with Newline and other ponies.

Above is my favourite warband, based on Tacticus' account of the druids at Mona. "On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between the ranks dashed women, in black attire like the Furies, with hair dishevelled, waving brands. All around, the Druids, lifting up their hands to heaven, and pouring forth dreadful imprecations, scared our soldiers by the unfamiliar sight, so that, as if their limbs were paralysed, they stood motionless, and exposed to wounds. Then urged by their general's appeals and mutual encouragements not to quail before a troop of frenzied women, they bore the standards onwards, smote down all resistance, and wrapped the foe in the flames of his own brands."

Celtic women cheer on their menfolk. I see that d****d scene-stealing flock of sheep has crept into the foreground!

Another chariot. The look of the chariots was much improved by the recent flockathon.

Some of the warbands include armoured warriors, representing dismounted noblemen and chariot warriors.

Above is a downhill shot. The legions in the reserve line were not much engaged; the fight falling to the the auxiliaries, further down the slope.

Finally I was really chuffed to receive the Bill Brewer Memorial Award for best presented game: runner up; a super seal on the event. I'd like to thank everyone who helped with the project, especially Shaun McTague and Ian Notter, and, on the day- Ian, again, Mike Brian, Tim Thompson, Andrew Brentnall and Neil Graber. Also, of course, everyone who played or stopped by for a chat! And lastly the Warlords (especially Philip Andrews) who run the event with great (and often unappreciated) efficiency.

Onward to Salute '20... for which I already have half a plan!

Bloody Cremona!

Here are some more photos of the Roman Civil War game that I ran yesterday at Partizan, in the grounds of Kelham Hall. 

One benefit of this year's move from Hall to tent was the vastly superior lighting.  Yesterday I felt very much like Van Gogh must have felt after he relocated from Paris to Provence... Time was so short, however, that I am afraid I completely failed to take any pics of the other games, several of which were quite spectacular, particularly the lofty Keren and muddy Lardy Verdun game.  

Several of the below photos were taken by Dave D. and John T., who played in the game, together with Agema Greg, Nigel M. and Jean. The players were as good-natured a bunch of wargamers as one could hope to come across.  A big thank you to John T who was a huge help in setting up and knocking down the game. 

In our re-fight, the smaller Othonian force attacked aggressively from the outset.  Their cavalry, although outnumbered almost three to one, smashed the  poorer quality Vitellian cavalry and turned onto the flank of the enemy infantry. Beyond the Po, the Batavians killed the Othonian gladiators, losing a unit to an ambush from a small wood, in the process. The main infantry fight was extremely even but, after hard fighting, the Othonians managed to overturn history and achieve a narrow but very worthy victory.

We had quite a few visitors, and I talked to as many as I was able. I also managed to chat with some of the people from other tables, notable the Newark Irregulars, all three of the magazine editors, Phil from the SOA and Northstar Nick, and old friends Craig Cartmell and Richard Crawley, amongst others. 

The players picked up my "To the Strongest!" rules very quickly and required surprisingly little intervention from me, which was convenient as I was stretched very thin.

Lawrence and Tricks, the Partizan organisers, did a fantastic job of moving the event to the marquees, on such short notice. I absolutely loved playing in the tents, and would be delighted to put on a game in them again. I fear that the additional cost and the risk of bad weather may preclude this, though... I hope there will be room for me, in tent or hall, in September!

I'll be running this game again, and several others on a similar scale, at the Wargames Holiday Centre near Basingstoke, on the weekend of 28th/29th June, there are still spaces, give Mark Freeth a call!

Without more ado, here are the photos!  All are clickable, and the video can be watched full screen.

Initial deployment; eight regiments of Vitellian cavalry, face three Othonian units.  The former were slaughtered...

The first of the eight Vitellian cavalry units are removed by Agema Greg...

The pontoon bridge.  I liked the bridge, even if everyone who came by the table seemed to prefer the vineyards.  ;-)

Battle lines clash amidst the (offending) vineyards.

Othonian Praetorians advance along the raised Postumian way; this terrain piece came out very well.

The plain near Cremona was extensively farmed, and divided into rectangular plots; perfect for my grid-based rules!

Batavians cross the pontoon bridge, shot at by gladiators from the Othonian boat

Othonian self-propelled artillery benefit from the elevation provided by the raised road.

I Adiutrix (forground) battle XXI Rapax (rear).  The commanders of both legions fell in the heavy fighting.

Finally, below a video of the battlefield I took after the end of the game, showing all of the figures and the terrain pieces.

Black legion based

...but not yet flocked.  I'll take a proper photo later on.

There are 101 miniatures in four units, with a legion command stand and a couple of "heroes".  As I've previously mentioned, I'll add a fifth unit later on.  These boys are going to be V Alaudae.

Last night I painted a bunch of archers, that will form the final three units for Partizan.

Romans, Romans, Romans

Apologies for the recent lack of posts; I've been hard at the brush. 

I estimate I'm at least half way through my big Roman project, and on target for Partizan.  In the below camera phone photos, you can see that I've re-organised the part-painted minis into their respective legions. I am going to focus on finishing the yellow shields first.

I've been really enjoying this job, so much that I've ordered enough additional transfers from Steve at LBMS for a new legion, and for various extra units to increase the size of the other legions to 125 each. 

A couple of Victrix Steve's plastic peltasts have infiltrated the metal figures.  I'm painting them up as tests for a future project.

A question of scale

Around two years back, I decided that I would adopt a smaller representative scale on my legions. With 100 men to a legion, as below, I'd be able to build enough of them to re-fight the larger Civil War battles to which I aspire.

For some weeks I've been painting legionaries, and I'm making really good progress on two new legions. New figures are rolling off the production line at a rate of knots. 

In fact I am making such good progress, that it has struck me that I could, potentially, increase the size of the legions to 125 figures each (a 1:40 scale). I'd only need to paint another 100 minis or so in order to bring my forces up to this revised strength, and then I would be able to deploy the legions in a triple line, rather than the double line above. At the same time, I could take the opportunity to re-base some of the older figures to my new, improved standard, 8 figures to a 60 x 50mm base.

This has to be done... after Partizan, perhaps for SELWG.

Two legions for Vespasian

I'm near enough to completing the various projects for Salute, so have begun to make a start on my next project, which is a Cremona 69AD, for Partizan on 1st June.

In odd moments I've been preparing the figures for two 100-strong legions of Early Imperial Romans, which will form the core of Vespasian's army. I'm using the system I described in my "One piece at a time" article in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. I have bought around 110 of the figures, painted, in 4 different lots. A substantial contingent came from Legatus Hedlius; in fact they are on the header of his blog! All of these need new shield transfers, and some (but not Legatus'), need quite a bit of work to make them presentable.

The balance of the required minis need to be painted from scratch, and are shown below. Almost all of the minis are Foundry Saleh's, but I've mixed in a few Black Tree, Aventine and Crusader and swapped a few heads to increase variety. I've  made a small start on the painting and shield transfers. One legion will have grey-black shields, and the other, yellow.

I have exactly 2 months to lick these into shape (whilst simultaneously building the terrain!). This should keep me nice and busy...

A belated merry Xmas, and some fine Romans!

Hordes of invading relatives have meant I've been unable to post, so can I belatedly wish all my visitors a very late Merry Xmas and a rather early Happy New Year! May all your dice roll 6's (except when you need a 1!).

I bought these superb miniatures off fellow blogger Saxon Dog.  A huge thank you to David for thinking of me! They are far better than I could ever paint... but I hope I've complimented them with this Impetus basing scheme. The minis are mostly Foundry Perry (but the casualties and standard might be Warlord). All photos are clickable,do please have a look; the details are stunning!

As with the previous units, I have done the first element in combat poses, and the second element advancing slowly, as supports. I'll do this with all the legionary elements, and deploy them in 2 lines on the table. For some reason I think of these bases as centuries rather than the cohorts that my other EIR collection is formed in. I love the grouping above, with the centurion looking over at the wounded legionary. Such a fine casualty figure.

I now have six elements of Perry Romans, and will add a couple more each month.

Impetus basing also works very well with the "To the Strongest" rules I intend to publish next year, and I'll be using these in photos to illustrate aspects of the rules.  I will need some foes for them, too...

Impetus gaining momentum

Some more Romans based for Impetus; again Warlords, from the small but beautifully painted army that I bought from David Imrie.  I went with a 4cm deep base, and a few more minis than others might use.

This is the 4th element, I hope to reach 10  by the early New Year... and I'll need to think about collecting a suitable army for them to fight.  

Impetus Auxilia

I bought these (clickable) chaps off Saxon Dog, recently; they are from his Last of the Free! collection. I've re-based them for Impetus (and my own To The Strongest! ruleset), for my EIR2 project, which is really starting to roll along, now.

The paint jobs are beautiful, better than I could do, and I didn't touch them at all, except to muddy up the shields.  Which seemed almost criminal.  I'm also very impressed with these particular Warlord castings; so dynamic!  

I also have some archers, and two elements-worth of David's legionaries, which I hope to base next week. I'm ploughing on towards my 52 unit target for the year.  I'm currently at 41, but have a couple more close to completion...  

(Note to self- Base coat is Steel Legion Drab, highlighted with SLD + Buff Titanium and the lightest drybrush of Buff Titanium with a little SLD.  Shields are washed with Strong Tone, then stippled with SLD, SLD light tone and the very lightest drybrush of Buff Titanium.  After tufting, wash the bases with matt varnish with Army Painter Strong Tone ink added)

My fifth Blogiversary, and a new major project

My first ever blog post was on 8th November 2008, and I have realised that I have just passed my fifth Blogiversary! Since then, I appear to have made no fewer than 675 posts, and have had just over 570K page views. Can I offer a huge thanks to all of the visitors, who make this such an enjoyable activity! 

For my next major project, I've decided to assemble a second* Early Imperial Roman army from the delightful Foundry Perry range, based for Impetus (or my own "To the Strongest!" rules) on a 12cm frontage. Do 'ave a click!  I do like the look of Impetus basing.

With this army, I'm going for a deliberately wet, muddy look, based upon my impression of the opening scene of the film Gladiator.  All the miniatures will be pre-owned, purchased from eBay, and "tarted up" as described in my recent article in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Issue 69. I aspire to approximately 10 elements of legionaries, 6 of auxiliaries, 2 of Praetorians and 4 cavalry together with lights, generals and artillery. Even using pre-painted minis, this may take a little time...

*Ultimately there will also be a third, Aventine, late-Early Imperial army

Augustan Marines

These chaps have been recruited from the brush of Nick Speller*, and will be part of the marine contingent for my Roman boats.  They are based on an image in the Osprey Roman Marine book, and may well be Greeks, as the Romans recruited heavily into their navy from Greece and Egypt.

The figures are Foundry Thebans, equipped with Roman auxiliary shields, and with metal armour painted as leather.  Steve from LBMS very kindly resized the transfers for me.

I only rarely base minis singly, but elements just aren't going to work, shipboard.  I am half tempted to work up some sort of Roman naval skirmish game.  Later, I will need to make a sabot for these, in case they get should get their land-legs.

*I applied the shields and an ink wash

Even more Romans...

As I move steadily towards the basing stage on my Caesarians, my mind is turning to another project; an Early Imperial Army, with a twist.

I've been buying up odd lots of Perry Romans, on eBay, and must now have a couple of hundred, all told.   The below are mostly from a single purchase, last week; a nice lot.

I have formulated a cunning plan for a project involving them, which will be the subject of a later post (and hopefully, in due course, a magazine article...).

Unusually today, I am sat in the executive lounge of the Antwerp Hilton and have a solid 9 hours to plug away at adding diagrams to my "To the Strongest!" wargames rules.   

Coh. V Dalmatorum

 

This is the last cohort of Romans I'll produce for a while; they are an auxiliary cohort I started just before Partizan, that I wanted to wrap up.  They are a bog-standard unit of auxiliaries of Dalmatian origin, all Black Tree miniatures, and, for once, almost exclusively* painted by me!  This is one of my favourite LBMS auxiliary shield designs.  As ever, pics are fully clickable.

They are my 15th auxiliary infantry unit and I now, albeit temporarily, have more auxiliaries than legionaries (something that very few wargamers can say!).  Once I have based one final auxiliary cavalry unit, I'll have hit my resolution target of 60 double elements of auxiliaries (414 minis), and I'll be able to move on to expand the legions.  I do prefer to paint auxiliaries to legionaries, though, I find them more varied and interesting.

*Three of Legatus Hedlius command figures crept in