Showing posts with label Miscellenia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellenia. Show all posts

Sunday, 21 April 2013

BigRedBat's Salute Highlights

I spent yesterday dashing madly around Salute, abut only managed to get a few snaps of games that "grabbed me", and often didn't record the groups that produced them.  I'm afraid it is a selective and incomplete list, but here goes!


The above game is Wargames Soldiers and Strategy's Wrath of Heaven, where I helped out for an hour.  The terrain was beautifully detailed, and the minis delightful, mostly painted by one of the WSS staffers (Christine?).  Mark who ran it was a natural GM, and the kids who played had a lot of fun.  Even the one whose ninja he cruelly slaughtered. ;-)   I very much enjoyed hanging out with the WSS crowd, including Guy and Jasper.


The above Siege of New Victoria game, set on Mars, was an absolute corker; half a dozen airshps battled above the fortress.  Oshiro model terrain did the terrain, and I believe Red Planet Miniatures the models.


The above "30 Seconds to Dog Green" Battlegroup Overlord, game was absolutely stunning, especially the cliffs, beach and bunkers.


This 28mm Normandy  game was called "Inland from Utah".  I was very taken with the column of obsolescent German (ex-French) armour.  I didn't recognise the Airfix Le Haye Saint until tonight!


Talking of armoured columns... the South London Warlord's Slammers game was a stunner.  The buildings were incredibly detailed, a labour of love.


The table was about a mile long!  These guys seemed to be lurking in ambush.


The other Warlords game was all Harryhausen, in 1/12 scale, such a brilliant idea.  The skeletons were scary... and I was worried what the Talos might get up to.



Above is a lovely Troy, Aeneas and family were busy escaping from it.  Run by the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp.


I spent a very happy 20 minutes discussing the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, with a chap at this table.  Very nice 10mm Pendragon miniatures, and plenty of them.


Above and below is the 54mm Victrix game.  The detail on the minis was astonishing, I was very taken with the hobnails on the boots (below).


Last but not least, the Dux Bellorum games run by Guitarhero Andy, James Morris and Steve (Jones?).  The games looked great, we had a nice chat and I gather that they deservedly won an award.

I forgot to take pictures of the huge, and stunning, Waterloo game.

I didn't manage to meet half of the people I wanted to, and have probably forgotten half of those I did meet.  However I did meet a whole "list" of gaming bloggers, including Big Lee, Postie, The Angry Lurker, Tamsin, Sebastien and Stephen of the Legatus blogs.  I also met various Lardies, my mate Nick Speller who gave me some newly painted toys (of which more anon), Simon Comitatus MacDowall, and an old friend, Craig Cartmell, who wrote "In Her Majesties Name", which last demo looked superb, but which I also failed to photograph.   Apologies if I also met you and have forgotten to mention it!

It was a very enjoyable day.  It seemed very busy, compared to last year, but not unduly crowded.  On the whole I felt that there were fewer impressive demo games, but it didn't seem to matter, as much fun was had by all!  I'm very glad that I went, after all.

Monday, 15 April 2013

New walls


Not the walls of a 28mm model city....


...but the walls of our new bathroom, finished at last, which is clearly inspired by the walls of a 28mm model city.  And below is the icing on the cake, my new (but as yet unshelved) wargames storage space.  This is around 70cm square by 2.4m tall, an awkward shape but I have a cunning plan to maximise the useful space.  I'm currently giving some thought to shelving.


If you live in the USA or Australia, this probably doesn't look like much, but in London every spare cubic centimetre counts!

Thursday, 11 April 2013

Road trip!

Yesterday I spent a very jolly day in a shed in Cambridge, with Dug Page-Croft (below, with wife Jen) and his mates. 


Dug very kindly hosted a re-fight of the battle of Thapsus, using my draft set of ancient wargaming rules, and my Caesarian Roman and Numidian armies, on the Zama boards.  


It all seemed to go very well, and the sun even came out!  I'll do a proper write-up tomorrow, when I have a bit more time, but here's a couple of (clickable) photos to be going with...


Tuesday, 26 March 2013

A new BatCave

Our bathroom still looks like Stalingrad, on a bad day.  However, out of the ashes, like a phoenix, is rising the carcass of a new wargaming storage cupboard.  This will be plastered, painted, shelved and illuminated.  It's about 8' tall, by 26" square.

This will hold my gaming boards (including a new, deeper size intended to permit cavalry and tank maneuvers) and will take the surplus boxes of minis that no longer fit inside my War Cabinet.  I reckon there will be room for a couple thousand more minis, which should keep me out of trouble with Mrs Bat, for 3 years, or so... after that, god knows what I'll do. 

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

A lucky gap between his teeth...


This is something of a departure from my normal posts, as, by choice, my non-wargaming life rarely intrudes on this blog.  However, this is just too good an opportunity to pass up, as it features my father Dennis Miller (below), my mother Shirley (in the background), my very late Uncle Roy and the most of the  Royal Marine School of Music, in Portsmouth.  The below Youtube link explains all...


There is also a link to the BBC South News article.  Here’s a very dramatic link to the British Pathe news article about the loss of HMS Barham, in 1941.  And some more info about the Royal Marine Band School, who gave him a tremendous reception...

I wasn't able to be there on the day, due to the snow, but it has been great to see the links, and I think my dad carried it all off, very well!  He looks very much like a visiting retired General...

He has often observed that, if he hadn’t been born with a gap between his front teeth, then he would have been the other boy bugler on duty, opposite Roy, on the other side of the Barham’s bridge, that day.  They say it is lucky to be born with such a gap; I should add that I was born with one, too!

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

My first magazine article


My first magazine piece, about basing miniatures, came out today, in Wargames, Soldies and Strategy 64.  Woo hoo!  If you want a copy, you can buy it here.  WSS is a great little magazine, and I hope to post there fairly regularly.

Interestingly, Guy the Editor comments that I must disagree with Dr. Phil Hendry's approach to basing.  I actually really like Phil's bases, especially those on his Roman and Sassanids.  He is very consistent, which is what I aim to be, too.

In other news, we played our first game of the New Year last night; the classic Avalon Hill boargame Successors.  This will hopefully make a great background for a campaign, later in the year, once I have enough miniatures painted.

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Mugs o'War

When painting, I like to drink my coffee (and tea) from a number of wargame-related mugs, and it occurs to me that other gamers might do this, too.  Here are mine!


Above is the "old faithful" of my mugs, which I stumbled across around 2004, whilst painting my 28mm Pictish army.  I think it came from the Museum of Scotland, via a charity shop.  I love the design, and its rugged construction has, I estimate, survived more than 3,000 washes...


Above is the 2005 Salute mug, from the George and Dragon year.  I've always loved this one, but the lettering is fading toward invisibility, after perhaps 2,500 washes.

Fianlly, below is the 2011 Salute mug.  I've always found this one a bit ugly, and the lettering is fading badly, after only a year and a half.  However, it is a whopping great mug and perfect for a bucket of afternoon tea!


So these are my mugs o'war.  If you have any similar drinking vessels, please feel free to post a link in the comments!

Saturday, 3 November 2012

Mountain of Shame

Legatus Hedlius has bravely shown his mountain of unpainted metal miniatures, and I felt that, in the interest of disclosure, I should respond by showing (most) of my own.  The below are my unpainted metal miniatures storage areas.


Above is the core of the lead mountain; Foundry boxes, full of Foundry miniatures (mostly Copplestone and Saleh), on top of a bookcase.  I once suffered an avalanche, when a box at the bottom gave way under the weight; the aftermath wasn't pretty.  Perhaps 2000 28mm metal miniatures.

Below is the one of the foothills, on top of another bookcase, this time including quite a few Perrys, some lovely Foundry Saleh Persians, and a generous force of Aventines.  Perhaps 800 unpainted miniatures.


I almost forgot this next heap, on the right- here are more Aventines, A&A miniatures MIR Romans, and others, including some Native Americans (never going to get painted, those!).  Also in this pile are quite a few painted but un-based miniatures (oh the horror!).  At least 500 unpainted miniatures.

Finally there are the miniatures stored in the loft; I reckon that there are at least 1000 up there, that I can't fit in downstairs.  These include fantasy figures, a couple hundred more Foundry Romans, Perry metal Napoleonics and such forth.

In total I estimate that I have 4300+ unpainted 28mm metals (and perhaps 1000 unpainted Perry and Victrix plastics).  My unpainted miniatures actually outnumber my painted!

Oh the shame...

Friday, 2 November 2012

Striking Gold

...so I suspected that I had a few Foundry Spartans left, lurking somewhere deep in the lead mountain.  A major excavation discovered no less than 100 Spartans!  Moreover, one of the test pits struck gold; I came across no less than 5 of the recent Foundry Celtic chariots,hidden at the very core of the mountain.  This completely forgotten purchase will be directly useful in the big chariot project that I have slowly burning away in the background.

Life has been interfering with art, recently.  My mother-in-law is moving nearer to us and I'm doing a lot of the organising, which means I'm not going to have much time to game over the next month.  I'm still getting plenty of painting time, though, and have several projects inching toward completion, of which more, anon.

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

A rare night's gaming


Last night a near-full muster of the local Muswell Militiamen gave my draft rules a bit of an outing along with my Celts, who haven't seen daylight since Zama.  The game went pretty well; despite losing their flanking cavalry, the superior discipline of the legions eventually told, and led to them breaking the line of warbands.  I have a handful of revisions to make to the rules, and expect to give them another outing next Tuesday, with Gorgeous George's Greeks.

My painting table is below.  Inexplicably an unexpected Gothic invasion is delaying work on the chariots.  The Goths, who have languished unnoticed in amongst a box of Vikings for 3 or 4 years, charged forth with a shout of "Paint me! Paint me!" and are consequently in the process of being tarted up and expanded to 24.  Worse still, some part-painted Celtic foot have pushed in behind them... and there is a chap carrying a tray of what look to be unripe tomatoes....


Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Desperately Seeking Salehs


As part of my continuing Early Imperial Roman project, I’m after as many of the Wargames Foundry Early Imperial Romans as I can lay my hands on (especially the Auxilia with the oval shields).  I wonder whether any of you have any, spare, in your lead mountains?  The Saleh miniatures are the ones with the cast-on shields (see below, legionary centre in top photo, or auxiliaries on the flanks in the bottom photo), and are larger than the other Foundry Perry range.  They are going to look like hulking brutes if you are collecting Warlord or the smaller Perry range...



I’d be happy to buy, or swap for miniatures from my own substantial and varied lead mountain.  Unpainted would be good, but will also look at painted ones.  If you have any, do please drop me a line at the email address on the front page of the blog!

Monday, 18 June 2012

300!


A quick post to welcome Brent, who is my 300th follower, and to thank everyone else for popping by so regularly.  I am very much enjoying the blog at the moment, and there should be lots more posting in the months to come!

Cheers!  Simon

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

The Roman Empire Order of Battle for the Civil Wars 68AD to 70AD



The Roman Empire Order of Battle for the Civil Wars 68AD to 70AD is a Society of Ancients publication, written by Michael Lane. I lost my much-thumbed paper copy of this 86 A4-page booklet, around 6 months ago, and Dug Page-Croft recently and very generously bought me a replacement copy, on a disc, from the Society of Ancients.

This booklet is a fantastic source of information about the pay rates, organisation and the deployment of the Roman Legions, Praetorians and Auxiliaries from Augustus to Trajan.   It is also a valuable source regarding the names of the legions and auxiliary cohorts (all mine are named from it), and can often provide information on where they were based, and when, and in the case of the legions, the commander's name when known.  Finally it has orders of battles, diagrams and accounts of all the major battles in the 68-70AD Civil War, some illustrations and a timeline of events. 

This is a must have for those interested in wargaming the period, I can’t recommend it highly enough!  When my campaign eventually gets running, it’ll be based on this.

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Orbis for Roman campaigning

This is an astonishing new tool developed by Stanford University, seemingly designed for those wishing to run wargame campaigns set within the Roman Empire:-


The really useful tab is the "Mapping Orbis" one.  Using this, one can calculate journey times from any place in the Roman empire, to any other, and choose appropriate means of transport.  It even takes into account season and wind direction! 

One needs to be a bit careful about the suggested routes, which can be a little eccentric.  Also I'm cautious about land travel in winter, which (unlike sea travel) doesn't seem to take longer than land travel in the summer.  However, the potential for use as a tool to work out travel times is immense; the map is pretty handy, too, and could be made available to players.  The GM could calculate travel times for armies and modify with random factors or according to the generalship of the commander.

Hopefully I'll get a campaing running late in the year, and this will be the engine that I'll use to calculate the speed of movement of armies.  Do have a go, it is very easy to use and rather fun!

Sunday, 1 April 2012

So where has BigRedBat been?


I’ve been posting rather rarely on the BigRedBatCave, and much less evident on the wargaming boards, and I thought I might post a brief explanation of why and where my thought processes are going, and get it straight, in my own mind about what I’m going to be doing next.

Firstly, I’ve been unusually busy at work for the last six months, and there has been a good deal of pressure, too.  Working longer days and not knowing with any sense of reliability that I’ll be able to leave at 5:30 has put paid to my usual evening gaming sessions. I’m also too tired to face setting up/knocking down a game as I used to. This has meant that I’ve not run an evening gaming session since last October, the longest period I’ve gone without a wargame (of some description) in around 30 years.

Secondly, I found myself becoming frustrated with TMP, where I was hitherto very active.  I felt I spent too long reading the posts, and also became increasingly frustrated by the cross-posting and occasional trolls.   The last straw for me was Allen Curtis being banned, as I often enjoyed his posts and he had more historical knowledge than the rest of us added together.  So I’ve gone cold-turkey, let my subscription lapse and not posted there since November (although I do still, sometimes, skim the ancients boards).  I miss my friends from there, but, on balance, I feel it was a good call.

Thirdly, I cut back on big projects, abandoning a large game that mon ami Greg and I had planned for Salute, and a Zama-sized game for Partizan.  I just haven’t had the time to do them justice.

Finally, I recently stopped cruising eBay.  I’ve spent far too much on minis and have a huge backlog of units to complete and base up, both Ancients and my new Napoleonics.  The numerous boxes of painted but un-based miniatures are even more depressing than the even more numerous boxes of unpainted minis.  I have spent far too much over the last few years and it really is time to cut back, and even sell off some army surplus, although I am still getting some minis painted for me.

So what have I been up to, instead? 

Well, I’ve still managed to do a lot of painting/basing, which I can fit in late in the evenings and which I find relaxing.  Over the last 6 months I have got almost 500 Napoleonics ready for the table,  and also have perhaps 400 more from my former eBay purchases in some stage of readiness.  I also have a good number of Romans (mostly Caesarian and Early Imperial) that I really need to base, soon, along with a fort to house my legions.  In the short term I haveve decided to power ahead to finish a couple more brigades of French, whilst I have the bit between my teeth, before hitting the Romans again, after the summer.  

Gaming is a tricky one.  In all honesty I still haven’t got the energy, at the moment, for a regular weekly session, but I do need to work out a way of fitting in some play, even if only once a month or so.  I also want to get around to a lot of shows this year, and also play some games at weekends if I can manage it.  I did manage to play yesterday wtih RTB and friends, near Nottingham; more about this, later, on my very own Spanish ulcer...  I must say I did have a great time and came away with some excellent ideas for modelling projects...  there’s a snap of my dragoon division, above, charging onto the table for the very first time.

Cheers, Simon

Saturday, 18 February 2012

1K Lives- 1066 and all that


A local Muswellian friend of mine, John Squire-Melmoth, has been writing and reading a series a series of short stories, each of which uses exactly 1,000 words and some nice pictures to say something about an imaginary life.  This particular story caught my eye because of its connection with 1066, and because the subject lays in bed mulling over things historical before sleeping, in much the same way that I often lay there mentally reviewing my cohorts,  battalions, and painting plans in the early hours. 


The story lasts around 6 minutes; enjoy!  If you enjoy this one, another story:-


is also dangerously close to home, for wargamers...

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Hanging Gardens

A wonderful present arrived from my mate John Smillie yesterday; well, two presents.


The small complex of Eastern buildings is sturdily made from plywood, with removable interior floors.  He also gave me 8 or 9 small but very pretty fruit trees, some of which have multiple trunks.  I've just put these on the roofs, for the purposes of the photo.

Below is a view from the rear, I just love the buttresses.  If I ever get an Eastern city built, this will take pride of place.  Thanks, John! 


John has recently set up a blog about 45 Commando in which he served, and in which his son currently serves.  He is going to build a model, using a range of 54mm Marine figures he designed and sculpted himself,  to be presented to the Commando.  Have a look here.

He's also in the early stages of making some cypress trees for me.  No one makes any cypresses, to my satisfaction, and they are a key element of many mediterranean battlefields, so I await these with considerable anticipation!  I hope they will look something like the pencil-thin ones, below, which I saw on holiday in Greece.


John takes commissions, so if there's a building you've always fancied, he might well be up for it.  Drop me an email and I'll forward.