Super Bletchley Zama Slideshow!
These are the photos that my mate Ian took of our Bletchley game, and very fine they are, too! They include quite a few closeups.
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Operation Zama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Operation Zama. Show all posts
Monday, 26 April 2010
Sunday, 25 April 2010
A fine day out...
Yesterday was Salute 2010, and I've half a dozen or so photos of the day, mostly garnered from Matthieu's phone (merci!). They are mostly of the people (I've got a disc of photos of the game at Bletchley from Ian that I will post later).
Muswell Hill Militiamen (Paris chapter) drinking beer outside the Maid of Muswell pub, our spiritual home.
Matthieu developing a taste for Landlord.
Scipio confers with Laelius, whils Masinissa appears to be wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
Gregory Privat, Iron Mitten and yrs truly. I look almost as crazed as the sapper in the picture!
Gregory in trouble.
The Carthaginian elephants performed very poorly and one of the Carthaginian generals became despondant, but Hannibal kept the battle going right to the end...
Muswell Hill Militiamen (Paris chapter) drinking beer outside the Maid of Muswell pub, our spiritual home.
Matthieu developing a taste for Landlord.
My son Harry, his friend Alex and I arrived at Excel at 7:01, but it took over 2 hours to get in and finish setting the game up. Various militiamen arrived with their contingents; Ian and Dr. Simon from Muswell, Craig from Leeds, Nick and a friend from Essex. The doors opened at 9:45 and we kicked the game off at 11.00 with the assistance of conscripted players who included another Simon, Chris and Dirk (apologies for missed names here, I have a terrible memory for names and faces). Many of the players were novices but they picked the rules up quickly.
Scipio confers with Laelius, whils Masinissa appears to be wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
Gregory Privat, Iron Mitten and yrs truly. I look almost as crazed as the sapper in the picture!
Gregory in trouble.
The Carthaginian elephants performed very poorly and one of the Carthaginian generals became despondant, but Hannibal kept the battle going right to the end...
Scipio was called away and the other generals decide on cardplay in his absence,. Leadership by committee must have been effective, as the Romans did eventually win at around 4.30pm (whilst Scipio was off queuing in the car park).
Unexpectedly we were awarded the Salute prize for "Most Impressive Troops". This was a considerable acheivement, because there were some fantastic armies out there! The judge said that what most impressed him was that the project was the combined work of 6 or 7 different painters, and yet all the figures worked together beautifully. I think that this, on top of the Best Game award at Bletchley, is a great tribute to all the people that have worked so long and hard to bring the project to fruition!
So what next? I think a few weeks are needed to chill out, and then we might bat some ideas around for another grandiose project for 2011...
Monday, 19 April 2010
More shots of Zama
Very few of my photos of the game amounted to much, but I am confident that Ian will have some good pics. Here are a few I took before the action grew too hot, and I got distracted...
View from behind the Roman lines at the start (that's Scipio in the foreground)
View from behind the Roman lines at the start (that's Scipio in the foreground)
Roman tribunes confer over tactics; Aventine Adam and Keith (centre) and Nick Speller right. You can see the Carthaginian elephants bouncing off the velites. Later a couple managed to break through, and caused fearsome devastation. Keith tells me that my Carthaginians destroyed 19 out of the 21 units of Roman Hastati, Principes and Triarii (yet we still lost!).
Here's a view from behind the Carthaginian left, late on in the game. Our Numidians hung grimly on to the very end. By this time the Roman centre (back right) was reduced to a thin screen of velites, but our own mercenaries and levies had died in droves (see foreground) and our army morale failed.
I'll post some better photos when I can get hold of them...
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Thanks...
I realised whilst posting on TMP that there are a lot of people I need to thank for their help.
It was very nice to finally meet the Aventine boys in the flesh, who designed and painted so many miniatures for the Project, and Craig, too, who painted the other half of the Romans. Also John who made the trees and haystacks; the ever productive Nick Speller who splendidly painted so many minis that I went on to base. and lots of Cartho vetrans, too. Keith, Adam, Craig and John travelled huge distances to be there.
Then there was Ian who battled his way through at least 8 playtests, which helped the game to run perfectly on the day; and who helped to put all the pins in the boards. Twice. Next week, at Salute, I'm also looking forward to meeting mon ami Greg again (who must painted at least a couple of hundred minis for the event) and gaming with fellow Muswell Militiaman Dr. Simon, whose minis made it to Bletchley even though he didn't.
It was great meeting people at the event, too, like 2mm Simon and the other Adam, even though the time for chat seemed so short. Also Dougie and Mark who made up our number of players to the critcal 8. I wish their had been a bit more time to meet other people, too; the day just flashed past. I didn't even get to see very much of the other games. Sigh. Huge thanks to Richard Lockwood for organising the event! And to everyone who has supported the blog over the last year.
Cheers, Simon
Zama- "B" Day Deployment
Today I'll post some photos of our Zama game which was fought yesterday at the SOA Battle Day in Bletchley, and which we will fight one more time at Salute. All phgotos are clickable.
Here is a view along the battlefield from behind the Carthaginian left rear. If you look carefully, you can see the ladders on the haystacks!
And, finally for the moment (below) an aerial view of the battlefield; Carthaginians in the foreground. The three lines of the Carthaginian deployment can be distinctly made out, with their elephants in front. You should also be able to see the four Roman legions with their "elephant channels", and Numidian foot deployed to their right. The two central legions have red shields, and the outer allied legions, white.
Friday, 16 April 2010
Eve of Battle!
Hannibal and Scipio parley on the battlefield of Zama, on the day before the battle.
Tomorrow at the crack of dawn, Muswell Militia and various associated malcontents will be driving up to the SOA Battle Day event in Bletchley to fight our version of Zama. Hannibal has won every practice battle; but I have a feeling in my waters that Scipio will pip it on the day...
Hope to see some of you there!
Hope to see some of you there!
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Keith's Zama Legions (B-8)
Aventine-Keith has just sent me this picture of the 2 legions (less 4 units of velites, not shown, which I've done) that he has painted for the Zama game. Romans left, allies right. They represent just under 1/3 of the Roman army for the game; can't wait to see them "in the lead"! Not long to go, now...
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Snowballs in the dust... (B-10)
Now having spent 3 months producing a set of rather realistic-appearing terrain, my mate Ian and I have just spent an evening fixing little white balls all over it....
The reason for this madness, is that we need to mark out the hexes that are (nigh-on) essential for Command and Colors. Each hex is around 13cm across the flats and will hold one unit (there are c.120 units in the game). I decided that the minimum we could get away with, in terms of indicatiing the hexes, is a map pin marking the apices.
To position the map pins, we made a template from a thin sheet of clear plastic, marked the apices out, and cut a 10mm cross at each one. We then pushed the pins through the plastic into the foam, carefully removed the plastic sheet, and whacked each pin with a hammer, which anchored them in the MDF beneath the foam. The really nice thing about the map pins is that they can be removed without damageing the boards in the event that we want to use them for non-hex games, at a later stage.
You can just make the plastic sheet out by the glare, below:
Below is the board with the plastic removed, and some punic troops drawn up in line.
Whilst the pins are slightly obtrusive, they are, unfortunately, a necessary evil. There will be around 750 map pins across the entire table. I'd like to than Ian for his help with the 4 boards we finished!
Sunday, 4 April 2010
Hannibal (B-12)
Here is the great man himself. He seems to be remonstrating with the levy spearman; perhaps the levy want to retreat, but the veterans won't let them through. Tough!
These minis were painted by the very talented Nick Speller. I varnished and based them. They are Crusader except for the nice Aventine mini on the left and left-hand vexilla (Aventine do great standards). The Hannibal is, appropriately, an old Salute giveaway miniature.
Only 12 painting sessions to Bletchley! I've still got 2 units of Greg's Bruttians to finish and base, the casualties to complete, the boards to drybrush, hexes to mark out, packing and a couple of other minor tasks.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Boards on the Tabletop
I put four of the eight Zama boards on a table yesterday, and they joined up nicely. I've still not finished the flocking, but I've done enough to know that it'll all work. The boards are a little browner in real life than in the photo.
Yesterday I raided the local pound shop, and bought enough camping mats and doublesided tape to put a padded backing on each of the boards, as below. I'm hoping that this will protect the surface of the boards when they are stacked up against each other, and protect my table top, too. It only cost £1 GBP per board!
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Carthaginian Mounted General (B-20)
This represents the nameless commander of the Carthaginian right wing cavalry at Zama. The general is a converted Aventine Pyrrhic mahout, and his standard bearer Crusader, with an Aventine standard. Both horses are Foundry WotGs. Very ably painted by Nick Speller, and based by yrs. truly.
In most of the playtest games, the horse he commands and their Roman opponents have pretty well wiped each other out. The general has sometimes survived the slaughter and gone on to help lead the Carthaginian foot.
Friday, 26 March 2010
Scipio Africanus! (B-21)
Here's the first of four Command stands, painted by Nick Speller and based by me. Scipio is the overall Roman commander, and an excellent tactician, who hammered the final nail into the coffin of Carthage at Zama.
Most of the figures are the excellent new Aventines, but the mounted General is a Crusader miniature.
Scipio will sit on the Roman Baseline. He's not going to get into any combats, in our game.
As here, I usually inscribe a name on the rear of the command stand.
Only 3 more weeks to finish everything up!
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Flocking hell...
I started the flocking stage yesterday hoping that it would be a quick job, but one test board later (and that far from completion), it is clearly not going to be the case. Below is the test board before flocking:-
and after...
The flock disguises the dark brown edges where the base board paint had soaked into the fur, and makes the field edges appear less regular. I 've also been applying it on top of the fur which makes it seem more natural. What I haven't done, yet, is to apply flock around the drainage ditches. I intend this vegetation to be greener, to inject just a little colour onto the brown-grey boards.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
4 weeks to Bletchley, 5 to Salute.
4 weeks today we'll be listening to the opening lecture at Bletchley. Gulp! I've got up early to polish off domestic duties and try to get a full day in on the terrain.
In other news, my period of "resting" will shortly be coming to an end, as employment (finally!) beckons. It's a good job that the boards are nearly complete! Post Salute, I expect that I'll have to become a less frequent (but regular) poster.
Friday, 19 March 2010
Quick Zama update
Last night Ian and I had the best playtest so far. The game was exciting, and felt fairly balanced.; the Carthaginians were very slightly ahead, but we'll fix that. I was particularly happy because we have felt able to strip out most of the special rules we had been testing, so it is now fairly close to vanillla Command and Colors. The elephants, in particular, are now in 5 units of 2 and but a mere shadow of their former stompy selves (although they did stomp my Carthaginians a few times, in blue-on-blue incidents!).
Today I received a package from French Greg Privat including the last of the Bruttians, and some casualty minis, all looking very nice. All the Generals arrived from Nick Speller earlyer this week, and they look great too. So with the exception of a few more casualty figures that Nick is working on, and the olive trees band hay ricks currently being fashioned in the Scottish glens by my mate John, I now have all the stuff that I'm responsible for.
This afternoon, I'm sticking fields to the boards; tomorrow, hopefully doing some detailing (tufts of grass, etc.). And I've put in an order for 700 more 5mm map pins...
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Fields of Zama
Sorry that my hithertoo regular posts have become somewhat sporadic! I've been very busy with life in general, and some very time-consuming and non-photogenic elements of the Zama project.
Here is one such element. These fields (and others not shown here) all needed to be cut into shape, trimmed, shaved with my Wahl hair trimmer and dyed with diluted acrylic paint.
The next stage will be to stick them onto the terrain boards. Then I'll need to dress the terrain boards with clumps of static grass, leaves, weeds and whatever. The board project is now around 75% complete! Never again. ;-)
Saturday, 13 March 2010
4" Drybrush Day
Today I drybrushed the 9 terrain boards, with a mid-brown and then a highlight, using the biggest brush I could find!
Here's a board drying in what passes for sun around here.
Here's a board drying in what passes for sun around here.
Here are a couple of boards with the first highlight. I hope to apply a very sparse second highlight, tomorrow. The colour I went for is a sort of raw umber with a bit of tan in it. It looks a bit grey in the photos, but it is slightly browner IRL.
The boards will look (somewhat) less austere when the fields and tufts of vegetation are added. I feel an awful lot better about the project, as they are starting to look like something a man could stick a wargame figure on!
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Scene of Devastation
Here's the gaming table after the latest play test of the Zama game (mentioned yesterday), using Command and Colors blocks. When we packed up at 11:30, the game was getting near a conclusion, with Carthage (far side of table) somewhat ahead on account of the over-powerful elephants mentioned in the comments on the previous post. Each of the blocks represents 2-4 figures, and the board on the day will be three times as long.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Numidian Elephants
I realised today that I haven't posted a picture of the elephants that will stand (possibly all too briefly!) before the Carthaginian front line in the Zama game. Here are 6 of the 10; a mix of Essex, Gripping Beast and (converted) Renegade. The other 4 are in the collection of Dr. Simon.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Board 7 of 9
My increasing gaps in posting have been caused by the need to break the back of the Zama terrain, which is proving to be very time-consuming. I'm trying to get all the Zama boards textured and base coloured before I go on to the next stage, highlighting.
Here's an iffy pic of board 7. You can see gaps I've left for the teddy bear fur fields; these will be trimmed, coloured and added later on. The base colour doesn't show up well; the boards are a dark chocolate brown.
I've designed the tracks so that the boards can be combined to make either a 4' by 18' table surface, or a 6' or 8' by 8', so hopefully they will be useful for a variety of other projects in the future.
I still need to find a way to indicate the apexes of the hexes; I'm thinking that I may use pins, pressed into the styrofoam. These could be removed if I recide to use the boards for something different and non-hex based, later on.
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