Showing posts with label Picts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Picts. Show all posts

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Arthur and Magnus Maximus at Partizan

Very belatedly, here are shots of the recent game on which the Newark Irregular boys and myself collaborated. Most of the miniatures, terrain and buildings are from Steve Jones and James Morris superb collections as seen in the WAB "Age of Arthur" book, with Scrivs, Mog and myself topping them up. The photos are from various contributors including Darrell Hindley, John Thompson and Ian Notter.


Above the whole table, which was L shaped and roughly 15' by 15'. In the foreground Magnus Maximus' Late Romans (left) fact a Pictish horde. 


Above Pictish reinforcements coming ashore with their village in the background. Below a couple of shots of the Pictish warbands.


The printed gaming mats proved very popular- so popular that four of the five used in the game were "spoken for" by the close of play. I have started importing them from Deep-Cut Studio in Lithuania, and they can be found in the BigRedBatshop, I'll have some desert ones too, shortly.


Below, Picts peer nervously out from their villages.


I made the heather- it is clump foliage glued to MDF with a dusting of pink flock. Cheap and effective and I'll make some more, also more gorse.


Romans drawn up in front of their camp. That's Magnus Maximus on the horse. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the Arthur vs the Saxons game, but here are some lovely shots of the village situated between the two games.



James' villa (below, one wing only) is stunning and packed with interior detail, too.


Below To the Strongest! action as evidenced by the presence of playing cards. The Roman unit with the blue shields and draco (bottom left) broke through the Pictish line.


Finally here's another shot of the lovely stand that the Newark Irregulars very kindly gave me; they formed the garrison of the Romans camp.


Many thanks again to the Newark Irregulars and to all my mates who helped on the day; it was a pleasure. Farewell to Kelham and onwards to the Newark Showground! Next year there should be space for a proper-sized table. ;-)

Friday, 24 January 2014

Somewhere just south of the Wall

Last night a full contingent of the Muswell Militiamen gathered for a second game with my emerging Late Roman collection. The Picts have crossed the wall, and are threatening a fortified Roman town. The Roman field army formed up in a long thin line in front of the town's walls, leaving the town behind them un-garrisoned.  This latter was a decision that they would, all to soon, regret.


The Romans moved first and dashed forward, trying to take the ridge between the two armies. They only managed to get a toehold, though, before their movement activations ended. In the Pictish turn the northerners seized the rest of the ridge. They had a surprise up their sleeve, too; one of the stratagems they had drawn before the game indicated that one of their units, in this case the Saxon allied cavalry was off-table, lost. They diced to see if they would arrive, and where, and there was a collective drawing of breath as the cantered across the Roman baseline straight into the town, and commenced to loot the legion's baggage (below)! Presumably they had stumbled across an unguarded rear gate...



Above is a shot of the Pictish left, nervously awaiting the arrival of the Roman cataphracts, and below is the fighting for the ridge. Shortly after this shot was taken, the Roman unit in the right foreground had to turn around and march off, to attempt to assault and recapture their own camp!



Above, on the left flank, a unit of Roman skirmishers made skillful use of the terrain to hold up the advance of a Saxon warband (above), whilst a unit of auxiliaries contested a patch of newly-made heather with Pictish spearmen (below).



The game was very confused and very enjoyable.  The thin Roman battle line broke up very quickly (below), with several veteran legiones making for (and capturing some of) the Pictish baggage, whilst doing their best to fend off flank and rear attacks.  The Picts won by a fair margin, largely due to the instinctive looting abilities of their Saxon allies.




I've come away with a few more suggestions and rule tweaks, which I've been working on this morning. Mate Craig has very kindly sold me some beautiful Late Romans that I want to paint up before out next game, in a few weeks time, and I think we will play Longstreet again next week.

Friday, 17 January 2014

Getting my Picts out...

Before 2005 I painted a fairly large Pictish army.  This has languished, unloved, in storage for the last 8 years for want of a historical opponent.  Happily, now that my Late Romans are quorate, they can take to the field again! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the painting is not as good as I do now, but not too shabby, either. The basing is similar to my current standard, and just needs a little TLC and tuftage to bring it into line.

Ian and Jay played a 100 point game using my rules.  I won't go through this in too much detail, because I hope to run a similar game next week.  A massed Roman attack in the centre, led by the elite Herculaini and Lanciarii Sabriences legiones, was inexorable and eventually split the Pictish army in two (below).  


The Picts were unable to capitalise on their superior numbers, but came close to winning, early on, when a warband broke into the Roman camp. Unfortunately these settled down to looting (=several failed activation rolls) and were eventually routed by a flank charge from some Roman archers.


Neither side's cavalry got into the action, except for one late flank charge by the Gentilium Seniores. Below is the only closeup I took of a Pictish unit, which gives an impression of what they look like; they are a mixture of Gripping Beast and foundry, with some Old Glory and a few conversions.


I'll take more photos next week, when I hope to have the terrain looking a tad more Scottish. The rules worked very well, we had a good laugh, and this morning I've been able to polish a couple of sections, especially terrain placement and fortifications.

Thursday, 5 May 2011

Celtic Horse

These are some cavalry I bought/painted around 6 years ago, recently retouched and with three additional painted by Nick.



The new 3 (below left) are the newer Gripping Beast Picts painted by Nick.   Nick's painting is way better than mine, especially the shields, but I don't like the blocky style of the newer slighly larger Gripping Beast figures as much as the older, more naturalistic ones.


Nick really nailed the shields (can only see one, properly, below on the right).  I was pleased with the way the windsock came out.


And now all together!  Who's got the mead?  Off to Cattraeth! 

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Arthur of the Votadini

These lovely minis were painted for me by Nick Speller (I merely based them).  I think they are some of Nick's finest work, especially the cloak and tunic on Arthur.  Fabulous.

This particular Arthur will be a warleader of some post-Roman celtic cavalry, that I'll be posting shortly (I started painting the units around 7 years ago, finished them last week!). 

 

Gotta love the hound, too.  The Arthur model is one of Gripping Beast's finest, super work I reckon.