Showing posts with label Polybian Roman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Polybian Roman. Show all posts

Sunday, 6 November 2016

Magnesia at Crisis

I've just returned from a splendid trip to Crisis in Antwerp with mates Ian Notter and Andrew Brentnall. The show war excellent, the Tin Soldiers great hosts and I ran into dozens of wargaming chums including many who I've previously only met online. Andrew displayed considerable sang froid in the face of some challenging roadworks and diversions. Antwerp is a great city to visit and a good deal of food, beer and wine was consumed!

Here are some photos of the game, which we ran using my "To the Strongest!" rules. All the minis were painted by Ian, and he took the great photos, too.

Deployment; Seleucids on the left.  The mat is a gigantic "Sagebrush steppe" mat that I've had specially made; it is 16' long!

The Roman camp; my only contribution! The Roman legions are Donnington.

Seleucid phalanxes interspersed with elephants and screened by innumerable lights. The Seleucids are mostly Xyston.

View from behind the phalanx, towards the cavalry on the Roman right.

Roman triplex axies; we used the "alternative Polybian list- worked great!

Late in the battle- cataphracts charge! The Roman triarii fought like the veterans of Zama they were and skewered Antiochus!

The Roman line bows but does not break.
We had such a fantastic weekend- I very much hope to make it back to Crisis next year- perhaps with a different sort of pike!

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Tribola at Hereward

On Sunday I motored across to Peterborough for the Hereward show, where mates James Morris, Mog and Matt were putting on a spectacular game using "To the Strongest!". I travelled up with mate Dug who very kindly took these photos.

Our "Tribola" game featured an attack on a Roman column by Lusitanian freedom fighter led by Viriatus. I won't write much about it as I understand that James plans to publish the scenario in one of the magazines. As well as James and Mog's minis, the game featured James' superb mountain that was used for Keren, admirably re-purposed as well as some new rocky outcrops.


In the game a Roman column of four legions has been lured into a trap by vengeful Lusitanian rebels. You may just be able to make out the grid which was marked with tufts; the shot is taken at the start of the battle.


James' mountain towered over the other end of the table. It is absolutely huge and the build quality is superb; the design is really well thought out with panels bolting on to a wooden frame.


Above, a shot from late in the battle, when the action became confused as Lusitanian horse harrassed isolated Roman units. The minis were beautifully painted by James and Mog. Below, I contributed a few units of Roman baggage to the game- pack mules from Tiger Miniatures, some lightly converted, temporarily based to match James' terrain.

 

We played the scenario twice and it was a lot of fun. We used the "experimental" Polybian list which has more resilient Roman units that performed well even when attacked from multiple directions- "Form orbis!"

This was the Hereward show's second year and somewhat larger than the first. The venue was very good and the event has become a regular in my gaming calendar.

Sunday, 16 August 2015

Equites Romanes


This is a unit of Aventine Roman Equites that Shaun Watson (Redzed) painted for me, that I've finally finished basing. They are lovely models that will guard the right wing of my Polybian legions. Now I need to get some more Italians allies painted up for the other wing. 


In other news, over the last few weeks I've uploaded another bunch of army lists for To the Strongest!

  • Philistines in the Cradle of Civilization booklet
  • Early Achaemenid Persians to the Kingdoms of the East booklet
  • Camillan Romans to Rise of Rome booklet
  • Scots Irish in the Rome's Empire booklet
  • Early Bulgars to the Late Antiquity booklet
  • Nikephorian Byzantines to the Early Medieval booklet
  • Norse and Medieval Irish, Arab Conquest, Ummayad Caliphate, Teutonic Knights, Sengoko Samurai and Ikko-Ikki, to the Later Medieval booklet

They can be downloaded for free from the BigRedBatshop. I'm on a bit of a roll with the Medievals and expect to publish the various Medieval Russian lists this week.

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Not Noreia 112BC


Here are some shots of a game of "To the Strongest" I played with mate Ian last week. In the foreground a horde of migrating Germans approach a Roman blocking force protecting a town. Below is a photo of the Roman centre and right, including three of their four legions. All of the photos are clickable.


The Roman force was Polybian, organised into small units of 8-16 figures, whereas the Germans (proxied with Gallic figures) were in 40+ strong blocks. One of the reasons I wanted to fight this match up was because I'd read an account of one test game where the small units of the Roman legions were entirely swept away by a wild Gallic charge, and I wanted to check that this wasn't going to happen every game!

Below Ianus advances the Roman and Numidian cavalry screening his left, against my rather scruffy German cavalry (most of whom were "raw").  


The velites also rushed forward and showered the German warriors with their javelins, disordering several of them (note the stepped-back element in the right foreground). Disordered warriors only hit on an 8 instead of a 6, and are really hard to rally. I pushed the warriors forward as quickly as I could, in an attempt to minimise Roman shooting, and eventually managed to catch and kill a couple of units of pesky velites.

Below is a view from behind the German right.  At one point I managed to get a scruffy German cavalry unit onto the flank of the left-hand Roman legion (rear, centre, in the wheat field). Unfortunately the legion's Triarii flanked them, in return, and drove them off.


In the centre, below, the warbands collided with the Roman line. They managed to smash through the Roman Hastati and then the Principes, but took a lot of casualties along the way, becoming progressively disordered.  It is very hard to rally warriors when the enemy are in charge or shooting range.


Unfortunately the Roman Triarii proved too tough a nut to crack, and I just couldn't kill them and break through to loot the temples on the edge of the town. It turned into a very narrow Roman victory - they had one medal left when the Germans ran out!

It was a very enjoyable game that lasted around two and a half hours.  I took some video clips- I'll see if I can work out how to post them, tomorrow. We played the game using my new "Chits of War" instead of playing cards, you should be able to make them out in some of the photographs.  The last two sets of chits (more to come in a couple of weeks) and the rules are available in my shop.

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Pydna at Partizan

My brief tour of the Midlands culminated with our Pydna game at Partizan.

The Pydna Project was a joint venture between myself and friends Keith Branagh from Aventine, Craig Davey, David Imrie and his friend Jack Glanville, Dug Page-Scott, John Thompson, Shaun "Bunker" McLaughlin and Andrew Fielden, most of whom brought miniatures to the event.

I had initially planned a Zama-sized 1500-mini game, but the project spiraled upwards until we had 2,850 miniatures on the table on the day, recreating the battle at 1:30 scale. The phalanx (not including supports) was 2.8 metres wide, and 4-6 miniatures deep.  David Imrie was kind enough to re-base his Roman legion in a similar style to those we already had, giving us the required 4 legions of around 200 miniatures each.  Simon MacDowall kindly let me use the briefing and order of battle from his recent piece in Wargames Illustrated.  

Here's a shot of the deployment (all pictures expand when clicked):

View down the phalanx, looking up the hill towards the legions
I build the terrain, which was roughly 6 metres wide by 1.6 metres deep, with a nearly invisible grid. To recreate the slopes of Mount Olocrus upon which the Roman formed up, I jacked up the rear  nine boards by 130mm and supported it underneath with timber and Really Useful Boxes, so that a giant slope ran the entire length of the battlefield.


Here's a link to a 30 second video showing the table after deployment; this is too good to miss!


The rules we used were my "To the Strongest!" set (to be published in November), which I originally designed to play large games at shows. I was able to shout (!) the basics across the table to the players in around 15 minutes, and field questions as they went along.  We didn't need to consult the rules. The game took 3 hours and ten minutes to come to a suitably bloody conclusion.   

Mid battle
The Macedonians attacked fiercely from the outset, all along the line. From my position on the Roman right (assisting a 13 year old tyro called Solomon), I could see that the Keith's Macedonian Agema were making fast progress, successively carving their way through Dug's velites, hastati and principes. There were some local Roman successes, with Solomon pushing forward with the Numidian elephants. 

The killer taxis
However Aventine Keith managed to kill a unit of triarii and get a taxis of the Macedonian guard phalanx (above) to the top of the hill, turn it through 90 degrees (not easy) and march through the rocky terrain at the top of the hill (not at all easy) to kill the four more units of triarii (pretty darned difficult) required for a Macedonian victory. 

We all had a terrific day and it was great to catch up with friends made at previous Partizans and through blogging. An especial thanks to everyone who helped with setup and knock-down! My hat goes off to Richard and Laurence for organising the event, and dealing efficiently with the curve-ball delivered by the Kelham owners (an unexpected stage in the main hall). 

Onwards to the next big game; perhaps Magnesia?

Thursday, 21 August 2014

Allied Hastati (and Legion) finished!

These are the Aventine Allied Hastati I was working on before my holidays.  I decided to spend some extra time on them, to bring them up to my current standard. This included retouching, replacing some of the shields and partially re-basing them.



I also based up a very nice Aventine general and aide from Shaun (Redzed) to command the legion, which is now complete (and only 4.5 years late for Zama at Bletchley).  Better late than never!  :-)


Their first proper outing will be at the Wargames Holiday Centre, on Saturday/Sunday week, where I want to blood them and also test out the mechanic for pike vs. pila that we will use for the huge Pydna game at t'other Partizan on the 7th September. 

I gather that Mark Freeth still has some one and two day places for the second Ancient Rome at War weekend on 30th/31st August, so please drop him a line if you fancy yourself as a budding Scipio!

Thursday, 7 August 2014

Allied Hastati and Triarii


This is a (clickable) work in progress shot of the hastati and triarii of my allied legion. These lovely Aventine figures all date back to the 2010 Zama game, and, unusually, most were painted by me. I've retouched them, and replaced some of the shields. This legions is going to have a "horse" theme, with some careful use of LBMS transfers. Now they just need some matt varnish, and a little work on the bases.  Once that is done, the allies will be complete.

Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Allied Principes


Today is the turn of the allies.  These two units are the Allied Principes, and I think they look even better than their Roman colleagues.  They are of course Aventines and came from the brush of 2 different (unknown) painters, one of whom is very good.  I did a little highlighting and shield work (LBMS shield transfers).  All photos are clickable!


The figures are very animated and look very heroic, with their plumes and feathers.  Below, I have a command stand for the legion, too.


Both of the legions are now nearly finished; I just need to "tart up" my own allied hastati, and base some miniatures that Shaun has painted for the Roman hastati.  I will need to paint some Roman horse, too, but there's no time for that just now!

Sunday, 3 August 2014

Principes



These lovely Aventine figures were painted by David Imrie and Shaun Watson (Redzed), and I'm very pleased to own them, as they are both far better painters than am I.  Luckily, they had both used the same shield design.  



Finally, here is the command stand; I absolutely love the Centurion, and what Shaun did with the crest.  The two figures behind were painted by Nick Speller.

The new legions are coming on apace, and I may take them along to the Wargames Holiday Centre for the weekend there on 30/31st August.  They will certainly be at t'other Partizan on 7th September.

Next... the Allied Principes...

Saturday, 26 July 2014

Res ad triarios venit

Or "It comes down to the triarii!"




The triarii were the reserve line of the Polybian legion, and if they needed to be committed, then it was a bloody battle that could go either way. These are lovely Aventine figures, that I bought beautifully painted from Shaun Watson (Redzed), do have a click to enlarge the photos. I've only needed to repaint the plumes to match the colour theme for this legion, and base.

These are part of a huge refight of the battle of Pydna, 168BC, that I'm working on for t'other Partizan, in Newark on 7th September. I'm collaborating with Keith and Adam from Aventine, the illustrious Saxon Dog, Craig Davey and others. This will be one to catch!




The other big wargaming project that I'm working on, in parallel, is my second "gig" at the Wargames Holiday Centre on the weekend of 30th/31st August. This time, I'm adding Spartans to the mix, and more Late Romans. The battles will be, tentatively: 

The Battle of Mice 331BC
Kent 55BC
Tacfarinas’ Revolt AD17
Take the High Road c.350AD
Siege of Sparta 272BC
The Elephant Victory 273BC
Thapsus 46BC
Count Theodosius vs. the Barbarian Conspiracy 368 AD

Mark still has some spaces, but it is filling up quickly, I gather, so please do drop him a line, quickly, if you'd like to come along.

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Thin red line


Mate Ian came around at the weekend, and helped me shoot some photos that will later be used to illustrate the rules that I'm currently developing.  The above shows his Successors attacking a Roman Consular army; cataphracts charge on the right! 

Monday, 16 December 2013

Aventine Allied cavalry


These brave Aventine Italian Allied cavalry form part of my Winter Offensive.  The minis are delightful and were easy to paint.  I bought 6 from Redzed last year (on the left), and they have proved very useful in several games, since, so I decided to paint 3 more to complete the unit (on the right).  I think I managed to catch his style. 

I am falling slightly behind in my play to complete 52 units by the end of the year, but it is still just about achievable.  I have 48 in the bag... and several more photos to post this week!

Thursday, 12 December 2013

Not Magnesia!

Mate Ian came round last night, bringing his 15mm collection, and helped me play-test the latest version of my "To the Strongest" rules, including the first army lists.  I had decided I wanted to explore the Polybian legion, and the Seleucids, as I want to tackle Magnesia next year, or perhaps in 2015. We picked two armies of around 180 points each, and set to!


Ian has an extensive collection of 18mm minis, which we don't use often enough.  Above, we used around 300 minis to depict a Roman and an allied legion.  The game could have been played with around half of the minis we used, but more looked prettier!  The Roman camp is below; I made that.  



Ian's Xyston Successors (above and below) are stunningly well painted.  Ian's Seleucid army for the games included a couple of units of tough cataphracts, some scythed chariots, escorted elephants and a mass of Galatians.



My favourite shot of the game is the one above.  The Hastati and Principes were organised in units of 24, but with the elements staggered to look like maniples (Ian's idea; a good one!).  During the game, my legions piled into the phalanx, but weren't able to make much of an impression, although they came very close to breaking through towards the end of the battle.


Some Carthaginian chariots (proxying for scythed) almost saw my flank off.  Almost...


Ianichos piles on the pressure! I ran the game from a pdf version of the rules, on the iPad (right). I have come to prefer iPads to paper rules, especially when they have hyperlinks embedded in them.

It was a very enjoyable game, and nail-bitingly close.  I was ahead for much of it, but just couldn't kill the final unit I needed to slay, in order to win. Ian eventually caught up and his surviving elephant committed the coup de grace on my cavalry unit, for the win (below).


The rules worked out very well, and very little needs to be tweaked before the next game. The points values, used for the first time last night, seem to be quite well balanced.  Hopefully we'll get the next test game in, early in January!

If anyone would like a play-test copy (or a recently updated version if I've already sent you one), please do drop me a line at the address on the front of my blog.

Sunday, 26 May 2013

500K!

I’m delighted to report that the counter on the front page of the BigRedBatCave ticked past half a million, last night.  Can I say a huge thank you to everyone who pops by and makes it worth my while posting!  It is a great pleasure to run the blog, and I have some ambitious plans for games and other ventures, during the rest of this year...

I’m minded to celebrate with a promotion, but WargamingGirl’s is still running, and I don’t want to clash with that; also I’m frantic in the run up to Raphia at Partizan on Sunday.  But I will do something in due course... please watch this space.


In the meanwhile, in the finest tradition of the BigRedBatCave, I shall celebrate by posting some minis that someone else has painted, far better than I ever could.  I bought these lovely Aventine Roman Allied cavalry from Redzed last year (as part of a small Republican Roman army), and gave them suitable shields and based them,  yesterday.  Luvverly!

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...

Saturday, 27 February 2010

Completed Republican Roman Triarii


Craig Davey has completed the command stand for his Triarii; I think they are absolutely splendid!  The figures are all from the new Aventine Republican Roman range.  I particularly like what he has done with the standards and plumes.  The detail is beautiful, have a click!  Jealous, I am!  

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Operation Zama- The legions are massing!

We've been making steady progress with the painting of the Romans and Italian allies for our Command and Colors Zama game at Bletchley and Salute in April 2010.

Keith at Aventine http://www.aventineminiatures.co.uk/ has been a staunch supporter of the Zama Project, and is painting two legions of their miniatures (216 minis).  Above, the first legion is completed aside from the 32 Velites (all pictures are clickable). 

Another shot of Keith's Italians; the  allied cavalry, with LBMS designs, look particularly fine!

These Principes have been painted by Craig Davey, who has volunteered to base one of the remaining 2 legions; like me, he has finished 2 units.

Finally, above are the Aventine Legionaries I painted in the summer, before I became lost in the plains and deserts of Numidia. I have planned time to paint the remaining 5 units early next year.

A particular thanks to Keith, who recently and kindly rebased his miniatures to match mine!  I'm really please with the way all the units match because of the shield transfers, red tunics and common basing style.