New Activation and Stratagem Chits for To the Strongest!

The new activation and stratagem chits are in the shop. They are 20mm diameter and in glorious technicolour- it's easy to make the values out at a distance. I chose TtS! purple, green and burnt orange for the initial colours, because they contrast well with each other, so it is easy to distinguish between them if your opponent is also using chits (just so long as he's using a different colour!). 

The activation chits come in packs of 80. They are two-sided, so play is quicker than with the previous single-sided MDF chits, since you don't need to flip them.

There are also three matching sets of stratagem tokens. These have plain colours on the back. The advantage over the previous version is that it tells you what the stratagem is, rather than there being a symbol you need to look up.

You can find them in the BigRedBatShop  https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/chits

Switzers X - almost half way!

 

Terrible photos but I'm overdue posting an update. The new sub-unit is the blue-themed contingent in the above keil, above; 32 Freiburgers. The super flag is from Flags of War. The  minis were mostly painted or heavily overpainted by me (!), but there are a few of David Imrie's in the front rank and some of Shaun McTague's in there, too.

Above is the first keil, and below, the second. I now have eight of the 32-man "strips" based (but not grouted), three more out with painter chums, and one more here, ready to repaint/finish, which I'll probably tackle next. But I will need to prepare another 192 minis, at some stage. Gulp. Still, though, I'm almost half way there with the project.

In other news, I've published new versions of the Ancient and Medieval army list books for To the Strongest! with new lists, edits, and tons more background material- you can find them here. 

New To the Strongest! Army List eBooks published

I've just published updated versions of the Ancient and Medieval Army List eBooks for To the Strongest! Since the last version, I've made many edits, added two new army lists to each book together with a huge amount of additional historical background, lots of army information and more images. There are now a mighty 246 army lists across the two books. The eBooks are now priced at £9.99 each.

Should you order the lists you'll receive regular updates every three months until the end of 2022 (by which time I expect to have pretty much finished the 100ish remaining lists), with new lists and additional material added each time.

I've also published a free army list eBook, with 30 popular army lists in it, drawn from both the above books (you won't need to download this if you have ordered them).

I do hope that you enjoy the lists! You can fins them here.

Swiss IX

 

Latest shot of the Swiss, with a second Bern contingent added (third flag from the left). Next I'm going to paint Fribourg, which has an attractive pale-blue and black heraldry.

In other news, watched a cracking online battle on Saturday between Antony Spencer and Andy Lyons, using the Wars of the Roses Tabletop Simulator setup that Antony made. It was one of those glorious battles that swung first one way, and then the other. Such fun!

Twelth Bloggiversary

The eponymous Bat that named this blog- yes, that is a 28mm model- almost a metre wide

A reminder popped up on Sunday to remind me that I have been blogging for 12 years, since 8th November 2008; how quickly the years have rushed past! Here are twelve links to some of my favourite blog posts from the duodecennial period. Links will take you to each blog post. All images will expand, if clicked.

2008 - The very first post - looks like I failed to add a title! I was also experimenting with formats. A democrat had just won the US election and there was a major economic crisis underway, so no change there. Mind you, there wasn't also a plague back then. :-/

2008 - My first phalanx - I had a modest 60 phalangites back then. To see how it has swelled over the years, see also the Magnesia phalanx, below!

An early game in the BigRedBatCave- Ruspina 46 BCE, played back in '09

2009 - Zama at Salute - this super Command and Colours game was run at Bletchley and later at Salute- lots of fun with chums including Dug, Ian, Nick Speller and Keith and Adam from Aventine. We even won a prize!

2009 - Glorantha - I'm a big fan of Gloranthan fantasy - the BigRedBat title of the blog comes from the Lunar Empire. Below is one of my favourite models. One day I'll write that fantasy version of TtS!...

2011 - Hail Caesar - I played this game of Hail Caesar with chum my good chum Ian - had great hopes for the rules- but that night we fell out over measurements and angles. After the game I decided to write a set of grid-based rules, which Ian was a huge help with. If we hadn't scrapped, that night, I'd never have written TtS!

2014 - Cremona at Partizan-in-the-park - possibly my favourite display game at the best-ever Partizan. The best lighting I ever experienced at Kelham Hall, by a factor of ten! ;-)

2015 - To the Strongest! - was released. It had taken me four years to get the rules right - I'm not the world's fastest writer! :-) Happily they have proved popular and enduring- I'm currently working on some army list books and the 

2017 - The Wargames Holiday Centre - I've enjoyed a great many gigs with Mark Freeth at the Wargames Holiday Centre. This event in 2017 was one of the largest!

The Battle of Ipsus at the Wargames Holiday Centre - not skirmish!

2018 - Soggy Bottom - This huge ECW For King and Parliament game visited most of the big shows, I think it looks a million dollars, and we had such fun with it.

2018 - Leviathans There have been many posts with images of elephants, but this is one of my favourites. Heck- just found this post- it's even better! I have been modelling a lot more elephants for a big projected Ipsus game, but that's all been delayed by Covid- hopefully next year, if there are any shows.

2018 - Magnesia Phalanx - at another Partizan, I modelled a 1:1 section through a 32-rank deep Seleucid phalanx. This by no means marks the end of my phalanx ambitions- Shaun McTague is painting a load more for me at the moment.

2019 - Mancetter at Salute - this was the first outing of last year's huge Mancetter game- we had such a lot of fun with it! Won a trophy, too. 

So far the blog has had 1,276,284 page views, and, at a time when blogs are in something of a decline, still tracks at 12-14K views per month. A big shout out to everyone who has visited over the years, even to the numerous Russian bots! Thanks to all those who have helped me put on the demo games, helped me with the rules, or bought the rules which fund me to keep on writing the rules! Here's to many more blog posts!

So to sign off, here's a picture of Cremona at Salute at Partizan in the Park back in '15. I just love that pontoon bridge, I really should run that game again...

Cremona at Partizan back in 2014

Switzers VIII - Bern baby Bern

Yesterday, I added Bern with its bear standard and natty red/black colour scheme, to the second Swiss keil, which is now complete bar the base texturing (Solothurn - Schwyz- Bern). This puts me 1/3 of the way into the six-keil Swiss project, which will inevitably slow down since I am running out of painted Swiss in my "reserves" boxes. I hope to finish a third block around Christmas - in the meanwhile, I'll continue with their Burgundian opposition and the Italian wars knights.

Again the minis were painted by Shaun McTague, finished by me, and incorporate some very nice minis that David Imrie kindly swapped with me. 

PS the title references the 1976 classic Disco Inferno by the Trammps (sic). I have a soft spot for Disco. :-)

Switzers VII

 

This is 2/3 of my second Swiss pike block. On the left is Solothurn, and on the right is Schwyz. I may end up doing extra contingents for both, as I like the uniforms and have suitable minis. Most of these were painted by Shaun McTague, finished by me, with some from David Imrie.

Next I plan to tackle Basle; black and red, what's not to like? I hope to have them on bases early next week.