Monday, 6 July 2009

Return to Hommlet

At the weekend I ran a second D&D session for several of the smaller RedBats and friends. I've been really surprised how many and how enthusiastic they have been; we had a party of seven, including a couple of girls, which is really nice.

We are doing the Village of Hommlet, and doing it old-style; Second edition AD&D played exactly like it was played in the early 1980s (when I adventured there). The kids have all picked it up quickly and I'm looking forward to running a weekly session for the next month. It's all very nostalgic!

Sunday, 5 July 2009

On the Painting Table...

It's been a slow week painting-wise, because Mrs Bat has been suffering from the dreaded lurgi.

However, the Tegean unit (Spartan allies, above) is approaching completion; I've painted 7 figures to match 20 very nicely painted minis I bought on eBay (I'd love to know who originally painted them, please let me know if you recognise them). I just need to finish the shields and do the basing.

And above, primed, are the long-awaitied Aventine North Etruscan League minis, which are also the first unit of my Allied Italian legion, for Zama!

Friday, 3 July 2009

Elephant Size Comparison Shots

I promise that this is the final post featuring elephants for the time being! I'm going to compare the Empire Models (Indian) elephant, on the right in each photo, with three African elephants from other ranges, in part to convey the sheer mass of the former. Indian elephants should be much larger than African forest elephants, and Empire's certainly is!  All photos are clickable.

The African elephants will all feature at the Society of Ancients Zama game, next year.First (above) we have the Gripping Beast Carthaginian elephant http://www.grippingbeast.com/shop.php?CatID=154 . This would convert very well to become a Ptolemaic elephant at Raphia; it is very much smaller than Empire's Indian, but then it should be! The bulk of the Indian elephants at Raphia apparently gave them a considerable advantage.The second elephant (above) is an African from Essex http://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/frames25mmcont.html . I feel this is the least satisfactory of my Africans, and won't be buying more; it doesn't look much like I think an African Forest Elephant should appear. It is very plump and rounded, with 'orrible thickish legs.Finally, we have a heavily converted Renegade elephant http://www.renegademiniatures.com/numidian.htm
. The basic Renegade elephant is an unhappy composite between an Indian and an African elephant, with features of each; however, extensive work with greenstuff makes it into a rather satisfactory African Forest nellie, in my view at least, and it is my favourite African at the moment (not least because it was the cheapest, at £6).

Altogether we will field 11 elephants for the Society of Ancients Zama game next April; my six, another 4 from my mate Dr Simon, and one that still needs to be sourced. In our first game trialling the battle, they managed to inflict a surprising amount of damage against their Roman foes; rather more, in fact, than they should have!

And now for Something Completely Different...

Long before I painted elephants, small and large, I knocked up these Lunar War Triceratops for the Dwarf Mine game I put on with Greg and others, at Salute.The Triceratops are really nice models (from Schleich), that cost around £6 each. They are roughly similar in size to the Empire Modles beasts. I partially repainted, added the howdahs and gave them Foundry crew and Gripping Beast mahouts.
They were cheap, very quick to complete and unfortunately always died far too early in the game!

Monday, 29 June 2009

Empire Models Armoured Elephants... completed!

I love these models, and it was fun painting them but they were a lot of work and am delighted to have finished them!
The detail on the models is terrific, and I'd commend these weapons of Mass Destruction to any aspiring Eastern potentate!
I've named these two after the titans Oceanus and Kronos. I plan to add a third, when Empire's new armoured elephant comes out. And then there are rumours of Pyrrhic elephants from Aventine... and I also need some elephant guards.

But these will have to wait; I've got a handful of Tegeans to finish, and then it's Operation Zama!

Friday, 26 June 2009

AD&D; a la recherche du temps perdu

Tomorrow I'm going to introduce several of the LittleRedBats, and assorted friends, to AD&D.

A good portion of my twenties was spent playing the game (particularly the Lost University Years, over which we shall draw a veil), but I don't think I've rolled a d20 in anger, since I got into figure wargaming around 1985.

Digging out the old manuals has been an almost archaeological experience; I've had to borrow various tomes from one of my gaming mates, and I still lack a screen and the combat tables. Luckily I still have a lot of the old miniatures. Skimming the rulebooks today it is all starting to come back to me, but it is daunting that I remember so little, when once upon a time I must have almost known them by heart!

I've decided to stay thoroughly retro and eschew all the more modern versions of AD&D, so that tomorrow will be almost an exercise in time travel! Last time I visited the village of Hommlet, it was 1980...

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Little Caesars and LittleRedBats

A TMP post reminded me of a photo I snapped in Venice in 2003. Walking around a corner, I came across these beautiful statues and couldn't resist getting a photo of my boys next to it!