Tuesday, 1 December 2009

No time to take photos...

...but I have a plan to take lots of pics of another wargame on Thursday night.

I am busy with life in general, but also busy because I've successfully glued 8 of the 9 baseboards for the Zama game together, and finished all the Numidian cavalry that have burdened me this last month.  Huzzah!  Hopefully photos tomorrow.

ps Greg; happily NoMoreNails worked a treat for said gluing; in fact I'd recommend it.  It might be a different formula to the lot that gave you trouble.

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Profiles of the Muswell Militiamen

Our micro-wargames club is situated in Muswell Hill, and has been running in various incarnations since the late 1980s, but has always included Ian and BigRedBat.  MHM is very much a "micro" wargames club; with a membership, including affiliates, always in single figures.  We claim to be London's smallest and friendliest wargames club.  Dr. Simon, a relative newbie of 5 years standing, has suggested that we post some brief profiles of our members and associate members.  There will be additional members that I'll add to this page as time permits.


Dr. Simon writes that "Lording over toy soldiers seems to be in my blood - I voiced my first swear word when I was three as my parents shagpile carpet wrought havoc with my attempts to line my plastic armies up parade style. Since then I have evolved from throwing marbles at them to throwing dice at them (with little improvement on my generalship). My collections are mostly 28mm -from Eastern Caesarian Roman, to the Moorish Conquest of Spain, taking in the Italian Wars, French in Mexico and the French Foreign Legion along with way - and ending with 15mm ww2). The small membership of the club means we get to try out varied stuff without too much objection (just don't mention Skirmish to Simon). Mostly known in club for my ratio of painted figures to unpainted bases. Currently working on a Command and Colors version for Star Wars battles... Style of generalship might be best described as 'erratic'."


Bloggerista BigRedBat (the other Simon) has been wargaming ever since he can remember.  From Airfix Romans he eventually graduated to 15mm Donnington and Minifigs Romans, and more recenty hulking great Saleh, Copplestone and Aventine Greeks and Romans.  In the past he has been obsessed with WW1, WW2, W40K, Indo China, Roleplaying, and Hordes of the Things (amongst many other periods); his tag comes from his Glorantan-era BigRedBat model.  Simon is particularly obsessive about basing, and gets very stressed about Dr. Simon's eclectic approach to the subject!  From time to time he likes to tackle a vast project  and is currently organising a big Zama game for 2010, with the help of Dr Simon and various associates, including Dr Simon, Gloranthan Greg, Nick "the brush" Speller, Craig Davey and the helpful chaps at Aventine


Ian is BRB's 20 year plus wargaming nemesis.  Ian's historical hero is Alexander the Great.  He always has an excellent grasp of whatever ruleset we are playing; he plans turns ahead, and always seems to have a reserve of heavy cavalry or tanks massing near the schwerpunkt.  BRB has established two key tactics to deal with this: firstly, he has learned to be very lucky at critical moments, and  secondly, when things are going badly, he handicaps Ian's superior intellect with generous libations of red wine.  Consequently honours remain broadly even.  Ian has a splendid collection of board games, and a very impressive Xyston Hellenistic army; also some stunning Praxian nomads.



"Gloranthan" Greg Privat lives near Paris and is an associate member of the Militia.  Around 6 years ago BigRedBat stumbled across Greg's Gloranthan Army site and emailed him; a couple of months later (not that he's bitter!) Greg replied, and the rest is history.  Greg visits the UK once or sometimes twice a year, and BRB and he have colllaborated on various projects, including the Salute Dwarf Mine game (the Mine is gently decomposing in BRB's cellar).  Greg is the fastest and most prolific painter BRB has ever encountered, and has painted perhaps 250 minis for the Zama game, alone.  BRB also got into blogging after enjoying Greg's efforts.  Greg should stay off the coffee!



George M, who is often known by his alter ego of Father Georgi, and is often mistaken for Jesus, has been gaming since 1990, when, at the impressionable age of 11, he was taken to the Games Workshop store in the Plaza. Somehow, all those demons and harsh gothic space marines fired up his tender young mind. Thus began a long downward spiral into collecting and painting a large number of toy solders. He discovered Ancients in 1998 when he attended the SOA open day at Red Lion Square and saw the Parries playing a games called WAB. Over the next few years he experimented with a game called Deadly Boring Manoeuvres or DBM as it is often called and Vis Bellica ( which was truly awful) These days he counts listening to obscure progressive and psychedelic rock bands, travelling through Europe and worrying if he will ever clear the lead mountain as his main interests.  Years in the Hobby, approaching 20. Despite BigRedBat's best endeavours to rescue him from such base heresies, George M still plays WAB and the occasional game of WMA.  Armies: Classical Greek, Sassanids, Normans, Burgundian Ordinance, Medieval Swiss, Medieval Venetian, Medieval Albanian, Italian Wars Spanish,

Other occasional Muswell Militia gamers and associates, whose profiles will be added as time permits include: Sebastian, Nick "the brush" Speller, Chris, TimeLine Barry, Craig, Dave and Aventine Keith.

Friday, 27 November 2009

Chaeronea Refight- Part III

This is our third and final visit to the Chaeronea refight (if you missed part I and II, you might like to read them first).

You'll recall the Romans have pushed forward very aggressively, and have the Pontic's pinned to their baseline.  In my Pontic turn I counterattacked with my heavy units; the two Bronze shields, with their commander Taxiles (just visible on the left of the frame below), and the two units of slave phalanx.  These achieved considerable success and killed several units of legionaries, although suffering serious casualties themselves. 


The Romans, in their turn, pressed forward but the dice gods were less favourableto them. Some Pontic units managed to hang on by a thread, such as the archers (central, below).  If they had been killed, the Roman CinC might have been able to deliver a nasty momentum attack on the unit behind.


Although many of my Pontic units had taken a pasting, I still had the advantage of numbers in terms of units because of the mass of Thureophoroi in my second line (the Pontics outnumbered the Romans several times over at Chaeonea).  I threw these, and my sole unit of heavy cavalry, into the fray.  In a spate of lucky dice rolling I managed to destroy or drive back the Roman units involved attack.


The Romans regrouped (above) into a line, but now look very badly outnumbered!


Recognising how badly they were outnumbered, the Romans fell back towards their reserves...


The Roman Right wing hadn't been engaged (nor the Pontic left).  Ian and Barry regrouped their forces on the right for one last try...


Attacked...


But the dice and their earlier heavy casualties were against them and the Pontics prevailed (they reached the 9 units lost limit we had determined at the start of the battle).

It was a very enjoyable battle, and I hope it gave Barry a good idea of how the rules work!  I'm hoping that we'll be able to get some of our other players together and refight it next week as part of our Roman campaign... if we do I'll make the Romans a little tougher to help counter the Pontic advantage of numbers (perhaps reducing the number of units by 1, but giving each remaining unit 5 hits instead of 4).

Thursday, 26 November 2009

Chaeronea Refiight; Part II- Advance to Contact

So here's part 2 (of 3) of our refight of Chaeronea 86BC. 

 

Above is the situation at the end of the first Pontic turn.   I was worried that the Romans would try to rout my own Scythed chariots back through my lines (using an optional rule we play), and decided to play a "mounted charge" in order to get them a safe distance from my phalanx!  This same card also enabled me to use my cavalry to attack the Chaeronean Roman allies who had appeared, behind my light troops, on Mount Thibron (more anon).  The mounted charge also gave my troops a +1 in combat.  One of the chariots was destroyed, and the other routed, but they did manage to inflict heavy casualties on the units on the end of the Roman line.

 

Above is the charge of my cavalry against the plucky but isolated Chaeronean patriots.  My charge killed two stands, and the remainer were killed when they unsuccessfully counter-attacked my cavalry in the next Roman turn.  I was delighted with this success (since uphill mounted charges are generally a poor bet!).  On the downside, my cavalry were somewhat out of position (too far over to the right) and Archelaus, my general, played little part in the rest of the battle.


Above is the second and final charge of my surviving scythed chariot; it almost managed to wipe out a unit of Romans before it was destroyed.


Ian and Barry decided to ignore my cavalry wing and pressed forward in the centre.  They played a second Line Command to move their entire centre forward; against which I played "Counter-attack", which  enabled me to retreat my entire line one hex; right against the table edge.  I was playing for time...

 

And here, in the final shot in today's post; the Romans have doubled forward using  (I think) an Inspired General card, and the Marius' legion rule which enables them to move 2 hexes.   My light infantry are looking very uncomfortable as they have no retreat path...

I'll post the conclusion of the battle, tomorrow.

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Charonea 86BC Part I

Last night we staged  a refight of the battle of Charonea 86BC where the Roman General Sulla comprehensively defeated Mithridates' General, Archelaus.  We used the Command and Colors rules.  For deployment, I amended and scaled up some scenarios I found on the net.  The plains of Charonea are Hotz Hexmats.


Above is the initial (clickable) deployment.  The Pontics are on the left, deployed in some depth, with scythed chariots to the fore, a strong cavalry right wing and a detatched group of light infantry on the hill in the foreground.  The unit at the top of the hill in the forground is, in fact, a unit of Roman Charonean allies, who have sneaked around the back of the hill to ambush the Pontic light infantry on the lower slopes.


Above is a closeup of the Pontic right wing, which, at the start of the battle, is in the act of deploying to try to flank the Roman line.  The General leading the Thessalians at the rear is the Pontic CinC, Archelaus.


Above is the Pontic centre.  The pikes are representing the famous slave phalanx, and the second Pontic general Taxiles is leading some hoplites who are standing in as Bronze shields.  Some of the Thureophoroi are in fact similar-looking Carthaginian levy.  The scythed chariots are revving up for the charge!


Above is the "thin red line" of the Roman army, after their first turn of advance (using the first of two line command cards).  Ian and Barry, playing the Romans, launched a very aggressive attack that eventually led their leading cohort to within a very few inches of my Pontic baseline....  I'll post some shots of the battle, tomorrow, if I have time.

This was the first time I've had the bulk of my Hellenistic armies on the table; I was pleased with how they looked!  Next year I will definitely need more pikemen, though...

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Gloranthan Army Miniatures Encyclopedia

Mon ami Greg has set up a blog where he's going to store images of figures painted/converted for the world of Glorantha (the world in which Runequest was set).

A lot of images of very nicely painted miniatures will be going up there.   It should be a great Blog!

http://gloranthanarmy.blogspot.com/

Sunday, 22 November 2009

Plains of Zama

These are some of the components for the 18' long table I need to make for Zama.

I'm using 9mm MDF for the boards, with a 10mm thick laker of styrene to be stuck on top using No More Nails.   Later, hexes will be inscribed into the styrene.  I have another 30 or so sheets of the styrene down in the cellar. I'm designing it so that it can be used for either an 18'x4' table, or an 8'x8'.


The MDF was surprisingly heavy to carry 200 yards to my car, and when I measured it later at home, I discovered that the chap in the shop has cut it to the wrong size (604mm wide instead of 600mm; it doesn't fit the styrene), so I'm going to need to carry it back!  Grrr.  At least he didn't under cut it, I suppose.