Monday, 3 May 2010

Busman's Holiday


So after the better part of a year spent painting Romans and their foes, when I get a break I choose to paint some... more Romans.

This unit is going to be built around 2 dozen Foundry Auxilia minis I bought painted on Ebay.  The basing wasn't up to much (and to be honest the shield images look rather legionary to me) but by painting half a dozen more minis, and rebasing, I can make a large unit that should look pretty good.  I still have far too few Auxiliaries relative to my EIR legionaries.

I have at least half a dozen other units of Romans, Macedonians and Spanish that are in similar part-painted shape to this one, and I want to finish some of them off before I launch into another grandiose Zama-like project.

Monday, 26 April 2010

Zama- the Last Post

Super Bletchley Zama Slideshow!

These are the photos that my mate Ian took of our Bletchley game, and very fine they are, too!  They include quite a few closeups.

Enjoy!

Sunday, 25 April 2010

A fine day out...

Yesterday was Salute 2010, and I've half a dozen or so photos of the day, mostly garnered from Matthieu's phone (merci!).  They are mostly of the people (I've got a disc of photos of the game at Bletchley from Ian that I will post later).


Muswell Hill Militiamen (Paris chapter) drinking beer outside the Maid of Muswell pub, our spiritual home.

 Matthieu developing a taste for Landlord.

My son Harry, his friend Alex and I arrived at Excel at 7:01, but it took over 2 hours to get in and finish setting the game up.  Various militiamen arrived with their contingents; Ian and Dr. Simon from Muswell, Craig from Leeds, Nick and a friend from Essex.  The doors opened at 9:45 and we kicked the game off at 11.00 with the assistance of conscripted players who included another Simon, Chris and Dirk (apologies for missed names here, I have a terrible memory for names and faces).  Many of the players were novices but they picked the rules up quickly.


Scipio confers with Laelius, whils Masinissa appears to be wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

Gregory Privat, Iron Mitten and yrs truly.   I look almost as crazed as the sapper in the picture!

Gregory in trouble.

The Carthaginian elephants performed very poorly and one of the Carthaginian generals became despondant, but Hannibal kept the battle going right to the end...

Scipio was called away and the other generals decide on cardplay in his absence,.  Leadership by committee  must have been effective, as the Romans did eventually win at around 4.30pm (whilst Scipio was off queuing in the car park). 


Unexpectedly we were awarded the Salute prize for "Most Impressive Troops".  This was a considerable acheivement, because there were some fantastic armies out there!  The judge said that what most impressed him was that the project was the combined work of 6 or 7 different painters, and yet all the figures worked together beautifully.  I think that  this, on top of the Best Game award at Bletchley, is a great tribute to all the people that have worked so long and hard to bring the project to fruition!

So what next?  I think a few weeks are needed to chill out, and then we might bat some ideas around for another grandiose project for 2011...

Monday, 19 April 2010

More shots of Zama

Very few of my photos of the game amounted to much, but I am confident that Ian will have some good pics.  Here are a few I took before the action grew too hot, and I got distracted...

 
View from behind the Roman lines at the start (that's Scipio in the foreground)

Roman tribunes confer over tactics; Aventine Adam and Keith (centre) and Nick Speller right.  You can see the Carthaginian elephants bouncing off the velites.  Later a couple managed to break through, and caused fearsome devastation. Keith tells me that my Carthaginians destroyed 19 out of the 21 units of Roman Hastati, Principes and Triarii (yet we still lost!).

Here's a view from behind the Carthaginian left, late on in the game.  Our Numidians hung grimly on to the very end.  By this time the Roman centre (back right) was reduced to a thin screen of velites, but our own mercenaries and levies had died in droves (see foreground) and our army morale failed.

I'll post some better photos when I can get hold of them...

Sunday, 18 April 2010

Thanks...

I realised whilst posting on TMP that there are a lot of people I need to thank for their help.

It was very nice to finally meet the Aventine boys in the flesh, who designed and painted so many miniatures for the Project, and Craig, too, who painted the other half of the Romans. Also John who made the trees and haystacks; the ever productive Nick Speller who splendidly painted so many minis that I went on to base. and lots of Cartho vetrans, too.  Keith, Adam, Craig and John travelled huge distances to be there. 

Then there was Ian who battled his way through at least 8 playtests, which helped the game to run perfectly on the day; and who helped to put all the pins in the boards. Twice.  Next week, at Salute, I'm also looking forward to meeting mon ami Greg again (who must painted at least a couple of hundred minis for the event) and gaming with fellow Muswell Militiaman Dr. Simon, whose minis made it to Bletchley even though he didn't.

It was great meeting people at the event, too, like 2mm Simon and the other Adam, even though the time for chat seemed so short. Also Dougie and Mark who made up our number of players to the critcal 8.  I wish their had been a bit more time to meet other people, too; the day just flashed past. I didn't even get to see very much of the other games. Sigh. Huge thanks to Richard Lockwood for organising the event! And to everyone who has supported the blog over the last year.

Cheers, Simon

Zama- "B" Day Deployment

Today I'll post some photos of our Zama game which was fought yesterday at the SOA Battle Day in Bletchley, and which we will fight one more time at Salute.  All phgotos are clickable.

Above is the 16' long field of battle before the arrival of the armies.  I was very pleased with the terrain, and the details that John Smillie made (olive and other trees, and the haystacks) set it off nicely.

Here is a view along the battlefield from behind the Carthaginian left rear.  If you look carefully, you can see the ladders on the haystacks!

And, finally for the moment (below) an aerial view of the battlefield; Carthaginians in the foreground.  The three lines of the Carthaginian deployment can be distinctly made out, with their elephants in front.  You should also be able to see the four Roman legions with their "elephant channels", and Numidian foot deployed to their right.   The two central legions have red shields, and the outer allied legions, white.
 

Friday, 16 April 2010

Eve of Battle!


Hannibal and Scipio parley on the battlefield of Zama, on the day before the battle.

Tomorrow at the crack of dawn, Muswell Militia and various associated malcontents will be driving up to the SOA Battle Day event in Bletchley to fight our version of Zama.  Hannibal has won every practice battle; but I have a feeling in my waters that Scipio will pip it on the day...

Hope to see some of you there!