Monday, 29 August 2011

Statue


I was sorting through some old fantasy models recently and came across this; I gave it a quick repaint and will use it in an ancients game, soon, perhaps in a town.  The model on the top is the Salute Hannibal from 2004, and the plinth is scratchbuilt.  Could do with some lettering on it, really, and some distressing.  

I'd really like some roadside tombs, as well.  If anyone can suggest a source for any in resin or metal (aside from the Monolith ones), please drop me a line.

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Equites Gallorum

Here are the mounted contingents for my two Gallic auxiliary cohorts, one of which is shown here.   The models are Black Tree.  I like the riders, but the horses are a bit meh; very badly cast, and soft metal.


They were painted for me by Dr. Simon's painter mate.  I then highlighted, stained, varnished and based.  I lavished a lot of Silflor on them; 8 or so different varieties.  I think more variety gives a more naturalistic look.
I am very pleased with the final look.  I think that they will fit in very well with my other EIRs, but they have taken me about half as much time to get on the table, as if I had painted them from scratch.  The same painter has a 24 man Ala of cavalry from me, at the moment, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does with them.

Sunday, 21 August 2011

Where I went on my Hols

Just come back from a lovely break in a Provencal village, called Gordes.  The view from our villa was lovely, and I include it because it struck me that it looks rather like the terrain I'd like to put together for our Partizan/Asculum game next year.  I'm thinking that most of the terrain will be a flat plain (possibly a painted cloth), covered in fields with some olive orchards and vineyards.  The table will be 5' deep and 20' wide.  Wooded hills, like the one of the right of frame, will rise from the plains.  The trees will mostly be scrub oak, pine and cypress.  If time permits, I'll do some hills as backdrops on the baselines.  Sorry the photo isn't very high definition.

Of course, if anyone has photos of the actual region in Italy, I'd be really interested to see them...

In other news, I'm going to temporarily suspend my Napoleonic efforts in order to finish and base 3 units of Principiate Romans that Dr. Simon's mate has painted for me; they don't need much work and should look very nice when completed.  I also still have some lovely Marian Roman figures from Andres, to base...

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Battle of San Pedro Junction


We played our biggest Mexican Black Powder game so far last night; six players, 30-odd units and a train!   Write up (and many more pics) on Dr Simon's illustrious blog.   A jolly good natured game, accompanied by a fine bottle of Fitou (Muswell Militia Wine of Choice), brought by Ian.

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

Craig's New Blog

Zama collaborator Craig has a new blog, called Watch that Flank, with some of his lovely minis on it; do have a look!

The usual Zama suspects are plotting a game, next year, somewhere oop North...

Friday, 22 July 2011

Hail Caesar; First Blood part le Deux


So here is a quick recap after last night's post; the Flavians are advancing from the top of the page (mostly free moves because they are in columns on a road; they struggled to make any command rolls).  The Villellian right wing has rushed forward and left wing is edging out of the olive grove; intending to hop over that ridge and rout the unwitting column of enemy legionaries.  The Vitellian right can just be seen at the top of the photo; it has rushed forward in a right hook, flanking the Flavians.

So all the Vitellian left needs is a decent command roll; instead they get a double 6 (fumble!).  Rolling a further 1, Ianicus consults the fumble table and... (below)


...rather more than half of his army routs off the table.  Did we laugh?  Did we hell!

Still Ianicus had three his remaining units on the right, and these tore into the Flavians, wth their cavalry catching a cohort still in March column (below, at rear).  With a 9 dice to 1 advantage, could they rout it?  Nope.  Couldn't even beat it.  The dice were taking a distinctly Flavian turn.  However, they did manage to destroy a cohort of Flavian auxiliaries, and a numerus of skirmishers.  Meanwhile, half of the Flavian army were still advancing in their original direction, toward the fleeing, unseen ambushers (failed command rolls).
  

In the following turn, however, the Flavians rolled a very low dice and were able to make a triple move to counterattack.  Their legionary cavalry were able to hit the exposed flank of Ianicus left-most cohort, at the same time as a cohort of legionaries piled into its front.  The very large pile of white skull casualty markers behind it, did not bode well for the reaction test; predictably they fled, and we called the game.


The rules worked well, in part because we are very familiar with Black Powder.  I think the game would best be first played with someone who has played before.  I umpired, and had to rush back and forth forward through the rulebook a fair bit, and had some difficulty finding things.  There was also one point where we couldn't find what to do and had to make it up; I think this will happen a lot and an umpire would be no bad thing.  But we did love the rules, and I am sure will get a great deal of use out of them.  In particular, they are perfect for the Early Imperial Roman campaign I've always wanted to run, and will encourage me to finish the rest of the troops I have planned.

Hail Caesar; First Blood


Tonight we had our first crack for the first time at Hail Caesar.  We fought a skirmish, set somewhere in Northern Italy, between a Flavian force of legionaries and auxiliaries, and a Vittelian ambush consisting of tough British and German auxiliaries, and a unit of armed gladiators.  The figures depicted  around 3000 troops on each side.

Above are the 2 Flavian Generals and their forces.  I could not fail to notice that one of the Roman commanders bore a strong resemblance to another illustrious Roman General:

Dr. Simon


Scipio Africanus the Elder

His co-commander was Chrispus.  Their forces were deployed with the legionaries marching along the road in two columns, with cavalry and light infantry scouting ahead, and auxiliaries on their left wing (below).


The Vitellians were commanded by Ianicus (not shown).  His ambushing forces were hidden behind a low ridge and in an olive grove (below).  The gladiators are at the front, on the left, and the cavalry are in the background.


Tomorrow night I'll write an account of the battle which, it has to be said, was a blast.