Saturday, 22 October 2011

New Toys


Yesterday I took delivery of a lovely Roman fort from Paul Darnell; it is a beautiful piece of work!  I especially like the gate tower, and the blue-grey colour he has used for the wood, which I shall nick for future projects.


There are 2 barracks with it, very simple, very nice, mostly foam-card and Wills pantiles.  I might try to make some myself.

Paul is getting out of modelmaking, shortly, so this could be the time to commission that building you always wanted, from him!

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Per Mare, Per Terram

(The motto is of our Royal Marines; seems appropriate!)

20 more recruits for my rapidly-mustering ex-marine legion, I Adiutrix.  This time I've gone with a pale (almost duck-egg) blue tunic.   These are 20 more almost total repaints of an eBay purchase.  I replaced all the original pila with new pila I made by cutting the heads off old pila, and drilling metal pins into them, so as to get nice, thin shafts.  Bonkers, I know, but I shall do the same with all my pila in future!  Only 40 minis to go, now... and 80 shields, still on order.

I'll now take a little while off this force, to finish the Middle Imperial Cohort that has been on my painting tray for a month.   After that I may have a crack at the new Marcommanic-war Romans*, that I've just bought off Keith at Aventine.

*Very Late Early Imperial, one might call them.  Or Very Early Middle Imperial, I suppose...

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Rumble by the Rhine


On Tuesday we played another Hail Caesar game, another battle between revolting Batavian and German auxiliaries, and their savage German allies, and a regular Roman/auxiliary force who were trying to relieve a small fort (one of Paul Darnell's lovely models, above, with some great buildings by John Smillie).


Above are my loyal auxiliaries; Britons, Gauls and Raetians, with some Praetorian cavalry.  The legionary cohorts were deployed (below) off to my right, just beyond a small wood that turned out to be a terrific PITA.



Ianicus commanded the Germans.  Above are some of the savage German warbands; mostly Dr Simon's minis.  Below are his German and Batavian mutineers.


The battle started with Dr Simon seizing the vicus, just outside the fort, with his auxiliary archers, and (imaginatively) with dismounted legionary cavalry (you can just make them out in the photo at the top of the post).  Ianicus countered by seizing the central wood (below) with his javelinmen. 


This was an issue for us, because in Hail Caesar close order troops cannot enter a wood; we had nothing to pry the skirmishers out with.  Moreover the HC proximity rule (of which more in a later post) required our legionaries to face the LI, even though they had no missile weapons that could harm them and could not even melee them.  So the better half our army was useless!

I decided that the only thing I could do was move forward my auxilia to throw javelins at them.  Meanwhile Ianicus was trying to manoeuvre around my left flank... click on the map, below, to see the situation at this stage.


After this I'm afraid it all went a bit pear shaped for the Empire.  Dr Simon laboriously manoeuvred his legionaries around behind the wood on our baseline, and then behind my lines, to face the outflanking mutineers approaching from my left.  Ianicus attacked with his Germans, and these, after a very tough fight, my surviving troops were pushed back onto Simon's columns and destroyed (a photo of the traffic jam is below).  The legions might have still have recovered it, I suppose, but it was late and we called the game.


We found the rules very frustrating; the proximity rule, in particular, is badly worded, and we struggled with various other rules, plus the poor layout of the rule set.  It is safe to say that Hail Caesar's "more friendly style of gaming" came under considerable strain, on Tuesday; it got competitive, and these rules just cannot cope with competitive! 

Still, on the plus side it looked good, and played fast.  The combat system is good, and I like the way that ordering works.  We are starting to get a reasonable grasp of the core mechanics.  Will have another crack in a week or so...

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

In the Navy...

The next EIR Project I'm taking on, will be the first of the "small" 80 figure legions that I plan to use in my EIR campaign.  This lot are the first recruits for I Adiutrix (auxiliary, or assistant) Legion, which was raised in 67/68AD from marines from the Classis Misenensis fleet, based in the Bay of Naples.  Most of the marines would have been Egyptians, and very pleased with the opportuniity, as legionary salaries were rather more generous, than marine!  Presumably there was a citizenship in it, for them, too, and possibly a patch of land on retirement.  Highly motivated, they fought very bravely at Bedriacum, capturing the eagle of XXI Rapax.


These 20 BTD minis are a major repaint of an eBay purchase.  They painted up really easily in 3 evenings, and I'll rebase when the other 60 minis are ready, in a month or so.  Shields and transfers are on order...

My intention is to give this legion a very mixed look, as befits a newly raised legion in time of war, with tunics in white, beige and two shades of pale blue.  I'll mix in the oval shields and javelins that recent ex-marines might have used*, with rectangular scuta and pila, and hamata with segmentata. 

*The Mainz Principia reliefs depict what appears to be an unarmoured legionary light infantryman of Adiutrix I, with oval shield and javelins. 

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Under the Brush...


These chaps will shortly become a cohort of Legio IV Scythica.  They will have the mail coifs, scale armour and the shield from Dura Europos, and will form the second unit in my nascent Middle Imperial army.  I don't intend this to be a huge army, but the minis are far too nice, not to have one. 

On a different note, I'm very much looking forward to the slightly earlier Marcommanic Wars range of Roman figures that Aventine are producing sculpted by Adam who also sculpted the A&A minis.  I will be starting a unit of them, just as soon as the officers and transfers are ready!  They represent a sort of "missing link" between my Trajanic Legionaries, and the A&A Middle Imperials. 

Monday, 10 October 2011

Battle of Arelate, Part III

This third and final part of the After Action Review, focuses on the action in the centre.


Above is a view from behind the enemy's lines, showing their uphill attack against the Limitae and Bacaudae that formed our centre.  The attackers were very numerous, well trained and armoured.  Luckily our troops were uphill, and somewhat buoyed by the death of Majorian in his duel, so it was a relatively even struggle.  The shields of the enemy Italian Field army made a brave display (below); all beautifully hand painted.  I can make out V Makedonia in the second photo, below.



My immediate opponents, the Comitatus of the recently deceased, now divine Majorian, rolled a maximum 5 for combat on their average dice, so our Hero needed a good dice roll to break through them.  Luckily Venus provided this (below), and we were soon galloping past the left end of the enemy infantry line, in the direction of Mediolanum!


With the gap clear, another of my cavalry units was then able to charge the flank of the enemy infantry, and roll up troops that were already exhausted by their struggle for the hill (below), and the battle was decided!


Below is the only shot I took of the far wing of the battle, where the light cavalry fought each other to destruction.


The game was very enjoyable, and I found that I had a fair grasp of the rules by the end.  Simon was a great host, and out opponent, Dave, very sportsmanlike.  The figures looked splendid (loads of converted 15mm figures, beautifully painted, sheer madness!) and I really covet a large army of Perry 28mm Late Romans, now.  So it might prove to have been an expensive visit!

If you want to have a crack at the rules (which are well written, and beautifully illustrated with pictures of Simon's minis), you can download them for free, from here.

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Battle of Arelate, Part II

This is the second part of a three part write up of the game we played at Simon MacDowall's, yesterday.  Part I is here.  I'll apologise that it is rather Visigoth-centric; I had my work cut out and couldn't always follow what was going on in our centre and left (although there will be more shots of the action here, in Part III). 

So you'll recall that our brave Visigothic horse were drawn up on the far right of the line, facing no less than 6 units of well-hard Germanic shock horse ((background, below), who were poised to drive our less numerous (and if I am honest, rather less effective) horse,  from the field.

I had a cunning plan, though; use my foot to hold off the horse, and re-deploy all my mounted, behind their screen, to the centre, where they could hopefully hit the advancing enemy foot in their exposed flank.  Below you can see me part way through this manoeuvre; the foot are advancing, and inclining to their right, to fill the gap left by my horse, and my horse are scurrying along, behind them.


We were very surprised when most of the enemy cavalry ploughed frontally into our infantry,  (below)!


Luckily, they were driven back by our stalwart foot (the below view is taken from behind enemy lines).  The heaps of rocks indicate the discomfort of the recoiling enemy horse, who were badly knocked about.


Below, I turn up in the centre, with my Comitatus and horse.  The lines of infantry are on the point of clashing.  The small unit of enemy horse, riding hell-for-leather towards my cavalry units, are the Comitatus of the dead Emperor Marjorian; sworn to perish in combat.  The charging infantryman is a marker to show that I'm inspiring my own Comitatus, ready to charge.


And below the clash of impact.  The fighting was heavy and I suffered a serious wound; this would have been enough to slay a lesser man, but had little impact on my ability to command (as I'd luckily rolled a 5 for command at the outset).  Eventually we triumphed, and rode forwards over the bodies of the slain, into the gap between the enemy centre and their left...


Part III, tomorrow.

Saturday, 8 October 2011

Batte of Arelate, 458AD, After Action Report, Pt. I

Today I visited Simon MacDowall (rule writer and Osprey author) for a game of Comitatus, his rules written specifically for the period of the Decline, Fall, and Dark Ages.  Simon has a fantastic collection of Late Roman figures, which are beautifully painted and based; I'm afraid my photos don't do them justice (all are clickable).

The scenario was based on a fictional invasion of Gaul, by the Roman Emperor Majorian, in 458BC. Majorian was attempting to reimpose Roman authority over various rebellious Gallo-Roman nobles,  led by the would-be Emperor Marcellus and their brave Visigothic allies, led by Theodoric II, son of Theodoric I (of Chalons fame). 


Above, I played said Theodoric, noble descendant of Wotan. Aside from my comitatus of mead-pledged bodyguards, I commanded four Visigothic heavy cavalry units and a large wodge (a Germanic technical term) of infantry warband.  My troops are pictured above, and constituted the right wing of our army.  Although I stuck the cavalry on the extreme right, I had a cunning plan for them, that would mean they would not stay there for very long!  


Above are my Roman allies; that's Marcellus (played by Simon) at the rear, with his Comitatus, and my troops in the distance.  The Roman infantry weren't very good Romans, scruffy Limitae and Bacaudae, mostly, very few decent troops amongst them.  I was hoping that there would be rather fewer Romans, of both sides, by the end of the battle; lebebsraum, and all that.


Beyond the infantry, on our left, were some scruffy Alans, and other light horse types.  A bit effete, I thought.

Majorian's forces were drawn up in a long line, opposite us.  The scribes failed to record the details of the Imperial army (sorry no photo), but they were more numerous and of a rather better quality than our army (their general was a chap called Dave Allen).  Their infantry centre was formed from the Italian field army, including well-trained and armoured Palatinae, Comitatenses and some particularly aggressive-looking Suebi.  There were a host of shock cavalry opposite my wing; Ostrogoths, Rugians, Gepids and the dread Heruls.  Opposite the light horse on our left, were enemy light horse, including Huns.


That's me in the middle of the unit, above.  The game opened well, when I rolled a 5 on an average dice for my Command ability; I was nothing short of a military genius, and a great leader of men! 

Since it looked like my Roman allies were somewhat outclassed, and would lose in a stand-up fight, their leader Marcellus (at my suggestion), bravely rode forth to challenge the Emperor to single combat.  Surprisingly, the latter accepted and rode out, alone, before his lines.


First they threw javelins at each other, and missed.  As they closed, Marcellus (left above) gained first blood, wounding Majorian, but the Emperor fought back and wounded Marcellus, twice, in turn.  Marcellus recovered and wounded Majorian, again, and the two riders circled each other, bleeding from numerous wounds, fighting almost as bravely as if they were Gothic heroes.  Finally Marcellus stuck a fatal blow and the Emperor was dead!  This greatly encouraged Marcellus' command, and all the scruffy militia infantry in our centre gave a cheer (as their Morale rating climbed from average to high; this would be significant, later). 

Tomorrow, I'll describe our battle plan and the early stages of the battle.

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Somewhere along the Rhine...

We played a Hail Caesar game tonight, using my Early Imperial Romans, and some of Dr Simon's Germans.  It was a battle  between revolting Batavian auxiliaries led by Civilis, and loyal auxiliaries and legionaries.  I won't cover it in much depth, because it was a trial run and we plan to run it again next week, after which I'll do a write up.  Pic's courtesy of Dr Simon's camera phone.


Above; concerned legionaries watch the advance of therevolting Germans, from the relatve safety of their watchtower (one of Paul Darnell's).


Some of Dr Simon's freshly rebased Germans.


A veritable phalanx of auxiliaries advance towards a single line of auxiliaries.  The support rules are very important, and supported units had a big edge, winning almost all the combats.  We debated removing the extra dice for supporting units, in favour of a bonus on the dice roll for units losing combats.  May try that next week...


Above, a whole phalanx of German bodybuilders, hits the thin red line.  A unit led by the war leader broke through the central legionary cohort, and disordered their second line. 

Finally, below, a somewhat blown alae of Praetorian cavalry charged a Batavian Cohort in the rear, but the stalwart Dutchmen still managed to drive them off!


It was an entertaining, friendly game; HC worked out well.  I think the rules will work well for my projected campaign.

Sunday, 2 October 2011

More Praetorian Preparations

I finished a few of the other minor conversions for my Praetorian cohorts; 2 optios on the left, and an aquilifer and a cornicer for a Praetorian prefect stand I plan make up (Sejanus, anyone?  I'm a huge I Claudivs fan).

The two optios are lightly converted BTD figures, with brass hastile and spines added to their shields using a green stuff stamp.  I've simply added manes onto the two Aventines on the right.

An aquila, I hear you say, but surely the Praetorians weren't a legion?  This is true, they were 12 separate cohorts, but one does often see an aquila in the background behind Praetorians.  My guess is that there was a Praetorian aquila that was brought forth when the cohorts were gathered together.  If anyone has any info on this, I'd be very interested to hear it.  This aquila is cut from one of the A&A Praetorians, it is quite like the ones one depicted in the relief (left).

I envisage raising a small Praetorian corps consisting of a couple of units of guards, a cohort of  Vigiles Urbanes,  the cavalry I finished earlier, and a turma or two of German Bodyguards.

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Higher Standards

I've been planning a couple of cohorts of EIR Praetorians, for a year or so, but I've not been able to find suitable signifers wth the very tall and distinctive Praetorian standards.  

Praetorian standards were taller than regular cohort standards, and much more highly decorated, with wreaths, images of the Imperial family, plaques and so forth.  They were so heavy that, during one long march, the signifers were given permission to load their standards onto carts.

The closest I've come to suitable figures are these A&A Praetorian signifers.  The figures are OKish; I don't like the later-period leggings or sleeves, but I may be able to conceal the former with greaves.  I've removed the original tops of the standards, and lenthened them to the maximum height that will fit in my storage boxes.  I've added a plaque to each, with a (rather crude) scorpion on it. They'll do!

I have a little more conversion work to do on some other figures, and then both cohorts will be off to Nick for painting. 

Sunday, 25 September 2011

Asculum OOB

I've just started to get my mind around the Asculum game that various chums and I propose to run next year (probably at Partizan, in May).

Asculum 279BC was a classic Successor vs. Roman battle, which conveniently includes lots of pikes, legionaries, elephants and anti-elephant secret weapons.  Plus it ties in nicely with the spiffing range of miniatures that Aventine are producing...  Rule set likely to be Hail Caesar.

Below are the very broad brushstrokes of the OOB, based on the Pen and Sword "Pyrrhus of Epirus" book, scaled to 1/100. 
Romans
    Figures 
Allied Legionaries20000200
Roman Legionaries20000200
Other allies30000300
Cavalry 800080
Anti elephant carts
8



Pyrrhics

Macedonian and Epirot pikemen20000200
Greeks16000160
Samnites34000340
Cavalry800080
Elephants198





1576   

My first thoughts are that, as it stands, it is very do-able as we have enough Romans (although not the leves), from Zama, and enough pikemen.  We are probably only short of the Southern Italian and Samnite infantry, and cavalry.

My concern is that it doesn't give enough scope to use quite a lot of the figures that we already have painted; Craig and Aventine Keith, between them, already have a lot more pikes than we would need (let alone mine).  

I'm somewhat tempted to up the ante by doubling up to 1:50 scale (keeping the number of nellies and carts fixed), even if it means that we have to use Carthaginians, perhaps, to represent some of the allies.  I'll have to see how it goes; whether I can, perhaps, produce a Roman legion, or two, m'self...

Saturday, 24 September 2011

Tarentines for Asculum

The above are (mostly) Aventine Miniatures Tarentine cavalry, which are the first miniatures I'm painting specifically for next year's planned Asculum game.  I've wanted some units of Tarentines for years, they are so useful for many Successor-era battles.  Back in the days of WRG I used to use 3 small units of 4 Tarentines to pin the enemy so my Polybian legions could get stuck in; they won load of games for me, and have been a favourite troop type ever since!

I've mixed in 8 Foundry horses, and 6 Foundry Greek riders, just because I have them.  The riders blend in perfectly; the Foundry horses are a tad larger, but go pretty well, too.  Plan is to do 3 units of 8 light cavalry, and then see what Keith and Adam come up with for the heavies.  The Aventine minis are lovely sculpts, with vrtually no mould lines.

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Coh. I et Coh. II Thingummyjigum


I've finished basing the two auxiliary Cohorts from yesterday.  Unfortunately I've misplaced my copy of the SOA publication about the Year of the Four Emperors, which is a pain as I have been naming all my units, from that august work.  When I find this, they will likely become some  flavour of German or Belgian auxilia. 


Both cohorts are BTDs, painted by Dr. Simon's mate, who did great work.  I highlighted extensively, overpainted the shields around the nicely hand-painted designs, and washed with ink in a matt acrylic varnish.  Basing for the two units took around 3 evenings.  All pics are clickable.


Above, you can just make out the space where the unit's name will eventually go, at the rear of the command stand.

This brings me to 9 finished auxiliary cohorts, with 2 more with the painter, and one remaining here to be painted.  Once all 12 are finished I'll focus on the auxiliary cavalry; I need lots of those, too!

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Work in Progress


I'm finishing off some Romans that Dr Simon's mate painted for me...


...and getting ready to paint the next lot of Romans.

This is pretty much standard in the BigRedBatCave.  Most days I'm busy finishing off someone else's Romans!  Even after these I must have 3 or 4 hundred to do.  Daunting...

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

George's Rule


Muswell Militia have recently started to play Hail Caesar and Black Powder.  One problem with these rules is that it is possible to miss multiple turns, by repeatedly failing one's command roll.  After George missed 3 turns in a row during a game of Black Powder, I came up with the idea of giving generals who fail their first activatation of a turn a marker, entitling them to a +1 on the following turn's dice roll, which should reduce the chance of multiple failures.  I call this "George's Rule".

This is the Confused General from the cover of the DBA rulebook, who I've re-based for use in this capacity.  He's scanning his scroll of Hail Caesar, trying to find a missing rule point, lost amongst all the pretty pictures and military anecdotes.  ;-)

Monday, 5 September 2011

More Spiffing Romans

I swappped some stuff with Einar-Olafson Painting's Andres around the same time as he painted yesterday's Command figures, and the figures he gave me included around 20 Copplestone Caesarians, around half of which were completely finished, and the balance at least 60% there.  He has mentioned that he painted these some years ago, but the standard of painting is excellent (far better than I am capable of), particularly the shields.

I've done my best to finish the unit in a similar style.  I painted a standard bearer, completed the unfinished minis (saving a few of Andres' unarmoured legionaries for a later unit), and based.  Luckily there were just enough hand painted shields for the unit.  Click to see the details.


One small departure on basing; 20mm depth just isn't enough to do justice for these Copplestone  figures, so they are now the only unit in all my armies on 25mm depth bases.  They won't be the last, I'll do this for the whole  of the next legion (my third Caesarian).


I really  like the subtle variations in the shield designs (above).   Most of my Caesarians have plain shields, and I think of the figures with ornate shields, such as these, as being in the Praetorian bodyguards of leaders such as Octavian and Mark Antony.

These are by some measure my best-painted legionaries!

Sunday, 4 September 2011

Spiffing Legion Command Stand

These figures were painted for me by the highly talented Andres of EinarOlafson Painting, and constitute the command stand for my third Caesarian legion.   I based.  I think they are probably the best painted stand in my collection, do have a click...


They represent a Legate, Aquilifer and a couple of Tribunes.  My photo isn't the best... but you can see he did a fantastic job; just look at the faces!


Do drop Andres a line via the above link, if you need something very special painted!

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Megalopolis 331BC

This week Muswell Militia re fought the Battle of Megalopolis 331 BC, using the Hail Caesar rules.

I picked this battle because it gave me an opportunity to field both my Spartan and Macedonian armies for the first time.  I loosely based the OOB on Jeff Jonas' excellent Ancient Battles site.  With 4 players, I volunteered to umpire.

George as Agis, and Dr. Simon, commanded the Spartans, defending a pass near Megalopolis (below).  Their army consisted of hoplites, supported by light troops and a unit of heavy cavalry.  All pictures are clickable.


Grant and Ian player Antipater, Alexander's regent.  Their army (below) consisted largely of pikemen, supported by an allied phalanx of hoplites of rather doubtful enthusiasm, light troops and a unit of heavy cavalry (that in the event played little part in the game). Antipater was under time pressure as the superior Macedonian army needed to capture the ridge, by nightfall (turn 6 or a little after)


The Spartans, below, moved swiftly to occupy the crest of the ridge.


The Macedonian infantry advanced, in echelon (below), to meet them.  The phalanx in purple on the extreme right was elite, and was led from the front rank by the aged Antipater.  The Macedonian left (of less reliable allies) was refused.  Is that the hand of Zeus?


The battle for the ridge was hard-fought.  In the first round (below) the uphill Spartans seemed to have the better of it, but in the second the weight of the deeper (and slightly better supported) pike phalanx, with the inspirational Antipater fighting bravely from the front rank, told, and the Spartan formation disintegrated.


The Macedonian elite pikes turned and started to roll up the Spartan line.  There was considerable confusion with the rules at this point, which didn't seem clear as to whether the Macedonians could turn through the 90 degrees required to the flank of the next phalanx. 


With the battle turning against them, the Spartans advanced their cavalry (below), who were charged by the Macedonian's hoplites.  This was a learning point for us, as it transpired firstly that the infantry became disordered by the counter-charging cavalry, and also that I'd given the scruffy Spartan cavalry the same stats as Companions (well hard!).  It was Chaeronea all over again as the hoplites were forced back, shaken.


At this point it was getting late, and we called the game.  The Macedonians had taken part of the ridge, and looked ready to turn up the Spartan line, but the latter's late cavalry charge had to some extent restored the balance.  Perhaps a narrow Macedonian victory.

The game was very enjoyable.  The Hail Caesar rules do give a very good game, but we are still experiencing some frustration with the way that the rules are laid out, which makes it hard to look up points quickly, in the heat of battle.  We are gradually mastering them, though, and expect to play our third game next week.