Friday, 21 September 2012

Chariots of... plastic.

For a couple of years I’ve toyed with building a large force of British chariots, to use with my Celtic army.  I collected no less than 20 metal chariots from five different manufacturers (Renegade, Black Tree, Gripping Beast, Newline and Foundry*).  Unfortunately, none of the models are good in all respects; some horses were too large or ugly, chariot poles long and very thick, and generally the chariot cabs looked like they had been knocked up out of offcuts of two-by-four timber.  As for the wheels, they varied from too small to absolutely tiny.

I had had been planning to chop them all up to make a dozen or so decent chariots out of them, but it always looked like an insuperable task.  A couple of weeks ago, I picked up some Wargames Factory chariot parts from Steve on the WAB Forum (thanks!).  I’d always been put off these models, by the dodgy (doggy?) horses, over-long pole and thick chariot floor.  However, looking at the models, afresh, the cup is more than half full, largely because they are plastic and easy to chop about.


I’ve replaced the thick floor with Wills plastic card, and cut new axles from brass rod.  I cut the pole length down by 6mm or so, and trimmed away the flamboyant up-turned ends off the yoke.  I’m going to position the axle slightly behind the midpoint of the cab, as I’ve seen on the Wetwang chariot.  I have some ideas for what to do with the WF chariot crew.  Finally, I will replace the chariot horses with some of the nice metal ponies from Newline, of which I bought earlier.  

I’m really pleased with them so far.   In an ideal world, I'd use a wheel with a thinner rim, but I've not yet been able to find a suitable alternative.  Because the models are plastic, the conversion is very quick and they are also much lighter and more resilient to dropping than their metal equivalents.


They are very cheap and have pretty much the look I’m after.  Wargames Factory; who’d have thunk it?


*I don't have any of the newer Warlord or Relik chariot models.  These look very nice but I suspect that they may be a little small for my needs

Thursday, 20 September 2012

More Auxiliaries, WIP

In the interests of breaking a recent slump in my posting, here are the early stages of my seventeenth auxiliary cohort.  They were underway before Partizan, and, although I currently need another cohort of auxiliaries like a fish needs a bicycle, I want to wrap them up and clear the painting table.


The nicely painted command figures are from the batch Legatus sold me; most of the rest came from a batch of dreadfully painted miniatures I foolishly bought on eBay.  I've blocked in most of the base colours, and they were coming on very quickly until I got distracted by another project, of which more, tomorrow....

Monday, 17 September 2012

I Adiutrix Completed


At Partizan, I was so pleased with the look of my newish ex-marine legion that I decided to expand it from 80 to 99 men, and I've just finished it; 'av a click!

I'm going to work towards all my legions being the same size, which I think will work well with the scale of battles I'm planning, which often featured 6 or more legions.  Accordingly I'm planning to expand my "big" XIIII Gemina Martia Victrix to 12 x 24 man units so that it can represent 3 legions on the above scale, and I plan to collect 4 more fresh legions, so that I can field 8 legions in total.  Collecting 460 more legionaries will clearly take a year or two!

I've also started work on a new project, which (unbelievably!) includes Wargames Factory minis...

Saturday, 15 September 2012

Adiutrix WIP


I decided last month to standardise on a legion of 99 minis, with 4 units of 24 minis and a command stand. This meant that I needed to expand my favourite I Adiutrix Legion by around a third, and here are the new recruits, fresh from the ships ot the Classis Misenensis at Portus Julius.  The minis are mostly Black Tree with Crusader Command.

My posting rate has dropped away, because real life has been interfering with art.  I've also been spending some time on developing a set of ancients rules that I hope will work well with the big games I like to put on at shows.

Monday, 3 September 2012

Ad Castores; at the shrine of the twins

Yesterday Dr Phil Hendry, m'self, Craig Davey and others re-fought Ad Castores, 69 AD.  This is a Roman Civil War bust-up with one side consisting of "loyal" but raw legionaries, and the other experienced auxiliaries from the Rhine frontier.  All pics are "clickable".


The historical battle occurred early in the year of the four Emperors, when Vitellian auxiliary forces set up an ambush in woods near the shrine of Ad Castores, hoping to trap the Othonian cavalry.  Unfortunately for them, a deserter betrayed the plan to the enemy, and the entire Othonian army turned up for the party!  Above and below, at the outset of the game, the majority of the Vitellian auxiliaries are concealed within woods and vineyards.  The unit below is Cohors Hedlium, which I recently bought from a fellow blogger.


Below, the Vitellian cavalry initially faced the Othonian cavalry along the Postumian Way, near the epoymous shrine to the twins (Castor and Pollux).


Facing them, below, is a positive legion of Othonian foot (not all shown in the photo), with their cavalry in front of them.  The Othonian cavalry have halted to avoid the ambush.


The Othonians quickly advanced, with the Praetorians crossing the stream and deploying.  The Vitellian auxiliaries unexpectedly poured forth from the woods to the attack; their Batavian vanguard can be seen below.  The Batavians urned out to be positive lions and tore through no less than 3 units of our legionaries, in succession!


Below, I tried to be clever and move the Othonian cavalry to the flank.


However, they were almost taken in their flank by the rapid Vitellian advance and just managed to turn to face, in time.  A vast melee ensued (below).


The two lines became locked and the melee became general.  Note the gladiators in the foreground, who turned out to be quite as ineffective as their historical ancestors, despite their cataphract armour.


...and then we ran out of time.  Quite a few units had broken, especially the raw Othonian legionaries, and outnumbered Vitellian horse, so honours were mixed.  Both factions claimed a victory; I reckon we loyalist Othonians were a tad ahead, but Craigus (Davey) would no doubt beg to differ.

It was a very good natured game, ably umpired by Dr Phil Hendry who provided his "Augustus to Aurelian" rules.  Thanks to all who came by for a chat, and to the very able organisers of the event and good-natured staff, and to Craig for arriving at dawn with his lovely boards.

Sunday, 2 September 2012

Partizanned

I've just driven back from t'other Partizan, where I enjoyed a jolly game with Dr Phil Hendry, Craig Davey, eldest son Harry and others.  Hi to everyone else I met!


Partizan was splendid but the late nights preparing, two long drives, the 2AM karaoke in the bar beneath our hotel room and a 6:30 AM start, I am feeling somewhat ragged this evening.  I'll post some photos of the game tomorrow (I singularly failed to take pics of any of the other games, some of which were very impressive), but I couldn't resist posting the above shot from behind the Vitellian lines.

Saturday, 1 September 2012

Flocked and loaded for Partizan!

The last 5 units are flocked, and all the minis are packed.  Harry (eldest son and occasional wargamer) has been conscripted as porter and we are about to leap into the car, later to taste the heady delights of an evening in Newark!  Hope to see some of you, tomorrow.