Friday, 28 December 2012

My wargaming year


Firstly, I'd like to hope that all my visitors have had a very happy Xmas!  In the BigRedBatCave, the turkey carcass is now picked almost clean, the pudding eaten, and my thoughts naturally return to gaming (if, indeed, they ever left it!).  Today I'm reminding myself what I did this year, and tomorrow, hopefully, formulating my plans for next year.

I'm a bit of a home lover.  Every time I ever do one of those personality tests at work, they come up saying “under no circumstances should his work ever involve travel”.  Despite this, one of my unwritten objectives for 2012 was to get around the country a bit more, and I’ve managed three wargaming trips to the "lead belt", and one to Suffolk.


On the first trip in March I visited Roger, and played an excellent game of Borodino (above), the only big Napoleonic wargame I’ve ever experienced.  I painted a lot of figures for this, which have sadly not been used since.  I’ve also failed to complete my planned cavalry brigade, largely due to not having any imminent plans for using in anger, and my napoleonic blog has been "resting".

In May I visited Salute.  I wasn't running a game, so had more time than usual to wander around, and catch up with old friends.  My favourite game was the Victrix 54mm Napoleonic bash, shown below, but, as ever, there were some lovely display games there.



May also marked my first visit (hopefully of very many) to Partizan, where I very much enjoyed re-fighting Heraclea (above) with Craig and The Aventines.  Fantastic armies!  I had so much fun, I went North for a second time in September, to re fight the battle of Ad Castores, using Dr Phil’s new Augustus to Aurelian rules, my Early Imperial Roman army and a great deal of simulated Italian vegetation.  Finally, in November, I visited Simon “Comitatus” MacDowell in his Suffolk fastness, and played a very enjoyable game of the Battle of Chalons, using his beautiful 15mm collection (below).  

 
Life on the home front has been somewhat difficult, with the sad loss of my father-in-law, with associated inquest, probate, will, house sale, flat purchase and move for my mother-in-law.  This, amongst other challenges, have badly disrupted my local gaming activities and consequently I’ve played fewer games this year than in any recent year.  I’ll need to sort that, in 2013.

On the plus side, I have managed a fair bit of painting, repainting and basing.  I completed 28 units, the majority of 24 infantry; perhaps 450 miniatures in total.  Altogether this is rather fewer miniatures than I had hoped, but they were mostly of excellent quality (the Goths, below, are a particular favourite of mine).  


In terms of my modelling objectives I partially achieved 2, completing most of my Napoleonic French cavalry Brigade, and most of what I planned for my Early Imperial Romans 60/60/60 project; now only short 150 legionaries.  I’ll need to revisit the Romans, at least, in the summer.  I completely failed to paint anything for Runequest, my third objective.  Despite the work, the lead mountain grew by an alarming 661 unpainted metal miniatures, and now boasts a substantial plastic foothill.  I also sold off my old Viking army which raised funds to offset some of my all-too-numerous eBay and other hobby purchases, and made a little space for my recent painting.

Tomorrow; looking ahead to 2013!

Thursday, 20 December 2012

A centimetre a day...


As I've previously mentioned, I'm painting a Ptolemaic pike phalanx for our Raphia game, at Partizan in June.  This is, I hope, going to be a very large phalanx, indeed, and I expect that it will occupy the bulk of my painting time for the next 5 months.

I'm currently painting pikemen in batches of 18.  Some almost finished miniatures are at rear left, and a big batch of primed minis are in reserve in case of bad priming weather.  I'm also incorporating a few minis from eBay purchases.

I find I can prepare, paint and base 18 miniatures in around a week; it dawned on me that my 4-deep phalanx is only growing at a rate of 1 centimetre of width each day.  :-(

I'm also a bit worried becuase I'm part way into the project, but at some point in early January a new publication is coming out on the Ptolemaic army, and there is a danger that I might find I've painted them all wrong.  Gulp. 

Friday, 14 December 2012

Xystophoroi


Xystophoroi (such a lovely word!) means cavalry armed with the xyston spear, which was slender but could be up to 4 metres long, and could be used one or two handed.  These are Egyptian xystophoroi, and will be in the left flank striking force of the Ptolemaic host for Raphia, at Partizan.  This is the first unit completed specifically for the Raphia game.

The figures were superbly painted by Gareth Lane, and I couldn't resist buying them, when he sold them recently.  I gave them longer spears and a different standard, did a tiny amount of inking, and rebased.  The riders are Polemarch (and one Aventine), and the horses Aventine; a happy combination!


Tuesday, 11 December 2012

If...


Spartans loved to provide a terse "laconic" reply to any question.  One of my favourite examples (from Wikipedia) is from the time of the invasion of Philip II of Macedon. With key Greek city-states in submission, Philip turned his attention to Sparta and sent a message: "If I win this war, you will be slaves forever." In another version, Philip proclaims: "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." According to both accounts, the Spartan ephors sent back a one word reply: "If." Subsequently, both Philip and Alexander avoided Sparta entirely.

The above (clickable) photo is of a unit of Spartans I've just expanded and re-based.  Most of the minis were excellently painted by my friend Nick Speller.  Their previous basing (by me) never really worked; they proved very challenging to rank.  I got around this by increasing base depths, and multi-basing into 8's.  This unit includes all the miniatures in attacking poses, and will form the right hand unit of the phalanx.

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I've now completed this mini-reorganisation of my Spartans, and now have three units of 36.  Sometime post Raphia, I'll add another unit.  Now I'll get back to the men with longer pointy sticks...

A random Greek hero

I am clearing a few odds and end of the paintint tray to make room for Raphia.

Although almost all of my minis are based in elements, I do find it useful to have some singles and diorama figures for battlefield dressing, and as markers.  This chap is a Foundry Argonaut, converted with a spare head with pilos in order to make him useful as a later-era figure.  I do love his scale cuirass...

Thursday, 6 December 2012

Mugs o'War

When painting, I like to drink my coffee (and tea) from a number of wargame-related mugs, and it occurs to me that other gamers might do this, too.  Here are mine!


Above is the "old faithful" of my mugs, which I stumbled across around 2004, whilst painting my 28mm Pictish army.  I think it came from the Museum of Scotland, via a charity shop.  I love the design, and its rugged construction has, I estimate, survived more than 3,000 washes...


Above is the 2005 Salute mug, from the George and Dragon year.  I've always loved this one, but the lettering is fading toward invisibility, after perhaps 2,500 washes.

Fianlly, below is the 2011 Salute mug.  I've always found this one a bit ugly, and the lettering is fading badly, after only a year and a half.  However, it is a whopping great mug and perfect for a bucket of afternoon tea!


So these are my mugs o'war.  If you have any similar drinking vessels, please feel free to post a link in the comments!

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Masses more Machimoi


220 more Polemarch Egyptian phalangites arrived today, from Gripping Beast.  I now have just about enough minis for my Phalanx (528); but can I get them painted in time (even with assistance)?  Where's me brush?