Sunday, 20 January 2013

Pikeys


These are the latest fruits of my Successor Pike mania; the units imaginatively named Phalanx 2 and Phalanx 3.  They are varnished and just need basing/flocking.

I've cut all the pikes to slightly different lengths, and they aren't all upright; I like this effect.

I started to paint the units around 3 years back, but have pulled the stops out over the last month.  I'm trying to paint 18 a week, but falling just a little short... but I think I can catch up due to recent purchase of Raglan's phalangites and getting some blocked in by a professional. The minis are Polemarch (mostly) and Foundry.  I really like the Foundry mini in the Sidon helmet, it paints up beautifully.

Just 384 left to do...  :-)

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Welsh Ptolemaics


64 Ptolemaic reinforcements arrive from Raglan's Welsh mountain fastness... these are going to form the front ranks of my 192-strong white shield phalanx, for Raphia.  Huzzah!

Saturday, 12 January 2013

Cleopatra is a harsh mistress...


I'm plugging away with my Ptolemaic phalanx, but it is proving quite a job! 

Above are batch 4 (blocked in, not yet stained) and batch 5 (half painted, right), which, when finished, will give me the 96 phalangites I need for my second and third pike blocks (of 11!).  I'm going for varied bright colours for the tunics based on the new Stephane Thion Lagid Army book.

I've fired off 100 pikemen to Dr. Simon's painter, to get them blocked in and will be getting another 64 painted ones from Raglan, so I think I'm slightly ahead of where I need to be at this stage.  No room for complacency, though! My mate Nick is going to paint Ptolemy and his bodyguard, too, which is a result.  I'll be using Aventines for these.

I've also been amending my draft rules to include heffalumps and long pointy sticks.

Finally, my mate Ian has lent me his treasured Bar Kochba account of the battle, which looks like it will be invaluable for understanding deployents and what actually happened on the day.  Already I've decided that I'll be drawing up parts of my phalanx 6 deep, perhaps even deeper... 

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

My first magazine article


My first magazine piece, about basing miniatures, came out today, in Wargames, Soldies and Strategy 64.  Woo hoo!  If you want a copy, you can buy it here.  WSS is a great little magazine, and I hope to post there fairly regularly.

Interestingly, Guy the Editor comments that I must disagree with Dr. Phil Hendry's approach to basing.  I actually really like Phil's bases, especially those on his Roman and Sassanids.  He is very consistent, which is what I aim to be, too.

In other news, we played our first game of the New Year last night; the classic Avalon Hill boargame Successors.  This will hopefully make a great background for a campaign, later in the year, once I have enough miniatures painted.

Tuesday, 1 January 2013

One last resolution...


...this is the sorry state of the floor in the gaming/dining room in the BigRedBatCave, as of this morning.  There are a mountain of gaming boards at the rear, debris from xmas and a couple of boxes of cider (why?).  Over the next few days, I plan to clear the lot!  Once clear, I'll hopefully be able to get some serious gaming underway, again.

Monday, 31 December 2012

Pikemen of various hues


Like buses, pike phalanx seem to come in threes.  Yesterday, Simon MacDowall posted his splendid Silver Shields, and I see that tonight Craig has just posted his proud Pink Pikemen (so numerous that he can't capture them all in one photo frame!).   Here is the left-most unit of my own forming Successor phalanx, the Libyan.

Their position on the extreme left of the phalanx, next to the guard units, suggests to me that they were considered more reliable than the local Egyptian phalangites.  They were led by Ammonius the Barcan.  His name sounds Punic; could there have been Carthaginian mercenaries present amongst them?  Raphia was, after all, fought in the same year as Lake Trasimene... 

The phalanx is a recent expansion and repaint of a repaint of an eBay purchase.  The purple linothorax must be due to the availability of Murex sea-snails along the Punic Coast (or could alternatively be due to me being too lazy to change the colour).  They are a real mix of the various Foundry pikemen.

Anyhow I'm delighted to squeeze these into 2012.  I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!


Sunday, 30 December 2012

Resolutions for 2013

Following my plans for 2013, posted yesterday, here are my resolutions:-
  • I shall complete, play test and publish (probably on-line) the Ancients rule set I’ve been developing
  • I shall finish my Ptolemaic phalanx for the game at Partizan; ten units of 48 phalangites, one of 48 agema and peltasts, and 3 dozen Cretan archers.  At the time of writing I do not have a single, complete unit, although I have around 120 figures painted.  To achieve this, within the timescale, I recognise that I will need to get a couple of hundred part-painted for me...   and also the cavalry and nellies
  • I’ll buy the parts and paint the cloth for a deeper wargames table, probably 160cm (4’8””), which is about the widest table that my lounge can take, whilst simultaneously accommodating half a dozen gamers with expanding waistlines
  • Finally, I’ll improve on my woeful record of local gaming, and get some decent games under my belt, at least one every other week
Plenty to be doing, especially the Ptolemaics!