Friday, 20 December 2013

Cereal Killer


Deadlines require that I need to assemble and paint my Swan-necked trade ship, the "Ceres", over the Xmas/New Year period, whilst simultaneously writing another article, and stuffing the turkey.  I fear that there won't be much time left over for blogging...

The piece on the left is going to be the stern-castle.  I need to sculpt a swan on the wire frame, and add the characteristic Roman railings around the outside. I have a mate working on making the railings, and a plan "B" in case his technology can't cut them.

Later I will need to assemble the masts, build a deck-cabin with bridge on top, and scratchbuild steering oars.

The expensive but beautiful Grand Manner equivalent resin casting is looking more appealing by the moment!

Thursday, 19 December 2013

Away day

Yesterday I traveled to the wilds of Suffolk to play a game with some wily locals and a few others who had journeyed there, from far and wide.  I won't post pics of the minis, because the game is to form the basis of an article that Simon MacDowall is writing, but here is a photo of Simon MacDowall (left) and the opposing generals (Gary, Kevin and Dave) looking contemplative.


Below are my team; John and Adam, with Daniel from Wargames Illustrated in the background. From his body language, you can tell that John wasn't having all that much luck with his dice!


A fine time was had by all, and the hospitality was very generous. I look forward to seeing the piece in the magazine, in due course! 

Monday, 16 December 2013

Aventine Allied cavalry


These brave Aventine Italian Allied cavalry form part of my Winter Offensive.  The minis are delightful and were easy to paint.  I bought 6 from Redzed last year (on the left), and they have proved very useful in several games, since, so I decided to paint 3 more to complete the unit (on the right).  I think I managed to catch his style. 

I am falling slightly behind in my play to complete 52 units by the end of the year, but it is still just about achievable.  I have 48 in the bag... and several more photos to post this week!

Friday, 13 December 2013

Shipbuilding II


I've decided to revive an unfinished project from back in the summer, which is to convert the above Zvezda "Thomas" kit into a Roman trade ship. The hull is already assembled (and a fine hull it is, too; the quality is excellent), and next I need to start work on "Romanising" the the Medieval Superstructure. Watch this space...

Thursday, 12 December 2013

Not Magnesia!

Mate Ian came round last night, bringing his 15mm collection, and helped me play-test the latest version of my "To the Strongest" rules, including the first army lists.  I had decided I wanted to explore the Polybian legion, and the Seleucids, as I want to tackle Magnesia next year, or perhaps in 2015. We picked two armies of around 180 points each, and set to!


Ian has an extensive collection of 18mm minis, which we don't use often enough.  Above, we used around 300 minis to depict a Roman and an allied legion.  The game could have been played with around half of the minis we used, but more looked prettier!  The Roman camp is below; I made that.  



Ian's Xyston Successors (above and below) are stunningly well painted.  Ian's Seleucid army for the games included a couple of units of tough cataphracts, some scythed chariots, escorted elephants and a mass of Galatians.



My favourite shot of the game is the one above.  The Hastati and Principes were organised in units of 24, but with the elements staggered to look like maniples (Ian's idea; a good one!).  During the game, my legions piled into the phalanx, but weren't able to make much of an impression, although they came very close to breaking through towards the end of the battle.


Some Carthaginian chariots (proxying for scythed) almost saw my flank off.  Almost...


Ianichos piles on the pressure! I ran the game from a pdf version of the rules, on the iPad (right). I have come to prefer iPads to paper rules, especially when they have hyperlinks embedded in them.

It was a very enjoyable game, and nail-bitingly close.  I was ahead for much of it, but just couldn't kill the final unit I needed to slay, in order to win. Ian eventually caught up and his surviving elephant committed the coup de grace on my cavalry unit, for the win (below).


The rules worked out very well, and very little needs to be tweaked before the next game. The points values, used for the first time last night, seem to be quite well balanced.  Hopefully we'll get the next test game in, early in January!

If anyone would like a play-test copy (or a recently updated version if I've already sent you one), please do drop me a line at the address on the front of my blog.

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

BigRedBatCaveAnnex

Back in April, I managed to get a much needed wargames storage cupboard, built into an old laundry cupboard.  Today I (finally!) got around to fitting a shelf, and I've started to pack away the gaming boards that have, for several years, stood against the wall of my dining room.


It's rather more than 8' tall and will hold all of my 4' by 2' gaming boards, in 2 stacks, one above the other.  There should also be enough additional space in case I need to add a third set of gaming boards, down the line!

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

My painting table overfloweth


On the painting.basing tray, some of Saxon Dog's Foundry Perry EIRs have joined the Foundry Perry LIRs, Numidians and Greek cavalry, and the Aventine Polybians.  3 Roman periods on the go at once!  Now where are my A&A MIRs...