Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Brittunculi triumphant

Here are some shots of last night's game; a baptism of fire for my the new chariots. Here's a view along the table; soon after landing in Britain, a small force of legionaries (near end of table) have been cut off by Britons (centre); Caesar and the veteran Xth legion  are marching to their assistance (rear).


Caesar's advance was uncharacteristically slow (due to several failed activation cards).


The Britons, however (below), were able to push quickly forward.


A warband burst through the thin Roman line, swept into the camp, and then turned onto the rear of the Roman line; the chariots on the hill then captured the Roman baggage, and the battle was won (and lost).


Below, I'm slowly migrating from using the 4L Really Useful Boxes, to the low 7L size.  These are 30cm wide and take 5 elements across, rather than three.  A more efficient use of storage space!  Here are most of the new chariots, packed for Salute.


Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Chariots, wave 2


Most of the second wave of chariots are ready, for the looming game at Salute.  There are still a couple more on the painting tray, awaiting crew, which will bring me up to a total of 18 vehicles.  I hope to add a smaller third wave, later this year.

These models are a mix of Warlord and Wargames Factory vehicles, mostly with Relic wheels and with Foundry and Newline ponies and various crew conversions.   The crew were painted by Nick Speller.  

Sunday, 30 March 2014

Two legions for Vespasian

I'm near enough to completing the various projects for Salute, so have begun to make a start on my next project, which is a Cremona 69AD, for Partizan on 1st June.

In odd moments I've been preparing the figures for two 100-strong legions of Early Imperial Romans, which will form the core of Vespasian's army. I'm using the system I described in my "One piece at a time" article in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. I have bought around 110 of the figures, painted, in 4 different lots. A substantial contingent came from Legatus Hedlius; in fact they are on the header of his blog! All of these need new shield transfers, and some (but not Legatus'), need quite a bit of work to make them presentable.


The balance of the required minis need to be painted from scratch, and are shown below. Almost all of the minis are Foundry Saleh's, but I've mixed in a few Black Tree, Aventine and Crusader and swapped a few heads to increase variety. I've  made a small start on the painting and shield transfers. One legion will have grey-black shields, and the other, yellow.


I have exactly 2 months to lick these into shape (whilst simultaneously building the terrain!). This should keep me nice and busy...

Thursday, 27 March 2014

Racing towards Salute...


These are the second wave of my British chariots, partially based and assembled and almost ready for our game at Salute in just over two week's time.  Tonight I shall fit the crew, and texture the bases, and tomorrow start to paint and flock the bases.  I also need to paint 4 more crewmen (and, as you know, I hate painting Celts!).

At Salute the fine chaps from Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, and I, will be on GE02, which I gather is just inside the entrance to the left as you come in.  Please do drop by and say hello!

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Cats


I thought I'd post another picture of Ian's 15mm cataphracts, that were on the edge of the shot yesterday. The central unit are Essex; nice minis! 

I have recently recived some lovely "cats" from Keith at Aventine, alas I just don't have time to paint them, quite yet.  :-(

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Thin red line


Mate Ian came around at the weekend, and helped me shoot some photos that will later be used to illustrate the rules that I'm currently developing.  The above shows his Successors attacking a Roman Consular army; cataphracts charge on the right! 

Monday, 24 March 2014

Relic Successor Cataphracts

Mike at Relic has sent me a pic of a rather splendid unit of his Successor cataphracts that he has painted.  I saw some of these at Simon MacDowall's place.  Mike has caught the two-handed lance pose very well, and the horses are substantial Nisean chargers.  Very impressive!


They are available here.