Here are another 30 Spartans, 18 painted by me and 12 by Nick Speller (thanks Nick!). Some complete my fifth Spartan phalanx and others will man Sparta's improvised defences. Now I need to base them in time for the weekend!
Tuesday, 12 May 2015
Thursday, 7 May 2015
Cremona 69 AD at Salute
Since Salute I have been frantically busy and haven't had a chance to post any of the photos of the game. What follows is a fairly random selection of pictures of the game taken by Ian Notter (long shots) and Alan Daniels (closeups). First there are some shots of the game before the doors opened:
| View down the table |
| The Vitellian Camp |
| Othonian gladiators row towards the pontoon bridge |
I had planned to play the whole game but we were shorthanded and somewhat overwhelmed by the level of interest from the public, and we only managed to play the first half. A highlight of the day for me was being sought out by a lovely couple of kids (10 and 12) who played at SELWG last year, and who wanted to play again.
| XXI Rapax observe the big cavalry melee |
![]() |
| A slave fleeing the fighting, with grapes! |
| V Alaudae advancing towards the pontoon bridge |
It was great to see my newly-printed "To the Strongest!" rulebook out on the table; the ink was barely dry! Happily we sold quite a few copies on the day from Caliver and Agema. I still have plenty of copies left and they can be bought from the BigRedBatshop. If you have previously bought a digital version of the rules I'll give you a £5 refund on the purchase price.
| View along the table |
One of my favourite things about Salute is the opportunity to meet so many friends and people who work in the hobby - the two categories are not, of course, mutually exclusive.
![]() |
| V Alaudae; I love those yellow shields! |
![]() |
| Gladiators risking all in the hope of liberty! |
A huge thank you to Mark Freeth of the Wargames Holiday Centre and mate Mark for running the game and to Ian Notter and Alan Daniels for taking the photos. I felt that the Warlords did a fine job of organising the event this year, entrance, in particular, being very much improved.
![]() |
| Publius Marius Celsus, the Othonian cavalry commander |
![]() |
| Legionaries trample the rich wheatfields |
My next gigs are at the Wargames Holiday Centre from Friday 15th and Partizan at the end of May. If you fancy playing in a game at either, please do drop me a line!
Best, Simon
Wednesday, 6 May 2015
Crimson and bronze II
I seem to have painted/repainted an entire unit of 27 Spartans in six nights, which is about as fast as I have ever manages. It was a lot of fun and so I've decided to paint enough to round out one more unit, and some lights. Curiously not one but both of the part-painted units I purchased on eBay had the Spartan lambdas painted upside down! :-)
In other news I've bought a small Aventine Oscan army on eBay that I intend to round out later this year into a good-sized force. I've arranged to buy another mate's collection of Athenians, so I should be able to open up some new wargaming fronts in the autumn.
Sunday, 3 May 2015
Crimson and bronze
I've been working hard on an extra Spartan phalanx for my trip to the Wargames Holiday Centre on May 15th through 17th. I am planning two games involving Spartans; one with the Spartans meeting Antipater in the field for the famous "Battle of Mice" and the other Pyrrhus' siege of Sparta. The other three games will involve various flavours of Romans and their enemies. No previous knowledge of the "to the Strongest!" rules is required. If you fancy coming up for a day or the whole weekend, please drop me a line and I'll put you in touch with Mark.
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Getting back on the bike.
It was great meeting so many friends at Salute, and I'll post about that tomorrow, when I have more time. Today, however, I am getting the copies of To the Strongest! ready for posting tomorrow and also prepping some Spartans for one of the games I'll be running at the Wargames Holiday Centre on the weekend 15th - 17th May.
Painting permitting, I plan to make one of the four or five games I'll run Pyrrhus' siege of Sparta. Some of these fine chaps will form an additional phalanx and others will man Sparta's improvised wooden wall of wagons. The minis at the top are being repainted from various eBay purchases; mate Nick is painting some more for me. Happily Spartans are easy to paint!
Friday, 24 April 2015
To the Strongest has landed!
...just in the nick of time for Salute. Phew! The print quality looks very good, and I am rather chuffed to put it mildly. A huge thank you to all those who helped get me to this point! Now I just need to introduce Mrs. Bat to the new warehouse facility in our hallway, and schlep half a tonne of books, minis and boards to Excel.
If you'd like to pick a copy at Salute, you can still pre-order from my shop- I'll refund postage costs
http://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/wargames-rules
and collect from Agema Miniatures (TE11), or just turn up with twenty quid on the day at either the Agema miniatures stand or Caliver Books (TL11).
Orders for delivery by post will go out next Monday/Tuesday.
Thursday, 23 April 2015
Furiously flocking
Today I am furiously flocking my new terrain boards for the Cremona game at Salute on Saturday! Here I'm applying corn-stubble to a couple of fields and adding patches of long grass to break the flatness of the boards up. It's a lovely sunny day and I'm playing '70s rock. :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)







.jpg)

