Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Ally Pally to Crystal Palace

On Sunday I motored from Alexandra Palace in North London to Crystal Palace in Sarf London, for what turned out to be a very enjoyable day at the SELWG show. 

This year I took a very portable ancients game.  Instead of the usual heavy terrain boards, I brought a large rubber mat and two of the Deep-Cut studios terrain cloths that I have recently started importing. I brought a relatively modest game, too, with only around 500 Spartan and Athenian minis, around 110 each points if you know To the Strongest! This lot weighed together was less than half the weight of my usual gaming load, and still looked very satisfactory.

Here are the Spartans in their crimson and bronze simplicity:


...and again from the other angle:



The Athenians (above) are an army that has only just reached critical mass; I'm painting more up for the coming Ancients Weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre.


Above, I've re-flocked some hills to match the new mats- I've very pleased with them!

We played two games to completion; one lasted 90 minutes and one 2 hours. The Spartans lost their general five minutes into the first battle (stabbed in the back by the "Infamy, infamy they've all got it in for me" card) but nonetheless still came close to winning. They triumphed in the second game. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. I have no photos of the game in progress but there are some on Big Lee's blog, together with photos of the other games.

The SELWG club members were very helpful and friendly and I was delighted that the game was nominated in several categories, coming second in one (?) and winning "most child friendly" courtesy of  young gamers Emily, Alex and Nick (the latter has been playing TtS! since he was 8!). This was great since I felt the calibre of the games was really high this year and because I always hoped the game would be one that could lure in a new generation of gamers.

A big "hello" to everyone I met- there were so many of you! Particular thanks to those who played the game, the SELWG team for all their hard work, and to Ian for his duties as sherpa and photographer.

Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Athenians for SELWG

I've been a busy boy for the last week or so with very little time left over for blogging, but here's a shot of my painting tray, where I've just based up two units of Athenian hoplites that I bought earlier this year mostly from Steve Jones and Steve Marshall.  I'm really pleased with them- a couple of Steve Jones's freehand shields (the crab and red running S shield) are absolutely stunning.  I still need to flock them and perhaps add a couple more transfers. After SELWG I'll add a third rank.

I'll be running a participation game at SELWG at Crystal Palace on Sunday- if you are attending please say hello and turn a few cards, if you have time! This will be a modest game by my standards but quite a pretty one, featuring Spartans and Athenians slogging it out on a pair of my new gridded Deep-Cut mats. I won't be selling any TtS products at SELWG but if you want to order anything in advance you can collect and save postage.


...and finally, in other news, I've just published three new To the Strongest! El Cid-related lists which can be downloaded for free in the Early Medieval booklet. I'm looking forward to some El Cid gaming in Peterborough on Sunday 1st November with James Morris and Scrivs.  

Monday, 28 September 2015

The second "To the Strongest" World championship

Caesar Nick plans his advance in the first TtS! championship last February
The second-ever To the Strongest! World tournament will be held on February 13th in the village hall of the village of Chalgrove in southern Oxfordshire. People will be travelling there from as far away as the depths of Wales!

Choose your army from any of the To the Strongest! army list booklets, up to 120 points. If your favourite historical army list isn't already written, drop me a line and I will write a list for it. We will be playing with 28mm figures on 6' by 4' tables using a 15cm grid. Gridded battle mats will be provided (or you can buy and bring your own). If you don't have a suitable army I can write a list for you and loan you one on the day; I have quite a few! :-)  I can teach you the rules if you've not previously played.

If you would like to come along drop me a line and I'll forward to Steve Dover who very kindly is organising the event. There will be a nominal charge to cover costs. Due to the relatively small size of the venue we only have a very limited number of places, so I recommend an early application!

Saturday, 26 September 2015

Another alarming development...

I couldn't resist buying these superbly painted minis off of chum David Imrie; they turn out to be late c. 17th French and Huguenots in Williamite service. The flags are stunning, and I love the grey uniforms. Now this is a period until last week that I have never remotely considered gaming; I shall finish off the two (or three) units and see how I feel about getting enough more painted to play a game. I have been messing around with horse and musket rules, after all...


Below is the current state of my painting tray; Celts for Dug in the foreground, some lovely Middle Imperials, again from David Imrie in the centre and war elephants for a game at SELWG behind. Lots and lots to do and not a lot of time before SELWG!


In other news... I've imported a load more of the excellent cloth battle mats from Deep-Cut studios in Lithuania, both gridded (10cm, 15cm and 20cm) and ungridded, including the new wasteland mat shown below. These are a great product; I'll be using them for most of my games. They can be found in the BigRedBatShop.


Tuesday, 22 September 2015

An alarming new development


Glorantha aside, I've never been  much into fantasy gaming. However I just couldn't resist these stalwart (and as-yet-unreleased) halflings from Kawe at Westfalia Fantasy Battles- here painted by the very gifted Shaun Watson (Redzed). I love them from the top of their helmets to their hairy hobbit toes.  :-)

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Arthur and Magnus Maximus at Partizan

Very belatedly, here are shots of the recent game on which the Newark Irregular boys and myself collaborated. Most of the miniatures, terrain and buildings are from Steve Jones and James Morris superb collections as seen in the WAB "Age of Arthur" book, with Scrivs, Mog and myself topping them up. The photos are from various contributors including Darrell Hindley, John Thompson and Ian Notter.


Above the whole table, which was L shaped and roughly 15' by 15'. In the foreground Magnus Maximus' Late Romans (left) fact a Pictish horde. 


Above Pictish reinforcements coming ashore with their village in the background. Below a couple of shots of the Pictish warbands.


The printed gaming mats proved very popular- so popular that four of the five used in the game were "spoken for" by the close of play. I have started importing them from Deep-Cut Studio in Lithuania, and they can be found in the BigRedBatshop, I'll have some desert ones too, shortly.


Below, Picts peer nervously out from their villages.


I made the heather- it is clump foliage glued to MDF with a dusting of pink flock. Cheap and effective and I'll make some more, also more gorse.


Romans drawn up in front of their camp. That's Magnus Maximus on the horse. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the Arthur vs the Saxons game, but here are some lovely shots of the village situated between the two games.



James' villa (below, one wing only) is stunning and packed with interior detail, too.


Below To the Strongest! action as evidenced by the presence of playing cards. The Roman unit with the blue shields and draco (bottom left) broke through the Pictish line.


Finally here's another shot of the lovely stand that the Newark Irregulars very kindly gave me; they formed the garrison of the Romans camp.


Many thanks again to the Newark Irregulars and to all my mates who helped on the day; it was a pleasure. Farewell to Kelham and onwards to the Newark Showground! Next year there should be space for a proper-sized table. ;-)

Sunday, 13 September 2015

More Vandals!

These are my second and third units of Vandals, this time painted by Shaun Watson (Redzed).


The first unit (above) are armoured "heavies" and the second unit (below) are unarmoured. The only change I made to Shaun's minis was to give a few the excellent Goth transfers from Little Big Men studios, many of which are based on the designs of Late Roman units. I've mounted them on deeper bases (67mm deep - five such units can fit in a 4L Really Useful Box).


Vandals are likely to have had short beards with many having long blonde hair. I really need to get going on some Vandal foot soon. I pe that these units will eventually fight the projected Aventine early Byzantines.

For my To the Strongest! rules I've created a pair of Vandal lists, because the proportion of cavalry seems to have increased steadily after they crossed the frozen Rhine in late 406 CE - by the time Belisarius whupped them in 533 CE they certainly had a very substantial cavalry contingent. I've just edited both lists and they can be downloaded for free from here.

This week I've been recovering from Partizan and sculpting tack and armour onto my Aepycamelus minis, of which more anon.

Lastly, my next gaming outing is at SELWG on Sunday 11th October, where I'll be running (as ever) a big game - Antiochus Soter's 278 BCE "Elephant Victory" over the Galatians. If anyone is coming to SELWG and would like to play (or better still help) please drop me a line as soon as possible!