Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Surly Successors


Here in the BigRedBatCave I am desperately finishing the basing of the last minis for the coming weekend's gaming. Shaun McTague painted these for me yesterday- they will command sections of the Raphia phalanx. They are mostly Polemarch miniatures with a lovely Foundry mini front and centre. I love the crossed arms- a rare miniatures pose.

Sunday, 17 April 2016

Salute 2016



Blogger meet photo nicked from Big Lee; your hero is on the left, oblivious to the photographer. 

Salute was another Excel Salute; well organised and as welcoming as a huge, dark, concrete-floored aircraft hangar can be welcoming. There seemed to be more traders and fewer, less impressive demo games, and mostly fantasy/sci-fi games at that. Many games weren't being played, which is such a shame. Not much for the historical gamer this year.  :-(

That said, despite not getting a table myself and missing all too many mates who were in the same boat, I had a very enjoyable time. Highlights included meeting Rick Priestly, Steve Saleh and Andres Amian Fernandez. It was also fantastic to run into so many people I know now within the hobby, especially the TtS! players. The traders I met were so friendly especially Martin and Diane at Warbases, Simon at S&A Scenics and Marcus at Foundry.

I took very few photos but wasvery taken with the Viking game by fellow blogger Dalauppror and friends- Foteviken 1134.





Stunning work!  I loved the vignettes, the tents and the half-built boat.

Friday, 8 April 2016

Raphia test run

Last night I tested the extreme left of the Ptolemaic line, around a quarter of the width of the battlefield. In my experience it is always important to test the components of a really big game; something always comes up that can be improved.


Above is the extreme left of the Ptolemaic line; four wedges of xystophoroi lancer cavalry on the left, three escorted Indian elephant units and the left edge of the phalanx including the agema and peltastoi. Below is the portion of the battlefield in question.


Below is a close-up of the Ptolemaic cavalry.


In the first game we tried an experiment with the elephant screen, deploying the light infantry and elephants as separate units. Using this we found that the Ptolemaic elephants were all-too-quickly swept away and so in the second game we restored them to what I call in the rules "escorted elephants" which have two hits. Although eventually bested by the superior Indian pachyderms, the two hit units put up a much more spirited resistance. We also changed the command structure, adding some more generals.

The second game played quickly and was very enjoyable and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the whole battle fought at the Wargames Holiday Centre!

Saturday, 2 April 2016

Pharsalus 48 BC


I had a very enjoyable day at the SOA Battle Day today, fighting Pharsalus with Andrew Brentnall, Paul Innes and Daivid Barnsdale. I was played the Caesarian left, and Paul Innes played Caesar to Andrew's Pompey. I won't say much about the game (suffice to say that history did not repeat itself) but I do have a somewhat blurry stop-motion video which shows the battle in progress. 



The event was well-attended, super organisation by Richard Lockwood with a great opening address by Phil Sabin, and much fun was had by all. The lovely minis are al from Andrew's collection, 3,500 of them. I am very taken with the look of these massed 6mm minis and would like to collect some myself at some stage- perhaps in a new period.



Friday, 1 April 2016

My new bed of nails


Here are the new phalangites I've been finishing over the winter. Most were painted by Craig Davey and Shaun McTague. I've replaced pikes and shields to match my existing phalanx, varnished and based. There is still some base work and snagging to do, but they more than double the width of my phalanx to 3.8m. I'll take proper photos when they are flocked. Onwards to Raphia!

Monday, 28 March 2016

Antiochus Megas


Here is the Seleucid Emperor, Antiochos Megas (the Great) for my too-big-for-Salute Raphia game. He will lead a bodyguard cavalry unit on the extreme right of the Seleucid line. He was painted by Shaun and he and his escorts are Aventine (although he rides a Foundry horse).

Mate Shaun McTague dropped off the last phalanx and cavalry unit for Raphia and Leuctra this morning. Now I just need to assemble, varnish and base them! Not a trivial undertaking...


Above are the new Silver Shields and some Victrix Mercenaries, below is a close-up of the Victrix. I've given them metal pin spears which I hope will be durable. They will be mixed in 50/50 with some Lucid Eye hoplites that Shaun painted earlier; it'll be an amazing-looking unit.

Friday, 25 March 2016

Thracians


Here's another unit for Raphia- this unit will be the left most infantry unit in the Seleucid force. These are Crusader later Thracians painted by Craig Davey. My only intervention with these was to add flock and dry-brush the bases.