Tuesday, 24 November 2020

Swiss IX

 

Latest shot of the Swiss, with a second Bern contingent added (third flag from the left). Next I'm going to paint Fribourg, which has an attractive pale-blue and black heraldry.


In other news, watched a cracking online battle on Saturday between Antony Spencer and Andy Lyons, using the Wars of the Roses Tabletop Simulator setup that Antony made. It was one of those glorious battles that swung first one way, and then the other. Such fun!

Tuesday, 10 November 2020

Twelth Bloggiversary

The eponymous Bat that named this blog- yes, that is a 28mm model- almost a metre wide

A reminder popped up on Sunday to remind me that I have been blogging for 12 years, since 8th November 2008; how quickly the years have rushed past! Here are twelve links to some of my favourite blog posts from the duodecennial period. Links will take you to each blog post. All images will expand, if clicked.

2008 - The very first post - looks like I failed to add a title! I was also experimenting with formats. A democrat had just won the US election and there was a major economic crisis underway, so no change there. Mind you, there wasn't also a plague back then. :-/

2008 - My first phalanx - I had a modest 60 phalangites back then. To see how it has swelled over the years, see also the Magnesia phalanx, below!

An early game in the BigRedBatCave- Ruspina 46 BCE, played back in '09

2009 - Zama at Salute - this super Command and Colours game was run at Bletchley and later at Salute- lots of fun with chums including Dug, Ian, Nick Speller and Keith and Adam from Aventine. We even won a prize!

2009 - Glorantha - I'm a big fan of Gloranthan fantasy - the BigRedBat title of the blog comes from the Lunar Empire. Below is one of my favourite models. One day I'll write that fantasy version of TtS!...

2011 - Hail Caesar - I played this game of Hail Caesar with chum my good chum Ian - had great hopes for the rules- but that night we fell out over measurements and angles. After the game I decided to write a set of grid-based rules, which Ian was a huge help with. If we hadn't scrapped, that night, I'd never have written TtS!

2014 - Cremona at Partizan-in-the-park - possibly my favourite display game at the best-ever Partizan. The best lighting I ever experienced at Kelham Hall, by a factor of ten! ;-)

2015 - To the Strongest! - was released. It had taken me four years to get the rules right - I'm not the world's fastest writer! :-) Happily they have proved popular and enduring- I'm currently working on some army list books and the 

2017 - The Wargames Holiday Centre - I've enjoyed a great many gigs with Mark Freeth at the Wargames Holiday Centre. This event in 2017 was one of the largest!

The Battle of Ipsus at the Wargames Holiday Centre - not skirmish!

2018 - Soggy Bottom - This huge ECW For King and Parliament game visited most of the big shows, I think it looks a million dollars, and we had such fun with it.

2018 - Leviathans There have been many posts with images of elephants, but this is one of my favourites. Heck- just found this post- it's even better! I have been modelling a lot more elephants for a big projected Ipsus game, but that's all been delayed by Covid- hopefully next year, if there are any shows.

2018 - Magnesia Phalanx - at another Partizan, I modelled a 1:1 section through a 32-rank deep Seleucid phalanx. This by no means marks the end of my phalanx ambitions- Shaun McTague is painting a load more for me at the moment.

2019 - Mancetter at Salute - this was the first outing of last year's huge Mancetter game- we had such a lot of fun with it! Won a trophy, too. 

So far the blog has had 1,276,284 page views, and, at a time when blogs are in something of a decline, still tracks at 12-14K views per month. A big shout out to everyone who has visited over the years, even to the numerous Russian bots! Thanks to all those who have helped me put on the demo games, helped me with the rules, or bought the rules which fund me to keep on writing the rules! Here's to many more blog posts!

So to sign off, here's a picture of Cremona at Salute at Partizan in the Park back in '15. I just love that pontoon bridge, I really should run that game again...

Cremona at Partizan back in 2014

Monday, 9 November 2020

Switzers VIII - Bern baby Bern

Yesterday, I added Bern with its bear standard and natty red/black colour scheme, to the second Swiss keil, which is now complete bar the base texturing (Solothurn - Schwyz- Bern). This puts me 1/3 of the way into the six-keil Swiss project, which will inevitably slow down since I am running out of painted Swiss in my "reserves" boxes. I hope to finish a third block around Christmas - in the meanwhile, I'll continue with their Burgundian opposition and the Italian wars knights.

Again the minis were painted by Shaun McTague, finished by me, and incorporate some very nice minis that David Imrie kindly swapped with me. 


PS the title references the 1976 classic Disco Inferno by the Trammps (sic). I have a soft spot for Disco. :-)

Wednesday, 4 November 2020

Switzers VII

 

This is 2/3 of my second Swiss pike block. On the left is Solothurn, and on the right is Schwyz. I may end up doing extra contingents for both, as I like the uniforms and have suitable minis. Most of these were painted by Shaun McTague, finished by me, with some from David Imrie.



















Next I plan to tackle Basle; black and red, what's not to like? I hope to have them on bases early next week.

Friday, 30 October 2020

Switzers VI

 

I've started work on the second pike keil. There are the next three sub-units, contingents from Solothurn, Bern and Schwyz respectively. Schwyz is almost done; it should take a week each to lick the other two into shape. 

Monday, 26 October 2020

Switzers V

 

Here is the latest work in progress image of my Uri Swiss keil. I've now placed all 96 minis on their bases, although they are as yet ungrouted.


This shot shows the flags, from Peter's Flags and Flags of War. I've used small flags as the Swiss liked them on the small side. I went with a yellow and black theme to match the colours I used on the minis. Most of the figures in the front rank were painted by David Imrie, with the bulk of the minis coming from Shaun McTague.


Here's the whole unit. I've built it so that I can field it for a 20cm grid, but by removing the central files of bases and some of the rear bases, I can field a sawn-down 48 man keil to suit a 15cm grid, for competition gaming on a 6'x4'. I have enough painted minis for two more of these, which I'll work on over the winter. I hope to eventually field four or five, and perhaps some early units with halberds instead of pike. The bases are all my FK&P13c's, which comfortably take eight minis each.

If you play TtS! you may have seen the Swiss lists in the free Medieval book and the special "field square" rule for keils in the Even Stronger supplement. It's a most unusual army, which I've fought against a few times in competitions; very hard to beat! I'm looking forward to trying it out, myself, hopefully in the spring.

Thursday, 22 October 2020

Switzers IV

Last night I had a bit of a push on the first keil and finished the flags. I went with the Uri flag (Flags of War) and a couple of other flags in similar yellow/black colours (Pete's Flags), which tied in with the Uri colour theme.

You can see that I've based the core of the keil, including the command, halberdiers and less-armoured pikes, many of these have cantonal colours. The better-equipped pikes will be around the outside- these will have partial or, in a few cases, full plate, and are in generally less bright clothing.

Here's the Uri flag which depicts an auroch- I slightly overpainted the very nice Flags of War flag- gives it a nice texture. Iain very kindly re-sized the flag for me to make it slightly smaller- I wanted to put it on a spear rather than a pike. These minis are mostly by Shaun McTague.

All things being equal, I should be able to get the other 64 minis on their bases, tonight. Can't wait to see how they look! I've had a quick count- I have another 200+ painted Swiss with pikes and halberds, so hopefully will have three keils "in the field" by Christmas.