Sunday, 7 February 2021

Switzers XIII

 

I have broken the habit of a lifetime and painted a few minis from scratch. These are guide minis that will gone to Shaun McTague, in the next week or so, so that he can paint the final two contingents of Swiss pike. 

I like both sets of heraldry, although I particularly like the former with the unusual diagonal, which came out great on the right-hand figure. I'll definitely also want some Zurich arquebusiers, too as Flags of War do such a lovely standard for the Zurich skirmishers.

Also I read an interesting piece in the Swiss Osprey, which says that Bernese skirmishers carried an axe called a mordaxt, in addition to an arquebus or crossbow. I read that a mordaxt is a 2m long polearm, which seems somewhat incompatible with carrying an arquebus, but perhaps most had a missile weapons and some the polearm, to support the former? It's an interesting modelling challenge, anyhow.

I'm confidently moving towards finishing the Swiss, and have even been able to find time to start a new unit of Burgundian opponents for them, pics in a day or so.

Friday, 29 January 2021

Switzers XII

I've been busy over Christmas/January on the Swiss Project, but haven't posted any pictures. Here's an update. Above are the troops painted so far- mostly by Shaun McTague, and finished by me, but including contingents from David Imrie.

I've planned 18 contingents of 32 figures, each representing a canton or part of a cantonal contingent, plus command, heroes and lights. So far 8 are finished, 5 are mostly done, 2 are partially done and three haven't been started. I estimate I'm over 70% of the way there.


The new contingents are forming up...


...I've done roughly 2/3 in cantonal colours, and 1/3 in random colours. That's probably too high a proportion cantonal colours, but they look great, and I don't care!!


I've prepped most of the minis for the final contingents, but they aren't yet off to Shaun to paint. The group at the back are those in non-cantonal colours.

There are also four command stands, 18 heroes, 70 light infantry and 10 light cavalry to do- perhaps half of these are painted. I hope to finish painting the pike by the end of February and, I suppose, there is a month's work to do on the lights. After that there's the grouting and flocking. But it's all coming along nicely! 

I've started to think about a huge To the Strongest! game at a future show using these, the most attractive option is Morat 1476, for which I'll need perhaps 450 Burgundians. :-/

Friday, 22 January 2021

Hannibal and Chits

We've just started playing an online To the Strongest! tournament called Hannibal Ad Portas, this week I fought my first battle. That's my vast Italian Tribes army at the bottom; 16 victory medals - that's a whole lot for a 130 point army. I played fellow veteran blogger Monty from the US, who had Spanish. It wasn't a game of any great tactical subtlety; we just had at it!  I narrowly pipped him by one medal, once I eventually remembered how the rules work. Below is an in-game shot.

 

If you fancy joining the tournament, which is, I suspect, the only ancient big battle tournament running in the world, just now, please email me and I'll put you in touch with Antony, the organiser. Its very good natured and very international in its nature, and a really good way to learn the rules. Or you can just watch us play online, if you like.

In other news I've released some more coloured activation and stratagem chits, this time in red and dark blue. 



The new stratagem tokens are single sided (plain red or dark blue on the reverse).


You can find them, here.


Also I've received a major restock of bases. Pretty much everything that I'd run out of is now back in stock.

Bases

That's if for now- I hope to be able to show some more Swiss in a day or so, as that project grinds unremittingly towards completion. 

Wednesday, 13 January 2021

Swiss progress

 

Over Christmas and New Year, I've been chipping away at the edges of my Swiss project. I prepped 100+ plastic and metal Swiss, and detailed the 84, above, that Shaun McTague mostly painted, the bulk of the next four contingents - Glarus, Schweiz, Schaffhausen and Basel. They will be bulked-out with un-uniformed Switzers. My plan is to get the bulk of the remaining 250-ish Swiss finished, and then base them all at more-or-less the same time.

This is my first post of '21 - let's hope we all have a happier year, with rather more wargaming than the last one! I'm very much hoping to be able to run some big games, once we are let out to play, and join in some competitions, too. In fact there's an online tournament starting on Monday- Hannibal at the Gates- mail me if you would like details.

Hannibal Ante Portas online tournament

Look at those lovely Quincunxes!

Following on the heels of last year's successful TtS! 1066 and Kingmaker tournaments, Hannibal Ante Portas will be the next on-line To the Strongest! tournament, starting next week.

The tournament, organised by chum Antony, is set during the period of the 2nd Punic War 218 BCE. Players will fight with a variety of armies from the period – Gallic, Hellenistic Greek, Imperial Seleucid, Later Carthaginian, Later Macedonian, Numidian, Parthian, Polybian Roman, Southern Italian Tribes and Spanish, over 10 battlefields that take their inspiration from actual battlefields from the classical period – Lake Trasimenus, Metaurus, Cynoscephalae etc.

We'll be playing online using Tabletop Simulator, which is available on Steam.

The tournament will begin with a ‘pool’ stage that will start on Monday 18th January 2021 and finish on Sunday 14th March 2021, during which players may play as many of the other players in the tournament as they choose.

At the end of the pool stage, the top 8 players, based on their six best results, will then go forward to the knock-out stages. It is expected that we will have a number of players with the same points so we will use the following as the ‘tie breaker’ – Number of Decisive Victories in the 6 best results recorded, followed by, if required, the net Number of Medals Captured.

The quarter final battles will be fought between Monday 15th March and Sunday 21st March with the winners of the quarter final battles progressing to the semi-final battles.

The week commencing 22nd March is scheduled for the semi-final, 3rd/4th place battle and the battle for the title of Hannibal. There will be prizes at the whim of Antony and Simon.

How to Enter

Simply message Antony (aka antman1805), either through the TtS! Forum or the TtS! Discord server – https://discord.gg/4HqHRC7 ,  giving him your “Discord” handle and name and he will record you as a participant. Alternatively you can email Simon and he will forward it to Antony. Please also let him know which country/time zone you are in to help with arranging games. Antony will need to share names and email addresses in the form “simonmiller60 at gmail dot com” with the other participants so that players can contact each other to arrange games (if this is a problem for you, let him know, there may be a work around). As with previous TtS! tournaments we are looking for players from across the globe, who can't usually make it to the UK-based tournaments or, indeed, any other tournament at the present time.

Even if you are a newbie to the To The Strongest! rules or not even played them before please get involved. We have a great group of players who will be happy you teach you both the game mechanics and how to use Tabletop Simulator- you will be a battle-scarred veteran, by the end! Do please come along - we hope that the card gods will smile kindly upon you.

Thursday, 24 December 2020

A Merry Christmas to All!

 

Here in the BigRedBatCave we are hunkered down in tier 4, with only a few modest survival rations to see us through the lead-up to Christmas. 

I hope we all get as great break as we can in current the difficult circumstances, and that things get very easier for us all, at some conveniently point early in the New Year! I'm very much hoping to see some of you across a gaming table in the Spring. I have a lot of freshly-painted units that will, no doubt, perform very badly, indeed. ;-)  

Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year!

Sunday, 20 December 2020

Switzers XI- Schweiz and Glarus

The project has slowed, slightly, in the face of the Tyranny that is Christmas Preparation. I've managed though, to finish 24 minis for a second Schweiz contingent, and 15 for a new Glarus contingent. Both are mainly in red, but Glarus have black and white accents. Many were painted by Shaun, but needed some overpainting as I didn't originally specify the correct colours- I've learned more about the Swiss as I go along with the project. I'm not going to base these, yet, because I want to incorporate some other minis from Shaun that aren't in cantonal colours, to mix things up a bit.


Here's the plan I'm working from. The green-highlighted units are finished, the blue-highlighted are under way. The cantons are arranged very roughly in order of becoming independent, with the original Waldstätte ("forest") cantons in the first keil (1&2).

Thursday, 10 December 2020

New Activation and Stratagem Chits for To the Strongest!

The new activation and stratagem chits are in the shop. They are 20mm diameter and in glorious technicolour- it's easy to make the values out at a distance. I chose TtS! purple, green and burnt orange for the initial colours, because they contrast well with each other, so it is easy to distinguish between them if your opponent is also using chits (just so long as he's using a different colour!). 

The activation chits come in packs of 80. They are two-sided, so play is quicker than with the previous single-sided MDF chits, since you don't need to flip them.




There are also three matching sets of stratagem tokens. These have plain colours on the back. The advantage over the previous version is that it tells you what the stratagem is, rather than there being a symbol you need to look up.



You can find them in the BigRedBatShop  https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/chits

Thursday, 3 December 2020

Switzers X - almost half way!

 

Terrible photos but I'm overdue posting an update. The new sub-unit is the blue-themed contingent in the above keil, above; 32 Freiburgers. The super flag is from Flags of War. The  minis were mostly painted or heavily overpainted by me (!), but there are a few of David Imrie's in the front rank and some of Shaun McTague's in there, too.


Above is the first keil, and below, the second. I now have eight of the 32-man "strips" based (but not grouted), three more out with painter chums, and one more here, ready to repaint/finish, which I'll probably tackle next. But I will need to prepare another 192 minis, at some stage. Gulp. Still, though, I'm almost half way there with the project.


In other news, I've published new versions of the Ancient and Medieval army list books for To the Strongest! with new lists, edits, and tons more background material- you can find them here. 

Tuesday, 1 December 2020

New To the Strongest! Army List eBooks published

I've just published updated versions of the Ancient and Medieval Army List eBooks for To the Strongest! Since the last version, I've made many edits, added two new army lists to each book together with a huge amount of additional historical background, lots of army information and more images. There are now a mighty 246 army lists across the two books. The eBooks are now priced at £9.99 each.


Should you order the lists you'll receive regular updates every three months until the end of 2022 (by which time I expect to have pretty much finished the 100ish remaining lists), with new lists and additional material added each time.


I've also published a free army list eBook, with 30 popular army lists in it, drawn from both the above books (you won't need to download this if you have ordered them).

I do hope that you enjoy the lists! You can fins them here.

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.

Wednesday, 21 October 2020

Kingmaker Tournament approaches its conclusion

The TtS! Kingmaker is now in its sixth and final week, and the players have ratcheted up a mighty 35 online Wars of the Roses battles between them, so far!

All of the terrain is based on WotR battles, as are the army lists. Antony Spencer, who designed, organised and is running it, has written a summary of the campaign, so far, including a campaign map. You can find it at this link on the TtS! forum. Fascinating stuff!

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/tothestrongest/tts-war-of-the-roses-kingmaker-tournament-week-6-u-t2140.html

Tuesday, 20 October 2020

Switzers III


I've finally bitten the bullet and started to base some Swiss, that were painted by Shaun and finished by myself, earlier this year. I have accumulated several hundred minis- it's now a matter of assembling them into suitable units. This block will be mostly Uri. Other blocks are likely to be a mix of cantons. I'll need to paint/repaint the minis to get a suitable blend of cantonal colours.


Each block will have a group of halberdiers at its core, with a colour party in front of them. The rest of the blocks will be pike or pike and command. David Imrie kindly sold me some Swiss pike, and I'll be mixing them in, too. Eventually I'd like 5 blocks of 96, but I'll start with two.

I'm looking at the bases, on the basing sheet, and thinking that I might make up some larger bases that could take 16 minis on each- fewer bases is always better! 

Sunday, 11 October 2020

Florentine knights WIP


Here are my Florentine knights, still forming up for action at San Romano.

The more I get into the period, the more I discover- it's like hitting a moving target. In this latest incarnation I've added glorious tall plumes from Mirliton in Italy to most of the knights in the leading unit. Unfortunately, very few of the knights currently have the characteristic giornea tabards, and some even have tunics, which aren't particularly Italian. Once I get the next batch of painted knights back from Shaun McT there will be some swapping in and out. Any knights who no longer qualifies for the Florentine host will be used, elsewhere- the ones with tunics will be joining the Burgundian army. I'll add more full-faced helmets with plumes, too.

My plan is to have three units of 18 Florentine knights, and then to move on to Milan, replacing my current Milanese with 54 more Italian-looking elmeti, some with Milanese heraldry- then I'll either do the same for Venice, or perhaps base up some Burgundians.