Sunday, 24 April 2022

Roundway Down Roundup


I've been busy writing this month and haven't had time to post anything, so here's a sneak peak of the last minis for the For King and Parliament Roundway Down project. The officers are based, the casualties based, two new regiments of cavalry based. There's just these bit bringing up the rear - six artillery pieces and a limber. These are all painted except for the three light guns in the foreground, which I'll hopefully tackle tonight. 

I still need to do some work on the battlefield which is a huge, bare hill. I more or less know how I'm going to do it but that's not quite the same as having it done!

In other news, I'm working on the next update to the TtS! Ancient army list, which is due out on Saturday 30th. There will be three new lists bringing the total to 166 lists.  I'm also ready to publish the next Even Stronger, the first update to the rules in over a year. There will be some interesting new rules which I hope people will enjoy, in particular a new take on Sumerian battle cars.

Finally I recently found a big bag of gold and silver (plated) treasure- literally- and have completely restocked the shop with Victory Medals. Unfortunately these will be the last such medals I'll be stocking, because the supplier's wholesale price recently went up by 50%, which makes them unaffordable- once these are gone, these are gone.  So if you want to add some bling to your game, now's the time! Below is one of my favourites, the Pegasus of Corinth. Of course the best sellers are the Roman denarii.

Sunday, 10 April 2022

ECW progress

I'm conscious that I've not posted on this blog for almost a month- it can get that way when I'm busy in the lead-up to a display game (in this case Partizan). Above and below, I've been making command stands, pursuit  markers, casualty markers and artillery pieces for the Roundway Down game. This has been going pretty well, with the first three categories close to completion, and only the artillery needing very much work. I should have them finished with plenty of time, which is good news, since I still need to build a darned great hill. When they are completely finished, I'll take some decent photos. 


In other news, I'm working on the next release of Even Stronger, which will include some new troop types and streamlined rules, due out at the month end- it'll have been a whole year since the last version! I'm also editing ancient army lists for the month end release and a book. Busy, busy busy!

Thursday, 10 March 2022

Dutch Artillery, 1672 style


Here's my first unit of artillery for 1672, a battery of Dutch guns.  These are mostly miniatures from the North Star range, with accessories from Bicorne Miniatures and TAG. I converted several 1672 pikemen to add variety to the limited number of poses of the gunners. Unusually, I painted most of these myself from scratch, and the guns, too. Ian added the static grass and I added the tufts. all the pictures are clickable.


I think I have the uniforms reasonably right, but, in any case, there is a very great deal of uncertainty about the Dutch uniforms. They possibly had orange sashes. Incidentally, the wicker basket in the left foreground holds grape shot.


Here is a close-up of the unit's officer, he is an officer from the Warfare Miniatures "officers with character" range, equipped with a TAG linstock. These recent releases from Warfare are very nicely sculpted and compatible, size and style wise, with 1672. Great buttons! The chap behind him, on the left, is a 1672 pike man equipped with a (Bicorne?) trail spike. 

I hope you like these, I do! I'm still a very long way from playing a game in this period, but the armies are coming along in the background. A big shout out to David Imrie for further lighting advice; I now have green grass, again!

In other news, I've been chatting with Andrew Brentnall and David Imrie about how to depict units in the Thirty Years War. David Imrie has recently painted and based a breathtakingly-lovely Imperialist unit and I am strongly resisting basing up a unit or two of Swedes. Andrew and I are in the early stages of discussing some possible tweaks to For King and Parliament to take into account some of the additional continental troop types and tactics that one encounters in the TYW.

Monday, 7 March 2022

New Chits of War released

 I've just released some more lovely chits for use with To the Strongest! and For King and Parliament. Chits of War come in sheets of 80, are 20mm in diameter and are drawn from a bag and used in the place of playing cards. I've introduced two new colours, white and yellow, to complement the existing five colours (purple, dark blue, green, red and orange). 

The coloured, varnished MDF chits are double sided for speed of play, because you don't need to flip them over.  The two new sheets offer a strong contrast to the existing colours, so you won't mix them up.              


I've also had matching stratagem tokens made:


You can find them here (chits) and here (stratagems).

Monday, 28 February 2022

Updated To the Strongest! Medieval Army List eBook released


I’ve just published an updated versions of the medieval army list eBook for To the Strongest! The 211-page PDF now includes 120 Medieval army lists, including five new lists (West Slav, Old Prussian, Early Lithuanian and Samogitian, Later Feudal English and Yi Korean lists). I’ve also moved the Later Hindu Indian, Early Lombard and Avar lists here, from the Ancient List eBook, as they sit better alongside the medieval lists. Several of the existing lists have been revised, and a good deal of background information has been added.

Each list consists of a spreadsheet describing the army. Most of the lists also include details of how the army fought and a historical background, and sometimes a picture of painted miniatures.

You can find buy the army lists here.  Should you order the lists you'll receive updates roughly every three months until at least the end of 2022, with new lists and additional material added each time. The next update will be at the end of May 2022. The eBook costs £9.99.

https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/army-lists

Alternatively, if you are outside the UK (especially if you are in the EU, where I can't sell digital products) you might like to buy it from Wargames Vault for $14.99.

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/343132/To-the-Strongest-Medieval-Army-List-eBook?term=medieval+ar

Monday, 21 February 2022

ECW veterans

 
On Saturday I came across an old ECW regiment that I based up perhaps three years ago to illustrate how I'd model a unit on a 20cm frontage; it's the one featured in the colour pages in the For King and Parliament rule book. It's never been used, because I have always gamed on 30cm, but I've long thought about rebasing it. I worked out a shortcut to do this, by inserting three FK&P7 bases on the edged of the existing FK&P6's, adding extra files to the pike and to each wing of shotte. I just needed to paint an additional seven minis to bulk it out and, on a whim, I did this over the weekend.

The regiment is only in two ranks, unlike my other units which have three, but that's not an issue as I intend it to represent an understrength unit. The minis (many painted by Shaun McTague- the additional minis I repainted from eBay purchases) are a mix of Renegades and Bicornes, and feel like they are veterans.

I don't have a name for this unit, which is fairly generic- probably Parliamentarian as the sashes are orange. I'm open to suggestions! I'll post a better picture when it is flocked.

Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Blowing hot air


I am just finishing some bases on a couple of regiments of cavalry for Roundway Down (at Partizan in late May), and I found myself wondering whether anyone else uses their wife's hairdryer to blow away surplus flock? Also does anyone else matt varnish their finished flock? I find it comes out better in photos, that way.