Sunday, 26 June 2022

Later Thracians


I'm planning a very large Successor To the Strongest! game for Salute, and as such I need several more units of light horse of various nationalities. This unit is my first of Thracians, distinguished as such by their characteristic helmets, long boots and flowing cloaks. I didn't want early Thracians, with the soft caps, but rather later ones suitable for Lysimachus' army at Ipsus.

All of the riders are Wargames Foundry or Aventine Miniatures. Many are converted with heads from bought from Aventine, and all ride lovely Aventine horses. I added flowing cloaks to any minis that lacked them, which I think gives a real sense of movement. They were all painted by Shaun McTague - he did a fine job- and I highlighted and based them around 6 months ago- I only just got around to finishing them though.

I chose to depict them, skirmishing, in a Cantabrian circle.

In other news... if anyone was waiting for Geek Villain mats, I have them stock again.  I've also bought in a lot of cloth mats with a 7.5cm grid for people wanting to play TtS! with smaller 6mm or 2mm minis, or other games such as with Mark Backhouse's Strength and Honour. You can find the mats here. Finally, I'm back on editing the Renaissance rules, which are moving forward again, albeit at a glacial rate. I'm not yet ready for playtesting, but I'll keep you posted.

Friday, 17 June 2022

Niccolò da Tolentino

This is Niccolò da Tolentino, commander of the Florentine coalition at the Battle of San Romano. He was painted by the very talented Redzed (Shaun Watson), some time ago. All the photos are clickable.


He's accompanied by a unit of Florentine knights painted by Shaun McTague and myself. Aside from Niccolò himself, the knights are mostly Perry plastics, lightly converted with beautiful high feather headdresses from Mirliton in Italy. I've given many of them giornea tunics. I've tried to get close to the famous "Rout of San Romano" painting. 

I bases on my trusty FK&P6's, Ian Notter flocked and I tufted. The unit is 18 strong, that's how I do all my mounted units, these days. I plan a full Florentine army with lots of militia types.


Here's Niccolò from a different angle, from which you can make out part of the magnificent standard that Pete of Pete's Flags has designed. It's huge and stunning. The red flag in the previous image is also by Pete- Orsini, if I recall correctly, hence the bear.

In other news, it is the final day of my To the Strongest! Flash Sale today (Friday). I've added some new items and further reduced the price of some other items, some of the stuff is 30-50% off. You can find them here.

Here's a clickable version of the full-unit shot.



Tuesday, 14 June 2022

Flash TtS! Early Summer Sale


I've put a bunch of To the Strongest! products on sale for the next few days.  


There are rule books, chits,  bases, magnetic sheets, terrain pieces and tokens on sale.


Discounts vary from a modest 10% to a mighty 50%. Get them while they are hot- sale must end on Friday!  

In other news, I'm currently working on a TtS! scenario for the battle of Ceresole 1544, and (re)painting another regiment of ECW horse, some minis shown below. These will become a Royalist regiment, probably Prince Maurice's, who were at Roundway Down. Maurice's had red cornets so I'm giving them matching red sashes.

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Latest Version of the TtS! Medieval Army list eBook is published

I've just released the latest version of the Medieval Army List eBook. This release includes two new lists - Later Lithuanian or Samogitian, and Frisian Free Cantons - bringing the total to 122. The former list provides able opponents for the dread Teutonic Knights. The latter is an obscure but fun list, since the Frisians are equipped with spears that double as vaulting poles!

There are significant edits to the Breton list, and Bretons in other lists. There are also edits to Western Franks, Pre and Post Mongol Russians, Nikephorian and Thematic Byzantines and possibly others. I removed Livonian light cavalry from the Teutonic knights list; apparently they never existed. I've also added additional background and army note material to some lists. The next version of this eBook will come out around the end of August, there will be several new lists. The next Ancient Army list eBook update is due out at the end of July.

If you have ever bought a paid-for version of the eBook (as opposed to free versions) you should have received a copy either by email (if bought from the BigRedBatshop) or as a download link (if bought from Wargames Vault). If you would like to buy a copy, you can find it here or, if you are in the EU, here.

Here I'm recovering from the exertions of Partizan and trying to push on with several projects in parallel- some more ECW for an extended version of Roundway Down, some more regiments for my 1672 project, some Renaissance knights and ancients for Ipsus. Photos in the weeks to come!

Tuesday, 10 May 2022

Gridding

 

Here's chum Ian helping me to mark up cloths for the Roundway Down game with a very unusual 26cm grid, that is required because of the somewhat unusual configuration of the battlefield (7 boxes wide). This proved to be quite involved, since the cloths I had picked are from Geek Villain and use a fleece that is lovely but stretchy, being designed to go over hills. But Ian and I are grizzled veterans of marking up cloths with grids - heck, we've even done hexes! - so it wasn't unduly taxing.

The reason I like these GVs is because they are a great shade of green and there's a nice nap to the fleece. Unfortunately I had to use the last three I had in stock, so I can't sell you any, but I'll hopefully receive more in June, both gridded and un-gridded.

Friday, 6 May 2022

Bring on the Empty Horses


Above are the completed horse casualty markers for the Roundway Down game (click for a close-up), and below are the infantry casualty markers. The miniatures are a mix of Bicorne and some old Redoubts and a couple of Warlords The dead horses, above, I converted from a Bicorne horse and Bicorne very kindly then cast a bunch up for me (I've not seen them added in their shop). All the minis were painted by Shaun McTague or me, and chum Ian did the expert flocking, which I then tufted, dry-brushed and varnished. I added the flag for the wounded ensign; poignant, or what?


The title reference is from a David Niven auto-biography. The phrase was used by Michael Curtiz, the Film Director of The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), when attempting to explain on set that he wanted a lot of rider-less horses in the background of the climactic charge; so it is fairly appropriate for Roundway Down!

My recent lack of posts has been because I've been very busy writing modelling for the Roundway Down game at Partizan.  I've almost finished this- just a few hundred tufts to go. I am currently working on the next release of the Medieval Army list book for the month end- I expect to add at least two or three new lists. I'm also finishing my contribution to a Helion book on Ceresole 1544, and writing some ancient army lists, and doing a little work on Renaissance. Lastly I was interviewed at length on the Plastic Crack Podcast, you can watch it here.  Busy, busy, busy!  :-)

Tuesday, 26 April 2022

Even Stronger V10 published


I've just published an updated version of the Even Stronger Rules Supplement- the first in over a year. There are a handful of changes, notably a new troop type, straddle cars, which I hope will help to raise interest in the Sumerian and other Third Millennium armies. There is an interesting, significant change to javelinmen. There's an extra ammo chit for all wheeled vehicles such as chariots. I also simplified the (formerly somewhat Byzantine) rules on massed lights and supported mounted. There are sundry other minor changes. If you've previously downloaded it, I've sent you an update link. If you haven't received it you can download it here.  It's free.

Late this week I'll publish an updated version of the Ancient Army List eBook. There are three new lists, and quite a few other lists will have some revisions, in particular the Third Millennium lists which are receiving something of a spring clean.  If you've previously bought  the paid-for version, I'll send you an update or a link.