Friday, 7 July 2023

Nine out of forty cats

One of my four major projects for this year is to get a long-projected Parthian army on the table. Phase I includes these forty cataphracts, which is more than enough for a standard To the Strongest! game (the photo is "clickable). So far nine are partially painted. Phase II will provide 24 horse archers, most of which are happily already painted by chum Nick Speller, and phase III will double the numbers of cataphracts and triple the number of horse archers, and add some stalwart Daylamite hillmen and foot archers.

The miniatures are a 50/50 mix of Aventine (back) and plastic Gripping Beast Parthian riders (front), all on Gripping Beast horses, for reasons of portability (it is intended to be a "travel army"). The two types of riders match well stylistically. The Aventines fit neatly onto the GB horses, and provide a variety of poses and the necessary command minis and standards. The only major changes I'm making is to replace the plastic konti with metal ones, because they are slimmer and more pleasing to the eye.

With any luck I'll have them finished for our TtS! tournament at Britcon in August- I hope to see some of you there - please email me if you'd like details.

In other news... I've just updated the Free To the Strongest! Army list eBook, and am in the process of sending a copy out to everyone who has ordered a copy in the past. If you want, you can download it for free from here.  I've also put the Ancient and Medieval Army list books on promotion for a few days, and some of the chits are 25% off.

Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Portable Parthians

 
I have, perhaps unwisely, started another army. I have a gap for a lightweight ancient army that I can carry on the train to distant tournaments such as Britcon and Godendag or Glasgow. These are the horses from the Gripping Beast Cataphract set combined with (mostly) riders from the super Aventine Miniatures range. I'm experimenting with basecoats; a couple have gold and chrome primers, above.

Below, for a bit of a laugh, I'm trying the "nail varnish" metallic shades from my ScaleColour 75 boxes; paints I have never previously used, and, frankly, never expected to ever use.  They are really odd, but I have a feeling that they might just work. If they do work, there are some other even bolder colours I might try later on, some pinks and a green... it might become a very flamboyant army!

Friday, 23 June 2023

Racking II and prepping

It has been on the hot side for painting, so I've either been writing TtS! army lists (for the July-Ancients  and August-Medieval releases), racking the BigRedBatCave or prepping minis. 

Above is the main area of the cellar, now racked along one side with six 90cm wide storage racks. There is potentially room on the other side for some more- perhaps three or four. That is pretty much the last storage space I can generate in this house. Once that's full, I'll have to start selling stuff in order to fit new things in. And I still have a ton of boxes in the loft that I need to move down into the remaining spaces, perhaps enough to fill them.

Below are some minis which will become Parthian cataphracts. My plan is to use (mostly) Aventine miniature riders on plastic Gripping Beast steeds, alongside some of the GB riders from the new Parthian set. The advantage of using the plastic Nisean chargers is that the army will be light to transport, so I can use it at tournaments like Britcon or Godendag to which I travel by train. I will spray paint these in metallics (per the two test figures on the left, Gold-fingerrrr) and then paint the non-metallic areas and ink wash. Sounds simple- probably an awful lot of work in it, for which reason this army may not be ready in time.

By the way, I just booked my tickets for the To the Strongest! tournament at Britcon in Nottingham in August- it's a great show, and I really like Nottingham, too. I hope to see some of you there!

Sunday, 11 June 2023

Racking


Above, today I've been racking the BigRedBatCave. The main cave is around 30' long by 6' high and should take a good few minis, although, I fear, by no means all of them. It should enable me to reduce the number of minis in the house, somewhat, to the relief of my beleaguered family.


I'm also working on a new project, of Teutonic bent. Here are some new standard bearers; mostly Foundry, some Black Tree. Later they will be joined by some Victrix. I'm trying to build in a lot of variety in the standards, and as many horns as I can find.

Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Last 48 hours of the Early Summer Sale in the BigRedBatShop


It's the final 48 hours of my early summer sale of various to the Strongest!-related products, including the rules, army lists, various wobbly-edged bases, chits, magnetic basing materials and terrain. Discounts vary from a modest 10% to a mighty 50%.


Get them while you can! You can find all the Sale products here.
 

Thursday, 25 May 2023

Ipsus at Partizan- the close-ups!


Chum Ian Notter shot some great images of our huge "To the Strongest!" Ipsus game at Partizan, which was a slightly extended version of the Saltue game. All the photos will enlarge if you click on them. Above the pike phalanxes clash; the Antigonids are in the foreground and to the right. One of my favourite image of the whole battle; almost abstract!

     

Above are some of the allied phalanxes. They are screened by Asiatic archers- I need a whole lot more of these. Below, Thracian light horse skirmishing. I need more of these, too. :-)



Above are some of Demetrius' cavalry squadrons. These performed well on the day, wiping out the opposing wing and turning onto the flank of the phalanx which was (fortunately) protected by elephants. Below is a shot of the remainder of the cavalry wing; you may be able to make out Demetrius in front, with his kontos.



Above is part of the Antigonid phalanx; most of these minis are new, this year. The argyraspides are on the left of the image. That's Antigonus and his litter beyond the phalanx. The elephant screens are deployed in the foreground- each side had one, 20' in all. Below is a better view of the "no man's land" between the two phalanxes. Most of the lights and elephants shown here were to perish during the course of the morning session.



Above, the phalanxes clash. To the rear can be seen part of the Allied elephant reserve and (below) in front of them some Thracians from Lysimachus'contingent.
 


Elephant screens were able to withdraw behind the phalanx (as above) by some mechanism that, alas, the ancient authors alas do not describe. Presumably intervals were left that were later closed up.

Below, hoplites advance to the fray, screened by lights. They did a pretty good gob of resisting the pike phalanxes- honours were broadly even.



Above, a late-in-game shot from behind Antigonid lines. The Antigonids did really well, wiping out both Allied wings and then breaking the centre of the Allied line, winning a convincing victory and reversing history!

Huge thanks to Ian for the photos, and for all his help with basing. I'd also like to thank all those who helped to run the game (particularly Andrew and Andy), played in it or helped with the set up and knock down, which were considerable exercises, as you can imagine! Partizan is a splendid event, very well organised and a whole lot of fun. the highlight of the gaming year, in fact.

In other news, I've put a number of products on sale for the next few days, including the To the Strongest! and For King and Parliament rules, the army lists (which I'm really proud of, there are hundreds and they represent great value), chits and lots of bases and basing products. Get them while they are hot!

Friday, 19 May 2023

Ipsus at Partizan

Hello all, I'll be at Partizan in Newark-on-Trent on Sunday- the award-winning To the Strongest! Salute game, as above, but slightly larger. If you wan to drop by for a chat, please do! Better still, if you'd like to play in the huge game- now with over 3K minis- please drop me an email and I'll book you in!