The Wargames Table

War & Conquest Disordered Markers

2012-02-10T15:26:00.001Z

In War & Conquest formed up units can become disordered; perhaps as a result of being charged in the flank and failing a command test, or crossing difficult terrain for example. You could make a note on your roster or put a piece of paper next to the unit but I prefer to have themed markers for this sort of thing.

So here are a couple of pics of my disordered markers for my Romans. Made from leftover bits from the Warlord Early Imperial Roman sprues.

and (without flash)

They'll also be handy for shaken markers if I ever get around to playing HC. I'll be making some more for the Auxillia, plus a few for my Celts.

More War & Conquest

2012-02-03T20:04:00.000Z

After spotting a comment on the Scarab forum about a game of War & Conquest, I realised that the location was near to where I live. After contacting the poster I found that it was going to be played at the gaming club just down road!

Chris and Ben are members of the Mid-Somerset Wargamers club and they were kind enough to invite me along. So yesterday evening I braved the cold (-4oC) and headed for the club.

It was to be their first game of W&C though they've played lots of other stuff. They even offered to let me command one of the armies but as I had recently played I offered to help Ben run the game using my vast knowledge (stop laughing, especially you Mr Broom!) of the rules!!! Both the armies were painted by Ben and they do look rather splendid, especially his Romans!

The game was set during the initial stages of the Claudian invasion with the Romans attempting to cross a tributary of the mighty Medway, brush aside a small force of local Celts and march on towards their villages where they would explain the benefits* of submitting to Roman rule. (*The foremost of which is not being chopped to pieces by lots of unsympathetic, well-armed professional soldiers)

The table featured a river running down the entire length, dividing the table roughly in half. The armies deployed either side and battle began. The Romans, led by Chris, won the initial strategic advantage and wasted no time in advancing towards the Celtic horde, led by Graham. Here they are.

They repeated this tactic in the second turn where they again won strategic advantage. However, their advance meant that all three cohorts of legionaries were still crossing the river. Turn three saw the strategic advantage rules really come in to play. In turn two, Graham had moved second and brought his warbands close to the Romans. He won the strategy roll at the end of turn two and elected to go first in turn three, effectively giving him two consecutive turns! Both flank units of legionaries were charged by Celt warbands, lost their combats, but held their ground - with the careful use of valuable strategy points. Alas, Chris' dice rolling was less than stellar. Although I should point out that formed units in difficult terrain become 'disordered' which reduces their combat effectiveness considerably. Here's the Roman centre and left flank.

In the Roman round of play the centre cohort rolled very low for moving through difficult terrain and remained partially in the river. The Celts again won both combats on the flanks but the Romans tenaciously held their ground and fought on.

Next turn the Celts again won the initiative and Warlord's retinue ploughed in to the veterans. Here's the action. (The scatter dice were impromptu push and shove markers)

Amazingly, Chris' Veterans were beaten and (even more astonishingly) routed from the crazed warband. The Roman's heavy equipment clearly slowed them and they were slaughtered amidst the shallows of the river. Despite seeing the destruction of their armies finest troops, the other cohorts gritted their teeth and held steady. But by this time the Celtic light cavalry had flanked the legionaries and rode in to support the warbands.

The Roman cohorts continued to fight bravely; stubbornly refusing to give ground, but with their numbers dwindling the battle could only have one result. So it was that as night fell across the field the triumphant shouts of the Celts mingled with the notes of a great bronze carnyx, whilst a few terrified Roman survivors fled, no doubt keen to avoid a gruesome death at the hands of the Druids.

An enjoyable battle to watch and help out with, plus a jolly nice bunch of chaps. I hope this will inspire more games of W&C at the club.

Oh, and I now have 100 followers! Hooray! Thank you to you all :o)

Figure Review - 1st Corps

2012-02-01T19:57:00.001Z

After the recent game of W&C I decided I really needed a proper Commander or General vignette. They had to be mounted as it significantly improves their mobility. So after checking several different companies I settled on 1st Corps as they had a pack with both the General and accompanying standard mounted. Here they are.

It's the LRR05 'Julius Caesar' pack but with the great man swapped for 'Pompey' from LRR06. Cost was £8 for the pack, plus £2 for P&P. When I contacted 1st Corps about the possibility of swapping the figures I received a prompt and helpful reply from Simon Curtis. I placed the order on Sunday and got the figures on Wednesday! They were well packaged too.

The figures themselves are detailed and well cast. There are very few mould lines, though the horses do have a little bit of flash. In terms of size and style they are very compatible with Warlord Games, Gripping Beast and Foundry. This does mean I'll have to be a little creative with basing if I decide to use the officer with the Attic style helmet alongside my slightly larger Black Tree legionaries. But the mounted figures will have their own scenic base so the size difference is largely irrelevant.

I'll certainly be looking at 1st Corps again when it comes to expanding my Celt army and replacing some of the more awkwardly posed Warlord Games plastic figures. Anyway, hope you found this mini-review helpful.

War & Conquest - First "Official" Battle

2012-01-23T21:01:00.001Z

War & Conquest is here! Huzzah!

What better way to celebrate the launch of these splendid rules than by re-fighting one of the many battles that must have raged across Britain in the middle years of the 1st Century. Rome bringing the shining light of Empire to the fog shrouded shores of Britannia!

Rob suggested that I bring my Roman army along to the Bristol Big'Uns club at Iron Acton to tackle the rampaging Celtic horde of fellow WAC-er Dave. How could I refuse?

The plan was for Rob and I to join forces whilst Dave and yet another WAC-er, John, gathered the Britons for battle. But on the night, another chap (Mike) came along so Rob graciously agreed to GM the game. I should point out that War & Conquest does not require an umpire, but as with many wargames, having an umpire to ensure the smooth flow of the game, take pictures, make tea, laugh at poor dice rolling, etc, is a bonus.

Myself and Mike divided our forces approximately in half, whilst John acted in a more consultative role for Dave and his Celts. In fact we started referring to him as 'Druid John'.

To keep things straightforward we played a pitched battle but each side rolled to determine their battle objectives. The Celts got "A Test of Strength" - they had to hold off the Romans and get one battle formation (i.e. a formed unit) into the Roman deployment zone by the end of the game. Whereas the Roman objective was simply to crush the rebellious enemy forces and show them the true power of Rome by destroying 75% of the enemy forces (or at least reducing their battle formations to below 50%).

There are a variety of ways to deploy but after consulting the dice we settled for alternating units, with the Celts deploying some skirmishers first.

Here's the deployment.

And from the other point of view.

You can see that the Roman forces included some of the British tribes that understood the value of Roman friendship. ;o)

The start of Celt turn 2 and you can see that the Celts have opened the battle with attacks on the flanks, particularly with the chariots and cavalry, whilst the warbands let their skirmishers try to soften up the Legions. The Roman plan was to refuse the left flank and concentrate on attacking in the centre. The reserve cohort heads for the right flank in case their British allies prove to be less resolute than promised.

Again, from the other side of the table.

Mid-battle and the Romans press home their attack. However, the Roman left flank has not held too well. The Auxiliary archers were slaughtered after they broke ranks to take up a skirmishing position that was just within reach of the Celtic cavalry! The cavalry and accompanying skirmishers poured through the gap to hurl javelins at the rear of the Roman lines.

Once more, the view from the Celtic position. Please note that the blue and red dice you can see are simply temporary markers for Strategy Intervention points. Players could keep track on their lists or - and this is what I will be doing - they can make suitable markers. The rulebook offers a number of ideas of how these can be represented.

The next picture is to prove that Dave didn't roll all of his dice badly, though to be fair he did have a few fairly awful rolls. The tile with the Uffington White Horse was Dave's way of marking the point on his baseline where fleeing troops would head after the initial run away, i.e. a Rally point. More opportunities for creative modelling!

Here's the battle in about turn 5 (I think). The auxiliaries on the Roman left have held off a sustained attack by the chariots and the skirmishers. Although they took a quite a few casualties, Roman discipline (and the timely use of a Strategy Intervention point) kept them in the field. In the centre the legions are fighting stoically against the fierce British warbands. Legionary fighting skill trading off well against the warbands ferocity and superior numbers. However, the Warlord's noble retinue proved an exremely tough nut to crack, even when another cohort manoeuvred for a flank charge they kept their nerve to pass a morale test and thus avoid becoming disordered.

The mystical power behind this tenacious display of barbarian fighting prowess soon became clear as Dave began muttering a series of strange words accompanied by arcane hand gestures. Clearly an aspiring Druid!? See for yourself.

With the hour drawing late we played the final turn, despatched the most grievously wounded and counted our dead. The Celts had certainly given the Romans a good run for their denarii but had not been able to get a battle formation into the Roman deployment zone. However, whilst the legions had undoubtedly slaughtered a great many Celts they hadn't quite reached their objective. At least two of the warbands were still in reasonable fighting order.

So a draw it was then, but what a close run thing!

All played with superb sportmanship by both sides, several moments of high drama and a good few laughs. Many thanks to Rob for running a great game and thanks also to my ally, Mike, and my opponents Mystical Dave and Druid John.

What are you waiting for? Lead your armies to glorious victory with War & Conquest!

BEF Signallers

2012-01-15T16:47:00.001Z

More painted models! I've really enjoyed painting these chaps. They'll either be used as a specific Signal Staff or they'll be added to the command groups, depending upon the scenario, army list, etc. Anyway, here they are.

I've very much followed the examples in the rulebook(s) in terms of colours, i.e the blue and white bands and flags.

Here's the chaps on the field telephone. I particularly liked the (vitreous enamel) cup of tea!

Fly, "Speckled Jim", fly!

From another angle

Looks like it's Wuthering Heights by semaphore ... !?

Only 14 more figures to go to complete my 1,000pt BEF force.

Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy

2012-01-07T18:10:00.000Z

Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy issue 58 is available!

As you can see from the cover pic above, the theme of this issue is Napoleonics.

OK, so it's not my favourite Napoleonic era, i.e. the Peninsular war, but it's all still very interesting stuff, with lots of lovely pictures to admire and inspire. It's not all about 'Boney' though. Details of the contents can be found here. This is rapidly becoming my favourite wargaming magazine.

I'd really like Guy and team to do a Great War themed issue - preferrably 1917-18. Perhaps I should write an article? Hmmm ... maybe not ... publishing has strict deadlines. As Douglas Adams said - "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound as they fly by".
Just ask my boss! ;o)

Get your copy now!

:o)

"Arthur" - Mk IV Male Tank

2011-12-28T12:24:00.000Z

As mentioned in my previous post, I've been painting a Great War Miniatures Mk IV Male Tank for my BEF. All pictures are clickable.

It was surprisngly simple to paint and I'm quite pleased with the results. Here's my recipe.

Black undercoat (make sure you cover any little gaps!)
Base coat all the green/brown areas with GW Charadon Granite.
Highlight these areas by heavily drybrushing with Foundry Drab shade. The heavier effect is best achieved by several successive lighter applications of paint.
Apply a very light second highlight (with a large, soft brush) of Foundry Drab mid.
Tidy up the remaining black areas, i.e. the tracks and exhaust, etc
Tracks and HMGs are just given a very light drybrush of GW Boltgun Metal.
The exhaust was painted using Foundry Tan shade, followed Foundry Tan mid.
The tank number and name are just painted in white. I was pleased with the 'A17' on the flanks, but a little disappointed with the lettering for the tank name - but as this would have been added by the crew I think a little untidiness is ok.

I may yet do some weathering but for now it's done. Next up will be my Signal Staff followed by the last platoon required to complete my 1918 army.

Looking back on the year

2011-12-21T14:59:00.001Z

Another year whooshes past! Where do they go and why do they seem to be passing faster? It's probably my age ;o)

At the start of the year I set out my grand plans and yet again I've managed to largely ignore them. So what are my thoughts for the last year or so in terms of gaming?

First the good bits...

Shows
I've managed two this year. Penarth way back in January and then my first ever Salute in April. Thoroughly enjoyed them both and got a real gaming boost from each show. I would definitely recommend trying to get to some shows each year. Try make a list of purchases, or pre-order, to save you impulse buying all sorts of stuff.

Events
In March, Scarab Miniatures ran a one day Great War event near Nottingham. We made it in to a family weekend away and a splendid time was had by all. The event itself was superb fun both in terms of the games, and being able to meet some fellow WW1 gaming enthusiasts. With Scarab now re-located rather closer to the South West I hope to attend more this year and perhaps even help organise something.

Rules
I was privileged to be invited to help out with the soon-to-be-published Scarab Ancients ruleset War & Conquest. Whilst I couldn't give it quite as much attention as I'd hoped, I've still been delighted to be able to playtest, suggest ideas, give comments, etc. I look forward to seeing the finished article very soon!

Scenery
Good wargames need good scenery, that's my view. To that end I've managed to get most of my Dark Ages village painted, plus I've made a good start on some items for making Great War tables more interesting. Both projects require quite a lot more work, but scenery for me is one of those ongoing projects. Plus, it makes a nice change from painting miniatures.

Blogs
Writing this blog and reading comments from you gives me both satisfaction and inspiration, and I'm pleased that I've managed to keep the blog rolling along even if I haven't completed quite as much stuff as I'd hoped. A big THANK YOU to all of you who keep visiting, following and commenting! I've also been delighted at reading the blogs of others, some of which I've linked on the RHS. These are another great source of inspiration and ideas.

Now the 'not-so-good' points...

Butterfly
When it comes to gaming projects it seems that I all too easily flit from one thing to another, often without really achieving very much on the previous project. I read plenty of books and fool myself that I'm doing "research". I really need to figure out how to fix this!?

Painting
Despite my grand plans I've made no real progress with my EIR, Celt or Napoleonic armies. To be honest this has been one of the least productive years for a long time in terms of painted miniatures. Which, considering I quite enjoy painting, is rather odd. I could come up with a list of excuses but what I really need to do is find a little more self-discipline, be a bit more organised/motivated and get stuff painted! Perhaps I should sign up for an event that requires me to finish an existing project?

Games
This year I've played a handful of W&C games, four or five games of TGW, plus a few other bits and pieces. Barely one game a month. By George, this isn't good enough!! Maybe more gaming will inspire more painting? Bristol Big'uns meet at Iron Acton (near Bristol) which is just more than an hour away. Whilst this means that the Sunday evening sessions finish a bit too late for me, they do seem to have fairly regular all day events.

Summary
Rather than make plans for painting 'this' or playing 'that', etc, the only plan I shall make is simply to try to do more of everything (time and money permitting). In fact, apart from a few bits and pieces (like shield transfers, bases, etc) I could probably finish some projects without really needing to buy very much! What you get out of a hobby in terms of fun and satisfaction is in direct proportion to the amount of effort you put in. I need to do more painting, playing and going to events/shows.

Saga Update - plus other stuff

2011-12-16T13:34:00.002Z

As you can see from the photo below, all of the block painting has been completed for the rest of my Saxon warband, but I've still got to get them dipped and matt varnished (and based!). However, the weather has been so cold and wet recently that I've been unwilling to risk the dip/varnish going cloudy. So, they'll have to wait for some better weather.

In the meantime I shall be turning my attention to this.

I picked up this Mk IV up at the Great War gaming day earlier this year so it's high time it was built and painted. I think it will make a nice holiday season project. This year we're not planning the usual mad dash around the relatives. Instead we'll be spending most of the hols at home. I also hope to slop a bit more paint on these fellows.

I may also look at making some barrage blasts similar, perhaps, to those splendid models made by Orange Dave (see earlier post). His top tip was to use CD's as they're round, probably free and almost the correct size.

Best wishes for a splendid Yuletide season.

Saxons for Saga - Some Progress

2011-11-18T17:00:00.001Z

OK, so nothing's actually finished yet, but I thought you might be interested to see how they're coming along. Here's the initial 4 point warband. The Warlord in the centre, flanked by his hearthguard with (ghostly) rabble behind.

A closer shot of the Warlord and the right wing.

And the left wing.

As you can see the Warlord and Hearthguard are ready for the dip, but as it's rather smelly I'll wait until I've done the Warriors then dip the whole lot in one go.

The figures are Gripping Beast plastics (Warlord and Hearthguard) and Musketeer (Warriors). In fact, the Warriors are actually from the Early Saxon range but I'll give them mostly larger shields so they'll be fine for 9th-11th century warriors.

More progress soon I hope.

Vikings for Saga

2011-11-06T20:33:00.001Z

I'll start with a quick apology for the blog being so quiet for so long. This has been due to raft of recent real-life stuff, holidays and more recently being rather poorly.

Right then, on to the toy soldier stuff!

Having seen the splendid results achieved by a variety of other gamers using the dip (e.g. Phil Hendry, Saxon Dog, etc) I thought I'd give it a whirl for getting my Saga warbands ready for action. I had a few plastic Gripping Beast Vikings ready so I sprayed them white and set to. Here they are.

and

The armour was painted black then thoroughly drybrushed with GW Mithril Silver until it was really silver (as advised by Phil - thanks). The flesh was painted in GW Dwarf Flesh then very quickly highlighted with Found Base Sand Light. Everything else was mainly a Foundry 'light' shade with a few GW browns - no highlights.

Then I brushed on the dip, ensuring that it did not pool anywhere on the figure. Give the dip 24 hours to dry properly before spraying with a good quality matt varnish. It was at this point that I had a few problems with the cold, damp weather. The figures went cloudy!!!

Top tip - if figures go cloudy then re-spray with a gloss varnish.

I eventually got the spray to work ok (by doing it indoors!). In future, if the weather is anything but warm and dry then I'll use a brush on matt varnish instead. After that I did some very quick highlights (and I do mean quick) of some of the base colours, i.e. red, green, boneyard, etc. The great part is that the dip shows you exactly where the highlight is required, plus it really makes the figures look less dipped, and the highlights give the colours more depth. I'm quite pleased with the results. Hope you like them too.

More Painting ... Vickers HMG

2011-09-25T16:11:00.000+01:00

Here's the latest addition to my BEF army for The Great War.

(click for a larger image)

This means that my support weapon tally is now two HMGs and a mortar.
Painted and based as described previously on the blog.

Club Game of The Great War

2011-09-20T19:38:00.002+01:00

I've been thinking of going along to the Bristol Big'Uns club for a while now. They're based in Iron Acton (35 miles away) so it's not exactly local for me. Club night is Sunday evening which usually consists of a quiet evening in front of the telly - or pehaps a bit of painting. Hence the lack of attendance so far.

But with the Summer hols now a distant memory I met up with fellow Great War-gamer Dave (aka "Orange Dave" on the Scarab forum) for a game of TGW using the new Over The Top supplement rules.

Now Dave has a pretty impressive collection of WW1 British figures whereas mine is somewhat more modest, so we decided to play the Storm the Hill scenario from the main rulebook using the OTT 1917 lists plus the rules for supporting artillery barrages, etc. As we both had British forces the "battle" would be a training exercise. Which is fine as all the main protagonists of WW1 made good use of such training before many of the big attacks. Dave drew up an ANZAC list and I used the British list.

All pics are clickable.

The battle ... ahem - "training exercise" ... has begun. The British are dug in on the hill and in the nearby trenches whilst the ANZACs begin their advance across a blasted no man's land of craters, woods and barbed wire.

Dave's excellent barrage markers - note the dead horse! Each turn these move forward a set distance - though we both agreed that a slightly random advance would make things more exciting.

The ANZACs begin to close on the hill using the creeping barrage as cover (no shooting permitted through the blasts). During the "training exercise" I was able to get my Battalion Command, aided by the Signal Staff, to successfully call in a couple of barrages. These hit the ANZACs on my right quite hard and certainly held up their advance for some time.

In the final turn the ANZACs made it on to the hill and dealt with the last few defenders to claim a hard fought victory.

Barrages - for both sides these worked really well in that the rules added a bit of extra atmosphere without unbalancing or dominating the game in any way. Having custom made markers really helped too.

So, a great game against an excellent opponent with nice terrain and figures. Add in a good venue and a warm welcome from existing club members. This is what wargaming is about.

The Saga Continues...

2011-09-17T14:14:00.003+01:00

Now that I've a chance to have an initial read through of most of the rules I thought it about time to say a few words... I'm not going to give away any particular details of how the rules work as I think that might spoil the enjoyment of others (not to mention being an issue of copyright, etc).

As I mentioned in an earlier post I was a little surprised at paying £50 for a softback rulebook, 4 game boards, 16 dice and a figure. However, I can assure readers that I think it will be money well spent.

The rulebook is gorgeously produced, full colour throughout, with plenty of pics of Dark Age types going at it hammer and tongs. The rules are described in a clear, easy to read manner with many good examples of play illustrating the mechanisms. After one read through I think most people will have a good idea how to play. I've heard others say that the rules are easy to pick up but will prove challenging to master and I would agree.

The dice are used to determine what your units can do each turn, either to move, shoot or fight, or to make use of special abilities. These abilities vary from one 'faction' to another. Faction is another way of saying warband or army. You almost certainly won't be able to everything you want each turn so you'll need to think carefully about how you activate units. Having some sort of plan or strategy will help enormously I imagine!?

Another word or two about the dice ... you can play the game using ordinary D6 as the rules include a conversion chart but I feel it would be a bit like playing the game with unpainted miniatures. It would work but you'd be missing out on some of the atmosphere. They're not cheap but I'd recommend getting them.

One nice feature of the rules is that distances are a series of fixed lengths (the book includes photocopiable measuring counters) that each have a name. This means that the old chestnut of imperial versus metric measuring is very neatly dealt with.

The game is very much scenario driven and rules include a number of ready to run scenarios. But I reckon most mature gamers would have little bother devising their own scenarios from historical sources, books, films, other games, etc.

To start playing you'll need two sides comprising of around 25 figures each. Even I can manage to paint that many figures. Standard table size is 4' x 3' (1.2m x 0.9m) so you won't need too much scenery. If you can get your hands on a few thatched buildings that would be even better.

Furthermore, the rules could easily be extended by enterprising players to cover other eras such as the Arthurian age. In fact I believe I read somewhere that GB are thinking of doing exactly that. I certainly hope so.

So, in summary, they're a great looking set of rules that I think will provide many hours of splendid wargaming fun. Highly recommended indeed!

Adventures in the Dark Ages

2011-09-16T12:30:00.002+01:00

Look what arrived in the post yesterday!

Along with two sets of Saga dice (Viking and Anglo-Danish) and the limited edition Sven Forkbeard figure.

However, my initial reaction was slightly "oh, is that it?". I paid £50 for a 75 page softback rule book, 4 cardboard army rosters, 2 sets of 8 dice and a metal Viking warlord figure. Hmmm. So I hope the game proves to be as good as all the hype.

I haven't had time to read it yet - only a quick flick through - but the production quality does look high with lots of full colour photos, graphics, etc.

Trees for The Great War

2011-09-14T19:35:00.004+01:00

There are many pictures from the Great War that show once leafy woodlands reduced to blasted tree stumps surrounded by mud, so with that image in mind I set about making some for the gaming table. Rather than steam ahead and make lots I thought I'd make a test piece to see if the finished result looked good enough.

The stumps are made from bits of an old shrub I found in the garden. It was so tough I had to break the stems with pliers! I sawed some of the ends so as to give a good bond with the base. The base is simply a piece of 3mm MDF liberally covered in filler. Later it was covered in a mix of sand and grit.

(click for a larger image)

Here's the finished article.

(click for a larger image)

The base was painted in Vallejo Leather Brown and then liberally dry-brushed with Flat Earth. Then I added a couple of highlights with a light brown and a cream colour. After that came a light garnish of static grass and a few pieces of scenic foliage.

Here's a few of my BEF making their way across no man's land.

(click for a larger image)

Now I need to get on and make another two or three sections. Also, more painted figures soon.

Craters for the Great War

2011-08-20T16:02:00.005+01:00

One of the defining features of Great War battlefields is a great number of craters. Making them for a model battlefield is simple - especially if you make use of the GW 40K plastic craters set. Here's how they were made.

Apply some PVA glue around the edges and add the odd splodge around the rim of the crater. Then build up the texture in layers starting with chunkier grit / gravel.

(click for a larger image)

Then add some sand.

(click for a larger image)

Painting is straightforward too; start with a good layer of Vallejo Flat Earth (983). It may need two coats to properly cover the grey plastic. Next, paint the crater itself with a darker brown, e.g. Vallejo Leather Brown (871), make sure you drybrush out towards the edges as this blends the two colours nicely. Then drybrush with the following colours, all Vallejo, Gold Brown (877), Tan Yellow (912) and Dark Sand (847). The crater should be drybrushed but more lightly. Finish off with a small amount of static grass around the edges.

Here's the finished article.

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A closer shot. I may add some 'water effects' mixed with a small amount of Leather Brown to give it a properly muddy appearance. The main Great War rulebook has another example with duckboards, barbed wire, etc.

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Oh, and we managed another smallish game. Here's a photo of the start of the game. Apologies if it looks a little odd, I tried to join two pictures with only limited success! ;o)

(click for a larger image)

It was another splendid game too. The scenario was Secure and Hold with four sets of boxes & crates being the objectives. After eight turns both sides had only a handful of shattered units left but the BEF had one battleworthy platoon that was holding the crates in front of the farmhouse and so managed to scrape a victory. I should also mention that the Highlanders - left foreground - managed to advance through a hail of fire from the Beutepanzer (captured tank) and then despatch it in spectacular style with a grenade attack.

Hold The Line!

2011-08-12T20:04:00.003+01:00

Even with all the War & Conquest excitement I couldn't resist playing a game of WHW's "The Great War". When Rob last visited he kindly brought along another batch of Great War Miniatures Late War Germans, which gives me almost 500pts of the fellows. Of course they're not painted yet which is why you'll only see a few of them in the following pictures.

Hurriedly unpacking new figures, blu-tacking them to bases and getting on with a game really brought back memories of when I first got in to Warhammer Fantasy Battle many, many years ago. Anyway, before I go all misty eyed and start rambling even more, here's some notes and pics from our game.

The basic scenario for the game is that the German Spring Offensive of 1918 has run out of steam and the Allies are vigourously counter-attacking, in this case somewhere near Amiens. A small force of German Stellungsbataillon have been pushed from their original lines on one of the quieter sectors and have hastily dug in on the outskirts of a small village. There's about 750pts of BEF and 420pts of Germans.

My wife kindly took command of the BEF - as they're painted - and I led the shiny new Germans.

The forces were approx as follows

BEF
Battalion Command - Colonel and 4 soldiers
Red Company, Command Group + 2 platoons of 10 figures incl Lewis Guns
Yellow Company, Command Group + 2 platoons of 10 figures incl Lewis Guns
2 x Vickers HMG section
1 x Light Mortar section
1 x Platoon of Highlanders incl Lewis Gun

Germans
Battalion Command - Colonel and 3 soldiers
Grey Company, Command Group + 3 platoons of 10 figures incl MG08/15
1 x MG08 HMG section
1 x Light Mortar section
1 x Grenade Launcher
Flamethrower detachment (not strictly allowed for a Stellungsbataillon but shhh! ;o))

Here's a shot through the trees from above the German lines.

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The fine fellows of the BEF prepare to advance!

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And get off to rather slow start?

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Now they're after them ... and the German mortar is doing it's best to slow them down. Captain Carruthers and one platoon from Red Company are pinned by the blast.

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On the other flank the Flamethrower detachment got bogged down in the woods so the Highlanders fixed bayonets and rushed forward. Now, I must confess that I got the combat rules slightly wrong here and the Highlanders wiped out the German detachment in one turn, whereas some should have survived - but the I'd have needed to pass a morale test with a whopping -5 modifier, so the end result was about the same.

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Not to be outdone, the British mortar team land a shot amongst the German battalion command. Amazingly only the Colonel is killed and the others hold the their nerve.

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After another turn or two the superior British numbers really began to tell as the Germans were whittled down to just a handful of troops stoically clinging to their positions. By turn 6 it was clear that the British had driven the Germans back and could claim a clear victory. Had the German HMG not been taken out early in the game then it might have been a much closer run affair.

Considering that I've only played a handful of games of TGW, and this was my wife's first game, things went very smoothly indeed. Only a few rules had to looked up in the book. It was also a very enjoyable game with plenty of laughs.

Now I just need to finish off my BEF and then paint 40-50 Germans! Plus I could really do with a bit more Great War specific scenery.

+STOP PRESS+ Just received a copy of "Over The Top". Huzzah!

More War & Conquest

2011-08-05T12:44:00.009+01:00

With a few days off what could be better than a day spent play-testing some more of the forthcoming War & Conquest from Scarab miniatures!

Rob brought perfect wargmaing with him again - it was chucking it down with rain. Re-painting the window frames will have to wait for another day :o)

Whilst the rules are still in development they are very much at the fine tuning stage. As such I won't go too much in to the mechanics during this post.

There's a bunch of clickable photos shown below, but first I'd like to say that I had a superb day of playing wargames, nattering about wargames, eating good food and marvelling at Rob's seemingly endless knowledge of Rock music. He used the phrase "anorak" - not me!

Both games were straightforward pitched battle affairs, though we did move the scenery around a little for the second game. The game plays very well with a good balance between detail and abstraction. It actually felt like I was in command of a large force of barbarians trying to overcome the might of Rome. The system the strategy points whereby you can influence command and/or morale tests really makes you think about what's most important on the battlefield - there just isn't enough points to do everything which nicely represents that even the most able command cannot be everywhere on the battlefield at any one time. It makes the game less predictable without bringing in lots of annoying randomness. It also makes you think ahead at least one turn.

I was also lucky enough to see a few pages of the proposed layout and "By George!" it's going to look VERY good indeed!!!

Anyway, enough preamble ... here's a few pics of what happened. (Captions follow each picture)

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The battlefield featured a small gallic farmstead and here's Mr Celtic-Farmer welcoming his new overlords and "offering" them a wagon load of supplies in return for not being chopped in half.

Game 1

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Deployment. Note the wide formations. We agreed that the farm area would simply all be considered as rough ground which would slow our troops and make their move less predictable but not hinder the game too much. I decided to hold of the warbands in reserve in case the Roman cavalry tried any crafty outflanking manoeuvres.

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The action starts to heat up with the warbands closing in on the Roman line. By this point there had been some satisfying fights between the opposing units of skirmishers, with the more numerous Celts getting the upper hand and moving closing to the Legionaries so as to pick a few off with stones and javelins. I directed the noble cavalry on the left ratehr badly leaving them close to the Roman auxiliary archers and war machines.

Blah

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The opposing lines clash and begin what would become a mighty struggle as each side tried to grind the other to dust. Like the noble cavalry, the reserve warband was not effectively used and could have played a vital role. But warbands are not particularly manoeuvrable in WAC - which seems right to me.

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The noble cavalry were very lucky at one point - the archers and the scorpion opened up on them requiring four armour saves. Just a few more casualties and they would no longer be an effective unit ... in an unusual display of dice rolling skill I managed to save all four!

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A little later and we see that one of the warbands has been shattered but the others continue the fight. Barbarian numbers fighting hard against Roman tenacity! At last the cavalry have got their act together and are ready to descend on the Roman rear.

Even with the intervention of the deplted noble cavalry the Celts could not get the breakthrough they needed. But the Romans too were tiring and their numbers were dwindling. The continued until each side had fought the other to a standstill with no clear winner. The battle lines had held for both sides and we agreed that it was clearly a draw.

This was a fantastic game that could have gone either way at several exciting points during the game. Perhaps if the noble cavalry had got in to the game earlier ... perhaps if the reserve warband had also got in to the fight.

Game 2

We swapped sides with Rob taking charge of hairy horde whilst I donned the purple and led forth the legions... This game proved to be a much more decisive affair!

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The Celts had massed their cavalry on the their right flank and their skirmishers on the left, which is exactly what the Romans had done too.

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The lines begin to close. Note that whilst I kept the legions in the wider formation of 9x2, I decided to use the Auxilia in a 6x3 formation, on the basis that the extra depth would make up for their slightly lower effectiveness in combat (in comparison to the legions that is). The wisdom of that decision would soon become apparent.

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On both flanks some amazing concentrated missile fire from the clouds of skirmishers saw off both the Romand Celt light cavalry. Note the Celt warband immediately to the right (as we look at the photo) of the noble cavalry ... these were the fellows who had made little impact in the first game. This time they meant business.

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A couple of turns later and what a difference. The warband mentioned earlier have chewed through one of the units of Auxilia and have pursued into the one behind. The Roman skirmishers have fled the farm as the noble cavalry approach. In the centre another warband are having the best of it against the regular legionaries. The verteran legion have routed a warband, whilst the other cohort of regular legion are squaring off against two further warbands.

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The second unit of Auxilia were quickly despatched as were the nearby legionaries. The routing warband rallied very well and would return to the fight almost immediately. The other regular legionaries fared poorly against the smaller warband but held their ground and hoped for the Auxillary archers to help out on the flank.

By now it was getting quite late, we played another turn and it was clear that the Celts were going to win a decisive victory so we called it a day.

One ruleset, two games and two very different results all depending upon how things are played out. Jolly good fun indeed!

Fields of Glory

2011-07-26T23:11:00.005+01:00

Or possibly "Wargaming BBC Gardeners' World" ... there are a plethora of not-very-funny options! But first, for my non-UK based visitors I should explain the BBC Gardeners' World is a weekly gardening TV magazine programme from the BBC, from Spring to Autumn, about all things gardening. I must confess that I do occasionally watch this programme.

Anyway, here's the gaming stuff.

I've wanted to build some fields/garden for a while. The original plan had simply been to build a few ploughed fields but the modeller in me took over so now I have a couple of what are more like gardens, plus a small ploughed field. Here's some pics.

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I prefer scenery to be usable for a variety of historical periods, so here's some redcoats (L-R Perry's plastic and two Front Rank) defending a field of produce from Boney's horde.

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From the other side of the fence. (Wood courtesy of your favourite coffe shop)

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This definitely more of a garden, so perhaps the leaning towards the Great War is understandable. The Hun certainly aren't going to get at these potatoes and carrots without a fight!

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The same garden from a different angle.

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This meant to be a ploughed field but in this shot it's very difficult to see the plough lines.

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Hopefully this pic puts things in context. I had planned to do a step-by-step for these but simply forgot. However, they started as plain pieces of 3mm MDF with chamfered sides. The edges and ploughed ridges were built up using cheap filler and the whole lot was covered in PVA and fine sand. Painting is Vallejo Flat Earth followed by a number of very light browns and cream. The ruined wall is 3mm foamcore with plasticard tiles on top. The gate posts are simply 5x5mm balsa. Wooden fencing supplied by a well known coffee company. The hedges and other plants are mostly Woodland Scenics foliage. Then I've added some Mini-natur plants

Now ... where can I find a 28mm figure of Alan Titchmarsh wielding an AK47?

Enjoy.

Multi-based Celts

2011-07-23T14:16:00.002+01:00

The bases have arrived (from Warbases - highly recommended) and I've started on the first warband. Ostensibly this is a 32 figure warband but by jumbling the rear ranks slightly and adding a GB hound figure I've only used 29 Celt figures. I've tried to make the front ranks from the better equipped "noble" warriors, whilst warriors of lesser status (or perhaps less enthusiasm?) comprise the rear ranks.

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Haven't added the sand and paint yet as I'm considering a slightly different basing colour using mainly Vallejo paints rather than GW as the Vallejo offering is cheaper and easier to get hold of.

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Here's a shot with the stands spread out slightly so you see more clearly how they're ranked up.

Right ... another 150 figures to go!

Multi-basing Celts

2011-07-06T22:09:00.005+01:00

This evening I've been getting my Celt army out ready for a few games this weekend. However, it's taken me more than an hour to get them all ranked up on movement trays. Aaaah!?

As you probably know by now the army was based for Warhammer Ancient Battles so all the figures are on individual 20mm x 20mm bases. If you look back on the blog you'll notice that the bulk of the army is composed from Warlord Games plastic Celts. Very reasonably priced figures but quite a few have rather odd "chicken wing" poses which makes the a right pain to rank up nicely - and that's putting it mildy. I've always found them rather fiddly to arrange but this evening took the biscuit. Also, you only need to just clip a figure and the magic of plastic will ensure that several go flying and your painstakingly arranged ranks are thrown in to disorder.

The problems are (a) if I ever wanted to play a quick game then it would probably take me longer to get the army ready for battle than to actually play! and (b) the thought of getting the army out of the carry cases and the hassle of organising them for battle is almost off-putting.

Historical Celt leaders probably had less bother rounding up the lads for a ruck with the Romans ... well OK, maybe not, but you get the idea.

All this has led me to think that I need to gradually replace the awkward figures for more sensibly posed lead (thinking GB), and come up with a scheme for multi-basing the figures. I'd also look to remove some of the better posed figures from their individual bases and re-base (!?) them en-masse.

A warband of 32 figures on 4 bases of 8 x 4 figures, i.e. 80mm x 40mm, would be so much quicker to get ready for a game. Plus it gives an opportunity to make the bases look a little more scenic.

I'd have to think a little about how I based "command figures" to ensure they were approx front and centre. I like the idea of the front ranks of the warband being the better armed and equipped troops anyway so this shouldn't be difficult either. Also, basing figures in blocks would allow me to make the formations a little more disorganised.

Some of the blogs I follow (Saxon Dog being a prime example) multi-base most of their figures and I must say that the result is very good - though Dave's splendid painting helps too! BigRedBat's blog is another excellent example.

Casualty removal would take a little planning but it's not an insurmountable problem. Plus not all games systems require removal of figures anyway. Certainly need to have think about what to do as I'm just not happy with my Celt army the way it is. Some of the painting is a bit dodgy too. I know it was dipped but some of the figures are dreadful, plus some of the early figures were ruined by the horrible Army Painter varnish going cloudy. It was all rather rushed. I'm certainly not going to re-start the army from scratch but it definitely needs an overhaul.

Yet More BEF

2011-07-04T20:26:00.006+01:00

I'm continuing to make some progress with my BEF. Here's a few pics of the latest batch. Quite pleased, especially given the ongoing problem with my hands. Not based yet as I tend to do that for larger batches of figures.

Face front!

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About turn!

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A close up - although the flash has rather washed out the highlights.

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I've about another 20 or so figures to go, plus a tank which I'm saving until last.

Recent Progress

2011-06-26T12:40:00.003+01:00

June has been quite a hectic month, so that and the continuing problem with my hands, have meant that recent progress has been slow. However, I have managed to finish some more barbed wire sections. This time I've made the wire a bit darker and added lots of GW Chestnut Wash to give a rusty appearance.

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I've also made some progress with the next batch of the BEF.

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The miniature Eiffel Tower is there to remind them of the of the fun they can expect when not in the lines!? Anyway, when these are done I have a Vickers HMG team, two more platoons and a tank to paint for an approx 1,000pt battalion. Must keep at it!

Perry Miniatures ?

2011-06-23T20:36:00.008+01:00

Please have a look at http://wabforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=9832

I bought some 40mm spears from Perry Miniatures last month (25/5/11) and, to be honest, they're awful!

Here's a pic

Most of the spears were like the one on the left!

I've emailed Perry Miniatures several times in the last month but to no avail. No reply what-so-ever. I'm aware that they are akin to gaming royalty but that's no excuse for poor quality goods and rubbish customer service.

I hope this is just a temporary glitch. I shall keep on sending them polite emails, or failing that, see them at the next show I attend.

First Game of War & Conquest

2011-06-09T20:07:00.006+01:00

Scarab Miniatures supremo, Rob Broom, was kind enough to spend much of last Wednesday at my house in order to give me a demo game of his forthcoming War & Conquest rules. In the best tradition of Ancients rulesets we decided to play Early Imperial Romans vs British Celts, which is handy as I have (most of) an army for both sides! Rob brought along a few reinforcements for both sides kindly supplied by Scarab chum, and all-round gaming cognoscenti, Phil Turner. Rob also brought along an enormous box of biscuits thus ensuring he won high favour with the ladies in my household :o)

Now, I'm not going to go into much detail about how the rules work. That's for Rob to discuss as and when he's ready. In fact, I think the next issues of WSS and WI are to include articles that expand on these and other rulesets. But if you meet Rob at an event I'm sure he'd be happy to give you a quick tour of the main rules ideas.

Rob likes to point out that whilst playing War & Conquest will give you an improved gaming experience, it will not improve your dice rolling! Oh how right he was. It seemed like my Legionaries were wearing tin-foil rather than lorica segmentata! And may be a few had only thought to bring along the their weighted, wooden practice weapons. Such are the way of the dice.

In order to keep things fairly straightforward I laid out the table with plenty of open space and we played the game as a good old fashioned pitched battle. One thing was clear from the start; the Romans were heavily outnumbered!

Here are some shots of the game as it progressed. I had planned to take more regular photos but we got engrossed in the game - which can only be a good thing. By the way, the table was in my garage which due to the flourescent tube lighting isn't exactly an ideal spot for taking good photos, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

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The Celts have made their first advance towards the Roman line.

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From the Celt point of view. Note the chariots rapidly heading for the other end of the line!

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The Romans have advanced in to what the glorious leader believes to be a better position. Just don't mention the Auxiliary cavalry on the right flank retreating... er ... I mean leading the pesky skirmishers into a carefully planned ambush. Yes, that's it! An ambush.

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There do seem to be rather a lot of Celts!

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Welcome to a nice view of the Roman left flank. Soon to be a scene of utter carnage.

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A view along the lines. Those cavalry are still leading those foolish skirmishers to their doom.

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Celt Nobles and Warriors giving the Auxilia and Legions a very warm welcome to Britannia.

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The Celts get stuck in all along the line.

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The battle rages across the field!

However, by the end of turn 4 (or it may have been turn 5) the Celts were on the verge of an epic slaughter of their Roman foes and we almost stopped there. Even the veteran Legionaries barely put a fight before being slaughtered in a terrible rout. But then we decided to give Rome one more turn, and to my absolute delight the Romans started to fight back, but it was too little too late. Though a small amount of honour was restored as the Legions destroyed the Celt Warlord and his warband. With daylight fading to night across the battlefield, the Legions fought their way clear and the Celts had won a decisive victory.

OK, the Romans didn't exactly fight their hardest, but to be honest as their commander I must accept that (a) my deployment was less than imaginative, and (b) I played a bit too cautiously which rather let the Celts dictate the battle. After deployment I realised that the hill in my centre was held only by an under-strength cohort of Auxiliary Archers. Also, I deployed with insufficient room to allow my units to manoeuvre properly - it became clear in the game that getting control of the flanks will be a key part of winning battles.

Particular Likes
The turn sequence. It's not the traditional "I-go-you-go" sequence and this makes for a more fluid and less predictable battle. You really have to think a turn or two ahead, not just about what you're planning to do but what your opponent might be up to. Clearly this is something I need to get a lot better at!
The mechanism whereby commanders have points to use in order to improve the odds of passing command and morale tests. You start with a set amount and (re)gain some during the game. Early in the game you have plenty but when the lines meet and the action gets decisive there's never enough!
Skirmishers - just about effective enough to include and they can be used just how I imagine real skirmishing forces were used by our historical counterparts.
There's more but I do not want to give away any specific rules.

The game progressed at a fairly leisurely rate but this was not due to the rules in any way, rather it was because (a) we kept getting distracted and talking about other gaming/family stuff and (b) in my excitement I kept asking lots and lots of questions about other aspects of the rules, army lists, supplements, etc, rather than focussing on whatever we were doing on the table at the time!?

One thing I found quite odd was that after almost 25 years of playing mainly Warhammer type games, it was really hard to let go of the Warhammer "baggage" ... using the WAB terms for things, lapsing back into the WAB turn sequence, WAB manoeuvres and distances, etc. It shows just how ingrained rules can become! So I'm really looking forward to playing more of something new.

What was obvious (and Rob said so, so it must be true!) was that I NEED a larger table. My 6'x4' was groaning under the strain of almost 5,000 WAB points of soldiers. For a game of this size you really need an 8'x4'. But there's no reason why you couldn't play a smaller game on a 6'x4' table quite satisfactorily.

These rules look very promising and they've really given me a good wargaming buzz. I really must get on and finish both my Celts and Early Imperial Romans. Then there's all the command vignettes, casualty and other markers, etc. Perhaps Rob will let me help out with the creation and play-testing of Roman army lists ... bwah-hah-hah-haaah!?

Oooh what fun!

Painted Vikings and Arthurians

2011-05-22T14:01:00.006+01:00

As promised, here's a few pictures of the Gripping Beast plastic Vikings painted by my wife, now with proper LBMS shields. She has urged me to point out that it's been around 8 years since she seriously picked up a paintbrush. But regardless of that, I'm really pleased with them and happily take an army of them to any event!

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A closer shot.

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And another.

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I'm sure you'll agree that they look superb! Plus they're a great start to our collection of figures for GB's forthcoming 'Saga' Dark Ages skirmish set.

I've also managed to squeeze in a bit of painting too. Though with my rather troublesome hands it's proved difficult going. Anyway, here's a picture of 4 Artizan Arthurians (sans shields!).

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They've turned out ok really. Here's the cloaks.

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The figures come as a pack of 8, and I think they'll blend in well with my GB, Musketeer and West Wind figures. To be honest I wouldn't get any more of these Artizan figures as they're all in a very similar pose, i.e. standing at the ready. But they are good rear rank troops. The pack comes with a mix of round and rounded oblong shields, but I'll be giving them all round shields so that they can be used either as Romano-British or British & Welsh Kingdoms.

I'm hoping that I'll soon be able to get with a unit of GB Milites and may be a few more scenic bits for the Dark Ages village.

Dark Age Village

2011-05-15T16:01:00.009+01:00

We picked up these splendid resin buildings at Salute from Gripping Beast. I think they're actually made by Grand Manner for Gripping Beast. Anyway, I reckon that no Dark Ages battlefield can be complete without a few nice looking thatched buildings!

All painted for me by my wonderful wife :o)

Here's a wattle and daub thatched hut. Note the GB plastic Vikings, also painted by "She who must be obeyed", more of these will appear in a future post.

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Now a larger thatched building. The thatch has been painted to represent newly laid thatch. We spent quite a bit of time looking at real thatched buildings during a recent weekend break in Devon to get a good idea of colours.

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And again.

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These Vikings clearly think that some pesky Saxons might be hiding in this small hut!

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The hurdle fence was made as something of an experiment. I glued cocktail sticks in to the strip of MDF, then got my eldest daughter to weave some thin string between them. A couple of coats of PVA sealed the string ready for painting. I fairly pleased with the result but it does still look a bit "string-like", so I've been trying out other materials - see later.

The largest of the buildings - a Lord's hall perhaps?

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The village so far. I intend to make a range of scenic extras such as tables, baskets of food, fire pits, dung heaps, lots more hurdle fencing, a hurdle 'dunny' (a la Jorvik), animal pens, log piles and maybe even a smithy or a pallisade.

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Since I want to use these buildings for a range of Dark Age settings, e.g. Arthurian through to Vikings, I decided to keep the buildings as is rather than affix items such as shields and weapons, etc. These can be added by using the scenic items I mentioned above. Thus the buildings can be themed to the appropriate era. This may all sound a lot of work but I really do like my scenery to look good - it really adds to the enjoyment.

Here's a work in progress animal pen. After the not entirely successful "string theory" experiment I found some flexible garden wire. As before, cocktail sticks are glued in to holes in the MDF base. The woven wire is given a couple of coats of PVA - this keeps the wire in place and fills in some of the gaps.

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Here's another test, this time using bristles trimmed from a garden broom. I think it will give the best result but sorting the bristles and weaving them took far longer than using wire.

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Will post more pics when I've made some of the extra scenic items. But now I really ought to get on with painting some models so I can play a few games with all this new scenery.

WAB 2.0 and other rules

2011-05-14T17:21:00.004+01:00

I still like WAB.

I know that it seems to be rather neglected by Warhammer Historical at the moment (in fact I'm not sure if GW even has staff for WH any more!?) but I still enjoy playing the system. I've played Warhammer in one form or another since 1987 and I'd like to continue.

All this excitement about Clash of Empires, Hail Caesar and War & Conquest is very enjoyable but I do feel a little sorry for poor old WAB being almost relegated to a Cinderella role whilst everyone heads off to the ball! I'm sure that these new systems will prove popular and will generally be a 'Good Thing', I'm particularly looking forward to War & Conquest. Thus I'm sure I will branch off in to new rules territory for Romans vs Celts.

For Dark Ages / Arthurian era games I think WAB has just the right atmosphere. However, there are a few things that do annoy me about the latest edition...

Skirmishers
I can see why the rule about requiring line of sight to be able to throw javelins, shoot bows, etc, has been retained but in the last game I played we found ourselves spending too much time faffing around to get figures lined up in order to shoot. Therefore, we've decided to keep things simple and allow all the figures in the unit to shoot regardless of precise line of sight. If players are going to use very large units of skirmishers, e.g 15-20, then allowing all to shoot would be ridiculous but we tend to use small-ish units, i.e. 9-12.

Light Infantry
The current rules state that such units are able to skirmish but that this must be decided before the battle starts and the unit must remain either formed or skirmishing. I do not like this and cannot see the rationale for this rule. I very much prefer the idea that units can disperse as required, but to form up the unit requires a musician and must pass a Ld test. I can imagine that a unit of troops would break formation in order to search a farmstead, but then when the leader spies enemy approaching he sounds the recall and tries to get his troops ready to fight again. Though perhaps some are too busy chasing chickens, or glugging the farmer's ale to heed their leaders call. Hence the Ld test to form up again.

There are a few other little things too, but off the top of my head I cannot think of them.

Anyway, hopefully tomorrow I'll post a few pictures of my newly completed Dark Ages village.

WSS Issue 54

2011-05-08T14:05:00.003+01:00

It's been a long time since I was really impressed by a Wargames magazine, but the latest issue of the newly re-published "Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy" ticks all the boxes!

The re-launch of Wargames Illustrated under the control of Battle Front was OK but after the first 2-3 issues I've bought only the occasional issue. The amount of Flames of War articles does rather get on my nerves - though to be fair it's their game and it's their magazine too. You pays your money and takes your choice so to speak.

Anyway, getting back to WSS ... this is not intended to be a proper review ... here are some of the good points

Look & Feel
Full colour throughout, naturally, with a clean and stylish layout.

Theme
For this issue it's "1688 - The Glorious Revolution", yet the theme does not dominate as it sometimes does in other publications.

Articles
A good mix with Ancients, Dark Ages, WW2 and of course 1688. Well written with obvious enthusiasm. The 1688 era is not really something I'd wargame, yet the articles are still an interesting read.

Regular Columns
With columns by Rick Priestley and Richard Clarke they are bound to be of wide interest and worth reading.

Adverts
Not too many - and no FoW! ;o)

Reviews
Miniature, book and game reviews that appear honest yet generally positive - along with good clear pictures of the miniatures - always helpful.

Now, you might be thinking that I've got some sort of undisclosed interest in WSS ... but no I'm just a wargamer who has found a really interesting read.

Go and pick up a copy now!

Salute 2011

2011-04-18T16:27:00.006+01:00

I've been to a few shows over the years but never Salute, so '2011' was my first and here are a few pics of the day. But first I must say that the lighting at Excel is far from ideal for taking photos and thus the little compact camera I took along seemed to struggle so a few may be a little blurry. But that minor grumble aside, I think the show was well organised by South London Warlords - so a big 'well done' to them!

After asking for tips on the WAB forum I decided to plan my purchases and my route around the show - and that's a tip well worth taking!

First on my list was the Gripping Beast stand to collect my pre-orders, buy some extras and check out their forthcoming Viking skirmish game. I managed a quick chat with Alex Buchel (the author) to find out more about the game. Basically it's a small scale (20-40ish figures) raid/skirmish game that can be played in 1-2 hours on a fairly small table, e.g. 3' x 4', with a campaign element, allowing you to build your Saxon/Viking warband as you play more games. Sounds excellent!

Here's some pics from the Gripping Beast cabinets - much of it painted by the superbly talented Darren at GB Towers.

Gripping Beast (Musketeer) Early Saxons

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GB Plastic Thegns

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GB Plastic Vikings

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Note the larger three-ups in the background. S-o-o-o nicely painted.

GB Vikings for Skirmish

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The GB stand was huge and we (my wife came along too) simply couldn't help but purchase a few extra items. Quite a few actually... Andy rang up the total and it came to a whopping £150. Not bad for our first stop of the day. I'll post another time with a list of the goodies we bought.

Next on the list was James Morris' splendid Ethiopian game set in the 1930's. This has been described in luxurious detail (with much better pics) on the WAB forum so I'd suggest heading there too.

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I really liked the planes on flying stands. They gave the game a real '3D' aspect.

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These pics do not show the table in all it's warm glory. The base colour for the terrain was yellow-ochre from an arts supplier and it works so well.

My wife gave this game (and it's host) her very own "Best in Show" award! (However, I think that this was due to James saying that she looked too young to have children of the age they are!) Oh ... and James has told me that I'm not allowed to mention the Spanish Inquisition ;o)

Gripping Beast again, but this time they had a brilliant Battle of Maldon table starring several large units of the their new plastics. It was L-shaped with the shorter part of the 'L' being a small island. Alas only one of the pics I took wasn't blurred, but I would like to say that their plastic figures ranked up very nicely with their metal ranges. The game was a demo of GB's forthcoming dark ages mass battle rules.

Looking across the island (the Viking camp) to the battle in the distance.

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I'm pleased to say that gaming of The Great War is going from strength to strength, with new ranges from GB's TWDC and Scarab, plus the existing GWM ranges (there are others too, I know). So where better than Salute to display a truly amazing Galipolli game?

The Shoreline

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The cliffs - under bombardment by the looks of things.

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The Turkish trench lines. (with removeable roofs for ease of play)

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Behind the Turkish lines.

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This table drew a lot of attention and comment. All figures (Turks and ANZACs) from GB's TWDC ranges.

After that we toured quite a few trand stands, keeping up a steady stream of (planned) purchases, arriving at Rob Broom's impressive War and Conquest table where his Persians and Phil's Greeks were re-enacting the battle of Platea. I'd love to show you some pics but ... you guessed it ... they didn't come out well. Luckily Rob's posted some on the WAB forum. He kindly spent some time outlining the mechanics of W&C and they sound first class. I'll not go in to detail here as the rules are still being developed but I can say that the basic mechanisms are elegant, yet Generals will have to think very carefully about they commit their resources during a battle if they are to achieve victory. I'll definitely be ordering a copy of this!

Front Rank produce some very fine figures for Napoleonics and now it seems they doing the same for the wars of the 18th century. Not quite my thing, but lovely figures all the same. Here are a couple of units of ... err ... chaps in red ... and blue.

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The people from Crewe & Nantwich Wargames Club are very keen on ECW, so keen in fact that they've produced a demo game based on the idea that by 1651 the Royalists were about to win the war! This table is a clear demonstration of what a small group of talented (and committed) gamers can achieve. This is their first show game - and what a belter! I sincerely hope they won a prize. The standard of figure painting and terrain building was excellent.

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The game included many detailed and characterful vignettes, such as these commanders.

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Here is part of the army camp, complete with busty wenches and a chap having a bath!

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Discworld figures! Can't quite recall the name of the company selling them (Micro Arts Studio?) but they were superbly sculpted and painted. However, the prices nearly made me faint! No, we didn't buy any!?

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Almost all of the traders and demo-gamers we spoke to were cheerful, friendly, enthusiastic and very helpful. OK - I know they are there to sell stuff to gamers, or to demo games, but truly good service should be rewarded! Particular mention must go to

Gripping Beast - top chaps all round really
Scarab - for Rob's time to explain the rules whilst still running a game - and for bringing some Germans for me
West Wind - I forget the chaps name, but he has a very big beard, for taking the time to try to find the figures I wanted in amongst some multi-packs, as the blisters had all sold out.
Redoubt - for sending my stuff on to me post-free as they'd run out at the show.
Flag Dude - very polite and friendly indeed - plus he came all the way from Alabama
Magnetic Displays - for dimantling part of his stand to find the plasticard I wanted.

It was good to see a few of the gaming world's leading figures and have a natter to them. It was also good to meet up with a few friends, plus put some faces to names on forums. An excellent show that really is well worth attending.

Early Saxons

2011-04-06T21:02:00.003+01:00

It's been all about the Great War recently so it's high time for a little of something different. I'm bored with painting khaki and webbing!

This evening I've been cleaning and preparing a small group of Gripping Beast Early Saxon figures. Here's a pic.

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Hopefully I can make a start on these in the next few days. The longer term aim is make a Saxon force that can either be used as 'proper' Early Saxons for Age of Arthur style games, or as a later Saxon force to take on those fearsome Vikings. Which, by the way, I hope my better half will start painting again soon.

Will post progress (if I make any!).

Dwarven Submarine!

2011-03-27T22:47:00.006+01:00

... and now for something completely different... ;-)

Many years ago my old friend Tim and I came up with the idea of "Warhammer Ahoy!". It's still going strong here and I'm pleased to think that some of our ideas made it in to Warhammer Historical's Legends of the High Seas.

The basis was that the Reikland River Patrol - led by the tireless Otto von Blick - were trying to defeat the river pirates - led by the infamous yet mysterious pirate known only as 'The Wolf' (think of the Stig but with more "aa-harr me hearties")

Our games had a narrative all of their own, with each game leading on to the next - or even starting a whole new campaign direction. No question of points-per-side and all that rhubarb. Games were played with whatever figures we had available and it was up to the GM to keep things in balance and most importantly, to keep the story alive! Heady stuff indeed.

The Reikland River Patrol soon found allies in the Dwarves and here's their contribution to the fleet. Mostly scratch-built from card, balsa and plasticard - with the odd bit from an old Empire Steam Tank.

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Anyway ... what's the reason for all this nostalgic rambling? Well, I've been sorting out my gaming stuff and found all my old Warhammer Ahoy! stuff. What to do with it though? The simple answer was to give it to my children to add to their Lego collection - so for a lot of today this 'sub' along with a much larger scratch-built sailing boat (and other boats too) has been sailing around the upstairs rooms crewed by all sort of Lego folk. Remember - they're toys after all!?

The Captain shown on deck here is a temporary stand-in. The true Captain was known as "the Dwarf with the chicken on his head" as the figure was sculpted with some sort of dragon like crest on his helm. Classic figures indeed.

Scenery for The Great War

2011-03-26T11:27:00.003Z

It's been ages (several years in fact) since I made any proper pieces of scenery. The last lot was a bunch of Warhammer-esque timber framed buildings for my then local wargaming club in Christchurch, NZ. So I decided I'd have a break from painting figures and make some more scenery - this time for wargaming The Great War.

First we have a sort of emplacement or part of a revetted slip trench.

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And from the rear.

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Almost every era of gaming can make use of broken ground or "area terrain", so I've made these without any period specific items such as discarded pila or rifles, etc. I made enough for approx four large-ish areas.

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No Great War battlefield would look right without some sections of barbed wire. I think it looks quite evocative and really sets the scene, so I've built several and here's one.

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Making scenery is fairly easy so if you've never been inclined then I'd really recommend giving it a whirl.

All of these items are based on 3mm hardboard for extra durability. The sides of the emplacement were made from high density polystyrene (blue styrofoam). The revetting was simply balsa glued to card. The posts for the wire are cocktail sticks and the wire itself is from Scarab, and just £3 for 5m.

Everything is covered in PVA and fine sand. Then painted in various shades of brown and sand, plus additional static grass (two colours) and a few bits of woodland scenics foliage.

Blast, Pinned and Falling Back Markers

2011-03-19T15:39:00.004Z

Where rulesets call for units to be noted as affected by the rules in some manner, I prefer to have appropriate markers rather than using whatever odds and ends are available - usually a spare dice.

In WH's The Great War units can be 'pinned' either from shells/bombs or from HMG shooting. Here are blast markers - made just as shown in this month's Wargames Illustrated.

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These markers are to show the ground being churned up by machine gun fire. They're bit of cotton wool covered in glue then painted.

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Finally, these are to denote units that are 'falling back'.

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BEF and Kiwis

2011-03-17T12:20:00.003Z

I've often wanted to give my BEF a bit of Kiwi flavour so that they could be used as part of the NZEF sent to the Western Front. Now, I haven't looked at the Gripping Beast WW! range for quite some time, so I was delighted to see this range

http://www.grippingbeast.com/shop.php?CatID=319

Absolutely perfect! I can order Brits in serge uniforms but with 'lemon squeezer' hats. OK, on the western front I'm sure most soldiers would have worn the steel 'brodie' helmet - if available. But sprinkling a few models in amongst them with those distinctive hats will give just the right appearance.

Well done GB :o)

Ideas for Aircraft Rules

2011-03-15T12:07:00.003Z

I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about how to include aircraft in WW1 games, so here's my initial thoughts. They're just ideas at this stage (having not been tested on the field of battle) so all constructive comments are welcome.

Introduction
These rules aim to provide a fairly straight-forward way to include aircraft in games of TGW. They do not aim to provide an accurate simulation of early combat aviation. Also, they are by no means complete (or playtested) so a certain amount of gentlemanly discretion and good sportsmanship will be required. However, those qualities should prevail during any good game of toy soldiers.

It is assumed that the aircraft model is mounted on a tall base or 'stick', but there is no need to make the height adjustable. No particular account is made of altitude. Aircraft are assumed to be providing support for ground troops and are thus swooping back and forth across the battlefield at fairly low altitudes.

It is not necessary to wear a stiffened white scarf, a large handle-bar moustache or to loudly say phrases such as "Tally ho chaps!" but to do so will surely add to the enjoyment of all.

Movement
Move in the controlling player's movement phase just like other troops.

Min speed 12"
Max speed 30"

Turning
Turns are made at any point during movement.
Slow speed is 18" or less, up to 3 x 45 degree turns.
Medium speed is 24" or less, up to 2 x 45 degree turns.
Fast speed is 30" or less, only 1 x 45 degree turn.

Flying off table
The aircraft returns in the players next movement phase, at the point where it left the table. It may only fly at Slow speed that turn.

Shooting
Depending upon the type of aircraft and whether it's EW or LW the pilot and aircraft may be equipped in a variety of ways. This is up to the players to agree.

When firing weapons assume that the plane is flying sufficiently low so as to be able to hit targets on the ground. This also means that troops on the ground can shoot back! Pilots (and each extra crewman if applicable) may do one of the following actions whilst flying
- fire a weapon (usually the aircraft's machine guns)
- drop a grenade
- drop a bomb

Measuring range to the target
Range from/to the aircraft is calculated as 12" plus the distance from the point on the ground immediately below the aircraft. The aircraft is not bound by the rules requiring troops to shoot at the nearest target.

Rifles / Pistols
Pilots carry a pistol. For EW they may be equipped with a carbine or shotgun, etc. To fire these the aircraft must be moving slowly.

Grenades
Place the small blast marker on the ground at any point below the aircraft's path.
Roll the Artillery and Scatter dice.
Accuracy (or otherwise) depends on the flying speed of the aircraft
Slow => A 'hit' indicates that the grenade has landed on target, otherwise
scatter half the number on the Artillery dice in the direction indicated.
Medium => Always scatter the full distance rolled on the Artillery dice.
Fast => Pilot is too busy flying to mess about with grenades.
On the roll of a misfire the grenade is a dud, or explodes mid-air, and has no
effect.

Machine Guns
Assumed to be Lewis Gun(s), MG08/15's or equivalent. Two shots per gun. Range 24".
Flying at Slow or Medium speed => Require 5+ to hit.
Flying at Fast speed => Require 6+ to hit.
Aircraft are assumed to be equipped with sufficient ammunition to last the
battle. Note - you may wish to vary the required to hit score, perhaps depending
upon whether the pilot is ace? This is left entirely to the players discretion.

Bombs
Determine target as per grenades. Resolve as per off table artillery.
If the aircraft is equipped with more than one bomb then players should keep a
note as to how many have been dropped.

Ground to Air Shooting
Aircraft have a Armour Value of 9 on all sides. Whilst they are not armoured, this represents the difficulty of hitting a sufficiently vulnerable point on a aircraft weaving through the skies. It also will (hopefully) encourage troops on the ground to use LMGs and/or HMGs in an anti-aircraft role as the higher strength gives a better chance of damaging the aircraft.

Measure range as 12" plus range to the point on the ground immediately below the aircraft.

For any penetrating / glancing hits roll on the appropriate aircraft damage chart
Note - Aircraft flying at fast speed can only receive glancing hits

Aircraft Damage Chart - Glancing Hit
1-2 - Pilot attempts to evade the shooting - must fly straight next turn to regain control
3 - Ailerons damaged - reduce number of turns by 1
4 - Engine damaged - may not fly faster than 24"
5 - Pilot hit - Resolve as normal, if killed then next turn the plane will crash
6 - Engine destroyed - next turn the plane will crash

Aircraft Damage Chart - Penetrating Hit
1-2 - Pilot attempts to evade the shooting - must fly straight next turn to regain control and may not shoot
3 - Rudder damaged - must roll 4+ on D6 in order to perform a turn
4 - Engine damaged - may not fly faster than 18"
5 - Pilot killed - next turn the plane will crash
6 - Engine destroyed - next turn the plane will crash

Crashing
Move the aircraft before any other troops.
Roll the Scatter dice and 3D6. The aircraft hits the ground at this point.
Resolve blast as per off table artillery.

Air to Air Shooting
Aircraft may shoot at other aircraft that are within range and arc of fire.
Aircraft generally have a 45 degree arc of fire to the front.
For aircraft with dedicated gunners or pintle mounted guns, determine the arc(s) of fire as appropriate.

Measure range from the shooting aircraft to the target aircraft. Unlike air to ground shots, the difficulty of the shot is determined by range as both shooter and target are highly manoeuvrable.
Range up to 6" hit on 4+, up to 12" hit on 5+, otherwise hit on a 6+.
Resolve hits as per ground to air shooting
Note - as mentioned earlier more experienced pilots may be a better shot.

Take-off & Landing
Aircraft can only land on (or take off from) designated runways, not on open areas of battlefield.
Aircraft land / take off at slow speed and may not shoot that turn.

Great War Event - Part II

2011-03-12T21:51:00.003Z

Here are some more photos, along with a few notes, from the recent Scarab Miniatures Great War Event.

I borrowed some BEF from Rob in order to bulk out my force to a sensible size. Here they are manning the impromptu trench line looking out across no man's land ready for the enemy.

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For this game there were three objectives along the trench line that the Germans had to capture. You can see two (just) in this picture. The first is a group of barrels in the background. The second is the ruined building in the centre of my line. Here I placed my best fighters, the Highlanders. The NCO is even helpfully pointing out the German advance.

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Looking along the trench, in the foreground we can see the small haystack used to represent the battalion command post (we were pushed for suitable markers!) and to its left you can just make out some of the battalion command. Keith very kindly loaned me his 'Whiteviper' figures (from Scarab) to use as my commander.

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The view from the other end of the line. I kept the tank in reserve to help plug any gaps that might appear in the line ... but I forgot that it doesn't count as a scoring unit so cannot therefore capture/hold an objective!

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Keith's Germans are wonderfully painted. All Sturmtruppen too - yikes! Note the flamethrower on the right. The tank on the right is a scratch built "Panzer K-wagen". In reality very few were built, they weighed in at around 150 tons and required a crew of 22.

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More of Keith's figures. A light field gun, more storm troops and a captured MkIV Male tank.

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A close up of some of the 'Whiteviper' command. Melchett and Darling I think?

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Part way through the game in this picture. The German heavy artillery (off-table but shown in the top-left) tore my line to shreds with some amazingly accurate shooting. The tank has moved up to occupy the building and to engage the German MkIV. To it's left you can see quite a bit of empty trench too, with the Germans about to attack.

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This game resulted in a very narrow victory for the BEF. The Germans made it in to the trenches but a desperate, last minute counter attack by the British meant that one objective remained in allied hands. Had one more German survived the trench assault then it would have been a draw with one objective each!

Whilst most of the games were set in the Late War (LW) era, one table had a great looking Early War (EW) game going on. The British and Belgian forces, supported by a French monoplane, were trying to hold back the advancing Germans. Aren't Pickelhaubs great headgear!?

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The Belgians (with dog drawn HMG carts!) and the British. I also like the way the Belgian commanders are on horseback ... it's not Waterloo you know. All of the scenery belongs to Phil and I think it looks superb!

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After lunch (a big thank you to Barbara and the girls for the excellent food) players swapped around and a second set of games got underway. The games were played using rules from The Great War (Warhammer Historical) but instead of the normal turn sequence a deck of cards was used to determine which units could move, shoot, etc. This way two unequal forces could engage each other on an equal basis by adjusting the deck contents. It took a bit of getting used to (especially for an I-go-you-go player like me) but it worked really well. Details can be found on the Scarab forum.

Finally, a scene from the second game of the day. The Highlanders have infiltrated the church yard in an attempt to get close to the German tank and take it out with grenades. In the background German Storm troops hold the grounds of a small manor house. The Highlanders bravely leapt over the wall and closed on the tank, but then the Germans drew a card allowing them to 'activate' the tank which blazed away with it's HMGs cutting the brave troops to shreds.

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Two splendid games, plus plenty of others going too. An excellent day and a real boost for my gaming enthusiasm.

Great War Event

2011-03-10T22:15:00.005Z

On the 6th March a number of Great War enthusiasts gathered in a village hall near Nottigham for day of gaming fun that was Scarab's 3rd gaming day, and what fun it proved to be.

For both games I was fighting against Keith's beautifully painted Germans, in the second game I was allied with Chris and his superb BEF.

For the first game I was defending a trench-line against a German attack. The game was good fun and very close indeed. The BEF scored a victory by the closest of margins. Had the game continued beyond the allotted time then the Germans would certainly have overwhelmed the defenders!

The second game saw myself and Chris allied to attack a German trench line, but once again the German artillery support proved to be superb, along with their HMG's, both tearing great holes in the BEF lines.

Two great games and a splendid lunch in between!

Here's a few pics

The first games

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from the other end

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Some of Ray's superb AH

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Early war action

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Keith's splendid "Big Bertha"

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The second games

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More info here

Lewis Guns and Battalion Command

2011-02-21T12:03:00.002Z

More painting ...

Three Lewis Gun Teams

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Battalion Command

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and

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Next on the list is a platoon of Highlanders, but I'll be pushed to get them finished in time. They'll bring my battalion up to about 650pts. After that I'll finish the platoons for the second company and add a Mk IV and perhaps a few of the more characterful BEF from Great War Miniatures, e.g. the chap releasing a pigeon or the soldier with the semaphore flags, basically the signallers pack.

Vickers HMG

2011-02-19T11:24:00.002Z

I've been continuing with my efforts to get as much of my WW1 British painted as I can ahead of the Gaming Day in early March, but I'll still have to borrow quite a few figures from Rob Broom - mainly more infantry ... and a Mark IV tank.

Here's the first of my HMG's. Great War Miniatures from Scarab.

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Again, the flash has slightly overwhelmed the painting. I really must get a 'photo booth' sorted out.

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I'll probably add some barbed wire to the posts. The sand is painted GW Bestial Brown, then drybrushed with GW Vomit Brown and GW Bleached Bone. Some patches of Scorched Grass and Field Grass, along with some clumps of Woodland Scenics foliage complete the effect.

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Next up will be some Lewis Gun teams and the Battalion Command.

Toodle-pip!

Incoming! ... More Painting

2011-02-11T20:28:00.010Z

Here's my latest effort for the BEF. A 3" Stokes' Mortar team by Great War Miniatures.

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Base is from Warbases, picked up at Crusade last month. Very good.

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And another shot. Added two types of static grass, for variety, plus a few bits of foliage.

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I've also painted another group of BEF infantry but they're being varnished (GW gloss then Testors matt) so are a bit too shiny at the moment.

More soon!

More Painted Late War BEF

2011-02-07T17:40:00.003Z

I've been fairly busy with the brushes recently and here are the latest figures.

They appeared last year but have now been completed and based. I'll add some static grass and woodland scenics foliage after they're varnished.

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All figures are Great War Miniatures sourced from Scarab Miniatures.

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They took approx 1.5 hours per figure which is why there's a few untidy bits but I'm pleased the with the result.

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Quite a few more on the painting table so keep an eye out for more soon! Next up will be a light mortar team and possibly a Vickers HMG.

Finally went to a show!

2011-01-30T12:59:00.004Z

Crumbs! I've actually made it along to a show at last. The first for a number of years; and very enjoyable it was too. Alas, I forgot to take any pictures - doh!?

Saturday 29th January saw the Penarth Leisure Centre near Cardiff play host to Crusade 2011, run by the Penarth & District Wargames Society. It was really good to soak up a bit of hobby atmosphere and have a chat with traders, etc.

There was a small number of demo games which generally looked quite good but my favourite demo game was the WW1 game put on by Rob of Scarab Miniatures - no suprise with that choice!

I bought a number of items for my EIR and Napoleonic projects :-

Perry Miniatures Napoleonic Officers BH2 (Wellington, Picton and Uxbridge) and BH3(Major Generals Pack, Kempt and Halkett).
A box of Perry's French Napoleonic Line Infantry.
Four packs of EIR LBMS transfers from Gripping Beast.
A new set of dice - made from the finest pink (yes, pink) plastic.
A pack of large round bases from Warbases. Very good too.
Samples of new product called Flexifield from HedgerowScenics (website under construction). Well worth checking out if you want to build some realistic looking fields.
A set of resin ruined pillars from The Square.
Plus some paints, brushes, static grass etc.

I was quite impressed with the range of companies and there certainly seemed to be quite a brisk trade going on. I'd also like to mention Heroes of the Dark Ages as their range of Saxon and Viking figures looked quite promising.

Having loaded up with goodies we headed across to see Rob's WW1 demo. It was great to have a natter about all things gaming and the end result was an invite to come along to the next Great War gaming day on 6th March in Nottingham. Checking with the CEO it seems that it is practical after all! Hooray! However, I'll really need to get my brushes flying as it's just 5 weeks away and I barely have half my army painted. In fact I still need to order some figures. Yikes!

Anyway, after a splendid couple of hours at the show we all headed for Cardiff Castle. Well worth a visit but I'd recommend going in warmer weather. We were absolutely frozen by the end of the day!

Blog List Updated

2011-01-24T19:41:00.001Z

Just a quick one ... ;-)

I've just added another blog to my list "Je Lay Emprins". Well worth a look if anything medieval tickles your fancy.

Enjoy

At last ... some more painting!

2011-01-21T10:41:00.003Z

I'm so excited that I've actually painted something that, even in their not-quite-finished state, here's a few pics of more Auxilia.

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All Black Tree Designs Auxilia. Shields and bases to follow.

Now for some close ups... gulp!

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Mostly painted with Foundry paints.

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Hopefully I'll be able to pick the pace of painting soon. I certainly need to as I've just received another 60 Legionaries!! Purchased at a very reasonable rate from BigRedBat - splendid fellow - see his blog link on the right. Well worth looking at.

Roll on "Hail Caesar!" and "War & Conquest".

Gaming Thoughts for 2011

2011-01-07T20:21:00.003Z

What a mixed year 2010 was in terms of gaming efforts. So in the year ahead it’s imperative that I make an effort to get some gaming projects completed, or at least completed to the point where I can play a few reasonable sized games with some variety. This includes...

Early Imperial Romans
These are most definitely my favourite army. I have around 1,800 points (for WAB) but this includes two cohorts of 18 dipped plastic Warlord figures. Whilst these figures look fine they are not quite compatible with my existing cohorts of more conventionally painted Black Tree legionaries. To get this army to a more satisfactory 2,000 – 2,250 points I need to replace the plastic legions, add another 8 or so Auxilia, plus add a unit of 9-10 Auxilia cavalry. I might even add a few more legion to boost the 18’s to 24’s. That’s about 50-55 figures.

Celts
This army is a similar size to the Romans and is mostly made up of dipped Warlord plastic Celts. I’m quite pleased with how this army looks and all it really needs are some extra warriors / fanatics, another unit of cavalry and maybe some skirmishers to reach a comfortable 2,000 points. To give more figure variety I’ll probably add a couple of Gripping Beast Celt war band deals. Approximately 45-50 figures.

Battlefields & Scenery
However, expanding these armies presents the ‘challenge’ of battlefield size. I currently have a 6’ x 4’ but the new WAB v2 rules really need an 8’ x 4’ table if playing 2,000 points. A recent 1,800 point game on the 6’ x 4’ showed that there was just not quite enough room for armies to manoeuvre satisfactorily. When you read about my next wargaming project you’ll see why it’s even more important that I find a bigger table.

Napoleonics
I made a surprisingly energetic start to this project and now have almost the first brigade completed. It requires a few more redcoats and a couple of officers. However, this project definitely falls in to the category of ‘longer term’ as each army (British & French) will need 200+ figures to give what I would consider satisfactory games. So still quite a long way to go. But I do aim to make some good progress this year. Every time I pick up my copy of the excellent ‘Black Powder’ I think to myself that I really need to play this era and ruleset!

As for scenery, I need to make a few items that impart some ancient British flavour, such as a small Celtic farmstead or a Roman watch tower. Trees, hills, etc are all very well but a good game requires a few items to set the scene properly.

The Great War
I have enough figures for almost 700 points but barely half of these are painted. My aim is to collect a BEF Battalion (approx. 95-100 figures) so that I can attend some events. That’s about 55-60 figures to go.

Romano-Brits and Saxons & Vikings
These three armies are almost definitely going to be deferred for some time. I simply do not have enough time / money / energy to even think about collecting and painting more of these figures.

So that’s the plan !?

Looking Back on 2010

2010-12-28T06:07:00.002Z

In the last year or so I don’t seem to have achieved a great deal in terms of gaming... I’ve started several new projects, i.e. Napoleonics, Age of Arthur and Saxons & Vikings. I’ve painted a few more WW1 figures, along with adding some bits and pieces to my Roman and Celt armies, i.e. a unit of legionaries and some chariots and fanatics. However, little if anything can be viewed as completed.

Looking back across the blog it averages out at approx 7 ‘properly’ painted and 5 dipped figures per month! Crumbs ... adding it up like that is quite depressing. Not exactly productive is it!?

I think the main issues have been that I’ve been too easily distracted by new projects and that too little time has been spent with a brush in my hand getting paint on what I already own. I could waffle on about how things have been hectic, etc, etc, but that would for the most part just be a long list of excuses. I need to make time for my hobby. I also need to decide on painting priorities and then stick to them!

Thanks to all my readers. Hope you're all having a good festive season.

Matt

Basing Napoleonic Battalions

2010-11-29T21:17:00.006Z

Things here in the blog have been fairly quiet recently ... that's because the real world has been exceedingly hectic, leaving very little time for any gaming stuff. However, I have found a few moments to experiment with how to base up my Napoleonic forces. The basic choice was between 20mm x 20mm and 15mm x 20mm.

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Here are some Perry's based 20mm x 20mm with 24 in a battalion. That's a frontage of 240mm.

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Next we have 15mm x 20mm with 30 in a battalion giving a frontage of 225mm (i.e. fairly similar area to the 24 man unit above).

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Now for some comparisons. Front unit is 20mm x 20mm, rear 15mm x 20mm. The painted figures are mostly Front Rank.

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Now swapped around to remove any bias.

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Both here are 20mm x 20mm.

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Again, swapped to give a balanced view.

For a while I was tempted to go with the 30 man battalions as the denser formation looks quite imposing but after further consideration I settled on 24 man battalions based on a 20mm frontage, mostly 4 on a 40mm x 40mm base. This is mainly because I'll need to buy and paint less figures, yet the result is still good. Plus there seems to be a trend with rules these days that a variety of basing systems can be catered for, especially if both armies are based in the same manner.

Painted British Artillery

2010-11-01T19:32:00.004Z

I've been rather under the weather recently, hence the lack of blog posts however here's a few pics of something I finished a while back. It's a British Royal Artillery 9lb-er. Figures from Front Rank, paints mostly Foundry.

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Don't ask why I based the crew individually rather than on the same base as the cannon - I suppose it's just habit.

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Wasn't too sure about the colour for the gun carriage but after doing a spot of research I realised that others have used a wide range of blue-greys so I opted for Foundry Night Sky Mid and then Light.

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I really like the small extras such as the powder barrel and spare shot. I think it adds an extra level of interest.

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Now I'm working on a batch of Perry's Plastic British Redcoats (http://www.perry-miniatures.com/index2.html) and my word they're splendid figures. Plus at £15 for a box of 36, a real bargain too.

Napoleonic Figures ... Plastic vs Metal

2010-10-03T09:02:00.001+01:00

The last year or two has seen a big increase in the variety of plastic figures available for this era, principally Victrix and Perry Miniatures. I believe that this can only be a Good Thing. I'm aware that some gamers have a slightly sniffy approach to plastics, seeing them as somehow not quite proper figures, or perhaps as figures for less serious collectors!? To be honest, I don't really understand that view. In fact, it does seem that the new plastic ranges have been well received and are proving popular.

I happen to like both metal and plastic figures. In terms of metal I have a mix of Front Rank and Foundry, around 50 figures that I collected ages ago with a view to playing some skirmish level games. Both manufacturers figures are excellent although being at either end of the 28mm scale they do not mix too well. I would be more than happy to expand my collection using either range.

However, the big factor for me is quite simply cost. I'd like to build a fairly large collection but at £1+ per infantry figure and around £3 per figure for cavalry that's just not feasible. That's why I've decided to head along the plastic route for most of my collection, both British and French. I'll be using mainly Perry's, with some Victrix for variety. My 24 man battalions will cost £10-12 each as opposed to £24-30 in metal from Front Rank, or more if from Foundry. I've ordered a few Front Rank to top up my existing collection to make full units, and I've ordered 2 boxes of Perry British redcoats that I'll make 3 x 24 figure battalions from.

A downside to plastics is the sometimes fiddly construction. The few Victrix figures I've built were quite tricky, so I'm hoping the Perry figures will be a little easier. Maybe it was due to the fact that it was Victrix's first boxed set and that they tried just a little too hard to give lots of variety. I'll be getting a box or two of the French Line infantry and Grenadier Guards - perhaps these will be easier to build? If you have some then please do comment with your opinion.

A plus point for plastics is that I find less need to varnish them, based on my experience with other ranges. It's quite hard to chip or scratch paint from plastic figures. Additionally, conversions are generally simpler too.

So that's the plan - mainly plastic with a few metals for variety, e.g. command figures, or units not available in plastic.

Black Powder

2010-09-30T12:06:00.003+01:00

Battles with Model Soldiers in the Age of the Musket (1700-1900)

Let me get straight to the point ... this is one of the best rulebooks I have ever purchased. Hardback and 182 pages. It's beautifully produced with lavish illustrations and superb photos throughout. The style of writing is light hearted and jovial without being comical. Rules are clearly explained along with the authors views on how gentleman should play wargames.

Let me dispel a few potential myths about needing large tables, lots of figures and whether the rules are 'rules' or merely 'guidelines'.

Firstly, large tables are not essential as the authors give guidance on scaling movement and weapon ranges for smaller tables. Distance is generally calculated in blocks of 6" or 12" so a simple adjustment for a smaller table, e.g. halving distances, is very easy. This view was supported when I asked about table size on the WAB forum.

Secondly, lots of figures in huge units (whilst desirable) are not essential. Units are classed as Tiny, Small, Standard or Large. The authors view of Standard is approx 30-36 but again they give guidance that the size classifications can easily be adjusted to suit your collection. So battalions of 12, 16, 20, etc are perfectly ok.

Thirdly, this book is definitely a complete set of rules. Like all rules there's bound to be occasions where the rules do not fully cover a particular situation, so like all rules a little bit of player common sense is required. I also feel that they are quite elegant and will prove to be rather subtle. Whilst I have yet to play a game I get the impression that with these rules you'll feel more like you're fighting a historical miniature battle rather than playing a game. Particularly with the orders phase where players are encouraged to give orders very much in the style of their historical counterparts.

These rules have *really* inspired me to properly get in to gaming Napoleonics. I feel that they'll suit my own relaxed style of play very well indeed. So much so in fact, that I've ordered some more figures from Front Rank, plus a couple of boxes of Perry British - huzzah!

At just £21 (incl free delivery) from Amazon, this book is well worth adding to your collection, even if you're only an occasional gamer. Whether it's the battles of Malborough, the '45 rebellion, the Age of Napoleon & Wellington, or just the Thin Red Line fighting Queen Victoria's enemies in far flung places - anyone with an interest in the black powder era will find the book a fascinating read.

Newly Painted British Redcoats

2010-09-26T13:19:00.006+01:00

At last ... some new painting!

I've been working on 8 British Napoleonic Light Infantry that will (when combined with some of my existing skirmish collection) give the first half-battalion of my British force.

Here's the first four. Two firing, one loading and one sergeant to direct his men. All Front Rank figures.

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Here's the other four. In the foreground are 4 of my skirmish figures.

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Painting these figures has been fairly easy and, more importantly, really enjoyable. My skirmish figures were painted years ago and took me ages which effectively put me off collecting larger forces. However I now seem to have figured out a good style that I'm happy with and that doesn't take too long to paint. The latest figures took around 1.5 hours per figure. It's a mix of the Foundry one and two colour styles.

Basically, the painting scheme is

Black undercoat
Shako, boots, cartridge pouch, etc - quick and very light drybrish with mid grey
Metal - (Bayonet, barrel, etc) GW Chainmail or Shining Gold
Skin - Foundry Flesh Shade then Mid
Red - Foundry Redcoat Shade then Mid (Scarlet works very well too)
Blanket - GW Codex Grey then Fortress Grey (Foundry Arctic grey shade/mid would be ideal)
Musket - Foundry Conker Brown Shade then Mid
White - GW Fortress Grey then White
Plume - Foundry Forest Green Shade then Mid
Facings - White then Yellow

The trick is not to worry too much about every little detail. No piping or buttons, etc. Also, leave plenty of the black showing at the edges as this (a) makes it easier to paint areas as less neatness is required and (b) delineates the red, white, etc more clearly when viewed from 2 or 3 feet away, i.e. wargaming distance. It's all about painting quickly and for effect. Up close they are rather untidy compared to my EIR for example, especially the highlighting which is basically semi-random splodges. But en-masse, on the table, at wargaming distance they'll look great. Basing will be six to a base arranged 3 x 2, so a 24 man unit will be on 4 bases.

Next post ... I'll be giving my thoughts about the Black Powder rules.

Musings on British Redcoats

2010-09-19T12:49:00.004+01:00

Their coats are definitely red, but exactly which red? Yes, I have a bunch of British Napoleonic infantry on the painting table and I'm in a quandary about how to paint their jackets. I've used Foundry Bright Red but the result is too pink for my liking. I appreciate that the vagaries of supply, combined with the rigours of campaigning in all weather, would result in anything from pink through to dark red or brown, but on the tabletop I want them to look red. In an attempt to solve the problem I've ordered some more paints from Foundry ... Scarlet and British Redcoat. Hopefully these will solve my dilemma. I also ordered a palette of French Blue. Why not eh?

So you can see that I'm getting some sort of Napoleonic project off the ground (again). The big difference this time is my approach to painting. I'm keeping it simple, clean and bright. No worrying about each and every buckle and button. This should make progress faster and help with motivation. We shall see. I did consider dipping the miniatures as that proved very successful with my Celt army but after reviewing the few test miniatures I decided that the finished article was a little too drab. So I'll be using a basic colour scheme painted in a more conventional style.

Also I'm not following my original plan for recreating the Light Division. This is because I want a more general purpose British force for the Peninsular War, something along the lines of:-

1st Brigade
British Light Infantry
British Line Infantry
Detachment of Rifles

2nd Brigade
British Line Infantry
Portuguese Line Infantry
Detachment of Rifles

plus

Regiment of Hussars or Light Dragoons
Royal Artillery Battery

This is approx 140 figures and I have around 20 or so already painted with another 8 on the painting table. Initially they'll be 24 man battalions, based on four bases 3 x 2. Then they can be increased to 30 man battalions simply by adding another base.

As for the composition of the French force ... I'm still not exactly sure but it will similar to the British.

Rules
I have the Foundry ruleset 'Napoleon' which would be okay, although needing some clarification in a number of areas. It's a great looking publication but the manner in which the rules are described make them hard to follow in places plus it would require quite a few cards and counters to be placed on the table. A big part of this era is the visual spectacle of all the splendid uniforms, so having the table littered with cards/tokens is far from ideal.

So I'll probably be ordering the Black Powder rules by Messrs Priestley and Johnson. When they were released there was some speculation that these rules required huge table and similarly huge armies but this is not necessarily the case according to the chaps on the WAB forum. I posted a question here and got some favourable replies. Scaling the movement to fit my 6x4 should be easy. Naturally, bigger armies and tables would be better but you have to start somewhere.

Hope to have some new painting to show off in a few days.

WAB2.0 and ... The Painting Block

2010-09-12T20:39:00.003+01:00

Warhammer Historical (aka Forge World) must be doing something ... I just can't figure out exactly what that might be ... ???

WAB2.0 came out around April this year and five months later we're still none-the-wiser about what else is coming along for WAB. That's assuming there is some sort of plan. It seem obvious to me that a re-launch of a ruleset should be fairly quickly followed up with supplements to fill in some of the gaps in the WAB range. Some of these supplements have (according to those in the know) been written for quite some time. Now, I know turning a finished document in to a published book takes time, money and effort but after five months you would have expected some hints from WHW/FW about what's in the pipeline?

Even the launch of WAB2.0 seemed a bit disorganised with very little in the way of advertisement. I can't help but feel that it was a little rushed. There's quite a few typos and, given the level of discussion on the WAB forum, still a lot of grey areas in the rules. Credit should be given to those involved in getting an errata out fairly quickly but there's still plenty to resolve. Plus the production quality of the book (i.e. artwork, photos, painting guide, etc) could have been so much better.

However, all this doesn't mean that I've given up with WAB, but I am a little concerned about where WAB might be headed. I enjoy playing the game and would like to see it more actively supported by WHW. There's quite a few other rulesets out there (Crusader, Impetus, FoG) plus new rules on the way, like an ancients version of Blackpowder, and Phil Hendry's Augustus to Aurelian. WAB cannot simply assume that players will continue to play it without new material to generate continued interest. It's certainly making me wonder about other rules.

As for the other half of the title ... well I've really been struggling for the last three or four weeks to find the motivation to pick up a brush. To be fair it's been *really* bonkers at work, long hours, etc. But that's partly an excuse if I'm honest. I just seem to have lost the joy in terms of painting. I've got a bunch of BTD Auxlia on the painting table - really nice figures - but I just can't be bothered!?

After giving it some thought I've decided on a new plan. For a while I'm just going to paint whatever figures take my fancy with no real thought as to what unit or army they'll belong to. In fact I'm going to forget about trying to get a particular unit done by a certain date, or trying to get X points painted in Y weeks, etc. This is supposed to be a hobby.

Smaller games... some thoughts

2010-09-03T12:43:00.000+01:00

We've been playing a series of fairly small games recently (approx 800pts per side) in order to get a better understanding of the 'new' WAB 2.0 rules.

Armies were

Early Imperial Romans
o 15 Legion C/S/M
o 15 Legion C/S/M
o 15 Auxilia (+javelins) L/S/M
o 9 Auxilia Archers
o 9 Celt Skirmishers

British Celts
o Chieftain (General)
Army Standard Bearer
22 Warriors L/S/M
o Chieftain
23 Warriors L/S/M
o 24 Warriors L/S/M
o 9 Light Cavalry L/S/M
o 9 Slingers (+buckler)

These forces were chosen as they're large enough to give a 'proper' battle, playable on a 4' x 3' table, games take around an hour to play and they have a good mix of special rules (e.g. warband, stubborn, etc) without being overwhelming.

You can see a short battle report of one of the games on the WAB forum at
http://wabforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=8377&p=86033#p86033

The first couple of games were fairly convincing wins for the Celts. The Romans just didn't seem to have enough numbers to repel, or even hold, the barbarian horde. However, to be fair the Celts rarely failed any warband tests so they were able to manoeuvre freely (as well as the new warband rules allow!?) for a more co-ordinated attack. Also, after the first game the warbands were re-organised to be 6x4 rather than 8x3. Making them deeper seemed to give them more staying power thus allowing them to beat the Romans in a protracted fight.

Another factor has been the formation of the Legionary units. Fielding them 5x3 doesn't give them the stamina (i.e. ranks) for a protracted fight, nor does the narrow frontage allow enough attacks in the first round (with Heavy Throwing Spears) to blunt the warband's charge. Just 2 casualties from slingers - a surprisingly common occurence - and they lose a rank. Plus, if a charging warband manages to inflict 3-4 casualties then that drastically reduces the ability of the Romans to hit back in that vital first round of combat.

This led to the Legions being fielded 6 or even 7 models wide, so only one rank. The result was definitely better for the Romans - though in the end the battle was still a narrow victory for the Celts.

Better use of the Roman allied skirmishers also led to improved results for Rome's finest. Quickly getting the skirmishers close to the Celt line so that they can pelt them with javelins, and keeping them near so that any warband failures cause the Celt line to become disorganised, is vital.

What seems fairly clear is that the Romans need more troops capable of holding or turning flanks, i.e. some skirmishing Auxilia or, even better, Auxilia Cavalry. This would make the Celt attack less co-So guess what's going on to the painting table next?

All in all, I like the new WAB rules and playing a series of smaller games is definitely helping in terms of faster play and less looking things up in the rulebook. Plus it's jolly good fun to push a few toy soldiers around the table.

British Celt Chariots

2010-08-13T15:58:00.002+01:00

Rather than go around in circles trying to decide what to do next I thought I'd finish off something I started a while back... three celt chariots. So here are a few pics.

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As with all my other Celts these are mostly block colours followed by Army Painter dip (Strong Tone).

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The armour and flesh are given two coats - a base and a quick highlight.

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These are GB's splendid Celt Chariots, which look fine alongside my three Warlord chariots.

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I may order one further chariot from either Warlord or GB to act as a chieftain for the unit. A unit of seven including a character should be more than capable of holding their own on the battlefield.

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For this figure I just had to mount the driver standing on the yoke pole!

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I did consider adding reins ... ;-)

Hope you like 'em.

A Quick Update

2010-08-07T21:18:00.003+01:00

Wargaming confusion reigns... I've just returned from a one week holiday on Hadrian's Wall and it's been absolutely brilliant! However, it's put me in to something of a spin. Before the hols I was just starting on my Age of Arthur / Dark Ages project with Saxons and Vikings, but even so my attention was being drawn towards my partially complete WW1 BEF force. So much so that I even took some BEF on hols to paint - though there was too little spare time to wield a brush!? Now I return from hols full of inspiration for Rome and the conquest of the British Tribes.

Oh, what is a chap to do next?

I'd really like to get my WW1 BEF in some sort of battle ready order, particularly as Rob at Scarab is looking at producing his own WW1 rules and I'd really like to be involved with that. Yet, I'm drawn back to all things Roman and Celtic. But the newly started AoA project demands my attention too.

I intend to take a day or two "off" to let things settle before I decide which way to go.

Also, I hope to publish a series of short articles on the blog about the Roman sites I've recently visited.

Cheerio

More Arthurians Painted

2010-07-24T16:28:00.003+01:00

Amazingly (for me) I've managed to paint up a few more Arthurians from Gripping Beast. This time it's some Commanipulares/Teulu types.

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I've nicknamed this one 'Arthur' ... can't think why?

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The shield is plain white as I intend to get some LBMS transfers. I did try painting one free-hand but it looked ... ridiculous.

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The blond hair/beard on this one was GW Sankebite Leather, GW Bubonic Brown, GW Bleached Bone.

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You just can't beat painting figures with lots of chainmail and armour :-)

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Having bought another 12 palettes of Foundry paint in their recent new website 20% sale (12 palletes = £72 = free postage), I thought I'd try out a splash of colour here. The helmet plume/crest is Foundry Royal Purple, whilst the tunic is Foundry Deep Blue.

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I felt that as higher status warriors they would be more likely to have expensively coloured clothing... ?

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The red is a bit powerful perhaps (maybe it's a new tunic?) - it's GW Merchrite Red followed by Foundry Bright Red Shade/Mid. Further figures will use Foundry Madder Red or Brick Red to give a more natural colour.

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Next on the painting table are some Artizan Arthurians, the armoured chaps with spears.

First Athurian Figures Painted!

2010-07-10T14:40:00.004+01:00

As promised ... here are some pics of my first complete (apart from the bases!) Arthurian figures. These are from the Gripping Beast Arthurian range link. Pack ABR04 to be precise. I haven't completed the bases as I'd like to try out something slightly different from my usual recipe of GW Bestial/Vomit/Bleached Bone.

I've really enjoyed painting these. The colours were mostly Foundry apart from the metallics which are GW.

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I've kept the shields plain as I see these as lower status warriors who wouldn't spend a lot of time decorating their shields, perhaps just leaving the leather cover unpainted or painting them in plain colours.

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The cloaks were a bit tricky to start with but just letting your brush follow the natural contours seems to work fine.

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The backs of the shields are simplay painted GW Scorched Brown followed by GW Bestial Brown (thinned slightly) painted in stripes to give the impression of wooden boards.

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For plain shields I found that painting the colours on in a "circular" style works much better than "up and down". Leave more of the darker base and mid coat showing near the centre.

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The spear poles are just painted in one colour as I find the wood grain effect really tricky to get just right, plus it takes ages. I'll be painting the poles in a variety of browns, from the pale brown of a newly made spear to the darker brown of a trusty heirloom.

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Hair and beards were mostly done by drybrushing greys and browns.

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Next up will be a group of more heavily armed and equipped Romano-British Commanipulares.

Thoughts on Age of Arthur armies

2010-06-16T12:03:00.002+01:00

As mentioned before, I'm starting to collect a Age of Arthur Saxon army with a view to adding some GB plastic Thegns (when available) in order to make the army in to later Saxon horde suitable for taking on those fearsome Vikings (think Bernard Cornwell's "Alfred" series and you'll be about there). However, when collecting an army I also like to think about collecting a suitable opposing force so as to give easy access to historical match ups.

When I first considered collecting for Age of Arthur it was the Romano-British that caught my eye but having thoroughly reviewed the lists and talked with a few other players I feel that it may lead to a rather defensive mind-set. Since I'll be forming plenty of Shieldwalls with my later Saxons I fancied something a bit more dynamic. The British & Welsh Kingdoms (B&WK) lists meets this requirement quite nicely! I already have a small collection of GB and Artizan figures suitable for Teulu and Combrogi so they'll be the start of this army. These are now on the painting table and I'm really looking forward to painting them. As for the Saxons, well I haven't actually got any suitable figures as yet but once the B&WK figures are nearly done then I'll order a Duguth unit deal from GB. Those Early Saxon figures are splendid. In fact my B&WK figures would do nicely in the Saxon line, as page 96 of AoArt shows some of these figures (the armoured ones) in Saxon units. Such are the benefits of dark ages gaming.

Anyway, I have ordered a copy of Shieldwall (for the later variant of the army), plus I've ordered 200 20x20mm 1.5mm plywood bases from Fenris Games (highly recommended!), so things are moving forward slowly. Buying lists and bases before the figures ... sounds a bit "cart-before-the-horse"... no, I'm just being organised ;-)

Shields are still something of a puzzle as I'd really like to try out painting some free-hand designs but (a) it will take ages, and (b) I'm not sure my painting skills are up quite to it. Perhaps I'll try a few ... then get on to LBMS!? I've also been giving some thought towards what sort of scenery will be required as a few good items on the table really give the battlefield the right atmosphere for the era being played.

Next time I post, work permitting, I hope to show you my first dark ages figures.

Saxons, Vikings & Normans

2010-06-04T14:41:00.004+01:00

I've been fairly well focussed on Romans and Celts for ages now, so I think it's time for something a little different.

Vikings
Gripping Beast's new plastic and metal range have really ticked all the boxes for me. Top notch figures with the maintsay of the army available in plastic at a very reasonable £18 for 44 figures. A decent sized force for WAB should cost less than £100. The figures look like they'll be so much fun to paint.

Saxons
In addition to their Vikings, GB have plans to make a boxed set of plastic Thegns available later this year! But my aims for an army are a little more ambitious than just 11th century Saxons... Regular readers (thank you!) may recall that I keep blathering on about Age of Arthur. It's probably my favourite supplement, even though I don't actually play it yet. Well, I see this as my opportunity to get in to Dark Ages gaming properly. I could collect a 6th - 7th century Saxon army based around the Heptarchy or Anglian lists using mainly GB's excellent Early Saxon range, plus a few of the superb Musketeer Saxons. This could then easily become a later, ie 8th - 11th century, Saxon force with the addition of a few Dane-axe wielding thegns and some chaps in Norman-esque style helmets. Basically two armies for the price of one plus a few extra figures. The Early Saxon Duguth, Geoguth and Ceorls will do good service as Ceorls and Fyrd in the later Saxon battle line.

Normans
I've always been fascinated by the Normans. Aged 7 I visited Hastings only to be disappointed to find that the field was not covered in Saxon / Norman dead!? I've seen the Bayuex tapestry twice. I've been all over Normandy on several holidays - wonderful place - can't wait to visit again. But if you get the chance to visit Duke William's castle at Falaise... then don't as it's awful. Anyway ... it now looks like a new company Conquest Games will be releasing a range of plastic Norman cavalry. Check out some pics here. Then there's always the excellent ranges from Perry's and Gripping Beast too.

It will of course be Warhammer Ancient Battles, so I'd better order a copy of Shieldwall soon!

Happy gaming!

Two Battles - Romans vs Celts

2010-05-25T20:03:00.003+01:00

As promised, here are some pics of the recent games with my friends Jim and Adam. The window at the other end of the room made taking pics a bit tricky but hoprefully you'll enjoy the action.

Here's the deployment for the first game. Not too much in the way of scenery as we wanted to keep things simple for our first game of WAB2.0. Jim took charge for Rome and deployed carefully around the hill, whilst Ad became a hairy barbarian and made full use of the 6'x4' table width. Actually, I forgot that in a pitched battle the army must not deploy within 12" of the edge ... oh well, only the first of what proved to be quite a few forgotten rules!

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A close up of the Roman line.

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Some Ancient British who were very keen to take on the might of Rome.

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Watch out for the nudey-men!

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Here we are in turn 2 I think. The Roman ballista and bowmen had made very impact on the Celt lines as they rushed forwards. Even the Romans own Celt skirmishers decided they'd had enough. The chariots thundered into the right flank of the Romans but the line held firm.

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The chariots are beaten off whilst on the other flank some very brave light cavalry took on a large unit of Auxilia. The main line of Celts wavered a bit instead of getting stuck in.

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C-h-a-r-g-e!

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A turn or two later and we can see than the head on attack by some of the British was eventually repulsed at both ends of the line, but it was a close run thing.

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Another attack by the British but it fails to overwhelm the Romans.

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Near the end of the game and things got a bit complicated. However the disciplined staying power of the Romans carried the day! It was a close game and very enjoyable.

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Battle number two and a Roman supply column has been ambushed by a strong British force.

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Sensibly, the Romans all headed for one half of the Celt army.

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Now, apologies 'coz I forgot to take any more pics of this battle but I can assure you that it was rather one-sided. The Romans thrashed one half of the Celt army before the other could cross the table. After that it was clear the Romans had soundly beaten off the ambush.

All good fun, though the first game was by far the best. Scenarios are tricky things to get right.

We were playing WAB2.0 but in reality it was more a mixture of WAB1.5 and 2.0. Hey - I did only get the rules a few days before!

Latest Painting ... EIR and Celts

2010-05-14T12:46:00.005+01:00

I've been fairly busy with the brush recently, mainly because this weekend I have friends visiting for a relaxing weekend of chatting, wargaming, beer and good food. We'll also be trying out the new WAB2.0 rules for the first time!

One of the games I'm running will be an ambush scenario where the Celts take on a Roman supply column. This means I'll need some "baggage". So here's the pack horses. There's also a wagon on to which I'll put some boxes and barrels.

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The horses were painted by my wife using her drybrush/highlight technique, rather than the dip.

The cart horse is still to be painted but here's the wagon. Sprayed white white a coat of Foundry Tan then dipped. Metals parts are GW Black followed by GW Mithril Silver.

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In order to quickly get a fourth cohort of Romans ready I ordered another sprue from Warlord and painted/dipped them.

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You may notice a few veterans in the group. To avoid the 'heavy armour' look I painted the arm armour (I forget its proper name - doh!?) as if it were cloth. Looks ok to me.

Here's a close up of the command group. Obviously I need to add the shields.

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Now for some more Celts...

Please do not adjust your set! It's a 15mm Essex Celtic Chariot. Had the figure for a while and just wanted to see what it would look like with a quick paint job and some dip.

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The other side.

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Here's the start of a unit of fanatics. Quite a mix of manufacturers - the leader (holding a severed head) is a Warlord model. The two figures either side are the GB naked fanatic command group, whilst the other three figures are from Essex.

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A close up of the command group.

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Whilst at Essex minis I also picked up these Celt slingers.

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I'll post up scenarios, battle reports and pics of the games as soon as I can find the time.

Wargame-o-meter #5

2010-05-04T11:56:00.002+01:00

Well... WAB2.0 is in the post (hopefully!) so it's time for another look at my wargaming agenda.

Sort of a joint 1 and 2 really as I have some old friends visiting in less than 2 weeks and I'm planning a few reasonably large games of WAB, mainly Romans vs Barbarians. I promise to post pics and battle reports after they've visited!?

1) Celts
Busily getting a few more fanatics and three Gripping Beast chariots completed. Seems to be taking ages! This army is going to look huge and I'm really pleased with it so far. For me the dip was really the only way I'd ever have painted an army of Celts.

2) Early Imperial Romans
Now have around 1,750pts ready, that is, according to the EIR list in WAB1.5 so things may change. Ordered some extra plastic troops from Warlord and dipped them. These will do fine until I catch up with properly painted metal.

3) Age of Chivalry & HYW English
Whoosh - from out of almost nowhere good King Hal and his merry men burst on the top 5. Why you may ask ... ? It's all Bernard Cornwell's fault... again. I've been listening to Harlequin whilst painting and it's got me thinking about my HYW English army. If I could just find the energy to finish off a few more archers and men-at-arms then my old Bretonnian army can ride again. Hmmm ... perhaps I can persuade Jim to sort out some HRE opponents :-)

4) Ancient Scenery
I haven't made any noteworthy scenery for ages which is a pity because it's good fun and (if you'll pardon my immodesty) usually looks quite good. So I've started hoarding Pringle tubes and gravy tubs with the vague idea of building a Celtic farmstead or village.

5) Age of Arthur
Still hanging in there ... I even managed to undercoat some figures. Also, my order from North Star arrived with a pack of Armoured Romano-Brit spearmen and they're superb!

As I said above, a proper post with pics of games and such like will follow in a few weeks.

Yet More ... Romans

2010-04-01T20:28:00.003+01:00

Plastic ones this time. Warlord EIR to be precise.

Apologies for the rather poor quality pic - I'll try again in better light :-) The red appears a little purple due to the flash - but it isn't, I promise. Also, the armour is a much more realistic dull metal colour than shown.

Anyway ... I'm really pleased with this unit as they were painted very quickly - perhaps around 25 mins per figure - then dipped with Army Painter Strong tone, followed by a quick spray of matt varnish. Based as usual* on Litko 3mm wooden bases. I thought they might look a bit rough and ready but I hope you can see that they look pretty good!

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This will be a unit of veterans (24 x 20pts = 480pts!) which will do fine as stand-ins until I get another cohort of EIR painted in my three colour style.

I think this unit really shows that anyone can have a painted army with not too much effort. Even if you want to field a huge army then the plastic figures keep the cost to a sensible amount whilst the paint-and-dip method means the troops look good without needing lots of effort or huge amounts of artistic skill. It's certainly the approach I've taken with my Celts. Speaking of which ... I have some on the painting table which will take my army to around 160 figures ... pics another time.

Happy painting / gaming ... and ... a happy and peaceful Easter.

*Basing - PVA with sand sprinkled on top, GW Bestial Brown (thinned slightly) then drybrushed with GW Vomit Brown and GW Bleached Bone. Add a few bits of static grass and the occasional piece of Woodland Scenics foliage.

More Romans

2010-03-20T13:29:00.002Z

Ok ... common sense prevailed. I've carried on with my Romans in order to top up some of my existing units. They're still a bit 'work in progress' requiring shields and basing properly, but the painting is done. Here's some pics.

Auxilia

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Ballista crewman

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Legionaries

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I've also got a cohort of Warlord plastic legion that are almost complete, plus a number of Warlord Celts on the go. I'll post pics when complete.

Forward the Light Division!!!

2010-03-07T13:01:00.006Z

I've been having a rummage through my 'skirmish' collection of 28mm Napoleonic figures to find what I can use to get the Light Division started.

Here's the start of the 52nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry and a detachment of the 95th.

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The 52nd will initially be a 20 figure unit, i.e. 5 bases of 4 figures. I'll need a pair of flag wielding ensigns and may be a drummer for the empty base which will then take pride of place in the centre of the unit. Figures are mainly Front Rank with a few Foundry.

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Here are the 95th. I have a few more models including a couple of the excellent Perry plastic riflemen. These are Front Rank and Foundry. Is that Rifle officer brandishing a straight heavy cavalry sword ... ? ;-)

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I noticed an advert in the latest Wargames Illustrated previewing Victrix's new Portuguese Cacadores which look rather splendid! I'll also need to find models suitable for 'Black Bob' Crauford and his staff.

Anyway, the plan is get the other 8 redcoats painted before ordering the rest of the 52nd and 95th ... crumbs how disciplined eh? But there are a pile of Romans on my painting table demanding my attention!

The Light Division

2010-03-04T19:20:00.005Z

I've been listening to Sharpe's Battle (audio book) whilst painting Romans recently and it's had the predictable effect of once again piquing my interest in all things Napoleonic. I've even been re-reading the Foundry 'Napoleon' rules, which I like the look of but some of the rules need a bit of clarification.

Anyway, the Sharpe book has a marvellous description of the Light Division coming to the rescue of the 7th Division at Fuentes de Oñoro, after Wellington had sent the 7th too far south where it was subjected to the vigorous attentions of the French.

This then led me to look at the Light Division in a little more detail ... Like all military formations the structure and content of the Light Division during the Peninsular Wars varied during the course of the campaign. However, this seems to be a reasonable description

1st Brigade
o 1/43rd Monmouthshire Light Infantry
o 1/95th Rifles
o 3/95th Rifles (HQ & 5 companies)
o 3rd Portuguese Caçadores
2nd Brigade
o 1/52nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry
o 2/95th Rifles
o 1/17th Portuguese Line
o 2/17th Portuguese Line
o 1st Portuguese Caçadores
Divisional Troops
o 1 troop, Royal Horse Artillery
o Part of the 14th Light Dragoons
o Part of the 16th Light Dragoons

Assuming each unit consists of 20-24 figures, that would mean purchasing and painting a total of around 200+ infantry, let alone the artillery and cavalry! Clearly this is not feasible (not for me at least). If we assume that for many actions, some elements of the division would not be available, i.e. on other duties, etc, then the following might still be considered a reasonable approximation of the Light Division.

1st Brigade
o 1/43rd Monmouthshire Light Infantry
o 1/95th Rifles
2nd Brigade
o 1/52nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry
o 1/17th Portuguese Line
o 1st Portuguese Caçadores
Divisional Troops
o 1 troop, Royal Horse Artillery
o Part of the 16th Light Dragoons

That's around 100 infantry, 2-3 guns and 12 cavalry, plus some skirmishers (which I already have painted). Now that does seem more achievable...!? Plus it's not all redcoats. The 95th are in green, Caçadores in brown and the Portuguese Line are dark blue.

I may have an outbreak of common sense and return to all of my other projects, or perhaps my enduring interest in the Napoleonic wars will win out and I'll start painting up figures for more than just a skirmish?

In the meantime have a look at the galleries at http://quindia.com/studiogallerynapbrit.htm for some excellent examples of Napoleonic British.

Oh ... and case you're interested, it will probably be Front Rank all the way. The new plastics from Victrix are very good but putting them together is just too fiddly. Not sure about the dipping either - seems to make the figures look too brown. One reason I like the figures is the splendid uniforms.

Wargame-o-meter #4

2010-02-24T18:48:00.002Z

It's been some time since I last recorded my gaming priorities and things have varied quite a bit. Just 3 weeks ago I was in the midst of a burst of interest for WW1... I even painted up nearly 30 figures! However, as is the way of these things, my interest has drifted to other areas, especially as I just got fed up with the colour of khaki.

1. Romans (EIR)
Currently on the painting table are 5 Auxiliaries, 1 Ballista crewman and 6 Legionaries. The plan is to make one of the 15 man units of Auxiliaries in to a unit of 20 or so, whilst the other unit of 15 is reduced to 12 to become a 'skirmish' unit with the archers. The crewman will join the other I have painted, thus giving my ballista a proper set of crew. The 6 Legion will boost my 2 x 15's to 2 x 18's. After that I may look at dipping a unit of 18 Warlord plastic EIR I have ready. It would be a quick way to boost my army to 1,500pts whilst my collection of more slowly painted figures catch up.

2. Age of Arthur
Whoosh! It's back and high up the list. I found the Romano-British figures I ordered from GB last year and couldn't help but trim and undercoat them. I think they could paint up really well and be fun too. That got me looking at the superb AoA supplement again and so my interest in this fascinating era of British history has been re-kindled. One advantage is that the armies do not need to be large to be fun. Many of the scenarios (and they're of much interest too) need 750-1,000pts. Current favourite armies are Romano-Brits and either Saxons or Picts. As with my EIR/Celt project, one army would get painted 'properly' the other dipped. In the short term I could just about use my Celts as Picts.

3. Celts
With reinforcements coming for my EIR I naturally want to expand my Celt army. More warriors, chariots and perhaps a few fanatics. I'd really like to get the army to a comfortable 1,500pts soon.

4. The Great War
Still on the list but awaiting some sort of goal or objective in order to get painting again. Hopefully GB will announce an event for the Summer then I'll get cracking again.

5. Playing some WAB
With WAB v2 still well over the horizon I'd really like to get in a few more games of WAB v1.5. I've contacted some chums in the far frozen north of England about a possible gaming weekend but I'm still waiting to hear back from them (nudge... nudge!). Whilst I'm far more of a painter than gamer, it would be nice to occasionally roll some dice and push a few nicely painted toys around the table.

Anyway, back to the Romans!

More Painted 1918 BEF

2010-02-09T14:32:00.003Z

I've managed to get going again with painting my Great War collection of figures. Here's a few pics.

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I'm now painting in batches of 10 and aiming for a 'good wargaming standard' rather than trying to achieve the best possible result.

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This is because I know from experience that figures for skirmish games tend to get more wear and tear whilst playing, that's mainly because they're not on movement trays and there's more scenery to balance your figures upon. Therefore, spending ages painting to the highest standard is probably not worth it.

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Also, the figures are all very similar in terms of painting so I just want to get the army done and ready for gaming. The style is a mix of the Foundry-esque 1, 2 and 3 colour scheme.

Painting Recipe (from Black undercoat)
Uniform - GW Charadon Granite, highlight with Foundry Drab shade
Puttees - GW Charadon Granite, highlight with Foundry Moss shade
Webbing - GW Khemri Brown, highlight with GW Kommando Khaki, second highlight with GW Bleaced Bone
Boots/Wood - GW Scorched Brown, highlight with Scorched/Vermin mix, or GW Bestial Brown
Leather - Foundry Tan shade, highlight with Foundry Tan mid
Skin - GW Dwarf Flesh, highlight with Dwarf Flesh / Foundry Base Sand light mix
Helmet - As uniform or Foundry Forest Green / Black mix, highlight with Forest Green
Lewis Guns - as helmet

These two batches have averaged at about 1 - 1.25 hours per miniature and I'm rather pleased with the results. Up close they're a little untidy but on the table they'll look fine. I'm trying to get some painting in every day, even if it's just 30 mins. Some nights I manage 2.5 hours!

I now have about 30 figures completed (though a few still need basing properly - after varnishing I'll flock the bases too) with my first target being 500 pts. This comprises...

Battalion HQ (5 figures)

'A' Company HQ (5 figures)
1st Platoon (10 figures incl Lewis Gun team)
2nd Platoon (10 figures incl Lewis Gun team)

'B' Company HQ (5 figures)
1st Platoon (10 figures incl Lewis Gun team)
2nd Platoon (10 figures incl Lewis Gun team)

Vickers HMG (3 figures + weapon)
Stokes Light Mortar (3 figures + weapon)

Hopefully, as these near completion, I'll order the remaining 30 or so figures and a Mark IV tank required to give me a 1,000pt battalion.

Happy Painting!

Future Gaming Objectives

2009-12-21T12:26:00.005Z

It's been a surprisingly productive year in terms of toy soldiers. Especially as, for various reasons, I took about 4 to 5 months off any sort of gaming during the year!

This year I've completed the first stage of my EIR, reaching about 1,100pts. Then I completed ~1,400pts of Celts to face them. I've also managed to get my WW1 project off the ground, though not too much has been achieved so far. But I did manage to attend the GB Evesham event back in June which was a real hoot.

So what might I be planning for next year? Well, leaving aside personal objectives like promoting world peace and reducing my carbon footprint, I have...

Primary Objectives

Spend more time painting/gaming with my family. I've a stack of plastic figures they can slap paint on, then dip. I've got plenty of Romans and Celts to play skirmish games with. Then there's my fairly extensive collection of LotR figures. It's enormous fun and basically free entertainment. Just a bit of imagination is required to think up some good scenarios and simplify the rules.
Expand my EIR to at least 1,500pts, preferably 1,750pts. Then I can always top it up with a few hundred points worth of Celts if I need a 2,000pt army for an event - if required.
Add at least 3 more chariots to my Celts, plus another unit of Warriors, possibly the fanatical type. This will give me an army of around 1,750pts thus making possible larger and more fun games of EIR vs Celts WAB.
Build a proper WW1 (Late War) BEF force of 1,000pts and try to get along to another event. This has become surprisingly important to me. Probably because taking part made me feel more like a 'proper' wargamer ... whatever that really is!

Secondary Objectives

Build some WW1 style scenery - possibly even get on with my modular terrain - though I shall probably make a bunch of barricades, craters, barbed wire sections, etc, for gaming on a 'flat' table first.
Build either a Celt farmstead or a Roman villa.
Make better woodland and rough ground sections. These will be such that they can appear on almost any battlefield.
Attend at least one wargaming show, hopefully two.

However, a lot depends on more important external factors, e.g. family, work, finances, etc. Plus there are also the vagaries of the wargaming world itself. For example, if the new 'WAB 2.0' rules, the 'Rome' supplement for WAB or 'Over The Top' for TGW ever get published then priorities will almost certainly change.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to everyone!

Dipped Celts

2009-12-12T13:51:00.006Z

Here's a few pics of my recently completed Celts. The figures are mostly Warlord Games with a few Black Tree Design.

The first pic shows the basic painting style I use for dipping. White undercoat and block colours. Only the skin and the metal areas get two coats. For the skin I use a base of GW Dwarf Flesh followed by a quick higlight with Foundry Base Sand Light. The metal areas get a first coat of GW Chaos Black followed by either GW Mithril Silver or GW Burnished Gold.

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Now the figures have been dipped using Army Painter strong tone, brushed on. Ooh aren't they shiny!

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A quick spray of Army Painter Anti-shine spray (tip - shake it really well) and a nice base makes all the difference!

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Clearly, to get ahead you ... er ... need to get a head!?

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Basing - 3mm ply bases (20x20mm) from Litko - highly recommended. Covered in a mix of sand and grit. Base colour of GW Bestial Brown, followed by highlights of GW Vomit Brown and GW Bleached Bone. Add a few clumps of static grass to finish off. For these character types I'll also add a few pieces of woodland scenics foliage, since they'll be front rankers.

I now have just in excess of 1,400pts (~160 models) in my Celt force so I think I'll give painting them a rest for now. I'll try to find time to get them all out and take a few whole-army shots for the blog.

Wargame-o-meter #3

2009-12-05T15:55:00.005Z

A month since my last post where I list my gaming interests in order of current priority and once again things are quite different...

1. The Great War
That this now tops the chart probably has quite a lot to do with a planned visit to Arras at the end of the month with some good friends from New Zealand.
Anyway, I've dusted off my copy of Warhammer Historical's The Great War and had a good read - again. I know from my experience this Summer at GB's Evesham Front event that it's a cracking good game. I really enjoy painting the figures from Great War Miniatures. Checking my figure collection and the 1917-18 BEF lists I reckon I've got almost 600pts. I'd really like to attend more of these one day events but first I need to get my 1,000pt battalion painted!

2. Celts
Almost at 1,500pts now. Just a few figures to finish off, then a big session dipping and basing about 50 figures.

3. Romans
Plan is to quickly paint up the remaining troops for my 1,500pt target using the dip and Warlord's figures. They're built, primed white and ready to paint.

4. Scenery
Earlier this year I had a burst of excitement for building WW1 scenery, but only half finished a number of items. Now I see that Scarab sell very reasonably priced barbed wire sets ... hmmm!?

5. Napoleonics
Still hanging on in there ... definitely a project for next year at the earliest. But I just can't resist those splendid uniforms. Watching 'Sharpe' DVDs doesn't help either. However, my wife is more than happy to watch Sean Bean swashing his buckle!

But ... what with all the build up to the festive season, school plays, shopping, etc I'm not sure exactly how much time I'm going to get for painting in the next few weeks. Perhaps I ought to pull my finger out and post a few pics of all my recent work - after there's only so much Rhubarb that people want to read.

Happy (Festive) Gaming!

More Thoughts on 'Napoleon'

2009-11-25T21:19:00.002Z

Now I've had some time to read and re-read the rules I thought I'd post a few comments. It's not a full review - have a look at this for what I feel is a pretty fair view of them.

Basically there seems to be a good game in there, but a few things really need to be resolved / clarified.

1) If the rules had been given a final proof read by someone with an eye for these things then a number of annoying typos could have been corrected and some confusing text could have been clarified - both of which would result in a more polished product.
2) More playtesting with 'new' players (i.e. outside the original group) so as to find the areas of the rules that require better explanation. For example, when do units become 'unattached'? Or, can units that fail to implement an order card still volley fire later in the turn?
3) Some of the army lists are missing key pieces of info, e.g. how many skirmishers are used for different troops. This is irritating as presumably the the playtesters must have spent some time getting the balance right.
4) It would benefit from some extra rationale for some of the rules - perhaps playing a few games would help me understand why some of the rules exist.

None of these issues are insurmountable by anyone who has some experience of gaming, but I would really have expected Wargames Foundry to have produced a more mature product. Perhaps it was rushed in to print in order to get ahead of Warlord's Blackpowder? I would like to find a discussion forum so as to get some wider views on what needs to be improved or how certain rules should work in practice.

In conclusion, I like the rules and they have certainly given me the spur to collect more Naps for larger battles rather than just skirmishing, but it would have been even better if that 10% extra effort had been put in. The 'eye-candy' aspect is splendid and seems to be an essential part of any successful new ruleset these days. I'm sure I can add the necessary extras to the lists and figure out the confusing bits in the rules without too much difficulty, thus ending up with a satisfying game but I really shouldn't have to. Perhaps Wargames Foundry would be kind enough to publish an errata sheet? After all, how many rulesets do not require such things?

Wargame-o-meter #2

2009-11-05T17:23:00.005Z

What a difference a few weeks can make eh? ;-)

Following from my first post on this topic, the top 5 now look like this.

1. Napoleonics (28mm)
As you may have seen in my earlier post I'm now the very excited owner of this splendid rulebook. The production quality is awesome, it's full of pics of beautifully painted Napoleonic miniatures, vignettes and complete armies. The rules themselves look to be quite promising in that they are a nice compromise between realism and playability. I'm not going to do a full rules review because I'm far from expert on Napoleonic rulesets (but I know a chap who is ;-)). The rules introduce the concept of orders for units as the armies close for action, and whether the orders are received and obeyed depend upon the proximity of the division or brigade commander - not unlike Warmaster if I remember correctly. Like many rulesets, it has a core set and an optional advanced set for more detailed play. The book also includes a good starter set of army lists to guide players in choosing balanced forces.
All this has inspired me to revisit my first historical gaming 'love' with a view to collecting both sides. My 'Sharpe' skirmish collection will give me a good start, but that's still a lot of fancy painting so my plan is to work out a way of painting Naps figures reasonably quickly and easily to a good wargames standard. I had dallied with the dip idea but having looked at the pics in the rulebook I've begun to think that the dip just doesn't quite suit the style of uniforms, but I have only the strong tone so maybe the soft tone would be better? Anyway, my initial plan is to look at something like the Foundry "two colour" method with some single colour thrown in for areas that do not notice so much. I first bought Naps figures in 1997 and if I'd painted just one figure a month since, then I'd have 5 or 6 battalions by now! It will be a lengthy project I'm sure.

2. Celts
After a couple of splendid games of WAB with Celts vs Romans "oop north" last weekend, I'm totally set on getting the army to 1,500pts as soon as possible. Another 21 warriors are ready for the dip with a further 12 part painted. To reach my target I'll need some more chariots too. I have 3 from Warlord, so may get 3 from GB just for variety.

3. Romans
Same as for (2) really. However, I've a bunch of Warlord EIR that I'm going to 'dip' so as to give me more Romans, they're now built and ready to undercoat. They will be replaced in due course with conventionally painted Black Tree figures to match the rest of the army.

4. Warmaster Ancients (10mm)
Whoa ... where did that come from!? Let me explain... for years I've been trying to get a very good friend of mine to do more than just collect (mainly Napoleonic) rulebooks and unpainted figures, i.e. to paint up figures and enjoy gaming with them more regularly. Various schemes have been tried and this is the latest. The idea arose from a WAB celts/romans post-game discussion about scales and tactics. However, this scheme is largely his idea and it highlights to me an interest in doing things at a grand scale, that is fielding a whole legion not just a few cohorts. I've not bought any figures or rules yet but it has certainly piqued my interest. The start up costs are small which is an advantage - the WMA rules (based on the Warmaster Fantasy set) are about £20, with armies starting at around £40. I shall wait for my chum to take the first step - it's not like I haven't got plenty to paint.

5. WW1
Pushing AoA off the table we have my trusty BEF. Now here's a potential change of plan ... When gaming with individually based 'skirmish' figures they tend to get a bit of a hammering and even the best varnish won't help. So why spend ages painting them really well? I'm thinking of switching to the dip for the rest of the army. It may be the only way they get painted. The figures I've already painted may get a very thin coat of dip just to make them match in with the rest and give them extra protection. Just a thought at this stage though.

Napoleon!

2009-10-27T14:39:00.004Z

Look what I was gifted recently ... Oh help!

Vive L'Empereur!

Wargame-o-meter #1

2009-10-23T00:23:00.004+01:00

Do you flutter from one era to another? Or are you sturdy enough to keep your interests focussed in one area? Like many wargamers I can be something of a butterfly when it comes to gaming/painting/reading, flitting from one era to another sometimes quite rapidly. So I thought I'd record my "fluctuations" on a semi regular basis (this is no 1) for your entertainment. I've given the matter careful thought and the top 5 currently look something like this...

1 British Celts
Having recently completed the first 1,000pts I'm jolly keen to expand the army further. The dip method makes this fairly straightforward so progress should be swift. Only need another unit of 24-30 warriors and 3 chariots to make it around 1,500pts. The first 10 warriors are done and the next 10 are on the painting table. I recently had a big session of preparation and undercoating so there's plenty to paint.

2 Early Imperial Romans
Ever since WAB was first released in the late 90's I've wanted to collect EIR, so Rome has always ranked highly ... (no Monty Python jokes please ;o))

3 Napoleonics - Peninsular French/British
The first historical army I purchased en-masse was Naps French, with a Foundry army deal back in '99 ... then I sold most of it unopened a year later! Recently I've been listening to "Sharpe's Rifles" whilst painting so naturally I want another army!? Those Victrix or Perry plastics look very interesting. Assembling lots of plastics can become a bit of a chore, but I've learned with the Warlord Celts that the best approach is to have a big building session across 2 or 3 nights thus getting a couple of complete units ready.
"Prime... Pour... Spit... Tap!"

4 The Great War - LW BEF & Germans
I've been interested in the history of WW1 for years but had never really considered wargaming it until WH released TGW last year. Having bought a big batch of BEF from Rob at Scarab when I visited Gripping Beast Towers in June, I really ought to pull my finger out and get some more painted. Only 1 platoon completed so far. Added to this are my rather grand scenic ambitions which have stalled after a great start.

5 Age of Arthur
This just won't go away! It's all GuitarHeroAndy's fault :-) Once in a while I pick up the book and look at the Romano-British or British & Welsh Kingdoms lists and try to justify collecting some more figures. I mean, they're so nice they'll almost paint themselves ... ?

I'll post about this topic again in approx 2-3 weeks ... plenty of time for me to flutter around!

Wargaming Terrain

2009-10-10T20:16:00.006+01:00

In my opinion a great wargame needs good scenery. With that in mind I've been gradually building a collection of ... er ... buildings. Many of them were built some years ago when I played mostly WFB, hence they have a slightly Empire-esque style. They proved especially useful when we developed our "Warhammer Ahoy" (link) game.

The buildings are scratch-built from foam core, card and balsa, along with a selection of extra bits and bobs. A number were inspired by the drawings in the original Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay source book.

I've added a few handy figures (mostly Foundry and Front Rank Napoleonics) to give a clearer idea of scale.

Ye Olde Barn

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Fetch! (Hovels resin)

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Some sort of yard

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A farmhouse

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Another shot

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The Coaching Inn - just don't ask how long this took to make - but I really enjoyed it. The pattern behind the windows were made using car repair mesh. Plus there's more than 1,000 individual roof tiles.

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Another shot - note the officer in arch under the inn.

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Rear shot showing the kitchen.

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The roof!

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This became known (perhaps unfairly) as the 'Water Tower'. Definitely a fantasy piece.

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More recently I've added a Peninsular style building or two - certainly gives my small collection of British and French something to fight over.

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The other end. The roof and upper storey lift off to allow models to be placed within the building. This is how I shall be doing all future buildings as it makes the scenery much more interactive.

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A fantasy-medieval style shop and small house.

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Another inn in the same style.

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This where it all began ... GW's White Dwarf did an article years ago (issue 127 perhaps) about building your own scenery. In fact, I still have the article somwhere! This was the first building I made.

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I'd thoroughly reccomend having a go at making your own buildings and other scenery. If you can paint models then you can make scenery, no problem. Additionally, you'll have a totally unique item built exactly as you want.

Celts vs Romans Battle Report

2009-10-07T12:04:00.003+01:00

What better way to celebrate the completion of 1,000pts of British Celts than by having a battle against 1,000pts of invading Romans.

Yes, it's taken a bit longer than planned but the first stage of my Celt horde is now complete. In truth, the amount of painting time wasn't that much, probably about 3 months thanks to the dip method. But an almost 3 month break from painting during the summer rather delayed things. The figures are mostly Warlord, with a sprinkling of Gripping Beast, Black Tree and Foundry. Regular readers (with good memories) may notice from the photos that the hounds have switched sides. Whilst they were in my initial 1,000pt EIR army as a Barbarian support unit, I decided that they weren't very Roman so replaced them with some Gallic Celt skirimishers and a Scorpio.

Romans
15 Legion CSM (Centurion, Standard, Musician)
15 Legion CSM
15 Aux Infantry LSM (Leader, Standard, Musician)
15 Aux Infantry LSM
12 Aux Archers
9 Gallic Celt Skirmishers
1 Scorpio

Celts
Warlord, Army Standard Bearer, 38 Warriors LSM
Chieftain, 33 Warriors LSM
10 Light Cavalry LSM
3 Chariots LS
10 Slingers
2 x Packmaster and 5 Hounds

The Celt army is slightly more than 1,000pts but I had a few extra painted models and wasn't going to leave them off the table!

I haven't played WAB for more than year so getting things ready for this game was both exciting and slightly daunting in a way. How do the rules work? What is my plan? ... What is a 'plan' anyway? The best thing was to just get on with it! Here's a few pics, not quite turn by turn but near enough.

Here's a few shots of the armies. The Romans.

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The Celts.

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The Celt infantry and chariots.

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The Celt Cavalry.

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Deployment

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The Roman plan was to anchor one flank against the wood and use the Auxiliaries to hold the other flank whilst the Legionaries got on with the business of slaughtering Celts. We used secret maps for deployment - my favourite method - so I kept one unit of Auxiliaries behind the centre since I knew the Celts would try to outflank me. The Celt plan was to use the Cavalry, Chariots and Hounds to attack the Roman flanks whilst the Celt warbands overwhelmed the Legions.

One unit of Auxiliaries moved to the right in order to hold the flanking chariots and dogs. The Legions and moved forward whilst the skirmishers and left-most of Auxiliaries edged forward a little, whilst the Gallic skirmishers went further forward in order to tempt the smaller warband in to a charge later. The Celt slingers proved quite handy by inflicting a small number of casualties on the Legions, not many but enough to remove a rank bonus!

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The Armies moved closer and the smaller warband did indeed roll a '1' for it's warband test. The skirmishers fled leaving the unit just within charge range of the Auxiliaries. I should have waited for support but instead I threw them at the Celts. Alas the Celts proved too much and the beaten Auxiliaries fled and were destroyed. The archers and scorpio proved fairly useless but I hoped that would improve as the enemy came closer.

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With the Auxiliaries fleeing, the smaller Celt warband pursued in to a unit of Legionaries and subsequently the other Legionary unit piled in on the flank and wiped out the Celts. The Celt flanking forces continued their envelopment, though the other unit of Auxiliaries held firm against the Chariots and Hounds.

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The Legionaries manoeuvred to get a clear charge at the larger warband. The nearer unit received the charge and held, whilst the other prepared to charge in next. The Scorpio crew were slaughtered by the Light Cavalry, but the Auxiliary Archers managed to shoot a few. The Chariots and Hounds continue to fight the other Auxiliaries but once again they remain steady.

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The flanking unit of Auxiliaries finally succumb to the fearsome Celts. The Legionaries make hard work of the larger warband - even when both units engage the Warlord and his retinue - they falter and are routed!

After this it did not take long for the few remaining Romans to be mopped up. The Auxiliary archers did surprisingly well, seeing off the light cavalry and taking out another chariot.

Conclusion
A really fun game! A great reminder of why I love to play toy soldiers. Bothered about losing? Not me ... I play to win, but what really matters is that a fun game is had by all. Winning is a bonus.

Basically, a poorly co-ordinated attack by too few troops spelled disaster for the Legions. The superior numbers of the Celts ensured that they could prevail against better but smaller units of troops. The flanking troops were held off ok but the centre fell apart.

It's certainly given me a lot to think about in terms of army composition, plus it has really inspired me to expand both armies asap! I need more Legion and fewer Auxiliaries. Also, I'm not sure about the viability of a single Scorpio, such weapons to be deployed as a battery or not at all.

Normandy Report

2009-09-18T07:44:00.003+01:00

As promised here's a few pics (from the very many) and some notes about the historical aspects of our recent holiday to Normandy. As you might expect from a family holiday, the amount of time that could be spent visiting historical sites can be limited so there's still plenty of places to visit another time.

It's not our first visit to Normandy so we have already visited some of the sites like Pegasus Bridge, the British beaches, etc. But they are well worth a second visit.

As with many such sites, particularly the WW2 sites, these places have a feeling or atmosphere (for me at least) that is very hard to put in to words. Standing in the very spot where many famous and brave men and women have stood, seeing some of the landmarks they saw ... well, if you're into military history then I reckon you'll know what I mean.

Pegasus Bridge & Cafe Gondree

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The site of one of the most dramatic episodes of the Normandy campaign, Major Howard's men landing in gliders to make a surprise attack on the river and canal bridges. Today the cafe is also a museum and is run by Mdme Gondree, the daughter of the owner at the time of the Nazi occupation. I believe she was about 4 or 5 when the invasion took place. Great atmosphere, if a bit busy plus excellent coffee and cakes too.
Whilst there we saw the (newer) bridge raised to allow boat traffic to pass, very impressive.
Across the river the sites of the gilder landings are marked by small monuments and it's well worth taking a moment to imagine how exposed the position appears. Very brave fellows indeed.

The nearby museum is very interesting and definitely worth a visit. It now houses the original bridge, complete with bullet and shrapnel damage, along with a re-constructed Horsa glider.

After that we headed for Sword beach, found a great little restaurant then played on the beach for the day. There's pony rides and go-karts too!

Having been to some of the British areas before, we decided to find out more about the American landings. First stop of the day, St Mere Eglise, the site of some of the US airborne landings.

St Mere Eglise

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The church has a model of one of the US paras (John Steele) who managed to caught on the steeple. Wounded, he pretended to be dead to avoid being shot by the Germans.

Airborne Museum at St Mere Eglise

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Adjacent to the church is the US Airborne Museum. Very good and packed with detail. Here's a shot of one of the displays.

Utah Beach

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Next was a visit to Utah beach. Very moving to stand amongst the ruined bunkers and think back to the events of June '44.

Tank at Dead Man's Corner Museum

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I think the museum here is a relatively new site. Highly recommended as it's full of items from soldiers who took part in the landings, along with the stories associated with them. Such as the damaged helmet of a US para who was shot in the head twice but survived with only minor injuries. When offered a replacement he refused! There's lots of other such artifacts such as actual kit worn by famous soldiers, e.g. Dick Winters from Easy company. (Band of Brothers). Outside are a very small number of exhibits including this French tank. Oddly, the armoured turrets have no comms system so the driver and commander communicate using a series of coloured lights ... who 'designs' these things eh?
However, I found the museum shop slightly disturbing with it's extensive range of Nazi memorabilia, both original and modern re-makes.

Point Du Hoc

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The monument on the Point Du Hoc. How on earth did the US Rangers manage to take and hold this isolated and precipitous spot? The ships may have pounded the cliff top gun emplacements in to rubble but there was still a hard fight that inflicted enormous casualties on both sides. Alas, the rangers found that the guns had been moved in land to avoid being knocked out by the ships. But they did subsequently manage to locate and disable them. Due to coastal erosion the dagger-like monument is off limits but there is a plan to move it further inland. From here it was possible to see the remains of the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches.

Omaha Beach

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No visit to American sites in Normandy could omit this infamous beach, the last stop on our itinerary for the day. The photo does not truly show just how imposing those cliffs are. But it's good to see the beach being used for more conventional and fun purposes.

A busy day but very interesting.

William the Conquerer's Castle at Falaise

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I was really looking forward to this ... and so were my little'uns. However, read on ... the castle is being gradually rebuilt as part of heritage restoration programme, this is generally a Good Thing and the gatehouse will look splendid when complete. As you can see from the pic the keep now has a (rather ugly IMHO) concrete addition. I assumed it was temporary but on closer inspection it's definitely permanent - yeugh! Once inside you get to see some rather sparse 'arty' exhibitions, about chess for example, but no suits of armour, or anything you'd expect to find in a 'normal' castle. In the end we were rather disappointed with the castle especially as we'd driven for about 1.5 hours to get there.

Bayeux Tapestry
No pics of course. Second viewing, and it's awesome. Take your time with the audio guide and really soak up the history. They also do a children's version of the audio guide so they were well pleased too. The museum now has some magnificent displays (10-20mm scale I think) of highly detailed Norman scenes, e.g. castle building, a village, etc. It also runs a short film explaining more about the tapestry and Norman history. Brilliant. Now I want to collect a Norman army for WAB (!?)

If you're visiting Normandy with a young family then I recommend the Frommers guide - not perfect but still very useful for finding out if places will keep little ones happy. I'd also highly recommend the Major and Mrs Holt Guide to Normandy, packed with useful and interesting information.

I am still here ... !?

2009-09-16T12:34:00.004+01:00

Yes, I'm still here and I have been rather busy ... honest! Not as busy with a paintbrush as I would like but I have spent a bit of time working on my Celt army. After the buzz and excitement of gaming WW1 at GB's "All Quiet..." event earlier this "summer" I decided that I really ought to get to the point where I have a playable Celt army before I plunge in to yet another era. So that's what I've been doing. The chariots seem to have taken ages to paint (now awaiting dip and final assembly) but that's because in recent weeks I've only managed 1 or 2 evenings of painting. There always seems to be something more urgent that requires attention - how some of the more prolific painters out there manage it I just do not know. There's still about 30-40 figures to base properly, plus all the shield transfers. But at least all the painting is done. I'll blog some photos when the horde is assembled.

In fact I've been so busy that I haven't even managed to blog the Normandy report I promised way back! To be fair I took 800+ photos on hols so they'll need quite a bit of sorting out. But I will sort it out.

Added to that, I'd like to blog some photos of my scenery collection. Having recently re-organised my garage (a.k.a. my gaming gear store) I found several boxes of buildings that haven't seen the light of day for far too long.

Finally, I really must get around to going along to my nearest gaming club, Mid-Somerset Wargamers. We moved to the South West more than a year ago so it's high time I found myself some more local gaming buddies.

Do please keep checking back occasionally, as I find it quite motivating to see that plenty of people visit the wargames table.

Cheers

Some Old Figures

2009-07-26T16:41:00.007+01:00

Sorting out my figure collection a bit the other day ... and I found these.

Boromir & Aragorn

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Gimli & Legolas

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Sam & Frodo

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Merry & Pippin

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Dwarfs

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Quite enjoyed painting these, even if I don't play GW's LotR SBT.

Might be a while until I blog again as I'm off to Normandy next week ... will give a full report upon my return.

Have fun.

More Late War British

2009-07-17T14:24:00.006+01:00

I've been busy with the paintbrush recently. Here's the first of a new batch of 1918 BEF.

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and

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The pics aren't great due to the rotten weather, but I hope you like them. I'm certainly very pleased. My earlier efforts (http://thewargamestable.blogspot.com/2008/11/bef-are-here.html) took about 4-5 hours each in total, whereas this latest batch took about 2 hours for each figure.

Key elements were painted as follows
Uniform - GW Charadon Granite, Foundry Drab Shade, Foundry Drab shade/mid mix
Webbing - GW Khemri Brown, GW Kommando Khaki, GW Bleached Bone
Puttees - As uniform or with a highlight of Foundry Moss mid
Rifle - GW Scorched Brown, GW Scorched/Vermin Brown mix, GW Boltgun Metal
Leather straps/holsters - Foundry Tan shade then Tan mid
Helmet - Foundry Forest Green shade then light drybrush of Forest Green mid

More on the way!

All Quiet on the Evesham Front - Report

2009-06-29T16:34:00.004+01:00

What a brilliant day! Top marks to the chaps at Gripping Beast (Andy, Darren and Soapy) for organising a superb event. Plus many thanks for loaning me an army of Late War British.

There were 10 players at the event, 5 Allied armies (4 British and 1 French) and 5 armies of the Central Powers (4 German and 1 Austrian). There werethree rounds where the brave Allies were pitted against the fearsome Central Powers. The action begins with the Allies launching a major offensive, with subsequent rounds reflecting how the earlier battles went. Each of the 5 tables had a specific themed scenario, plus great looking terrain supplied by GB.

I'm delighted to say that all three opponents were superb sportsman, plus extremely helpful in explaining the rules to me, giving tips and advice, etc. I had three thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining games. I'm not really sure how I managed to win two of them (mostly by sheer luck I think!?) but they were certainly very close.

Game One vs. Mark's Germans
My first ever game of TGW ... my battalion were tasked with making a diversionary attack so as to keep German reserve forces from reinforcing the areas of the main Allied attack. German artillery provided a smoke barrage but this proved to more of a help to my chaps, allowing me to advance closer to the German lines before his Maxims and MG08's could open up. My Mark IV
male Tank was superb, heading right in to the heart of the German line and causing havoc whilst providing further cover for my troops. I managed to close with the enemy and keep the pressure on them right up to the final turn. Thus winning the game, but it was close. Enormous fun and a very enjoyable game for us both.

The results from turn one were generally not good for the Allies. The main British attacks had all been soundly defeated by the Germans, only the diversionary attack (me!) had succeeded in its objectives.

Game Two vs. Darren's Germans
With the Allies on the back foot, this game saw my battalion attempting to retreat in good order from a determined German counter attack. Most of my troops were strung out across the middle of the battlefield and had to retire to the allied baseline, the rallying point, and have more than 50% of the units intact by the end of the game, turn 8.
I quickly figured out that Darren was an experienced player and he certainly didn't hang about when it came to the attack. He craftily kept units in reserve so that they could mount a flank attack (note to self - read the scenario properly - doh!?) and these units mostly arrived on my right flank and tore it to shreds, particularly that flamethrower detachment! In the centre and left flank things were going a little better. I managed to get a Vickers HMG team and a rifle platoon with Lewis Guns in to a ruined building where they could cover the retreat. My tank once again proved its worth by engaging the German tank (a captured Mark IV, those cheeky Hun!) and immobilising it with a well placed 6lb shell. However, that did not stop it later returning fire and destroying my tank in a spectacular explosion.
Darren pressed on with his attack but somehow I managed to keep just enough of my battalion together to claim victory (if you can call a retreat a 'victory'), but it was very close indeed. Another hugely enjoyable game and a brilliant opponent.

Game Three vs. Rob's Austrians
I was really chuffed when I heard that I'd be playing Rob in round 3. He'd been very helpful in assisting me with choosing an army, plus his Scarab Miniatures Austrian army looks fabulous. In this scenario the Central Powers were on the offensive hoping to capitalise on the British withdrawal. The aim was to capture and hold ground, the winner would be who controlled more of the battlefield by the end of the game. I must say that I dithered slightly, not sure whether to take the bayonet to the tough Austrian troops, or use my Lewis guns and HMG's to soften them up a bit then counter-attack. In the end I didn't really do either and Rob exploited this ruthlessly. His assault troops, accompanied by a dreaded flame thrower, rushed forwards mounting a well coordinated attack and completely destroyed a whole company and its HMG support for little loss in return - almost half my army. The denser terrain on the other flank meant that the troops engaged more cautiously but again Rob made the best use of it and by the close of play the Austrians were firmly in control of the battlefield. Yet another great game and a brilliant opponent too.

Thanks also go to Rob for doing me a great deal on a big batch of Great War Miniatures, now available from Scarab, and for the excellent character figures of a downed pilot and soldier carrying a wounded comrade. They'll certainly be featuring in my army!

You might be wondering why I haven't any pics? That's because I didn't have my camera. Since I was going to drive all the way to Evesham for a day of toy soldiers, the rest of the family came along and went on to Warwick Castle and they had the camera. Hopefully Rob will put some pics on his website, or perhaps on the WAB forum.

WW1 Terrain Project #1 ... Digging In

2009-06-26T14:55:00.006+01:00

As you may be aware, things have gone a bit Great War-ish recently. I was torn between many different eras and projects. It was a very close run thing with collecting an Age of Arthur army, especially after buying some of those wonderful Romano-British figures from Gripping Beast, highly recommended!

Anyway, I decided that if I'm going to collect WW1 figures then they'll need some nice terrain to fight across. Initially I considered making or buying some trenches and craters to put on my ordinary battlefield (GW mat glued to two 4' x 3' boards) but I then remembered my modular battlefield that has been packed away for quite a while. Here's a picture of each 4' x 2' module

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I built this in the winter of 2003/4, spending many freezing hours in my garage. It cost about £150 all up. The most expensive part were the 2" thick wall insulation boards (like dense polystyrene). Basically I made four 2" deep trays from plywood and timber. The insulation foam went in to the trays then scenic features like roads, hills, etc were sculpted on. The rock face in the last module is made from oak bark (the in-laws have a open fireplace so that was free!). The whole lot was covered in PVA glue and sand along with a few rocks. I took a pot of Bestial Brown along to my local DIY store and they made a litre pot for the basecoat. The highlights were done using a few pots of GW light brown colours. Some flock and Woodland Scenics foliage finished it off.

I intended to use the boards mainly for skirmish games such as GW's Lord of the Rings, my own
Napoleonic rules, etc. Playing games on good terrain really adds to the fun.

For my World one table I've chosen two of the modules to become a small sector of the western front. The other two modules I'll keep for other games ... for now. Here's a couple of pictures of the work so far. Anyone who has seen the Great War rulebook should be able to easily spot my sources of inspiration.

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A close up of the trench section.

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The next step is to make all the trench revetting from strips of balsa wood, carved to look like planking. I also need to find a good source of finely corrugated card to represent the corrugated iron that was also used to shore up the sides of trenches. Then I'll go crazy with all purpose filler to sculpt the trench and crater edges. Sandbags I'll make from modelling clay. Cocktail sticks and thin bamboo will be used to make posts for the barbed wire, which will either be GW 'razorwire' or just plain wire. Twigs will do for blasted tree trunks.

Plus I need to get cracking on painting some soldiers too!

Cheerio.

Warlord Celts - Again!

2009-06-14T05:18:00.002+01:00

Just blogged about my soon-to-be-finished Celt army, but it's appeared below my recent Great War ramblings? So, please scroll down to see how I'm getting on with my Celts.

Cheers :-)

The Great War

2009-06-12T15:56:00.004+01:00

First off, apologies for the recent lack of posts - have been moving house, etc.

A proper post about what I've been doing is being drafted but I just wanted to quickly blog about an exciting event that I'll be attending soon. All quiet on the Evesham Front http://www.grippingbeast.com/webpage.php?PageID=80

My attention has rather switched to World War One after painting far too many Celts, but my own WW1 collection is rather small and decidely lacking in paint. However those splendid chaps at Gripping Beast HQ have agreed to lend me an army for the day.

More news to follow soon.

Warlord Celts

2009-06-12T14:45:00.008+01:00

Although very busy in recent months I have managed to plod on with my Warlord Celt army, albeit rather too slowly. This is my first foray in the world of dipping and to be honest it's proved more work than I expected, but I am quite pleased with the results. I now have more than 100 models in various states of completion, all are dipped and mostly matt varnished, and about 20-30 are complete. The rest need basing properly and the shield transfers applied. Here's a few pics of the work so far.

The army

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Cavalry and dogs

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Cavalry

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The infantry, including some slingers and skirmishers.

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Mostly Warlord Games figures, with a few Black Tree Design, Gripping Beast and the odd Foundry model. All up that's approx 1,000pts and should prove good opposition for my 1,000pt EIR force. The time consuming part was painting the stripes and checks. To be honest I've now reached the point where I'm rather fed up with this army so it will be taking a back seat for a while. It's not just that I'm bored with Celts, it's the whole basic painting and dipping process. Let me explain... I paint models because I enjoy painting them (in my now familiar 3-4 colour Foundry-esque style) and the effort of painting 100+ figures in a basic style then dipping, etc, has rather taken the fun out of painting. Don't get me wrong though, the dipping method is very effective for getting a decent looking force ready for the table, but it does necessitate a production line approach to your hobby. Perhaps I should have taken breaks part way through.

Tip - make sure that you shake your can of Army Painter Anti-shine varnish really, really well - like until your arm aches (no jokes please!). I did not do this with one batch of figures and the first few I sprayed went slightly "cloudy".

Not sure what I'll paint next, may be some more WW1 as I really fancy playing The Great War. Did briefly look in to getting a small collection of WW2 figures for skirmish games - this was mainly due to the research I've started doing for our holiday to Normandy later in the year. However, I've put that off in favour of expanding my WW1 collection, especially as I have the excellent rules from Warhammer Historical.

Perhaps I'll do some modelling or terrain building too. Seriously considering chopping up my four 4'x2' modular boards and making a WW1 battlefield. The 2" deep foam used in the construction of the boards would make for excellent trenches. I originally intended the boards to be for either Middle Earth (for GW LotR) or peninsular Spain (for Naps skirmish), neither of which I play much. They do look good, but WW1 demands trenches and craters, and the 'sticking up from the table' variety look odd IMHO. So the boards may well be converted for other duties. Whatever I get up to I'll post pics and reports here.

Still Painting

2009-03-28T22:34:00.000Z

Things have been a tad busy recently ... for example, we moved house yesterday! Yet I managed some painting even on Thursday evening - how's that for dedication?

To be fair I have been very busy with the paintbrush for a while. I now have almost 60 Celt infantry ready for the 'dip'. As they're still in basic colours I decided not to photograph them. My normal style is a 3-4 colour Foundry-esque approach so seeing lots of very basic paint jobs is quite hard on the eye. But I'm sure the AP dip will do the job. Each figure has taken about 40 mins to paint as I couldn't resist doing the flesh and armour in two layers, plus there's the effort required for good check/stripe patterns and the woad tattoos. The WG Celt woad transfers make an excellent reference but are a real pig to apply, so I just copy some of the patterns and use a really small brush.

My initial 1,000pt Celt army requires about 75 infantry so I'm doing well in terms of targets. After that there's a bunch of cavalry, a few characters and some chariots.

Since we're in the process of moving it's quite feasible that I'll be without internet contact for a week or so (shudder!) but rest assured that I'll be ploughing on with my Celts with the aim of having some photos of the horde here on the blog asap.

Added to that are my plans for an AoA painting treat in the form of some Gripping Beast Romano-Brits and Welsh.

And in addition to that it now seems that I might be dragged in the direction of ECW by a combination of Warlord Games and my good friend Jimbo.

Best keep busy with those brushes!

WHW Bombshell

2009-03-11T19:34:00.000Z

All the chatter on the WAB Forum and others suggest that GW have had some sort of business reorganisation and brought Warhammer Historical under the umbrella of Forgeworld. What it means for WAB I do not know. But sadly it seems that GW may no longer require the services of Mr Broom. If so, then I wish him well, especially in these uncertain financial times. I think he's done a great job at the helm of WHW.

As for Forgeworld taking up the reins ... Will GW continue to fund a rule set that basically doesn't sell their figures? That's an interesting question and I'm afraid that the answer is most probably 'no'.

However, the decision may not be purely financial - but I have no idea how much say, if any at all, the gaming enthusiast big shots have at GW HQ. Perhaps they will mothball any new WHW publications with a view to restoring them at a later date. Who knows. We'll just have to wait and see.

As for WAB v2.0, I expect that this will 'move things to the right' as they say in management speak.

Thankfully WAB has fairly large and energetic group of players so I'm sure it will carry on in one form or another ... I certainly hope so!

Don't forget

Best laid plans ... ?

2009-03-06T12:57:00.000Z

As I type I should, in fact, be on my way to the far frozen north of England for weekend of fun, friends and wargaming. But alas things have not exactly gone according to plan. Both my little'uns came home from school yesterday feeling under the weather. By late evening they were both definitely unwell... much coughing and chundering, high temps, ear-ache, snot, etc. Oh dear. Poor little monkeys.

So at almost the very last minute we've had to abandon our plans. Pity really because my children were really looking forward to it also. I've told them if they're well enough on Sunday afternoon then we'll head to the cinema.

As for Jim's AoC HRE, well they'll just have to wait a bit longer for a good drubbing at the hands of my trusty HYW English. ;-) Since neither myself or Jim have played in ages the delay will give us some more time to read the rules.

Normal service will be resumed shortly... I hope!

EIR 1,000pt Army ... at last!

2009-02-14T17:07:00.000Z

It's Saturday afternoon (14th February, St Valentine's Day) and we've packed the kids off to Grandma and Grandad's for the weekend, so what we could we do eh? Hmmm ... I know darling, let's get all my painted Romans out and do a photo shoot for the blog now that I've finally reached that all important 1,000pt milestone. They don't call me a romantic old fool for nothing ... or at all in fact.

Anyway, as promised, here are a few pics of my army. I should point out that the pics aren't quite as good as I'd like mainly because (a) the lighting isn't great and, (b) I've got a new camera and still haven't quite worked out what all the buttons do yet ... doh!? RTFM as they say.

Here's the army in all it's glory.

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Legionaries

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Legionaries

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Auxillaries

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More Aux (that's Aux, not Orcs ... I'm a WABber now, you know)

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Aux with bows (and presumably arrows too)

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Nice doggy

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Perhaps they've been trained by 'Barbara Woad-house' ? *groan*. BTW - If you understand that "joke" then you're probably British and of a certain age.

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Some expendable allied skirmishing Celt types

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Mostly Black Tree Design figures, with a few Warlord Celts and GB Hounds. It's been a real painting adventure and I've learnt a great deal along the way. I should mention that the chaps on the WAB forum have been a fantastic source of help, advice and insipiration, I cannot recommend them and it too highly!

I'm really pleased with this army and I'm looking forward to expanding it with more Legion, Aux Cavalry and some artillery. But first, I really must get on with a Celt army.

Dipped British and French Napoleonics Experiment

2009-02-04T20:01:00.000Z

I've been wondering for some time whether the dip method would work for Napoleonics, especially with their bright uniforms, colourful facings, etc. I finally gave in and slopped the dip over a couple of figures that had been given a basic, tidy paint job. I'm quite pleased with the results, have a look for yourself and tell me what you think.

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Say fromage!

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and

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Again

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The paint scheme was kept fairly basic (as it should be for dipping) with mostly GW paints but I did spend a few minutes black-lining the white belts as I really wanted these to stand out. Freshly pipe-clayed white cross belts are so characteristic of these troops. Might try some without this extra step. One point worth mentioning is that the black areas need a good dry-brush with grey. I only gave them a very quick light dry-brush and it doesn't really show, leaving the black areas without any shade/highlight.

After the dip was thoroughly dry (24hrs) I gave them a quick spray with Testors. I hear that the Army Painter anti-shine spray is good too.

I used the Strong Tone dip on these figures. The white has turned out a little too brown, but hey, limited personal hygiene and the rigours of campaign might render them rather grubby? The blues and reds are good. The Soft Tone might work better on white but not so good on the red/blue. I'm certainly not spending another £18 to test this theory. I think the Strong Tone is fine, but in future I'll apply a little less on the white areas.

EIR Nearing First Milestone!

2009-01-30T12:01:00.000Z

I've been busy with my EIR recently and I'm pleased to say that I'm getting close to that magic 1,000pt milestone. Just a few more figures, plus some shields (LBMS) and lots of basing to do. The movement trays are done too. Maybe another week to 10 days and I'll be there. Must remember not to rush the last few figures! As soon as they're ready I'll post a selection of pics for your enjoyment.

The parcel force man has been kept busy lately, new cameras, etc. Plus he's also delivered my three boxes (yes 90 figures!) of Warlord Ancient British models. They're the standard celt boxed set with a selection of metal add-ons for limed hair 'heads', battersea shields, etc and it includes a leader type replete with waterloo style hemlet. Interestingly I have a few sheets of the woad rub-on transfers. These have now been withdrawn as they have proved to be very hard to apply properly. I'll give them a try but if they are a bother then I'll just use them as a reference. They certainly look great.

The British boxes were supposed to be accompanied by a free pack of Druids but they were missing. Warlord Games were very quick to put matters right so a big thumbs up to them. They sent the figures first class, next day, with a extra freebie Celt standard bearer by way of an apology. All this Celtic-ness means that I now have more than 170 of the little blighters awaiting their turn at my painting table. Best get dipping eh?

I've also received a free box of Wargames Factory Late Republican Romans (Caesar's Legions), 48 plastic models in total. I won a box set in the Field of Glory(tm) competition ages ago. Some of you may have seen the less than rave review the figures got in a recent Wargames Illustrated article. Well ... I have to be honest and say that they're not exactly the most detailed of figures, in fact they rather reminded me of the old GW 'drastik plastik' Orcs from the mid-80's - remember those eh!? However, they were free and with a tidy, basic paint job they'll probably look ok. Only require another box to make at least 1,500pts. My Gallic Celts would make the perfect allies to bring the force up to 2,000+pts. I may even dip them ... oh yet another army!

My daughters have been painting more figures, Romans this time. Here's a picture.

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and

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Daddy applied the water-slide shield transfers. Doing that transported me momentarily back to the days of airfix kits. Luckily with these figures there was no possibility of getting a big gluey thumb print stuck on the canopy. A few more and we'll have enough for a small skirmish game.

Hurrah!

A Quick Update

2009-01-20T12:54:00.000Z

First post of the New Year ... so here's to a very happy one for all!

Well the recent hols were something of a gaming disaster with absolutely nothing getting done whatsoever. Best not dwelt upon really as it was not exactly a good time - oh well.

Anyway ...

I have managed to get painting again recently and my next unit of 15 Legion are coming along very well. If I really push myself then I should get them complete in about 2-3 weeks. Then I'll have a full 1,000pts of EIR, plus some hairy barbarian support in the form of skirmishers and war hounds. These figures will then go on to form the start of my Ancient British horde. I ordered the 3 box offer from Warlord back in December but the delivery was delayed. Should get them by the end of the month.

I would have posted some pics of my most recently completed batch of EIR but my digital camera has finally given up. It was nearly 7 years old (an Olympus C40Z, one of the first ever 4MP cameras!) so didn't really owe me anything, pity though as it used to take such good pictures - especially of toy soldiers. After much research, I have ordered a Sony cybershot H series. Ooh new toys!

I've also ordered a pack of the 'Rank and File' range of EIR from Crusader Miniatures. I like the plastic Warlord figures but they are just a bit too small compared to my Black Tree figures. Hopefully the Crusader mini's will be a little larger. Will post pics ... when I have another camera!

Cheerio

Recent Work

2008-12-22T23:18:00.000Z

I've been away on business on France recently so progress has rather slowed. However, I have managed to get another small batch of dipped Celts complete - bar the basing. That gives me a nice little unit of 9 skirmishers to help support the heavy infantry of my Legions. I experimented with a few new colours from Foundry's range of light blues and reds. The results are a bit mixed, hence no piccies!!! The basic check/weave pattern I added to one figure (dark green lattice on top of light green cloth) looks OK but I'll need to have a bit more practice before I tackle anything more tricky. As for tattoos ... hmmm ... they'll take more practice too. Initial results are not that bad to be honest. I thought that it would be quite easy!? My choice of brush probably did not help. The bristles were a bit stiff which made painting smooth, even lines quite hard. A softer brush with a slightly finer point will help.

I've also been spending a bit of time getting my second unit of 15 Legionaries off the ground, along with the crew for my artillery. They're based, undercoated and most have the armour done. For the rest I'll work on batches of 4-5 figures as this seems to be the optimum number when painting in my 3-colour layered style.

Good to see that a number of fellow gamers on the WAB forum share my view that the Chrimbo hols are the ideal time to get some more painting done... link I'm hoping to get another unit of Legion completed which will bring my EIR force nicely up to 1,000pts. Then I can get cracking on the Warlord Ancient Britons. The delay in shipping until the 3rd week of January is actually quite handy.

We're off to the in-laws for a week or so and I've packed a box of paints, models, brushes, etc to keep me busy. Really looking forward to a week with all the family around. Having recently lost a stone (14lbs) in weight I need to try to avoid piling it all back on again, so more painting and less feasting is the plan ... !?

Looking at my viewing figures for this blog I can see that quite a few people take the time to read my rhubarb/waffle/etc. I hope that you enjoy what you see and read. Knowing that people do look at my blog gives a boost for my gaming energy, so Thank You! And feel free to leave any comments and suggestions :-)

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a joyous and peaceful New Year.

Napoleonics ... ?

2008-12-06T17:18:00.000Z

Thanks to my friend Jimbo, here's a picture of some Napoleonic figures that viewers might find interesting for comparison purposes. L to R are Front Rank, Victrix, Companion and Foundry.

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The Foundry figure appears a little small in comparison to the Victrix figure, but the rest would probably mix ok, even FR's more portly chaps.

Cheers!

A Mixed Bag

2008-11-29T19:11:00.000Z

This past week or so has been a real mixture of gaming stuff ... I've mostly been doing boring prep work for my EIR and Celts. I wanted to paint some Legionaries but found that I had none ready - not even trimmed up! So I set to and had a couple of big sessions of cleaning, trimming, etc. By the way - does anyone else wash their metal minis after trimming them? The Black Tree figures I have definitely benefit from a good wash and scrub with an old toothbrush.

I've also been basing up some figures and just generally having a bit of sort out of my gaming 'stuff'. Living in a very small 3 bed rental means I have to be much tidier with my toys than I would usually be - oh well. Only this morning I was looking longingly at the pics in the WAB rulebook of the Perry's gaming room. It's been many years since I had my own games room.

Warlord Games
Really impressed with these splendid fellows! I took advantage of their recent special offer to get some freebies by ordering a Celt army ... 3 boxes of Britons, a box of cavalry, a box of chariots, some characters, etc, plus a free box of Romans. The order arrived in less than a week! Opened the box only to find that my free box of Romans was missing, so I got straight on the 'old dog and bone'. They were jolly helpful and a few days later the missing Romans arrived. However, some days later I checked order more thoroughly and found some bits missing from the chariot set. Again I phoned and again the bits were sent promptly - this time with a few extra bits. Brilliant!

More Dipping

2008-11-21T14:47:00.000Z

My daughters, aged 6 and nearly 8, were keen to try painting some models. So here's a Roman and a Celt painted by them - all their own work too. Although I applied the dip. Good aren't they!?

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The shield is a bit dull because I forgot that LBMS transfers need a white undercoat. However, I'm delighted with the results and, more importantly, so are they. The concentration as they painted was intense. What's even better is that they're keen to paint some more! Maybe I will get my army painted after all ;o)

Cheerio