Late Imperial Romans

These will be the next chaps I intend to sell. This will be split into Eastern and Western armies of roughly equal aize. I'm not too sure yet what will be in each except that the cataphracts and most light horse will be in the eastern army, and the cavalry will be in the western army.  

I.m sure this is everything. If not, then another photo session and another post to come! 

I found these early pictures of work in progress.

The Light Horse generals for the Eastern army.   

 Legion and more legion.  All with supporting archers.  

 another picture of the above. 

 Another legion.  

 Light Horse archers. 

 Light horse.   

Archers. Part of eastern army.   

The psiloi or skirmishers.  I've forgotten their proper name at this moment.   

 More legion - just in case they're needed on the battlefield. And all with supporting archers.  

 Auxilia.  Again with supporting archers.

The blue shields. 

  another picture of the above.   

Two pictures of white shield chappies.  

And two pictures of the red shield lads.   

The cavalry command group for the Western army.   

 The cavalry.  Two pictures of each.    

 And the cataphracts of the Eastern army.    

And more light horse from the eastern army.   

And that's it.   

The most fought over locations in wargaming - the Bulge part 1

Here we are in April and there's still snow on the ground. Random thoughts turn to games with a winter theme. So, here we go - maybe the start of a series - the most fought over locations in my game collection; the Battle of the Bulge and Bastogne.

I think my first Bulge game was Battles for the Ardennes. This was an excellent SPI quad game - 4 separate games that combined into campaign games. Although the main game was the 1944 campaign, there was also a 1940 quad game and campaign in the package. Classic Bulge scale of 2 mile hexes and units mostly regiments.  (This view is looking west)

Many an hour was spent moving and fighting through this terrain with my regular opponent at that time. All the ingredients were there - road traffic jams, Allied interdiction, fuel shortages and of course, the 101st at Bastogne. Even if game play needed the 101st elsewhere, it's almost obligatory to send them to Bastogne. 

The maps on my original game are a bit worn with use, so I later bought the Decision Games version. Same game, but slightly different graphics and some unit strengths revised by the games original designer. (Again, picture looking west)

  

I think Bastogne was my next Bulge game. Part another SPI quad, but this time a common set of rules for different battles. Bastogne features just the fight for the town and surrounding area. A nice little game, with graphics that were standard for late 70's SPI, i.e. quite pretty and very functional. This game had a scale of 850 metres a hex and battalion level units.  (This view is looking north)

Then there was the Avalon Hill remake of their original 60's Battle of the Bulge game, Bulge 81 (because it was released in 1981). This saw a lot of play with club opponents, specially one who was a major Bulge fan. Many nights were spent on this game, and many hours on 'postal' play where we'd just swop moves as we met in passing when we worked in the same building.  

Again, classic Bulge scale of 2 mile hexes and mostly regiment counters. A great game, fast to play and still a favourite.  (This view is looking north)  

Then there was the GDW entry. Point to point movement, based on their brilliant House Divided system. At first it seemed strange, and not too pretty, but it actually worked quite well. I definitely got the impression of the importance of roads. Only so many units can move along each type of road in a turn with divisions able to motor down the red main roads, with fewer units moving on brown seconday roads, and only 1 unit of the black tracks.  

Again, classic Bulge scale of mostly regiment counters. A good game that's often been overlooked.  (This view is looking north) 

And of course, if there's a Bulge game to be mentioned it has to be the mighty Wacht am Rhein. One of the SPI monster games from the late 70's, this did the Bulge at battalion level, 1 mile hexes, 4 big maps and 1600 counters.  

 

For a time this was the definitive Bulge game. I think it's the only Bulge game where I managed to get some German units of 116th panzer over the Meuse, though because they were so few, I couldn't exploit the situation. Everything else was held up in fighting. I only got to play this once against an opponent as few people would commit to the time to play a monster game.  

A second edition was done by Decision Games but I didn't buy it. I heard comments that they'd made it too complex and forgot that a monster game was still a game. I might buy it someday.

And a sidenote - I got a Russian front game called Korsun Pocket which was based on the Wacht am Rhein system. Also 4 maps at 1 mile per hex and same scale and with a couple of thousand counters.  

And another little SPI game, called simply Bulge. It's almost a complete antidote to Wacht. One small map, division level counters and a novel sequence of play. (This view is looking north). 

I'm going to stop here for now. This takes me up to the end of the SPI and Avalon Hill eras. Seven games so far and another seven to come from the 90's to date. 

Another Arab army

Another 15mm army on the way to be sold. I have several Arab armies from the Conquest to the Mamelukes and I'm planning on thinning them down to just the Umayyad / Abbasid era which I'll keep as opposition for my Thematic and Nikephorian Byzantines. 
The Seljuk Turks went to a nice home overseas.

This is the Arab Conquest army with lots of added Berber troops. The army is built around a core of 4 infantry units each based around a colour.  These are warband / offensive spear types, depending on the rules, - essentially well motivated and aggressive. Each unit is a mix of Essex, Minifigs and Irregular Miniatures.  

Then the supporting troops. A lot of these are filler for the flanks, intended to delay or occupy the enemy long enough for the hard core spears to do the real job.   

The Berbers. A mix of medium / auxilia types and close order spears.   

And the skirmishers - lots of them.    

And an old Irregular Miniatures elephant model which I had to buy. The elephant is not a part of the army but it looked so good I wanted to paint it. I also liked the Irregular Miniatures chaps with spear and javelins. I think I read somewhere they were intended to represent anti-elephant troops.  

The general and escort and chaps on camels.   

More chaps on camels.  

Light horse skirmishers. 

Arab horde - tribal militia types.  

And the general again. Irregular Miniatures again.

And then another little project comes into the frame

A couple of weeks ago I got to play a game of Saga, the dark ages skirmish game. It was a Saxon vs Viking bash using the figures and rules of fellow gamers. It was fun though I did stumble with the mechanisms at first. 

Although it has been said elsewhere that Saga is expensive and gimmicky for what you get, and the game system may have plaigerised from a card-driven game, it was quite simple and fun.

By the end I reckoned I could do something with some Arabic / Andalusian figures that have been lying in box for years - ever since the last time someone suggested a skirmish game.  Hopefully I can get some more paint splashed on some of these figures soon.   

a little progress

Sometimes the rest of life stops the painting for a while. But I did manage to finish some Russians for Napoleon at War. Then it took another 3 months to get around to taking photos. Not too much just now, but I hope to eventually complete a full division with cavalry support. I'm basing the 'army' on the 4th Division in 1812-1814.
   
First the Musketeers.  Infantry basing is 6 stands plus usually 2 stands of skirmishers. The Russian Line musketeer units have only one skirmisher because of less emphasis on skirmishing (French and Brits have 2 stands).        

Then the jaeger.  Same basing of 6 stands but with 2 stands of skirmishers.     

The two jaeger units in line.      

And with added support from the musketeers. This should look better when I eventually get another 3 battalions of musketeers done.     

Then you need to add the Russian God of War.  

And a view from the French side of the field.

The battle line spread out. The 3 skirmishers away at the back are awaiting their fully painted battalions to take their place.  

A jaeger unit without skirmishers.  

The musketeers in line and column without their skirmish screen .   

More to come eventually, though not sure when. Three battalions of musketeers, two regiments of cuirassiers, cossacks and generals are waiting. And that's just half the division.  

Another larf and a mini Cosmo quiz

A good friend likes the Napoleon at War rules. We've played a good few games now, with me using some of my 15mm figures on sabot bases. All good fun, and eventually I decided to put together a force based specifically for Napoleon at War.  

And so to the mini-quiz.  I'm sure other gamers will recognise the issue / dilemma. As someone with several thousand 15mm Napoleonic figures, did I;  

        a)  rebase some of my existing painted figures.      

        b)  rebase and paint some of my undercoated figures. 

        c)  buy a new set of figures just for Napoleon at War.

If you answered C, congratulations. That's what I did. You can never have enough figures in your favourite era.  

And here's some of what I got and what I'm currently working on - Russians for Napoleon at War.