Like falling off a bike, or something.. (a return to the blog)

I'm at that age now when any event marking the passage of time prompts me to declare "Blimey!" .. for example, apparently it's 25 years since Alanis Morissette released Jagged Little Pill ?!

Conversation in recent months about wargaming blogs made me realise that it's almost five years since I last posted here!

Blimey!

So, I've been sitting on my typing hands for a fair bit of 2021, wondering whether I ought to start this blog up again, and where to start etc, as the realisation dawned upon me that this really is a 'first world problem' and considering that nobody is likely to read the thing anyway.. why not just pick it up again as a way of recording and encouraging myself to keep up hobby momentum!

I won't try to recap the last five years.. games have been played, new shiny projects have come and gone.. but in fairness, playing with trains definitely took precedence up until around 2019.. and Youtubing became very much my route to 'share' hobby stuff, rather than using a blog. (See my channel here by the way, I've even posted a couple of solo Dragon Rampant games, which hasn't pleased the model railroad followers!)

I got talking to Tom and James at one of the shows, rolled some dice.. and we started organising games..Tom's covered much of it on his excellent blog. 

Lockdown happened which has obviously had an impact on all of that, although like many people, we managed to get some virtual games done too.. including a fun Muskets and Tomahawks campaign set in the French Indian wars played out on Zoom.

Tom and I are planning a Chain of Command 1940 campaign (we've even built terrain pieces and painted armies!), so looking forward to that.. as well as trying out some cold war gone hot with Scrivs, newly returned from the colonies..

So.. I'm going to try to post regularly again.. even if it's brief and rubbish.. I think it might be a good exercise.

A super-brief highlight reel of some stuff that's passed over my table in 2021 so far (excluding Zoom games):

Painting up Perry Wars of the Roses army.. 3D printing stakes for archers.. starting a 'Bag the Hun' collection for the Flying Tigers.. building, painting and rigging 'Black Seas' ships.. building and expanding fantasy Dragon Rampant armies for my own 'Nordmark' setting.. getting some HeHe based and realising how many more I need to start playing 'Death in a Dark Continent'.. building up a British BAOR force in 1/144 using Northag plastish models and 3D prints (and 3D printing Soviets) to play 'Seven Days to the River Rhine' with Scrivs any time soon! .. rebasing some ancient 15mm 18th century stuff for some ImagiNation solo games...

Playing some solo 1866 games using 6mm armies and Neil Thomas 19th Century rules.. starting a big project to rebase and re-arm my Arthurian armies back to WAB.. 3D printing tanks from 1/300 to 1/48.. more Dragon Rampant.. scratch building and kit building real estate for 1940 games.. and painting up gorgeous Aventine EIR romans for Infamy Infamy (which I will probably never play)

(the buildings are all actually the right way up in real life, that is to say, with roof skyward.. but I thought I'd get you to tilt your head to one side, just for fun!)

Moving Pictures?

Something a little different this time. I do occasionally post videos relating to model rail stuff.. However,  this evening whilst I had my Romans out for a little box-shuffling, I thought I'd video them..

Generals and Heroes

If productivity (hobby-wise) comes in peaks and troughs, my wargaming activity of late has been somewhere on the valley's side. Just one of those things, I think, I'm somewhere in between bouts of inspiration. In fairness, I've also been fairly busy lately starting a new day job and cracking on with a model rail project.

Anyway, one little project I managed to get finished off today, is the painting and basing of a selection of generals and heroes for my Republican Roman army.*

*I say 'finished', although of course, seeing cruel close up photos means that there are still some finishing touches to be done! 

Too many chiefs?

I already had a few 1st Corps mounted generals on round 60mm bases, but thought it might be good to have some commanders mounted up on square bases to represent 'Attached' generals when playing To The Strongest! (and use the circular based chaps for 'detached')

The foot command figures here are Aventine, and despite my worst efforts to paint them, I think they are bloody lovely figures, full of character. I selected figures that look to be attired in a slightly more exotic 'Allied' look.

 

1st Corps figs

Aventine Heroes

I've done some Aventine Roman and Allied cavalry too, so I ought to post some pictures of them next!

To The Strongest! Punic Wars game

Last night Scrivs and I had another game of the upcoming 'To The Strongest!' rules by Simon Miller. I fielded a Republican Roman army and Scrivs had a mixed Carthaginian force, not based on lists, but what felt right and representative. I am pretty sure that Scrivs will be posting a battle report, along with OOB shortly.. so just some pictures really and a brief overview...

These rules do treat the Romans slightly differently to some other sets I've played (not a bad thing!) They are not invincible war machines. In fact, the small units are quite fragile so I think there is definitely an art to learn in using their greater flexibility to effect. (Having said that, the two games I've played so far have seen me consistently draw terrible 'save' cards and lose a lot of units to single missile attacks).

I suspected that this battle was heading the same way as our first Punic battle, but managed to make some headway after early losses and turned a complete rout into a narrow defeat. (Only a couple of victory medals in it at the end). Scrivs and I mused on the fact that from our memory the Romans did lose a number of battles to the Carthaginians but were able to keep coming back for more! We played at 130 points and I wonder if perhaps I would be better to field just two legions with more support next time.

Enormous thanks to Simon who was able to respond to a rules query mid-game! 

 

The opening moves, Carthaginans (Blue) are made up of four commands; I Gallic, II African including Veterans and led by Hannibal!, III Numidian Light Horse, IV Spanish. The Romans had I and II Legions led by the Tibunes Marcus Corvinius and Gaius Flaminius, and III an allied contingent under  Lucius Anonius Opimius

Roman I Legion under Marcus Corvnius anticipate the Spanish attack

The Gauls in the Carthaginan centre struggle to rout the stubborn Velites

The Latin Allies on the Roman left were about to suffer the hardest fighting

from the Roman right flank

Hannibal, in the hour before he was slain!

Latin allied contingent advance, leaving their command in trouble behind them!

It was definitely time to send in the Triarii

Toward the end of the battle:

1. The Roman left saw some terrible setbacks, with the Numidian javelins causing all kinds of chaos, but the command just about held until it's general was caught in the last turn.
2. Stiff fighting in the centre. Losses on both sides and..
3. One unit of Principes failed to capitalise getting in on the flank of the Carthaginian Veterans.
4. The Spanish pretty much sweeping away any real resistance on this flank

One final thought was about my Agema Romans. I really like these figures, great poses and real character. However, as I suspected, the fine detail is unfortunately a little fragile and I need to do some repair work on a few helmet plumes and pila today. The Victrix figures are perhaps a little more static in pose, and the detail is heavier, but that gives them a robustness which I think will pay off.

More Romans!

Getting there with the Romans. I recently (ish)  ordered some of the new Aventine cavalry and they are really nice.. I was worried at first about how they would sit against the Victrix and Agema footsloggers that I've collected so far. No need to worry - they look just fine.

Just two units of Roman Equites are required for the army I'm building, next up I have around four units of Italian cavalry to complete. Or at least two, as I only have one Ala nearly ready.

Although Victrix and Agema figures both have lovely shield transfers available now, they didn't when I started painting the army, so I've decided to be consistent and avoid using them at all. If I get around to painting up a fourth (Italian) ala, I might use them, but for now the first ala have bleached shields and a more uniform (but still grotty) look.

Pictures follow of some random stuff recently completed today.. a game booked for tomorrow with Scrivs gave me the impetus to finish off a couple of bases!

The bases, by the way are mostly 120mm frontage, using 80mm for the 'small' units. I think that these will mostly be used for the upcoming 'To The Strongest!' rules from Simon Miller, but the bases all have 10mm dice holders in case I use them for Hail Caesar, or similar. I need to finish the edges off.

Some re-based allied light infantry (Greeks probably)

The veteran 'Pedites Extraordinarii' Victrix/Agema mutants

Some Allied Italian infantry. Victrix

The Allied Triarii

Roman Equites - Aventine cavalry

The second Roman Equites unit

The Generals.. 1st Corps figures

Heroes! An Aventine Cavalry officer and strangely stunted 1st Corps Centurion

All the Agema Velites are re-based from single bases onto 120mm frontages