Prettying up the villa

Not much, but enough to hide a few brush marks and make it look better :D

Some Woodland Scenics flowers, some grass tufts of unknown origin, some leftover static grass from the Omaha boards and some Hobbycraft PVA...

Et voila. Some grass, some dandelions. Sorted.

More painting buildings...

The filler having dried on the Original Laser Designs Saxon House, I sprayed the main body of the building with AP Skeleton Bone, then roughly applied a 50/50 mix of Hobbycraft white and cream acrylics. The timbers were done with Hobbycraft burnt umber.

About halfway through I remembered
I hadn't photographed it in its original
state. Oops. 

While the spray was drying, I was sorting out the shelves to find space for it, and was reminded (by having to move it several times) that AndyH had passed on a Roman Villa (largely because it takes up a heck of a lot of space!) for use by the club (it takes up enough space we don't have room for it yet, so it's staying here for a while!).

I don't know what make it is - seems to be made of hardboard with a filler and sand/ballast texture. It's predominantly grey, and the roof looks a bit pale, so while I had rather more of the cream/white mix than I needed, and a handy can of AP Fur Brown, I redid the walls and roof. The weekend's job probably includes prettying up the base and perhaps the walls with some mud and foliage, and a light wash and maybe some moss on the roof, as it is a touch bland.

And that's the Warbases Mansio done...

...barring basing, which I need a bit of a think about, as I now have a cluster of buildings (the Mansio and its outbuildings, plus the Warbases ruined villa and outbuilding) that I'm debating whether to base as one group or two.

Wall texture is PVA + ballast as before. Definitely (for those who followed the interactions with Warbases on Twitter) easier with the instructions, although I would recommend when it comes to putting the four walls and base together, using something that sets faster than PVA :D

Battle report - 9-Apr-2012 #1

Busy day, wargaming-wise, yesterday. Club in the evening, of which more later, but I have been promising to teach my 12-year old son James the rules of WAB for a while, and since Anne was deep into Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, Monday afternoon seemed like a good time.

Initial deployment. I need to buy
more scenery.

We went with 1500 points from the AoA lists - I built both lists and gave him the choice of Romans or British Tribes, and to no-one's surprise he took the former.

Forces were:

Romans - James:

1 General, 1 Standard Bearer + 16 Veteran Legionaries
18 Seasoned Legionaries
9 Numidian Cavalry
16 Archers
9 Skirmishers
1 Light Bolt Thrower, with 2 Artillery Crew

British (Brigantes) - me:

1 High Chieftain (in chariot) + 4 Noble Chariots
1 Chieftain + 31 Fanatics
1 Chieftain + 39 Warriors

7 Skirmishers

Matters opened with the Romans advancing in the centre, but waiting to see what the Brigantes chariots did on the flank. The Brigantes, needless to say, did what warband armies the world over do, and pressed forward. On the flank, the Numidians flung javelins at the chariots then used their annoyingly useful Parthian Shot ability to get out of their way, so the chariots charged the archers behind them, taking one casualty from incoming fire.

The Brigantes fanatics charged by
the Romans.

Meanwhile, in the centre, I explained to James the point of skirmishers, as far as being tempts for warband armies, and then proceeded to demonstrate it by failing a warband test with the fanatics, resulting in them charging and chasing off his skirmishers and leaving themselves in charge range of the veteran cohort. Couldn't have planned it better myself.

The cohort did exactly that, needless to say, and rather impressively won the first round of melee, chasing off the fanatics. Having the general and ASB in the front rank certainly didn't hurt, but what clinched was the brief stats lesson in which I pointed out that the likely roll on 11 dice wanting 4s and 5 more wanting 3s was more than 6 hits, and using their Veteran re-roll right then would be smart. So James did, and landed about 13 hits, converting over half. I still saved three!

The Brigantes fanatics about to get
charged again by the Romans.

Next turn, I failed to rally them, and charged the other cohort with the other warband. Meanwhile, the chariots chased off the archers, twice before they made it stick, and the Numidians and they played a form of Parthian Shot/Feigned Flight tag while the Roman artillery tried and conspicuously failed to shoot them, despite having a flank shot three times. 

Back in the centre, the fanatics failed to rally, and got charged in the rear, with predictable results, by the veterans, The other melée turned into a mammoth slugfest that lasted about five or six rounds of combat, with several roll-offs, the cohort using their Stubborn Give Ground ability, and several passed leadership tests. 

It was a damned close run thing until the veteran cohort turned round and made up the distance between the two (despite being march-blocked and generally harried by my skirmishers). At which point, sadly for me, that was pretty much it. The veterans charging into the rear of the warband did for them (extra rank, +1 strength pilum hits smart) and they had nowhere to run.

So. Victory to James (with a little tactical assistance). We'll see how he does next time!

Battle report - 20-Feb-2012

Another night at the club - you'd think after the weekend I'd be WABbed out, perhaps, but no.

Monday night was week 1 of our restarted WAB campaign: we have six players, three Roman (Emperor Dan, Gary (governor of Macedon) and me (governor of Britannia)), and three not (Grahame (Picts), Andy B (unsurprisingly, Dacians) and Reuben (Macedonian)). According to the campaign rules (which I will ask Dan if I can link to), the Emperor gets to spent resource points and decide who does what, so...

In the painting queue....

Just undercoated (in black, in the hope that a bit of careful drybrushing will bring out the rarher soft detail in the mail) 18 hybrid Wargames Factory legionaries with Warlord heads and shields. In the end, I went with a small piece of sprue and heavy application of liquid poly solvent to make the Warlord heads sit right.

Behind them in the queue are two Renegade ECW 9 pdrs and crew for my Royalist army, as well as two boxes of Wargames Factory Celts and a box of chariots - my son (who is 11) wants to wargame, so I figure some adversaries for the Romans seems like a good plan.

Also on the way from eBay are a box of WF Persian Cavalry, which I have designs on turing into the start of a Parthian army. I really need to get the master spreadsheet up to date just to prove how... erm... well I'm doing on reducing the stash? *winning smile*

EIR Legionaries with lorica hamata....

Given I have umpteen boxes of Warlord Romans, and a spare box of Wargames Factory Caesarian Romans which are a little out of period for the rest, I thought I'd have a play.

The detail on the WF bodies is a bit soft, but they are wearing mail (lorica hamata) rather than lorica segmentata, so I figured that a unit of EIR legionaries with mail (maybe for use as raw recruits) might not be a bad idea: the helmets, however, look wrong and the shields are oval.

So... take one WF legionary body and arms. Add either a WF Roman auxiliary cavalry head or a spare Warlord legionary head and a blob of green stuff, and a spare Warlord legionary shield (I have loads, due to buying a couple of dozen of their metal ones.

They seem to look OK - I'll have some pictures up when I get some painted.

In other news, I've painted 16 Warlord Eastern auxiliary archers and a couple of small bolt throwers and crew, and knocked together some movement trays for my two ECW Royalist pike and shot regiments prior to a battle on Monday. Also took part in the Norman Cross club's interclub tournament a few weekends ago with Grahame from the club - WAB pairs. We ran into a couple of interesting sets of opponents - the Danes+Assyrians were particularly lethal! Suffice it to say, we get trounced, but the club as a whole came second, and Dale won the Flames of War. 

I haven't forgotten the horses, and I will try and get the next article up soon. Work's been busy, and frankly when I get home, being a vegetable in front of the TV is about all I aspire to.

Battle Report - 11 Apr 2011

I aten't dead...
...just rather busy at work and home, with a musical project that sees me off to Germany over the bank holiday weekend. The next installment of "A horse of a different colour..." should appear later this week, though.

However, I do have time to catch up with a battle report from back in April.

WAB Ancients again, a warm up for our Roman Civil War campaign against AndyH's Romans - 1500 pts a side. I tested out an experimental rule we're using for the campaign where a limited allied cavalry can have Parthian Shot.

Fat lot of good that did me. Foolishly got the barbarians in question stuck behind another unit of cavalry which routed.

In general, this was a knock 'em down, drag 'em out affair - at this remove I can't remember the precise details, other than to note that the 4 points/figure extra for veteran legionaries makes a hell of a difference. We continued long past army break point (at which I'm pretty sure Andy would have won), with my veterans getting clobbered on three sides by Andy's troops, and just refusing to die or run away - that's them in the middle - all 6 of them at that point! This did include the die roll on the left, which was actually necessary for their continued survival at one point.

All in all? fun game, and Andy is a gentleman.

Battle Report - 4 Apr 2011

Hrm. A practice game for the WAB Roman Civil War campaign - my EIR against Carl (with help from Rob)'s ninja (undercoated in black, but that's it so far) Romans. In fact two practice games, because I made a couple of stupid mistakes in the first one that resulted in it being ... erm... somewhat short.

So, in a slightly different format from usual.

Lessons learned from battle number 1 (the ignominious defeat):

• 16" is further than you think. It's only 1 1/3 times the frontage of 12 cavalry in line abreast
• Do not park your general directly behind those light cavalry that just got charged. He will be next in line when they rout.
• Your dice still suck.

Lessons learned from battle number 2 (the close-fought victory)

• Read the rules before you start. Parthian shot is only available to cavalry in skirmish order.
• 8" is also further than you think: it's twice the frontage of a block of 6x3 legionaries.
• You probably don't need a general AND a senior officer in a 1500 point army. Paint some more Auxiliaries.
• Your dice really do still suck. [I think I managed a total of ONE hit from the 3 two-attack characters in combat over about 6 rounds.]

As Rob said, though - any battle you learn from isn't a complete disaster. And this is why we have practice games.

Painting and purchasing...

 Managed to paint up a dozen Wargames Factory Germanic cavalry as barbarian allies to my Romans this weekend - with thanks to the lovely Rika, whose eye and hand for fine detail are markedly better than mine, hence these guys actually have harness on their horses. I also got a dozen auxillary infantry assembled and undercoated.

It's been a bit windy this weekend, so getting undercoat and varnish on things (which I normally do out in the garden) has involved a bit of 'getting one's own back'. I switched to the spare carport, but that suffers from being an enclosed area...

I've also acquired (from Total Wargamer at a ridiculous discount) a Warlord Pike and Shotte box set (80 infantry, 24 cavalry, and 10 firelocks) which should arriving early this coming week. Purely, you understand, to sneak some more historical periods into the club, by painting them up as ECW Royalist (probably: I may go against my principles and go Roundhead, depending on what my potential opponents have). Going to go the lazy way on those - burgundy or navy blue spray undercoat, detail on belts, boots, flesh and weapons, dip, base, varnish. Provided I'm thorough enough on the undercoat, they should be relatively quick to paint.

Battle Report - 21 Mar 2011

I seem to be a week behind - I'll try and catch up, but I have no photos for the Pig Wars game on the 28th yet (hint, hint, DP!).

So - the 21st was a warmup/practice game for the club's upcoming WAB2 Roman Civil War campaign - 10 or so players, a mix of various LRR/EIR armies, Liburian, Dacian, Macedonian. This one was Grahame and I against AndyB and Phil, EIR vs a mix of Macedonias (Phil) and Dacians (AndyB).

I took the left flank, Grahame the right, correctly guessing that I was going to have the dirty job - holding up Phil's two phalanxes (phalanges?) and that really irritating cavalry wedge, while Grahame, at least in theory, cleaned up the Dacians.

In theory....

The wedge hit the skirmish line (archers), which was sort of in the plan. Leaving the auxiliary cavalry just inside revealed charge range when they ran away wasn't, since I'd slightly misjudged just how far the damn things move. And, of course, 10 of them charging get attacks, and I only get to fight back with what's left of 7 (those in contact plus half the wedge)... [hrm, note to self, the "Alexander The Great supplement says 'that many extra surviving defenders' - I should check whether that means before or after casualties!]

The cavalry did actually survive the first round, but not the second. Surprisingly, the archers rallied, which meant they got to hold the wedge up again.

Meanwhile, my two cohorts of legionaries got stuck into the phalanxes: the first round of both combats went to a musician roll-off, and I lost both, meaning Phil had momentum.

Round two was more clear cut - one cohort broke and fled, the second collected a third unit of infantry in the flank...

It survived that round, too. But not the third. Mostly because the third involved them collecting that damn cavalry wedge in the rear! Not that it wasn't inevitable - it was pretty much behind them when it broke the auxiliary cavalry, and those things are very manoeuvrable.

At that point, everything I had on the board was routing, and not coming back, so.. well, that was pretty much it. As you can see, the wedge and the phalanxes headed off to do more damage...

Given Phil's Macedonians will be putting in an appearance in the campaign, I really need a plan for dealing with both the wedge, and the phalanxes. The latter always get initiative in the first round, which is tiresome, and the wedge is just ... unpleasant. However. I think I have an idea... :D

Battle Report - 07 Mar 2011

The cavalry exchange javelin fire prior to getting stuck in.

WAB last night - after my somewhat rushed efforts to get a painted army, it turned out that Grahame hadn't seen my message, so had only brought 1000 points. So we settled on the 'Attack on the Camp' scenario from the rulebook, with my forces attacking. Grahame deployed with two cohorts either side of the main gate, flanked on either side by auxillae, and Carl and I sent our two cohorts to face his, and the cavalry swept round one flank. It all went, as they say, rather well... The cavalry exchanged javelins with the auxillae, then went in for the kill - result, a complete stand-off! No casualties on either side in the first round, helped by the cavalry rolling four 5's to save against the four hits the auxlliaries inflicted. Which meant they had momentum, due to the fact that they had a musician....

Meanwhile, on the other flank, two small units of defending auxillae jumped the wall to take on the light archers - that started well, as Carl's opening volley caused one of them to decide it was too hot for them, and retired to consider their options.

Round two on the left - a win for the cavalry, and the auxillae failed their break test and ran, allowing the cavalry to follow through into the flank of one of the legionary cohorts. The first round was fairly inconclusive, but around then our two cohorts made it to the palisade, and battle was joined in earnest. 

Two rounds of that, and one of Grahame's cohorts broke: at that point, we decided a victory for the attackers, with the (apparently well-hard) cavalry inside the camp, was pretty much a matter of time. As it was only 9pm, we set up for a second skirmish, using 'The Ambush'.  I'm not 100% convinced of the setup rules for this one - basically it seems to allow the defender to set up 12" from safety, with the attacker at least 18" away. Had we not had the cavalry, it would have been pretty much a non-event.

*puff* *paint* "Wait up, guys!"
The heavily armoured legionaries struggle to catch up.

Anyhow - the cavalry fast-marched to intercept the lead cohort, while the two cohorts of somewhat asthmatic legionaries (heavy armour, so 3" move) did their level best to fast march in pursuit. Had they got there a bit faster, things would have been rather different - as it was, by the time they were in position to charge home on the opposition, the cavalry (after another ridiculous save of 5 hits, this time by Carl) had been routed, and the followup move took the cohorts pretty much out of reach. 

All in all, a good fun evening, though my cavalry seem to have acquired a reputation for sneaking in kevlar under their chainmail!

In case anyone's wondering about the standard on one of the two legions - the Warlord standard broke several times, the last time while it was being varnished outside, so I gave up, edited and printed off a banner and attached it to a shaft and crosspiece made of florists wire, superglued into the drilled-out hand/shaft. Looked pretty good, considering. (The font is 'SPQR', by the way.)

Phew...

Everything's painted, dipped, had the Tamiya Dark Earth and the moorland scatter applied. Just waiting on the first round of dilute PVA drying before I apply static grass and Army Painter Anti-Shine spray, which latter might wait till the morning.

Photos to follow: I should note I don't claim to be a good painter by any stretch of the imagination - not seeing in 3D doesn't help - but they pass the 'massed ranks at 2 feet away' test, which is fine by me.

Next up for this army will probably be a unit of Warlord auxiliary infantry - fortunately, I have a good two weeks for those.

Pause for 'duh' moment....

It just occurred to me that my opponent on Monday can field well over 2000 points, so I may as well pad mine with all the good options. So:

• 2 x 18 legionaries, standard, musician, centurion, veteran, heavy armour @ 23 pts each + 40 = 868
• 1 x 12 auxillary cavalry, drilled, standard, musician, leader, @ 22 pts each + 20 = 284 
• 1 x 10 allied archers @ 5 pts each = 50
• 1 x 9 Balearic slingers @ 4 pts each = 36
• 1 x Aquilifer, light armour @ 67 pts = 67
• 1 x Army general, light armour, warhorse, @ 145 pts = 145
• 1 x Tribune, light armour @ 57 pts = 57

for a total of 1507. And I might just have run out of 20mm square bases now.

As I just remarked in conversation to a friend, isn't it amusing how we set limits for ourselves without thinking why, sometimes?

Erm... make that 1100 points by Monday...

So.

• II cohort: 18 legionaries, standard, musician, centurion, 308 points. Needs basing (I just dipped them)
• III cohort: 18 legionaries, standard, musician, centurion, 308 points. Painted, needs dipping.
• 9 Balearic slingers, 36 points, based, varnished, done.
• 10 allied archers, 50 points, assembled, need priming
• 12 auxilliary cavalry, standard, musician, leader, 260 points, primed
• Mounted tribune on warhorse, 63 points, primed
• Aquilifer, 65 points, primed

And I'm just not going to run out of bases: the aquilifier will use my last 20mm square.

1000 points by Monday....

Well, we're making progress. 12 auxiliary cavalry assembled and primed, and the 18 primed legionaries are blocked in all bar the leather and wood. Hopefully, I can get the latter to the dip stage by the end of tomorrow.

Sunday looks like being an afternoon spent basing :D

That sense of 'aaaaaaargh'!

"So," says Grahame. "Next Monday, then? WAB. How many points of Romans can you field?"
"Ermmm....."
"It doesn't have to be painted."
Oh yes it does. Hrm, "A thousand." Eep.

So.

• II cohort: 18 legionaries, standard, musician, centurion, 308 points. Needs basing (I just dipped them)
• III cohort: 18 legionaries, standard, musician, centurion, 308 points. Assembled and primed.
• 9 Balearic slingers, 36 points, based, varnished, done.

Hrm. That's 652 points.

Lessee, what's in the boxes out there? Some cavalry would be good.

• 10 auxilliary cavalry, standard, musician, leader, 220 points

which leaves me 

• Mounted tribune on warhorse, 63 points
• Aquilifer, 65 points

or I could add another cavalryman, ditch the aquilifer and assemble another bunch of the Wargames Factory Numidians as allied archers

• 9 allied archers, bow, 45 points

Guess I better get cracking then! If I can paint the III cohort and assemble the auxilliaries by the end of tonight, I should be OK, as (once again) everything needs to be painted and dipped by end of Friday to dry in time. It does, though, from recent experience, look as though brushed dip dries in 24 hours rather than 36, so I may have some slack. Which is good, 'cause I'm out on Friday night!

Battle Report - 14 Feb 2011

Grahame's legions - Warlord plastics
plus Foundry (IIRC)

Warhammer Ancient Battles this week - Grahame's Romans (co-commanded by him and me) against a mixed force of barbarians. Essentially, four cohorts of legionaries, some auxilliary archers, some javelin armed lights, more auxilliaries with spears, and a smattering of cavalry. Nice balanced army.

The meat in a Roman
cavalry sandwich

Our left flank turned into a cavalry scrap, which basically resulted in a Barbarian sandwich at one point (even Auxilliary light cavalry hurts when it hits you in the rear) and a lot of running away.

And here we are, five turns later,
still sitting on our lorica
segmentata-covered arses...

The centre and right develoved into an archery duel, and an exercise in over-caution: my archers got shot to bits over four or five turns, and a unit of Auxilla with heavy thrusting spears passed an equivalent amount of time intimidating a bunch of barbarian light cavalry. The barbarian warbands spent that time making faces at our four legions, advancing on failed warband checks and then backing off again.

Fine as it went, but a bit out of character for both the ravening barbarian hordes and the indomitable legionaries. I know the auxillae are there to do the bleeding for the guys in lorica, but...

Basing, and dip redux

Really wasn't totally happy with the Balearics after I'd dipped (well, brushed) them - the dip had pooled in a few places on their tunics that just looked wrong. However, I persevered, cause, frankly, life is too short to repaint everything :D

So - on with the show.

Some priming experiments - I undercoated a bunch more Rohirrim, this time in green to save time on their cloaks, and their horses in black. We'll see how that goes this weekend.

On to basing the Balearics. I think I have a process now, which seems to work. First off, apply a layer of Tamiya dark earth diorama paint. It's a little bit pricy, but a £8 jar claims to cover a B4 sheet (which works out at around 200 or so 20mm square bases. Basically, it has resin particles in it, and can be formed on a base - you apply it with a spatula, or in my case the end of a coffee stirrer liberated from work.

On top of that, once it's dry, I brush on some neat PVA, dip the base in Javis Moorland Scatter and shake off immediately - I don't mind if it doesn't stick everywhere, since the dark earth underneath looks just fine.

Finally, I let that dry, dab on a few blotches more of PVA, and apply some static grass (don't ask me whose, I think it was Hornby!) using a Noch puffer bottle from Gaugemaster. Job done, and now to apply the (Army Painter) matt varnish...

Which was a bit of an eyeopener - the effect wasn't as obvious on the Rohan foot I painted the other week, but it really does soften the look of the dip, kill the in-your-face glossiness, and makes me look a half-decent painter. The moral of the Army Painter system really does seem to be to take your courage in both hands and not give up!

Pictures to follow next time: I'll do a step by step of the next batch of Numidians (probably as archers).

Dip revisited

I have a bunch of Balearic slingers painted up from the WF Numidians box. This time, I tried applying the dip with a brush, and I'll give it 36 hours or more to dry, If that goes OK, I'll move on to the legionaries.

On the LOTR side, I have 8 Rohirrim done, another 8 undercoated, and a standard bearer - made from a swordsman with a broken sword, with the hand drilled out and a length of florist's wire inserted. We'll see how those go, I guess.