Army Review: 15mm Sarmatians

Today's review is of my first "proper" (ie historical) army - 15mm Sarmatians. You know, the big scary block of big scary men on big scary horses with long scary pointy things (or BSBoBSMoBSHwLSPT; or the BSB for short!). I haven't added to the army for a couple of years and there are still a load of figures to be completed at some point - the horses are done, but I still haven't finished prepping the riders, let alone painting them!

I've also got some Scythian heavy cavalry and command group sitting in a drawer part-painted. I really should finish those at some point.

Anyway, pics.

Bulgar medium cavalry

Rhoxolani "other cavalry"

Alan and Scythian light horse

Light foot

Medium foot

Generals

Baggage camp

BSBoBSMoBSHwLSPT

It's certainly interesting to see how my painting and basing has developed over the years since I painted these. All the figures here are Donnington Ancient & Moderns. For the cavalry with lances and spears the worst part was having to drill out the hands. I think I only sunk the drill bit into my own hand a few times...

Slipping Again

Ooops! A week since my last post - I'm slipping again. Fortunately that is only in terms of posting here and not as a result of being idle.

Whilst I might not have made as much progress as intended on the Mongol light foot, at least there is a good reason. I realised that the only chance I'd get to do any spray priming would be at the weekend, so I spent a couple of evenings gluing them onto sticks for painting (and gluing riders onto horses).

I also had a game of FoG:AM on Thursday to give Clive some practice before Warfare. He's taking Mid Republican Romans which was a good excuse for my Sarmatians to have a gentle trot across open steppes. they took along some Scythian mates. Sadly, I didn't take many pictures, mainly as a result of me trying to compensate for my completely idiotic initial deployment.

Amazing deployment. Light horse on the left flank facing heavy cavalry; shooty medium cavalry in the centre; big scary blokes on big scary horses with long scary pointy things on the right flank where they won't really be able to do anything useful.

Maybe the horsey boys were less than enthusiastic by the thought of looting cola rather than impossibly huge glasses of ale?

My crappy deployment was made all the worse by my truly awful dice rolls in combat and the loss of two generals. I think the horsey boys were regarding their model generals as extensions of me and showed their contempt for Clive killing them by passing their cohesion tests with flying colours.

In the end we ran out of time, but it was a clear "winning draw" for the Romans. At least the horses got some exercise for the first time in a long while.

With hindsight, I should have taken Siracae or Iazyges Sarmatians rather than the Rhoxolani. Their shooty medium cavalry is "Bow*" rather than "Bow". This means that in single rank where they can evade, they only get 1 die per 2 bases which effectively means no shooting against most opponents. The alternative is to have them 2 ranks deep so that they can shoot (but can't evade). The inability to evade means risking being charged and then being at a disadvantage in the combats to follow.

Our club has been introduced to a set of French ancients rules - L'Art de la Guerre" - by Seb. The English translation of these is now available and we made a mass purchase. I picked up my copy on Monday evening. Having had a quick read through and seen bits of some games at the club, they look to be a great set of rules. Army size is somewhere between DBA/DBM and FoG. Command and control looks quite interesting and will lead to some tough decision making when the armies are in contact. Two great advantages of the game - you only need one d6 and the armies should fit in a small box making transport very easy. The movement and range units are in 40mm increments for 15mm-based troops, which with the smaller table size used means that battle lines will get into melee quite quickly.


Anyway, that's enough rabbiting about games, time for some workbench chit-chat.

Mongol Light Foot

They're nearly finished. I just need to do belts, metals and the fur trim to the coats and hats, give them a Klear/ink coat, spray with matt varnish and flock the bases.

Seven Years War Russians

Yesterday morning I was thinking I wouldn't be able to do any priming as it looked like rain was on the way. Fortunately the sun came out instead, so in the afternoon I set up to do the spray priming. I'd managed to spray the artillery, commanders and grenadiers with the red primer. However, the can ran out when I was part of the way through the first of the 6 musketeer regiments.

So, I moved onto the cavalry and primed them grey. Very little of their uniform is red, so there was no benefit for using red primer for them.

This morning I popped out to Halfords for some more red primer.

I picked up 2 cans so that I will have enough for future infantry and artillery additions, I should have picked up a can of grey as well for the cavalry additions I will be making. I can do that next weekend or some other time.

The weather today has been grey and damp, so I haven't been able to continue with the priming. I'm hoping for some decent weather next weekend.


Painting Plans for the coming week:

1. Finish the Mongol light foot

2. Start on the Russians. I'll probably do the artillery first, then the commanders, then the grenadiers. The artillery should be quite quick as the crews had red uniforms and the woodwork of the guns and limbers was painted a rusty red colour (so I'll just have to paint the metalwork - result!).

AAR: Sarmatians vs Early Successor

Another game against Alan, this time against his Early Successor army with the same Sarmatian list I used against Jerry. For this game we agreed to play on a 5' x 4' table. I must apologise for the quality of the photos - the table was in a dimly lit spot and Alan kept blocking the light so I had to snatch shots quickly (hence the camera shake. Believe me, the pics I've omitted are even worse).

My main force - most of my lancers flanked by half my shooty cavalry on my right wing with the Scythian light horse forming the centre. Their job would be to delay, harass and maybe break up the lines of his pike phalanx.

My left wing was over at the edge with the Sarmatian light horse, the 4th lancer unit and the other half of my shooty cavalry. The plan was to drive through the gap between two areas of brush and come onto Alan's flank and rear. Alan had other ideas though, and sent his medium foot supported by light horse and some cavalry to occupy the terrain and threaten my flanks.

My right and centre are going to plan. The lancers and shooty cavalry are starting to get into position to turn the flank of his phalanx, whilst the Scythians have disrupted their line a bit and are no holding off his skirmishers and smellyphants.

Back on my left wing, the light horse have broken Alan's light horse and my left-hand shooty cavalry have broken his lancers. However, his medium foot are in position to charge my right-hand shooty cavalry in the rear....

....as this picture demonstrates quite nicely!

Heading back to my right wing, things didn't quite go to plan, and I've lost a unit of lancers to his Elite pikemen. Mind you, I've got cavalry who could potentially get into position to flank charge his pikemen, which would help.

Unfortunately the landlord called time before I could play my last turn. I was nicely set up here to charge the fragged medium foot in the rear (which would automatically break them) while my other shooty cav and lancers would charge those two units of medium foot, who are "in the open" with one of them "in column".

However, I didn't get to play that turn, so I only managed a narrow victory having broken 2 and fragmented 1 of Alan's units, whilst only 1 of mine was broken.

What I could have done better:

1. Run my lancers hard up the right edge of the table in column before turning them to come in on the flank and rear of the phalanx. The Sarmatian light horse and shooty cav should be used to screen them and prevent the phalanx turning/wheeling to meet the lancer threat.
2. Pick an army where the shooty cavalry are Bow rather than Bow*
3. I should have run the Scythians up on the left wing, through the central block of brush terrain.

AAR: Sarmatians vs Early Imperial Romans (800 points)

Jerry's Romans first faced my Sarmatians about 18 months ago. That game was 650 points and his Romans back then were Mid Republican; my meatheads were Iazyges. This rematch was Early Imperial Romans against Rhoxolani. Could I do better than a narrow win this time?

My army consisted of:

FC + 2 x TC
1 x 4 Light Horse (Average, Unprotected, Bow Sword)
4 x 4 Lancers (Superior, Armoured, Lancer/Sword)
4 x 4 Other Cavalry (Superior, Protected, Bow*, Light Spear/Sword)
Scythian Allies -
FC
3 x 4 Light Horse (Average, Unprotected, Bow, Sword)

Jerry's Romans consisted of a bunch of Legion, some medium foot auxiliaries, a few cavalry and some useless skirmishers.

As you can see from our deployments, the decision to play on a 6' x 4' table was vindicated!

"Meatheads - prepare to advance"

On my right flank are the Scythians. My plan was to use these to distract (and maybe break up) Jerry's line of Roman legions. My meatheads were aiming to edge across onto the Roman right flank, supported by some of the shooty cavalry.

Things look to be going to plan, with Jerry voluntarily breaking up the legionary line in response to taunts from the Scythians. The Sarmatian light horse charged and caught the evading light foot; Jerry's light horse were being variously charged and shot at by my shooty cavalry on my left flank.

One of Jerry's legionary units has charged the Scythians, mainly to allow his lancer cavalry to join the scrummage against my lancers. Of course, this left the legionaries rather isolated and surrounded by skirmishing light horse.

At the top of the picture you can see the Roman cavalry moving into position to prevent my carefully positioned flank charge against the legions. Oh well!

A couple of turns later....

Remember that legion which charged the Scythians? See that unit just up and right from the centre spot? Same one, broken by massed shooting and a flank charge! There do seem to be a lot of "Broken" markers and missing units on the Roman side....

And the Romans are routed! In the last melee phase I managed to break 2 more units to win 22:3 - a much better result than last time.

This game did teach me two things - Protected Bow* cavalry aren't much cop and I need to work a bit more on light horse positioning.

WIP: 30YW Foot, the Red-Green Regiment #2; WIP: Second Batch Sarmatian "Other Cavalry" #3

30YW Foot, the Red-Green Regiment

"Aha! She's spotted our snarky comments yesterday and gone over the yellow with red to correct her mistake"

Not as much done today as I'd hoped, mostly because I'm feeling grotty for some reason.

Done today:

• Jackets (and officers' breeches) - Vermillion 909
• Officers' Hats - Dark Grey 994 dry-brushed with 50:50 mix of Dark Grey and Neutral Grey 992
• Troopers' Hats - Dark Grey 994 dry-brushed with 50:50 mix of Dark Grey and Neutral Grey 992; or 50:50 mix of Dark Grey and Neutral Grey dry-brushed with Neutral Grey
• Leatherwork - Leather Brown 871 (also basecoat for apostles and matchcord)
• Gloves - Burnt Umber 941
• Stocking ribbons, scabbard loops, troopers' cuffs - Flat Green 968

Still to do:

• Dry-brush apostles
• Thick wash matchcord
• Collars, hat feathers and drum skins
• Metalwork - pike tips, sword hilts, drum rims, buckles
• Klear/ink
• Basing

I might get a couple of these bits done before going to bed tonight, the rest I'll be able to get done tomorrow.


Sarmatian "Other Cavalry"

These got a spray coat of matt varnish this morning and this evening have been flocked and tufted. Finito!!!
That just leaves 60 more lancers to prep, prime, stick on horses and paint for all my Sarmatians to be done and dusted (unless I decide to max out the light and medium foot options....)

Depending on how things go tomorrow with the Red-Green foot, I may make a start on the cuirassiers - probably just basecoats for the armour and horse colours.

WIP: 30YW Foot, the Red-Green Regiment #1; WIP: Second Batch Sarmatian "Other Cavalry" #2

WIP: 30YW Foot, the Red-Green Regiment

Sorry about the lighting of that photo - it seems to have come out darker than it appeared on the camera.

"Hang on a second - didn't she say this was the "RED-Green" regiment?"
"You're right - she must have meant the Yellow-Green regiment"
"Maybe she's simply lost it?"
"Is there such a thing as red-yellow colour blindness?"
"Probably the stress of losing all those games of FoG!"
"Does anyone want to tell her?"


No, I haven't lost the plot and you are seeing yellow not red. That is because I'm using Yellow Ochre as a basecoat to paint the red over.

Done today:

• Basecoats - Black 950 for armour, muskets barrels and rests; Yellow Ochre 913 for jackets and officers' trousers
• Faces and hands - Flesh Base 341 (Panzer Aces) 
• Hair - German Camo Pale Brown 825; Colonel = German Camo Medium Brown 826
• Dry-brushed Oily Steel 865 on armour, musket barrels and rests
• Pike& halberd shafts, flagpoles and musket stocks - Mahogany Brown 846
• Company flags, officer sashes, drum sides - Flat Green 968
• Stockings - Pastel Green 885
• Shoes and Boots - Black Grey 862
• Breeches - German Camo Pale Brown 825, German Camo Medium Brown 826
• Ground colour on bases - Flat Earth 983

Tomorrow I should be able to get the rest done:

• Jackets (and officers' breeches) 
• Cuffs, ribbons and any other bits that need to be in Flat Green
• Collars and piping
• Hats and feathers
• Leather bits
• Apostles and match cords
• Metalwork

WIP: Second Batch Sarmatian "Other Cavalry"

As i wrote last night, I did manage to do the Klear/ink coat and to glu the figures onto their bases before heading off to bed. This morning I added the basing gunk and I've just dry-brushed it with Revell Afrika Brown. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better tomorrow and I'll be able to do the matt varnish spray and then the flocking/clumping.

Piccy:

So, what's on the cards for tomorrow?

Finish the Sarmatians if the weather is good
Finish off the Red-Green 30YW foot
Make a start on the 30YW cuirassiers

WIP: Second Batch Sarmatian "Other Cavalry"

Thanks to an early wake-up call from the guys delivering my new fridge-freezer and cooker, I've had a pretty productive day on the minis front.

Done:

• Primed 18 x 30YW musketeers
• Primed 36 x 30YW cuirassiers
• Painted remaining parts of the last 24 Sarmatian "other cavalry"

So, what were those remaining bits?

• Boots
• Trousers
• Tunic sleeves
• Cloaks
• Bows and spear shafts
• Belts
• Quivers and bowcases
• Fletchings
• Scabbards
• Sword hilts

I'll have time before bed to do the Klear/ink coat on these, and maybe to glue them onto their bases. Tomorrow morning I'll add the basing gunk and in the afternoon/early evening I'll do the drybrushing and (if the weather is OK) the matt spray varnish.

While the basing gunk is drying I'll make a start on another regiment of 30YW foot.

Anyway, that's enough rhubarb from me - here's the custard:

"The dices are not my preciouses"; Ouch!

Tonight's FoG battle against Gordon was actually going fairly well until the inevitable happened and the dice turned against me, leading to unit after unit breaking. I had managed to break 2 or 3 of his though, and was close to breaking a few more. I'd managed to create a couple of excellent positional set-ups as well when this happened.

I'm really kicking myself that I didn't take my camera - there would have been some great shots.

Still, it was a good game and could have gone either way, despite me stupidly taking a Rhoxolani army - protected Bw* cav were not very useful, even if one of them was steadfastly refusing to break for several turns despite base losses, being outnumbered 2:1 (at the start - 4:1 in the final round of melee!) and outgunned (they were fighting opponents who were Armoured, so my cav were on a negative POA).

Taking the Scythian allies was definitely a good move though - the extra light horse (you can only take a max of 8 bases on the Sarmatian list) proved their worth.

Now the Sarmatians are nearly done and I've had a good chance to get used to them, I'm keen to try some other ancient armies which I could take Sarmatian allies with. Time to start looking through the list books to see which ones I could do.

Ouch!

After packing away my troops at the end of the game, I popped down to the loo. As I went through the door, I slipped on a small patch of water and went elbow* over tit. Result: big bruise on my right knee, sore-but-not-bruised right elbow, small bruise above my right ear and a slightly strained left bicep. Hopefully the knee bruise will go down overnight.

* I do in fact know my arse from my elbow, but thought I'd be polite. Oh, drat! I seem to have undone my good intentions with this explanation.

WIP: Old Glory Cuirassiers #4

Well, my bank account has taken a big hit today - I've bought my replacement fridge-freezer and while I was there decided it was time to replace my gas cooker (also 16 year old) as well. I'll be taking another big financial hit this week - my annual travel card is due for renewal.

That's enough about life stuff though. What you want to hear about is painting and to see some pics.

Old Glory Cuirassiers

Done today:

• Trousers
• Boots
• Gauntlets
• Belts, cartridge pouches and scabbards
• Faces and hair (on those without closed helms)
• Hat of standard bearer
• Flagpole/lance of standard bearer
• Wooden parts of pistols
• Saddles (where visible)

It sounds like a lot, but broken up into little bits it didn't seem to take too much time.

Still to do:

• Metalwork
• Stirrup straps (just spotted I hadn't done those!)
• Error correction (need to touch up some of the armour)
• Klear/ink coat
• Basing

As I'm not gaming tomorrow night, I'll probably get these finished apart from basing which will get done on Tuesday.

I also did the flesh on the Sarmatian "other cavalry" but didn't take photos. Once the cuirassiers are done, I'll finish these.

Next Up

• Scythians
• Battlebots
• 30YW foot
• Space Demons

Back from Campaign

I;m back! Tired, defeated but having learnt a lot and having had a most excellent time dudes!

Well, here's a very brief report for you.

Saturday

Having been collected by my lift at the unseemly hour of 6.30am, we headed up from London to sunny Milton Keynes. With traffic light, we made it to the venue in good time, dragged our bags and boxes out of the car and headed inside with plenty of time to buy coffee/breakfast an use the facilities. Unfortunately we were slightly too early and Costa coffee and the facilities weren't open. We weren't the first players from Central London club to arrive, so we spent a while chatting until Costa opened so we were finally able to make a pit-stop and feed our caffeine habits..

Central London had a total of 5 teams entered - 2 in the FoG Ancients, 2 in FoG Renaissance and 1 in DBMM. Some other club members were turning up on the Sunday for a King of the Battlefield (demonstration?) game. On the Saturday, (almost?) all of us were wearing natty new club t-shirts with our motto "It Smacks Of Incompetence" and a map showing where the pub we meet in. There was also a Flames of War Tournament going on.

It was certainly different to most wargames shows - it is held in the Middleton Hall in Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, so we had ordinary shoppers walking around watching the games. Although the various tournaments took up most of the floorspace, there were also several traders, demonstration games and participation games.

Onto the games.

The draws for the 5 games in our Division were:

Saturday:
9am Round 1: Oxford vs Escape to Defeat (EtoD, my team); Rabbits in the Mist (RITM) vs Central London Wargames (CLW, our "A" team)

1pm Round 2: Oxford vs CLW; RITM vs EtoD

4.30pm Round 3: Oxford vs RITM; CLW vs EtoD

Sunday:
9am Round 4: A = 1st place vs 4th; B = 2nd vs 3rd

1pm Round 5: Winner A vs Winner B; Loser A vs Loser B

I'll just give my results here - AARs with pics will follow! Honest guv'nor - they will follow!


My Saturday Games

Round 1: I was facing Lynda's Foederate Romans. She had Alan and Hun allies. I lost 24-1 - she'd routed my army (6 units broken) but I had broken one of hers. I'd lost the initiative, so was fighting in "agricultural" territory.
Lynda has a rather unusual, but very effective, method for making terrain pieces for wargaming.  I won't spoil the surprise - you'll see when I post the AARs with pics.
I made some schoolgirl errors in my deployment and later positioning of units which didn't help me - you'll see the evidence of this in my AAR.

Round 2: I was up against Chris P's Foederate Romans, again with Alan and Hun allies. I lost 24-1 again - routed with 6 units broken, but one of my light horse units, accompanied by a general had done a long flanking run to sack his supply camp! I'd lost the initiative, so was stuck in agricultural lands again, but witha decent amount of empty space in the centre.

My dice in both games were absolutely atrocious, so I made use of the break to buy some new ones from one of the traders. To balance out the dice, I couldn't have wished for more helpful or friendly opponents.

At this point, somehow we had managed to sneak into 3rd place ahead of our club's A Team!

Round 3: up against Dave's Foederate Romans. You'll never guess what allies he had. Somehow I managed to break one of his units and sack his supply camp. Unfortunately he managed to break 5 of mine and sacked my supply camp, so another army rout for me. Score: 21-4 to Dave. Changing dice helped a little - I won the initiative and chose steppe territory. Well, the army list chose steppe for me - it's the only option available for Early Alans! During the battle, my dice were very much up and down.


After the last game finished and we'd packed up our figures, a bunch of us from the club (and my team captain's Commander in Chief, aka the memsahib) went for a very nice curry. Once we'd stuffed ourselves, with good banter along the way, and settled the bill we headed off to our various accommodations.

I was staying in a surprisingly cheap-but-nice hotel a few miles out of town. I wish I'd looked it up in advance as I discovered when I got there that it had free internet access in the bedrooms - I could have taken my mini laptop and posted last night. Oh well, that's something to remember for next year.


Sunday

Compared to Saturday, I was able to have a lie-in. However, that was all relative - we still had to be at the venue for the first game at 9am. After shower and some breakfast we packed our stuff in the car and headed over - we even had time for a pit-stop and to grab coffee.

On checking the leaderboard we discovered that our A Team had beaten RITM by enough to leapfrog them and us and go into 2nd place. This meant that my team would be playing Oxford first off then whoever managed to win out of CLW and RITM for our final game.

Round 4: Lynda once again. Neither of us had changed our army composition; Lynda won the initiative, unsurprisingly opting for Agricultural territory again. Fortunately my dice luck was better and I was able to move or remove several pieces, leaving the table fairly open.
I had a much better battle plan this time and the fight was much closer - it could have gone either way right up until the crucial moment when the dice turned against me. I ended up losing 24-1 again, breaking 1 unit of Romans, but having 5 of mine broken and 2 fragmented for an army rout.

CLW had beaten RITM, so they were playing Oxford and we were playing RITM. On checking the leaderboard, ours was the important match - CLW would need to win their games by very large margins to beat Oxord, and neither of us could win by enough points to leapfrog into 2nd place but we were close enough that it was a fight for 3rd place in the Division (or, more accurately, not a fight not to be in 4th place).

Round 5: Chris P again, no change to his army either. I won initiative (Yay!) and my army list chose Steppe territory for me. I succeeded in getting a very open table, with the terrain mostly limited to one corner in Chris' half. I tried a slightly different deployment and battle plan; the dice gods smiled on me slightly more and we had a very close match. As we were approaching the 3 hour limit, I had lost two units broken (one in what was the final melee)and had 2 more fragmented; Chris had 1 unit broken and 1 evaded off table. Right at the end I was able to rally one of my fragmented units up to disrupted, giving a final score of 12-8 to Chris.
It's shame that we weren't able to continue the battle to its conclusion - I was getting very close to reversing that score and potentially routing his Romans.

On calculating the final scores for our two teams, it turned out that on points we had somehow ended up equal for joint third place!

After packing up our figures, terrain, dice and other bits it was time for the prize giving ceremony. CLW got their 2nd place prize (displaying their incompetence by not getting 1st place), but our DBMM team let the side down by very competently winning their tournament. Our FoG:R teams did even better in the incompetence stakes - neither had made it as high as 2nd place. I took pics of our 2 prize winning teams, also of the Oxford team who won in our Division.

Lessons Learnt
1. Look at all the available army lists and pick one that isn't so one-dimensionally predictable.
2. Check out the hotel you'll be staying in to see if there is (hopefully free) internet access
3. Take a packed lunch for the Saturday along with plenty of snacks and bottles of drink for the weekend
4. The dice gods are fickle and capricious - take plenty of sets of dice to worship them with
5. Practice more with my chosen army before turning up, particularly with respect to positioning of units to provide rear support, interception charges and to avoid "burst through" by friendly charging/evading/routing units
6. Don't place my supply camp or any "hold back" units within 6 inches of the table edge as they are automatically lost if your opponent does a flank march (in a couple of games I was just outside the 6 inches - phew!)


Overall Impressions

I had a really enjoyable weekend. Three 3-hour games on Saturday and another 2 on Sunday is mentally and physically tiring, but it helps having such nice opponents.
I went into this tournament fully expecting to lose 25-0 in all 5 games. The fact that I actually scored points in all my matches and only suffered a rout in 4 of them was a significant bonus, and it was a great way to learn how to play FoG better.
The venue was fantastic - light and airy with plenty of space and decent food/drink shops on hand. Despite it being open to the public, I only heard one derogatory comment about wargaming in the whole weekend. A lot of passers-by showed great interest in the games and the players nearby were more than happy to explain what was going on.
Would I do it again? Definitely. there are other team and doubles tournaments later in the year, so maybe I could be persuaded. Campaign will definitely be booked into my diary for next year.

WIPS; Goodies; Styrofoam Hills #4

It's lovely having a day off work. It was all very quiet in the office, so yesterday I decided to book today off as annual leave. Just as well, as I had plenty to do before heading off to Milton Keynes tomorrow for Campaign

WIPs

Done this morning:

• Matt spray varnish of remaining painted Sarmatians
• Khurasan "Space Demons" - received spray undercoat of Humbrol Metallic Black 201

After letting them dry, I discovered that the back of the King had not got much coverage, so I'll have to respray him at some point.

Next step for these is to use some of my ink washes to add some colour. That will be followed by silver/oily steel on the mouthparts, paint the basing texture (mix of greys) then a final Klear/black ink wash. I may tone down the glossiness by spraying with satin varnish; the base texture will get a brush-coat of matt varnish.



Goodies

After doing all the spraying and having had the windows open for a couple of hours to disperse fumes, particulates I headed into town to get some scenic cement and a spray bottle from ModelZone in Holborn. I also spotted a tool that would be useful to have, so I bought that as well.

As I was nearby, I took a walk down to London Graphics Centre and bought some more brushes (W&N Series 7 size 2; W&N Series 7M sizes 0 and 00) and a colour wheel.

I then headed home via the local Royal Mail depot where a package needing a signature was waiting for me. After picking that up, when I finally got back home I had 2 nice bits of post - Miniature Wargames #350 and a package from Donnington.

The box before opening - oooh, it's my order from Magister Militum!

The contents - some 15mm buildings for my 30YW project, some tents and a fortified camp piece for FoG. Plus a flyer for Colours 2012 and a new releases sheet from Magister Militum. There were also some polystyrene packing ships and bubble wrap around the resin pieces, but you don't want pics of that crap do you?

The Donnington goodies. Back Row (L to R): horse casualties; human casualties; 18 musketeers; 24 carbine/pistol cavalry; 2 cavalry. Front Row (L to R): animals and herders (pigs, sheep, goats, chickens) for ambush markers/camp pieces; some more pikes/flagpoles

Styrofoam Hills

Having purchased scenic cement and a spray bottle, I got on with sealing the flock and gravelly stuff on the hills and gully. I also decided to spray the pieces I'd made on the foam sheets. These are now pretty much dry and will be ready for me to take to Campaign tomorrow.

Anyway, here is a pic of one of the sealed hills with some figures on it:

As I'll be away almost all weekend, I won't be posting tomorrow. I will try to post on Sunday evening when I get back from Campaign, even if only to let you know how atrociously my Early Alans suffered at the hands of Foederate Romans. 

Ooooh, I just realised that I hadn't told you that - all three of my opponents in Division 2 at Campaign are fielding Foederate Roman armies. For those who know the FoG army lists, you will know that it can be helpful to know in advance what army/ies you will be facing as it gives you an idea of what troop types you are likely to be up against. However, with Foederate Romans it doesn't help in the slightest - they could be all heavy foot, all light horse, almost all lancers or balanced foot/cavalry. I suspect that most of my opponents will be including Western Hunnic allies (one of the few lists with Superior light horse).

Wish me luck!