The Testudo Factory keeps producing!

For this,my third Warrior Miniatures Testudo,I elected to base the figures in three's for ease and quickness of painting,this proved to be a good decision,and enabled me to complete the Testudo in record time.
This first photo shows the figs. stuck onto their bases and painting bases. Another shot showing the three's.ready to be undercoated.

This shot shows the testudo undercoated.

Shields painted and flesh on,in this photo.

All figures painted and ready to be based,in the shot below.

Testudo on its base awaiting flock and rocks etc. to be put on.

All three on the table,this gives a good idea of what they will all look like.

Another angle of all three completed Testudos,only two to go!!

If John at Warrior Miniatures is reading this blog,I would love some feed-back or comments,cheers!!

Battle of the Metaurus 207 BC.played 9.9.12.

We fought this very interesting battle,last night, as a wargame and not an actual re-fight of the battle itself.Paul took the part of Porcius and Livius,Brian was Nero,and I was Hasdrubal. This is the overall view of the table,with Nero in the far right background,facing the Gauls,whilst the Roman centre/left faced my Ligurians,Spanish and Africans,with the cavalry facing each other in the foreground.

These are my Gauls,who were a mixed bag of good and bad fighting points,but were faced with a Legion,supported by Paul's whole back line of Triarii,and a cavalry unit.The Romans obviously meant to beat me on this flank,and of course, they did!! but not until I gave them a bit of a fright by coming down from my hill position and attacking them.

This is my centre/right flank,composed of light and heavy infantry and Elephants,which somehow managed to remain on the board for the whole game and did alot of damage to Paul's cavalry.

This shot is of the Roman centre/left,composed of two combined legions,in their traditional 3 lines.

This is the Roman right flank,commanded by Brian,and consisted of one full legion and a cavalry unit.

The cavalry battle!Paul attacked my cav. from move one,this surprised me,and he was successful until I moved my Elephants over to the flank,to disrupt his cavalry.Feeling desperate,Paul put his command figure into the fray,and he was killed,resulting in his cavalry having to take morale,luckily for me,they failed the test and routed!!This resulted in me being able to move my cavalry onto the exposed Roman flank,causing all kinds of problems.

On my right flank,things were not going according to plan,Brian,in this shot,has launched a furious attack against my Gallic cav. and has backed them up with two units of Princepes,this force won the ensuing melee,and forced me to commit my warbands into a precipitous attack down the hill,not a good thing to do!! they too were beaten,morale was taken,and they took off,dragging the other warbands with them!

This is the clash in the centre,which swung both ways,and I was only saved by my Elephant and cavalry moving onto Paul's exposed flank.

This is our new member,Brian, looking very pleased with himself,having given my Gallic contingent a right old beating!

This shows the aftermath of the "Gallic Departure" Brians legion and supporting troops rushing over the stream and taking my hill,thus exposing my left flank.

This is the final photo,showing the Carthaginians winning in the centre,and forcing Paul to move troops to protect his flank.

We decide that a "draw" was a fair result,and I was happy with that,we all enjoyed the game,roll on Thursday.

Napoleonic game 6.9.12.

Last night we had a Napoleonic game,and were joined by Brian,who we met at Border Reiver show.I was in charge of a combined Anglo-Portuguese army,which was supported by a few units of Spanish on move number 3.Paul was General Delaborde,in charge of a French division,and Dave was General Masena,in charge of another French division.
The scenario had a few twists and turns attached to it,including limited shots for the gun batteries,poor morale status for the Poruguese and Westphalians,and a roving "Guerrilla" band!
The shot below shows Paul's first assault on my position on the Right flank,his infantry is being cannistered,however this didn't deter his attack too much. This is Paul assaulting the town (which was the whole objective of the game),he was driven back by my "raw" port. infantry.

This photo shows my right flank,just as Dave's horse artillery battery is giving my light dragoons a "whiff of grapeshot"-they didn't like it much, and took off into the blue,never to be seen again!!

This shot is taken from the French side of the board and shows the furious fire-fight on the British right flank.

Another shot showing the combined forces of Masena and Delaborde
shooting the hell out of my British and Portuguese,note Paul's infantry getting ready to attack the town.

Although Brian hadn't played our rules before,he bravely took command of the allies left flank,and this shot shows his advance onto the flank of the French attacking the town.

This shows my troops behind the town,being forced back by sheer weight of numbers,in the background you can see a regiment of Portuguese "retiring" from the town,luckily I had another regiment in place to stem the French tide.( for a while!!)

This is Brian's finest hour,his Spanish horse artillery battery is just about to open fire on a French (Swiss) square whilst his light dragoons have over-run a gun battery.

This is the END.French troops entering the town,after a furious melee,my right flank had collapsed and I had nothing left to fight with.Well done to Dave and Paul,for a good battle plan,and well done to Brian for not giving up hope while my battle plan unravelled before his eyes.

Again, a good solid game,everyone enjoyed the fight,roll on Sunday,we hope to see Brian again then.

Ceremonial burning of the "Dippert-stick" 2.9.12.

I apologise in advance for the following photographs,that only club members will appreciate.I burnt one of our measuring sticks ( called,in the club,"dipperty-sticks") this morning,whilst playing "Colonel Bogey" on my harmonica!!
The first photo shows the stick being prepared for sacrifice in my barbeque. This photo shows the stick,having just been lit!

This is the stick fully alight!!

Nearly done!!

Done and now destroyed forever,I will suggest to the rest of the members that we play for the "Ashes" once per year!!!!!!!!!!

Border Reiver Show.1.9.12.

Having just got back from the Border Reiver show at Gateshead Stadium,I thought I would give a little review of how the show went.
We put on an Ancients demonstration game (Romans vs Britons) which was well received judging by the number of people who stopped at our table for a chat.We got some good comments and were asked some interesting questions,about the figures,our rules,the way we play etc. etc.
The venue was very good,good lighting,lots of space,easy parking,the only "downer" was the lack of refreshments (although there was a mobile food van in the car park,which disappeared at 11.30 !!) The photo above shows the legions poised to attack.

Above are Allan and Dave cuddling!! This was before the game started and the venue opened.

This is a typical shot during the whole session,Graham is showing the Prince August figures and information to an interested gamer,we seemed to be talking during the whole of the day,which was good and showed alot of people that you don't need expensive rules and figures to have a good,free-flowing and interesting game.

This is an overall shot of our table with Dave explaing the "finer" points of the way we play.

This photo shows the game at about move number 6,the Legions and the Britons have "clashed",this attracted alot of interest,and gamers were actually coming from their own games to see what was happening.

This shot shows Dave contemplating his moves as his side of the board was the scene of my only victory! An interested gamer looks on and asks questions.

This photo was taken by Paul, just to show that I do exist !!I always seem to be behind the camera (looking at my face I can see why!!)

We all enjoyed the show and talking to so many interested people,not only other wargamers,but members of the non-wargaming community and traders.

A real let-down was that Prince August had "promised" to send me some "flyers" and marketing material,but they didn't!! I think this was a marketing opportunity missed,but hey what do I know?

Our thanks to Rob and all the other organisers for their great effort,we are looking forward to next year already!!

Marlburian game 26.8.12. John vs Graham and Paul.

We had a very interesting and exciting game last night,with Graham and Paul against me.The scenario,map and statistics are shown below.

The first couple of moves were spent manoevering our troops,me marching my Austrians towards the village,being closely followed by Graham,and Paul moving towards the Manor house.Both Graham na Paul commenced with a general bombardment of my positions,which did a little damage,but not as much as my artillery fire on their centre!!

This shot shows the Village which I occupied with one regiment of Austrians,posting the rest along the Stream banks.

This is Von Lidl's manor house and orchard, which was bravely defended by a veteran regiment of British infantry,for almost the whole of the game.

This shows Grahams "abortive" attack on the village beginning, my artillery was "poor" at long range,but made up for it when the French came within cannister range.

This photo shows the central positions of both armies,note the French cavalry starting to move forward to attack my Austrians.I counter attacked and was pushed back,we both reinforced the melee and I was eventually successful and Graham was pushed back.

After a long fire-fight against the Manor house,Paul decided that he would attempt to take it by storm,this resulted in four melee's against the walls,and eventually he did get in and captured the position,but not before he was given a "bloody nose".In the background you can see the British and French foot Guards blasting away at each other.

This is a shot of the Cavalry battle on my left flank,this was decisive,and led to the collapse of the Franco-Bavarian centre,as Graham's cavalry were beaten and I moved behind his central line of infantry!!

Ah this is what wargaming is all about,fun and laughter and jolly banter!!!!

Paul's French Picardie regiment occupying the Manor house,this caused me to have to move my whole centre back a bit as he was now on my flank.

The British have moved back in this shot,to a better position where I can get my two reserve regiments into the firing line,note the gap which has appeared in the French line,and the French cav. being pushed back,exposing the infantry.

This shot shows Paul's left flank cavalry being beaten,and having to retire through his Bavarian infantry,although he did have a reserve cav. unit ready to do me some damage!

Oh dear! the French centre has collapsed and Graham has decided that enough is enough, and has ordered his troops to retire (that,as every wargamer knows,is another way of saying "run away!!!)

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game,played in good spirit,and could have gone either way,as the two objectives were not taken by the Franco-Bavarians, I claimed a victory,however my Left Flank was in real jeopardy,and if I was a gentlemen, I would say a draw was a fairer result.

Roll on Saturday and Border Reiver at Gateshead stadium.