The hills are alive !!

I decided to create some very simple hills today,using hardboard cut with my new jigsaw.I painted the new hills using poster paint ( very cheap ) The first photoshows my Republican Legions on a long ridge facing a Carthaginian army, we will be playing this game on Thursday night.


This is a shot of the Carthaginians,composed of Spanish,Africans,Elephants and Cavalry, what it doesn't show is the sneaky Celtic warriors "lurking" in an ambush position, in the following photos can you spot where that could be ?

This is a view of the Roman commander surveying his troops from a position called "well out of the way"

Does this look like an ambush position ? NOOOOOOO!!

As you can see the hardboard contours with a couple of trees and a bit of a mountain, look quite effective.

This shows the Romans from another angle showing the contours of the hills.
The photo below shows a hill etc. on the Carthaginian left flank,no ambush trops here though!

Another boring shot of the Legions fronted by "velites", ready and willing to do battle with the invading Carthaginians.

This shows the Roman commabder's HQ hill complete with trees and mountain,obtained from local pet store.

The photo below shows what every self repecting Hannibal would class as a great position for an ambush,if the Roman cavalry on this flank moves forward,then a horde of screaming Celts might,just might, emerge from hiding and give them such a fright!! A typical case of Punic Treachery.

I hope the rest of the group like these hills and contours,they are very flexible and easily stored, and , like the Windmill , will play a very prominent part in every game from now on.

The 25P Windmill.

Our last few games with our Marlburian armies have highlighted a serious omission in our buildings and terrain features,ie.Windmills !! So to put things right I decided ,today, to ,make a cheap windmill.I bought a model house from a car boot sale years ago, and have never used it, so I thought I could use the model as the basis for my windmill.


This photo shows the house with glued on "sails" made from card.

This photo shows the sails painted a basic brown,so far so good.

This photo shows the sails painted further to show the "lat" effect.

This photo shows the finished windmill with central pinion painted on.

This final photo shows the windmill "in situ" on top of a high and windy hill with a passing regiment of troops.

I can almost guarantee that this windmill will appear in every wargame we have for the next few weeks, be it Marlburian, Napoleonics, Ancients (!!) etc.

The way we play.

The way we play and the "rules" we use are our own house rules,they suit the way we play and the size of games we play.Most of our battles contain approx.300-400 figs. per side and we get through about 10 moves per night and always get a result.we start our Sunday night games at 6.30 and finish at roughly 9.30, having stopped for coffee and biscuits, and to put the world right for 10 mins. or so.Our rules are based on each unit having a Morale score and a Fighting score,being whittled down until we deem it right that the unit must take a morale test,depending on the result the unit will either stand or break...veery simple but we rely on historical knowledge and good common sense most of the time.The above photograph shows our Instruments of Torture.Three dice (all oversize and made of soft rubber so figs. are not damaged) an ordinary average dice,an Officer killed dice and an Artillery dice,complete with Artillery "bounce " dice,used with our Napoleonic and Marlburian games.The sticks are used for all movement measuring , and are sectioned into 4 ,for 1/4,1/2,3/4 and full moves.

As you can see we believe in simplicity and don't get bogged down with charts and complicated mathematics,after all it's a hobby and is supposed to be relaxing not taxing !!!

Isn't Christmas great ?

Immortals from Irregular Miniatures.

Eastern Camp Followers from Irregular Miniatures

Another shot of these Eastern "beauties" cooking over open fires.

Obviously I can't get enough of these ladies !

Roman "crowd scene" comprising slaves ,ladies and civilians from Irregular.

Crowd scene plus Western Camp Followers all from Irregular Miniatures.

These little " Vignettes " add a little bit of interest to the wargames table and i enjoyed painting them,all gifts from my kids and my sister.

Newly painted Roman Cavalry.

Below are the newly finished Roman Cavalry,supplied by Lancashire Games,they are very big and would not fit in with rest of my 25mm figures,however they are ideal for my Prince August Roman army.The figures themselves were easy to paint,the shields are supplied with embossed emblems,plain and with a central spine.

This is the second unit of Romans I've finished as well as a unit of Gallic cavalry,my next unit will also be Gallic ,followed by another Roman and finally a Gallic one,then I'll be looking for something else to paint !!

Game on Thursday 19th January 2012

Paul and I played this game on Thursday night.

Itook the part of a Roman Commander
whose task it was to capture a Gallic

Town.This photo shows my troops actually storming into the defences at the end of the game,after a long and very costly assault.



This is my assault against the town itself

which took three cohorts to crack it,the hut,representing the chief's citadel,is on fire due to some good shooting by my bolt throwing machines.Our representation of a Testudo formation can be seen just about to cross the bridge,this is very basic and consists of

painted card covering the fifures.

This is a view from the Gallic side of the board,from behind their defenceslooking over the river at the advancing cohorts.The Roman force consisted of 10 cohorts,3 heavy cavalry one light cavalry unit and one skirmish unit.The Gallic army consisted of 7 Warbands,one light cav. unit and one skirmish unit and three heavy cav. units.


This photo shows my number 1,2,3 and 4 cohorts crossing the river at the start of the game,I hate to admit it but my number one cohort (elite) was very roughly handled and was forced to retire,oh the shame of it!!

All in all this was a great game and Paul ended up the winner,even though i captured the town ,because his heavy cav. beat my heavy cav. so soundly in their first encounter that they were forced to take a morale test, which they failed miserably,to the point that they all turned tail and ran away!!

Paul has shown me how to transfer photo's, all I have to do now is remember what he said,hopefully more reports are on their way.

On Sunday we are refighting Oudenarde 1708, keep watching this space.....

Game Pics

Well it has been sometime since I posted anything on the blog and I must blame work for this. Yes I have been blocked from updating during my lunch break at work due to an over zealous filter on our internet access!
To get me back into the swing of things I have dug out these photos of a game we played before Christmas. This was a Spanish Succession game and the scenario was set by Graham. Basically an Allied army positioned between 2 villages was to be attacked by a larger French army. John and I commanded the allies and Graham and Paul the French and Bavarians. The first photo is actually from late in the game and shows my English troops advancing against the French centre after defeating the French assault on the left hand village.

The next photo shows the French and Bavarian attack on the centre of the Allied line.

A view of the attack on the Allied right hand village. John held this village under intense pressure until late in the battle.

Another view of the same attack.

The next two photos show Grahams French cavalry as they sweep round the allied left, only to be isolated and eventually retire.

A general view of the battlefield at the end of the game. Having defeated the French to my front I hae advanced against the French centre and John has sent his cuirassiers to support me. These have just charged into the exposed French right.

On the opposite flank Paul has cleared Johns defenders from the village and disordered the allied centre.

The photo below shows this disorder.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game, which we used to try out our new morale rules and these worked extremely well, given a very realistic outcome. John will post some information on these at a later date.

A final photo of my English. I picked these guys up on Ebay a couple of years ago and they were a bargain at £2 a figure.

Well thats all for now but I do hope that we can start to update more regularly. I follow a number blogs and it can be quite frustrating when updates are few and far between. From a personal point of view, as John has already posted, I have continued to paint my GNW figures and have just started painting some samurai figures. Why? I had them lying in a cupboard and thought I would paint them and sell them. Well now I have painted a few I am not so sure! I am intrigued by the Impetus rules and might give them a go with the Samurai. I have always been interested in Japan and worked there a few years ago (taking the opportunity to visit a few castles!) so this may be a new period for me to try. I will post a few photos soon.

It just remains for me to say a belated happy new year to everyone and I hope the next post will be very soon.

Happy New Year2012,update.

Happy New Year everybody, just a short update as to what is happening and what we are all up to.

First of all some really good and exciting news, we have been asked to put on a demonstration game at this year's Border Reiver show which takes place on 1st September at the Gateshead Stadium .We will be staging an Ancients battle involving my new Prince August Legions vs PA Ancient Britons, so should be quite spectacular. We are also "pencilled in" for Smoggycon, lots going on so far !

I have completed my Xmas contingent of Persian Immortals and Western and Eastern camp followers and Roman Civilians, and have started on some Roman and Gallic cavalry which I ordered from Lancashire Games. Imust thank Tom for his very quick turnaround of my order and the friendly service and help he showed me.

Davey is painting everthing that doesn't move at the moment including Tipoo Sultan figs, Great Northern War figs. and SAMURAI !!! what's that all about Dave ??

Graham is still working his way through his Napoleonic's and our pal Michael's Napoleonics, one day he'll finish them all and concentrate on his other projects,ie. WWII,Franco-Prussian and any others he hasn't told us about,-you didn't think we'd forget did you ?

I'm still trying to find out how to transfer photo's onto the Blog, hopefully sometime this week then I'll really be able to go to town with game reports etc.