The "Pain in Spain".

Last night,because Dave was watching the Cricket,and Brian was sunning himself in the Costa del Mablethorpe,Paul,Graham and I had this absolutely "cracking" Marlburian game.

Top photo is the "scenario",bottom photo is the table before any movement.I elected to command the Spanish,whilst Paul commanded the Horse and Irish,leaving Graham to command the Bavarians(obviously not Historically correct!!) Paul had the objective of capturing the central hill,and Graham had the very difficult task of capturing the town................

This is the town,let's call it Mablethorpe-if you look carefully you can see Brian,wearing his shorts and "flip-flops",sitting by the pool,sipping his ice cold latte!!

The game got off to a "blistering" start,by both Paul and I moving our front-line cavalry into contact,whilst Paul attacked the hill with his Irish brigade-cracking stuff!-Meanwhile Graham was positioning his Bavarians to start his attack on "Mablethorpe"!

The central hill is under serious attack,and now I have to contend with the Bavarians attacking my troops guarding the town(I refuse to keep calling it Mablethorpe!)-mixed fortunes for both sides,but I am just "edging" it(for now!!)

Top photo shows the cavalry battle in full swing,bottom shows the main Bavarian force advancing on the town-colouful and exciting!

The Irish are taking a right old "hammering",and my cavalry are winning most of the melees-is this the time to say that I might just win this??

NO!!! in a most horrible turn of fortune,Paul gained the flank,the central hill,and Graham was now "knocking on the door" of the town-how do I do it???

With my left flank gone,the central hill troops fleeing,and the Bavarians demanding entry to the town,I had to admit defeat(but not dishonour!)

One final shot-very few Spanish troops remain on the field-however,this was a great game ,as usual,full of rude banter,laughs and cameraderie-what more could you ask for?(a win would be nice!!)

In my earlier blogs I mentioned that I had sent away to Lancashire Games for some 15mm Barbarians to fight my 15mm Romans-well,I have been busy painting these fine little figures,and now have 10 warbands,only another 20 or so to go!!.....................

I am knocking these out at 3 warbands per day,which accounts for the poor painting(that's my excuse,and I'm sticking to it!) but "en masse" they look ok-how will they do against the Romans?

You can almost smell the garlic!-I have also been painting up some Warrior Roman aux, archers.

Lovely little figures-I also have two Ballista to make up and paint-more of them next week.

 

All's well,that ends well!

I have a "sat-nav" thingy in my car that I have never used(I've had the car for three years!) because I can't be bothered to read the instructions! Last week I ordered from Warrior Miniatures,2 card-printed Roman Milecastles-they duly arrived and I was presented with,you've guessed it,Instructions!!!!!,so of course I ignored the Instructions and just got on with making the models.....

Instruction sheet(fine print!) and tools,milecastles for the use of,-what could possibly go wrong if I just ignored the Instructions??

Top photo is one of four sheets,printed with all the walls,gates and buildings for the job,bottom photo is a plan for you to stick onto a thicker card or hardboard-this is "idiot-proof"-oh yeah? well they hadn't reckoned on "who needs instructions Jonnie-boy!!"

I managed to get totally mixed up with North Walls,South Walls,NE/NW/SE/SW walls,and ended up with having to "bodge" two milecastles into one large "fort"-however,the end result looks ok,as long as a close inspection isn't called for....................

Two shots of the ,almost finished "Fort"-The instructions tell you to paint the walls etc before making the model,otherwise the card will buckle-but I didn't read the bloody instructions did I? so I elected to colour only the gates,buildings roofs and wall tops,using felt tip pens................

The finished article-quite pleasing to the eye(well,half a half shut one!)

Finally,some of my 15mm Romans to show the scale.The morale to this tale must be, if there are instructions,they are there for a reason-so use them!!

 

Idle?-Never!

Over the past two weeks,after suffering IT breakdown,(but now cured!) I have painting the following...................

 It looks like a Roman Legion-it is a Roman Legion,but in 15mm!-I will be using these figures(from Warrior Miniatures) for my solo gaming.They are superb and just what I wanted-easily painted,the right amount of detail and animation.

I ordered two "Roman Armies",and with a bit of manipulation of the command groups,and a combination of the two armies into one,I have 10 cohorts of legionaries,plus 10 cohorts of auxiliaries,plus 3 cohorts of reserves,plus 6 squadrons of cavalry,and command groups!!-not bad for £36 plus P&P......................

Top photo is detail of the legionaries,bottom is detail of the auxiliaries,and my simple painting effort-6 colours per figure!

Spear-armed cavalry and sword-armed cavalry-full of character and movement.

Detail of command groups-bottom photo also shows the sword-armed legionaries of my reserve cohorts.

Now Warrior don't do any "opposition" figures for the Romans,eg. Gauls/Brits. so I contacted Allan at Lancashire games,and he sent me some samples of his 15mm Gauls(foot and mounted),they duly arrived and I quickly painted them(extra quick painted!!) to see if they fit in with my Warrior figures................

The cavalry are OPC (One Piece Castings) and are really very good,the infantry are a bit "slimmer"(I wish I was!) and a bit "bendy" on the ankles,but with a bit of care they will do very well indeed-so much so that I have placed an order for a "boat-load",which should arrive this week.

What does every good Roman Legion need to get it to foreign lands?-Why a boat of course! I have had this "diminutive" model for years,and decided to make it up to see if I could possibly use it in a scenario for my Legion..................

It's pretty,if nothing else!

We had planned to play this Sunday,but unfortunately we can't,but watch this space!

First game after "lock down"

We had our first game of this horrible year last night,but only three of us turned up,but never the less we had a very enjoyable game,pitting Brian's Spartacus army against the might of Brian's plastic Roman legions!

 

This is the scenario and troop dispositions before any movement-Brian was Sartacus,Graham was Crixus and I commanded the two legions commanded by Crassus and Gellius-I had four bits of paper with "Spartacus" written on them all,so that when the "boys" picked up the papers to see what command they had,they would all say"I'm Spartacus"-oh how we would have laughed!! however with Paul and Dave being absent the joke fell flat!!! But,on with the game................

Graham has launched his Gallic contingent against Crassus' legion-this was a "spirited" attack,which was only just held by the Romans-wave after wave charged into the Roman line-exciting stuff,and it was good to be back among it!!(throwing dice and writing orders has been sorely missed!)

But what of Spartacus(aka Brian)? Well he was just biding his time until Gellius was near enough to his lines to employ his "secret" weapon!!-now I wonder what that could be?

"biding his time" Brian is awaiting the onslaught of the Romans,and looking to cool,in his black and white mask, for comfort,what could he be waiting for??

A general(no pun intended!) shot of the table,showing the on-going attacks in the background from Graham's Gauls,and and Brian's "biding" troops on their cosy and safe little hills.This was all to change,and soon!!

He's only gone and bought some "flaming logs!!"-these were rolled down both hills I was attacking causing considerable damage and disruption of my lines-the man's a swine!!-the "logs" were followed up by a most violent assault by his trained and untrained troops backed up by bloody Gladiators,who inflicted even more casualties-woe is me!!

Top photo Gladiators,bottom photo Trained troops!

Despite suffering 1st degree burns from the "burning logs" I am fighting back and winning most melees-however graham diverted some of his Gauls to attack my right flank,putting me under tremendous pressure!!

Graham is continuing to attack Crassus' legion,although he is suffering too many casualties to continue for much longer-my second line is just about to swap with the first and complete the misery of the Gauls-hurrah!!-however,things have taken a turn for the worse on the other flank,and Spartacus has "fired" his troops to renew their quest for freedom by winning melee after melee(although I did capture the far hill!)

Far hill captured-does this mean I have won?-NO!!!

Brian and Graham rightly(I suppose!) claimed a victory,but actually no-one was a loser or winner in this tremendous game-long may it continue,and we have decided to try another game next Sunday-well done to us all.......................

"Selfie" with Brian and Graham-all wearing masks and observing "social distancing".

Due to the completely changed format of the blog,and the almost impossible task of getting photographs onto the computer,this may be my last blog-it has gone from being a pleasurable experience to a most frustrating and stressful chore!-My IT department head(son) is trying to give me advice,but my IT knowledge is so poor that I feel that it isn't worth the effort any more,however I might give it another "go" when I calm down (when I say "calm down" I really mean that my old friend,Captain Morgan, might just have to consulted!!)