Saturday 31 March 2012

Auxilliary Romans




Although judging from my general sloth-like behaviour illustrated in some previous blog posts that I have made little or no impact in the pile of figures I am current working on. Nevertheless I have made a modicum of progress in the last couple of months. Illustrated here are some pictures of Auxiliary Roman battle groups by Corvus Belli.




There are the first 15mm figures I've painted so I am learning the techniques that are best suited with my painting style at that scale.




One criticism I can leave at myself is the pallet I use is to dark. This is compounded by the addition of an acrylic varnish which appears to darken the finish further.


Friday 30 March 2012

Group B Placings

The updated competition tables were distrusted this week. This illustrates my position in third place with a game in hand. Red indicates clear passage to the next round at the top of the group, amber is likely to go through in second place:

Alan Early Successor Played 3 46.8

Andy Later Seleucid Played 3 39.8

Jerry Mid Republican Roman Played 2 15.4

Simon Pyrrhic Played 2 8

Looking forward testing myself against Simon's Pyrric army later next month will I be able to do enough to dislodge Andy from his secure position of second place?

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Roma Vincit


Well Monday's game is done and the miracle occurred, I beat Alan’s Early Successor army by 1.8 points. Giving me my first Field of Glory victory 10.9 points to 9.1.

Any post battle analysis has to start by giving credit to Andy the owner of the Mid Republican Roman army I was using, firstly for the army, and secondly for the useful advise he dispensed after our tournament encounter and again directly before the game.

In previous games I managed to get my Roman cavalry killed with alarming regularity. So this time I dispensed with them opting for a battle group of Numidian Light Horse and an extra group of medium foot Italian allies.

The light horse paid dividends due to their manoeuvrability. Despite being placed on the right flank they managed to race across the field in front to the main battle line and intercept a battle group of elephants which were bearing down on the end of the line of legionnaires. This made all the difference to the end result because it occupied the elephants so they thought better of charging the legionnaires.

The deployment at the start of the game.

Despite losing the set up initiative roll at the beginning, the terrain fell in my favour providing me with a steep hill on the right flank and a large section of rough ground towards my left flank. In the centre I had a nice gentle hill to place a defensive line of legionnaires on and nullify Alan’s pike force since I didn’t think they would fancy attacking up hill.

Once my position was set I only had to worry about my flanks which were covered by a couple of battle-groups of superior legionnaires and a mix of light foot and auxiliaries.

The first rounds of fighting resulted in me losing a battle group of light foot on the left who ran away at the first sign of trouble. I made no impression against Alan’s light horse on the right. As a novice player I found myself out numbered in the in the shooting and combat phases so opted to pull out my remaining light troops and attempt to rally them.

On the right flank I moved forward a superior legionnaire battle group which had a couple of charges at the light horse. They managed to isolate themselves, at the time this worried me. Nevertheless, in retrospect I think this was a good thing to do since it kept his light horse in check, away from my main line and forced Alan to move troops across to counter them. Being superior they took a fair bit of punishment before they broke and ran.

The end positions to the from Alan's side of the table. you notice my legionnaires exiting on the fare left of the table and Alans battle groups breaking and exiting on the right.


However, it was on the left flank that the battle was decided. After having my velites chased from the rough ground by a combination of light and medium foot my other superior legionnaires stood up to charges first, from medium foot and then from superior cavalry both of which broke on their line. Alan’s light foot over ran its support and ended up being chased around my rear by triari. By the end of the game they found themselves in a precarious position of being surrounded on three sides by triari with velites closing on their position.

Alan's light foot finding themselves in a slightly unsavoury position by end of the game.

So far in the B4AD tournament I am one win and one loss. I was informed that I need to win the next game and score at least 25 points to displace Andy form second place in the group as Alan progresses to the next round being top of the group on points accrued despite my result. Naturally I will be supporting Alan to go all the way and win the tournament so I can claim a victory over the champion at the group stages!!

Photo credits : Alan.


Saturday 24 March 2012

Second Tournament Game

Monday evening approaches and it marks my second match in the Field of Glory B4AD club tournament. Since Andy mullered me with his purpose built, Roman killing, Seleucid army in my first match up any chance of progressing to the next round depends on achieving a big victory against Alan on Tommorrow. This is a big ask considering the quality of my opponent and my relative inexperience with FoG. Realistically, if I remain with five points of Alan at the end I'll be happy. Anything better will be nothing short of a miracle.

Missing School



A little while ago I kept my daughter home from school because she was ill. This resulted in us turning the living room in to creative art studio. With the aid of PVA, foam core, liners for hanging baskets and plaster gauze we set about making a huge mess, paintings and some items which maybe of interest to the world of modern art. Another dividend was a bit of terrain for the wargaming table. It is always great fun building with an eight-year-old and her creations from that day are now in pride of place in the kitchen.



While I am pleased to say I have a couple of hills, some rough ground and a gully to show for my efforts. And so far I don't think Mum has noticed the blue paint on the rug!









Tuesday 20 March 2012

(Not) Painting Figures

I am attempting to make a concerted effort to write for this blog and not bore myself at the same time. Currently I am painting up a 15mm Imperial Roman Army by Corvus Belli. These figure are fantastically detailed and a joy to paint. However, I am some what indolent when it comes to painting and the whole process is taking an internity because of my lack of motivation, rather spending my evenings watch disappointing re-runs on Film 4. Surely that film can't have been that bad first time round lets watch it again , just to check !! Generally a bad idea.

Back to figures while planning my army I got some great advise from the guys at the Central London Club. Which is the ideal club for people who don't like joining clubs.
The club's webpage resides on the Madaxeman website which also provided me with a very helpful guide to various 15mm figure manufactures which allowed me to explore the available options when choosing an army. Many thanks to Tim and all involved.

Resurrection of Minuature Inspiration

In the past couple of months I have started to wargame again after a few years away from the hobby. Since this blog has been lying idle for several years now I felt I could resurrect it to report on my various exploits in lead. Currently I am involved in a Field of Glory ancients tournament at the Central London Wargames Club, although I expect to be knocked out on Monday…

As many other wargamers do I thought it would be good to post occasional battle reports and other things that might catch my eye.

In my previous engagements of Field of Glory at the second time of trying I managed to pull a draw out of the bag against Alan’s Persian army using a Mid Republican Army kindly lent to me by a fellow member, Andy. The final stages of the battle are pictured below:


The second game was not so successful from my perspective, I lost! A full battle report can be read on Tamsin, my opponent’s, blog ...