I See Dead People

How long have I wanted to use that line from the film The Sixth Sense in a post title !

Since starting to play Field of Glory at the beginning of the year I have been slowly building a collection the various gaming accessories required such as measuring sticks, dice, scenery and markers. It was at this juncture that I decided I needed to develop a system to illustrate cohesion of units. Thankfully, the Field of Glory rules go to the trouble of explaining the different ways of illustrating cohesion with helpful pictures. The three options they suggest are; offsetting and turning bases to show the level of cohesion, also the counter method placing coloured counters down  next to the  relevant battle group.  The third and preferred option in my case is to paint up dead figure markers.  For these guys Donningtion came up trumps with their wonderful collection of causality markers which I have been dutifully painting up in between battle groups.  Furthermore Seb at the CLWC contributed to my body count by gifting me an selection of Celts and Spanish casualties by Xyston.

The Donnington Figures were mounted on some disk bases with their edges painted green, red or black  to indicate the cohesion level a bit of flock was added after as wash with Paines gray oils to define the lowlights.   I am hopeful that these dead guys will add to the look for the look of the table along with simply demonstrating to me the level of catastrophe I have managed to get my army in to! 

Alternately, I went to all the trouble of painting up these dead guys so I could compose a blog post entitled I See Dead People!    

Baggage

Clearly one of the major priorities for a wargamer such as myself who lives in a metropolitan area and depending on the public transport infrastructure is how to get me and my army from home to work and then on to the wargames club. Thus raises the question; how should figures be transported safely?

The first option was to borrow my wife’s floral print hold all which seems strangely appropriate way to carry the Mid Republican Roman Army I borrowed from Andy. This did cause a number smirks from some of the mothers in the school playground, when I arrived bag in hand to drop my daughter off for her day at school.  In response to the raised eyebrows my choice of baggage caused I stated that I was comfortable enough with my masculinity to wonder around with a lady's floral print bag.

Nevertheless, I still had the problem of how best to transport my new Imperial Roman figures. After cogitating the various options open to me it struck me that a couple of years ago I received a free gift of a figure case when I visited a Salute. Remembering this I went on to the KR Multicase website to order some foam trays fit it. Fantastic, all sorted. I even justified the purchase to my  wonderful wife  by saying that it was likely that most of my figure would be horribly killed the ensuing game so the least I could do is ensure that they could travel there and back in relative comfort. She concurred with a loving smile.

With the all the components acquired it was just left to me to work out how best to pack the army. Could I remember where I put the freebee case? Err… no idea. After empting every cupboard and checking every illogical place at home and finding things that I had previously lost and given up on I drew a complete blank on where the case might be. In the back of my mind I have the suspicion that this case may of fallen victim to my wife’s cleaning and de-cluttering regime  which at times can take on a slightly Stalinist ilk.

Despite this drawback I did stumble upon a laptop case which seems to fit the bill as my new figure case, due tobeing the correct size to take the foam trays. Hay presto, now when I show up in the school playground on the day of a game my army will be incognito encased in a rather suave black laptop case... Good morning Mums ;)       

The Last Units

Well it’s been a long time coming but last weekend I finally finished the last two battle groups in my Early Imperial Roman Army. This part of the army is the shoot and scoot elements, with four bases of horse archers to provide a flexible flanking force. These equites sagittari are Donnington figures and look great now they are painted up, although I did have some reservations about the level of detail when I first got them.

In addition to the equites sagittari I completed a battle group of Numibian Light Horse to chase down Light Foot and deal with any nellies which might show up. The Numibian figures are by Corvus Belli. These figures are some of the most beautifully animated in the scale no two are in the same pose, a beautiful representation of irregular troops.

Tonight I want to finish painting the three command stands which will complete the army. So a little less talk and a little more painting is the order of the day me thinks...

"The Sentinel of Verdun"

On my last post I made a slight diversion over the colour of the Red Baron’s plane. Manfried von Richthofen gained notoriety over the battlefields of France piloting his Red Fokker Dr.1.  

Despite this von Richthofen was not the first to take to the skies in a Red Aeroplane. That accolade belongs to French aviator Jean Navarre.

Jean Navarre (Wiki)

Navarre served  in the French armee d’l’aire throughout the First World War becoming one of the first aces in history aerial combat. The combination of this reputation and flying recognisable red Nieuport 11 ‘Babe’ designed  to challenge and intimidate the enemy in the skies over Verdun, well before Richthofen  would gain notoriety as the 'Red Baron'.  Furthermore the sight Navarre’s aircraft to men on the ground engaged in the struggle for the fortress at Verdun proved to be a great boost to morale. This is apparent by the nickname Navarre earned;"The Sentinel of Verdun".

.

Jean Navarre's Nieuport 11 'Babe' (Wiki)

Combat operations and the loss of his brother took a terrible toll on Narvarre he suffered from what today would be diagnosed as Post traumatic stress disorder. Despite this he survived the war.

However, his end is possibly the most tragic part of the story.  In response to the High Command’s order that French aviators should march the victory parade on the Champs Elysees and not fly over it. This was unacceptable and taken as an insult by the veteran pilots, who responded by selecting Navarre to fly under the Arc de Triomphe during the festivities in an act of defiance to this perceived snub. While practicing the stunt the week before Narvarre’s plane crashed killing him. He was 23 years of age.      

A Few More Romans or Shiny Romans Holding Bows

As regular readers will have noticed the picture I posted of my newly painted slingers  on the last post was rubbish, so here an other slightly better shot which gives a impression of a few of them. 

 

Over the weekend I completed a couple of bolt shooters these are a mix and match battle group using one Corvus Belli set and the other is a Donnington miniatures set kitted out in a the earlier style of Roman uniform dating from the period of the Marius reforms.

This mix and match approach appeals to my sense of non uniformity in uniforms. Although it  is most likely highly inaccurate to mix the uniforms from two different periods. Nevertheless the concept of non uniformity is explored in part in a useful article, albeit relating to 20th century conflict, entitled “Why Was the Red Baron's Fokker Painted Red? Decoding the Way Aeroplanes Were Painted in the First World War” War History July 2001 vol. 8. 

As well as these additions I finished off my battle groups archers eight stands in total. I am pleased with the way these guys have turned out, never having fielded archers before I wonder how they fair once I get them into battle?