What's on the modelling table today?

I've not made a lot of progress this week due to time constraints, but I did manage to clean up and prepare for painting the first batch of 20/25mm ancient figures.  These are the HAT Roman Auxiliary Infantry and Parthian Light Cavalry sets, together with a few Minifigs Roman Cavalry.  I'm hoping to get them all covered with PVA (the plastics) and primer (the metal figures) later today.  More about the classical warfare project in a future post.

The usual mess on the tabletop. 

The HAT figures after cleaning up,  washing, assembly and fixing to temporary bases for painting.

And finally - a recent deal with Steve T involving some Airsoft gear resulted in the arrival of this box of 20mm toys.  More on this later, when I've had time to assess the contents, but I offer the photo above mainly to generate jealousy - especially among my NZ readers.  Sorry Paul.

Ancient Naval Game

The discovery of a number of (still bagged) 1/1200 scale Navwar ancient galleys recently reminded me that  already had some painted examples.  These were bought already painted and as it turns out are the rather expensive (£2.50 a boat) Langton models.  Not bad to say that I bought the lot (20 painted and 20 part-painted) for £15 about 10 years ago!
Last Wednesday I decided to give them an outing and dug out a copy of a DBA variant which John and I had tried as recently as 1999...  Our rosy memories of the rules didn't correspond with the game we had last week, so I need to find another simple ancient period naval game.  Anyway dear reader, here is some eye candy to keep you amused.

Inept manoeuvring led to a head-on clash between the two fleets (me on the left and John on the right).

My dice rolling was, even by the low standards I normally meet, particularly awful!

My line (with the full sails) is eaten away by Johns (furled sails).

John (for it is his finger) points to his victorious (or plain lucky?) admiral.

Camel Cataphracts - more news

Further to my recent post on armoured camels, there followed an email exchange with John Bassett.  John writes: 
<< Enjoyed your recent blog on the cataphract camels. They certainly seem to have existed in real life, and were in used in battle against the Romans in the early C3 AD - towards the end of the Parthian empire and a generation before Harry Sidebottom's "Ballista" books.

Our source is a contemporary history written by the Roman senator Herodian. He wrote a history that starts with the death of Marcus "Richard Harris" Aurelius, covers the reign of the demented, tyrannical Commodus (Joaquim Phoenix...), his assassination, the subsequent civil wars, the rise and rule of Septimius Severus and the brief and blood-thirsty reigns of his various relatives, culminating in the rise and brutal fall of the demented teenage trans-sexual god-emperor Elagabalus. Something for everyone here, and a brief stage appearance by Parthian cataphract camels can only have added to this unedifying if colourful pageant. Anyway, Herodian IV.14.3 - the battle of Nisibis, AD 217:

"Meanwhile Artabanus was upon them with his vast and powerful army
composed of many cavalry and an enormous number of archers and
cataphracts who fought on camels, jabbing with long spears."

No real reason you couldn't use them in a Sassanid army, as they took over various parts of the Parthian army, including the horsed cataphracts. I doubt there were any at Carrhae - the camels there are mentioned as supply animals, but who knows...

I don't recognise the model camels. I have some Minifigs armoured camels from about 1975, and they are only armoured on the chest and shoulders (if that's what camels have...). I wonder if the full armour may be conversion work by JR from Garrison originals?

The riders do look like Minifigs PB cataphracts. The only designated camel riders that Minifigs made in the early 70s were lightly armed Arabs and Palmyran caravan guards, before issuing a Parthian armoured camel lancer figure at the end of the 1970s.
I still have a great fondness for this period (both the Greek and Roman world and the 1970s!) as the first "proper" wargames figures I got in 1974 were Minifigs 25mm Greeks. I still play with them. >>
Thanks again to John for his useful information.  I can say that the armour is definitely not conversion work.  Since the earlier post, two further batches of camels have emerged from the dust - photos coming soon!

Camel Cataphracts - and why not?

I was originally going to call this post 'Dusty Warriors', but the late Richard Holmes had already bagged it.  On Sunday afternoon I set about doing more tidying up of some of the figures rescued from JR's attic last month.  With the aid of a 2-inch paintbrush the worst of the dust (see the photo in my previous post) has now been removed from these chaps - to reveal some really rather nice paintwork.  Can anyone help with identifying the manufacturer?

My plan is to base up the painted figures and (in the fullness of time...) paint some more in order to get some use out of these rather splendid figures. I have noticed that these older 25mm metal figures are fairly compatible with many of the newer plastics - and Martin has many of the latter which we have used in Strategos / Lost Battles games.  

Clearly I was drawn to the sheer ridiculousness of what WRG used to call 'Extra-Heavy Camelry' - what better place to start?

JR toy sort-out. Part 2

The sorting out has so far been confined to putting stuff in 'themed' boxes.  The sheer quantity of figures came as something of a surprise.  This post deals with the pre-gunpowder 25mm toys.  The main manufacturers represented (as far as I can tell) are Minifigs, Hinchliffe and Garrison - from the days when 25mm figures were actually 25mm tall!

Quite a mixture in here - mostly Romans, and about half a dozen chariots.

Some painted stuff too - including pikemen, light cavalry and Sassanid levy infantry.

Another real mixture of figures - including some Dark Age axe swinging types.

Mostly Assyrians and Greeks in here.

Lots of pikemen and Thracians.  The small box contains Napoleonic figures - I recognise the cavalry and remember using them in games in the late '70s.

Marathon 490 BC battle report

At the Wargames Club last Wednesday night we gave some of my 6mm toys an outing, using Command & Colours Ancients to refight the battle of Marathon.  I oversaw proceedings while John Armatys donned the crested helmet of Callimachus and led the Greeks.  The Persians were led (from a rather effete chariot) by Martin Rapier as Datis.  Martin and I had previously fought this battle using Strategos (see http://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2009/09/battle-of-marathon.html) when I managed to produce an historically authentic disaster through my leadership of the Persians.

Most of the photos are taxen from my position on the Persian left/Greek right.  Hereafter and for clarity, left and right refer to the Persian point of view.

The initial set up from the Persian side.

On the Greek first turn, a load of hoplites led by Callimachus ran forward (even as a bystander it looked scary|) and engaged the Persian left.

A couple of Persian units were pushed back and a modest quantity of blood was spilled.

Top right can be seen Datis in his chariot (the round stand).

The Greek centre.

The Greek attack continues against the Persian left - the opposing leaders are now in adjacent hexes!

The Greeks press forward against the Persian auxilia and archers.

Under pressure, Datis runs off across the stream.

Meanwhile, in the centre/right, the Persian archers twang away furiously.

Datis's bodyguard after an unequal struggle with some Greeks.

Datis finds himself unexpectedly in the front line!  As the King of King's representative was heard to say at the time - "about bloody time, I've been trying to lure the Greeks across this river all f***ing game!"

The Persian centre/right advances.

Datis leads his cavalry against Callimachus and not very many hoplites.  Disappointingly, both leaders survived.

While the Persian left crumbled, Artaphernes led the rest of the cavalry in an impressive sortie against the Greeks

At this point, a further Persian unit died and the Greeks claimed victory.  European civilization has been saved!

300 Spartans...

...well, give or take 290 or so.  These chaps were my first ever metal wargames figures - I acquired them (I was at least their third owner) in 1978!  They are 25mm castings by Garrison - a company whose products were quite popular, not least because they were cheaper (2p per figure I think) than Hinchliffe!  Once upon a time I owned quite a large quantity of 25mm Ancients - mostly Greek/Macedonian/Successor/Persian types.  The first rules I used for this period were WRG 5th Edition, followed by 6th Edition and TTG's Shock of Impact. 7th Edition didn't do a lot for me, but my spirits were revived somewhat by the launch of DBA in 1990.  
I took the decision to move on the 25mm Ancients about 12 years ago, as they hadn't been out of their boxes for several years, but I couldn't bear to part with our Spartan chums.  Rediscovered after my most recent house move five years ago, they have been standing on a shelf gathering an impressive quantity of dust.

As they are purely a display piece these days, I recently stuck them onto a single large base.

'Telegraph pole' spears much in evidence! 

 And finally - how much did I pay for them all those years ago?  £1.00 for ten painted figures.  Those were the days!

The battle of Bagradas, 253BC

Previous 'ancient' period battle reports on this blog have generally used Phil Sabin's excellent Strategos II rules.  While I am still a big fan of the good professor's work I was recently introduced (by John Drewienkiewicz) to GMT's 'Command & Colours' game.  This game used the core mechanisms from such games as Memoir '44 and Battle Cry with which I had a passing acquaintance.

The photo below shows some of the contents of the box - rules, scenario book (15 scenarios), dice and cards.  The game also includes a hex gridded board and hundreds of wooden blocks as playing pieces.  What really appealed to me was that John's game used 15mm toys on Hexon boards.  It looked pretty good.  Regular readers will be aware that I am no stranger to Hexon and that my ancient armies are in 6mm.  Smaller than 15mm so they should fit in the hexes - right?  Some experimenting revealed that it should indeed work and my order for the game was placed.

To give C&C a try out, I prepared the Bagradas scenario.  This was an encounter between a Roman army under Regulus and the Carthaginians led by the Greek Xanthippus.  I had a reasonable representation of the armies available as the result of a series of recent 'accidents' on ebay....  In the game Martin Rapier played the canny Xanthippus (6 order cards) while I took the role of the overconfident and bungling Regulus (only 4).

As usual all photos are taken from my (the Roman) point of view.

Regulus is seen here leading a unit of medium infantry.  More mediums are to the right, heavies behind and elephant fodder in front. Most figures are by Baccus.

The core of the Carthaginian line - heavy infantry (there were 4 such units) and elephants (3).  The red counter was there to mark the line between the central and right (from my point of view) sectors of the table.

The very aggressively handled Carthaginian light horse get stuck into their opposite numbers on my left flank.

The Roman right  - skirmishers exchange volleys of pointy sticks.

More skirmishing, this time on the left.  Note the cheeky Punic cavalry on the left.  Regulus's subordinate is in the centre.

The Roman left continues to disintegrate - the medium cavalry unit at the bottom of the frame already has 2 hits (3 kills it) and is about to run off.

More skirmishing on the right - now minus the Roman light cavalry.

The Roman left surges forward and sees off Martin's skirmish line.

The Roman 2ic seizes his chance for glory.

The elephants rumble forward - sadly the Roman light infantry were unable to stem this tide (that's their job) so Nelly and friends were able to attack one of my medium infantry units.  Not good.  It died horribly.

Endgame - the surviving elephant (centre left) squares up to the Roman 2ic.  In a pretty historical outcome both of my flanks have taken a bashing and the centre is still on the starting blocks.

Quite a jolly evening's entertainment - from start to finish in less than 2 hours - including several instances of looking things up in the main rules.  The next scenario (possibly in 2 weeks) is Ticinus River in 218BC - Scipio versus Hannibal.

Graham Evans Games Day 2010

Saturday saw me travel to Graham Evans' house near Northampton for his annual games day.  This has been going now for about 6 years and I think I have attended every one.  Graham and I were joined by Tony Hawkins, Ian Drury and John Bassett.

The first game of the day was a further instalment of the series set in the fictional African state of Zambola.  The game was governed by simple rules and driven by 'matrix' arguments.  The toys used were mostly Peter Pig 15mm.

Zambola was until last year subject to the just and benign rule of President for Life Joga-Joga.  The President went missing following reports of heavy fighting in Zambola's desert area and the resulting power vacuum saw a struggle developing between former presidential henchman Colonel Condimenti and the late President's foreign-educated son Luke Joga-Joga.  The ever troublesome insurgent faction under the notorious 'Fat Boy' was also in on the act. 

The start of this game was delayed slightly until the last player arrived in a car kindly provided by his previous appointment:

Clearly I cannot possible disclose this individual's name.  It is not for us to mock his personal grooming choices.

The game involved the various factions trekking into one of Zambola's remoter regions in search of the late(?) President's loot.  Here, in a scene reminiscent of the 'Wacky Races' the column led by the mysterious 'Mr J' overtakes Col. Condimenti near Africa's only Bhuddist temple.  All toys and terrain from Graham's collection.

As everyone arrives near the Presidential palace, the mysterious 'Mr J' (seen here atop the Unimog next to the two Toyota 'technicals') proclaims himself to be none other than President for Life Joga'Joga himself.  Inspired no doubt by the mysterious 'Mr B' in the first photo, his evidence consists of the President's tattoo on his (waxed) manly chest.

Sadly the loyal Presidential Guards don't believe a word and open fire!

Eventually the guards were convinced and the palace occupied.  The safe was cracked and the codes found for the Swiss bank accounts.  Sadly though, Luke's men threw them on the fire...  I blame his mother.

The game ended in a clear victory (hey, this is my blog after all) for the true President for Life - Joga-Joga himself.  Despite having been shot at by everyone in every game for the last six years.  That's enough evidence of divine powers for me!

After a fine lunch in a local hostelry we gathered around Graham's other (so rich!) wargames table for a refight of the Battle of Magnesia.  The original took place in 190BC in what is now Turkey between a Roman force under Lucius Cornelius Scipio (the brother of the famous one) and the Seleucid Army under Antiochus III The Great (your humble correspondent).  The Seleucid Army consisted of a wide variety of troop types including a large Pike Phalanx (all 20mm plastic figures)

...and gimmicks such as scythed chariots.  Like their historical counterparts these were completely useless!

An attentive Tony ( - playing Seleucus - making this two games in a row where he played my son!) hangs on Graham's every word.  Crawler.

The Romans were in fact led on the field by loyal Greek ally Eumenes (left) and Domitius (right).

The Seleucid right advances under my inspired (as against competent) leadership.  As always (in my experience) the elephants didn't last long!

The Roman left crumbles under a combined arms assault and several matrix arguments.

My brave lads envelop the Roman left wing while the Phalanx does...well, not very much really.  I forget what happened after this photo was taken.  I expect we won.  I mean, the right wouldn't have fled after the phalanx was wiped out by legionaries - would it.

On the plus side, what happened was a pretty historical result and so, as I, Antiochus III 'The Great'  write this in the dustbin of history I console myself with that thought.