WAB Sulla versus Mithradates

I played one of my first WAB games for 12 months a couple of weeks ago against Kevin Jowett and his son James. We played a game pitting Kevin's new Marian Roman army (previously mine) against my large Mithradatic army. We used the unpublished Successor Supplement written by Jeff Jonas. Rob Broom on his Warhammer Blog maintains this will be published in the future despite a very long wait already. I am sure if the writers and contributors lived in Nottingham it would have been published years ago. Rob maintains that there are not enough ranges available in 28mm or even painted armies to photograph and put in the book (he wanted everyone to send their figures to the UK to photograph as we cannot do a proper job it seems). Rant over but this has put me off WAB in the last 2 years, Warhammer Historical seems to think that the UK is the centre of the wargaming world. Back to the game, Kevin and James commanding a large Roman army of 13 cohorts and numerous skirmishers and cavalry gave the huge army of Mithradates (commanded by me) a good kicking. It was a good day with a very relaxed playing of the game, long lunch and a few too many drinks (white wine always gives me a headache). Enjoy the photos.

Murphy's law

I haven't posted for ages so when I finally decided to pull my finger out and get some photos up on the Blog the damn computer crashes. It has taken me a week to get it sorted so I hope everything goes well (so Steve if you are reading this I am very interested in Gilder's rules, email me at aydenrobert@hotmail.com). Here are some photos of the Sudan figures I am busy basing for our first game in 3 weeks. I have taken over the dining room table this last week but the missus has given them their marching orders before they have all been finished. Enjoy

Very naughty boy

Hi guys I have realised that I have been neglecting the Blog lately, it has been over 2 months since I last updated it. The main reason being I haven't painted or gamed much in the way of the Deluge period in this time. I am still trying to find a ruleset that can handle big games, is fun, quick and provides a semblance of reality (whatever that may be). I have been tweaking (only slightly) the free ruleset for the ECW done by Quidia Studios (Victory without Quarter). These rules are fun and certainly give one a good game without being bogged down. They are a card driven system, the additions I have made are a Brigade card which will really help them flow, rules for bows, lances to help represent the Tartar, Polish, Muscovite, Turkish and other armies of the period. I will play a game soon and post the results and some pictures.

Painting for the Deluge period has fallen off seriously as I have been painting lots of figures for the early Sudan which I hope to play for the first time in 5 weeks over the school holidays. This has been a long term dream of mine, inspired by Peter Gilder in the old wargaming magazines of the 80's and 90's and more recently by Alt Fritz using Peter Gilder's still superb collection. I have also finished loads of desert terrain and heavily adapted a 11 x 6 foot terrain tile set lent to me by Robert Fletcher (cheers mate). I will post some phots of figures, terrain and buildings over the next few weeks. So until the next post (next week I promise), bye. Cheers Scott

BLB second try

We had a second game of BLB last weekend, I had fun and enjoyed the rules but Kevin is not convinced. I think that they are an excellent set and I will be using them for WSS and GNW but they do not give me a feel for the Deluge. The Polish and Eastern sections seem to just be tacked onto the main rules and could have done with more detail and rules for the east. The free set of ECW rules by Clarence at Quindia Studios might be the set that fulfill most of our criteria and is easily adapted, wwatch this space. Meanwhile enjoy the photos the game at Kevin's place, Austrians and some Danes (Kevin) take on the Swedes and the forces of the Brandenburg Elector (Kevin's son James and I). Cheers Scott

New layout and rules

Sorry guys I have been very slack in posting on the site in the 6 weeks, to tell you the truth I have had nothing really interesting to say or show. I have been working on 2 sets of terrain (1 European and 1 desert) so I can actually have a game at my place instead of using the 12 x 6 set ups that Mark and Kevin each have at their place. I have however had the oppurtunity to use 2 really interesting set of rules in the last 6 weeks, the first of these is designed for small to medium sized battles of the ECW. The rules are available from the site of Clarence Harrison of Chesapeake whose website Quindia Studios is a inspiration for painting and terrain building. I sent Clarence an email and he sent me his ECW ruleset in a PDF file for free and I highly recommend it for ECW. The system is card driven and each unit has a card that needs to be drawn before they can move, fire etc. I will be using it for ECW but I feel for the bigger battles of the TYW and Deluge the second set I tried will be the one I am sticking to. Yesterday we tried the newly released 'Beneath the Lilly Banners' and despite them being a new set we quickly got hold of the simple rule mechanics. We played a cut down version of the rearguard scenario from the rulebook (halved everything), the new setting was Lithuania 1658 and saw a small Swedish rearguard take on a very large Muscovite force. We used the rules for the Swedes and Muscovites from the GNW section and additions from the Eastern rules section. The rules are subtle and brutal and I like to see my cavalry melees quickly settles as we tend to play with very large armies and everything else has seemed to bog down in detail, give them a try for the Deluge onward (I think the TYW would be easily handled as well). I leave you with some photos of the game and my new table, it was 7 1/2 feet by 6 feet with my new latex roads; steel wool trees and hedges and hills of foam. Until next time, I promise to write more about the rules with troop classifications and unit organisation for those who may wish to give them a try (all infantry and cavalry bases are 50mm x 50mm which is very close to the stated base sizes). Cheers Scott

P.S If you are in Australia Eureka Miniatures are carrying these for 40 dollars Aus. which is cheaper than buying from the UK (I payed 19.50 Stirling including postage). Cheers

Easter Weekend pictures

Hey guys here are some pictures of the two days of wargaming that took place in Brisbane over the Easter weekend. On the table where 250+ cavalry and 450+ infantry, of course after all of this preperation I managed to leave my camera at home. These photos were taken by Andrew Parr (thanks mate) who flew from Sydney for the weekend.

Brisbane Easter Weekend (week late)

Finally here are some pictures of the two days of Deluge gaming that took place in Brisbane over the Easter weekend. The weekend was organised and payed for by Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts (thanks mate for the last 3 years). There was a reasonable turnout over the 2 days and I hope for more next year. I managed to spend over 1200 dollars on the weekend so I kept some of the retailers happy (good to see so many up here in Queensland). The game was played using the 'Fury' rules from the Ambler gamers site and managed 250 + cavalry and 450 + infantry in 2 games over the weekend. They are not perfect but they are fun and I enjoyed them. The units are organised into 20 figures for infantry and 8 for cavalry. After dragging everything down to Brisbane (100 km) I realised I had forgotten my camera, so these photos have been taken by a wargaming friend (Andrew Parr) who flew up from Sydney (cheers mate). So enjoy and I will see you at Easter next year for a very large early Sudan game. Cheers Scott

Easter Weekend

I have made a major change to the game being played over the Easter weekend at Gerry's great and fun convention, I have had to cancel the Sudan game as I just didn't get everything done that I was happy with. I like to see games with all the trimmings, personalities, vignetes, great scenary pieces and the all important civilians but these are the things that I have not yet completed so it will have you have to wait until next year to don the pithe helmet or red fez. I am now going to do a 12x6 foot Deluge period game set in the Ukraine in 1660, with Muscovites and Cossacks besieging a small Polish force in a fortified town. The Muscovites and Cossacks are unaware of a strong relief force of Polish and German (mercenary) regulars and Tartars coming to their rescue and have to fight on two fronts (lucky they have lots of troops), should be fun.

The game will look similar to the one illustrated above that we played over a year ago but with more troops, scenary and terrain. I will be using 'Winged Fury' as the rules with infantry units of 20 men and cavalry units of 8 men, I will use a D10 for command rolls for the better trained Polish units whilst the Muscovite and Cossacks will use a D6. Come along and have a game if you are in Brisbane over the Easter Weekend, I will post lots of photos after the weekend. Cheers Scott

Painting update

Little to report these last few weeks as I have been busy trying to get loads of figures done for the Easter Weekend convention here in Brisbane put on by Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts. I have been painting Fuzzy Wuzzy figures for the Sudan game that I will be running but I will have to recycle them as they die. Leroy Simpson has been kind enough to do a British regiment in red for me as well as a Egyptian battalion (he will do a much better job than I would). I will be using the rules 'Science versus Pluck' where everyone plays on the side of the Imperial forces and I as the umpire run the Dervish forces (and try my hardest to kill them off). The emphasis is on fun and I have been waiting 15 years to finally get the early Sudan up and running ever since I saw the campaigns of Peter Gilder (great to see his old collection having an outing on the Der Alt Fritz blog site, seriously recommended). So come have a look and join in over the Saturday and Sunday of the Easter weekend if you are in Brisbane. Finally I leave you a photo of some of my Muscovite figures as Muscovites seem to be getting popular (see the fantastic link by Nigel http://nigbilpainter.blogspot.com/

Cheers Scott