Ventures into the leadpile and other matters

Now that I seem to have got myself back into a bit of a painting routine* and have nearly finished my latest batch of figures, I've naturally started to look at a) what to prep next and b) what next to buy. 

I would dearly like to get my Achaemenid Persians to the point that they could be fielded for a Lost Battles scenario or two, but it would also be an asset to have more Hellenistics painted up. Greek City State and Successor scenarios make magnificent spectacles, but Plataea, Issus and Gaugamela would look fairly presentable as well.  

What to do.

Well, I had a look at the lead pile, or at least the most relevant portions of it.

Hellenistics

Geez, that's a lot to paint... 

The Persians

And so is that... 

For the Persians, ironically enough, what sticks out is what I don't have. There are no Immortals or Sparabara in the pile, and I want to be able to cover Early Achaemenids as well. I've placed a test order with Potbelly Miniatures at the suggestion of Mike, author of the excellent Bucellarii blog, and am also going to look at putting in an order at Museum for some of their Z range Persians. Right at this moment I am probably more interested in gaming the Persian invasion of Greece than I am in Alexander's expeditions (for which I have, unpainted, the Persian figures already). I don't however want to rush in and buy figures that may not fit with the rest of the collection. I will get a few samples and make sure I'm going to be happy with what I do finally order.

As always, the painting focus is on economy of action: the quicker I can get to playing status the better. Coming off painting Libyan foot, more phalangites (for Raphia and the bigger Successor battles) is tempting - it's basically the same colour scheme but with pikes - but that is also the challenge: would painting ennui await? 

While economy of action is all well and good, at some point, with any army, you simply have to knuckle down and do the work. I think that's about where I'm at with the Persians. I have quite a few skirmishers, archers, Egyptian spearmen and cavalry done already, but nowhere near enough to field a Lost Battles army. If I want to make decent progress I need to just sit down and do it.

That said, at the moment I think I will prevaricate, prep some Greek horse, and see what the new orders look like when they arrive.

One of the things I have to be wary of (and seeing the huge amount of lead in the Hellenistic pile above provides proof!) is a tendency towards the never-ending army syndrome. For a variety of reasons, I buy figures for armies that are, by most reasonable measures, finished. A sensible person would be devoting their dosh and time to working on their other armies that are not. 

But who said that you have to be sensible in wargaming? 

State of my 15mm Ancient-era armies.

Complete:

Polybian Romans (x2). Marian Romans (x2). Gauls. Iberians. Early and Later Carthaginians. Macedonians/Successors (x1.5). Latins/Samnites.

Incomplete but fieldable for some scenarios or as contingents:

Hoplite Greeks. 

Fieldable as contingents, or for half-sized games:

Parthians. Numidians. 

Awaiting the brush:

Achaemenid Persians. Second Successor army. Polybian Romans (to replace some figures I'm not happy with). Second hoplite Greek army.

Looking at this, it is clear what I need to do: just get on with the Persians, and throw in some Successors / Greeks in small batches every now and then for a change.

 *at the cost, sadly, of my guitar-playing routine!

On the painting table

A little later in the year than I'd hoped, but we're finally making a spot of painting progress at the house of Prufrock.

I had planned to have these ready to do Ilipa for the Society of Ancients Battle Day, but as so often happens, the plan did not come to fruition!

These are work in progress Carthaginian spearmen with hoplon, who can be used as Sacred Band for earlier periods or Libyan infantry for Hannibal's war. They are from the Corvus Belli range, but produced in plastic by the Plastic Soldier Company. They are lovely figures. I'm a little pickier with their cavalry, but the Corvus Belli infantry ranges are superb. Unfortunately, they seem to be out of stock at the Plastic Soldier Company now, so when or whether they will be available again I don't know.

Getting close to completion...

Which means I'd best make the most of the ones I have. There are enough for four 16-man units, but as my initial purchase was a couple of figures short, they sent me an extra 8, meaning if I scrounge the bits box and repurpose some command figures I can probably field 72 altogether.

Batch 2 still has more work to do

I'm yet to decide whether to leave the shields as they are or add designs. 

Painting guide:

Dark grey undercoat

Mid brown for spear shafts, sandals, shield backs

Flesh for arms, legs, hands, faces

Light grey for linen armour and shields

Red brown for straps, scabbards

Red for tunics

Dark silver / iron for spearheads

Antique bronze for helmets, shield edges.

White highlight for linen armour, shields

Gold to highlight bronze, shield edges

Silver highlight for spearheads

Highlight for tunics

Green for bases

Magic wash

Highlight for flesh, other areas that might need a touch up

Spray varnish x 2

I haven't been in a painting routine for a long time so am just trying to do a bit each night before dinner and/or after the kids are in bed. I'd like to get some Greek cavalry done next and then try to make a dent in my Achaemenid Persians.

We'll see how we go!

Chancellorsville and Glory II

If there's one thing I love about boardgames, it's setting them up. I may not get through a whole game, but I do like to get the maps on the table, weight them down for a couple of days to sit flat, leisurely put the counters in place (in consultation with appropriate reference works), and then admire the scene. 

I got Richard Berg's Glory II: Across the Rappahannock about ten years ago, I would guess, when I was in Japan. I set up a couple of one-mapper scenarios, but the whole battle of Chancellorsville is a three-mapper, and I didn't have the dedicated space over there to tackle it. 

The first thing you appreciate is that three maps do the terrain justice. Here we are looking from the west towards Fredericksburg, with the Union forces in the foreground converging on Chancellorsville itself.

Moving east, we see Anderson and company digging in around Zoar Zion Church and waiting for support to come up.

On the heights overlooking Fredericksburg, McLaws stays in prepared positions (for the moment, at least).  

Further south, Early observes Sedgwick and his command across the river. 

It is 7:15am on May 1st, 1863: Hooker is at Chancellorsville, the Federals are massing, and the action is about to commence. Shelby Foote provides commentary and atmosphere; we are all set.

With the prospect of playing this out solo in front of me, I re-read the Foote account and traced it out on the map. I planned to come downstairs the next night and start the game.

But I didn't. 

And that is all we got to.

A week later, I still have not started. Back into its box it goes.

It was a nice project to a certain extent, but I'm a touch concerned, looking at the vast numbers of boardgames on my shelves, how little I actually play them. I wonder if this is what my relationship to the meatier boardgames has come to: are they now just a tool to visualise action, rather than to play it out? 

Or maybe I just need to start pulling chits and rolling dice rather than opening my phone!

Shogun

I'm not a huge TV watcher, but a mate told me I had to watch the new Shogun series, so I did. I now join the vast majority and recommend it highly. Sanada Hiroyuki (as producer) has got it spot on.

It widens and narrows its scope superbly. Great job. 

 

Review: Forged in Battle 15mm Later Seleucid Elephants

 (This review was originally written for Slingshot, the Society of Ancients' Journal, after a review pack of elephants was passed my way. For whatever reason, the review was never published. I happened upon it while going through some old files and thought I would post it here)

Forged in Battle 15mm LATER SELEUCID ELEPHANTS (code MS05) review.

Contents

The pack comes in ten pieces: two identical elephant models with attached towers – the towers are filled in, not hollow – two elephant heads, one with armoured trunk, one without; two identical mahouts in tunic wearing crested Attic helmets (though there may be variations – the website image shows a differently-attired mahout in what appears to be tunic and headband), and six crew figures modelled from the torso up, to be attached to the top surface of the tower. The crew figures are comprised of two archers, two javelinmen and two pike-bearers. They are in various combinations of linen armour, breastplate, and tunic, and wear Boiotian, Attic or Phrygian helmets. In my pack the two sarissa bearers are in different poses, but the archers and javelinmen are not.

Assembly

The pieces required a bit of filing to fit, but that is to be expected. The head of the elephant is attached to the body by means of a male/female joint, but the mahouts had to be filed thinner, their legs positioned carefully and glued to the front of the tower to allow the heads and bodies to meet. I used epoxy putty to fill in the gaps and ensure a strong bond.

The towers are cramped and I could only fit two crewmen per tower, but others may have better skills and more patience at fitting the third figures in than me. I also attached pikes before checking the crew positioning, which resulted in one pike being angled too steeply and the figure thus unusable. Lesson learned.

Modelling

After assembly it became apparent that there was a modelling oversight: the left-hand side of the elephant has the covering cloth right up to the elephant's front shoulder, but the right-hand side does not, so that when viewing from the left the mahout is sitting on the cloth, but from the right he isn't. Ideally you would want to use putty or green stuff to give the impression that the coverings meet, and do it before the mahout is attached. Unfortunately, I didn't notice this until too late, so I have used paint to try to do the same job. Otherwise, the sculpting is crisp, the details are good, and the proportions are attractive.

In terms of dimensions, the elephants are taller and slimmer than the other Seleucid or Indian elephants in my 15mm collection but they are still within the possible size range of the breed so they make for good variety.

Comparison with Chariot elephants (two in centre)

There are no straps across the elephants' rear ends, so people wanting those will need to add them in with putty or paint.

Comparison from the rear

Summary

They are a little tricky to put together, but they look grand. The folds in the cloth, the elephant armour, and the ridges on the elephant skin are very nice to work with and respond well to dry-brushing and washes. They are a very good addition to the current 15mm Successor elephant options, and the sculptor should be commended for going for a slightly different look. These models will work alongside Chariot elephants, for example, and the army will look much the better for their presence. I would certainly recommend this set and am now considering putting in a Christmas order with Forged in Battle, even though I shouldn't really be buying up even more lead…

Easter activities

Well, the Society of Ancients Battle Day has come and gone, and I didn't get to do an Ilipa refight after all. With SP busy with work and my not having cultivated enough other interested parties we will have to do it belatedly.

I did get to take the family over the Takaka Hill to Golden Bay for a couple of nights though, which was a great success. We stayed with my aunt and her partner, who was born in America and is an American Civil War buff. As I knew of his ACW interest I put a copy of Battlecry in the car, and on the second night asked if he wanted to try a game. He did. It turns out that he used to own a couple of America Heritage games in his younger days.

He took to the game quite quickly, and we got through two scenarios in about four hours.

I have a couple of copies of Battlecry (one given to me by Pat Hirtle; another that came with some other games I bought from a fellow online), so I have given him the one I took over.

Hopefully he enjoys it, and we might be able to get a game or two in when he's over this side of the hill on business. 

Hope Easter has been restful for you all!

Testing out Memoir 44

Over the last few weeks SP and I have caught up for a couple of nights yarning and gaming with Memoir 44. I'd picked up a secondhand copy within NZ through a facebook page connection and ordered some expansions from Amazon following an introduction to it during a fleeting visit to Japan.

We tried out the Pegasus Bridge scenario (won both times won by the Allies) last week and Hellfire Pass (both times won by the Allies) tonight.

Hellfire pass, from the German side

Pegasus Bridge from the perspective of the Allies

It's simple but effective and we think we can probably get our young lads interested in a game as well. It may turn out to be a good purchase for that alone.

I'd initially thought I might be put off by the out of scale miniatures the game uses, but in fact they remind me of the maps I used to pore over in the Purnell History of the Second World War zines my grandfather collected.

The scenarios require some pleasing strategising, but as with all the C&C family of games there is plenty of potential for things to go awry. Overall I'm pleased I bought into it, and there is a lot of scope for ongoing play.

It's not going to replace heavier games in my collection but will probably get more play.

We also gave Twilight Struggle a go, but that is for another post.