Digging into the Ancients pile

Painting over the last few days has seen me finish off Craig's 'blob' of pikemen for his successor army, and move onto some Gauls.

The red phalanx completed

A closer shot. LBMS shield transfers, looking very nice.

The red and blues phalanxes. Only the purples to go.

 Gauls are a tricky proposition. They can be overworked and look to busy, or underworked and not look like Celts at all. Either way, they can be quite consuming, so I was looking for some speed painting techniques with these guys.

The shields are the Warlord Games decals. Quite a nice selection.

Zooming out to see some of the other figures

I'm not a great fan of the guys that are bent right over. It may be a dynamic pose, but there's too many of them on the sprue.

 I went back and looked at some Peter Dennis battle scenes with Gauls in them, and saw that his technique was to take a lighter colour as the base and do a check pattern in a darker shade over the top to give the impression of plaid. So that is what I did with these figures. The flesh is Gulliman contrast, which I cannot rate highly enough, and all shading is done with washes. In the end these 15 figures took 2 painting evenings, but the first evening also saw me finishing the successors, so I'm really pleased with the speed painting experiment.

When I based up the Gauls I also rebased some Romans for the Rule Britannia rules.

12 figures to the maniple

Ready to conquer

So the first two units for Rule Britannia are ready to go, although these aren't my priority at the moment. Currently the painting tray has 18 Achaemenid Persians on it for Mortal Gods. I'm listening to Dan Carlin's King of Kings Hardcore History podcast at the moment when I go walking, and I'm loving the way he tackles Herodotus. Expect some games from Ancient Greece soon.

Nate

Rule Britannia (and Gaul, Germania, Dacia etc)

While spending a pleasant week at the beach this summer, I began thinking about my ancients projects. I decided I wanted to revisit my adaptation of Lion Rampant for the Gallic Wars, which I named Caesar Rampant. There were a number of aspects that I wanted to alter. The first was to adapt some of the ideas from the Men Who Would Be Kings into the game, particularly the idea that a failed activation does not hand the turn over to one's opponent, but simply means activation of another unit. I also wanted to make attack rolls based on the number of figures, and to really give individual units some character that they could call their own.
Having got the balance pretty good so far, I decided to try and extend the rules into the Early Imperial period. So chariots were added, as were auxiliaries. The Scorpio battery was an interesting addition, and has only been playtested the once, but let's just say that it probably needs some work. With the change in scope, I thought a new name might be in order, so I've renamed them Rule Britannia (and Gaul). They can be found on this page here:
https://natholeonsempires.blogspot.com/p/caesar-rampant-gallic-wars.html

The armies that I had painted for Caesar Rampant I passed on to my wargaming buddy John, so I've been cobbling together new units which are not yet painted, but they are high on the priority list! Here's a couple of snaps of the playtesting that I did.

Romans on the right in stealth armour, Gauls on the left in multiple states of undress!

The 12 figure base is handy for the Romans, as they have flanks in the rules.

The Gauls are boosted by some spare Germans and Wargames Foundry Cyclops. Rest of the Gauls will be arriving soon.

In this earlier game there was a lot more running away. I've altered that now. 

Have a go with the  rules if you are interested - and let me know how they work for you, and any clarifications I need to make.

Nate

6 x 6 - time to get moving

After a roaring start to the 6 x 6 challenge, I have fallen well behind in getting my games played. So this month my aim is to play out all of my DBA and Song of Broken Legions games.

Having just finished marking a whole pile of essays on the Aeneid and Roman art, all of rather variable quality,  I felt like I needed a break. I was inspired to head back to ancient Rome for another crack at the Gallic Wars. The first game was over rather quickly, so I was able to get in two battles.

GAME 1 (or 2 if we count the first encounter from a while back)

The Romans and Gauls face each other again. What would the outcome of this engagement be? The Gauls were at 1 nil before this fight.

The deployment. The Gauls went for subtlety with their patented 'Gallic steamroller'.  The Romans matched them in the centre with their infantry including a second reserve line for any breakthroughs.

Within 2 turns the lines were at each others' throats.

In the first turn of combat the Romans pushed the Gauls back all along the line.

But then it turned to custard. Roman legionaries began to get bowled by the Celtic comeback.

The Gallic Chieftain ploughed his way through the Romans (no pun intended)

The end of the game and the Romans have lost 5 elements to 1.

 GAME 2 (or 3)
Two games in a row had been won by the Gallic steamroller. This time I was determined to see if I could come up with better tactics for the Romans.

Deployment, and the Roman lines look a little different.

As the steamroller moves forward the Romans deploy their flank columns to allow an overlap. They also send the Light Horse forward to seize control of the flank.

Battle is joined and immediately the overlap yields results, while the Roman cavalry in the centre falls back in front of the chieftain, rather than being auto-killed as a blades element would have been.

The door is closed on the Gallic left and the Psiloi deliver a lesson to the Gallic warbands before it. In the centre the legionaries outfight the warband element before them.

The battle is won by the Romans 4 nil. The Roman general didn't even get into combat. 

This was a great game because I worked out how to take down the Gallic steamroller, and it was very simple really. The Romans were also helped by the terrain, most of which was 'good going'. All of the terrain in these games was chosen at random by dice rolling. Next game I will look at trying to choose terrain specifically as if I was playing the Gauls as 'my' army. This way I aim to develop the tactics to play to the strengths of both sides.

In other news, with the release of Star Wars Legion next year, I'm going to take Star Wars off my 6 x 6 list, and replace it with Pikeman's Lament. My Marlburian armies for Spain are almost complete and I already have one game completed. I figure this will spur me on to paint the last half dozen units I need, as well as being a dedicated set of rules as opposed to Star Wars where I was going to need to adapt rules or write my own stats etc.

Nate

I didn't think they'd have the Gaul!

The flu refuses to remove its claws, but I am feeling a bit better. Well enough to finally go back to the paints and complete my Gallic army for DBA. I've been beavering away at the matched pair of Marian Roman and Gallic armies for a while behind the scenes, in order to play out the last four DBA games in my 6 x 6 challenge.

Family picture

I set the table up in the lounge this afternoon and deployed the two sides. The Romans were invading Gaul - no surprises there, and so the arable terrain was selected without a built up area but with 2 plough instead. These were good going for the whole game, as was the gentle hill, and in fact, only the difficult hill presented any rough going. There was a woods, but it didn't make it onto the cluttered table corner that was rolled.

 The two sides lined up facing each other, the Gauls with three two-deep elements of Warband, the Romans with a second line which included the general.

 Both sides advanced in a fairly standard way - the Gallic cavalry sensed an opportunity on their left and charged into the Roman lights holding the hill. The Cretan psiloi were removed, but the Numidian Light Horse stayed stubbornly fighting on.

 In the centre the Gallic chieftain burst through he Roman line, although the rest of the Gauls were all pushed back.

 The Romans advanced their reserve to pin the Gallic chieftain while the rest of the Roman army continued to push the Gallic Warbands back.

 On the Roman left, first blood was drawn, and the legions prepared to close the door on the Gallic flank.

 The Gallic cavalry which had attempted to do the same to the Numidians were surprised with some extraordinary fighting skill, the light horse recoiling its surrounding elements.

 Now the Romans decided to deliver the coup de grace, charging into the Gallic chieftain.

 But the Chief has his blood up. Another element of legionaries goes 'poof' and in the other promising Roman attack where they had closed the door, the Gauls fought off their attackers! And totally out of no-where, a fourth element is lost to the Gauls on the right flank, where all previous combats had been going one way.

 VICTORY!

 The casualties.

The damage to the Romans was mostly done to their legionaries, which is quite different to where they used to lose casualties in DBA 2. In that game the aim was always to try and take out the supporting elements. I have to say, I am impressed with the ability of the Gauls to fight in DBA 3.0. I can't recall ever seeing a game where they were able to carve their way through the Roman line so effectively in the previous edition. The double element +1 and auto-kill on Blades makes them lethal with just a little luck. I probably should have held the Roman reserve back a little and moved it so that the centre element, which also happened to be the general) was opposite the Gallic Chieftain, so they could have got a 6 vs 3 match-up, but that is all learning. A rematch goes without saying.

 'The blood of this chicken has brought us victory!'

'Come on Porcius, let's get out of here.'

Nate

New Rules Pages

I've just created new pages on the blog that contain various rules variants. The first five of them are adaptations of One Hour Wargames for the Great Northern War, Crimean War, War of the Triple Alliance, Franco-Prussian War and Napoleonic Wars. All of them contain my simple command variation and base removal. There are little bits inserted here and there designed to reflect the different aspects of warfare in the various conflicts, hopefully without unbalancing the system too far.

A French Revolutionary game - all units based as in the rules.

Action in the Crimea

The sides line up in Livonia - GNW action from last year

Prepared for battle - the FPW is a project in progress

As is the War of the triple Alliance

The other ruleset is Eagle Rampant for the Gallic Wars. This was the final variant of Lion Rampant I settled on for Caesar in Gaul, before writing a variant of the Punic Wars for Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy.

One of the things about any rules that I write or adapt is that they invariably reflect the figures collection that I have to hand. They don't aim to encompass all possibilities for any period - as they are for my amusement, they really don't need to. My brief for games that I like to play is pretty straight forward. They can't be too complicated - I want to play the game not the rules. I don't want them to drag on - 1 to 2 hours is my favoured resolution time. They have to give a challenging game on a smallish scale - my pocket projects are all about a dozen units or less per side. One Hour Wargames fits the bill for all three criteria, although there are aspects that I have to add in - command and base removal for instance - because they fit with my 'idea' of a wargame.

When I have accumulated the figures and playtested the rules, I'll put the FoW variant for the Indo-Pakistani War up here. I can't imagine Battlefront will be too interested in such an obscure period despite having all of the vehicles and figures necessary.

All of the rules are intended to be 'live'. I will put any amendments I make as a I play into them so that they are up to date with what I am playing. Please feel free to use them, link to them and add and delete things as you see fit. If they are your cup of tea, I hope you enjoy them. If not, maybe you'll get some ideas from them.

Nate

Viking archers

The latest painting for Geoff, some Gripping Beast Viking archers.

The photos are a bit washed out. My phone doesn't seem to be taking photos as good as it used too, and I have no real idea why - whether it is the lighting or if I'm zooming in too much or what the deal is. I might have to go back to using the camera, which would be a pain because from my phone the photos just automatically upload - look mum, no cords.

Anyway, I've got another dozen figures to paint for Geoff, 40 for Craig, and then it will be Christmas and I'll relax a bit. I did some trial basing with the Marian Romans for Eagle Rampant (I only had 10 15 x 15mm bases, so this isn't a full unit).

I might paint these guys up between commissions.

Nate

New delivery and pimping two blog competitions

A happy day as I received a package from Old Glory 15s. A bit of a departure from my usual supplier, Lancashire Games, but I wanted them to match some other figures that I already had.

These are Gauls and Marian Romans, and the plan is that they will be based individually and used for Eagle Rampant.

In other corners of the blogoverse, two blogs that I follow are currently running giveaways. The first is a site that I have used frequently but which was saved in my favourites as opposed to my blogroll. That has now been rectified and Wargame News and Terrain will be appearing on your right from now on. Follow the blog, create a post on your own site advertising them and add them your blogroll and there are three entries into a 100 euro giveaway with prizes from several different companies.

The second blog is Kiwi-Colour Studio run by the very talented Mark Hazell. Mark is just starting up his professional painting service again, and wants as much exposure as possible. One measure of this is to add to the number of followers he has on his blog. When he guest  to 120 followers, he will do a special painted figure as a prize.

Nate

More Gauls

Looking back, August was one of my most prolific posting months; and then - silence. Just when I got on a roll of painting, playing and posting, exam time rolls around. So after a two week hiatus, I'm back, and hopefully normal service will resume.
The latest work off the painting tray are these Gauls, half a dozen slingers and 9 warriors to flesh out the Gallic Wars infantry for Eagle Rampant:

All sporting the latest hairstyle craze

Some of these guys need to catch up to be a fashion victim.

I've also now sold all of my Gauls, including the guys above. Initially I was planning to redo this period in 15mm, but the fact is that I'm not that big a fan of painting ancient armies. I'm not sure what it is, certainly not the period itself - I teach Classical Studies and love the Greco-Roman world. I actually believe it might be shields. Or maybe the amount of flesh that needs to be painted. 

Whatever the reason, my real historical wargaming focus tends to be the horse and musket and modern eras - from 1700 to today. I now have French and Russian Napoleonics from Lancashire Games which will be next on the personal painting list after Franco-Prussian War. I've also said that I'll take on another commission for a friend down in Napier in exchange for some painted Flames of War Soviets. It has been almost a year and I've been away from the game long enough to be looking forward to getting back into it. This is helped by the imminent arrival of Team Yankee - Cold War FoW. I will certainly be one of those who wants to fight it out in the Fulda Gap.

Next on the painting tray is a Front Rank Seventeenth Century British Regiment for Geoff, and a couple of test figures for Allan from Lancashire Games.

Nate