The purple primer rides again

I'm rather excited, I must say. On Wednesday DBA 3.0 appeared in my letterbox. I've been a bit slow getting around to buying this ruleset. I have to admit to not being sure whether I'd bother, after all, I have DBA 2.2 and I've played a lot of games with that. Then I decided to buy it and it wasn't there. Sold out in fact. Now it is back and I have snapped it up. And it is kid in a candy shop time.

How much better than DBA 2.2 can it be?

A few years back, before he migrated to the West Island of NZ, Dan and I were playing a lot of DBA. Biblical, Punic Wars, Wars of the Roses were the main eras, but at different times I had also purchased Russians and Teutonic Knights, Alexander the Great, 100 Year War etc armies. When Dan left I ended up playing mostly Flames of War with hardly any ancients gaming at all. I sold my painted armies in order to fund new projects.

As I've found myself drifting into playing more solo games in the periods of history that intrigue me (as opposed to simply playing what everyone else is), I've been looking at DBA a bit more. I figured the rules would make a good base for small Samurai and Conquistador campaigns, not that either list was properly covered in DBA 2.2. The Samurai list (IV/59b) included 5 blade and no bow which just didn't seem right to me. Aztecs and their Tlaxcallan adversaries were covered, but what about the Spanish component? So I planned to write my own lists and sacrifice any chance of playing in tournaments with them. I'd also try something a little different and have my camp element being my seated Samurai generals, which would give even more credence to the effect of capturing a camp.

Then I read the new DBA. The Samurai list has reduced blade elements from 5 down to 3 . Archers are included. Ashigaru are represented as fast pike. Best of all there is a new element type - the CP which is a general who functions a bit like blades. The list and the new rules have pretty much done everything that I wanted to do AND I can play the army in a tournament. The only thing I would have liked included was that the blade could be mounted Samurai with the option to dismount.

I had to rebase my commanders from my 5cm x 8cm camp to a 4 x 4cm CP.

'Keep it down back there - who do you think you are? Keith Moon?'

But wait, there's more! List IV/19c is Spanish and Tlaxcallans - there is now an official list for the Conquest of Mexico.

The rules changes are fantastic. No more 'buttocks of death' unless you are in a very tight position. Some element types are divided into 'solid' and 'fast' which can affect combat outcomes and changes movement rates. A whole pile of diagrams runs through situations that may be encountered and make the game feel less geometric. Double based elements now get a combat advantage. Spear support each other to the flank, not the rear and Psiloi support is gone. All in all, positive changes. Then there are the army lists. Needless to say I've been sitting down with these working out how much it would cost to buy armies for a whole variety of periods from various manufacturers. At the moment my lists include Conquest of Mexico IV/19c and IV/63 (who would have guessed?); Egyptians I/22b and Hittites I/24b; Chinese warring states II/4a and II/4e and; the Ghaznavids III/64b and Rajputs III/10b. This is, of course, on top of my 2 Samurai armies IV/59b and Punic Wars armies II/32a (Carthaginians) and II/33 (Romans). Not worked out yet, but the 100 Years War might be calling to me as well.

Here's those popular hastati again, from yet another angle.

Am I mad? Well, yes, but also very, very enthusiastic for the latest iteration of a set of rules that had been old favourites. The first DBA armies will be the Samurai for which I now need to buy a few more figures to match the lists in the book. I now have a bit of a project log-jam, mostly because I'm unsure what I want to do first. The good thing about DBA is that armies don't take that long to paint, so I'll probably sneak them in during other large scale projects like the Great Northern War or WWI just for a change of pace.

If you are considering DBA 3.0 but unsure whether to take the plunge, just do it. It has made me one happy little gamer.

Nate

Rostovski regiment

The first of the Russian regiments for the Great Northern War is finished.

Prepared to defend Mother Russia from the Swedes.

I chose the Rostovski regiment because I wanted to sort out the green that I'm going to use for the Russian regiments, and their kartuz is all green. I also like the look of the yellow cuffs and it also shows off the red/green contrast with their stockings. The figures are Irregular Miniatures.

I also did a little experiment to see what would happen if I based my 15mm Old Glory DBA figures and then painted them.  I did this with the Crieman War figures and it worked fine, but these guys a re a little bulkier.

Hastati advancing past a built up area

Hastati retreating into a built up area.

I don't think that they came out too bad, and painting them wasn't too awkward, so I might base them all up and then paint a whole army.

Now, on to Geoff's Japanese civilians.

Nate

Scooby Doo and the case of the missing Zulu Wars British

Zoiks! It's the Scooby Doo gang!

They've been some time in coming but here is my latest bit of painting for Geoff. It consists of a few more Black Tree Designs British infantry for the Zulu Wars and the Scooby gang from Hasslefree Minis. Also included are Kick-ass and a couple of kids in school uniform with rather aggressive attitudes towards zombies.

Superhero in a wetsuit and the two mean munchkins. I was trying to get a school uniform effect on them.

Close up of Velma, Fred and Daphne

Shaggy and Scooby looking for more delicious Scooby snacks.

Geoff wasn't sure about the colours of the gang - in particular Fred's white sweater, but as I started painting them I just felt myself going with the traditional colours rather than the planned more muted shades. I just couldn't stop thinking that I was painting the Scooby gang - anything else just felt wrong! Hopefully he is happy with the result.

Three more British soldiers for the Zulu War

Geoff's converted Sergeant on the left.

All five figures together

Geoff came into possession of a few more Black Tree Zulu Wars British figures. The bayonets were broken and so he converted them up and replaced them with green stuff and plasticard. Unfortunately two broke off in transit. He said just to paint them rather than try to replace them as they would probably just break off again, so that is what I did. He added green stuff NCO stripes to two figures as well and made quite a good job of it.

I took these photos on my phone rather than with the camera. Not sure if I might just go back to the camera as these are not as clear as I would like.

Next on the painting tray - 28mm Samurai civilians and a Russian regiment for the GNW.

Nate

French Artillery

Latest item off the painting tray - WWI French artillery. 15mm from Lancashire Games.

The gun crew are well animated and look like they are engaging in rapid fire.

Viewed from another direction.

I was lazy and only painted a single red stripe on the trousers rather than the double stripe they actually had. A battlepack contains six of these guns, 4 crew per gun and 6 Machine guns, each with two crew. That's a pretty good deal.

Nate

Generals for the Samurai armies

I'm putting together two 15mm DBA-HX style armies for the Sengoku Samurai period, and the plan is that the generals are actually the camp element. Inspired by the tussle over Kawanakajima in the middle of the Sixteenth Century, I've created two rival clans led by indefatigable daimyo. The first is the house of Yumisushi, currently led by Yumisushi Nate:

Nate's mon is a stylised sushi roll with green on the outside and a salmon pink square in the middle. Witness my feeble attempt to produce what is the hardest thing in the world to paint -  freehand concentric circles.

From the back the circle is not evident, but the clans favoured colour is - can you work it out?

Just over the hill from the Yumisushi are their age old nemesis, the Tomuchisake, led by Tomuchisake Dan:

Seated amongst his warriors, the golden horned demon surveys the battlefield. His mon is a golden sake bottle.

I was going to put screens around the base, but I needed to make sure that I left enough room to place a garrison element if necessary.

Dan seen from behind. The Daimyo and standard bearers are from Irregular Miniatures.

A close up of the drummers, from Freikorps 15.

The armies themselves are from Outpost Wargames Service and were featured in an earlier blog post. I'm looking forward to painting them - Samurai in 15mm are much easier than 28mm! Of course, there will have to be a few more random things painted before I get into them. Stay tuned.

Nate

A good day

It's been a lovely sunny day here today. The family went for a walk in the bush by some local waterfalls and soaked up the sound of cicadas, after which we got an ice cream in a cone. All very pleasant. I also got my first battalion of Swedes painted.

The Uppland regiment, oddly enough not standing on a hill.

From a different angle. You can see the impressionism I've used on the faces, but at a metre's distance it looks good.

The redoubts were originally designed to hold a whole battalion for this project. Here's how they squeeze in. Although the Swedes don't need no stinking redoubt...

Also today I discovered that Wayne Turner of Battlefront fame has a thing for the GNW and has made PDFs of the flags for Swedish and Russian Infantry that I am going to use. The life colour above is one of his, the company colour is derived from Kronoskaff. I e-mailed Wayne and in no time he had sent me copies. Awesome.

The mailbox also revealed another gem - the Freikorps Paraguayans from QRF arrived. 6 battalions of infantry and 4 of cavalry, plus 4 guns. They are really nice figures - little flash, good detail. So apart from the Brazilian command, WWI Russians and Aztecs and Conquistadores, I have this years line up of unpainted lead pretty much sorted. It is just a matter of whether I do a bit of this and a bit of that or go the whole hog on a single project. At the moment, I feel pretty relaxed about either option.

Nate

Great War figures

Here are my test paints for my 1914 project - British, French and German 15mm infantry by Lancashire Games.

Tommies advancing and firing.

Tommies advancing and firing from the side

Tommies retreating...

The French proudly march into battle.

The perspective from the German lines.

Closing with the German lines.

Another action shot

These are the same figures as I've posted before, but with better lighting so they don't look pink.

Marching infantry.

Running into battle - probably chasing those Tommies.

I've painted the Germans and the British using the painting guides available from Mark Hargreaves via his blog. The French are painted with Prussian Blue and Dark Prussian Blue (sacrilege!) and brick red highlighted with red. All Vallejo paints apart from the base coat of the Germans which is a Coat d'arms paint.

Nate

PS Captain Arjun over on Cor Blog Me is having a prize giveaway for February. There are no bonuses for pimping his blog, I just thought I'd draw people's attention to it, as at present there are only 3 entries (although I'd really like a copy of Ever Victorious Armies which is now out of print), and it is a blog I enjoy reading.