The Battle of the Olives - Hail Caesar Battle Report

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in an age which history has kindly forgotten, mixed up, and become generally confused about, the Romans, with their Celtic allies, launched a raid into that powerhouse of industry; Greece.  Having filled their carts full of that most precious of cargoes; olives, they set off back towards the border for a date with wine and pasta.  The ancient Greeks were not so keen to see their olives made with so freely, and dispatched a force of historically inaccurate hoplites and peltast to block the road while further re-enforcements made their way to the scene, drawn by the smell of the Celts choice of (or lack of) bath materials.

And so the scene is set, my Romans, their column led by Luke’s celtic warbands, heading home in a march formation along a dirt track thinking about olives and lovely boys called Mario when a force of hoplites and Greek skirmishers leap out from behind some blades of grass.  Commanded by Chris ‘Damn your whinging sir and Charge!’ Fazey, they are aiming to hold up the column long enough for the remains of the Greek army (Red presiding) to hit the flanks and wipe out jonny foreigner.  Victory goes to the Romans if any of their 3 supply units (2 carts and a donkey train of 2) get off the board at the roads end, or the Greeks are beaten off.  The Greeks win if everyone else dies first.  Simple.

Technical’s; the board was 10ft long by 5ft wide, the Romans and celts in 4 divisions moved down the road towards Chris’ 1 division at the roads fork, while Red’s troops came on at a predetermined time and place known only to Red and Chris – the more advantageous the place, the longer they had to wait for the troops to arrive!

The Battle

Its was the Celts that started it, their lack of understanding of the concept of ‘march column’ meant they were already in their default attack setting of ‘angry rabble’, which then barrelled down the road towards the Greek blocking force.  The bulk of the legionaries were in the following division which, led by the Roman general, swung to the right off the road to support the Celts movement.  The second Roman infantry division, a mix of legionaries, auxiliaries and slingers, followed the Celts down the road guarding the baggage, while the Roman horse division brought up the rear.

The Celts leading the column as the Roman 1st division files off the road.

Chris' Greek roadblock waiting for them.

The table in general around turn 2-3.

 Red decided to get his troops in early, and brought his first division of two units (taxis!) of hoplites and some slingers on beside the village to face the Romans 1^st infantry division just as it deployed into line.  The 1^st Cohort (a large unit) charged in on the nearest hoplite taxi (all the hoplites once more being large units), supported by two more cohorts of legionaries, while the hoplites had the other hoplite unit in their division as support.  Red rolling appallingly, and for the first time in RGMB ancient history the hoplites broke and fled in the first round, with their support joining them!  Given the lack of Greeks this would have made for a very one sided and boring game, so we allowed the Greeks an extra (identical) division, which promptly reappeared in the next turn in the same location and hurled itself into its previous conquers, pushing back the 1^st Cohort, and wiping out one of the other cohorts as the hoplites pressed their advantage.

Messy - Celts vs Greeks on the road, and the first Greek division to fight the Romans on the left.

A meeting of minds which the celt warband eventually loses.

Roman escorting precision.

The Roman 1st division in trouble and crushed against the woods.

On the road in the centre the Celts (also big warbands/rabbles) came face to face with the hoplites blocking their passage.  They wiped out the Greeks supporting peltasts, but came to grief against the Greek heavies themselves.  Chris’ hoplites pushed back and wiped out the central rabble, before coming up against the lead baggage cart which I had foolishly allowed to get far ahead of its Roman escort.  Fulfilling character obligations I blamed Luke for allowing the Greeks to break through to the valuable olives!  The Celts other two war bands turned, intending to charge the rear of the hoplites, but decided that it was either unsporting, or too suggestive and stopped short of the act.  The hoplites had no such qualms, and dispatched the baggage cart with ease, although one unfortunate Greek did catch an ox’s hoof in an unfortunate place.  

The Greek hoplites are through, but the celts turn on them.

In the fields the Romans came under the cosh; the hoplites pressing their advantage and, crushing the 1^st cohort against an inconveniently placed wood, then wiped out the 3^rd and last legionary cohort in that division, destroying the Roman generals command.  They continued on, making for the road and the two baggage units there.  The Roman second division reacted by swinging off the road and deploying in front of them, a formation which the hoplites ploughed into in an attack column formation, one supporting the other.  This time the Roman legionaries, having been rolled back a move in the first charge, stood firm second time round supported by legionaries, auxiliaries and slingers, plus some more awful dice rolling from Red.  The last turned into a theme, which saw the Hoplites perform their disappearing trick for the second time in the game to cheers from the Romans, which turned even louder when the Celts finally got stuck in on the road and Chris’ command vanished under a wave of random hair doo’s.

The last Greek hope was a final division which appeared on the Roman right flank, only to have to contend with the Roman cavalry division, which had finally worked out there was some fighting going on at the head of the column and had hotfooted it up there.  With the demise of the Greek centre however, and the solid line of legionaries, auxiliaries and cavalry facing this last division the Greeks called it a day, and conceded the field to the enemy.  Victory to the Romans and Celts!

Reds greeks come within touching distance of the road and the baggage, but no further.

The last Greek division - too late to help.

Analysis:

Not a terrible scenario, with perhaps the Greek re-enforcements arriving a tad too late at the end, and the Greeks playing to their enemies strength by spreading out against a more numerous Romans and Celtic army rather than blockading the road and daring them to push through.  Given the difference in sizes of the armies I tried to create a scenario which the Greeks could use to their strengths.

The Romans scored an early impressive victory which caused us to resurrect a Greek division rather than ruin the game, while the celts stood up for longer in combat that Luke had expected them to after the initial clash.  Chris almost got some revenge in with some slinger fire at the baggage, which I’d left exposed again, but they were fortunately chased away by the Celts!  

The American Civil War – An Odyssey in 6mm

This post is fairly late in the day in terms of purchases because I’ve spent so much time painting English Civil War troops I’ve rarely found time to post.  So here we go.

Background

The American Civil War is a period I’ve had an interest in, although not much of a knowledge of, for quite a while, primarily thanks too a series of Miniature Wargames magazines which appeared to have an ACW article virtually every month on different battles.  Given that it is apparently one of the most popular periods to wargame – second only to Napoleonic’s in some views – that is unsurprising.

 I originally had the notion that the Confederacy was the way to go – they often seemed too win!  However for Christmas I had been bought a book on the American Civil War book; Battle Cry Of Freedom: The American Civil War (James M. McPherson).  It is well worth a read, much less battle detail than most and quite long (850-odd pages), but very well written about the causes and surrounding issues.   Within the pages it gives a general image of the confederacy as gallant underdogs against the North’s superior industry, technology and numbers, but further reading through it doesn’t appear to be a foregone conclusion, with political forces and differing aims of the North’s commanders conspiring to aid the South.  In the end I chose the North.  This was based on my dislike for the pro-slavery attitude in the South, although that was hardly an attitude retained solely in the South, or the sole reason for war, but is a reason as good as any to pick a side, and although it may give me a sluggish army to command it is at least better in moral terms, just.

Buying the Models

After a fair bit of indecisiveness over scales I decided to plumb for 6mm.  The Perrys superb 28mm plastics came close to victory, but I simply couldn’t face painting that many 28mm infantrymen, even if I could absorb the cost of buying them in the first place!  20mm plastics and 10mm metals were also gradually ruled out thanks to a couple of influences; firstly an old Miniature Wargames magazine with an article about the difference in size and perception of scales of models, which made the 6mm scale look much more appealing.  Secondly I was able to see a few games being played at the Deeside Defenders in that scale, and was impressed with the imagery of the big battlefield, the many battalions and even the detail that could be seen close up! 

I have previously owned 6mm figures, buying some heroics and ros modern and WW2 tanks years and years ago, but only a very limited number.  For modelling and painting experience I have to go back to my Epic 40k playing days (now sold to gain more historical figures), 15 years ago.  I also had an additional major boost to get going when Andy (see blog: ) from Deeside offered to collect one side, leaving me to only have to make up one army rather than the two I was thinking I would have too do.  Andy gave me the choice of side and as before mentioned I went for the Union so he started looking for his grey paint.  Since then Luke and Aidan have also shown an interest, with Luke going so far as to choose the Confederacy and buy an army pack at Triples.  His painting already far exceeds mine in numbers!  Blackpowder is the ruleset of choice, and the basis for how we’re making the armies.

The First Painting Attempts

 To get started I ordered some figures from a company called Baccus which specialises in 6mm troops and scenery for a variety of periods.  Their work came recommended, and I’d seen them online on a number of blogs and websites, and I ordered an infantry pack with hats, a cavalry pack, and a battery of artillery.  I paid around £2.50 postage to take it up to £19 overall, and for this I got 96 infantrymen, 48 cavalry, and 4 guns and crew.  They arrived around a week and a half later, and I was suitably impressed with the quality of the detailing – amazing for that scale, and the immediate thought was “oh sod, I’ll never be able to do that justice!”  I was right.  An attempt at painting enough men (4 strips – 16 men) for a single base was disappointing, the colours were dark, the image wasn’t great, I started too wish I’d picked the grey, I’m better at painting grey!  A couple of suggestions of painting styles from others didn’t work, and it went on the back burner.

I then went to Triples with a Union army pack on my list and on visiting the Baccus stand got talking to the owner, and a few others who were there.  The owners tips on painting all made sense, most interesting of which was that I was using the wrong shades of colour.  Apparently a smaller area (such as a 6mm figure) makes any colour look darker, so the way to go was too use lighter than usual colours for everything.  Armed with this knowledge I was also invited to do a 6mm painting workshop by one of the guys nearby, and later in the day took him up on his offer.  I sat down and painted 6 mini union troopers using his paints, and following the colour scheme.  The result was amazing, the troops really looked the part!  He then showed me a variety of ways of basing the models, although I decided to stick with the style I’d already agreed with Andy.  For painting the following few things were key:

• I was using the wrong paints – they needed to be much lighter, and with different colours for the webbing etc (black was pointless, a sand however looked ace).
• I was being too precise – my 28mm painting meant that I was caring when it wasn’t perfect, I should ignore it unless it’s a disastrous mistake.
• Don’t detail –for example paint the gun all just metal, and the butt light brown.

I made notes, said a big thank you, and set off to get some new paints!  I picked up an additional 5 paints, and Luke ordered me the ink required and even kindly gave me an extra batch of 40mm by 20mm MDF bases.  I managed to forget to buy the additional base sizes I needed for the other troops (dismounted cavalry and cannon), but it was a very good start. 

Where Now

Back home the models have been sadly confined to boxes while I focus on getting my ECW done in time for Gauntlet, but once they are out I’m very hopeful I’ll be able to paint them quickly!

Base Sizes

For anyone wanting to emulate the armies, the base sizes we’re using are 2mm deep and:

40mm by 20mm for infantry (2 ranks) and cavalry (4 figures per base) with 3 bases per battalion.

30mm by 30mm for dismounted cavalry (4 bases per battalion).

40mm by 30mm for cannon batteries, a single cannon on each base.

Work In Progress.....May 2013

Its been a busy month for painting horses, and for buying models with the Triples show seeing a trip out to pay plenty of cash for a variety of bits including plenty of American Civil War Union troops and a lot of modelling bits for various projects.  I didn’t manage to secure a few bits I wanted so I’m waiting on an order from Redoubt Enterprises for those (which sadly takes around 1 month to come, but that ‘should’ be in time for Gauntlet).  I also ordered a copy of Dreadball having been impressed when playing the game at the RGMB again the Dutch wizard.  My Saga forces also had plenty spent on them, most of which remains unmade with a late burst of modelling enabling me to make the 4 hearthguard and the horses for the mounted warriors, as well the petard assault team from Warlord (supplemented by spare renegade models to make up a storming party for my Royalists).

Painted Vs. Purchased: I did some tallying for the Painted Vs. Purchased figures, and almost fell off my chair.  Thanks to my expenditure at York and Sheffield I have now purchased a grand total of 441 models since October!!  My work painting 40 model (all English Civil War with 32 horsemen, 1 horse mounted officer, and a diaroma with 7 different figures all being completed) has been severely diluted by this, although there are mitigating circumstances.  Firstly my purchases of American Civil War troops in 6mm accounts for around 150 of these models, at a cost of about £55.  Being 6mm they have been counted as one strip of 4 figures = 1 model, so once I start painting them they should rack up fairly quickly.  Secondly to purchase anything I have sold, primarily my old Games Workshop collection.  The most recent to go onto eBay was my warhammer Bretonnians, who funded the entire trip to Sheffield, and numbered 206 models.  Whether I should take these away from the ‘purchased’ column I’m not quite sure, probably not.

This is actually part of an interesting swing in my collection/gaming interests from the fantasy/sci-fi games I used to play (40k, Warhammer etc) to my current wish to play historical wargames.  I always wanted to do so, but earlier in life it wasn’t easy to find someone with a similar interest and I turned to Games Workshop as another option.  Now I’m very much turning back with a wide variety of periods and scales. 

Painted: 205

Purchased:  441

This months task: Its almost all Royalists in the run up to the game at Gauntlet.  I’ve two units of dragoons which top the list (19 on foot and 12 on horse), followed by a supply wagon, cannon limber, storming party (11 models) and a castle gatehouse.  I’ve also got 4 Welsh hearthguard for my Saga warband, and some goats on the painting table to provide a distraction.  It’s a fair amount, and, very critical of the possibility of finishing the lot, I’m prioritising the dragoons on foot and the gatehouse as essential, followed by the wagon and limber and the dragoons on horse.

Triples 2013

After no posts for ages its all turned a bit bus-like! Mainly because I’ve got a gap in my painting.  I made the trip over to Sheffield for Triples 2013 in the excellent company of Michael (chauffeuring), Red and Luke, Red thankfully restrained himself from suggesting an entirely new period/project (unlike York in February and the Saga epidemic!).  We arrived before 10am, and left around 4ish, spending most of the time browsing the stalls, although I had a (very brief) go of Saga using the Normans, and to my shock found rolling ‘6’s’ for them much easier than for my Welsh!

I also spent a fair amount of time restarting my 6mm American Civil War project in that I bought a bit from Baccus, and also did a painting tutorial with an excellent coach of 6mm painting – looking forward to putting it into practice once my ECW gets out of the way!  The time spent around Baccus was also bad for Lukes wallet as he invested in a Confederate starting army, and has already bypassed me in models painted.  The show itself was well populated with traders, all the usual faces were there apart from Gripping Beast (but their stuff was available all around), it seemed notably quieter than York had been, but that could be the size of the venue and its more useful rectangular layout.  There didn't seem to be as many participation games going (Mad Max and Saga the most visible exceptions), they were mostly of the demo variety, and if I'd been playing in the tournament games in the end hall I would have been most upset to have put my nicely painted army on a plain wooden table top.

Onto the list of purchases, I went with a fair list, although not all was bought either because it was unavailable or I decided against it on the way/while there.  I also took a list for Dave, but all the things on it were unavailable!

Saga Bits:

Blister pack of 4 hearthguard.

Pack of wargames factory ancient Germanic cavalry to turn into mounted warriors.

A box of the new Gripping Beast dark age warriors to serve as Welsh warriors.

Some renedra round bases to base the lot on!

Scenery:

A few more sections of road to expand my collection to around 11 feet long.

Hobby:

Army painter black spraypaint and 5 different Vallejo paints to work on my ACW 6mm troops, turned out I was using all the wrong colours (too dark) which was why my first efforts looked terrible!

Flock, or rather flowers for my Saga troops to make sure I don’t have to change their bases before I finish them.  I am hoping to turn them into a small Hail Caesar army, and so need more flowers, and the below item.

Warbases movement trays x 2; trials for moving my Saga troops around.  Very much a positive trial, I’ll be getting more!  I also got some larger round bases for small dioramas and as a test of using MDF, and Luke kindly donated some of their 40mm by 20mm bases for my Union troops.

English Civil War:

A collection of bits from Irregular Miniatures bits trays, including fires, benches, goats and several dogs and civilians including the already infamous pregnant vampire!  Actually bought after the game of Saga because they could be used in all sorts of games.

After the event I also ordered a petard assault team (Warlords best) from Triple Helix after missing out on them  there.  I bought some pointy metal javelins at the same time for my Welsh Warriors.

Total spend, including the petrol, parking and entry fee (£5 this year) was just shy of £160, which was ironically almost exactly the amount of money I made from selling my Bretonnians on ebay the next day!  Happy, happy.

Ricks Great English Civil War Painting Quest - Part 2

Time for a Royalist Update.  Its been a while, and the last two months I have been fairly busy in my spare time painting as many Royalists in a semi-organised way so I will be able to use them at the Deeside Gauntlet show on the 7^th July.  With the ECW game organiser, Dave, striving for high standards of presentation (and also of entertainment and bizarre shouting) I realised that anything not completely painted was going to miss out completely, and set too with a will.

I broke my large pile of models into three main sections; the foote (a foote regiment – Talbots – of 40 models), the horse (4 horse regiments and their CO – 33 models – possibly the most challenging), and the dragoons (28 models, mounted and dismounted), with the remaining models for the command and supply units to be stuck in wherever possible.  I had three months to do all this painting, and so the split into 3 achievable chunks seemed logical. 

I chose the foote to do first as Aprils chunk, partly because they already had a lot of paint on them so looked like a quick start, and I added in the supply units and the civilians (pigs and a farmer) for a total of 59 models.  These were just about finished at the beginning of May, with the Dipping process done around the 5-6^th.  In May I got a sudden unexpected urge and enthusiasm to work on the horse.   This died out around three quarters of the way through, but I’ve finished them with 4 days to spare, along with my officer command scene, and their CO on his white horse.  In truth they still need the final spray of matt varnish but the weather has turned damp so I’m not risking it yet, no rush.

That leaves the third chunk of the dragoons, who have acquired a few more models to the foot elements (my efforts to find a couple of musketeers holding horses to give them character failed at Triples – waiting on Empress Miniatures later this year I think).  There are also a number more hangers on, with a number of civilians purchased, an officer, and I’ll be ordering the oxen and a cannon limber to transport my Saker, and to finish a third supply unit – two looks good, but three should finish it off.  I’ve also a fortress gatehouse to paint for Chester city walls. 

Plenty done, and plenty to get on with, and I’ve included a few shots, plus a ‘whats left’ shot at the bottom.

Models Finished: 92

To be done: 48

Average Joes 2013 - Match Day 1

Its been a while since the last post, so I'm going to keep this simple: I Won.  

And now onto the slightly more complicated version.

Average Joes  2 - 1  R Sovertit

The rats turned up for their opening group stage match against the comically named R Sovertit, an Amazon side coached by the indomitable Pete Derrick.  Defeat would have been a bad start to the campaign, victory could have meant a long walk home (the opposition was providing the team bus for the evening).  Fortunately it was a quite close game so neither eventuality happened.  The rats scored first, with an unsurprising gutter runner break through after the Amazons put 'Joes in to bat first - scorer Cotton McKnight.  The first half finished at 1-0, although it could have been worse for the dodging women but the rats made a mess of it.  A fair bit of bang-the-rat was going on however, and 'Joes were only just able to field 11 players at the start of the second half.

That didn't last long, and 'Joes were soon into single figures in terms of players.  The Amazons took advantage and scored an equaliser, celebrating by bashing a gutter runner into the next century.  Weakened in terms of player numbers the rats were still dangerous, and with minutes to go took the lead for the second time, Pepper Brooks (the only gutter runner not unconscious) running in after a hand-off.  There wasn't enough time for an Amazon reply and Average Joes celebrated a victory in their first game of the campaign.

'Joes next opponents are an Orc side, coached by David A, and they will face them with only 11 players from the start; storm vermin Tank suffering from a niggling injury in the form of a fractured leg (!), while gutter runner The Rat also misses out due to a pinched nerve.  Vicious those Amazons.

Work In Progress.......April 2013

I’m thinking of switching the work in progress post to once month, that’s seems to make more sense!  As such here is the Work In Progress report for the month of April, and with much excitement building over the prospect of a large English Civil War game at the Deeside Defenders show of Gauntlet on Sunday the 7^th July I’m unsurprisingly focusing on painting a few more of my Royalists.  My mathematics says that I will have had to paint a total of 130 Royalist models by that date, including all my dragoons (28 figures mounted and unmounted), all my horse (32 mounted figures), a regiment of foote and plenty of extras on top.  To that end I’ve been working on the regiment of foote, and my supply units this month, with the result that I’ve finished painting (although not Dipping, flocking or varnishing) the following:

16 pikemen (Talbots foote)

A cart pulled by 2 oxen with a barrel load (counts as 4 models)

A supply unit of musketeers and donkeys (9 models)

4 pigs

1 farmer

1 tavern owner

The musketeers for Talbots foote, all 24 of them, are currently on the painting table and in need of their muskets, hair and hats doing before a general tidy up and they will be finished.  Once they are done I will have 59 models ready for some Dipping, flocking and varnishing, and can move onto the next bunch.  What the next bunch will be I’m not 100% sure as yet, the horse have been sitting very unpainted for a long time, so I will probably turn my attentions to a couple of regiments of them, as well as my section of ECW command which will provide a nice distraction

In other distracting news I took the leap and placed an order with Baccus (creaters of 6mm models) for some American Civil War troops, more about those in another post, but enough to say here that I’m doing a small (!) sideline in an infantry battalion and cannon battery for them to break up the ECW figures.  So far I’ve finished one base (40mm by 20mm, and with 16 infantry men on) to test the colours out on, they seem to have gone ok so far.  I’ve also applied some flock to the bases of my two Battlefront ponds to give them some ‘life’ and colour, they certainly look better for it, although quite how the tiny bag of flock that came with them was supposed to achieve the same look I’ve no idea!

Talbots musketeers, the supply train, and some pigs!