Ancient Britons vs EIR, To the Strongest!

Now then,

Not a battle report as such but a few pics of our game this evening. Stuart popped down for a game of To the Strongest, and took control of the Legions of Rome whilst the unruly warbands of the Britons were mine.

Turn 1 saw the armies advancing, the British light chariots racing to outflank the Romans.

The blue beads are ammo markers, so in TtS units have a limited ammo supply. Although you can stockpile more in your baggage train / camp.

The Legions charge in, throwing their pilums as they do. The red beads denote disorder.

Here, the British hero is about to be unleashed, and promptly die....

 The light Chariots are bogged down on both flanks, on the left by the Equites Alares......














And on the right by the Legionary Cohorts.

Eventually the Legionary's were outflanked and the Britons rolled up their line. Just as the Roman Auxilleries started to have some success on the other flank.

Thats our second game of TtS now, and we are getting used to the rules, although a few mistakes were made. The Romans wont be beaten quite so easily next time, now that we have re-read the rallying rules!

Cheers to Stuart for the game.  Right, id better get these bases finished off on the Romans, (the horror, gaming with unfinished figures!)

Cheers,
Steve

To the Strongest Gaming mat

Now then,

I have had a productive few days, firstly I have made a gaming mat for to the strongest, and ive also re based and reorganized my 10mm Ancient British army.

The army is compatible with Impetus as well, although I have reduced the depth of the mounted bases so I can get 2 units on a grid square in TtS.

Heres some pics.












Here is the full army set up on the new gaming mat. Although To the Strongest uses a grid, it doesn't have to be in your face obvious, I have tried to make mine as subtle as I can whilst still being able to see it.

Here is a closer look at the base mat. Its just a sheet of hessian, bought from a local material shop for about 2 quid. I just slapped some paint on it in various shades of green, then used a green permanent pen to mark the corners of the boxes.

Here are some more random pics!

22 warband bases each of 20 figures!

The light cavalry and chariots are pretty much the same in TtS, and ive ended up with 6 of each.

Next up will be my Early Imperial Romans, and another mat, this time a desert / arid one for the Crusaders and the Greek and Persian wars.

Cheers for looking
Steve

To the Strongest

Now then,

I have just bought the new (ish) ancients rules by Simon miller, called to the strongest. Im sure most gamers with an interest in ancients have heard of or probably already own them. I remember reading about the rules when they were first released, and have to admit I wasnt remotely interested. why? well, firstly the battlefield is a grid..... then there are no dice? whats this all about then?

Well having had a look at a mates rulebook, it has unexpectedly piqued my interest, so a couple of days ago we had a small game, just to try out the rules, and I have to say it is a great game. Its simple, straight forward and very bloody. There is no measuring, because of the grid, no fiddly wheeling etc, and everything else is worked out using playing cards, no charts of dice roll modifiers to wade through.... Hopefully ill have my own copy by the end of the week!

The little gaming group im part of are quite keen on it so I expect ill be playing this quite a bit. Which can only be good.

Heres a few links -

To the Strongest Forum

Online store -  BigRedBat shop

Simon Millers Blog -   BigRedBat Cave



Cheers for reading
Steve

Light Troops for the Crusaders!

Now then,

I have just finished off my Turcopoles and light infantry archers for my crusader army. That pretty much finishes the project off, both armies are now well over 500 points (for Impetus) so not much more needed....

2 units of Turcopole light cavalry.

2 units of skirmishing archers.

Im now looking forward to getting them on a gaming table sometime!

Heres a link to the full army - Crusaders

Cheers for looking,
Steve

War and Empire Kickstarter II

Now then,

The guys at westwind are running another Kickstarter, this time its the Early Imperial Romans and their enemies, the first kickstarter was a huge success last year, and they have funded the project and unlocked the first stretch goal, the Dacians within 24 hours!

War and Empire legions of Rome

If your after a new 15mm ancient army, then id recommend you have a look!

Steve

Its been a while, here's some Epic!

Now then,

Its been ages since I last updated the blog, I haven't been totally idle although my painting time has been much reduced for one reason or another....

To get back into the swing of things, I decided to paint up some Tau units for my epic army.

Heres the army so far - EPIC TAU

Here is a link to all my epic stuff so far - Epic Page

These Models are OTC Kaiju Mega rigs from Onslaught Miniatures. They are going to stand in as Riptide battle suits in my Tau army.

They are pretty large models, and come as multi part kits with separate arms and weapon options.

I have gone with a standard weapon loadout that matches the Epic Armageddon army lists.











In the pack you get 3 different sets of legs, so each one is slightly different, and the torso is separate so can be posed differently.

Overall they are very detailed models. However putting them together was time consuming because it all had to be pinned together, separate arms, torso and weapons.

Here is the full formation together.

And here is a size comparison with some other OTC miniatures, standard battlesuits, Mega Rigs and  Infantry.

As you can see they are pretty big models, and as the Tau don't have any Titans, they are a good addition to the army, and pack a decent amount of firepower.

Anyway, Ill try and get something Historical painted up soon, but im moving house again very soon so it might be a while!

Cheers,
Steve

Happy Yorkshire Day!

Happy Yorkshire day!


There is only 1 superhero, its.....

Sorry for the late post, Busy and all that.

Steve

Crusades update

Now then,

I got these two bases done a little while ago for my Crusades army for Impetus. I have rebased the 2 command stands that I made up for Hail Caesar as ive decided that Impetus is the game that ill be playing.

Here is King Richard, based as Crusader Knights, with general.

This is another Crusader Knight base, with an attached General, this time with Henry of Champagne in command.

Both bases together.

All I have left to do now are 2 bases of Turcopoles and 2 bases of foot skirmishers with bows, and the Crusader army will be done.

All my Crusaders can be seen here - CRUSADERS

In other news I have nearly completed my Rapid fire Waffen SS army, and I have finished my Soviet army which is massive, and includes 9 infantry Bns with attached support in the form of AT guns etc, and a tank brigade with a heavy tank Bn attached as well as artillery and tank destroyers etc.... Pics soon.

Cheers for looking,
Steve

40k Legion of the Damned and Deathwatch marines for sale!

Now then,

My mass clearout continues, this time it is 2 squads of specialist Space Marines in the form of my Deathwatch Kill team, and the Legion of the Damned marines.

I have hesitated for a while about selling these, because I still kind of like them, but they have never been on a gaming table, and they were painted and put in a box well over a decade ago! Time for a new home I think....

SOLD

The Deathwatch can be seen on the blog HERE

The Legion of the Damned

I really enjoyed painting this squad!

All my stuff for sale can be seen on my Ebay page HERE

Thanks for taking a look,

Steve

Rapid Fire Soviets vs SS first game

Now then,

Myself and Stuart had our first test game of Rapid Fire last week, it pitted 2 soviet rifle Battalions supported by a few anti tank guns with 4 T34/75's in reserve against an Armoured SS Pz Grenadier Battalion, supported by an assault gun company (2 x Stug IIIG)

The game played pretty quickly, and there weren't may occasions that we had to check the rule book, mainly the checking was to do with direct HE firing for some reason....

Anyway, the Pz Grenadiers made some headway against the Soviets at first but casualties were heavy, including the Bn CO who was taken out early on. Once the T34's arrived they destroyed both Stugs pretty quickly, and the SS lost their nerve and withdrew. The soviet rifleman who took out the command halftrack with his anti tank rifle was the star of the game (jammy dice rolling).

In the foreground you can see the Bn HQ halftrack burning, and another burning halftrack on the far left, The soviets can be seen emerging from the wheat field, outflanking my forces.

Heres a slightly blurry air reconnaissance shot of the T34's mauling my Stugs and halftracks, the 50mm Pak 38 is being hastily towed into position to try to hold them off... It didnt work!

All in all it was a very enjoyable game, nice and simple with plenty of toys on the table. Next game will be a bit bigger, with more armour!

Hopefully in the next few days ill have another Soviet rifle regiment finished off, as well as a tank brigade. The SS forces have also been sorted out/expanded as well so ill get some pics of those up soon too.

Cheers,
Steve

Rapid Fire Soviet Rifle Regiment

Now then,

Since ive moved back to the UK ive been fortunate enough to meet up a few times with a group of gamers in the area, and although ive previously banged on about firstly bolt action then Battlegroup Kursk, the lads are really into Rapid fire. So a bit of sorting out was in order.

First I bought the 2nd edition rapid fire rules, and having had a read through they are dead simple, and the great thing about them is that you can really get all your toys on the table and fight some big battles.

Heres a link to the Rapid Fire website - Rapid Fire
For some more info on Rapid fire, battle reports and loads of cool pictures see the storm of steel blog, here - Storm of Steel

I have sorted out my old Soviet hordes from my days playing Flames of war into a soviet rifle division, with supporting tanks etc.... I have hundreds of them!

Soviet rifle divisions typically consisted of 3 rifle regiments, each containing 3 rifle battalions, with regimental support in the form of A/T guns etc.

Here's one Regiment:






Regimental HQ

CO + 5 men 1 Jeep, 1 Radio Truck.

Gun Battery - 1 x 76.2mm Field/AT gun, 1 Truck
AT battery - 2 x long barreled 45mm AT gun, 2 Trucks
AA Platoon - 1 x 37mm AA, 1 x Prime mover.

SMG Company - 6 Figs

3 x Rifle Battalions, each of the following:

CO + 4 AT Rifle

Coy - 8 Figs
Coy - 8 Figs
Coy - 8 Figs

Sp Coy
1 x 82mm Mortar
1 x50mm Mortar
1 x Maxim MMG

So that's the full strength rifle regiment done, I also have 2 reduced strength rifle regiments, with just 2 battalions each, and limited support. Also I have 2 independent tank battalions and a heavy tank battalion as well as attached assault guns and tank destroyers...artillery....rocket battery... etc..

Ill do a separate post on each of the formations when they are completed. All the figures were painted about 12 years ago, but need lots of repairs and stuff.

Next time Ill put up some pictures of my Das Reich division SS troops, who will be trying to batter a way through all the hordes of Russians!

Cheers,
Steve

The Order of St John

Now then,

I have actually done some painting, for the first time in months!

I have painted up an additional unit of Hospitaller Knights for my Crusades Impetus army, and while I was at it I re-did the flag on the original one to match,  the old one wasn't exactly very good....

Anyway here are the Order of St John ready to bring justice to gods enemies!

Hopefully ill have some more Crusader Knights finished shortly, as the army is expanding (again)!

Cheers,
Steve

OLDHAMMER Chaos Dwarf army.

Now then,

I've been having a sort out, and have decided to sell my (very) old Chaos Dwarf army. Here's a few pictures of the little evildoers....

I painted these in the early nineties, and they must have been in a box in an attic for 15 years or more, so its time they had a new home.

SOLD

Cheers,
Steve