Late Roman Army for To the Strongest.

Now then,

Last year, during one of the lockdowns, i forget exactly when, i painted up my late Roman army, using the stunning Footsore miniatures.

Light Troops

I started off with some light infanty, javelin armed skirmishers, or Lanciarii, if you prefer.

 Next up were some light infantry archers, I spent some extra time stringing their bows, and making arrows out of brush bristles. I think if looks a bit more convincing.

Some light cavalry armed with Javelins.

More light cavalry, this time with bows. again i strung all the bows.

Cavalry 

Late Roman Heavy cavalry, with a heroic looking chap accompanying them, for use in To the strongest.

Late Roman heavy cavalry

Veteran heavy cavalry, i used some of the Romano British models in this unit, to make them look a bit different.

Late Roman Cataphracts.

The Infantry

4 Units of Late Roman heavy infantry.

A late Roman Scorpio, the only non Footsore miniatures in the army, these are from Gripping beast.

Commanders and Heroes

Arthur, King of the Britons!

I have used the Belasarius model as a hero for my Cataphract unit.

General

Guenivere, i use her as a hero in one of the infantry units.

Vortigen, the general of my infanrty.

And finally a camp for use in To the strongest, I scratch built this out of coffee stirrers etc.

A really fun painting project, and an army im very proud of. Next post ill show you their opposition.... The Picts!

Thanks for looking,

Stig.

My video update over on youtube.

Late Roman Army

An update!

Now then,

Its been a while since i updated my blog, however I have been very busy painting and gaming!

So whats new?

WW2

I have finished off my first 1000 points for my late war German list for Flames of War.

Here is a few pics of what ive been doing.

 This was my first game of FOW for years, German Grenadiers vs the 51st highland division in Normandy 1944.

I think the Brits won quite convincingly!

More terrain needed to hide behind!

Also for my WW2 FOW stuff I went back to the mid war period in Russia and added a lorried Pz Grenadier platoon for my SS forces.

And for another option I have added an armoured car patrol, with a 223 command variant and 2x 222's.

Lion Rampant in 15mm

I have started a new (very small) project, the wars of the roses in 15mm for the skirmish game lion Rampant, nice and quick and only costing a few quid.

Here's what ive got done so far -

Viscount Lovell and his band of retainers.

Miniatures are peter Pig

 Lord Dacre of the South, and his retainers.

To the Strongest

I have been playing to the strongest a fair bit as well, its such a fun, easy game to play. No brain ache.. Which can only be good!

Heres a few dodgy pics of my last game using 6mm WOTR, on a small gaming board. It worked really well, however I must replace all the little beads with proper ammo markers and victory medals/coins etc....

Anyway, thats about it for now, Ill try a bit harder to keep the blog updated in future...

Cheers,
Steve

Crusades in 15mm for Hail Caesar.

Hi all,

Now that my WOTR in 6mm project has come to a natural pause (a project is never finished!) Im thinking about what im going to do next.

Im considering expanding my 15mm Crusades project. the army I have is all based up and organised for Impetus, however by combining bases, I can very easily make it work for Hail Caesar.

So im thinking that 3 bases for a standard unit will look suitably impressive.



So a standard sized Crusader foot sergeants unit will look like this.



In the army list books, the crusader sergeants can have a sub unit of crossbows, so the full unit will look like this.



The Crusader Knights will look most impressive I think. 18 figures for a unit.



Small units will be 2 bases strong, for example like the Turcopoles above.

So, no rebasing needed, but lots of painting to be done. Thats not the chore it may sound like, as I love painting the Crusades stuff. The Legio Heroica miniatures are awesome so it a win all round I think.

Anyway... heres a link to the Legio Heroica website.  Legio Heroica

Cheers for looking,
Steve

The Wars of the Roses in 6mm. Hail Caesar

Now then,

Life has been busy recently, hobby time has been pretty good though, although I havent been blogging much....

I decided a while ago now that I wasn't particularly happy with how my 6mm WOTR was organised. The base size was (is) ok, but having separate retinue bills and MAA stands charging about the place like highly trained Roman cohorts just seemed wrong.

The vast majority of troops in the WOTR would have had very limited training, and certainly wouldn't have been capable of anything more complex than forming a battle line and moving forward with their fellows. Strong leadership was essential when leading the troops of the period, I believe that is why the great lords and nobles, even the kings themselves dismounted on fought on foot, often in the front rank. There were no real great commanders, but a great many outstanding leaders, who led from the front.


So, I have changed the composition of my Fighting bases. No longer do I have stands of bills and separate stands of knights and men at arms in full plate armour. Now they are mixed together on the same stand, the more heavily armoured chaps to the front, and around the standard. The retinue bills making up the numbers and filling the rear ranks.

An example retinue, 1 base of fighting troops, and 1 base of longbowmen.


So, to play Hail Caesar, I have decided on a 6 base standard sized unit. Made up of 3 retinues, the senior noble in the centre, and hence the leader model ( for rules purposes). Fighting bases to the front and the rear bases are longbowmen.

Small units are 2 bases wide. Id normally reserve this for small cavalry units, but occasionally smaller retinue units and possibly levies.

the small cavalry units will only be 1 base deep though!

Tiny units will be just a single base, maybe foragers and the like....

large units will be 5 bases wide, 2 deep (10 bases)

So now that im happy with how im going to go forward with this army, I thought a few games would be in order!

Game 1

Blore Heath (sort of...ish...)

The armies face off. (there should be a river, and the yorkists should be protected by a line of stakes and a ditch!. I didnt want to over complicate our first game so left them off).

 I did however fortify the Yorkist flanks.

The Yorkist camp, complete with wagon laager and fortifications, guarded by some cannon.

 The Lancastrian forces, with the cavalry to the front ready to charge in and cause havoc!

Behind the cavalry come the masses of levies!

Here is a view along the Lancastrian lines.

Hopefully you can see the 6 stand blocks, and the 2 stand (small) cavalry units.

The Yorkists await the onslaught! Longbows at the ready.

A good learning game.

the cavalry (knights) proved to be far to rock hard and easily smashed through the Yorkist lines. 1 small unit managed to rout 2 retinue foot units in a single turn!

The Yorkists were doomed, due to a lack of good command rolls and poor shooting.


Good game though and fun was had.





Game 2

Battle of Catterick heath...

No report as such, but here are a few pics of the carnage!

 Lancastrian forces advance into a hail of arrows and cannon balls!

The Yorkist "battle" under the earl of Salisbury hold their ground and fill the sky with arrows.

 Both sides start to take casualties.

 The Yorkists maintain a solid battleline, all the while pouring on the bow and cannon fire.

Some Lancastrians are driven back by the constant hail of arrows.

The Yorkists dont have it all their own way though, Lancastrian cannon line up their victims!

Massed levy spearmen about to get the good news!

When the lines finally meet, there is much slaughter, after a prolonged combat, both armies are fought to a standstill, but with the Lancastrian army breaking, the Yorkists are in no fit state to pursue.


A bloody day indeed.

A great game, We had 4 players, each commanding their own "battle", the cavalry formed a separate command and could only be activated after an enemy command had been routed! (An attempt to show the nobles bringing up their horses and pursuing!)

Meanwhile, whilst battle raged in the dining room....... the fembots have their own hobby.......

 Thanks for looking,
Steve