Marian Romans are Go!

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It’s taken me about three months, but I now finally have enough Marian Roman figures painted to get the army onto the tabletop.

My target was achieved with the painting of a second Legatus (commander of a legion) and the first two Cohorts of my second legion.

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Those of you who visit this site regularly will see that I have differentiated between the legions by giving this second set blue-painted shields instead of the red ones used for the first legion. I was tempted to use black helmet crests as well but, in the end, decided that different shields were enough.

The figures are 15mm Baueda Marian Romans painted mainly with GW Contrast Paints. Shield transfers are from Little Big Man Studios, bases from Warbases.

This now means that I have 130 points of Romans to field using the To The Strongest rules: four commanders, six units of legionaries (three veteran), two units of veteran Gallic cavalry, and then a unit each of horse archers, Cretan archers and legionary artillery.

The Marian Romans laid out and ready to go!

Also good news is that daughter #1’s boyfriend is back staying with us for another week…which means the chance to take the Romans for a spin. Obviously I’m a little concerned with fielding a brand new army, as wargaming tradition has it that newly painted figures always perform really, really badly (especially if they are the best painted figures that you have ever done!), but I think I shall just have to bite the pila as it were and get on with it!

IABSM AAR: Where's Wailley

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Two of my regular wargaming opponents, Bevan and Dave, turned their guns on each other: playing a game based on the famous British counter-attack near Arras on 21st May 1940.

The British attack had already broken through the main road west from Arras – the N25 - and this was an attempt to close the other viable road west that Rommel would have to use to supply his over stretched tanks.  This road (the D3) runs through the village of Wailley just west of Arras, so the British mission was to take the village and block the road. The German brief was to keep the road open at all costs.

Unfortunately, Dave’s photographs of the game disappeared into the technological ether, so here’s a shot from one of Michael Curtis’ excellent Arras games. Click on it to read Dave’s report on his battle…

IABNM Moderns AAR: Breakthrough

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Over the years, various people have adapted the TooFatLardies' company-level rules I Ain't Been Shot, Mum (WW2) and Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam) for other, more modern periods.

One such adaptation, never officially published, was I Ain’t Been Nuked Mum. Here’s a battle report from 2015 taken from the now unfortunately moribund Maxim to Milan blog imagining action from the Cold War of the 1970’s.

The scenario sees a hastily assembled US force of a mechanised platoon, an anti-tank section and an armored cavalry section on a mission to stop a breakthrough by a Soviet company of T62s with a motor rifle platoon in BMPs attached. 

Click on the pic below to see all.

Another Scots Battalia

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Enthused by how the first Scots battalia came out, I leapt into painting the second one and polished it off in no time at all.

As a reminder, these are Khurasan Miniatures’ 15mm English Civil War Scots infantry: a mixture of their pikemen, musketeers and infantry command packs. They were painted using GW Contrast Paints, and mounted on a Warbases Vehicle base. The purple heather is from Boontown.

When I first started the Scots, I was a bit worried about painting tartan, but I seem to have found a way of getting the various sashes looking at least tartan-esque, certainly from usual wargaming distance. To be honest, all I did was paint each sash a basecoat red, then drew lines of various different colours (mainly green) against the grain of the sash. I think they have come out quite well, but the real test will be when I move on to the Highlanders!

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There will now be a short interval whilst I paint the one remaining legionary unit I need to actually field the Marian Romans…

Another Painting Challenge Update

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It’s time for another Painting Challenge update, and today we have some really lovely entries coming in.

Make sure you look at the individual galleries (accessed via the nav bar, above) but here’s a selection…

IABSM AAR: Take the Hills

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Another great I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum battle report from the keyboard of Chris Lane, and taken from the IABSM Facebook Group.

Their game this time saw part two of what has now become their fall of Singapore campaign. In this battle, a full strength British company was tasked of taking two strategic hills while the Japanese (briefly) rested. The Japanese commander was tasked with holding the hills but with the option of taking a junction for a major victory.

Click on the picture below to see all…

Roman Artillery

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I’m just finishing off a few more bits and pieces for my 15mm Marian Roman army before starting on the second legion (another 120 legionaries!). One of the units I need is the legionary ballistae or bolt-throwers.

Those of you who have been following this site will know that I am using Baueda figures for my Marian Romans, but Baueda don’t do any artillery yet, so it was back to the ever-reliable Peter Pig to pick up a couple of packets. That’s one of the things I like about the Pig: you can buy a big army, or you can buy a small packet or two to fill a gap.

The Pig don’t do Marian Romans, but they do have a very nice range of Early Imperial types. Yes these chaps would therefore be in lorica segmentia rather than mail, but maybe they were testing the prototypes of the new armour being introduced. As I understand it, the ballistae were manned by odds and sods from the 10th Cohort, so why shouldn’t they be dressed slightly differently!

The packs duly arrived and, on first glance, looked a bit small compared to the Baueda figures. This was, however, an illusion caused by pose and lack of helmet crest. They go together pretty well: certainly not badly enough to make a difference on the tabletop. I’ve just double checked the case I store them in, where they are next to Baueda figures: no real difference except, as mentioned, the helmet crest effect.

The figures are very nice: well up to Peter Pig’s usual high standards. I liked the ballistae themselves as well: simple, but with enough detail to make them look like what they are.

In fact, the only problem is that they now make me wish I’d gone a different route and gone for an Early Imperial army instead of the Marians, but then there’s always time to rectify that in the future…!



The First of the ECW Scots

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I still needed some more foot for my ECW armies, but was a little bored of painting up another straight pike and shot battalia (I have seven units of about 26 figures each, or 182 foot figures) so decided I’d add a Scots element.

Most of my ECW figures so far have been Peter Pig or Hallmark (via Magister Militum), so I decided to look elsewhere for the Scots: two changes presumably being as good as two rests!

The figures I settled on in the end were Khurasan’s fairly new range of ECW Scots and Irish. I must admit I was strongly influenced by how good the painted up examples on the website looked (other manufacturers take note!) and the fact that I could send a message via FB to check if the pikemen were open handed (they are) and get a response within a couple of hours.

Even more impressive was that after I’d ordered my usual fairly large amount (three foot battalia, three horse units, two units of Highlanders, and a couple of artillery pieces) the figures arrived from the US only five days later. Five days!

This meant they headed straight to the front of the painting queue, so here’s the first battalia finished:

What I like about these figures is the obvious contrast with the English battalia: all dressed very plainly as compared to the bright colours down South…but with several of the figures having tartan sashes just to liven things up a little.

These paint up very easily (as usual, I mostly used Contrast Paints) and are highly recommended.

A Few Odds & Ends from the Painting Table

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Very busy at work this last week, so only time to complete a few odds and ends for the two projects I’m currently working on: English Civil War and Marian Romans.

I always find that having two projects on the go at any one time is better than having just one. If, like I do, you only collect in one scale (15mm for me) I also find that it’s best to use different manufacturers as well: alleviates the boredom factor.

First up, a couple of command stands for my English Civil War armies. Here I’ve used a couple of gentleman officers from Hallmark (via Magister Militum) as a random Colonel-type, and then a couple of spare figures from Peter Pig - one command, one artilleryman - as a Colonel of artillery. The mini-gabions are Hama beads filled with basing material!

The Hallmark figures are really exquisite and, if you use Contrast Paints like I do, really easy to paint.

On top of the above, I’ve now painted up the five Hero figures I need for my Marian Roman army. Representing Heroes is always difficult, as you need a figure that stands out a bit and yet is not being used for the rest of the army.

What I chose to do was to add a set of Peter Pig Centurion figures to my Baueda Marian Roman army.

One of the great things about Peter Pig (in addition to the huge range and lovely, very paintable sculpts that they do) is that you can ask them to give you a custom built pack of just one sculpt. So here I looked at one of their mixed command packs, chose one figure, and had a pack of eight of just that figure sent to me. Very handy indeed.

FK&P AAR: Burchett's Green

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I had a chance to get my new English Civil War siege gun bases onto the tabletop as I played out the latest scenario in my North Wessex campaign using the For King & Parliament campaign.

Both sides have withdrawn from the field of their last encounter at Pinkney’s Court, with the Royalists now looping round to try and outflank the Parliamentarians. As a desperate excuse to justify the use of siege artillery, the Royalists receive a couple of huge cannon as a gift from the King. Keen to try them out, they set them up across open fields and prepare to fire off a coupe of shots. As they do so, the Roundheads appear on the other side of the field and battle is joined.

Here’s what happened:

This was a tricky battle for the Royalists as they start the game in a very awkward position. In addition, their siege guns just couldn’t hit anything and, when they did, my units saved time and time again.

A workmanlike Parliamentarian victory.

More Romans

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Just a couple of pieces today. First up is the Legatus Legionis or commander of the Legion: just a simple command base for my TTS Marian Romans. Figures are Baueda 15mm sourced from Magister Militum.

What is slightly odd is that with the Baueda Marian Roman cohort command, the chap holding the standard (the Aquilifer) is dressed in a lion skin and the signaller (the cornicen) is wearing a wolf skin, whereas here, for the legion command, it’s the other way around.

Next up is a Baueda Semi-Permanent Legionary Marching Fort that I will use as a TTS camp. Now this model was quite complicated to put together well, and I have a horrible feeling that the Primus Pilus would take one look and order the thing taken down and put up again.

The gates are particularly wonky, mainly because after I’d built it I realised that I had stuck the gates on upside down! This gave me a huge gap at the bottom of the gates (plenty of room for a barbarian to crawl through) which I then had to fill with Hama Beads!

But it is a lovely model, and I’m going to get the somewhat smaller Marching Camp as well.

IABSM AAR: Anzio #14: North of Carroceto

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Lovely little battle report from Dan Albrecht and buddies, taken from the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum Facebook page.

They used Scenario #14 from the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack, North of Carroceto. The scenario focuses on the German attack on the Right Flank Company of the Scots Guards holding the area of Carroceto railway station during the late evening and night of 9th/10th February 1944.

What is particularly interesting about this game is that it features the use of a sand table, something that you rarely see these days. Click on the picture below to see all.

TFL Painting Challenge: Latest Update

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It’s another sweltering hot day today in the UK: going outside is like walking into a wall of heat.

Unusual distribution of entries into the Painting Challenge this week: lots of entries but from a small number of entrants. Must be the weather!

Here’s a sample of the work of everyone who submitted something this week. Make sure you check out their full galleries: some inspirational content there.

IABSM AAR: A Canadian VC Luther-Style!

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Here’s another great battle report from Mark Luther, this time using the A Canadian VC scenario from the main I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum v3 rulebook. Mark played this game remotely with four players scattered around Atlanta area and in Florida.

The game is based on the August 19, 1944 Canadian advance into St Lambert where the Allies are trying to plug the Falaise Gap.

Click on the picture below to see all:

Final Two Cohorts Now Done

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The 15mm Marian Romans for To The Strongest are coming along nicely: about two thirds of what I need to field the army are now done.

I’m representing a legion with five TTS units, with each unit therefore representing two cohorts (these are the days before the Augustan super-strength first cohort). As I like to minimise the number of markers on the table, each unit is two bases (neatly making one base represent one cohort) with a formed unit being the two bases neatly in line with each other and a disordered unit represented by the two bases being separated and at an angle to each other. Latest off the production line are the final two cohorts (or one TTS unit) for the first legion I’m going to field.

In keeping with how the legions operated in Gaul under Caesar, I’m intending the core of the army to be six or seven legionary units: four or five from one legion, two or three from another. Naturally I’ll therefore be painting up two full legions (240 legionaries in all!) which will also allow me to play out the civil war battles that followed the Gallic wars.

The figures are from Baueda, bought in the UK via Magister Militum, painted using GW Contrast paints. The shield transfers are the Baueda-specific designs from Little Big Man Studios. Bases are from Warbases.

Next up will be the Legate Legionis in charge as a command stand, and a semi-permanent camp for the chaps to rest in after each battle!

TTS AAR: Three Games One Sunday

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Three great games of To The Strongest this Sunday, all Sassanid Persians versus 100YW English. I took the Sassanids for Game One, Kavan for Game Two, and then it was back to me playing the Sassanids in Game Three.

Henry V versus the Persians!

Henry V versus the Persians!

The results? I think it fair to say that the Sassanids did very well indeed, winning all three games! Those of you who are paying attention will have worked out that that meant that the day was two-one to me.

The first game was a glorious victory for both me and the Sassanids, but one largely caused by Kavan’s terrible cards! I used standard tactics: horse archers on the wings keeping his men there occupied whilst the heavy horse and elephants punched their way through the middle.

The escorted elephants punch a hole

The second game was a similar affair, but this time it was me on the receiving end. I knew what was coming, so managed to deal with the initial horse archer advance on my right wing with mass longbow fire. In the centre, I had massed my heavies opposite his, but lost two of my three generals in the first round of combat. This effectively stuffed me command-wise, and I got overlapped on the left by those gosh-darned light horsemen as I just couldn’t get the units I needed to activate into action regularly enough. As my left began to crumble, Kavan punched a hole in my centre which he then flooded with the rest of his heavies: the coup de grace coming as he took my camp.

The English camp falls…again!

With both of us now very familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of both friendly and enemy troops, the third game was a neck-and-neck affair which either of us could have won. Each side had one camp each, and both fell: mine to mounted men-at-arms that three units of horse archers just couldn’t stop in time; his to another heavy cavalry punch through the middle. I won in the end, but it was a very close run thing.

All in all, an excellent afternoon’s gaming.

The Sassanid Heavies roll forward





FK&P AAR: Pinkney's Court Again

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I’ve now had a chance to play the Pinkney’s Court scenario another three times.

The first game, versus Bevan, was a complete disaster. The more nimble Swedish-style Royalist cavalry sliced and diced their Parliamentarian opponents, destroying all three units for the loss of only one of their own. That meant that I had to divert troops to shore up the position, leaving me short of infantry (and victory coins!) for the clash on the other flank. A crushing defeat!

The other two games, against Kavan, however, went much better. The first was a close run thing, but I eventually prevailed. The second was a glorious, overwhelming victory caused, I hasten to add, by the most amazing run of luck at the cards. In each of the initial three clashes, I hit three times out of five: not bad when you’re needing an 8+ on a 1-10 evens chance. Much like my men in the game described above, Kavan’s troops never really recovered.

Here are some pictures of the game I lost:

IABSM AAR: Virtual Lard 2

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One of the things that has been going on during lockdown is a series of virtual Lardy Days where people who are not lucky enough to be able to push lead with a member of their “bubble” can game remotely.

Mike Whitaker ran a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum at the recent Virtual Lard 2. Here’s a quick AAR of the action taken from his excellent blog Trouble At T’Mill. Click on the picture below to see all:

Siege Guns

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Having equipped my ECW armies with light guns and field artillery, it was time to add the big boys: a couple of Siege Gun elements.

The guns themselves were no problem: many years ago I was at an English Heritage site (or similar) and came across a tub of artillery models that have, over the years, proved ideal for siege gun-sized artillery pieces. I still have a handful left, so two of them would form the centrepiece of the elements.

I wanted the siege gun elements to look immobile, so rather than having the guns “naked” on a base, I bought a couple of resin gabion pieces from Peter Pig to serve as dressing. This also meant I didn’t have to have any sort of limber and team in the vicinity: they always take ages to do!

The crews initially came from Peter Pig, who do six different poses. Six men per gun didn’t seem enough, however, so I added a couple of Hallmark officer/sergeant types to each to bulk things out. Hallmark (available through Magister Militum) and Peter Pig size very well together.

I then discovered that the guns, gabions and crews didn’t really fit depth-wise on the standard element bases I’m using for my ECW troops. My standard bases are Warbases Vehicle Bases that fit up to about thirty foot or half as many horse figures without difficulty, and sit very nicely on my FK&P grided battlemat…but the combination of crew, gun and gabion stuck out over the end. Fortunately Warbases were able to supply customised “double depth” vehicle bases that exactly did the trick. I can even use the spares I ordered for TTS camps.

So that’s two siege gun elements now completed. More Romans on the way…