Romans Take To The Field (x3)

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I needed to get some practice in for the To The Strongest tournament I’ve entered at Britcon this year, so friend Peter kindly invited me round for a gaming session where I would fight the Romans against whatever he fancied playing.

Given that my Early Imperial Romans are mostly infantry, it was no surprise to see a huge mass of cavalry waiting for me on the other side of Peter’s table. The first two games we played would be Mongols versus Romans, the last would be Normans versus Romans.

Game One: Mongols versus Early Imperial Romans

Being a mostly infantry army, I was comprehensively outscouted and ended up with my troops exactly where I didn’t want them. At least a fifth of my army was out-of-play until they moved in from the flank, and what cavalry I did have were faced by enough swarms of light horse archers to also keep them occupied for the whole game.

Outflanked on my left, my left flank collapsed, and I spent the entire game reacting to the threat from that side. The upshot was a massive 13-0 defeat for the Romans (including the death of the CinC) that boded ill for the rest of the day!

Game Two: Mongols versus Early Imperial Romans

Much to all’s amazement: I won the scouting and, as a result, began the game in a much better position than last time.

Despite this, my left flank collapsed again and I soon found myself 0-4 down in terms of medals. This time, however my better deployment meant that I could recover from this set-back, and in one glorious charge, a unit Roman Equites Alares dashed six victory coins of Mongols from the table, tearing a great big hole in the enemy centre.

Although I was by now running out of victory medals, knocking out another unit of Mongol Lancers and taking the enemy camp finished the job, although I did lose my CinC and part of my camp again. An 11-11 scoreline, but victory for the Romans.

Game Three: Normans versus Early Imperial Romans

Amazingly, I won the scouting again and, if I say so myself, deployed perfectly against the Norman threat.

I advanced forward confidently, only to have my cavalry charge forward with an advantage and get comprehensively stuffed. The worst that should have happened was an even-stevens tussle, but my horsemen just evaporated!

I might have been able to hold on and counter-ruck against an infantry army, but against a mobile mounted army I stood no chance. The rest of my Romans put up a brave fight, so it was no whitewash, but in the end a 6-13 defeat.

Conclusions

So what did I learn? Well, I shall be changing my list slightly just to give me a bit more flexibility, but the main lesson learnt was “don’t fight cavalry armies” which is not very helpful at all!

Attack! in Devises (and some musings!)

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Last weekend I went to the Attack! show in Devises for the first time.

A lovely drive through the Wiltshire countryside almost made the trip worthwhile on its own and, after a little confusion as to where the actual carpark was (Attack! takes place at a school, and you have to snake your way through almost the entire campus to get to the area where you can park your car), I duly arrived and headed into the show.

Attack! is an old school (pun intended) show where rather than being in a single, purpose built exhibition hall, the various venues are scattered across the school campus: main hall, gym one, gym two etc. I rather liked this: it was quite fun exploring, but I was glad it wasn’t raining!

There was a good selection of traders, and I managed to pick up all those odds and ends you need but don’t want to pay postage on, a fair selection of demonstration games, and a large bring and buy. Part of the bring and buy was the sale of a truly massive collection of 28mm mixed historical and fantasy figures that apparently came from a recent house clearance: there were twelve dragons as part of it, which shows you how big it actually was.

Painted Figures for Sale

One thing that was noticeable was the amount of painted figures on sale throughout the show i.e. both on the trade stands and on the B&B.

Even five years ago, painted figures for sale were a comparative rarity, now they are all over the place…and I can’t decide whether this is because:

  • we are all more time-poor these days, so buy painted figures instead of taking the time to paint things ourselves

  • are of the instant gratification generation i.e. want to play now rather than spend the time building an army

  • are more butterfly in our wargaming habits: moving from period to period, scale to scale, and funding the change with the sale of figures from our last, now abandoned project

  • wargames from the start of the ‘golden age of wargaming’ are now all dying from old age and their collections are being disposed of

I am certainly guilty of the first two, but then don’t sell any figures, so my collection just keeps on growing!

The Circle of Life…

That said, I have been selling off a few wargaming bits and pieces that I found in Mother’s attic when helping her clear it out. These I had deposited some thirty years ago, and included any non-15mm kit that I had, including a cardboard box full of nearly-all-unpainted, still-in-the-packets 28mm Celts from Garrison.

I duly popped them up the ‘net, and friend Steve said he’d take them off my hands…but it was only when I came to give them to him that we realised that he had actually sold them to me over thirty years before when he was Garrison in that little shop in Twyford. Proof of the pudding: my name was written on the box in his handwriting!

TFL Painting Challenge: July Update

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Some lovely work on show this update:

That’s six people out of the sixteen taking part so far in this year’s challenge. Come on the rest of you: paintbrushes and cameras out please!

PS Do make sure you look at people’s galleries as well as just the taster I’ve posted above. Navigate through the black navbar under the site’s title.

March to Hell 3D Prints

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A post on the Lead Adventure Forum reminded me that although I’d read about the March to Hell 3D printed miniatures from 3D Breed, I hadn’t actually seen any in the flesh and, as I needed an extra command figure for my Marian Romans, I thought I’d take a look and see what all the fuss was about.

You can get them in the UK from the Geek Villain website, which is well presented and easy to navigate. There are a lot of 15mm 3D prints available: the main WW2 forces, medieval Spanish and Moors, and then the usual suspects ancients-wise: Republican and Early Imperial Romans, Germans, Celts, Persians, Greeks, Macedonians and Carthaginians.

I decided to stay focussed (for once) and headed for the Roman section in search of enough figures for a command stand, and almost immediately came across a special model representing Scipio Africanus: both mounted and dismounted. Looked great in the pics, so I ordered them, and then browsed through and, as I still have plenty of Baueda legionaries in the lead mountain, a couple of the other specials: a medicus set, with a standing and kneeling doctor; and a legionary accompanied by a couple of wardogs!

Scipio and the wardogs were £3, the medicus set was £2.50.

A few days later, a box arrived from the Post Office. The box was about 10cm square and seemed to weigh almost nothing. Opening up, there was a vast amount of bubblewrap folded around the loose miniatures.

Okay, I can live with that - saves on the packaging, the environment and all that (and I’m sure the dustmen/neighbours etc think I’m a drug dealer with all the little plastic ziplock bags I throw away) - but how would that work for a larger order, or did they just loose pack them for this order because it was small and easy to work out which model was which?

The models themselves were beautifully crisp: little works of art. Every last bit of detail was present, with no mould lines, build lines or flash. Lovely.

One thing, though, as represented in the pictures above, they had no bases. They were literally just the same as the images. I’m not sure why I expected them to have bases, after all there are no bases in the pictures, but this did come as a bit of a surprise.

This also wasn’t a problem for the specials: rather than my usual lolly stick mounting for painting, I could glue them straight onto the bases I would be using as mini vignettes…but that did raise the question of what I would do if I was going to buy whole units to be mounted multiple figures per base. I would definitely have to think about that one.

Also, although the lack of bases wasn’t a problem for the infantry (they stood up on their own) it was a bit more a problem for the horse that one of the Scipios sits on. Yes, I did get three horses in my order (not sure why, as only one horse had Roman tack: one even had heads hanging from the breast strap) but none of them had all four feet on the ground. In the end, I mixed a little superglue and PVA together and glued the whole of two hooves to the base…but the horse still sways freely if you knock it. We will have to see how that stands up to battlefield usage.

So how do they paint up?

The quick answer is “beautifully”. I painted them with a black undercoat then with base-wash-highlight, and am very pleased with the results:

Apologies for my crude painting and even cruder photography. Ignore the signifier with the Scipios: he’s from another manufacturer.

So, you can see what they look like, but how do they compare with other figures size-wise.

Here’s a couple of group shots with a base of Baueda Marian Roman legionaries:

No problem with sizing: they match very well indeed.

In conclusion, I liked these and am very pleased with what I’ve got.

Plus points are size, beauty, price and, for the models I ordered, uniqueness and quirkiness.

The big minus point, however, is the lack of bases: I’m not sure how I would mount an infantry unit for painting, and the cavalry without bases is just plain difficult to deal with.

I will be scouring the other listings for more specials like the above and, as I sit here, am severely tempted to see how I get on with a unit of legionary cavalry…

A Few More Romans

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I’m waiting for newly-ordered figures to arrive at the moment and, as I felt like painting something, thought I’d dig into the lead mountain and see what I could find.

Back when I started a Marian Roman army in 15mm, I ordered enough figures to field my equivalent of two legions: ten two-base units, with each base holding 12 figures. I painted up the first legion, no problems, but stalled a bit with the second, only finishing one unit. The problem was that I didn’t need them (six bases of legionaries is quite enough for most To The Strongest Marian Roman armies) and I was, quite frankly, a bit sick of painting them!

Fast forward to now, however, and painting up another two bases worth (i.e. 24 figures) seemed like just the thing.

These are Baueda figures, bought through Magister Militum in the UK, and paint up very nicely indeed. Rather than use Contrast Paints, I went back to a black undercoat for these: seemed more suited all the chainmail.

I had, of course, forgotten how fiddly the Little Big Man Studio shield transfers were! They are great, I hasten to add, and really make the unit a unit, and are easier (for me) than painting every shield with the winged pattern shown, but it does mean cutting out forty-four individual half-shield decals, which was a very tedious affair indeed!

So seven out of ten Roman units finished. I wonder if it will be another few years before I do the next one!

19thC AAR: The Battle of Nachod

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Bevan and I played another game using Neil Thomas’ 19th Century rules, this time using one of the scenarios included in the book: the battle of Nachod from the Autro-Prussian war of 1866.

There are three small towns above Nachod (which is the one with the pond): Wenzelberg, Wysokow and Aldstadt. The Prussians occupy two of them, Wenzelberg and Wysokow, with cavalry on the hill above and reinforcements on the way. The Austrians are just arriving near Wenzelberg. Victory goes to whoever occupies all three of Wenzelberg, Wysokow and Aldstadt at the end of turn 15, with any other result being a draw.

The Austrian infantry pushed the Prussians out of Wenzelberg fairly easily (historically they were cut to pieces by defensive fire) but rather than retreating the Prussian previous owners hung around and, together with the Prussian Uhlans and Jaegers, caused huge delays in the Austrian advance towards Wysokow.

Meanwhile, the Prussian reinforcements had also started to arrive.

The Austrian were pouring troops onto the battlefield, and lined up ready to begin their assault on Wysokov. Behind them, the Prussian Guards from Wenzelberg were still causing problems, and it took another two Austrian units to finally get rid of them.

This was all taking up too much time: the Prussian column was getting closer!

The Prussians in Wenzelberg weren’t waiting for the Austrian hammer blow to fall: taking advantage of a pause in the Austrian advance (the Austrians were “exhausted” for three turns i.e, couldn’t charge, and moved and fired at half effect) they advanced out of the town, formed line, and began blasting the advancing Austrian columns with fire from their breechloaders.

Meanwhile, a terrific cavalry battle developed between two Prussian and three Austrian regiments. The Prussian Uhlans were, however, on fire, as they were historically, and although the various cavalry melees would continue until the end of the game, the Prussian Uhlans would effectively fight the superior number of Austrian cavalry to a standstill.

The Austrian infantry were, however, doing better than their donkey-walloper comrades and, ably supported by artillery, were able to defeat the other regiment of Prussian Guards and occupy Wysokov. They then prepared to face the onslaught of the arriving Prussian reinforcements.

Keen not to allow the Prussians any time to deploy effectively, the Austrian columns marched straight out of Wysokov and straight at the enemy.

The Prussians had managed to deploy some of their regiments into line, but their guns were still on the road behind them, and although those that had deployed opened up a withering fire on the Austrians, there just weren’t enough of them ready to fight.

As the game drew to a close, the two sides were locked into a firefight that was slightly going the Austrians way: if only because their guns were deployed and firing whereas those of the Prussians were still limbered.

With two of the three objectives in Austrian hands, and with a superior tactical position, the game was declared a winning draw for the Austrians.

Aftermath

This was a tight-fought game with the Prussian Guards fighting for every yard: at one stage, two units of Prussian guard were fighting six units of Austrians and holding their own! It was only when the Austrian guns came up that the situation turned against them.

In the end, Austrian aggression won the day for them, although we probably had the width of the table too wide by 30cms or about two turns of road movement. A right-sized table would have let the massive Prussian column of reinforcements close with the Austrians earlier than actually happened, something that could well have turned the game in their favour.

So a draw was the right result: as the person playing the Austrians, I was not looking forward to facing the Prussian breechloaders should they have had the time to properly deploy!

TFL Painting Challenge: Tlaxcallan Update!

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Today’s Painting Challenge update is named in honour of Lloyd’s Tlaxcallan entries: some amazing painting there which I will further honour with a little gallery of their own:

These are in 28mm and mostly from Outpost. They are not the only Meso-American figures Lloyd has to show us: visit his gallery for more.

Otherwise, we have entries from Matt, Carole, Mervyn and Chris. Check out their galleries for their work, but here’s a taster:

Keep them coming!

A Few Burgundians

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Regular visitors will know that I bought a 15mm Burgundian Ordonnance army at the Warfare show last year. I’d already added some organ guns to its roster, but now needed to properly finish it off.

First up were some mounted crossbowmen, the only light cavalry in the army and thus the source of all of my scouting points.

These are Essex 15mm figures, painted with Contract Paints. Painting these after the Khurasan Normans was a real pleasure, and I am quite in love with the Essex style again. Their chunky, broad surfaces really take Contrast Paint well and I’d say that if you didn’t know they were 15’s, the photo above could show 25’s.

Next up were some light infantry handgunners, also Essex.

The photo above doesn’t really do them justice, but the Contrast white really works when placed next to the blue and the red: look at the chap second from the left in the back row (the one with the red hat). He’s the one that the photo has actually captured well.

SP AAR: OML9: Xhosa Raid!

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My second game at Operation Market Larden 9 was a game of Sharp Practice set in South Africa in 1846.

To quote the briefing, “Xhosa raiding parties have brough terror to European settlers along the border with Cape Colony, destroying farmsteads, murdering their inhabitants and driving off livestock. The Governor has ordered both Regular and locally-raised auxiliary units up into the Waterkloof mountains to escort the civilians back to safety”.

I would play the commander of the auxiliary units tasked with rescuing the civilians.

The column I was helping to protect. My auxiliaries will enter the table from far to the right of what you can see here. The xhosa will come from where the camera is and off to the right as well.

This turned out to be a Ripping Yarn of a game, with waves of Xhosa initially trying to overwhelm the column and my troops with fire then, realising that we were winning the firefight, attempting to charge in and fight us at close quarters.

Most of the work, I admit, was done by my colleague controlling the Regulars, who established a firing line towards the rear of the column and a group of Riflemen in a ruined farmhouse and, quite frankly, shot the Xhosa to death.

For my part, apart from an initial hiccup with Corporal Nutter’s section of militia, who used my first move to retreat behind cover and then did not activate for the whole of the rest of the game, I managed to get some very useful Frontier Light Horse types into a position where they were protecting the road and could use their double-barrelled carbines to good effect, and then started rolling up the Xhosa’s left flank with the rest of my troops.

A charge from the Xhosa just about wiped out another of my units (horsemen who were, at that point, fighting dismounted) but that left the charging Xhosa vulnerable to a couple of volleys and a counter-charge that sent them scurrying from the table.

In the end, we defeated the Xhosa without taking too many casualties ourselves. Here’s a gallery of the action:

My thanks to everyone who was running/playing the game (it was great to use such beautifully painted figures on a cracking layout) and, of course, to Ade Deacon for organising the event as a whole. Can’t wait for OML10!

IABSM AAR: OML9: The Race to Brussels

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One of the games I played in at this year’s Operation Market Larden was a superbly presented I Ain’t Been Shot Mum scenario put on by Phil and Jenny.

Iaon and I would lead tanks from the Welsh Guards supported by motorised infantry from the Grenadier Guards in a race across Belgium to be the first units into Brussels. Historically, the only opposition encountered was in the town of Halle, and that’s what the day’s affairs would recreate. Our mission was to get a “significant force” off either of the bridges at the other end of the table.

Unfortunately, things did not go entirely to plan mainly, I hasten to add, due to a spectacular cock-up in tactics on my part!

Click on the picture below to see how easy it is to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

Operation Market Larden #9

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A couple of weekends ago, I made my annual pilgrimage to Evesham to take part in the Operation Market Larden (or as I sometimes write, “Lardon”!) Lardy Day

This proved to be a fantastic day’s gaming, with about a dozen tables on display, all of which could easily have taken a “Best of” award at any major wargames show.

Here’s a quick gallery, mostly taken from just before the day began: after that, I was too busy playing to take more and, without everyone standing around playing, you can actually see the tables!

My thanks to Ade Deacon for organising again: I was only sorry I couldn’t stay for drinks and curry but family matters called me away.

I’ll write up the two games I played in as separate posts, so keep your eyes peeled for them. I know Mike can’t wait for the IABSM one!

TFL Painting Challenge: First June Update

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Are we almost half way through the year already? How time flies when you’re having fun!

Here’s the first Painting Challenge update for June: some lovely painting being submitted. Do visit the individual galleries (look in the black navbar, above, for how to clickthrough to them) but here’s a taster:

IABSM AAR: Race to Brussels

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At Operation Market Larden 9 last Saturday, my morning game was a superb Race for Brussels game put on by Phil and Jenny.

The Dynamic Duo had playtested the game a few days before, and Steve Blease has written a lovely After Action Report that you can read by clicking on the picture below:

But how did you do at the game, I hear you ask?

Rest assured, I’ll be writing a full report concerning my execrable performance when I have time to do so but, put it this way, it was definitely an “interview without coffee” for my company commander when he limped back to base!

Siculo-Normans

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Or troops from the Norman Kingdom of Sicily.

As the look and fighting style of the Siculo-Normans was heavily influenced by nearby Arabic territories, I wanted to used different manufacturers to the rest of my Normans (all from Museum Miniatures’ excellent CAD-designed range). Looking around the Internet, Khurasan and Baueda (available in the UK via Magister Militum) seemed the best best, so off my orders went.

First up, some of the Khurasan figures and, of them, first finished were the light cavalry.

I must confess that I am not quite sure what to say about these. I generally love Khurasan’s figures, and must have well over a thousand of them from various ranges. These come from their Norman range and whilst they look great, with very animate and all-action sculpts, the actual execution of the figures was less than what I expected.

The horses are beautifully animated, but arrived all crushed down on their bases. Straightening them took an age, and they are very fragile as well. I came very close to snapping them right off the base several times.

Same with the Siculo-Norman infantry. Every spear was not just bent but positively twisted, taking a lot of time to sort. Worse, the bases had either been sculpted badly or been carelessly clipped from the sprue: one corner was turned up slightly and thus every figure (all thirty!) needed the bases flattened and filed much more than I’ve ever encountered previously before they would stand up. A right pain!

So good and bad things to say. It won’t stop me buying Khurasan’s stuff in the future, but I will be cautious about this range.

FK&P AAR: Transylvanian Double Act

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I recently spent a bit of time properly marking up my 17th Century “eastern front” Transylvanian and Muscovite armies: by “marking up” I mean putting identifiers on each unit that allows me to remember which are which! That done, it was time to get them onto the tabletop.

The Transylvanians were a bit of a mish-mash. Their core Household troops (heavies and lights) were supported some more light cavalry and two brigades of infantry, one of foreign Commanded Shot and one of Szekley Pike & Shot (represented by Scots!).

The Muscovites were similar: a core National Cavalry and foreign Reiters supported by a brigade of Tartar horse-archer allies, with two brigades of foot, one Cossack, one Soldat (foreign-trained foot).

Game One

Our first game was very short. My opponent, Kavan, had forgotten how important it is in For King & Parliament not to lose your commanding general (as valuable as a couple of camps in To The Strongest) and blithely sent his CinC forward with the first wave of attackers.

The Transylvanian Household Cavalry were, however, having an exceptional day: their first charge smashed the squadron of enemy cavalry led by the Muscovite CinC from the field (meaning that Kavan lost about half his Victory Coins in one go) and then charging again to KO a second unit as well.

Combined with losses elsewhere on the field, this was enough to break the Muscovite morale and send them fleeing back to “the first throne” in some disarray!

Game Two

As the first game had been so quick, we decided to re-set the sides and play again, but this time with the Muscovite CinC safely at the back of his troops rather than leading from the front!

Two key differences in this game. Firstly, the Transylvanian infantry had to fight for possession of the small town on their right flank; and secondly the Transylvanian Household Cavalry didn’t achieve the same success on their initial charges as last time.

This meant that the heavier Muscovite cavalry had time to drive back the Transylvanian light horse, particularly on the Transylvanian left wing, and then curl around to threaten that entire flank.

A combination of steady foot and charging horse put the town into Muscovite hands and that, plus the combination of lost light units and the usual battlefield attrition in the centre, meant that the Transylvanians were gradually ground down and, after a series of reverses in the centre, were forced to retreat.

Aftermath

Two great games of For King & Parliament/Eastern Front Edition and honours even with one win for each side.

Success for the Transylvanians has to come from understanding how to make the significant numbers of light horse work. I didn’t manage it in either game really (the first game was the Household cavalry’s show!) so something to work on for next time!

TTS AAR: Anglo-Normans Hammered!

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With Viking and Norman armies now complete, I thought I’d have a look at what else this meant I could field. The most obvious mash-up was an Anglo-Norman army i.e. an English army from after William the B’s victory at Hastings.

This seemed to me to be quite a good combination: you have the the mobile power of Norman knights, the endurance and ferocity of the Viking foot (well, Anglo-Saxons…but the fyrd is a fyrd as they say!), and some lights in support.

With that decided, it was time to pick an opponent. Looking at the list of units that have been painted but haven’t been on the tabletop yet, it was obvious that the Assyrians were up. Not an historical match up by any stretch of the imagination (well, perhaps a pre-emptive strike on what would be the site of the British museum?) but this is Ancients so we won’t worry about that too much! I would play the Anglo-Normans, Kavan would play the Assyrians.

I deployed in a conventional manner - infantry in the middle, cavalry on the wings, lights with missile weapons in front - but Kavan made the unusual choice to put all his heavy infantry on his left wing, with the heavy cavalry and heavier chariots in the centre and his lighter infantry on the left. He then proceeded to march his heavy infantry forward at a rapid pace, hanging back most of his other troops.

I must confess that this completely banjaxed me, and I spent the next phase of the battle trying to re-arrange my troops to match. Talk about surrendering the initiative to your enemy!

Kavan’s troops, of course, were not waiting for me to sort myself out: they were up and at me, taking full advantage of the confusion to sneak a unit of cavalry through the middle as I tried to face the twin threats approaching my flanks.

And this was just the start!

With cavalry now driving through the middle of my line, I couldn’t advance the infantry I’d moved to the right flank to counter his infantry, meaning that I tried to stop them with my knights. Kavan had anticipated this, however, and had hung a unit back to protect his flanks. So this effectively stalemated that side of the field, taking my best troops out of the battle.

Things were going no better on my left and in the centre, with Kavan cross-ruffing his heavy chariots between the two to both prevent me getting any sort of advantage on either and then, with a superb run of cards, even managing to rear charge a unit of heavy Norman spear that I was pulling back to try and defend my camps!

Even if my heavies did survive that initial impact, I was definitely now on the back foot, and it wasn’t long before they did give way, leaving the way clear for the Assyrian chariots to break through and finish the capture of my camps that the cavalry had begun.

That took care of the last of my victory medals, meaning that the Assyrians had won a glorious victory over my utterly-defeated Anglo-Normans.

A great game of To The Strongest, fought superbly by Kavan, who knocked me off balance with his initial deployment and never let me recover. A master class!

Digging into the Lead Mountain

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I was waiting for some new figures to arrive and had a bit of painting time to spare, so I thought I’d bite the bullet and clear some of my lead mountain.

Chosen were some 15mm American Civil War (ACW) infantry to add to an incomplete Confederate army. I’d last worked on the army well before the arrival of Contrast Paints, and hadn’t painted the figures very well, so this was very much a case of smashing out as many “wargames standard” figures as possible as quickly as possible.

The figures are from Essex Miniatures and, as with all Essex ranges, take the paint well even if they are a bit manikin-like sometimes. I painted 88 of the little blighters, in batches of ten, with each batch taking about two hours to do once all the prep work had been done. This is what Contrast Paint is made for!

Here’s a closer look: