Campaign Map Progress Update

Just a quick update to show the map so far. As you can see, the sea has been completely coloured in. The next stages are to colour in the land and divide it up amongst the tribes and also to add a key, title and any features such as existing towns to the map. After that, I'll try and write down some of the rules and perhaps post them on here.

Thanks again for the interest!

Campaign Map Update

Just a quick update on how the campaign map and rules are going. The picture above shows my progress with the map on Photoshop (I've been colouring in the sea hence the seemingly slow progress!). I've also marked out the major rivers and you can just see Gaul in the bottom right of the picture (coloured red, marking it as Roman territory).

I'm currently deciding whether or not to try and divide Britain into provinces or regions. In the previous post, I mentioned I was adapting a game meant for raiding Vikings along the Eastern coast of England and that didn't use or need the country to be divided up. But i'll have to do a trial run.

In the game, you also have the option of building roads, towns, ports and various forts and defences to guard your land which are all marked on the map in turn.

I'll probably work on this again this evening and may do a post either tonight or tomorrow. Thoughts and suggestions welcome!

Just a quick update - Campaign...

I've been very busy lately, hence the lack of updates.

I used to play a campaign with Saxons and Vikings on the English coast some 10 years ago which only involved a map and some dice (and a pad of paper to keep notes). One person played as the Vikings and one as the Saxons. It was much like a role playing game where you rolled on events tables and could construct buildings, roads, forts etc to keep you newly acquired or heroicly defended lands safe. Remembering this, I've decided to adapt the rules for a Roman conquest of Britain. I think it would translate perfectly but will need some modification.

I'm just working on the map and the events table at the minute but expect an update in the next couple of days.

The original was a very fun game. You either had a choice of gaining lots of money through pillaging and raiding along the coast or trying to grab some land and try and settle.

Any questions or suggestions are very much welcome.

Conquering the lead mountain (4)

Here's the fourth drawer which has been labelled 'Misc. Ancients' and includes Greeks, Spanish, Parthians and a number of other different races and cultures. This probably has the most in it out of any of the other drawers and also includes some painted and part-painted miniatures which you can see below.

Expect photos of the last two drawers tomorrow. I can know go to bed and I've cleared it off soldiers and modeling supplies. I will also be going to the local hardware store to pick up some basing material so I may do a post on that too.

When I first started sorting out my stuff it suddenly hit me that I have A LOT of stuff but actually, now I've sorted it into these drawers, it feels like I have a lot less than I thought I had (although I've still probably got too much!). This would take me many many years to paint so I'm not quite sure what to do with some of it as I may never get round to painting it.

On another note, visitor numbers to the blog have shot through the roof since I've made these posts so that's very exciting too!

Conquering the lead mountain (3)

Here's the most relevant drawer to this blog - the Roman drawer. There's lots of packs of Copplestone Foundry legionnaires and all-sorted auxiliaries plus a few painted figures in here. This isn't the extent of my Roman collection as some of it is being stored elsewhere in a Warhammer carry case.

Conquering the lead mountain (2)

Here's the second drawer done. This contains my English Civil War project, incorporating figures from Renegade Miniatures and Bicorne Miniatures. It's a project I should be underway with but sadly I just haven't had the time to do much more than just paint those few figures in the bottom right hand corner (2 of the three aren't even finished!). Hopefully this will pick up soon.

For more information about the project you can go to my other blog by clicking here. I've decided to just operate two blogsnow. This one for all my ancients projects and the other for all my projects that involve guns such as English Civil War and American War of Independence. If you're even remotely interested in any of these periods, please follow my blogs!

Conquering the lead mountain (1)

I've desperately needed to sort out and reorganise my wargaming and hobby supplies for some time now and I've chosen today to finally do it! I've got boxes, blister packs, cans of spray paint and half painted miniatures all over my desk and my bed so this could take a while (I may not be able to sleep tonight unless I get it done!). I'll do a series of posts throughout the day documenting the contents of each of the 6 drawers which were previously full of Warhammer but now lie empty by my desk. The first drawer is shown below.

This draw contains all the bases I need for the various periods I game in and these come from East Riding Miniatures but the small square and circular are from Foundry. There's also all my spare weapons such as pikes, javelins and spears along with all my spare shields and some tree stumps from Redoubt Enterprises. There's also my penknife which I use to trim flashing and the files and drill I got from Games Workshop to tidy up the mould lines. Also present are my toolset from Foundry and some 'green stuff' used for modeling and some lolly sticks which always come in handy!

Hopefully this series of posts will be very interesting for the fellow gamer as it reveals the real inner workings of my hobby and what it consists of.

Don't vote Conservative today...

...or my parents, who are both public sector workers, will be out of a job.

Also, I will have to live in poverty for the rest of my life.

Expansion of the farm

You may remember the farm I had built for me in an earlier post, well, I've been inspired by a photo I came across to build a vineyard that will sit adjacent to it.

This photo which comes from Paul Darnell's Touching History blog shows the sort of thing I'm aiming to achieve. Bill Gaskin made the vineyards, terrain board and painted the figures - Paul made the hundred or so buildings.

The vineyard looks like quite a simple design. A large rectangular base with some stakes stuck in it with wire running between them. Then some trunks added and some foliage. Can't be too hard - can it?!

I've bought issue 1 and 2 of Paul's 'Touching History' scenery making guides in the hope something like this is covered. These books cover the Spanish Napoleonic period (don't worry - I'm not starting a new period!) and the English Civil War which will be helpful for my other project. I thought, as my Romans will mostly be fighting in a mediterranean environment, the Spanish scenery would be fairly similar and so this book would be useful!

Travel Chaos

As I'm sure you're aware, there has been unprecedented disruption to European air travel as a result of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. What was meant to be a nice little break in Florence, Italy, soon became the holiday from hell.

You'll be pleased to hear I'm now safely back in the UK and ready to get back on with my ever-growing list of things to do. I have a very busy period over the next month with coursework and exams for University but finish on the 25th May. Following this, I'll be focussing solely on my wargaming projects until the end of July when I go to London to work for the rest of my summer holidays.

I wouldn't expect many updates between now and then but I can assure you, when I have a spare few hours, i'll be working hard on my Roman and ECW projects along with my multi-period terrain board!

Apologies for the lack of posts since Christmas when it was all looking so promising! But thank you to those who keep coming back for reference or new visitors looking for help and advice! For details of my ECW project, check out my other blog here.

BigRedBatRiver

Here are a few snaps of the river I received a few weeks ago from prolific blogger and wargamer Simon, otherwise known as BigRedBat. They're made from modelled polystyrene but I can't tell what they've been textured with.

They'd make great additions to any battlefield from Ancient times to WWII and beyond. They could even act as canals, given the raised lip of the bank

This pic shows the full extent of the pieces that make up the model river and as you can see, there's quite a number of different options for potential layouts!

Things I hate this week: basing and the weather (it's stopping me going out to undercoat and varnish figures!). Into the ECW and AWI? Click here for my latest project.

Quintus Pompeius Falco

Quintus began his career as a Quaestor in Rome but his talent for management and financial acumen was soon recognised and saw him reassigned to Spain where he would oversee the development of this new and prosperous land. Quintus spent much of the day studying his charts and writing letters to his superiors in Rome, detailing his progress. There was little time for fun and games.

Under his leadership Spain flourished. Towns sprung up across the country and new roads were built to connect them to the thriving coastal ports that fed the empire with food and tradable goods. Mines were constructed to extract valuable resources from the land and farms fed the burgeoning province. Not even the widest or fastest flowing river could stop his expansion, he simply bridged them and continued with his aggressive expansion. Of course, the locals didn't take too kindly to the loss of their land and rebelled, causing widespread damage to the new Roman infrastructure. This angered Quintus who had spent many months trying to Romanise these people and bring prosperity to the land. He raised an army and marched on the rebel camp, slaughtering all who defied Roman rule. You do not want to stand in the way of this man or you'll end up as part of his next project, probably as part of the mortar!

Fortified Farm

As mentioned in the previous post, I recently received a farm house from Paul Darnell of Touching History fame. I had an idea to eventually fortify the Roman/Greek farm for a future defense scenario and have had a go at this by using a wooden palisade wall with a ditch. I can't wait to use this on the gaming table! It looks great!

What do you think? Any comments or suggestions? The photo is fully clickable.

Roman farm

I received this rather marvelous model Roman/Greek farm in the week from Touching History's Paul Darnell. You can see it pictured above with two of my half-finished Romans for purposes of scale. They are both 28mm Foundry Caesarian Romans.

In time, I intend to add some removable barricades for a defense scenario I have in mind and add a vineyard and olive grove. The farm buildings represent only a quarter of its eventual size as I'm going to add another three terrain tiles the same size as this one to hold the olive grove, country lanes etc. It should become an awesome centerpiece of any battlefield!

I really like this building. Buildings of a similar style were scattered all over the mediterranean where the Greeks and Romans had any influence and so making it an incredibly versatile piece of scenery. I can use it across hundreds of years of warfare and in different locations around the mediterranean.

For more information on my Macedonian/Greek project, go to my other blog here.

Command Stand

Here's a fully clickable photo of my first command stand. The figures have been painted and matte varnished and as you can see, this makes quite a difference. They still need basing material applying to the base but I want to order some static grass before I do this. I will have one of these command stands for every 1000 points I use.

Note: the standard bearer was painted entirely using the traditional multi-colour, layered shading method and not using the army painter (my first figure like this!). All my standard bearers will be painted like this. I did however ink the flesh.

Project List

Influenced by the latest post on BigRedBatCave, I thought it may be interesting to create a list of my current projects. I too am a bit of a period hopper but still don't have much to show for it!

Current projects - this is the year of the ancients!

• Cesarian Romans (should finish my first 1000 WAB points by April)
• Spartans
• Macedonian/Successor

Projects on hold - these are projects I have some figures for but am currently not working on

• American War of Independence (don't 'dip' very well so will have to reevaluate my painting method)
• WWII 1944 (got enough troops for Regiment of Brit Paras - camo is scary!)
• Very British Civil War (painted half the miniatures for this so may take this up again soon)
• Crusades (didn't like the variety in shields or figures so may give this up altogether)

Future projects

• Persian (to fight all my Greeks)
• English Civil War (to fight some smaller scale skirmish battles)
• Dark Ages (Arthurian to Viking invasion)

I hope to have made considerable progress on my current projects by the end of the year and have at least two 1000 point, game-able armies available to play at game at Christmas (hopefully will have had a chance to work on some terrain too). I really need to sort these into short and longer term projects and then I can allocate my time a lot better.

If you didn't already know, I do a blog solely for the progress of my Greeks which you can find here. This will get updated much more frequently after Easter.

Historical reading and WIP

I thought I'd post an image of the books I'm reading at the minute. I'm not a very fast reader (I'm not a very fast painter either!) but I am finding them very enjoyable.

I'm currently reading the 3rd in the series of Emperor books by Conn Iggulden which are a great and exciting read! They are about the life of Caesar from a young boy until his death. Obviously the author has had to fill in the gaps where historical evidence is not present but he's done an excellent job of mixing history with adventure to create a thrilling read.

At the same time I'm reading The Fall of Carthage by Adrian Goldsworthy which has been recommended to me by every single blogger I've come across. I've only finished the introduction (started reading it last night) but it certainly looks interesting and I'm keen to find out a little more of the history and rise of Rome.

The other two books 'The Age of Alexander' and 'On Sparta' by Plutarch I am yet to come to. I've had a quick flick through them and they look very exciting and I'm keen to learn about the great figures of those time periods.

This is a WIP shot of the standard bearer for my command stand (I'm currently working on another 4 for my units and a Spartan command stand). I've already applied two layers of red to the undergarment and the colour is very steadily lightening. I will need to go over the flesh again with a darker colour and then re-do this colour as it's a black undercoat and you can still see it through the paint! Hopefully a more detailed progress report by the end of the week!

Batavian Auxiliaries and 50th Post!

A while ago I thought of creating a unit of Batavian Auxiliaries after seeing this post on Iron Mitten. Secundus used Warlord Romans for his but on closer inspection of the figures, I decided they would look too out of place in my Caesarian army.

I emailed the guys at 1st Corps a little while ago to ask when they'd be posting up photos of their 'Slave Revolt' range and to my suprise, the following weekend they uploaded photos of the range! I found this pack of heavy infantry for the slave army that would look just right as Batavian Auxiliaries! Batavia is what is now modern day Netherlands and these warriors were renowned for their bravery and skill as fighters, hence why the Romans consistently recruited from the region.

Picture from 1st Corps Slave Revolt range.

I love the fact they look very rough and ready with their beards and lack of sandles - perfect for a semi-barbaric unit. Plus they have the Gallic helmets the rest of my troops have. I wanted your opinion on whether to go for all hexagonal shields like the guy third from the left or all oval shields? Would a unit like this have uniform shields? Or be allowed celtic-style shields from their home province?

Painting update: I'm a bit frustrated at the minute trying to paint over black and silver undercoats - it's not easy! In fact, I'm having to paint darker shades of the same colour on before hand which is dramatically increasing my painting time. Slow progress ahoy...

P.S. this is my 50th post since April 2009. Hurrah!

Spanish Cavalry

I first posted this image of my Spanish cavalry some time ago but it wasn't clickable then (hopefully this one is!).

I bought them painted like this but intend to add more detail to them in time (as they're fully painted - this can wait!). They look a bit like Crusader miniatures but I can't really be sure. I bought them from Partizan in Newark and they were quite expensive at the time considering the quality of the paint work. The riders are poor but the horses are painted to a VERY high standard.

They're based three to a base (can't remember the measurements) but they don't really have enough depth. You can't have them move in a column as the horses touch, increasing the distance between bases which is a bit of a shame.

Make sure to check the blog tomorrow as I'll be needing your help and advice once again! This time, for the 'look' of some auxiliaries and the composition of my Roman army.

A MASSIVE thanks!

I've had a bit of a surge of followers and commenters in the last few weeks and I thought it'd be interesting to see just how many people are visiting my site. I've been monitoring website traffic on this site since Tuesday and have been astonished at the general number of people who've visited (nearly reaching the 200 mark in under a week!). I never thought I'd get this many. As you can see from the graph below, the number has been steadily increasing throughout the week.

The blue bar shows the amount of 'unique' visitors or people visiting the site from a certain IP address. This is most representative of the people visiting the site but the green bar shows the number of page loads. This means that a lot of those who visit are opening up my blog several times a day or looking all the way back through my posts to the older ones. I can't think why there's this steady increase in visitors but perhaps it has something to do with my increasing frequency of blog posts, that seems to help when blogs become popular!

So I'd just like to say a massive thanks to all those who've visited the site in the last week (and those who've visited in the past) and to all those who have elected to 'follow' the blog or leave a comment. It really means a lot to know there are people who find some form of entertainment in the blog. This will spur me on to paint A LOT more and try and get painted figures churning out much more frequently.

I was thinking of reducing the security surrounding comment posting on this blog as I've received a lot of very helpful and interesting comments lately and I may be missing out of some vital piece of advice from those who chose not to sign up. Do you think I should allow anonymous posters to post a comment? This would allow those who don't have an account to be involved. Good/bad idea?