Romans vs Seleucids in To The Strongest!

Last Saturday saw me throwing another phalanx vs. legion bash for the guys, this time using the To the Strongest! rules from Simon Miller. We called it before the real end of things, but it seemed to be drifting toward a victory for the phalanx... in no small part to the Roman left-flank player's appalling luck. I've never seen one roll so many ones, so to speak.

Early moments: The Seleucid right advances, while the Romans move forward a little more cautiously.

 We started things off rather farther apart than most games of TtS recommend; this gave the players time to get the hang activations, group moves, and march moves.

Just before the clash.

 The above picture shows off all the lance (blue), shock (green) and ammo (brown) tokens this game needs. I'm going to need to order some more if I want to run some bigger games...

Camelry in the foreground, Seleucid lancers and Roman triarii in the middle.

 While the two sides were point-balanced, the Seleucids had a really cavalry advantage, and I think that might be a bit of a problem in scenario design. Not sure yet how to address it.

The Romans stand off behind their velites.

 I also think I erred in a couple things - for one, on a closer reading of the rules, units can't activate to shoot if they're in an enemy zone of control. That means that the only way javelin-armed troops can shoot is either from one side, or by moving and shooting in the same activation.

The Roman left flank has all but disintegrated, leaving the legion open to a sweeping flanking move from Seleucid cavalry.

Still, fun was had by all, and though I felt things might have been dragging a bit halfway through, I do like the rules.

Painting - and Gaming - Update, July 2016

I've been rather terrible at updating the blog, but I've been keeping busy regardless.

On the painting front, I've finished some Perry Brothers samurai, and some Hordes models.

Perry Brothers spear and bow ashigaru, and one errant samurai.

Back row: two Efaarit Scouts. Front row: Lanyssa Ryssyl (L) and Alten Ashley (R)

Painting the Efaarit Scouts was a real pleasure. They're very well done models.

L to R: Wold Wyrd, Tanith the Feral Song, Baldur the Stonecleaver, Wild Argus

Gaming wise, I've been playing in the local Journeyman League for Warmachine & Hordes, and enjoying it a fair bit. I'm very much enjoying the Circle Orboros playstyle, and so far I'm having a good experience with the Mark III rules. Sadly, no pics of this...

But I am getting some more historical stuff in. I did a demo of Blucher at the last Portland Historical Wargames day, which was nice and portable using cards and flat terrain. Someday, I'll get on with rebasing and painting all my 6mm figures for it...

Technically in June, I played a biggish Gaugamela refight as seen below, using the Armati system. (At least, I think it was Gaugamela.)

Deployment

Lines advancing

Elephant-eye view!

Oooh, that's a lot of casualties. (That's Darius on the chariot in the back.)

This one went contrary to history, with a Persian victory - and most notably, Alexander's capture by Persian horsemen midway through the fight! No "the Great" in this battle's timeline...

Battle Report: Watling Street, and thoughts on Bear Yourselves Valiantly

Boudicea's vengeful horde

 We took a first crack at Alyssa's Battle of Watling Street scenario for Enfilade last night. She's using the Bear Yourselves Valiantly rules, with a fair number of modifications to suit the scenario, and this run through was more playtest than anything else.

Roman defenders, ready to stick it to the hairy barbarians

 Bear Yourselves Valiantly is a decent rules set, IMO. It plays faster than it looks, and I do love the card activation. I'm also a fan of the big bases (in this game, each base was 120mm wide). Still, it's not what I'd call my perfect ancients set.

Chariots and naked warriors smash into the Roman line

 It uses a d10 for combat resolution, which can feel rather swingy - without a bell curve, results feel like they can be all over the place rather than trending toward an average with less common outliers. It's much the same gripe I have with Savage Worlds, to look at the RPG side of things for a moment. Because of the importance of the Morale Value for each unit, it's also rather fiddly to get the MV just right - too high and your units break instantly, too low and they never do. But given that even an MV of 3 means that a unit will fail a morale test on 25% (I think) of its checks, MVs have to be rather low to begin with... This is less a flaw or a feature of the system than just part of the way it works.

View of some Celts - Alyssa's been on a painting tear with these, doing everything on the table in the last four months or so

 The writing, too, is not quite as clear as I'd like - despite the author's claims that it doesn't require charts, I think a simple quick reference sheet for players is extremely helpful - especially one that lays out exactly which dice you need to roll for each situation.

End of game due to time, though clearly it still had several turns of potential to come to a conclusion.

Speaking of dice, BYV uses special dice - six of 'em - to give results for leadership checks, random order checks, tests to close and tests to receive the charge. This is probably my favorite part of the system, as once you get used to the dice it makes the game play quite quick.

Overall, I'm ok with the system. I'm looking forward to playing a few more games of Bear Yourselves Valiantly and I also plan on checking out their Fate of Battle variant for Napoleonics.

DBA Republican Romans

I just finished my first proper army for De Bellis Antiquitas: Polybian Romans from Essex Miniatures, suitable for fighting Carthage or Syria. I'm pretty happy to have finished an entire table - ready army in a week. Next up I need to finish the Japanese and Galatian armies to oppose them...

Painting Update: Summer 2015

It's miserably hot in Portland right now, which means I'll be spending as much time as possible in the basement, where it's cool, painting. The 2015 summer Cog Collective painting challenge is in full swing, so I'll be working toward that as well as polishing off a few unfinished projects that have been taking up space for far too long.

Cog Challenge

For this year, I'm limiting myself to just four projects, and I don't even expect to finish one of them. They are:

Essex post-Mongol Japanese army for DBA

Old Glory Crusaders, for SAGA
These probably won't get done, because I need to order spears and that probably won't happen till August

Krueger the Stormwrath, a Pureblood Warpwolf, and a Shadowhorn Satyr
These are for the summer Journeyman league, and about the only Warmachine models I plan on carrying out from start to finish this summer.

Battlefront WW2 Hungarian infantry, for a commission

As for unfinished projects, they are legion. In order of priority, more or less:

• Skorne Mammoth. Really need this for an anti-Cryx list.
• Kings of War Undead army. Interest in KoW is rising in Portland thanks to the imminent release of 2nd edition as well as GW's release of the very different Age of Sigmar to replace Warhammer Fantasy. This will invovle some rebasing, something I swore I would never do...
• Assorted Minion models for Warmachine - Gatorman Posse, Bog Trog Shamblers, and Efaarit Scouts.
• Not quite unfinished so much as not yet begun, but I have an army of Essex Attalid Pergamenes that I want to get finished so as to have something to throw against my Seleucid force in Field of Glory.

So that's a summer's worth of work, easily. We'll see how much actually gets done.

Painting Update: Penultimate Seleucids

I finally finished painting - almost - the last two Seleucid units.

Argyraspides - elite "silver shield" phalangites

Cataphracts

I say almost, because I broke one of the silver shields, so there's a base in the back row with only three phalangites and no basing material on it. Need to get a replacement, and I'd like to add some command stands for all three phalanxes. It's a bit ahistorical, but I like the look.

Painting Update: Seleucids

A couple more units join my Seleucid army:

Elephants

Skirmishing archers

Pretty quick to paint up, and elephants on the field are always interesting. All figures by Essex.

Painting Update: Seleucids

Joining the forces of the sons of Seleucus are a proper phalanx (minus some shield decals, still in the mail):

And some cataphracts:

All Essex miniatures.

Painting Update: Seleucid Thureophoroi, new Skorne to be painted

Making progress, despite some drama that's eaten into my painting time. I've completed the next unit of the Seleucid forces, the thureophoroi from last post:

Now I'm working on some phalangites, and the rest of the Firestorm Armada Dindrenzi fleet:

And I've added a few models to the Journeyman League challenge: Tyrant Zaadesh, the Despoiler, a Void Spirit, and a pair of Reptile Hounds.

Painting Log: Seleucids update

Of my current projects, I'm enjoying the 15mm Seleucid army the most, I think. I've finished the horse archers:

Begun and finished some slingers:

And begun some thureophoroi, Greek mercenaries named after the shape of their shields:

Cog Collective Summer Painting Challenge, 2014: Week 1

The Cog Collective runs a painting challenge every summer. This year, I'm in.

This week, I'm attempting to finish these figures:

Essex Miniatures 15mm ancient horse archers

Privateer Press Skorne Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Privateer Press Skorne Nihilators

Spartan Games Firestorm Armada Dindrenzi Cruisers

Battlefront Miniatures 15mm World War II German Armored Cars (SdKfz 222 and 223)