The good and the bad.

The Easter weekend found me laid low with a nasty cold putting paid to a whole series of projects.  It was so bad, I  had to take a nap during the family D&D game. One of the projects put on hold was a steampunk monorail based on an RAFM Cyclops blended with an early 20th century armoured draisine. More to follow on that one.

The good news is some overtime came through so I was finally able (read coerced) to buy a storage cabinet for all my miniatures that have been cluttering up the hall way (why my wife objected I don't know). I went with a portable tool chest from Canadian Tire that rolls and splits into three separate boxes. The drawer unit was very quickly lined with magnetic tape and is now a safe and comfy home for some of my troops.

With the rest, I bought a contingent of hill martian cavalry and a contingent of hill martian infantry to back up my canal martian troops. With all the hardware the Brits have, the martians are going to need all the help they can get.

Cyclopean delights

A while back I mentioned that RAFM had made a limited run of their 25mm Cyclops tri-wheels . I received mine a while back. Below are a few comments on the build so far.

The parts:

The vehicle body is a soft cast resin with the wheels, boiler top, smokestacks and small cannon in cast metal.  The body has a wonderful rough texture that gives a much nicer effect than flat plate would. The ventilation grid in particular had lots of crisp relief. This is the first resin cast I have worked with and I found it quite soft and easy to clean up. The boiler casting is clean and well detailed with rivets and re-enforcing bands. The smokestacks and gun were very basic and the stacks a bit rough in places. They do the job but I expect to replace them on future builds. The wheels however are works of art. Cleanly cast with no flash minimal mould lines and loaded with detail. I may try seeing if I can commission a run for other projects.

I had to heat the garage up beyond our sub-zero temperatures to undercoat with my usual grey automotive primer.  Drying took a long while and there was some bubbling on one model - entirely my fault.  For the first version, I decided to go stock, pretty much following the colour scheme on the website:

There is more dry brushing to do and more detailing possible but I am quite pleased with the results.  The next version will have a Martian dazzle scheme, tactical signs and perhaps some additional armament. The creative possibilities of this great little kit cannot be understated.

As for the rest of my Martian forces - I am not that great a figure painter so here is an arms length look:

 Yes - Lovecraft has put in an appearance stage centre. 

Best Laid Plans V

Dear UPS - I win thanks for playing.

Best Laid Plans IV - Or UPS the Pirates in Brown

The latest update on my troubles with UPS. The package was refused and to be returned to the shipper.  I received a distraught email from him saying that UPS wanted to charged him $55 in U.S. customs and related fees to re-import the package back into the States.   Note that the package never cleared Canada Customs so in terms of tariffs, effectively never left the US. We have agreed that I will accept the package just so the minis don't wind up in the trash or some UPS employees pocket but of course UPS still wants to charge me for the privilege of delivering the package entirely on their terms.  More to follow.

Best Laid Plans III

Well it seems that even these can go astray. The good news that the cyclopeans arrived and pretty little things they are too. So did the flying Martians - and ugly brutes they are. The bad news is that the Brits and Gashants I found such a good deal on were shipped UPS .  Despite all the trumpeting about Free Trade and Open Borders our politicians engage in, items crossing the border from the U.S. into Canada are still subject to tax and duty. This is not a problem except that UPS decides what it wants to charge you for the privilege of acting as your customs broker. On a $50 order that cost $25 to ship, that amounts to $40. Here's the kicker - the duty payable on model soldiers is - 0%.  Ok so how about collecting the taxes - and surely there is some handling required? The same package shipped by regular parcel post would incur at most $7.50 in tax and the post office's "let us be your customs agent" fee is $8.50 for a total of $16 - less than half of the UPS price.

Needless to say they are on their way back.

Grrrr

Enemies of Rome DBA Campaign

This weekend marked the first game day of the Ottawa Miniature Gamers 2012 Enemies of Rome campaign. This is my first ever DBA tournament and my first long term tournament in any system. Each turn represents a year of 3 campaign seasons - each with one battle per pair of players. We start with a strategic map laying out the various major cities of the world of Late Republican / Early Imperial Rome and their transport interconnections. The map is also populated by various support armies loyal to a specific side.

Since we have six players, we  used a simple dice roll to decide which side attacks for each of three possible battles. For each attack that side specifies an enemy location it can reach from a city it owns then adds in 3 element support contingents from adjacent supporting armies as available and desired. The defender then adds in any support contingents they wish to use and it is off to the games table to play out the battle.

Attacker and defender both can use what armies they wish from their side but on the terrain of the actual area where the battle takes place. This results in interesting things like Celts in the desert and Pikes figuring out swamp wading tactics One notable point is that support contingents do not increase the break point of the army. Further, they only come on on a roll of 6 on their pip die. Once the battle is complete, any support contingents on the losing side dice for survival depending on the win-loss ratio of the battle. Once a contingent is used, it is spent for the year and cannot be used again. Dead contingents can be replaced at recruiting centres in the non-campaign season. Movement across water of the main army or supporting contingent can incur shipping losses depending on season and a die roll.

Unfortunately I had the tail end of the flu on game day so I am a little weak on some of the details. Following the advice of the original Purple Primer, I decided to stick with British as my main army and also - perhaps foolishly - used Ancient Brits for my supports as well.

Battle 1

I took a fairly standard army into the deserts of North Africa with 2xPs, 2xLh, 6xWb and a LCh General with another to keep him company. In support I took 3xLCh that due to their point of origin, would come in on my left board edge. Opposing me Duncan had some eastern army with at least one Nellie, some pikes and a mass of cavalry. Duncan had rolled poorly on the ocean crossing and had a core of 7 bases - The game was almost won! The first turn or two was spent with me moving my Wb into a rough patch and both of us jockeying our horses about as I tried to line up the Lh with the elephant. About turn 3, Duncan got his support contingent roll and moved a group of Cv onto the my left side of the board from his baseline. Turn 4 I got my roll and thinking like a Celt entered my LCh on the left as well to hit Duncan's support in the flank and end the game.

As it turned out - it didn't work out quite that way. I was unable to shake the chariots out of column into line fast enough and wound up losing all three including one recoiled off the board edge. Meanwhile at board centre, my Lh spattered off the El with some assistance from Duncan's core Cv.  Four units lost and game over.  Lesson Learned: Don't fight with your weakest arm against your opponent's strongest and make sure you have enough room to maneuver.

Battle 2
 Let's just get this over with quickly please? I forget the opposing army though it doesn't really matter other than it was foot heavy. I advanced my Wb (in two ranks to get the +1) across the board even using the extra move to contact because I was just that confident my boys would break through. After all my general was supporting them from the second rank.  That's right the second rank. With their general cheering them on from behind, in goes the first Wb with a +1 from his C in C - and loses taking the C in C with him. I lost my general + more game over thanks to utter stupidity on my part.  This match was over so quickly, we reset and went at it again. Same setup but with my general in front. I steam rollered my opponent.

Battle 3
This time I was up against Nick and his Marian Romans.  I had two supports for this match up both from my base edge and I went Wb heavy with just the obligatory pair of Lh to ward off the opposing horsies.. Pips were ok and we stomped across the board towards each other. Nick did some fancy wheeling about that I was able to match but which allowed him to chose the moment of contact.  Decision time found me two deep for the +1 but overlapped and facing Bd with Ps support. The first combat saw my overlapped boys go down under the Roman pila shower but the second pair stuck, removing the overlap and setting up the Romans to go down under a flurry of quick kills. At this point Nick decided to roll 6's lots and lots of 6's. Do you remember the scene in Gladiator where Maximus is galumphing through the Spanish wheat field? Well Nick was wearing Russel Crowe's sandals and my poor boys in blue body paint were the wheat stalks getting stomped under rusty Roman hobnails. Four dead end of game.


Oh those two support contingents I mentioned earlier? Over 4 or 5 turns, neither rolled a six to get on the board.

Aftermath
My fellow barbarians fared a little better winning two games and preventing our total humiliation. We retreated to lick our wounds and ponder how best to use the services of a minor Thracian slave currently in chains deep in the heart of enemy territory - Spartacus.....

A good learning experience even with the embarrassment of my stupid error the second game.

Best Laid Plans II - Recruitment underway.

I placed my order for two Cyclopeans and a unit of flying Martians.  Scenario possibilities are roiling around my head including a flying ambush on a Cyclops escorted column.  Now - back to finishing up that cuff lace.

Best laid plans.....

Well so much for my purchasing plans. I have a line on some very inexpensive British mounted and foot and Gashants  - and -  RAFM has put the Cyclops land wheeler back in production! I will be getting a pair of the Cyclops and may pad out the order with a unit of flying martians.

 Image below from the Members Area of the  RAFM Forums British figures are true 25mm, the Martian is roughly 30mm.  

2012 Purchasing Plans

Unfortunately Santa was not looking at the list provided and while many nice things were received for Xmas, lead was not one of them.

With Space 1889 rebooting into 15mm, I am left in a bit of a hard place. The status of the 25mm line is unknown yet I have enough miniatures in hand to feel committed to sticking with 25mm.  Further, while I do most of my wargaming in 15mm and 6mm, role playing is still done with 25mm. Practically, I have to plot out what I need and get that before it disappears.

So from RAFM:

• Two 20 figure bands of Hill Martians @ $30 each = $60
• One 20 figure band of High Martians @ $20 = $20

Sadly mounted are not on the menu as at $5 a pop (yes - very reasonable for 25mm mounted) Martian Gashant Cav are $40 per troop of 8. I would like to add a company of Canadian rifles from the Riel range but that line is under no threat so that will have to wait. A company of Japanese would also be nice but - much more expensive (around $80).

I have enough 15mm Celts to field several DBA armies or around 200 points in DBMM so I would have to say I am done with 15mm ancients for the foreseeable future. As mentioned in a previous post, Marc and I have been playing DBA with 6mm figures on 25mm bases - very nice looking. I have a DBAs worth of Alexandrians waiting to be painted and based but I would like a third army for some variation. I am thinking of Libyans as covering both books one and two and because they are dead cheap. Two strips per base so about 5 pounds sterling or about 15 bucks with shipping for  DBA army. Since I might be able to drop in on Baccus directly when we go to England in the Fall, I may let that purchase wait.



So planned purchases of around $100 an entirely achievable goal I think.

DBA3

Over the Christmas week I got in a couple of DBA3 games with Marc. I took my new 6mm on 25mm basing Romans against his Thracians. A few of first impressions. The new quasi-random terrain generation removes a lot of cheese. No more setting symmetric terrain that suits you no matter how your opponent rotates it. The new move rates get you into the fight much faster. They aren't really any different from DBMM but on the small DBA table you won't be manoeuvring much. As a result of this, both games were under 20 mins. Blades following up was a little odd. This is another carry over from DBMM where irregular blades follow up but regulars - like my Marians, do not. I am not sure how I feel about this but at the moment it doesn't feel right.

I won both but only because I was able to tempt the Thracians out of the bad going. An enjoyable pair of games.

HotT FTW

On Friday night I took my Irish Heroes down to the club for a Hordes of the Things tournament. It is a very simple army with a Hero General, Hero and 8 war band. My opponents fielded much more mixed armies and I think that was the telling point. My command and control was much simpler and my plan was simply to grind away with the Wb while taking care of the opposing Cv with my heroes. No fancy manoeuvring or match ups. I doesn't hurt that a hero general at +6 is a pretty imposing base to face. I was also very lucky in that I was defender in all three games so I was able to choose both terrain and get the first move which allowed me to offset my opponents' deployment and control the tempo of the game. There were a couple of misplays through the three games thanks to differences in the DBx series but nothing game changing. More practice is required :)

In all a good evening and though yes I won, it was the playing that made it. My one regret was that Marc's work schedule meant he couldn't play.

A great night

I got an invite to a DBMM game last night. Romans vs Selucids at Thermopylae. I made a total hash up of the Roman cavalry command but had a great time doing it. Rather than running out to get a bunch of Selucid cav, I am motivate to get my Britons painted up so I can learn to use cav better. I also found a potential place to play with my Montrose.

A very good night. Thanks to Nick for hosting.

The Martians are Coming! (along nicely)

I have about half of the martians painted and dipped. I just need to go over them with flat varnish and they will be table ready. I started on the Brits but the red I was using was far too dark and I will have to start again.

Reinforcements

They're Here!

Yesterday was a very good day for any number of reasons. One of the best of which was a package from RAFM via Canada Post containing 40+ Canal Martians, 20 Colonial British, assorted Victorian adventurers and - A Gatling Gun! Along with the Brits I already have, I will be able to field two companies plus some extras. Fun times ahead.

DBA Marians almost done - Pushing forward

I got a little demoralized at pushing off projects so I sat down last night and put the final paint on enough 6mm Marians for a 25mm DBA army. I just need to base them up and do some flocking and they are ready for the table.

I had been toying with the idea of getting a horde of 6mm Greek psiloi to make up an early Libyan army. However, the Baccus Greeks aren't out yet and Marc has his Thracians and will be getting Greek Hoplites so that is enough for us to get on with.

I have also been toying with Space 1889 again and went over to the RAFM site for a quick drool. %30 off all orders - ending that day. So I ordered two lots of Martians, another batch of British, a Gatling gun and some Victorian Civilians. I then dug out my existing company of Brits and got on with painting them. Much progress of an evening.

DBMM - What is a normal army?

In response to a question on the DBMM list on AP reduction for smaller 300 point armies Phil wrote:

I still think of 300 AP as a standard size army, so no.
As rules have simplified over the years, there has been a continuous trend
for people to use bigger armies to slow the game down again (and becausethey just cannot bring themselves to stop buying lead).
Phil

Those of us with small lead stocks should be happy - I am. ;)

I painted.

There has been a lot going on over the last while that has cut into hobby time.  Marc was able to get over a couple of times for some DBA and HotT but that has been it.  This weekend was fairly quiet so during the movies Willard (excellent) and Tin Man (visually stunning but slow) I nearly finished the last of the Marians needed to make up a DBA army. All that is left is pila, touchups and basing.

It wasn't much work and really a small thing in the the grand scheme but very satisfying.  Next up Alexandrian imperials.