Some Plans for the NEW Year

Well, after some adventures with my Napoleonics (which I am quite happy with at the moment) I am itching to get going with some plans for my ancients hobby. First up I have quite a ways to go expanding my Gaul and Polybian Roman armies. I try and add a new unit for both every week or so, and so far so good. The painting continues.





Some of my completed ancient armies.

Hosting some LIVE plays over on the Tabletop Commanders has been a blast. Recently I did some Blucher games and learned a lot about how to improve the quality of the videos. For those not in the know, a LIVE play is a game session played LIVE over Google+ Hangouts. For more on this check out the Tabletop Commanders link here on my blog. Anyway, I will be planning a Basic Impetvs battle next month for everyone. Been a while since I last played this awesome system. Although L'Art de la Guerre  is my rules of choice for ancients wargaming, Impetvs will always have a place on my bookshelf. Regardless, stay tuned for that as I will have more information on the details of the event - and results - later.
Another thing I want to finish is my last DBA campaign between the Gauls and the Romans. If you check my past posts here on the blog you will notice I never got around to finishing that last campaign - I think we did two battles so far? Anyway, I definitely want to pick that up soon as well. That campaign, by the way, is a playtest of our two-player campaign rules we have been working on. You can find the latest version of that in the files section here on the blog.

As far as what NEW projects I want to get to this year, I am not so sure. My options are plentiful, that's for sure. I still want to build some NEW armies for the early dark ages, as well as some early Greek stuff. However, first up will be the period that has my attention the most, which is the early republican Roman ear. I already have a start on Later Seleucids and Numidians, two armies which I will be expanding soon. Carthaginians and more Successors (Ptolemaics and/or Macedonians?) will eventually be in the works as well. But again, my hands are full with my current plans, so I will not get ahead of myself yet. Oh, and there is of course my massive re-basing of my Feudal English armies as well! As many of you might know, all these miniatures were mounted for Impetvs. However, I have since lost faith with that mounting system - the bases are just too big and clumsy for me as I like lots of terrain on the table. SO now I am re-basing everything over to the DBx standard. This will take some time.

King Henry III of England: mounted and ready for battle!

Some of my Impetvs based feudal English in need of re-basing.

So there it is; plans for the year - or at least the coming few months. I hope you all stay tuned as I get more and more done and add some awesome content to the blog.

Napoleon is Coming... and Progress to Date

Well, after a long road painting up almost 1,000 10mm Napoleonics in three months, I am drained! What a challenge. Even though I have yet to reach my goal I continue my efforts of getting these little French and Russian armies completed - is an army ever really completed?! Anyway, I am quite happy with the results so far. This of course is my first go with 10mm scale miniatures, and all I can say is, if you want a mass look to your units, without losing lots of detail in the models, try 10mm. In addition - and this is a big one for me - they paint up fast! Can't beat them when you want to have lots of big units on the table.

 

The NEW Russian card deck for Blucher has arrived!

Rules-wise, I have pretty much decided that the Blucher rules are for me. Compared to what else is out there, the fact I can set up battles quickly, play out a mini-campaign, and not worry about weird rules mechanics, says it all. I will continue to play these rules and have many more planned scenarios and LIVE events to host on G+ Hangouts - always a blast!

Saxon's open a deadly fire on the advancing Russians. Units/BW's were only 3cm in this battle.

Next up on my painting table are some Cossacks! I have a full unit all ready to be primed. I should be getting to the actual painting before the end of the week I hope. This is a good thing as my Russians really need more cavalry units on the table.

Cossacks!

I also have a nice Napoleon model that I want to base up, not to mention a Kutuzov to face him. Of course a bigger base will be used, with lots of interesting models to set beside him. We shall see what I can come up with.

Napoleon I

Anyway, stay tuned for more Napoleonic goodness in the coming weeks. I have lots of interesting things to try - and NEW rules to have a go with as well.

Saxons once again fending off a Russian assault. Again, this was a battle with smaller sized units on a small table (2' x 3').

The French.

The Quest Continues...

Played a lot of Blucher over the past few weeks. I have to admit that it is truly a great game. An excellent balance between realism and playability; simulation and fun! Even though I have been playing other games off an on, I keep coming back to Sam Mustafa's awesome set of rules. I highly recommend Blucher if you have yet to give it a go.

In other news, I will be spending a little more time on Black Powder over the coming weeks. Already I have been building my army lists and scenarios I want to try. I have played these rules a few times now already, but have yet to sit down and have a real battle. So, this has become my focus for the month. Expect to see some BatReps/AAR's soon, as well as plenty of pics of my soldiers in action :)

 

 

All in all I am quite happy with my foray in Napoleonics. The 10mm scale is absolutely grand. They paint up fast and look fantastic. No turning back for me now!

 

Here are a few pics from my recent battles, including some awesome battles with the Tabletop Commanders on Google+ Hangouts. Always great fun.

The quest to find my "go to" rules for Napoleonics continues, with Blucher  in a dominating lead. Stay tuned for more good stuff

Russians and French go at it over on Google+ Hangouts. In this case me and Vince - and all the other TtC's -
square off using the Scharnhorst rules to set this battle up.

Ney, on a white horse to the left, leads an assault on a Russian defended hill. Ney would take that hill.