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.

DBA & L'Art de la Guerre with the Tabletop Commanders!

Had an enjoyable day a couple weeks back with the online wargaming group, The Tabletop Commanders. We managed to get in a couple battles featuring the Gauls and Polybian Romans (my favorites). We had three player's in all - not including myself. I managed to pull off a win with my ancient Gauls. Pretty fun battle really. I was able to break through the left flank of the Roman battle line with a powerful (and lucky) charge.

In addition, last week saw up having a go with the L'Art de la Guerre rules as well. I again played in this one - I was the host. I managed a victory once again, although this time I won with the Seleucids v. the army of Gaul. Very fun.

Both sessions above were LIVE on Google Hangouts of course. If you want to watch the events, check out the Tabletop Commanders Playlist below. The playlist is updated soon after each event..

Tabletop Commanders LIVE

If you have yet to play on-line, I highly recommend giving it a try. All you need is Google Hangouts, a webcam -  if you want to host a game - and you are all set. If interested in joining up, contact me.

The Gauls Have Arrived!

Finally finished off a DBA army of Gauls this week. All in time for our next DBA campaign this weekend. I had been working on these little guys for a few weeks now in between all my other projects. They are all done now except for some chariots I want to complete and add as an option later.

Gauls poor from the wood. I still have some shields I want to decorate. Good enough for now.

The army here is complete except for the chariot options and some "fast" warband. Out of all the warbands I have for this army, only two elements are "fast", the rest being "solid". I would like to field more and am planning on adding a dozen more "fast" warbands in the future. My goal is to get this army up to Big Battle DBA standards, so I have plenty of room to expand and experiment with element types along the way. This of course will also help me get ready for some test battles using the LADG rules which I am also eager to have a go with. For now, these guys will do.

A village burns on the left as the Romans prepare a defense against the rush.

Not bad over-all. Still have some touching up and some details to add.

I am eager to see how well this army performs in the new v3 DBA rules. With an abundance of cavalry and "solid" warbands I am thinking they should do pretty well against my Polybians. With another playtest of our campaign rules (we added some new goodies to it) coming up this weekend it should be both fun and interesting. We shall see.

The temple looks pretty good. Perhaps I wash will be next for it to tone it down a bit.

Also last week I finished off that Greek temple -makes a great "enclave" in DBA - I have been working on. It Looks pretty good considering it was made out of simple card, plastic straws, and a piece of foam for the dome. I used a 20mm plastic figure for the statue. Quite pleased with the overall look. I may add a wash to it to darken it up a bit. Next up I will be making some Greek houses and some huts (for the Gauls).

The clash is about to occur. Will the Romans do as good against the hordes of Gaul as they did against the Seleucids?

Next up I want to finish off some Numidian allies for my Romans so they have some light cavalry options in future battles. This will help me get a start on my Numidian army as well.

Update and Things: what have I been doing regarding Ancients Wargaming...?

Quite a bit has been going on around here regarding my ancients wargaming. In between my other interests - and SCHOOL - I have managed to get a few things done/started. Among other things, work continues on some new terrain pieces for my ancient battles. So far I am experimenting with a Greek type temple, as well as making several forts for camps in DBA (and other rules). More pics and details coming soon.



A new camp just built: from TIDDLY-WINKS!



Greek temple made from straws, foam and card. A statue will go in the center.

I also just got in some Corvus Beli (Numidians) and Xyston (Aitolian Greek) 15mm DBA army boxes. Very nice indeed. I threw in some extra blister packs as well to round out these little armies. I am particularly fond of the Numidians (an army I believe I will expand for some bigger battles).



Some new minis to paint!

Of course progress continues on my Gauls I have been painting off an on the past couple weeks. A complete DBA army should be complete by the time of our next go with our DBA campaign.



Some Old Glory and Essex Gaul/Celt foot.

My good friend has a pretty good blog for DBA (and other periods) here on Blogger. Head on over to the Splendid Little Wars Blog! to see some good DBA 3.0 write ups! Includes some Big Battle DBA as well. A four part series of write ups has recently been posted. Hoplite Greeks, Persians, Gauls and MORE! Pretty exciting stuff over there if you want to see more DBA goodness :)

DBA Campaign and Some Gauls on the Way!

This weekend we are planning a little mini-campaign of sorts using DBA. This will be a five battle mini-campaign using rules of our own creation (very simple ladder-style campaign). Of course I will be taking charge of my Romans once again squaring off against those nasty Seleucids with their elephants, chariots, and other silly-ness. Anyway, it should be fun. Haven't had much time for hobby activities as of late, but DBA is so easy and manageable - a campaign in an afternoon! Go figure. I'll be sure to post some pics and perhaps more write-ups as well. We shall see.

Started work on a new Gaul army for DBA 3.0. So far a nice mix of Essex and Old Glory all primed up, de-flashed, etc. Been putting this army off for years and thanks to DBA 3.0 I am finally getting around to completing it. This will be a nice army to add to my current mix - focusing on the conflicts of the early to mid-republic Rome.

Some of the Gauls primed and ready for painting.

Seleucids advance on the Romans!