Volscians

Volscian miniatures from Aventine, shield designs from LBM.

The Roman-Volscian wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Volsci, an ancient Italic people. Volscian migration into southern Latium led to conflict with that region's old inhabitants, the Latins under leadership of Rome, the region's dominant city-state. By the late 5th century BC, the Volsci were increasingly on the defensive and by the end of the Samnite Wars had been in incorporated into the Roman Republic. The ancient historians devoted considerable space to Volscian wars in their accounts of the early Roman Republic, but the historical accuracy of much of this material has been questioned by modern historians.*

* From Wikipedia

This unit should really be used against my Romans but I think I will be using it as a Roman ally against my Phyrrics.

 I guess they could be utilised as a generic medium infantry unit in my 'Command & Colors' games.

American Civil War 'Fire & Fury'

Battle of Stones River Dec 31, 1862

As we hadn't had a get together at my place for a while, (work, family etc),  I organised an impromptu gathering with a couple of the lads for a game of Fire and Fury. (I don't any ACW rules or figures).

Very special thanks to Cookie who provided ALL the figures and scenery as I could only manage the boards and location. With a few lads we had 2 Union commanders (Paul & Sam) and 3 Rebel. (Cookie, Beccas and myself)

Early start with Cookie arriving at 8am, by the time the figures were in the starting position, people arrived and first round of coffees were made, kick off was 10.30. lunch with at 12.30 for an hour and we finished up at about 4pm.

I believed we completed about 4 turns as Cookie was the only person who had used these rules before. They played very well and it didn't take to long to pick them up.

 The mission was to force the union troops off line X - Y - Z, as per the above illustration.

Beccas led off with the rebels across and open field towards the union troops sheltering behind a fence line in a wooded area.

The union delivered a vicious volley causing many casualties and disordering the rebel line before the rebels returned fired but they couldn't hit the side of a barn, let alone the union troops in cover.   

 As the rebels couldn't shoot straight they just headed in with cold steel and a rebel yell, through the maelstrom of shot, over the fence line, through the woods and and up the hill forcing the stunned union troops back all the way.

My brigade followed behind Beccas waiting to fill in the gaps when Beccas's units faulted, but they never did. I never fired a shot all day and when I caught up to him I just provided support in the melees that occurred.

 Meanwhile Cookie was beginning to put pressure on the union left flank.

 It was looking like a rebel victory as only 2 union units still manned line X - Y - Z but the playing day had come to an end. The scenario  still had and number of turns to play and we all appreciate what the dice gods can do to any army.

Hopefully everyone had a good day and we can do it all again in the future.

A short video can be seen on Beccas's site https://www.youtube.com/user/pbeccas/videos

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Just completed the basing on this command stand today, and it just so happened that I also received a photography light tent in the post. No better time to try it out I guess.

Below are the first attempts. The figures are from Aventine miniatures once again.

 Comparison with roman command.

The lighting box in use, must remember to switch the lights off as they get bloody hot.

Aventine Heavies

As promised, an addition to my Pyrrhic Army. A great looking model from Aventine Miniatures to stomp some of those pesky Roman chaps.

 Removable crew.

And yes Simon, if your viewing this I've just ordered a light tent you recommended, so hopefully the next set of photos will be a lot better quality.


Oh yeah, and another Russian squad to add to the growing horde. Blacktree miniatures

                                     

Galatian Mercenaries

Galatian Mercenaries

I saw a unit of Galatian mercs on BIGREDBAT's site (cheers Simon), and thought - must have a unit of those in my collection and as I had a few similar figures scattered about I thought I'd have a crack. 

Most of the figures are foundry with a couple of Blacktree miniatues. The command is from Aventine Miniatures - 'Northern Italian Hill Tribe command' - thought they looked the part.

Apologies re the photographs.

Aventine Thureophoroi

Once again I've amazed myself and completed another unit..............well nearly another unit...........I'll explain later.
These great figures are from Aventine miniatures and the paint job and shoddy photography was done by myself. The photos were taken using a Nexus7, I might stick with the camera next time.

The inspiration came from BigRedBat, nwhistoricalwargames, ancientbattles.com and other fellow bloggers and gamers (Chris). Thanks lads.

Now, as to nearly completing the unit, you will notice one figure missing. This is because I couldn't fit 4 figures on a 40mm x 40mm base. (To many cloaks)  So instead of a 24 fig unit with 8 wide and 3 deep I now have 25 figs with 10 wide and 3 deep. So lucky I had a spare figure.

For gaming purposes I will go by base size, so the unit will fight as a 30 figure unit. Not bad, larger unit with less figures. (Obviously this will depend on whom I game with!)

Cheers.

Numidian cavalry

Not bad, only 9 months since last post.  But I have managed to do a small amount of painting, so hopefully I will post my other results when I work out how to drive this 'Nexus7' tablet I received for my B'day last month. (My young bloke thinks I might finally be moving into the modern age. Who knows, I may even carry a mobile phone one day!)

Anyway, here is my latest unit, a small unit of Numidian cavalry. The figures are from Crusader Miniatures. Two of the shield designs are from LMB.