AD Miniatures- Third Century Imperial Romans/Middle Imperial Romans

From the highly skilled hands of Adam Smith come a fantastic range of Third Century Imperial Romans/Middle Imperial Romans (link to be added on release)! I've been lucky enough to be in contact with Adam as the range began and has developed and I have to say, not since the Aventine Miniatures, Early Byzantines range have I seen such crisp, detailed and attractive sculpts. 

To some extent the new AD Miniatures MIR range is a slight redux of his A&A miniatures Third century Middle Imperial Romans but I would leave Adam to comment upon that as he is much more knowledgeable about the subject than my good self.

I was given permission by Mark Farr (owner and director of Footsore Miniatures & Games) who will be putting the range into production and Adam to show off some of what we can expect from AD Miniatures in the future and was of course more than happy to 

Justinian Mosaic" Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy

I have used the so called "Justinian Mosaic" as a source for a few banners for my Early Byzantines Please see below for example of Emperor Justinian on the Magister Militum command stand (above) and the banner for Belisarius' Boukellaroi (below). With this in mind I thought it would be nice if I posted up a nice large image of the actual "Justinian Mosaic" Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna Italy. 

The "Justinian Mosaic" Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna was used as inspiration and reference material for both the banners. 

Emperor Justinian I

Magister Militum, Belisarius

"Justinian Mosaic" Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna Italy.

For larger lick right, "Open in image in new tab" then enlarge for a much larger image. 

Court of Emperor Justinian with (right) Archbishop Maximian, Narses, Belisarius plus court officials and "Praetorian Guards"

Clubbing It! El Cid/Early Crusades Large WAB V.2 Game

Of late, our wee mini gaming group within the larger club have been playing a series of WAB games all of which were over 5000pts a side, usually two or three players a side. Players have been able to dip in and out as they are available taking one side only. We have been running these large games (Middle Imperial Roman, Early and Thematic Byzantines El Cid and Moors etc) for a while now and it seems to be a format we have settled on for WAB games. The larger format (points) and number of players largely manage to reduce the competitiveness that can sometimes sneak in with the WAB rules (they were written by GW after all!). This has proven to be huge boon as it reduced the ghastly over combativeness which can be aroused in some players using these rules.

Originally we were playing on a 10' x 6' table but decided to mark out the edge of the table six inches in and allow for deployment of up to 12" of the centre line of the table so's to allow for more aggressive tactics to be employed. For this we used Hidden Deployment rules as described in the rulebook. (If anyone wants to know more, please leave a comment below and I can answer any questions). Looking back at the games we could have done with reducing the width/depth of the tables to 4 fee; as the weeks have gone by it appears more and more obvious the rules were not designed for tables this deep. all a bit of a crying shame as these are the main Ancient rules used at the club.

We had previously played the El Cid lists (North African Moors/Medieval Spanish Christian) from WAB Armies of Antiquity V.2 but I found the Christian Spanish list very limited because the number of miniatures we had at our disposal for infantry didn't match the Moorish army at all leading to a huge infantry disparity so, bearing in mind I was overly endowed with Heavy Cavalry I decided to go for a hard hitting mostly if not reliable First Crusade list predominantly cavalry army. (Incidentally, most of our heaviest hitting cavalry and Abbysiya horse archers took very little part on the game leaving the right flank to fend for itself!)

The sides deployed as in the Hidden Deployment rules in the WAB V.2 rulebook. The Moors had the best of the luck when rolling for terrain with a nice square-ish defensive position that was very hard to attack or flank. Nevertheless, both sides made the best of the deployment around what terrain was most favourable. 

The Crusader Left Flank:

The Moorish Right Flank:

The cream of the Crusader army, all the character four in all (less the army general and army standard bearer needed to keep the flimsy infantry in check), plus the cream of the (First Charge/autobreak) Knights, the protective screen of Abbysiya Horse Archers and the extra unit of Naffatun (capable of making a unit panic if it takes one casualty- no armour save) move forward but do little damage with their shooting.

Another view of the Crusader Right flank as the opposing Knightly Allies sided with the Moors move forward at the far end of the table. The Moorish infantry also advance failing to cause any casualties to missile fire due to moving.

Another view as the Moorish army; this time Camel Riders take casualties. At this point the Abbysiya Horse Archers had proven to be quite disappointing in that they caused very little damage. 

A view from the Crusader Right flank; the Crusader Knights and Moorish Allied Knights face off. (The Crusader praying they would not fail a Warband test!)

Another view of the battlefield and the Crusader Left Flank. (And a box!) The Abbysiya Horse Archers are held in place by a unit of Infantry, a unit of Camel Riders and some hopeless skirmishers in the wood. Again, their shooting was disappointing. 

A serious volley of missile fire from the Crusader Crossbowmen, the Crusader Combined Formation units of spear and bow take a dent pout of one of the Moorish infantry units. What I have failed to mention, due to forgetting to take photo's, is the utter devastation of the Crusader Crossbowmen who were a temporary holding unit for the Crusader middle in the hope that the Crusader Heavies ands Abbysiya would come to the rescue.

Naffatum wielding nutters advance, take shots at the Cavalry but fail to do any damage. This was the last turn they would take part in the game. 

Embarrassed Naffatun wielding nutters just before the Moorish Knights charges and they fled!

At this point things began to get interesting on the Crusader Right flank as a failed warband test resulted in the Crusader Knights surge forward forcing the other unit of Knights to follow suit and move up to support. 

Another view of then inaction of the Crusader right flank. (I know not why the Naffatun loonies are hiding behind the knights with a nice juicy wood they could be hiding in causing mischief to their flank.

A battle won and the game lost! Crusader Knights charged the Moorish Allied Knights, did very little damage and lost the combat to First charge (auto broken). The other Crusader Knightly charge broke the other unit of Moorish Allied Knights (again, First charge and auto broken). Panic ensued all around. Literally everyone within 12" of the four units of Knights shared by both sides. Auto broken troops to one side, the Moorish troops were largely saved by their Ld 10 general (more than 90% chance of passing) and the Crusader let down by a lower leadership of 9. 

It was on this flank that the game was won as i/ rescue with the cream of the Crusader army was nowhere in sight and ii/ the Crusader infantry were left floating on the tabletop and a large unit of Moorish Allied Knights about to wheel into their rear and finish them.

Still, the cream of the Crusader army take pot shots at units which matter not and do nothing to rescue the Crusader Right flank. Most unlike the player who usually plays a very tight game (I was beginning to think my fellow Crusading compatriot was a Moorish plant!)

More of the same.

The Moorish infantry advance into a commanding position in the centre of the battlefield. 

Yep, if you hadn't noticed my frustration by now! LOL

Congratulations to the Moorish army who fought cleverly and valiantly. I'm not sure I can say the same for the Crusader army. "We" wer lacklustre in the extreme LOL

And a game of Impetus, run by Conrad Cairns (in as far as I know)

Un-Typical Night at the Club. Clubbing it!

First off a big "Duh!" to me for not taking any pictures of our large WAB game, which saw the Early "Justinian" Byzantines hook up with the Kushans (I know!) and take on Jim's charming Middle Imperial Romans (I know! I know!). It was a great game, quite tense in places, funny ion others; all that one might want. But, alas, no pictures! As I say, duh!

There's been  a bit of a DBA league, tournament type event happening at the club for a while now, so....

Post Partem DBA

DBA

Napoleonic-y Things Happening!

More Nappyness:

Too The Strongest

The Men Who Would Be Kings

More DBA!

I don't know if it was because folk were more spread out last evening or whether there were less people at the club but it did seem quite spacious! I'll be back with more when/if I get a chance between pauses in out own games; also back with some pictures of our actual games! Duh!

Late Byzantine vs Early Crusader WAB Game- 5500pts A SIDE!

Just a few photo's to show as far as this week's game went. We decided on 550pts the week before for a WAB game at the club. My aim was to write a full AAR/Bat. Rep. but for a couple of reasons I couldn't manage that this week- juggling the AAR with playing the actual game, being present tactically and the simple fact that with all of us crowded around the table it's hard to flit about taking pictures due to lack of wriggle room! 

In the game the week prior to this, it took much longer to deploy so we decided to get to the club a little earlier than normal and draw up "Hidden Deployment" maps. We must have saved us about at least an hour and a half and resulted in much more realistic and challenging deployments for both armies. The result of our efforts was thnat we more or less completed the game. A few more turns each would have yielded a more decisive outcome but the seven turns each we managed, at 5500pts, was very good going. 

Deployment? The Crusaders refusing one flank whilst the Byzantines did the same as last week where units were almost matching their opposite numbers! Extremely "unrealistic" but perhaps worse; they take the guesswork out of the game which I find enjoyable with the "Hidden Deployment" method. 

Here's a few snaps of the game. There really isn't any point in attempting to write anything up as the photo's are quite disjointed ergo the tale they might tell would be amorphic. I'll do my very best to get the right pictures together for next week's game (probably a change of rules over to Rapid Fire). AAR's/Bat. Reps. are one thing i need to start to do a lot better as they are usually a lot of fun to write up.

It was a close game with the fortunes of both sides ebbing and flowing. In the end, thanks to some excellent dice rolling, the Byzantines probably just tipped it past the post. Just. 

As per. All the photo's are "clickable" if you want to see more detail. 

Cheers

Italian Mounted Arquebusiers

After quite some time away from the painting desk due to illness I am very happy to say that I am back! It was very hard to make a start for a couple of months but I pushed, stalled, pushed again and I'm now back into a decent rhythm with my painting. From zero to three projects resurrected; The Italian Wars, Early Byzantines and Anglo Danes are back on the menu. These will be punctuated by some of the beautiful castings for the Seven Years War from Claymore Castings which is promising to be a very special and extensive range. I've always been slightly put off with the Seven Years War as most of the miniatures on the market were very stiff and in advancing poses only. People who are regulars to my blog will know that I much prefer to see dynamic and varied poses in my armies and the Nick Collier Claymore sculpts tick that box and then some.

OK, so here's the first three bases of what will eventually be six bases of Italian Mounted Arquebusiers. They were actually completed quite some time ago, left painted but unvarnished in a cupboard! It wasn't until recently that I have felt like I have had the energy to finish them off. For varnishing I followed my usual method of a solid coat of Humbrol brush on Enamel Gloss followed a week later by Winsor and Newton Professional Matt varnish.

With no0t being into my normal rhythm, I forgot to superglue the magnetic sheets to the bases so there has been a little warpage, but so be it, I'm just happy that I have completed half of this unit.

I hope you like them. 

I'll take some close up pictures of the individual bases ASAP and post them up.