Clubbing It! Sassanids vs Middle Imperial Romans!

The inability for me to for me find the time this week to write up the Bat Rep for the latest Sassanids vs Middle Imperial Romans has left me a little disappointed. The game was part of some experimentation and included alterations to the stats of the Sassanid Late Clibanarii which would effect the game in a new way which would reflect their use on the battlefields of the 5th/6thCE. 

I'm not fully happy with with the Sassanid list as it is written in WAB V.2, AoA V.2. In previous games, the Late Sassanian Clibanarii just weren't able to influence the game in a manner befitting their battlefield role. In truth, I don't think we have solved this at the time of writing.

I'll write a post in a day or two and discuss the problem with the lists, our attempt to solve it and my ideas on how to actually solve things going forward! 

In the meantime please enjoy the pictures of the game; and some wonky spears! 

Middle Imperial Roman Speed Painting/Wash Experiments

The pangs of existential angst as I get on in life are certainly present in my mind of late. I've got a lor of lead, and a finite time in which to paint and play with it. With that in mind I've been experimenting with some rapid ways in which to get miniatures painted and on the tabletop. 

I started with some of the A&A Miniatures Middle Imperial Romans. These have literally had one base coat painted on top of the silver basecoat (leaving the armours out), then a wash from a mix I have concocted for heavily armoured miniatures and one highlight. That was it. If you leave the half an hour drying time of the wash out of the picture, it took next to no time at all to complete them which is exactly what I wanted. 

I have to be honest, compared to my normal standard these fellows are not very crisp or tight, the colour saturation is dull and it was a little painful to paint this way. The pain though, must be balanced against the expectation of being able to play with them and this is certainly something I want to do.

I should add, I'm very much looking forward to Adam Smith's new middle Imperial Roman AD Miniatures venture and I'm not so sure I could paint up the new AD stuff in the same manner as these. The A&A Miniatures moulds are not fresh and could do with remoulding IMHO as there was quite a lot of flash and a heck of a lot of cleaning up to do. 

There will also be some Wargames Foundry Franks painted up in a similar manner but with a different "magic potion" wash as they're less heavily armoured. Again, the aim is to get these toys on the table!  :>)

There are some mistakes on the miniatures, that will be cleaned up ASAP. The flesh on the helmet of one of the legionaries is particularly galling!

Cheers

Clubbing it! The Battle for the Oasis at Āb-Šādahr (Ābšādahr)! Middle imperial Romans take on Early Sassanid Persians

We started a great two week game last evening, the Battle for the Oasis at Āb-Šādahr (Ābšādahr), about 80 miles south of the great city of Ctesiphon. 

Āb-Šādahr (Ābšādahr)
Āb = water
Šād = joyful / prosperous
-ahr / -ahrā = place or land
Meaning: “The Oasis of Joyful Waters.”

Apologies once again for not including a narrative (life is very much getting in the way at the moment!) but the game was very evenly poised with most of the until the action starting to develop on the left flank as the Roman Legionaries and Sassanian Aswārān (singular aswār; also spelled Asbārān and Savaran) were coming very close to melee.

The next Sassanian turn was to decide the battle within the next two turns, the Cats went in and with some quite ugly dice rolling they bounce with the Shahanshah's unit being run down, another unit panicking and legging it leaving only one unit of Cataphracts willing to face five units of Roman Legionaries. Time was running down both literally and figuratively so we called time on the game.

Overall, the Early Sassanid and middle imperial Roman clashes have been some of the best games we have played and are deserving of many a rerun so we will be returning to this Third Century, the middle imperial Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire very soon.