Successor Action little bit South of Troy, off the A684

The Old Guard met today for a massive 15mm battle using Hail Caesar. Me, Stig, Pete, John and Stu brought our armies and Angus rocked up as a mercenary general.
We fought Seleucids vs Antagonids with me, Stig and Angus being on one side and the other 3 reprobates the other side.

It was a fairly large affair. This is our centre, Angus, and Stig's left wing, facing John and Pete. 

Stig's force is very cavalry heavy

Pete is a mix of cavalry and elephants

Over onthe right I'm facing Stu. We both have lots of cavalry and while I have some light infantry Stu has elephants and Galatians. I'm out gunned and out matched. This could be tough

John and Pete discuss tactics. John's will be to sit still and wait for others to do the fighting

I advance and my horse archers open up

Stig and Pete both advance and square up to each other

Stig unleashes and scythed Chariot which does bugger all

Stu advances and i fall back. He has moved his medium cavalry and elephants forward against my light cav. A mistake

Stop the presses. John is advancing. All plans are now out of the window

Stig and Pete get to work with a massive melee

Stig wins and Pete is on the ropes

Stu is moving up his medium cav, Galatians and phalanx against my single unit of light infantry. I am Daffy Ducked

Angus advances

On the right it's become a chaotic scene but I've burst through the elephants  and am about to hit Stu in the flank.Better than that Stu charged my light infantry and not only did the buggers stand they forced him to retreat disordered. Next turn my catephracts will do him over

And they do. 1st the medium cavalry go home. If i can smash his flank then I can stop this

THIS. John has launched is scythed chariots and an entire pike block has melted. Angus has charged Johns elite phalanx with Galatians and Basternae and John killed them all without breaking sweat

I'm round the back, Stu's division has broken but the melee in the centre has been brutal and I'm too late, i turn too late

because John is stomping all over Angus

Mass retreat.

We lost, we made loads of mistakes in the rules but by the end had got to grips with it. A fantastic game and a close run thing.

On the other table James and Dave and ian fought a Falaise Pocket battle, looked good but didn't take a photo

It was supposed to be a double gaming weekend but catastrophic weather on Saturday meant that i couldn't get to Matt's dungeon for the Scottish invasion of Cumbria. Very disappointing indeed

Onwards and upwards

Even more painting done. Really cleaning out the partially painted stuff and have found more to do. In the mood now so hopefully a good weekend of painting, nothing else to do. But for now I have done this
Union ACW regiment. Picked these up at the Border Reiver show couple of years ago. 30 x 28mm Old Glory figs for about £20. Not the best figures but it's another regiment to add to the vast ACW collection (got some limbers to assemble next)

The thing I hate most about Vallejo paints is that I always squeeze out too much paint. Not wanting to waste it I have used it to paint the following modern figs. i had these set aside for the challenge and even for the bonus rounds. Luckily I have more. These are Empress and lovely figs

The search has found some more figs to paint and to assemble. What a bloody annoying hobby!

Air landing Artillery

As Iam still laid up with the lurgy I've finished some more painting. These are Air Landing Artillery unit, well a unit and a half, and are a mix of Command Decision and Battlefront miniatures. There are 6 x 75mm pack howitzers, couple of spotters, and HQ units. These will pretty much complete my para force, I've still got some armoured cars I picked up from James to finish but they have only been undercoated so will wait for the challenge as it's some quick points.

I only have one more unit to paint to clear the decks, a 28mm Union ACW regiment. Right now to get some lemsip and do the marking that has been staring at me for a couple of weeks

Clearing out the painting desk

With the challenge about to start I thought I'd finish off some of the things that had been started, Dave has been doing this and it's a good way to get back into painting.
First up a couple of crappy elephants from ebay, the home of poorly sculpted miniatures. We have a large hail caesar battle coming up and these will be useful. Also my Pontic army will double as almost any successor army so these are a good option

These are different sizes and came in a pretty bashed up shape, had to add a trunk to one of them but they will do. Based up on 40x60 so can be used for Impetus or any other rule set

I have a minor WW2 addiction caused by James. I picked up a load of german infantry from him and have been looking at them for ages. I've just finished by 1st platoon. I'm using them as Normandy based Fusiliers, far too many SS and paratrooper units out there. It often seems to me that the entire of WW2 was fought only using elite troops.

These are 352 regiment and have a lot of MGs, each base is an MG Rifle section. I done a platoon with officer up graded to a Panzershrek . Also done the company commander and 2IC

More still to paint inc air landing artillery support

Melanesians and a Ballista

Starting to get my mojo back and so painting has occurred. Next spring we are putting on a participation game at the Hammerhead show, my 1st real attempt at this. We are planning a South Seas pulp adventure with captured damsel needing rescue, heroic sailor types, dastardly Kreigsmarine, magnificent monsters and noble savages. All are already painted except the islanders.
Who does the best pulp figures, Pulp Figures do.

Tried doing tattoos, can't do tattoos. However dabs of thinned black look good from afar

I also painted a Ballista. I met the author Harry Sidebottom at the the other Partizan, he's often there selling his books. He's a thoroughly nice chap and I love the books. I bought the 3 I was missing that are prequels and introduce as a side character the hero of the main series. The Romanised Angle Marcus Clodius Ballista. He has a model of the figure that he gives out, made by Aventine (I think) and he's a nice figure

I've also bought my Christmas present which I will pick up at Battleground on Saturday. It's an entire 15mm Classical Indian Army by Essex via Col Bill. Always wanted one and it will give me something to complete for the Challenge. It has 9 elephants, that's a lot of elephants

Battle of Shiloh 6th April 1862

Today I went over to Matt's Dungeon for a massive ACW battle. We refought the 1st day of the Battle of Shiloh. Matt has just returned from a tour of ACW battlefields, read the great reports on his blog. Even with Matt's massive table and the huge number of troops we have we could only do a little of it.

https://www.battlefields.org/ 

I was the Rebels and Matt the Union  so I was attacking

We played using Matt's ACW tweak of Bolt Action but we use fewer activation dice than units so that you have to manage your forces.

The Battlefield from the Union right

More Union right, he's weak here

Union Centre - he's strong here

My centre, my biggest brigade but I plan to wait here and keep Matt's strength in the centre whilst I probe the flanks

My left, i'm strong here and matt is weak so i advance

with 2 brigades and a 3rd is arriving behind

Union right facing me, he is throwing lots of 6s. mainly a 6 to hit as all the regiments are green and everywhere is light wood. This continues all day so I take lots of casualties as I advance. I have OK dice all day so this just makes it bloody

My right, I'm weak and Matt is strong but I don't want him to move about too much so I probe here

I'm getting close on my right

So I charge home. Matt holds on just

To my centre left I'm getting shot, a lot

I win the 2nd melee and as the Union routs the supporting union regiment, with the help of some artillery fire from me also legs it. I just need to get in position. The fields are open ground and are literally killing fields, as was the case in the actual battle

Help is coming

The Union centre is getting impatient and starts to advance

On my right my probe has advanced to the Union lines and won a melee but I can't get close enough with enough units at the same time to make it count. Schoolboy error her was that I forgot to advance my brigade commander to provide leadership support so the attack falters. I did this twice. "Generals, they are numerous but good for little" - Aristophanes

On my left my advanced brigade has been shot up brutally as I struggle to get forward to support

Still attaching though

Here is my support, a fresh brigade

I the centre I start to advance to met Matt's advance

My right is buggered up

My centre, an even match for the Union centre

An awesome battle that ended after the usual 6 hours of fighting. I was going to win my left, Matt had won on my right and the centre was evenly balanced. A draw. Fantastic day out

More Random Stuff

Painting is occasionally randomly. Since I finished the Pontic army I've struggled to find something to paint. I have bought a load of 15mm figs from ebay - always risky but these are fine. 120 hoplites, 2 elephants, couple of artillery pieces (catapult and ballista) and some odds and sods. Top of this list is 50 mongol cavalry, always wanted a mongol army and this is a good start. Bascially I paid full price forthe mongols and everything else was free.
I've painted some of the odds and sods to add to the pontic army

Couple of bases of Galatians / Gauls

Unit of Persian archers

I've been slowly increasing the size of my Sci Fi collection. 

Pick up the APC from a bargain bin at the Border Reiver show, was a tenner and is resin. I added the gun, spare from a steam tank. Looks pretty good

 Couple of months ago Warlord were running a sprue sale and I picked up some Gates of Antares sprues, and some moderns, for £1 each. These will match up nicely with my Hasslefree figs to give me a sinister regular inf squad.

A robot thingy, don't have a significant sci fi gaming knowledge

from behind!

Infantry, black with electric blue visors

These are a doddle to paint and look good with a foundry charcoal black dry brush.

I've been reviewing my lead mountain and it's pretty small, relatively speaking. If i never by another figure then i've enough for 2 painting challenges. But then again I need a 15mm Marian Roman army to fight Mithradites (Christmas present I think), and I have a Norman army to finish painting.