Heroes and Slingers

 

Above are some Irish heroes and a single Norse hero. We have a Norse vs Irish and a Norse vs Anglo-Danes Midgard game lined up in the next week so they will see action then. Figures are by Crusader and Gripping Beast. Below are more Irish slingers and some Anglo-Saxon slingers. Figures are by Footsore Miniatures, Crusader and Gripping Beast.

Gangs of Rome Two Game

 

Gangs and mobs deployed

My fighters are caught flat footed

On Tuesday afternoon Robert came over and we played a Gangs of Rome Two game out in the shed. I bought and painted most of my buildings and figures back in 2018 when it first came out. Since then I’ve added some pre-painted Empires of War buildings and a few more Sarissa Precision ones as well. The Sarissa Precision mdf kits are really cleverly designed and are a lot of fun to put together. I’ve found that spay painting with a base colour seems to get better results than using a paint brush on the buildings. Collecting and painting these Roman buildings is a big part of the attraction for me.

We both had five gang fighters at 125 points and Looting (p.28.), was the first scenario in the new rule book. The player who held the most, of four objective tokens, by the end of turn five was the winner. The game uses random token activation of individual fighters and mob bases and Robert was able to get a good head start on me in the first couple of turns, snaffling most of the objective markers. The mob bases provide a random element to the game, and can become enraged and attack your fighters. Robert’s fighters blended in with the mob bases and while exiting any of the three on the table mean there wasn’t much I could do. We both ended up with two fighters dead but Robert won easily with three out of the four objective tokens.

Roman mobs cause chaos

Robert’s fighters snaffle the objective markers

Robert's fighters win easily

Late Roman Cavalry - Schola Scutariorum Clibanariorum

 

Above are some Late Roman cavalry, the Schola Scutariorum Clibanariorum, from Gripping Beast's Late Roman Cataphracts plastic set. These are based on the illustration in Andrey Negin and Raffaele D'Amato's Osprey book Roman Heavy Cavalry (1). The shield design is based on the versions in the Notitia Dignitatum but as Luke Ueda-Sarson points out on his site, these are not definitely identified with specific units:

http://lukeuedasarson.com/MagisterOfficiorumE.html

Below are Late Roman command figures by Footsore Miniatures and two Late Roman scorpions with crew by Wargames Foundry.

Huns versus Foederate Romans Mortem et Gloriam Game

Above are some Late Roman commanders that I've just finished painting. The figures are by Footsore Miniatures with LBM shield transfers and saw action in a game last night down at the club in the photos below. Dean, Rick and I played a 7,000 point (Magna) game of Mortem et Gloriam (MeG) with Huns versus Western Foederate Romans. I commanded the Huns and Rick had the Late Romans. Dean very generously and patiently, guided us through the game, as it was Rick's first game and my second, and he also tweaked the army lists. Dean is the owner of Olympian Games and is the Australian agent for MeG and runs all the local competitions.

We stuffed around a bit sorting out commands but eventually got down to it and the Hun invaders were able to make some double moves early on. The Roman Equites block charged the Hun and Ostrogoth cavalry. In the centre the Frank and Burgundian infantry charged the Roman Legionaries and Auxilia and were met with a hail of darts. On the Huns left flank they charged the Roman Foederate cavalry, while the Roman horse archers attempted to charge the Alan horse archers. Back on the Hun right flank the Ostrogoth cavalry broke and their commander was killed, while Attila himself was wounded. At this point we ran out of time but the game could still have gone either way.

Thanks to Dean and Rick for a fun game. It was great to have Dean explain the rules and I certainly learnt a lot, enjoyed it and look forward to my next game!

View of the armies deployed from the Huns' left flank

View of the armies deployed from the Huns' right flank

Hun & Alan horse archers

Huns make some double moves

Roman Equites, Legionaries, Auxilia & Foederati

The armies close

Ostrogoth cavalry

Hun nobles & horse archers

Roman Equites block charge Hun & Ostrogoth cavalry

Cavalry align on the Hun's right flank

Charges in the centre and on the Huns' left flank

Roman horse archers fail to contact the Alans

Ostrogoth cavalry break

Early Byzantine Horse Archers

Here are some early Byzantine Horse Archers and a Belisarius figure from Footsore Miniatures. One of the horse archer poses doesn't have a sword which is strange as it has a helmet and armour. Footsore have just released some infantry and Aventine Miniatures are releasing a Justinian Byzantine range as well, starting with the infantry. There are already two 28mm ranges for this period that I'm aware of - Old Glory and the former Newline figures now owned by SHQ, so gamers will be spoilt for choice once all these ranges are available.

Goth Infantry 1

Here are some Goth infantry that I've just finished painting. These are all Footsore Miniatures figures with LBM shield transfers. They're fantastic figures, really detailed with quite dynamic poses. I have some more of them to paint but will work on the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors plastic set next as these will be fairly easy to paint.

Late Roman Horse Archers

Here are some Late Roman horse archers. It has been pretty quite on the gaming and painting front lately. These figures are by Footsore Miniatures and the ox cart is by 4G and the oxen by North Star Miniatures. A lot of DBX rules require a baggage element for a camp so this is quite handy for that purpose.