Its been a funny old year

 I think it's due to the self-isolating but my painting mojo had deserted me for the best part of three months.  I simply couldn't summon up the enthusiasm to put paint to figures.  Even the frequency of my blog posts slowed down. Happily I can report a slight return to form and I have managed to finish painting  over seventy 6mm figures so far this month, mostly Late Imperial Romans and Maurikian Byzantine proxies.  

The bad news is that while I'm not out of figures to paint, I am running low on the stuff I need for the projects I'm working on, and I missed the Baccus ordering window to top off stocks!  I will have to peruse the Irregular Miniatures catalogue instead.  I'm also running low on some DBA/ADLG bases but I have an order on its way to cover that so that shouldn't be a problem and I have included 60 x 30mm ones for Alter of Freedom units as well.

Lots still to paint, mostly mounted troops.

As you can see there is still plenty to go at on the painting table at the moment and I might just end the year without increasing the size of the lead pile!  Currently the lead pile is ahead by something like 230 6mm figures for the year.

Dal Raitia 799AD - Pictia attacks Comgail (Dal Raitia)

The Pictish Forces are advancing from the North East and near an insignificant settlement called An Cladach they clash with the Dal Raitian royal army.  The Dal Raitian Scots are defending and the invading Picts are being run by the AI rules.  I am again using De Bellis Solitarius which are available as a free download from the Fanaticus and other, websites.  Versions are available for DBA 2.0 and 3.0 and I find that they give an interesting game by virtue of setting constraints on what the AI side is allowed to do while allowing player input within those constraints.  Before the game started I decided on the Scots deployment.  I then rolled up the Picts overall tactical stance for the encounter and then their deployment.  Think of that as the commanders pre-battle briefing from the CinC something like:

"Right settle down and listen up,  here is the plan.  We outnumber them almost two to one so they either have to hit us hard and fast before we have the line properly set up or they will want to defend and use the ground to their advantage.  If they attack their initial charge is a problem but if we stack the spearmen deep we should be able to absorb the impact.    

Moravin, you have the larger command so act aggressively, I'm putting you out on the right flank with Mar.  You have the majority of the mounted lads so if you get a chance to get around their flank, take it. Especially if you see a chance to attack their camp.  Nothing like having your women attacked to take a man's mind off the fighting eh?  

I will be in the centre with the rest of the Army, so that's you three, Strath Erin, Athfotla and Monath.  Your boys will hold the centre and cover our camp.  Nothing too clever required there, I think we can hold back in a defensive posture and see how things develop on the right.  If they attack us then all the more space on the flank for the mounted lads to use.  I'm pretty sure their entire strength is in the field against us but I'm not ignoring the risk of them trying to land behind our flank from boats.  Moravin the beach is on your flank so have a think about about what you might do to cover that eventuality will you. 

Everyone happy?  Excellent well grab what sleep you can and we shall see what the morning brings."

Or as the dice rather more prosaically gave me; place the camp as near the centre line as possible and behind any available bad going.  Command 1 (The King with  8 elements) deploy in the centre with a defensive stance.  Command 2 (11 elements) deploys on the right flank and takes an aggressive stance.  Pike form up two deep if facing warbands.  Fastest troops deploy on the end of the line.  

The Scots have 11 elements to deploy including the King.  There is nothing to loose and a defensive strategy just will not cut it.  The Scots will probably never have more men in the field than they have today, so they have to take the fight to their Pictish cousins.  Accordingly I have decided to go with a littoral landing.  That will be on the Pictish Right which it turns out are under orders to be aggressive and so with any luck it will land behind their flank.

The Scots briefing is an altogether more downbeat affair.

'Alright then sit down and take a drink it may be the last one you get from me.  You all know the Picts outnumber us and have a point to prove having had a beating from the Strathclyders of late.  They have crossed the mountains to get at our heartlands so I doubt they just want to talk.  Tomorrow is going to be bloody, the only question is whose blood will be on the heather?

We don't have the luxury of giving up this ground and there are no reinforcements coming. What we do, win or loose, we do with the men we have, here, at this place.  They will come on fast and that is our one advantage as it will give us the option of turning their flanks.  I will have the main body but  you Comgail,  you will lead a small group to land on the beach behind them.  Hit them in the flank or rear and hit them hard.  Make them rue the day they came to Dal Raitia.  You will be the hammer, we will be the anvil and between us I intend to crush them.  Now go see to your men, tell them of certain victory on the morrow and, remind them that they are fighting for their homes and families.

The Day of Battle

'The day of battle  dawned and looked set fair so the fight commenced almost immediately. Our landing party sprang into action as soon as the Picts were in reach and charged up the beach into the end of their line.  Two units of Pictish light horse turned to meet the threat.  Meanwhile our main line advanced as quickly as they could but it was clear that the landing party would be on their own for a wee while.  We could tell that the attack from the beach had the Picts rattled as their advanced stopped dead on that flank.'  

1. The armies deployed -landing party ready to storm up the beach!

A good opening pip score allows the out of command littoral landing to get into contact with the end of the Pictish line.  In their turn both Pictish commands get abysmal pip scores and low aggression scores meaning that the right hand command who are meant to be moving up stall as their flank units have to deal with the Scottish attack. The left hand command does manage to advance to occupy the boggy ground to their front.  This was repeated for the next two turns where the Picts consistently rolled single pips for both commands.

'We couldn't believe that the beach attack had thrown the enemy into such confusion, we could see that the fighting was muckle fierce on that flank and one group of Pictish light horse was soon destroyed.  The rest of that wing seemed incapable of reacting to the attack.  Our main body continued to push forward towards the enemy with our wilder tribesmen leading the advance.'

2. Picts in a pickle - down one LH already

I roll two dice for each Pictish command the large dice is the aggression for this turn the smaller the Pip score.  The aggression roll is adjusted based on the starting aggression and the pip score.  The photo below shows just how bad the Pictish rolls were!

3. On the defensive. Awful dice mean the Picts cannot put attacks together!

As the day rolls on the landing party takes out a second light horse unit it had pinned back against the end of the Pictish line. The poor Pictish command rolls are really hurting them and the right wing is only one unit away from becoming demoralised.

4. It looks better than it really is for the Picts (on the left here)

The terrain is helping the Scots.  The aggressive Pictish right wing has to overcome the flanking attack and get through the woods to to turn the Scot's left.  The other flank, which is wide open, is facing the defensive Pictish wing who are less likely to take advantage.  The boggy ground is doing nothing to slow either side but it is preventing the Pictish spearmen gaining the rear support bonus  Fast Pike would gain in clear terrain.

5. The Scots have a decent defensive line at least

It isn't until turn five that the Picts get a decent pip and aggression roll and with the Scots racing forwards to the attack with their main force it isn't a moment too soon.  They bring more troops up to the fight on the right wing and push forwards in the centre where the two lines come to close combat.  There the fighting leads to a first casualty for the Scots and the usual confusion as the neat lines dissolve.  At this point you would have thought that things are about to improve for the Picts, they are in contact all along the line and should be able to bring the advantage of numbers to bear.  You might have thought that but, the dice gods really have it in for the painted people and in the first combat they loose another unit.  Even worse this is from their right wing command which pushes them over the edge into demoralisation.  There is a single ray of hope now as a second scots unit was destroyed in the combat round, so the Scots are edging closer to their break point. 

6. A turn later and the battle is slipping away from the Picts

The next couple of turns have the Picts attempting to keep their right wing on the table by using pips to force unit's hold their ground.  Because they are demoralised that wing can't do anything but hold or retreat and it takes a pip to have a unit hold in place, they can't initiate combat although they can defend.  Their biggest problem is that if they hold the units closest to the edge of the table in place then those who are pinning the Scot's beach landing in place have to retreat and that opens the way for a camp run.  On the other wing I successfully override the standing orders for a turn and send a Pictish light infantry unit sprinting for the Scot's camp but with my Scot's cap (should that be bonnet?) on I counter that with a Scots light infantry unit in the following turn by bringing close enough to pin the Picts in their threat zone.

7. Although the Picts' left is holding men a streaming to the rear on the right wing

Things are looking bleak for the Picts now as the only command that can act has defensive standing orders so is going to struggle to advance to combat.   Poor dice rolls on the other wing are allowing units to head to the rear there.  Although the Pict's have managed to get into a good position for an attack the defensive stance stops them from capitalising on it and I failed the override dice roll for them.  A poor pip roll for the demoralised command sees four elements leave the table and that is game over.

Although not particularly heavy, the losses will have an impact on both sides the Picts have lost three elements and the Scots two.  At least the King of Picts was able to escape the disaster.

The Pictish chronicles simply recounts 

'The fury of the Scotsmen knew no bounds'

This game taught me a few things about these troops.  Fast pike are capable troops but only if well deployed the +3 rear support bonus would have made a huge difference had I been able to use it.  It was only the poor initial deployment that worked against them and I should have redeployed the line to get them into good going.  The terrain made no difference to movement for the infantry as both sides have fast foot or solid auxilia who are not slowed in bad going.  Still the Picts are not going to let a little thing like two defeats in one turn change their ambition and they will be be back.

More Tiny Terrain

 You have probably noticed a delay in fighting the next Dark Ages campaign battle.  That is due to my wanting to create a better terrain piece for the boggy ground which is going to be used in that battle.  I made an initial version a few weeks ago but wasn't at all happy with the design or the execution, to be blunt, it looked pants!  I did like a couple of things and I learned some useful lessons.  The key lesson being that Woodlands Scenics' Realistic Water shrinks as it sets and can warp the terrain base if a large area of water is being modelled, even with thin pours.  I did learn that it is worth taking time to paint the area under the water to show deepening water through darkening colours though.

This time I changed the design.  I decided that using several small areas of water on a felt former would be easier to model and less prone to problems.  It cuts down the chance of warpage and gives flexibility as the water elements can be used on different felt outlines for different shape/sizes of boggy ground.  

I used some heavy card salvaged from some packaging for the base layer of the pools, I painted the under side with a cheap craft acrylic to help stop warping. I then edged each pool shape with my normal PVA and sand mix which was left to dry for a couple of hours until hard. I followed that with a dry brush over the sand in an orange tawny colour to represent the sedges and reeds fringing the open water and gave a final dry brush of olive green for the areas of new growth.  Once that had dried I worked on the pool floor areas which were painted chocolate brown, then a darker brown then black in concentric rings from the edge towards the centre to give the look of deepening water.  This looks a bit stark at this stage but pouring the water effect compound in the final stage softens the impact.  A word of advice here DO NOT shake up the realistic water as it creates bubbles which are next to impossible to remove from the pour. 

I pour some of the realistic water into a container and add some blue acrylic ink to tint the clear fluid and gently mix it with a bamboo skewer (an old a brush handle would do just as well) the secret is to be slow with the stirring action as speed creates those pesky bubbles. You can use quite a deep tint as you are only going to use a thin layer of the water effect (although I went a bit OTT in this case).  That said where I grew up boggy water was always stained with peat so it needs to be dark.

The mark two bog!

The problem with the Realistic Water is avoiding bubbles and getting a smooth final finish right up to the edge of the pour area.  I used a small measuring syringe we get with liquid medicine for our dogs (not the sort with a needle) if you don't have dogs then they can be found online I'm sure.  I suck up a few mils of the tinted water effect in the syringe and place a few drops onto the bases and gently tease it out with the skewer point.  If you get any bubbles the syringe can be used to suck them back up which is a bonus. By using the skewer it ensures that the fluid flows right up to the edges and adding more drops of the 'water' once that is done gives the depth as it flows across the are already covered.  If there ant areas not covered just add a drop to that place.

Now comes the hard part! Put the terrain aside and wait 48 hours for the water effect to completely dry.  A good trick is to do a test piece you can check for drying so you don't ruin a piece you have spend time on...don't ask how I learned this it was a painful experience, but touching tacky water effect leaves marks that are impossible to smooth out or cover over!  

Looking at the photo I can see a couple of places where some touching up is needed along the edges of the water features and a couple of tufts of longer grass might add to the effect.   I may add a layer of clear to the water to mask the slight ridges in the card which are showing through too but overall I'm fairly happy with the look. 

Tiny Terrain

Building terrain is one of those things I do for fun or when I can't get exactly what I want from a retailer.  I often turn to terrain building when I'm in a bit of a painting slump to give me a change of focus.  Terrain is more freestyle than figure painting as I create from scratch rather than try to recreate an actual uniform or colour palette.  Plus I only make a single version of each.  Over the years I have built lots of small scale items and a selection is presented below.  Mostly made from bits from the parts box or stuff I found laying around.  

First up are a pair of log bunkers I made for World War Two micro armour games about 15 years ago.  made from matchsticks and cocktail sticks held together by a generous blob of Bostick.

Log bunkers.   Not sure that the flock works though.

Next up are two bridges which are the first 6mm terrain items I ever made, probably in the early 1990's when I started getting into 6mm in a big way.  Back then there was very little 6mm terrain to be had, and in any event I didn't have a lot of cash to splash.  They are for general pre-mechanised era games and still see a lot of action.  Construction is matchsticks and card.

Two versions of the one bridge - before and after a heavy traffic day

More recently I needed some ruined buildings so it was out with the cereal package card and the trusty matchsticks  plus some model railway ballast.  Floors were printed using MS Paint..  The floor plan is based on the block of terraced cottages I grew up in.  We lived in the right hand end house.  It seemed bigger when I was a child!

They looked better in reality, with roofs and everything

The sand dunes are the latest thing I have completed, they are primarily for DBA use. The dune shapes are from Milliput and textured with basing sand.  I'm not fully happy with them to be honest as the dunes should be 'thicker' in cross section with a longer downwind slope, but they will do for now.

 My favourites are the bridges, because they work as well for 2mm as for 6mm and they can cover a long period of history.  Which probably accounts for their gaming longevity and frequent use.  

I'm working on some DBA bog and swamp markers at the moment (I'm bored of painting horses and wanting a break) but I'm struggling to get the look I want.  I know how they should look but just can't get it right in small scale reproduction!  Any ideas gratefully accepted.

The Dark Ages campaign - 799AD Scots v Picts setting the stage

With the dawning of 799AD comes new strife. It's in the North in the lands of the Picts and Scots where a dispute over the little travelled region of Comgail has erupted into armed conflict. Although nominally allied under a single family in reality there are different clan allegiances within the ruling blood lines and it is by no means certain which line of descent will rule North of the Forth- Clyde line.  The Pictish side of the family have decided to strengthen their hand or at least weaken the Dal Raidian side

The Picts have assembled a royal army led by High-King  Caustantin mac Fergus which extends the area they can recruit from.  The Dal Raidian Scots have a much smaller recruitment base but are assembling every fighting man they can muster under their King Taidg mac Donncoirce.  For this clash the forces arrayed are as follows:

Pictia will have two commands.  King Caustantin has the first command of 8 elements and the Mormaer of Moravin commands the second made up of 12 elements.  These consist of:

• The King (Cv) plus 1 x Cv, 4 x 3Pk and 2 x Ps.
• Mormaer of Moravin (Cv) plus 1 x Cv, 2 x LH, 5 x 3Pk and 2 x Ps.

While Dal Raidia is fielding a single command of 11 elements commanded by King Taidg

The King (4Ax) plus 3 x 4Ax, 5 x 3Wb and 2 x Ps

This is the second outing for the Picts in this campaign turn and losses from the earlier fighting have reduced their numbers.  Strath Erin is still recovering from casualties suffered against the men of Alt Clut.

The Dal Raidian Scots will be the defenders and will choose the terrain.  The dice gave me the Scots so I can determine the terrain without using the solo rules.  Their home terrain is Littoral so I chose a waterway (compulsory) a difficult hill, a marsh and a woods.  It will look something like the image below.  Picts deploy on the bottom edge Scots on the top.

It will look something like this.

In reality we don't know for certain who was king of Dal Raidia at the turn of the 8th Century.  the Annals of Ulster give names but these may have only been kings of the Irish Dal Raidians.  Still I needed a name for the campaign so King Taidg mac Donncoirce it is.

The hunt for a Late Imperial Roman shield pattern

back when I war gamed with 25mm Hinchcliffes I bought a copy of 'What the Soldiers wore on Hadrian's Wall' from lovely little bookshop on The Shambles in York.  Long gone now of course as online book stores have conquered most of the world.  The book was written by H Russell Robinson and illustrated by Ronald Embleton.  

A classic and still worth a read

It has some lovely colour plates including this one which was Late Imperial Roman period.  As a modeller the thing which grabbed my attention was the nice simple shield pattern and a British association to boot! The booklet only describes the carriers as Roman soldiers of the 4th Century.

It's the shield that grabbed my attention.

The same pattern (albeit the other way up) crops up again in the Osprey Men at Arms title 'The Roman Army from Hadrian to Constantine' again illustrated by Ronald Embleton.

It's that shield again

The same shield (perhaps) this time described as Infantrymen c. 300 - 400AD.  There is still no identification of the unit or where the design comes from.  It's not in the Notitia Dignitatum and the Osprey simply states the design is associated with infantry of the period in the sketches...of H Russell Robinson.  

I hunted but could find no source for the shield but it was a nice simple design pattern to pain and one of my Hinchcliffe legions received it.  Since then I have reproduced the shield on 6mm Late Imperial Romans from irregular miniatures and am currently re doing that unit using Baccus 6mm figures.  However, in the 30 odd years since putting brush to 25mm Hinchcliffe legionary I had never found any original source for the design or even anything close.

Then in one of those little side expeditions we all tend to take when looking something up on Google I found this.  It comes from this really useful site http://lukeuedasarson.com/NotitiaPatterns.html in the section discussing the authenticity of the illustrations in the Notitia.  In a link to an article on Roman Shield patterns of the 3rd Century I spotted this which is from Piazza-Amerina Mosaics a set of 4th Century hunting scenes.

At last I found a source

I still can't tie it back to an actual military unit but at least I have a clear example of the basic design.  some times Google really does come good.

Random thoughts # 10 - catching up on my music backlog

 I recently discovered the joy of Spotify the music streaming service.  I normally either listen to CD's, vinyl, or iTunes all of which are my own purchases.  Spotify is a free service which allows me to listen to stuff I might not necessarily wanted to buy but did want to listen to again or in some cases listen to for the first time.

Now I'm of a 'certain age' my teenage years spanned the late 60's and early 70's so there is a fair amount of music from that period which I recall but haven't listened too in the intervening years, and as I said some I have never listened to at all.  A prime example of that is Lindisfarne.  I have the first three albums but hadn't heard any of the later stuff other than singles on the radio.  The break up in 75 spawned Jack the lad who I saw live once but never sat down and listened to on record.  Coming to it with fresh ears after 45 years was 'interesting'.  I made me realise how much of the pull of the music from that time is based on the memories it triggers and not necessarily the music itself.  A lot of it is good music but it simply doesn't speak to me in the way stuff I knew well back then does.  it's almost an intellectual exercise listening to it as I can hear not just the band I am listening to but the echoes of bands they have influenced (possibly at two or three removes) that I do know well.  Bands I expected to really enjoy have done very little for me while bands that I didn't expect to enjoy suddenly ring a chord and I realise that I know a track because I have heard it before.  in other cases bands I once liked but haven't heard in years have caused me to wonder what I ever liked about them!  

But the most saddening thing is finding a service that opens so many doors into the past and finding some doors are resolutely shut as the records are not available.  I guess I may never hear those again unless I find a CD in a charity shop.  Curse you Spotify you have made me melancholic!