Feudal Scottish Spear

Off the desk this week also some of Claymore Castings very fine Scottish and English feudal ranges for the late 1280s to the 1400s. I have selected from the range, figures that would step back  for my 1264 Lewes project. The only reason they were not posted up earlier is that I had no spears to fit them  out! They are based for impetus with purple flowers or perhaps thistles.........

Cheers
Matt

Heavy Metal WOTR Knights

Off the bench something I have been meaning to do for some time my heavy WOTR knights, I was spurred on to finish these lads when the “Guild Wargamers” had a heavy metal competition.

These fine figures are from the Front Rank Range, and have been sitting around for probably 5 years some party painted (the metal work at least), I got them out on the weekend, after making a decision at Cancon to re-base my WOTR army to impetus. I finished the standard bearer and standard off this afternoon as I am away on business for the rest of the week. The standard belongs to Willam FitzAlan the 16th Earl of Arundel.

Two more Knight units to come, one is on the table at the moment and may get done by the weekend, but they are slotted behind some other medieval figs for my Feudal army. So in the coming months expect a deluge of archers and bills as I re-base each unit. My liveried foot knights and standards especially need some work to be completed. I may even need to buy and paint some more figs to increase my army to 300-350 points at least!

Cheers

Matt

Sassanid Elephant

The first of my Sassanid elephants, this one is from old glory with A & A archer in the howdah. I am yet to use any elephants in Impetus and I am looking forward to it…….just a little bit!

Cheers

Matt

Equites Tertii Stablesiani

Another addition to my roman army, my last unit of light cavalry......I think! This unit will be used as CL in Impetus.

This  unit served in the east under the command of the Magister Militum per Orientem, they served along the roads around Cyrrhus in provence of Euphratensis. A great article has been written regarding this unit by Phillip Rance it can be found here

The meaning of Equites Stablesiani has much discussion around it, I tend to believe one theory that Spiedel has, that stablesiani means quick response unit, not light mounted infantry made up of grooms etc.

  I have used A and A miniatures for this unit, the shield is entirely conjectural, but is similar to  Equites Stablesiani Africani.

cheers
Matt

Decima Gemina

Raised by Octavian by the merger of two legions of Mark Antonys following the Battle of Actium in 31BC.

In the third century, the tenth legion received several surnames, which suggest its loyalty to the emperors Caracalla or Heliogabalus (211-217 or 218-222; Antoniniana), Gordian III (238-244; Gordiana), Decius (249-251; Deciana), Florianus (276; Floriana), and Carinus (283-285;Cariniana). From this set of rulers, Caracalla, Decius, and Carinus waged Germanic wars. Gordian III is known for a war against the Sasanian dynasty in Persia, and may have used a subunit of X Gemina. Why Florian, who ruled for a mere 88 days and never left Asia Minor, would award an honorific to a unit that was stationed on the banks of the Danube, is unknown.

 During the conflict between the emperor Gallienus (260-268) and his rival Postumus of the Gallic Empire, the legion certainly supported the first-mentioned, for which it was rewarded with surnames like Pia VI Fidelis VI ('six times faithful and loyal'). This proves that it was awarded the titles Pia II Fidelis II to Pia V Fidelis V in the 164 years between Domitian and Gallienus.

The tenth, 'twin' legion,  like almost all Caesarian legions, the emblem of this legion was a bull. (Some historians believe it may of been raised by Ceasar in 61AD in Nearer Spain)

4th century

At the time of the Notitia Dignitatum, the first detachment of Decima Gemina was under the command of the Magister Militum per Orientem, and was a comitatensis unit.The other detachment was still in Vindobona, under the command of the Dux Pannoniae primae et Norici ripensis.

Cheers

Matt

Literature J. Gómez-Pantoja, "Legio X Gemina", in: Yann Le Bohec, Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 169-190 J.K. Haalebos, "Römische Truppen in Nijmegen", in: Yann Le Bohec,Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 465-489 M.C.J. Miller, "Legio Decima Equitata. The Tenth Legion after Caesar and the colonists of Patrae", in Ancient World 2 (1979) 139-144 A. Morillo Cerdán & V. Garcia Marcos, "Nuevos testimonios acerca de las legiones VI Victrix y X Gemina en la region septentrional de la península Ibérica", in: Yann Le Bohec, Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 589-607 I. Piso, "Les légions dans la province de Dacie", in: Yann Le Bohec,Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 205-225

Ambush in the woods

A few pics of a game over Christmas with Unlucky Generals 1940 Germans and my Belgian Chasseur Ardennais. The German Recon batn were to breech the gap for the armour to charge through and off the table......that was the plan anyway....

the front line, two bunkers , wire and a fortlet

the second line of defence, two AT guns and a T15

two French FT17 and one AT gun, various Belgians dug in

Last line of defence two british vickers

The German recon arrive at the fortlet

Heavy A/C coy arrive

and the MC coy 

they clear the defensive position allowing the support to arrive

they exploit the gap

A At rifle does its job

the heavy armour arrives

a counter attack causes a traffic jam, the sacrifice buys time

The Germans failed to get off the table in their allotted turns, result Draw, Unlucky General was afraid of the 47mm AT guns making him too cautious. A rematch will occur in Feb!

cheers

Matt

28mm Bersaglieri

Off the table some time ago, the Bersaglieri are one of my favourite ww2 units, I have painted them in a mixed tropical and temperate uniform, I like it!

cheers

Matt

Australian Napoleonic Congress 2013

Some pictures from the Napoleonic Congress on the weekend, we had four games for the weekend, a big thanks to Clinton for running us through his computer / tablet based rules "Iron Duke", Mark for bringing down his 1812 games, Colin for his fine collection of British and French for our 1813 Spanish game, and to Boyd and the lads for a great Naval game that kept us all very entertained for several hours.

1/1200th naval game using Trafalger rules

Dave's Frigate came under some attention early

the French horse assault the village and British position

cheers
Matt

MOAB 2013

On the October long weekend I traveled up to MOAB (mother of all battles) gaming convention, this year I entered the Impetus 300 point 28mm tournament with my Sassanid army. The convention is Sydney's largest wargames convention. The crowds were down, I suspect that the Navy fleet review and the local NRL teams Grand final.  

It was my first competition wargames event in 14 years, an I would like to extend my gratitude to Tarty for organising the event everybody who played in the event.

A pic of the guys, missing Mick though, who only played on Saturday.

My Sassanid army was very small, 1 unit Zayadeen with general attached, 4 CM Savaran, 4 CL and 2 CL elite Savaran, a total of 18 VD, which is very small as I break at nine!

My first game was a tough one and had me asking why I had taken such a small and brittle, Robs Romans taught me a lesson about rear charges and zone of control. Rob eventually won the tournament.

My second game was against a very shooty Indian army, Alex;'s army was beautifully painted, I drew out his elephants and chariots managed to kill the all buy the forth turn, causing Alex to reach break point, with zero losses to myself. I had a exceptional rolling of my dice with two units getting 6 hits from 7 dice two turns in a row.

On the second day I drew Rex and his Normans, this was the toughest game of the comp for me, Rex tried to pin me against the table edge but I broke through his cavalry line and shot up a lot of his cavalry. I really learnt a lot in this game about the strengths and weaknesses of my army, I did stuff up, charged my cav against his and used my lights against his infantry instead of concentrating on his 3VD cavalry units that were already badly shot up.

"how the hell am I supposed to catch these guys!!!"

Rex's much loved baggage

I lost this game after failing a cohesion test after being charged in the rear, and my General died........

My last was against Dave's Persians, this army was beautifully painted! His chariot worried me, but was destroyed by one unit in the first turn. I had learnt to concentrate on high VD units by this game, so Dave had broken by turn 3.

The winners, Rob (middle) Clint (right)  and Rex (left)

Cheers

Matt