Seleucid reinforcements and 6mm Sci Fi terrain

Just a quick photo post to show a couple of the projects I've been working on recently.

First up are some pictures of some new units that I have painted up for my 15mm Seleucid Army. There are some additional pikeman (including an attached commander and standard bearer) and some more city militia light cavalry. All the miniatures are by Essex.  At the bottom are a couple of shots of a game I played at my local club. My opponent used his Carthaginian army. The outcome?... let's just say not the Seleucid Empire's finest hour.

Next up are a few pictures of the small town I made for use in 6mm Sci Fi games. The buildings themselves are resin mouldings from Brigade Models (with the exception of the large tower which is the top of a fabric softener bottle). I mounted the buildings on 80mm by 60 mm plasticard rectangles. Some are textured with PVA and sand and some with tile adhesive. The former gives better results but the latter is quicker. As you can see pine trees are common to both the ancient world and the far future. The last couple of shots show the terrain in use in a recent game of Dirtside that I played.

It's been a while...Dirtside, Battlefleet Gothic & Impetus

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I'd write a brief update on what's been going on in the geekosphere.

In the weeks leading up to my clubs summer break in August I painted some more 6mm sci fi forces. I also made some suitable sci fi scenery. Both were put to good use in late July as I played a very enjoyable game of Dirtside. A few pictures will follow in my next post.  

I spent the summer break painting some re-enforcements for my 15mm Seleucid army for Impetus. I now have 400 points. Since the club started again the Seleucids have taken to the field twice. In the first of these games I scored a victory against the Republican Romans but in the second I was soundly beaten by a Mauryan Indian force. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of these games. I have the miniatures to take the army up to 500 points. They are just waiting their turn on the work bench.

The next project I am about to start is Battlefleet Gothic. I bought the box set a long time ago but have only ever played the game once. I came across it in the loft and decided to have a look. Very quickly it captured my imagination. Some ebaying soon saw me in possession of two small fleets (Imperial and Chaos). I hope to get the models painted and a game played soon.

15mm Ancients - My Seleucid Army takes to the field

This weekend saw my first game of Impetus using my newly completed Seleucid army. As Impetus plays relatively quickly and the armies were small we actually got two games in. In the first my opponent used his Roman army and in the second he used his Parthians.

For both games my forces remained the same. At the club I go to games are normally four hundred points per side but I had only managed to paint enough figures to field a three hundred point army. This is the smallest size recommended by the author of the rules. The core of my force was five bases of Phalangites which were formed into two large units. One of two bases and one of three. In addition I had two units of Light Infantry. My cavalry consisted of Cataphracts, Horse Archers and some City Militia Light Cavalry. The Army was rounded off by three units of Skirmishers (two Slingers and one of Archers) and a single unit of Scythed Chariots.

In the first game the Seleucids deployed with the Phalanx behind a screen of Skirmishers and the Chariots. It's flanks were guarded by more mobile light infantry. My cavalry deployed on my right. The initial action consisted of my Scythed Chariots racing at the massed lines of Legionaries. Alas, the Chariots were destroyed in a hail of arrows and javelins before they got anywhere near. Then disaster struck. The Light Infantry and Skirmishers securing the left flank of my Phalanx disintegrated under only light pressure from the Roman Legionaries. This flank was now effectively turned.  On the right my cavalry became bogged down in an inconclusive battle with their Roman counterparts. I had to split my infantry line to face the threat on my left flank and my centre gave way. The losses quickly mounted and my army was routed. Thus the game ended in a crushing Roman victory as my forces were swept aside. I hadn't expected much from my first game with them but this was a particularly heavy defeat.

My initial deployment (from a Roman perspective!).

The Romans come down off the hills with their cavalry heading for my right. They are reinforced by a giant hand and mug!

My flank is turned! Two units of Legionaries are around my left.

Phalanx and Legion locked in combat!

The second game proved more successful and I even managed to snatch a narrow win. I put this down to two main factors, firstly the Parthians are a much harder army to use than the Romans and secondly my opponent had some pretty bad luck with the dice.

The Partian force was all cavalry - a mix of Horse Archers and Cataphracts (including some on Camels!).  Knowing that I would be outmanoeuvred I decided to deploy in a solid defensive position and let the enemy come to me. I had learned my lesson from the first game and securely anchored my left flank against a steep hill that would prove difficult for the Parthian horsemen to traverse. I placed some Light Infantry and Skirmishers on the hill to harass the enemy should he try to move against that side. I used my Cavalry to protect the right flank of my Phalanx.

The bulk of the enemy force came at my right in an attempt to attack my Infantry from that side. My Cavalry held their own however and were able to inflict heavy losses on the Parthians. This attrition proved too much and one of their generals fled the field forcing the other to retreat.

My forces deployed towards the bottom of the table as the Parthian horsemen bear down on them.

The Seleucid Scythed Chariot slams into a unit of Parthian Horse Archers.

The men of the Phalanx watch on screened by a unit of slingers.

Despite my heavy defeat in the first game fun was had by all and that is by far the most important thing.

So what lessons have I learned from these two games? Firstly I realised that pike blocks are not very manoeuvrable. Their initial deployment must be given some serious thought. Secondly their flanks have to be secured properly - a token unit of light infantry won't do the job.

I also found that heavy Cavalry can be used in this role. They are mobile enough to respond to threats quickly but also have the punch to take on targets effectively.  The downside is that they represent a considerable points investment. Used in this role a large amount of resources could be left idle waiting to deal with a threat that never materialises  I think I will do more experimenting with this idea in my next game.

15mm Seleucid Army for Impetus

After many hours with the paintbrush my 15mm Seleucid army is now ready to do battle. I have enough units to field a three hundred point army using the excellent Impetus ruleset.

I am reasonably pleased with the way it turned out. With hindsight there are a few things I would have done differently. I had originally planned to paint more Peltasts (light infantry) and mix up the figure poses. In the end I simply ran out of time so had to field a unit consisting of all the same figure.

Impetus uses relatively large bases, especially for cavalry. A little time spent on texturing effects can really help finish off the look of an army. As with the project in general I'm pretty pleased with how the bases turned out. In future I will use more PVA glue to ensure a thicker, more comprehensive coating of sand on the bases. One or two have small bare patches. On the smaller infantry bases I used Citadel texture paint. This is the first time I've used it and it worked really well. A base coat and a couple of dry brushes gave the bases a nice finish.    

Below are a few pictures of the army. If your thinking that it looks quite small it's because three hundred points is very much the 'entry level' for Impetus. It is the smallest sized game recommended by the author.

The whole army. The pike blocks are in the middle flanked by light infantry. The three cavalry units and the scythed chariot are to the rear. Three units of skirmishers screen the front.

Close up of the archers

Skythian Horse Archers

Scythed Chariot

Thracian Peltasts

Cataphract Heavy Cavalry

The elite Argyraspides Phalanx

The Bronze Shields Phalanx

Thureophoroi Light Infantry

I plan to increase the size of the army to 400 points as this is the 'standard' size game played at my local club. Some War Elephants, more Light Infantry and Phalangites will take up the extra hundred points. That is in the future as I'm all painted out for now so I am going to take a short break from it.

Seleucid Progress Report

Progress on my 15mm Seleucid army for Impetus has been a bit slower than I had hoped. Recently however the pace has picked up and I seem to have made some decent headway. In order to give me that extra motivation I have organised a game for late June. I have until then to paint and base enough troops to field a 300 point army. I have already worked out an army list so I know what I need. Below are a few pictures of the units I have painted so far. As you can see they are not properly based yet. All miniatures are by Essex, the bases are from Warbases.

Two units of Phalangites

City Militia light cavalry

Two units of Slingers

Thracian Peltasts

Galatian Archers

Two more Phalangite units. The rear unit are of the Eastern kind, hence the trousers

Closer view of the Phalangites

Units nearing completion include Cataphracts and Scythed Chariots. I hope to post some pictures of the completed army before it's first battle.

15mm Seleucid Impetus!

Ancient war gaming is not an area I normally dabble in. It's a period that I know very little about and one that has never really appealed to me. Recently however I have been introduced to a very enjoyable set of rules from Italy called Impetus. A friend at my local club was good enough to host several games all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. This was enough for me to decide to take the plunge and paint up an army.

When I say take the plunge I mean dip my toes really. Impetus is similar to the DBx series of games in having a relatively low requirement in terms of number of figures. This means it fulfils one of my key criteria for war gaming projects: a realistic chance of completion.

After taking the decision to invest in an army I then faced the dilemma of which one to choose. As already mentioned I know very little about ancient history and the classical world. Some online research (aah Wikipedia - where would we be with out you?) soon revealed it to be a fascinating period of history.

During my research I came across several interesting articles on the Seleucid Empire. This was one of the Hellenistic successor states that developed after the death of Alexander the Great. The Seleucids turned out to be the ideal choice for two main reasons. Firstly their incredibly interesting history meant that at some point they had come into conflict with most of the other powers of the day. Secondly the varied nature of their forces means you have a lot of choice when it comes to army composition. My mind was made up. Seleucids it was.

My next step was to have a look what 15mm figures were available. More online research quickly showed that the Seleucids are well catered for by several figure manufacturers. I ordered a small sample from Essex Miniatures and was pleased with what I received. This was sufficient to convince me to order one of their DBA army packs.  

Below are a few photos of the Phalangites I received as part of my sample order from Essex Miniatures.  They are 90% complete and are nearly ready to leave the workbench. As you can see I'm no expert figure painter. As with my 1/300 models I try to go for a look that appears OK when used en masse. I've left the shields blank for now but I may go back and try my hand at painting on some designs. I'll post more when I get more figures painted up.

Man o war battle number two

This weekend saw my second game of Man O War (MOW) down at my local club. MOW is a fantasy naval system from Games Workshop that was released in the early nineties.

Once again the Dwarfs took on an Empire Fleet (these being the only two fleets I have). This time the fleets were the 'standard' 1000 points each. The Empire forces were bolstered by the addition of a new squadron of ships and a more powerful wizard. The Dwarf fleet was also bulked out with an extra ship.

The fleets were as follows;

Dwarfs: One dreadnought, two monitor squadrons (three ships in each), two ironclads and one nautilus submarine.

Empire; One greatship, one squadron of three wolfships, two squadrons of wargalleys (three ships in each), one squadron of hell hammers and a master wizard.

I took the role of the Imperial admiral and my friend played the Dwarfs. After randomly setting up the terrain as per the rulebook we deployed the fleets. My opponent threw me a curve ball by concentrating his forces along one half of one table edge. This was to prove crucial later on.

The Dwarf fleets initial deployment

After some early manoeuvring the fleets finally got within range of each other on turn three. Due to my opponent concentrating his forces my wolfships and hell hammers were facing only empty sea and had to make their way across the table to join the fray and so were late joining the battle.

The Imperial hell hammer squadron

The game quickly developed into two separate mini battles. In the centre my greatship and a wargalley squadron took on the Dwarf dreadnought flagship, an ironclad and a monitor squadron. On my right flank a wargalley squadron took on the other ironclad and a monitor squadron.

The greatship and wargalleys slug it out with the dwarfs. The nautilus submarine lurks menacingly behind the sandbank

 

Things didn't go well for the Empire. A combination of ineffectual magic and deadly torpedo salvos from the nautilus meant the Dwarfs soon had the upper hand. The greatship (my flagship) was damaged by a combination of ram and cannon attacks from the monitors and ironclad. She was sunk by the nautilus as she tried to break off. Not by torpedoes but by a lucky hit from it's cannon. My admiral and wizard clung to the wreckage but I was unable to rescue them. Elsewhere, despite fierce resistance my ships were worn down and more and more were sent to the bottom.

The fierce melee between a wargalley squadron and a monitor squadron supported by an ironclad

The wolfships sailing to the action as fast as they can

A lone wargalley makes a desperate attack on the dreadnought

Eventually my wolfships and hell hammers made it into the action. They were to prove ineffective however. The wolfships did their best but were unable to inflict serious damage. They did succeed in capturing one of the ironclads in a boarding action but this rather pinned them down and prevented them from being used to full effect. To add insult to injury the Dwarfs were able to re crew the ironclad before I could scuttle it.

The wolfships ram and then board the ironclad

The hell hammers managed to score a number of hits on the dreadnought but due to poor dice rolling on my part she remained mostly intact. Her boiler was knocked out however and she spent a large part of the game immobilised. Imperial losses continued to mount and soon I had few ships left. It became clear the Dwarfs had won a comprehensive victory and we decided to call it a day. Most importantly fun was had by all.

I plan to further increase the size of the fleets. I have another greatship that is in the dockyard (my painting bench) at the moment. She will be ready soon. I also intend to add some flying units. In particular I am on the look out for Dwarf war balloons.