ROMA VICTOR redux

A very quick post

As promised in the previous entry, the finished command stand, Lucius Vorenus:

Quite different from his "Rome" counterpart (below) , but I don´t really care :)

Now I´m out of Ancients minis untill I get my Corvus Belli order, so I will have to focus on other projects. Mainly I´ll go for my 15mm Napoleonics now.

ROMA VICTOR

Senātus Populusque Rōmānus: The Senate and the Roman People.

In preparation of the release of Field of Glory (an Ancients themed tabletop wargame, from Biblical times up to 1500AD) I´m prepping a Late Republican Roman Army in 15mm. It will be loosely based in Caeser´s Legions circa 50 BC.

My commanders will be very unhistorical as I´m quite partial to HBO´s mini-series "Rome". So I´ll have Julius Caeser as the overall commander of my army and Vorenus and Pullo as his lieutenants.

Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus are historical characters (not as depicted in the show though) and are mentioned by Caeser in Commentaries of the Gallic War. They were actually Centurions, but for the purposes of my Roman Army they´ll be promoted to Generals.

All my orders are placed and some have managed to trickle through to Portugal.
I received last Sunday the Magister Militum portion of the order, in the form of 2 blisters of Cretan Archers and a Mounted Roman command pack (4 minis, good for 1 or 2 command stands). Very nice miniatures all of them, if a little limited regarding different poses (the Cretans are all exactly the same cast...)

I had been waiting for these for a long time, so as soon as I got my hands on them I rushed home, cleaned and primed them and painted them up and based them in one session. And here they are, my Cretan Archers:

In the background is a Work in Progress command stand (It´s Lucius Vorenus) that I have since finished - will post a picture soon.

I hope to get the bulk of my order (excellent minis from Corvus Belli) in the next few days. Ancients is a new period for me and I´m quite excited at painting them all up.

I´ve played a FoG game with a cardboard cutout army and using the Beta rules and quite liked the mechanics.

Expect a torrent of Roman pictures to be put up here once I get my hands on some Corvus wee men :)

For more about Field of Glory, visit the Slitherine forums.

Oberst Hyeronimous von Toth and his minions

An ongoing project shared with Meninobesta has been the development of zombie rules for the new Triumph & Tragedy wargame rules.

We've played a couple of games and we still have to iron out some minor issues before we can settle on a final version.

Caught up in the excitement of wargaming zombie skirmishes I've been putting some priority into finishing my Pulp ww2 zombie group. I've even drawn up a small Allied Intelligence report meant to introduce my force (the "fluff" in GW terms).

Here it is:
"Situation Report:

This is what we learned thus far:

The Solamun Virus had been isolated by the Germans as early as 1940 but deemed too toxic to be used as an effective weapon.
Subjects died only to reanimate with no life signs, coupled with inhuman strength and a supernatural resistance to bodily harm.
Only complete removal of the brain was observed to be completely effective in permanently neutralizing those afflicted with the virus.
Subjects, upon reanimation, seemed to be driven solely by the instinct of feeding on the living and were completely uncontrollable. The virus was dismissed as a useful weapon.

When the tide of the war began to shift, after Stalingrad, interest in the Solamun´s uses in warfare re-surfaced. Several competing science teams were given funds to investigate a way to control the reanimated.

Oberst Hyeronimus von Toth and his team had a novel approach, and were scoffed at by their peers. They turned to Occult tomes and remote digging sites.

We have evidence that has lead us to believe that Toth as met with partial (or possibly complete) success. A recent commando raid on his lab (that we at the time believed to be a site for developing biological weapons) met heavy resistance from a small infantry force that although unarmed "simply would not die". We have strong reasons to believe that those were Solamun afflicted soldiers. We are to refrain from the use of the word "zombie" lest we impact morale too severely.

Toth was spotted never letting go of a briefcase and the Solamun afflicted troops seemed to be under his control. We suffered heavy casualties in the raid.

All we have learned comes from a member of Toth´s team captured in the aforementioned commando raid. He claims Toth is mad and operates completely outside of the control of the regime. He fashions himself a god. He is building an army out of the "afflicted" and the key to their control is an artifact in the briefcase, but the captured team member claims no one knows what it is - but it never leaves the briefcase Toth always carries.

It is imperative that Toth be stopped at all costs. This new threat could potentially turn the tide of the war, in unexpected ways, since Toth appears to have no loyalties to anyone besides himself."

And now some WIP photos of Toth & friends (on a Max Brooks background :)):

And a group shot, Toth in the middle with his briefcase:

More on this project as it progresses.

En avant... TUER!!!

Another project started in 2007 were my 15mm French Peninsular force.

This Picture is quite old, as I've since added to this with some Cavalry, Artillery and more Infantry. Me and Meninobesta did de "Battle of the Douro" using Shako rules and currently our sights are set on the "Battle of Vimeiro".

Click here to access the scenario as written for Shako.

I still have some Infantry to go before I can tackle that one. In our homebrew basing system 3 bases are a battalion, so the picture above represents 5 line (or Ligne) Battalions and 1 Light (Legere) Battalion (with a base to spare).

Some additional photos:

A "General de Brigade" (He's based on 2c EUR coin - gives you an idea of scale):

An Artillery Piece. Pretty lethal in the Napoleonic times. You wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of a Grapeshot discharge:

French Dragoons. Real men wear pink facings with green turnbacks :)

My French Peninsular 15mm Gallery in an embeded slideshow (click play to start):


Full Gallery: 15mm French Peninsular @ Picasaweb

We come in peace

Still on the subject of catching up, this time in wargaming.

Last year I read some quick rules for using little grey men in Flames of War. On impulse (damn Paypal and Credit Cards and the Internets! And then again, maybe not :)) I bought myself some little grey aliens of my very own. They arrived in glorious all metal look about 1 week later. Some dabs of the paintbrush later I had a 2000 points FoW system 15mm Grey Alien Invasion force, complete with Flying Saucer and giant Golden robots.

I, for one, welcome our new 15mm high Masters

Top secret photos of the invasion force

How the horde progressed: From Metal to Glorious Grey :)