After my play test last week, I have re-read the rule book and once again the scenario goes to the table in preparation for the bigger Trebbia battle to follow soon.

In my last game, I had clearly missed some of the finer nuances of the rules, but of significant difference was that in a system that activates by formation, I was finding it difficult, once the lines became mixed, to determine which of the Alae cohorts belonged to the Hastati group and which belonged to the Principes.

While scrolling through posts at Consimworld, I found a most helpful entry. The poster suggested that the Principes should set up on their flip side. The flip side carries a white bar, instantly signifying which units are Hastati and which are Principes.

In the simple version of Great Battles of History, the flip side of the counter is not used in the same way as the original full rules use them. Rather they use the flip side to show which units are not in command when their formation is activated.

This of course is an equally useful administrative function, so now I just use a game marker to show which units are out of command. The single effect of being out of command is that a unit cannot enter or leave an enemy Zone of Control.

All of this is transforming the second game into a more engaging and nuanced action. The battle is still running the same way, with Carthaginian cavalry attacking the Roman flanks, while the elephants attacked the Roman front, but there is a more of a tactical feel as to that what was happening down amongst the hexes, with more nuance, as cohesion breaks down and units started to fall out of command and opportunities for flanking positions open up.

Part of the problem for the Romans in this scenario is that I pull the Principes out towards the flanks to meet the cavalry threat, while leaving the Velites and Hastati to deal with the elephant assault.

Their bigger problem is that once the engagement with the elephants comes to a conclusion, the main Carthaginian line of North African Phalanx and Celts are fully fresh and ready to advance to contact, while the Roman army will be all over the place, carrying high casualties and with a loss of cohesion.

There is of course the scenario balancing option to allow the Romans to have their Alae cavalry, which were missing from the field - I am usually pretty loathe to step outside historical set-ups, I will do a bit of research and see why they were actually missing.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out - it is looking tough for the Romans at the moment.

The design notes suggest the game will last for around and hour and a half ….. I’m not quite sure where most games get their playing times from. I’m not a slow player (I don’t think!), but I am already an hour and a half in and I can see that playing time doubling.

I don’t really concede games if I think a side is losing. The game gets played to the bitter end to see everything played out in full and to properly give the victor their worked for and deserved victory, so perhaps that is adding time to my play.

Anyway, more to come on this action, though at the moment it feels a bit like a one way ticket.

You MUST have a look at this bloke’s video. A very imaginative way to use the recent Punic Wars Epic figures from Warlord Games.

He has cut some of the bases and re-organised them for a much better organic look and this is certainly the way that I am now thinking about for my own armies, including a re-think on how I am presenting some of the other periods.

LINK

https://youtu.be/JTA9yWCD5R0?si=O6TCJZsiuDgLn5J0

An ACW update.

My two planned very small ACW Epic armies of three small brigades each, need divisional commanders. The Confederates have Lee, based with a standard bearer and so it is now the turn of the Union.

From the box of 5 resin Union command figures, I have selected Meade. His standard bearer is from the cavalry sprue, but this time, I selected the figure that had a sabre in hand. It is a nicer sculpt than the one I used with Lee.

The cavalryman’s sabre was nipped off at the wrist and a short length of brass wire added instead, from which the flag now flutters! I used just a dab of Liquid Green Stuff to give an impression of a hand gripping the standard.

The box art shows Meade with a white beard, so that’s what he has. The two figures were painted up, using Prussian Blue for the jacket / coat and the same with just a tad of light blue added for the pants. 

I always paint my ACW Union at least one shade lighter than seems historically correct, but I just think they look better and this is even more true in the smaller scale, where a little bit of ‘pop’ is always a help.

Both sides now have their three respective brigade commanders, their divisional commander and their artillery battery painted and based. The third Confederate infantry regiment is presently on painting sticks, so once done, they will have their first brigade painted.

This still leaves two more Confederate infantry brigades, plus three Union brigades to be painted up, but despite only being 1/6 of the way through painting the infantry, the amount of stuff already painted and looking good, encourages the brush to keep on going.

I still think the Epic takes a while to paint, but I have decided to just roll over and accept that. I have come around to thinking that I would rather play with just the raw plastic than suffer a bad paint job, just for the sake of saving an hour or two per unit.

As previously commented upon, the terrain set for the project is now complete, other than some snake fencing, which is bought, so it just needs to be assembled and painted - a job for tomorrow perhaps!

I hadn’t realised, but I have the two Osprey Men-at-Arms books for the Union / Confederate armies, which have some nice colour plates for uniforms. The shelf also revealed two Osprey Campaign books, Shenandoah (1864) and the Shenandoah Valley 1862. I shall read through both of these with a view to seeing whether my own rules are capturing enough of the ‘character’ of this war.

Plus ‘the valley’ always seems good sourcing for a campaign, so that is something else that might fall from all of this. I have just downloaded Henry Hyde’s wargames Campaign book for £1.99 on the Kindle, it normally retails at £40, so that is quite a find (thank you John) and it will no doubt some sort of campaign before the year is out.

The next issue of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine is due out in around 6 weeks and it is ACW themed (Sherman’s drive to the sea), so I hope by then to have two full brigades of infantry painted up and so will be looking forward to getting one of their smaller scenarios to the table.

All of this is coming together rather nicely, but those elephants in the Hannibal box are winking at me ….. desperate for paint :-)

Another SPQR (GMT) scenario goes onto the table in readiness for the bigger Trebbia scenario.

This scenario is recommended as a ‘beginners’ scenario ….. it will certainly need some skill on the part of the Roman player to pull a win from the situation.

The Romans have been fairly successful fighting the Carthaginians on land and the Roman Consul Regulus, is pretty keen to have one big engagement that will knock Carthage out of the war.

However, the Carthaginians have secured the service of Spartan’s Xanthipuss and he re-organises the Carthaginian army to a more acceptable level of training.

The set-up immediately invites concern for any Roman player …. they are desperately short of cavalry to protect the wings. Their Alae cavalry are elsewhere, so the remaining Roman cavalry is outnumbered 8:1.

In addition, the Roman line is initially facing 100 elephants and behind them is a wall of African infantry Phalanx. Historically, the Carthaginian swept the Roman cavalry away, exposing their flanks, while the elephants and phalanx shattered the Roman legions.

The scenario says this heavily favours the Carthaginian player and as a balance fix, they suggest allowing the Romans to have their Alae cavalry back - but I prefer historical situations, so will do without that.

They suggest that the scenario might take 2 hours to play ….. but, warn that it could ‘all be over in a matter of minutes if the Roman player is not careful’.

Well, I like a challenge!

There is a Triarii Doctrine rule that prevents early and easy use of the Triarii (last line of Roman defence), so I won’t be able to deploy them early to the flanks to prevent the ‘obvious’ impending disaster :-)

I will give a brief overview of how this battle flows over the next day or two.

After that …. It will be on to the Trebbia!

Metcalfe serve the model rail sector with a large variety of card construction kits for both N Gauge and HO/OO.

N Gauge is a useful terrain source for 10mm wargaming and so while in a model shop, I picked up the ‘PN186’ N scale Ramshackle Workshop construction kit for £12

The completed model has a foot print of 100mm x 64mm and the chimney puts it at 95mm high.

You get a good instruction booklet and I would put the build at around two and a half to three hours to make.

There are three essential elements, a thick board core, a light card full colour facia (or wrap) and some acetate to make the windows. The boards and facia are die cut. The final result is something which is very light, but strong.

Of a slight distraction is that the folds in the coloured card from the partial die cutting offer up a fine white line (i.e. the interior of the card below the printed face is exposed). For the most part this is not really too eye catching, but when you look for it, it is there.

My solution was to run a bit of thinned (with medium) grey Contrast paint along these seams with a very fine brush. The most noticeable white line is the one that runs along the top of the ridge tile, which I used a terracotta / brown mix of paint thinned down, to hide. The four corners of the brick chimney need the same colour.

Overall the effect for £12 is very good, but I can’t make my mind up about it, as I tend to go for resin buildings which give me a more rustic look, whereas the card is a little ‘sharp’ looking. I might dampen that down with some weathering powder. 

Anyway, a nice little addition to a WWII built up area.

I have just completed my small project terrain set for the Epic ACW.

All of the buildings are resin and from the excellent Battlescale company. They are primed, block painted, inked and drybrushed and matt varnished and have come out rather nicely.

The chapel is based with a tree from Woodland scenics as my representational piece for Dunker Church (Antietam).

Also from Battlescale are two resin defensive positions formed from logs on a stoney platform. They look a bit large in the camera, but that is just a lens thing Vs positioning compared to the buildings.

Finally from Battlescale, a small stone footbridge, this will be ideal for creek type crossings. All of the Battlescale stuff here is 10mm, but I like terrain to be one scale below the figures.

The Fences are MDF from Red Vectors (code 15 FNC-02). A single frame gives 10 x 5” fence lengths. These were base coated, flocked with fine flock and sand and then prettied up with some tufts. These are 15mm fences, they are too big for my 10mm stuff, but work fine with the Epic.

I have some snake fencing from Red Vectors that awaits building and flocking.

I had a look in Waterstones (UK bookseller) today, for a primer on the 2nd Punic War. Nothing jumped out for me, but this title was on the Osprey Publishing stand - a quick browse and I bought it as a perfect compliment to my plans for board and figure gaming.

While I am specifically looking at Trebbia, Zama, as a major battle of the era is very interesting and the book discussion on things like weapons, tactics, organisation and the action reports, will translate to the other battles anyway.

I’m sure the book will give me a better appreciation and understanding of the things that matter and should be reflected in a wargame, as well as just being an enjoyable read.

The artwork will also be a help when I come to paint and organise the Epic troops.

If you click on the cover page to enlarge it, you will notice that two shields on the Carthaginian side have been struck by pilum, which have done their thing of then bending down and causing drag on the shield - nice artistic touch.

I popped into a Warhammer shop and picked up a couple of paints - more Black Templar Contrast Paint, which is such a versatile black and a pale blue layer paint for my ACW (Union) pants.

I also went into an art shop and picked up a POSCA pen to try it out. These are acrylic pens and can be used to draw on figures. I picked up a white, intending to use it on some shield designs. It will be interesting to see how they react with water based acrylic varnish.

Great Battles of History from GMT over the years has accumulated a huge back catalogue of ancient battles ….. and of course, just one rule book. Even better, there is a simplified version of the core rules.

In the SPQR Deluxe package, at the back of the scenario book, there is a suggestion of an introductory game (Punic Wars). It was obviously intended to be used with the full system rather than the ‘Simple’ rules, because they make reference to Line Commands, but it should work fine with a tweak or two.

They describe is as being something of a skirmish type affair between two sides sitting at a strength of 5 - 6000 men.

What it does aim to do, is bring several unit types together, so that the player gets a wide handle on these in a controlled environment. For example, the Carthaginians have a couple of Phalanx (2 hex counters), a couple of elephants, light infantry, light cavalry, slingers and some Celtic cavalry.

It is a free set-up, so even this feeds into the learning curve of where is best to place units.

The Romans get a single Alae Sociorum (from III Legion), so they get a bit more cavalry and the Extraordinaire unit.

In reality, at this time, each Roman Legion (Roman Citizens) is paired with an Alae Sociorum Legion (non-citizen Allies of Rome) and they are fielded as a pair. The Alae replaces Hastati and Principes with single standard cohorts. Today, we are just getting the Alae part of a force.

Each side has three leaders, notably though, the Carthaginians get Hannibal and the Romans get Flamininus.

There is an account of the game over on the RECENT GAMES tab (see menu on the left).

The game did give me a good practice scenario to re-engage with these rules, which I must say, were regularly in my hand.

With the game played, I will go back into the rules and do a cover to cover read, as it will all be in context now. 

I might do a small proper battle next, before doing the bigger Trebbia battle that is most definitely in my gaming queue.

You might be forgiven for thinking that this is a Gettysburg-esque scenario, but nothing so grand I’m afraid!

A Confederate and Union force are each desperate for their (unpainted) troops to get resupplied with some clothes and shoes. Both have the same idea of marching towards Dunker Church, which had been recently serving as a provisions depot.

This results in a simple meeting engagement. The game is played until one side has absolute control of the building. The unit that is holding the building has the best pick of the uniform and …. will be painted next :-)

Each side has just 4 infantry regiments and 1 artillery battery, making this the size of a typical Neil Thomas style scenario as described in his One Hour Wargames book. I will be using my own rules. The table is close to 4x4 and the figures are Epic ACW from Warlord Games.

The game notes can be found on the RECENT GAMES tab in the left menu.

This was such a simple scenario, with identical forces and the church building placed dead centre in the middle of the board, yet from the ‘get go’ I was totally drawn in to the pleasure of play - even the unpainted aspects of the figures just became a background thing. It seemed such a small action when setting up, yet it gave a really pleasurable Sunday afternoon’s play …. Not too long and a proper gaming conclusion met within the time.

I did dice to see which table edge the units would arrived at - it just so happened they got opposite sides and then I diced for some minor adjustments such as on which wing should the artillery sit etc.

My rules stood up to the demands of play rather well (I thought). I did wonder whether in such a small game with a single objective, that something like Black Powder might have done better at mixing things up a bit, due to their order system that might not see units activate, or some units might move further than others - which could matter in the early stages when there is a race to be first at the church.  

Anyway, another reminder of how the smaller scenario can so easily hit the right spot.

The ACW project, with roughly a division per side is going to need an overall commander for each force in addition to the three brigade commanders. 

I am working on the Confederates and for the brigade commanders I have used the ordinary mounted colonels provided in the set. The divisional commander however, needs to be something different for instant recognition and befitting of his status.

I have the box of Warlord Games’ five resin commanders and thought it best to start with Lee. He is of course too grand these days to be a divisional commander, but I won’t tell if you don’t!

Putting him on a 40mm round MDF base, instantly begs for a second figure as a bit of company and at first I considered using another senior leader from the Command Pack, but preferring the base to carry an army flag, a standard bearer of sorts was needed. Warlord Games don’t do one, so a conversion is necessary.

Looking at the new cavalry plastic sprue, there is a horseman with a revolver in his hand and the arm is crooked. This figure invites the gun and hand to be removed and a flag pole added instead.

A length of brass wire of a suitable length was cut. A nick was made on the horses neck / mane for the pole to not only sit ‘in’ the model, but for this to also be a good gluing point for security. The other end of the pole is secured against the riders face. A couple of dabs of ‘Liquid Green Stuff’ on the pole game the impression of the rider’s hand.

I have signified Lee, simply by giving him a grey / white beard and a white horse.

In truth, I found the cavalry figure to be a surprisingly ugly sculpt, with erroneous and anonymous plastic present to both front and back of the rider, due to poor detail (a consequence of the moulding process) and it really diminishes the pleasure of painting the figure ….. but once painted, it passes the 3 foot rule, a principle that underpins this project.

As a final thought and I didn’t notice until after the figure surgery! but the cavalry sprue has a pendant pole on it. It may have been easier to use that instead of brass wire because the bond between plastics can be made very strong with plastic cement.

Anyway, there we are and with someone now in charge, plans are being drawn up for some tabletop action very soon.

With the Union and Confederate units virtually without any clothing (unpainted), the respective forces are both heading towards Dunker Church, which had recently been used as a forward depot for supplies, in the hope to scavenge clothes and footwear. Whoever controls the church will have the next unit painted in their colours! :-) 

The mag has just hit UK shelves. A themed issue on Normandy July - August 1944 means that this will be a cover to cover read for me.

It is my fave mag and I’m sure part of that is that it has under-tones of the now defunct, but splendid ‘Practical Wargamer’, which was itself a bi-monthly publication. I remember my copy being brought into me at hospital during a visit in the late 80’s and reading over and over again!

Ideal for me this month is an article ‘Lets Play Hail Caesar Epic Battles’ to coincide with the Hannibal release - which concludes “Hannibal is a real joy to play”

There is a Rapid Fire Reloaded replay involving the Sherman rangers Yeomanry, so this gives a nice additional action to the recent Brothers in Armour release in the ‘reloaded’ series.

They game with 20mm on a 6x4 and its good to see RFR giving so much focus to the 6x4 and especially for anyone working in a smaller scale, getting this down to a 4 x 3 table would be very straight forward.

The chaps at Little Wars TV get a slot, with their article on the Philippi Campaign and includes a really nice looking naval action.

They advise that next issue will be themed on ’Storming the South’, Sherman’s march to the sea.    I am already looking forward to the next issue, but still have tons to explore here, well done WSS.

The front cover tells you everything you need to know about this issue … the Vietnam conflict.

It does seem to be a period that is enjoying a resurgence in interest, with an increased presence on the wargame show circuit and quite a few blogs having current articles.

It’s not particularly my thing and for me, the magazine has given over too much space to it, with not a lot in there left to catch my eye. If Vietnam is your thing, then this will be a very entertaining issue.

There is a diorama build, using the Epic Hannibal figures, which is something that I might have a go at, but perhaps for the English Civil War. I like the idea of each part of the diorama being involved with a story.

I have always bought all three of the wargame magazines, but I think Wargames Soldiers & Strategy is the one that consistently serves me best. I will continue to get that one and perhaps just cherry pick on the other two … sad to say!

I do wonder whether a problem is that the wargaming community in general are not submitting articles the way they used to and that the magazine editors are increasingly needing to draw on a small body of staff and friends to keep the articles coming.

I shall think about putting pen (e-ink!) to paper and doing a contribution.