Riders of Rohan are coming!

Pleased to report that the Rohan army is getting close to completion. I've led off with a couple of action shots, one in close up, of the main force of Riders.

This is a another close up of a rider with bow. I need to just check over the whole lot for any paintwork that I've missed. I've also got a few repairs, mainly those I neglected to do at the beginning, but also a couple associated with an encounter with my daughter and a revolving chair! Then its just on to varnishing and basing.

Here's another shot of the whole force from a different angle.

Finally here's an overhead shot, a bit more boring but shows the whole force on the tabletop more clearly, bar 3/4 including Eomer, which are all still on the workbench for one reason or another.

I've got about the same number Rohan figures on foot, a few more in fact, which could be used to represent the whole force dismounted or support the riders in action. Rather fewer foot figures than for most of my LOTR armies, but the Rohanrrim are basically horsemen after all! The infantry are at a similar stage and should be finished at the same time.

Russian Army for Rapid Fire

When I started buying up kit for WW2, Matchbox kits were still available (before being rebranded Italeri). They were at the time considerably cheaper than comparable kits (I seem to remember about £3.50 rather than £5.00). As I knew them to be great models it made sense to snap them up. One model that was in the range was the T34-76 and, although I was mainly buying German and US, I put 9 of them on my order from Hannants, as I reckoned I wouldn't have the chance to get them that cheap again. They were a simple kit to put together. There is not much painting involved (all Russian tanks came out of the factory painted green, and only in snowy winter did they bother to camo' them), they were all painted and assembled early on.

I got some Russian infantry at the same time, but unlike my Germans and Americans didn't get around to painting them until 2009, starting them at a time I was getting frustrated with the slow pace of getting everything together for my German and US army. I got them all finished by March 2010.

The great thing about the USSR in WW2 from a wargamer's point of view is that they are a fairly simple army to equip. Where as the German army that changed their main battle tank four times in the course of the war, the Russians found a star in their T34 early on and switched most of their production to it, only making significant modifications when they upgunned it to a 85mm in 1944. They didn't manufacture any half tracks of their own, so no armoured infantry, just motorised. They go a lot of equipment from the US and the British under lend lease. So I could use the GM trucks that I'd made up for the US army, and a M1 half track or two for HQs, towing etc.. That really just left the AT company of a tank battalion to equip, and a set of two SU-85s from Armourfast did the trick. Pegasus's 'two-to-a-box' kits yielded a pair of armoured cars and a light tanks (all of which actually looked pretty similar). Italeri's excellent 76mm gun set yielded a couple of heavier AT/artillery guns, and a blog site which pointed out that the Russian 45mm was basically indistinguishable from the German 38mm, so Hat's German set supplied my infantry AT at the lighter end.

The net result was that once I got stuck into painting the Russian infantry it started to look a lot easier to reach the finishing line for the Russians than the US or the British, so they jumped ahead of the queue.

Battalion of T34-76s, with an AT company SU-85s, with light tank and A/C for HQ & Recon

A conversation at my last club left me doing a swap and getting eight Armourfast T34-85s, to help equip an elite late war tank battalion. Once they are painted I have all the essential equipment to take me to 1945 (and indeed beyond as I could use the T34-85s in Vietnam!).

Battalion of T35-85s for later 1944 onwards

The hardest work was getting all the infantry battalions together. I used Revell's Russian infantry and Siberian Rifles sets, a lot of Esci figures and a box of Airfix. Although the figures in the main Revell set are a bit larger, and Airfix a bit smaller than the rest, it is not that noticeable once all painted. The mix gives a good variety of poses and plenty of heavy weapons, including AT rifles which are only found in the Revell Siberian rifles set. Unlike the various German sets, there are plenty of mortars as well as HMGs, although I thought for a while I would come up short having mislaid some Maxims for a couple of months. The Esci set has a lot of female radio operators, which are good for identifying HQ units.

Motorised infantry Battalion equipped with lend lease trucks and half track

A Rapid Fire battalion is around 40 figures, but the three rifle companies only require 24 figures. The HQ, weapons and gun companies making up the balance, so you actually need quite a few 'ammunition carriers' etc.. These I have made by trimming the weapons off a few figures, especially those lying down etc., a lot of which and a 'wounded' figure, that can stand in as a mortar loader, are in the Airfix set, so I've drawn a lot from this set. The Italeri 76mm set has a few spare figures good for FOOs. The result of using what I thought initially would not be useful figures, is that in the end I had a lot more riflemen/SMG figures than I'd reckoned and so ended up making no less than six battalions up. This should be more than enough for any eventuality.

All of the sets have a lot of figures carrying SMGs (as indeed was the case) so there is no problem picking enough out if you want to form an SMG battalion.

One of Six infantry Battalion. This one is equipped with the lighter 45mm AT gun

I have a few more figures to paint up. Notably the ski troops in the Siberian Rifles sets, which I have started to paint, but there is no point finishing until I get around to buying a 'snow cloth' to put on the table. I initially added a workers militia/partisan battalion card to my unit deck, and in my first game with them just used ordinary figures to represent them, but I have since bought to sets of Caesar's partisans, painted up a battalion and they've already seen action. I've not taken any pics of them yet, so will do so for a later post.

Like my German army, I tend to think of this as a 1943-45 army, but in fact as T34-76 saw wider use earlier than this, and in fact German armour found itself completely outclassed for a while, this actually represents the Russian army over a longer time frame. But as I can't field it for the time being against a German army much earlier than '43, it won't be re-fighting the battles of 1941-2 until I get some PzIIIs for my Germans.

My new regular gaming buddy, Steve, turned up at the last game with a whole battalion of mounted cossacks, which he was keen to field. Unfortunately they ran straight into a Panzer battalion hidden behind a hill, which with the help of some off-board artillery wiped them off the board in record time! With a bit more practice they might prove more useful. In fact might have been exactly what Steve could have needed to seize an important objective very early on in the last game, if Steve, who is not at heart a pre-20th century gamer, can get his head around thinking of cavalry in WW2 as mounted infantry, and not look for something to charge!

The whole lot (including the US 'lend-lease' stuff)!

There are now a couple of very nice new infantry sets recently released, notably the Pegasus Soviet infantry in winter and Soviet infantry in summer (in caps) . There is also a Naval set which would be handy for WW1 and the Russian Civil War too. These are tempting, but with six infantry battalions all ready not a big priority in the big scheme of things and maybe an 'add-on' I can do later if I get a lot more of my unfinished projects done.

There is never any shortage of extra kit that you can buy for a WW2 army. A few Katusha's, and some different assault guns (SU-76s and SU-110s), and some KV1s would all be nice. But probably if I shelled out some more money on this army I would probably do it in line with my plans for my German army, and add more light tanks to be able to represent better 1941-2.

76mm gun. An excellent field artillery and AT piece

German Army 1943-45 for Rapid Fire

If you want to do WW2, one of the main things that your likely to need is a German army. When I first started to collect figures and kits for this army (about ten years ago - scary!), I was planning on matching it up initially against a US army, so bought Revell's German infantry, which are for late war. I got one of Osprey's highly detailed 'Order Battle Books' for the Ardennes campaign, so even though I hadn't chosen the Rapid Fire rule book, the choice of kit that I bought wasn't too far out. In the event, I ended up getting my Russian army ready before my Americans, and by this time, I had added a fair number of other figures including Revell's (earlier war) Panzergrenadiers, Italeri's re-issue of the Esci set, a box of Airfix, and some figures from Airfix's Africa Corp figures to get some field caps in there. Although Airfix are a tad smaller, all scale well when painted and based. I painted some of the Revell in late war camo, picking a couple of different camo patterns to help distingush different battalions, which I tend to use for Panzergrendiers. All the rest are in standard grey-green, and the Italeri and Airfix in early war uniform (ie. jackboots).

I have enough 'early war' infantry, and some early war kit (such as 38mm AT guns) to represent German infantry battalions from 1939-45. But partly because I'd started buying kit for Normandy onwards, and partly because later war kit is more popular among manufacturers, I tend to refer to this army as my 1943-45 army. This is because the main battle tanks are Panzer IVs (the Panzer III being considered obsolete by '43) and Panthers (introduced in the summer of '43). To take it earlier, I would mainly need to equip a tank battalion with Panzer IIs (for '39-'40) and/or Panzer IIIs (for '41-'42).

Elite Panzer Battalion equipped with Panthers and AT company of Jadpanthers

Prior to picking the Rapid Fire rules, I'd already bought 9 PzIV Airfix kits and 5 Panthers (I think Matchbox, which were still around when I bought them), 3 Jadgppanthers, 4 Jadgpnzer IVs, 3 Wespes, a Puma Armoured Car, and 6 Hanomag half-tracks (all Matchbox). I also had a couple of Airfix German Recce sets (with kubelwagen and armoured car) and three boxes of Revell's 105 mm artillery. With the addition of a couple of sets of Armourfast kits which gave me 4 more Panthers, this gave me enough for a Panther battalion, a PzIV battalion and most of an armoured Panzergrenadier battalion, with a couple of spare half tracks. Reading through the various unit organisations in the Rapid Fire supplements, I ordered a set of two Stugs from Armourfast, a set of two PAK 40s from Italeri, and five Opel Blitzes from Ready-to-Roll, three uncovered and three with the cover on. I later also got the Hat sets of 75mm IG and 38mm AT gun (although the latter more to use as a Russian 45mm).

Panzer Battalion equipped mainly with PzIVs (unfortunately some painted pre-'43 grey. Damn!!) and an artillery company of Wespes

I worked out with a bit of swapping here and there (eg. using a Hanomag as an HQ unit for a Panzer battalion or a tow for an AT gun), I could probably then put on the table, up to two tank battalions, an armoured Panzergrenadier battalion, a motorized Panzer Grenadier battalion and several fully equipped infantry battalions.

My main 'faux pas', was the first kits I painted up and decaled (6 Pz IVs). I didn't feel like following the camo pattern on the box/in the kit, and thought I'd do them grey. This was before I did much research, and I was subsequently discovered that the grey camo was dropped in 1943. PzIVs were around before then, but most of the 'grey camo'ed' tanks that rolled into Russia in 1941 were PzIIIs, the PzIV initially being considered an 'infantry tank', and gunned with the short-barelled 75mms (which come with the Airfix kit and I have kept, and have not glued the long barrel 75mm's into the turrets).

One of six infantry Battalion with HQ & all heavy weapons, this one has an assault gun company represented by a couple of Stugs

The hard work was actually getting together all of the different elements to represent such as HQs, forward observers, heavy weapons, mortar, gun companies, AT companies, trucks and tractors in the right numbers. HMGs or mortars, for example, in Rapid Fire usually have 3 man-crews, but most manufacturers only model two with the weapon, so I general made a bigger base and cut the weapons off some figures to represent ammunition carriers etc.. For some reason, mortars are not a popular item for manufacturers to put in WW2 German sets, and I ended up adding a few mortars from a US set, on a large base, with a few extra figures trimmed of weapons, based separately. That way I can always use them with another army.

An Armoured Company of a Panzergrenadier Battalion

The great thing about having all the main elements of the army done is that I have been able to generate a 'scenario' generation system that involves pulling 'battalion cards' and 'reinforcement cards' from a deck, and after a lot of blood, sweat and tears can be sure that I can field any combination of battalions or reinforcements, without finding I don't have the right kit.

Obviously there is always stuff you can add. The German army in contrast to say the Russian, had all sorts of different AFVs. It would be nice to add some gunned support half-tracks to the Panzergrendier battalion, some command tanks/half tracks, an '88' or other AA, some more towing half tracks and/or trucks, a Tiger etc., etc.. But altogether all the essentials are there.

The whole lot!

If I was to extend it in a serious way, I think probably get three boxes of Armourfast PzIIIs to give me 6 models, and some more PzIVs (probably 'Ready to Roll' with 'schutzen'). I'd paint the PzIVs in late war camo, and replace the barrels for some of my existing PzIVs with short barrels, so I could have a 9 tank battalion with companies of two PzIIIs and a PzIV. That way I get to be able to field both a 1941 Eastern Front Army, and get enough PzIVs in late war camo, so I don't have to put the grey painted ones on the tabletop for post '42 battles. After that I'd probably add some PzII's to be able to do the invasions of Poland and France...

PAK 40 and crew

American Civil War for Fire & Fury

My big achievement so far in 2011 has been finally finishing both my American Civil War Armies in 20mm plastic. The main set of rules that I'll be using are 'Fire & Fury', although there should be no problem if I decide to use Volley & Bayonet or Black Powder instead. Fire & Fury are 'Grand Tactical' rules designed to fight large battles with a ground scale around 1":50 yards, but Volley and Bayonet is for even bigger battles and uses 1":100 yards. Black Powder doesn't have a ground scale as such but the musket range would imply around 1":1o yards, so more appropriate for regimental sized actions. We've given the figures a spin with Fire & Fury rules and all agreed they gave a really great game, so they'll probably remain our core set.

One innovation for me was trying out the paper flags found at www.warflag.com. The only problem is that I felt they were such a big success that I will have to do this with all armies where I can do so, especially the Napoleonic, which will even further delay there arrival on the tabletop!

This requires trimming away any existing flag and pole (or rifle if you use a different figure) on the figure and replacing it with some wire. I did this with pliers, after heating the wire on a gas flame, strengthening with PVA where necessary. The flags on the site are for 25mm, not 20mm figures, but I tried different sizes using photoshop to reduce them, but settled in the end for the size I downloaded them. This makes them a bit bigger than true scale, but I actually think it looks much better on the tabletop. Flags are added by sticking together around the pole with PVA glue. Once dry they are bent into a more interesting shape. The site recommends varnishing, which I haven't done yet.

The following pics show them before trimming the ends of the poles with wire cutters:

I bought all the figures a scarily long time ago. They are a mix of Esci, Imex and Italeri. I bought most Esci (probably for a dumb recent like they are cheaper), but if I were to do it all over I would buy all Italeri, and some Imex Confederates. Italeri figures are much nicer, and there is a lot of variety in their various boxes. Imex Confederates are mainly valuable because they are all in floppy hats, which are thin on the ground in other sets, so it gives you more troops like this. I've gone for almost 50/50 units with hats and kepis for the confederates and I like that look.

Just for reference for future games/opponents. I initially based these up according to the F&F recommendations for 25mm. I later regretted it for three reasons:

1) This doubles the base width viz-a-viz 15mm, and they recommend doubling move distances/ranges etc.. But F&F is specifically designed for 'Grand Tactical' games with AT LEAST one Corp of troops per side, in fact the rule writers themselves are clearly play with 15mm, with lots and lots of figures (most of the published scenarios are for huge battles) on very big tables. Double the frontage of your brigades and scale up your movement distances/ranges and unless you double your playing area you have to scale DOWN the size of actions you put on the table. So why buy a set of rules for large scale actions then restrict yourself this way?

2) Being a cheap skate, I planned everything on the basis of using about 3 infantry figs to a stand. This is recommended for 15mm, and for 25mm it says 3-5 figs. I thought I'd get away with 3 figs, but after basing everything up it just didn't look right, and I didn't feel like buying and painting any more figures, which was already plenty to paint.

3) My big bases with a sprinkling of figures were taking up lots of storage, far more than my tightly packed bases of Napoleonic troops. My two 'starter' armies were taking up nearly 10 storage trays.

So when I finally decided to have a second serious go at trying to get this lot painted in 2010, I took a drastic decision. Rebase the lot. I decided 20mm was after all in the middle of 15mm and 25mm, so why not go for the smaller base size. In the result, I have been very happy with the result and it has caused very few issues. Infantry look good three to a base. Cavalry took a bit more thinking out -it being a toss up whether to have one mounted figure or two on a base- but I stuck to the 2 to a base recommendation, but based them first individually (might want to use them for Western or some other type of skirmish) and used 'sabots' with magnetic sheet to get them to the same size as the infantry 'stands'.

As mentioned many of the F&F scenarios are MASSIVE and designed to be played out over many hours, if not days! The rule writers clearly are in love with this period and love painting hundreds of figures in blue and grey. I do not see myself spending night after night for the next few years doing this, so this is a relatively small F&F army. Fortunately there is a brillant website at www.fireandfury.co.uk with loads of scenarios and 'competition armies' for exactly this size of army, designed for games completed in 3-4 hours.

For future reference if any potential opponents are reading this and selecting a scenario, I have 10 brigade command stands per side with a little over 80 stands of Union & 70 stands of Confederate infantry (ie. close to 250 figs a side). I have around 10-15 stands of figures per side left to finish painting, so there will be over 90 when completed. I also have 2 Corp Commanders and half a dozen divisional commanders per side, two units of cavalry - about 10 stands a unit-per army. I take my artillery and limbers from a large 'pool' including Napoleonics and have crew based separately on stands of two figs each, which can be deployed two stands to a gun (ie. 4 crew) or just one, so there is no problem deploying ten plus guns per side. Overall this gives me enough for about 'a Corp and a half' to put on the table. It would be nice to push this up a bit (to two or even three Corps) so that I can play a few more of the scenarios out there, but overall it is a 'tabletop-filling' force, so I'm happy for now.

To finish off here's a pic of the two armies 'filling the table', although taken before I finished painting the cavalry.

Anglo-Egyptian Army in Sudan

My Anglo-Egyptian army for Sudan is pretty close to completion, and could certainly be fielded as it is.

I've considered using a number of different rule sets. Top of the list for now is 'Sword and the Flame', an older ruleset but with a lot of character. This requires figures to be based individually, and I've used 1p coins for the purpose and cardboard or thin MDF for mounted troops. I've just seen you can get special laser cut movement trays for 1p coins, which I'll probably get. This will also make them easier to use with 'Black Powder' which covers this period and is designed for larger battles than 'Sword & the Flame'.

The 'Sword and the Flame' rules specify ratios for different armies relative to the British. From memory the ratio for Sudan is 2.5 to one. So the main constraint on how many British that you put on the table is not the number of Colonial troops painted up, but the number of Dervishes, because you need a lot more of them!

The first picture is the latest addition to the force, a unit of British Camel Corp, mounted and dismounted. The figures are mainly Hat, with the dismounted force filled out with some extra Waterloo 1815 and Esci figures.

Next up is a couple of units that I completed just before that. These are the excellent Hat Colonial Highlanders. I've split the box to paint them two different ways: in red coats and in khaki.

The red coats could be used as Black Watch in a Tel El Kebir fight against the regular Egyptian army, when Wolseley led the British invasion of Egypt to secure the country for its creditors after it defaulted on debts incurred to build the Suez canal. My British Army for the Zulu wars would provide plenty of other 'redcoats', but I just don't have enough Egyptians at the moment. I also thought the Highlanders could be used for Majuba Hill, if I ever got around to buying and painting up some Boers. As my Confederate Cavalry and Imex Confederate Infantry which I have based up individually can be used as Boers, I probably should say 'more Boers'. Unfortunately, although there were 'redcoats' at Majuba Hill, I recently read it didn't include the Highlanders (Gordon's I think), who shipped in to the Cape from India, clad in Khaki.

So khaki it is for Majuba Hill, as well as the NW Frontier...but the Sudan? On recently buying the 'Black Powder' book, I saw Highlanders deployed for battle against a horde of Fuzzy Wuzzies in 'grey'. Arrgh!!! On reading the Osprey book it was fairly clear accounts were sketchy of that particular campaign and mention is made of some uniforms being khaki and some grey, so unless I stumble on a more definitive source (and I'm not going to look too hard!), khaki is probably fine.

Next up is the Egyptians, what I have nicknamed the '21st Tommy Coopers'! The Egyptians apparently had three uniforms throughout this period. These were a white (summer) uniform and a blue (winter) uniform in the 1880s and a khaki one in the 1890s. I've gone for the early summer one. It ties in with pictures I've seen of the Egyptian army at Tel El Kebir, if I ever look to expand it for a match up against the British, and I'm sure distant garrisons might have been slow to be re-equipped in the later period! The picture is one of two units, and figures are from Waterloo 1815.

The Waterloo 1815 sets also provided some more figures I planned to paint as Sudanese. I had intended to use these for the later period and started painting them with brown tunics and khaki trousers. The sources I have for uniforms in this period, however, seem to conflict, and as I'm not that happy with the look, I may re-paint the jackets in blue.

For now that just leaves three more units. These are two of them:

These are the first two units that I painted up for the British, and truth be told I'm now a bit dissatisfied with them. The figures look fine when inspected in the hand, but not very impressive and 'a bit dull' on the tabletop, being rather over-shadowed by the Hat Highlanders. The figures, British and Sikhs, come from Esci's NW Frontier pack (British being the same as their Zulu Wars British). Maybe its because I've painted them in a darker khaki than the Highlanders (I notice time and again how, when you have the choice, using lighter colours generally looks so much better on the tabletop. Maybe its because I've gone for (a realistic) khaki turban, rather than something less realistic for campaign but more spectacular. Maybe its because I based the Sikhs when I lived in Spain, and use 5 peseta coins which are smaller than a 1p and seem to 'diminish the figure'. Either way they are serviceable, but not great, and the Sikhs are likely to be 'retired' (or just sent for WW2 duties!) once I have painted the new Hat Sikhs that I have bought, which are larger and 'chunkier' like the Highlanders.

That just leaves the unit of British lancers that I have converted with head swaps, some mounted officers from the Waterloo 1815 set not yet painted, and the Gatling guns still on their sprues. You might see the lancers in the background in some shots, but as I still have some painted to do on them I haven't taken any pictures.

Apart from that I still have a fair number of spare Esci British figures, and I might try painting some in grey, as I did to add some more dismounted camel corp figures, which ended up indistinguishable from Hat's dismounted figures, but might leave it until hat brings out its Zulu war British before adding any more khaki clad British.

Not included are my Zulu war British. Early in the conflict some British regiments wore redcoats, so they could be added.

Future additions could be the Hat Gardiner gun, which includes a Naval Landing party, Egyptian Army Camel corp and Colonial Artillery, but none are essential. As mentioned a possible extension is to paint up a lot more Egyptians, to match against the British at Tel El Kebir.

Obviously, this also gives me a solid core of a NW Frontier force, for which I can use the British in khaki (and grey if I paint some that way), the Sikhs, the Highlanders and the lancers. I'm just waiting for Hat to bring out some Bengal Lancers to complete that force. All of the aforementioned could also be deployed in the Boer Wars, too. Although I'm planning a force for Chris Peer's 'Darkest Africa' rules in 28mm not 20mm, a lot of these figures including Sikhs and Sudanese could be used in African wars, and I painted up some of the Esci Muslim Warriors (now re-issued by Italeri) within my Dervish force, with a view to be being used as Zanzabari Arabs as well.

This is the whole force so far arrayed together:

Gallic Army

I've nearly completed my Gallic Army up to what I call 'Double-based DBA' standard, that is up to circa 48 elements or up to 200 figure size.

The core is obviously warbands. The first pic is of the latest addition to their ranks. Figures are Italeri, my favourite for this army - and when choosing manufacturers many more armies besides. Some of the other elements use Esci barbarians or Airfix Ancient Brits, but I'm trying to up the number of Italeri figs, and have more to paint.

It is designed to go with my Punic Wars era armies, but the DBA army list for Gauls runs from much earlier (400BC) to somewhat later (ie. Caesar's conquest) and is pretty much the same, apart from using chariots rather than cavalry for the earlier period.

The second pic shows what the whole army looks like so far. The DBA army list is as follows:

1x3/4 Wb or LCh (Gen) General’s Warband or Chariots

2xLCh or 3Cv Chariots or Gallic Cavalry

8x3Wb Tribal Warband

1xPs Young Warrior skirmishers

As usual with my 'large' DBA armies, the aim is to be able to use the force for 'double-based' DBA (ie. 4 times the infantry, twice cavalry etc. per element) or'Big Battle' DBA uses two or three 'normal' 12 element DBA commands per side, and provide a number of standard DBA armies so inter-tribal conflict can be fought out. I've not checked out the 'Impetus' rules, but I guess it will be close to a 'double-based' DBA.

This is a snap of some figures from the Hat 'Carthaginian Allies' set, and depict naked Gauls, perfect for 'Gaeseti'. These can also be used for Galatian armies, the Celts that invaded and settled Asia Minor.

The army can basically be put straight on the field if necessary, but if playing a three command 'Big Battle' DBA game, it is short a few cavalry, which can be co-opted from the early German army. I was orginally intending to use some of the Hat Gallic cavalry I bought as 'generics' for Dark Age cavalry, trimming away all notably 'Gallic' features such as horns, other helmet decoration, and a dull paint scheme without Celtic checks and tartans. As I haven't quite made my mind up what to do with these, as the issue of Hat's Gothic Cavalry means I don't need to use these figures in that role, thee painting (and therefore varnishing & basing) is not completely finished.

I have, however, since bought a box of Italeri Gallic cavalry, which are a much nicer set. I've started painting them, and could finish with a day or so's work. They'll provide 5 normal (ie. three model) elements, so I'll be fully up to strength for most eventualities.

The other element, which is not strictly necessary, but I'd like to add, is a General's Warband element for the double-based/Impetus level game (ie. 16 figures). I actually have enough command and of the 'armoured' figure from the Italeri set to do this, but a 16 man unit mainly using the same figure would be a bit dull. I have my eye on the new Caesar Gaul set, which has a lot of armoured figures. It is currently on my 'wish list', but cash and this part of my 'wish list' have not come together yet!

These are the pics from the Plastic Soldier Review on the Caesar set:

Update

I've just looked up the 'Basic Impetus army' lists and thought I'd add it here for reference. 'Impetus' rates Gallic warbands as Light Foot, but with an Impetus bonus of 4.

VOL 4: ROME AND ITALY

GAULS (VDT=20/10)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
2	CM or CGL(*)	10	4	1	3	various (only if CGL)
6	FL	8	4	4	2	impetuous
2	S	8	2	0	1	javelin

OPTION. Change 1 FL Unit into:

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
	FL	8	5	5	2	Gaesati impetuous

Vol 6: ROME & THE END OF THE REPUBLIC

GAULS II-I Cent. AD (VDT=20/10)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
2	CM(*)	10	4	1	3
6	FL	8	4	4	2	impetuous
2	S	8	2	0	1	javelin

Note. FL can form Large Units

For good measure this this the Ancient British Army from the VOL. 7 Army Lists: ROME & THE EMPIRE

ANCIENT BRITISH (VDT=23/12)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
3	CGL(*)	10	4	1	3	various
2	CL	12	3	1	2
4	FL(*)	8	4	4	2	impetuous
2	S	8	2	0	1	javelin or sling

Option. Change one CGL Unit into:

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
1	FL	8	5	5	2	(naked fanatics) impetuous

Note. FL can form Large Units

CGP= Heavy Chariots; CGL= Light Chariots; CF= Schyted Chariots; CP= Heavy Cavalry; CM= Medium Cavalry; CL= Light Cavalry; FP= Heavy Infantry; FL= Light Infantry; S= Skirmishers; T= Missile Troops, EL= Elephants ; ART= Artillery

M= Movement; VBU= Basic Unit Value; I= Impetus Bonus, VD= Demoralization Value; VDT= Total Demoralization Value

(*) Unit that can include general

Joining a new club...and gaming with Steve

I orginally set this blog up over 18 months ago, as much on the 'monkey see, monkey do principle'. Wrote a single rambling introductory post and promptly failed to do anything with it...due mainly to being so inept with my camera-phone that I have not yet worked out how to download pictures!

Since then it has largely been used for Blogspot's 'Dashboard' to follow other blogs.

Since then I have also moved to a new town and joined a new club. So far 4 of my first 5 games have been with Steve 'the Hat', who shares my similar highly diverse interests, a general like of 20mm plastics often spurned by other wargamers, and with whom I regularly conspire with by text message to organise our next game...

Sorting out what we have got, what's ready and what's not, what he needs to bring and what I need to bring can be a bit complicated, and sending Steve a scenario ahead of time (when he doesn't even have an email account) would be nice too.

So I thought I'd have another go at using this blog....mainly for Steve's benefit...possibly for when I organise things with someone else at the club and its useful way to show them what figs I've got in my cupboard...and maybe, just maybe if someone else out there might find some use or interest in our scenarios, and general chat on how to muster wargames armies...