[Review] Baccus 6mm Punic Wars Range

Another review, this time of my latest batch of figures (a present from my wife) which arrived this week. After being impressed by the new Age of Hannibal rules (see last post), I decided my next project would be some lovely figures to use for them, my current 15mm Punic Wars armies being based on 80mm bases for Sword and Spear. After whining to Mrs the Lemming for a while, she got the hint, and agreed that they would make a great xmas present, the clincher being that I would sort out the entire order, all she’d have to do was pay for them. By this time, it was only a week or two till xmas, so I knew that they wouldn’t be arriving in time, but that didn’t bother me. However, now they have arrived, so I thought I’d do a quick review of the figures. I haven’t bought figures from the entire range, but there are over 25 different codes in my order, which should keep me going for a little bit.

[Review] Age of Hannibal

Those who read my last post will know all about littlewarstv and their youtube channel, and will have seen me mention a new game they’ve just released (well, earlier this year), Age of Hannibal. Having watched the videos they’ve produced about the rules, and the game they played using the rules based on the battle of Trebia, I was intrigued and got in touch with Greg Wagman, the rules’ author and one of the mainstays at littlewarstv. The result of that conversation was a nice shiny pdf (they’re also available in hardcopy) of the rules winging it’s way through the ether to me, and after a brief delay due to a family bereavement, this review.

[Review] Little Wars TV (youtube channel)

Something a little different for this post – not a review of figures, or some new rules, or a show and tell of one of my armies, or even an AAR of a recent game. Not even a rant either! Instead, this post is going to review a Youtube channel, LittleWarsTV. I first became aware of the group behind this new venture a couple of months ago, when they posted a video of a large scale ACW game, Antietam, which was posted on the Baccus website forum and elsewhere. It caught my attention because it wasn’t just some bloke with a camcorder showing bits of a wargame taking place and mumbling about his unlucky dice like most are, but took the time to explore the background of the battle itself, take a trip to the battlefield, and discuss elements of the conflict. All these things called to me (I am a historian, after all), and I kept an eye out for more of their videos.

It also helped that they were using 6mm figures (mostly, if not all, Baccus), for which I have a great affection, and playing using their own Altar of Freedom rules (which I’d picked up but not yet played – Longstreet has been my go-to for ACW), and heard good things about.

 

10mm Pendraken 19th Century figures: A small review – Part 1

I got a few figures from Pendraken recently to have a look-see after buying the Bloody Big Battles rules for the mid 19th Century. Having chatted to Leon over at Pendraken, he was happy to send me a few sample figures from five of their 19th Century ranges, which is much appreciated. I’ve decided to do a mini review / show and tell to repay his generosity, as well as some comparison shots with some Magister Militum WW1 figures I got a while ago but didn’t end up doing anything with yet (they’ll come in part 2 or 3).

 

I’m going to take some shots of the figures in the raw, undercoated, and painted up, so here’s the first looks. These are all straight from the bag too, nothing done to them, but I can’t really see anything immediately that does need doing to them. That’s some seriously quality casting there. These are just a very small sample of the codes that Pendraken do in these ranges – there are a *lot* of different offerings in each range.

 

Franco-Prussian war French

Considering some future projects

I’ve been thinking of future projects lately, which makes perfect sense since the projects I’m currently working on have been put aside lately due to real life time constraints. These are things I’d like to revisit next year if possible, though obviously all of them at once would be impossible.

Some Zouaves for my 10mm ACW Union project

[Review] Krieg Ohne Hass

I managed to snaggle a copy of these rules a few weeks ago, published by Lance Flint (a frequent contributor to the Honour Forum run by Sam Mustafa), and available from Magister Militum among other places. They’re pretty inexpensive, and harken back to the old photocopy style of years past, with a few photos and diagrams, but Lance eschews the glossy hardback filled with stuff approach in favour of a slimmed down model – the rules themselves are only about 20 pages in length. There are various lists for compiling armies for Operation Crusader also available online for free at the 3mm Miniatures yahoo group.

 

[Review] Aurelian

I’ve played a couple of test games now of Sam Mustafa’s new game Aurelian, so thought I’d do a quick review. It’s both similar to and a departure from Sam’s other games; players who have played other games by Sam will pick up on similar mechanisms, particular the movement rules which are very similar to those found in Bluecher. In other respects, it’s very different. For one, the time frame is outside of Sam’s usual area (18th C in Might and Reason and Maurice, Napoleonic in Grand Armee, Lasalle and Bluecher, and ACW in Longstreet), seeing as it focuses on the ancient world, and even more so, unlike other ancients rules, one that focuses on the 3rd century crisis of the Roman Empire.

 

[Forged in Battle] War and Empire II Kickstarter has begun.

Just a quick post to let people know that the second Forged in Battle 15mm Ancients kickstarter has started. I really like the figures I got from the first one they did (reviewed here) so I made sure to jump into this one as soon as it started. The first was Peloponnesian War, Punic Wars, Successors and Early Romans, this one covers the Legions of Rome, with figures available for Augustan Romans, 1st and 2nd C Romans, Dacians, Picts, Sassanids, Maccabeans, Early Franks, and Early Saxons, and I’m hoping for 3rd C Romans too (Andy hinted they would be available in the pre-kickstarter promo page), which would be perfect what with the incoming Aurelian game from Sam Mustafa.

So, if you’re in the market for some very nicely sculpted Roman legionaries and their assorted enemies, go and look at the kickstarter. Highly recommended.

 

[Longstreet / Sword and Spear]

Just a quick update to put up some pics of stuff I’ve been working on recently. Well, sort of recently. I did the artillery and cavalry a good few months back now, but only got around to gluing them to their bases this weekend. All of these are glued onto bases but otherwise unbased; as usual, I’m waiting until I have them all painted up and glued to bases before I do that, so that they’ll all be uniformly based. So, here to start are some Union cavalry for Longstreet. The figures are a mix of Cracker Line, Plank Road (the old Starfort line) and Pendraken. They fit fairly well – the Plank Road horses are distinctly smaller than the Pendraken ones, and the Cracker Line ones are roughly in the middle between the other two lines, but I mixed them up anyway.

All the Cavalry!

[Sword and Spear] Photomontage time!

Had a few battles of the last few weeks that I haven’t had time to write up properly, so instead thought I’d do a captioned photo post. I also got in a game of Bluecher with Ernie, but since that was just using the 100 Days campaign cards, I didn’t take any pics. It still doesn’t really feel like a “proper” wargame to me if you just use cards, in the same way that I hate to play using unpainted figures. I’m working away on my French though, so I’ll be able to field an actual army soon for Bluecher, and looking forward to doing so. Maybe after I get my Ancients stuff from War and Empire painted up, I’ll do another Bluecher army (almost certainly Austrians, because Austrians) so I have a matching pair. Anyway, these are from a game a few weeks ago, when I took on Dave with yet another Hundred Years War bash:

Starting positions. I’m the English at the bottom, David was the French at the top.