Gripping Beast Later Roman Cataphracts

I say "Later" Roman but these could fit in pretty much anywhere from the time of Hadrian until the 5th or maybe 6th century.

I've mounted them in groups of three to give me two units of 6 riders, which I can use for Sword and Spear or, more likely, the new Midgard rules from TFL. 

I've already got my Midgard rules and I'm looking at creating a Late Roman army using my already quite large Gripping Beast collection of Late Romans, which you can find elsewhere on the blog by searching for them. I've got more cavalry to get assembled and painted, which would give me more heavy cavalry and some horse archers. I'm also painting up some Saxon Thegns who I think will serve perfectly well as Germanic foederati with a few Roman-style shields mixed in with the round ones and some suitably generic shield transfers. After all, they are all just blokes in mail with shields and spears.

Reveille 2024 at Lincombe Barn Wargames Society

 Yes, it's nearly time for Reveille again, it is next Sunday, 24th November;

The show is, as you can see, at the usual location and there will be the usual variety of traders and games to observe and even join in playing.

Looking forward to seeing as many people as possible.

Another (final) group of Roman auxiliary infantry.

These are the last infantry figures for my Cohors I Syldaviorum Equitata auxiliary cohort project, apart from a couple of leaders who I am working on.

I have a group of eight auxiliary infantry plus a dismounted decurion from a cavalry turma, clearly detached for some kind of mission. These are pretty much the end of the auxilia, although I recently bought a pack of the Victrix Roman auxiliary archers, which at some point I'll work on and use eight of them to replace the Aventine archers I painted up originally. I haven't got anything against the Aventine guys, but I rather fancy having all the troops as Victrix ones. The archer set allows me to make up 12 Western-style and 12 Eastern-style archers and I've always liked the appearance of the so-called Eastern archers (a cohort of these, the Cohors Prima Hamiorum Sagittariorum recruited in Syria) actually served in Britannia on Hadrian's Wall and were based at the fort we know as Housesteads.

Anyway, I've now used up the last eight green LBMS shield transfers, so I used one that my auxiliary  cavalry carry for the leader's shield. I don't think it really matters. The Romans often detached officers for all manner of purposes.

I am thinking about using my auxiliary cohort for Midgard when it is published and how I can get the troops on the right sized bases. I think that the answer lies with Warbases movement trays which just have a lip all the way round, allowing me to drop these smaller sabots inside.

An Outlaw band plus a Big Surprise (at the end of the post)

I've been working on these, on and off for the last couple of weeks. The figures are from the Oathmark Human Light Infantry box but I've used them to create a band of outlaws to use in Never Mind The Ruckus games.

First; two groups of bowmen;

Next, a group of men with spears and staves;

And next, two leaders and a mysterious Black Knight (don't Outlaw legends always have one of these?);

As I said above, these are all Oathmark figures, except the Black Knight who is from the Perry Men-at-arms on Foot plastic set.

I like the figures, even though they don't look particularly historically accurate. They definitely look like something from a film.

So, as legendary screen outlaws living in the woods, green has to dominate their wardrobe choices and therefore these are the Men of the Holly Wood (and they are all wearing tights too), in which case, the Black Knight has to be Sir Antony Courtois of Falworth (even though he isn't carrying his black shield.

I could easily use these guys as Rangers of the Dunedain too or for Rangers of Shadowdeep. There are plenty more of these in the box to be made up, so I have lots of options here. I think more Dunedain might be a small project, but probably not in green.

Now, for the Big Surprise;

Yes, it is the last Giant Spider from the Wargames Atlantic box set. I had thought I'd lost the head and thorax but I was tidying up all my computer and other cables and found it on the floor under my desk. I decided to paint this one in a completely different colour scheme, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Here is Big Spidey with an outlaw for scale;

All of the pictures feature a backdrop from one of my Handiwork Games Jon Hodgson backdrop books.

Finally! A few more completed figures.

This doesn't mean the arthritis has gone, just that I've had enough time to get these few done, a slow and infuriating 10-15 minutes of painting a day.

 

These are all Copplestone Back of Beyond British troops. Above is a Lewis gunner and an ammunition carrier, who make a nice two-man team and below are two more Lewis gunners, who really need a couple of ammunition carriers to make useful teams, but unfortunately North Star don't sell those guys separately.

I'll probably swap the gunner in the top photo with the one on the left in the lower one in actual games, so that they are both in shirtsleeves order.

I'm probably going to have to buy a couple more of the Riflemen packs to create a platoon of three sections of 10 men (7 riflemen, 2-man Lewis team and NCO) and then use existing figures for a platoon HQ (lieutenant and sergeant, plus a couple of runners). A source of spare Lewis magazines would be great to add to the webbing of two ordinary riflemen. I shall have to look online.

A complete platoon would be great for some 1920s and 30s Chain of Command in Central Asia, but would also be fine for other settings too.

OK, so I didn't post anything in August.......

..... and now it is September. I've not posted anything, because I still haven't managed to paint anything because of the damned arthritis. However, I did go to the Lardy Workshop at Britcon in Nottingham back in early August, and here are some pictures from the event.

I think I've all the games, but if I've missed anything out it'll be my mistake rather than anything else. 

As you can see the quality of the tables and the figures used is superb. Lardy Days like this certainly bring out the very best examples of what can be done in wargaming.

The games covered everything from Middle Earth and the dusty plain outside Troy via medieval Japan, the 18th century Caribbean, Normandy in 1944 and Germany in 1945 right up to Vietnam in the 1960s, plus various other locations.

The rules on offer were Chain of Command, Sharp Practice, What A Cowboy, General d'Armée, Kiss Me Hardy, the soon-to-be published Midgard and the unpublished (but excellent) Until The Last Sword Is Drawn.

It was great to meet up with gaming friends old and new and my thanks go out to Don Avis whose ability to herd cats (i.e. wargamers) and organise the whole thing is pretty awesome.

My last post (and only the second) in July - Longues-sur-Mer.

July hasn't been great for me, to be honest. My arthritic hand issues haven't gone away and it looks as though they are going to be a permanent part of my life from now on. This has limited my painting massively, I've only completed four figures and have another eight on the painting table.

So, I'll post something else about my holiday instead - a trip to the Atlantic Wall battery at Longues-sur-Mer.

Above is one of the four large Type M272 casemates, each of which contains a 15 cm TbtsK C/36 naval gun, originally designed to be used on Zerstörer 1936A (Mob) destroyers, Mob meaning "Mobilisation". Seven of these destroyers were built. 

In addition to these large guns, which had a maximum range of around 20km and fired a 45kg shell, the site was also equipped with machine guns, mortars and anti-aircraft guns, all surrounded by barbed wire and a minefield. You can read more about the site HERE.

The battery was controlled by a fire control bunker near the cliffs overlooking the Channel. Below is a photo showing the view from just to the left of the bunker.

Below is a shot from the bunker looking back to the guns.

The guns were capable of firing at the invasion fleet and were able to reach ships off of both Omaha Beach to the west and Gold Beach to the east. The photo below shows the cliff path down to the port of Arromanches, which was key to the landings as it would be the site of the Mulberry Harbour.

The gun below is a Russian 76.2mm M1902 which formed part of the defences of the battery.

Following the surrender of the battery to troops from C Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment on 7th June, a temporary airstrip (B11) was constructed on the fields adjacent to the battery. This was used by Spitfires from the RAF 2nd Tactical Airforce. Below is a commemorative memorial to this, mentioning Free French ace Pierre Clostermann who flew for RAF 602 squadron from the airstrip. 

The whole site is fascinating and very well preserved. It is well worth a visit. 

Back from my holiday in Normandy.

I've been back from Normandy for just over a week now, so I thought I'd put something up here. 

I've posted photos of this M4A1(76)W HVSS tank before, but this is the old warhorse with a nice shiny new paint job and a fair amount of remedial work. I have to say that it was long overdue, seeing as the first time I visited Utah Beach was back in 1989.

So, I've now got a hat trick of anniversary visits to Normandy, having visited in 2004, 2014 and 2024.

I've finally also got some decent photos of Omaha Beach, due to the sun being out this time. I know that there is a lot of foreground in the first photo, but it does show how the exit from the beach was a lot steeper than on the other beaches in 1944.

I really like the modern sculpture memorial above. It certainly seems popular with visitors who often walk around it and stand touching it in contemplation. 

We visited a few other D Day sites on our travel, but I'll keep those for other posts. I'm going to post non-wargaming stuff for a week or so, because my arthritic flare up I mentioned previously hasn't gone away, and I am not painting until the pains go away.