A tree
Haven’t been doing near enough hobby work in a long time. But I decided to do something – so I built a tree.
I wanted something that didn’t look like a “standard wargames tree”, and that had a somewhat realistic shape.
The end result can be seen in the photos (not great photos I know, but at least you can get an idea of the general shape). It’s for 28mm. Had quite a few “learning experiences” during the project, the glue I used turned white e.g. But in the end I’m happy with what I achieved.
Hobby room make over
Perhaps not as much a make over as a “trying desperately to organise things”… It started with me fixing the neighbouring room, which led to even more stuff ending up in the hobby room a couple of weeks ago.
So I decided it was time to “clean” the hobby room. However as loads of stuff didn’t really have any “designated place” for it the job got a bit bigger than I had originally intended.
So, a new bookcase for some of my games, another one to display some more of my painted miniatures (a big chunk of them are still in boxes, but it did clear out some storage area for other stuff), a reorganised work space (now one “building place”, one “painting place” and one “basing place”
And gaming table is actually free to play games on once more!
Kind of happy with the end result. Photos are a bit random and not edited, but I hope it is possible to get the general idea from them…
Pikes in DBMM
We organised a small DBMM200 (222AP) tournament last weekend. It ended up being held in my gaming room. As we were only six persons participating in the end, space was no problem and we had three separate 200-tables in the same room. Could have fitted a fourth in without major problems, and a few more elsewhere around the house. But anyway, it worked out well. Very nice not having to transport my stuff to and from the competition as well, it more than compensated for the extra work before and after the event I would say.
Theme was Book II period, but it ended up being a very roman-centric competition:
3 Marian roman armies, 1 Polybian Roman, 1 Ancient British, and 1 Seleucid (mine).
I had been toying with various concepts, but decided to try something different. People always say (at least those that I’ve talked to) that pikes aren’t worth taking – which for me is a challenge that needs to be accepted.
So I ended up with maximum allotment of pikes J
12 phalangites, 8 argyraspides, and one Argyraspides commander. 21 pike elements in total.
To that some Auxilia and Psiloi, a few Light Horse and one Cataphract element and an element of Companions – plus two mounted commanders
I knew there would be at least one Roman army, which I thought could prove problematic, and I feared there would be warbands coming. But I wasn’t prepared that for all armies having loads of Bd or WB…
Ah, well. Not much to do.
—
First game against Marian Romans with Bd S. Ended up fighting mainly with my “support troops” (Ax S, Kn X, Kn F) and a bit with the Pk S. The phalangites mainly being a blocking force.
The combination of S troops and Knights – and relatively aggressive play – caused early losses to the legionaries and they struggled to reorganise themselves after that. After a while they broke, but not before they had managed to kill my Cataphract Sub-General. Apart from that only minor losses. 24-1 to me
—
Second game against a horde of chariots and fast warbands… It’s hard to run away from stuff on a 200-table. But I had to try and avoid being hit by all the warbands, so I danced around to the best of my ability. At the same time I had to inflict enough casualties to break the enemy commands before they overwhelmed me. In addition their mounted arm was way larger than mine, so I couldn’t let their chariots roam around.
I sent the Phalangites forward, together with the Cataphracts, to block the cavalry between a marsh and a wood. They kept them there all game and almost managed to break them in the end.
The argyraspides danced around a bit before attacking one of the warband commands at an angle together with the Thureophoroi and the Companions. They combination inflicted serious casualties on the Brits, and after a while the first British strike command broke. But by that time the second one was getting close and my units were getting swarmed. I lost the C-in-C command, but the army as a whole was rather intact still when time was called. 15-10 to me.
—
So second placed come the last game. Again a Marian roman army with loads of Bd S. The superior blades are a bugger as they quick kill pikes on equal, as my Argyraspides general was about to find out.
But that was late in the game, and mainly postponed the outcome a bit, even though it gave me a scare in the end.
The romans attacked close to the sea. The battlefield had two main approaches to attack, separated by a steep hill. Next to the sea was another steep hill which I intended to grab to threathen the roman flank forces.
Three 1’s in round one made my attack a bit slow. But I sent Psiloi over the crest on the hill on my right in order to make it hard for the romans to capture it. (I had more light troops there than my opponent, and uphill advantage).
Then I moved my Argyraspides towards the gap, facing the smaller Roman force, but I couldn’t capture the other hill as I hadn’t got the pips for it. So I had to be a bit cautious. Ended up being a game of manoeuvre on that flank as neither sided dared advance to far, as that would have ment exposing our left flank to the opponent.
So the main fighting had to be done elsewhere. The main roman force with mounted troops and legionaries advanced towards my left and centre. I counterattacked and managed to close with the phalanx, flanked by companions, and the cataphracts. My light horse fought a desperate and valiant stalling game against the Roman cavalry to prevent my line being overrun.
The Phalanx pushed the romans back, giving overlaps to the C-in-C who proceeded to kill the fist line of legionaries in his way, which in turn increased the odds for the companions who killed their frontal opponents. The cataphracts and the Sub-general faced enemy cavalry, and managed to kill one of these. Meanwhile the light horse continued to survive…
The roman counterattack failed to kill a single phalangite, and that meant that it would basically be a matter of time (unless the dice gods would betray me) before that command broke. Another attack on my part made their lines crumble.
The Roman commander then launched a desperate counter attack against my Argyraspides, hoping to break them before their own command would be overwhelmed (or the mounted command was destroyed as well, as that was now in a pretty tight spot).
This attack was initially very successful – killing my general in the first combat – but the command stayed in the fight long enough to allow me to envelop the romans.
A quick game which ended 21-4 to me and that also meant I ended up top spot, getting the trophy that I myself had gotten for the competition. Maybe not that polite, but anyway…
Blood Bowl
Started playing BB again with my boys. So gave one of the new miniatures a test paint
Turned out rather ok, I think.
Dropzone Commander
Bought DZC at this year’s LinCon to play with my kids. They are painting Scourge and PHR so I decided to quickly paint up some UCM to have as opponents.
(Have another army project going that will be more of “my” army as well)
Didn’t want to spend too much time on these as we needed something to test the rules with, but I still feel they painted up pretty nicely…
DBMM stats
Just finished this year’s LinCon DBMM tournament. It did not end well, despite using a rather familiar army. I have used my Samnites in 43 competition games it seems, and although I have a win ratio of over 60% with them I failed miserably this year. Ended up not rock bottom, but well away from any podium places.
And my Statistics took a bit of a hit as well. 2016 is beginning to looks like a really bad competition year. But at least I have already played more games than I did in 2015, which is at least something.
Off the workbench
Decided to paint a few pz IIs 
End of year painting spree
For a number of reasons I haven’t painted a lot during the autumn and winter. However during the last weeks of 2014 I did some…
I used the old “know your weaknesses- and use them to your advantage” tactic.
Currently I find it hard to concentrate for any longer period of time… So I decided to approach this project with the attitude of “five minutes painting is also painting”. And since I have been home a lot around Christmas I have been able to paint for a short period then do something else for a while- add another colour and then do something else again.
Painting two to four elements at a time, this is what I have accomplished so far since a week before Christmas…
(Not an army, but a good way towards one.)
My basing box
Finally got around to filling my “basing box”. Pretty happy with the result.
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