What, No Blood and Guts!!

I've had a chance with a chum to play some gladiator games using the 'Munera Sine Missione' ruleset downloaded from:

http://hordesofthethings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/munera-sine-missione-version-20.html

We choose random fighters from my collection and set about exploring the rules.

 

The first pairing was a Velite versus a Samnite, a fast spearman with a small shield versus a slower swordsman with a big shield. An early special event made the Samnite drop his shield which made him less slow. Both fighters were slightly Fatigued but the Velite had to appeal to crowd after being Knocked Down for a second time which he got away with.

 

The second contest threw up a Gaul, big sword, big shield, no clothes versus a Dimachaerus, leather clad all over and a jaggy bit in each hand. Both fighters nibbled a bit off each other before the Gaul had to appeal to the crowd after a second Knock Down. He too got away with it.

Then the 'real' gladiators turned up. The Myrmillion with lots of armour, big helmet and a sword lumbered in against a Thracian with much the same less the armour. The Myrmillion was very slow but very tough whereas the Thracian was fairly tough but much faster.

This was a ding dong of a fight with both gladiators succumbing to increasing Fatigue followed by Injury and Tiredness. The Thracian had even lost his sword but fought on gallantly with his shield. The Myrmillion was at a sheer standstill some of the time but Fatigue finally got the better of the Thracian who successfully appealed to the crowd.

So, at the end of the games no fighter was killed, or even seriously injured and the only evident damage, apart from a lost sword was to various 'ego's.

We liked the gladiator classification, the movement (Action Points) and the Saving Throws. We were a little bit disappointed with the combat sequence which we will rewrite and hope to add some 'gore' to the game.

Seconds Out, Round Two: ... ... ...

... On the way to the Forum ...

Guess what I found on my way to the Forum, well actually I was rummaging through some boxes looking for 15mm ACW figures when I found these lying unpainted and unloved.

Some, if not all of them are 54mm by Irregular Miniatures, and just asked to be painted up, so I did.

This is, supposedly, a Myrmillion, but I am far from being an expert in this period.

A Thracian

I am told this is a Velites although it reminds me of a peltast.

A Samnite, said to be lucky fighters perhaps because they got a big shield.

The Retarius or net thrower.

The Gaul, most likely a war captive.

The Dimachaerus, daggers in both hands.

I have made up a simple arena using sand coloured Heroscape tiles, giving a total of 61 hexes in a super-hex with 5 hexes per face.

The rules I intend to use are 'Munera Sine Missione' which I got online from:

http://hordesofthethings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/munera-sine-missione-version-20.html

I'll perhaps let you know how we got on, thumbs up or thumbs down!!

Vapnartak 2013

Anyone going to Vapnartak 2013?

http://www.yorkwargames.org/Vapnartak.htm

I don't expect to see many of these fine chaps!

 

I suspect we will see some of these though!

 

This will probably be a shopping trip for me, I don't have enough figures yet!!

 

I may well get some of the fine Pendraken WW2 range or maybe some Kallistra Medievals.

 

Will you be going and what will you do when you get there?

 

 



General Winter Invades

Some lightly equipped troops have been observed in the neighbourhood.

General Winter has arrived

Well some decent snow has finally arrived in my neck of the woods.

 

Here is my personal transport which I don't really need to use until Monday morning.

I wonder if the snow will last that long!

For A Few Pieces of Resin More

An email from a contact in North Dakota commenting on the weather made me think of a recent internet purchase in the form of a few pieces of resin.

 

 

These will be feature pieces in some of my science fiction games whenever I get around to organising them again. They'll need a 'cool' paintjob first. (Pardon the Pun)

 

The Christmas Brigades - Off to War - Update

After a couple of lazy days as I'm still a bit under-the-weather I have brought the troops up to battle readiness.

Unfortunately BLOGGER has a problem with some Internet Explorer users being unable to upload images.

I will post images of the troops once I am allowed!!

<BLOGGER has allowed a workaround for the picture posting problem>

Here the new Brigade is lined up in Column of Regiments. The Colours are newly applied and have yet to be curled and receive a coat of gloss varnish.



 

 



25th New York Regiment



 



 

1st U.S. Sharpshooters (Berdan's)

 

In my ACW version of Featherstones Horse and Musket rules they are just another regiment of infantry. That may change in the future.

 



The Christmas Brigades - Basing

The obvious next stage is to base the troops.

I mark out 20mm squares on a sheet of plastic trying to make them as accurate as possible and also square. This will help ranking the figures up later.

Make enough bases for all the figures you have painted and the next batch and the next batch. A lot of time can be saved by preparing lots of bases in one go. You can also discard any 'duds' where your accuracy has let you down.

The painted troops with their gloss varnish completely dry can be removed from their painting sticks. Try and and keep the little blobs of Blue-Tac separate as you will be re-using them for the next batch of troops.

Using a contact adhesive glue the figures to their bases bearing in mind that the troops have to rank up neatly and any protuding parts have to avoid the adjacent figures. One thing which not obvious on these pictures is that the base of the drummer figure is exceeds 20mm in depth so I fix that by filing the base down to 19mm before I paint them. This will matter less if you are using deeper bases.

Finally I add a layer of self adhesive magnetic tape underneath the base as I use magnetic movement trays for my ACW troops. Try and keep the magnetic pole oriented the same way on each figure as sometimes the like poles can push figures apart.

84th New York

In response to a request from David Crook here are some pictures of my zouaves.

One of my painting inspirations. Yes I know it's a collectible card game but for 'Old School' it is fine!

Here they come marching to the sound of the camera!

A volunteer from the ranks.

One of my chums refers to them as a Regiment of Santa Clauses.