All Along The Wall - A New Campaign.

Chapter 1 - Seeds of War

The Druid stirred the entrails in the bowl. "Yes," he cried out to the heavens. "It is time to begin."

He dipped his hand in the blood and moved to the chief who sat warily watching the proceedings.

The Madness in the Druid's eyes had the chief flinch back before he smeared the blood across his cheeks.

"Lugus has blessed you. The auguries have decreed your success. You will drive the invaders from the isle and lead a host, the likes of which have never been seen before. You must get the fork of Lugus. The invaders have placed it in a shrine to one of their pathetic gods. Hercu...something. You must sieze the treasure and the tribes will gather to you."

Frang Allanach looked the mad druid in the eye. He was bolstered by the promises. He knew others had been so tempted in the past. His father had told him the tales, but this felt different. His tribe was small. But if he could accomplish something great, the other tribes would flock to his banner. He could be king north of the wall and eventually unite the country again. It was so tempting.

"Ancient father, where should we start?" Frang asked.

"Take your tribe and attack their trade. The villages nearest the wall trade with the invaders. Give them spine by showing them how to attack. Free them from dependence on Rome's excesses and they will join you."

"Will you join me?"

"Not yet. There is much to do and prepare. Raid their commerce. Then meet with me again."

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Centurion Lucius Tiburs readied his men. The Exploratores had brought back rumors of unrest to the north. Instead of the typical escort he decided to lead this one himself with most of his century. The merchants seemed dismissive of his caution but a little caution could go a long way.

His Auxilia were originally raised in Gaul but was largely Britons now. Replacements were taken from the local population. Near the fort was a numerous of sagitarii (archers). He managed to get a tent party assigned to the escort. He wanted cavalry, but that was a bit much to expect. Once the caravan was together, they marched out. There was a tent party in the lead acting as a skirmish screen. Two followed behind them in column. Then came the two carts of the merchants. The archers were deployed between the two carts. In the rear was the last two tent parties in column. With a shout, the skirmishers started out.

Lucius counted silently before issuing the orders to move out.

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The Campaign

I am starting a test campaign of Infamy, Infamy. This is the set up for the campaign that I am running. The Romans are escorting a group of merchants to a village north of the wall. The Britons are trying to ambush them. The introduction above was my reason for the encounter. A tribal chief is tempted to greatness. The Romans have a different back story that will ultimately involve an entire cohort of Auxilia before this is all said and done.

The Infamy, Infamy play test rules have been a treat to work with. They have been great fun so far and I have gotten a couple of games in to try it out already. Hopefully, the next post will be the after action report of the battle.

A Roman Interlude

I started putting together my Warbases 15mm Roman buildings. In a word, they are great. I got one of the villa sets. It comes with the main villa house, two towers and two long stores. Oh, and a pool. I have one store left to put together. It really looks good. I want to update the roof with plastic tile sheeting I think it will really make it pop. The second building that I bought was the mansio. This is a very complicated build but it looks excellent. I am still trying to figure it all out. their website has instructions for it but they are for the larger 28mm version. There are somethings that didn't make it to the 15mm version such as door hinges. But that does not matter to me.

The biggest aid I have in assembling this is a tray i bought that has magnets to help keep corners square. I forget who I bought it from but it is a huge help. It has allowed me to build my MDF terrain without worrying that my joins will be crooked.

On another track, I started to paint the chicken coop. Lots of interesting details modeled on it. Especially the chickens.

New Toys

In researching the Second Battle of Kharkov, I came across some toys that I "needed". These included some T-70s, T-60s, Matilda IIs and Valentine IIIs for the Soviets and some Panzer III Js and Panzer IV F2s for the Germans. I have not looked close enough at the Hungarians and Romanians to see if they had any armor in the area. Thus far, I think not.

Anyway, I went shopping. My first place was a new vendor. Well, they were not that new. Turns out I had bought some German trucks from them off of eBay before but then forgot about them. They now have their own website and offer a fantastic range of painted 15mm vehicles. Check them out: http://www.wargamemodelsinohio.com. My first order was still from their eBay store as I had not found their website yet. I grabbed up three Panzer III Js and two T-70s.

When I opened the box, I was pretty pleased with the overall look of the models. But the Panzers looked short to me. IN the picture below, you can see a Command Decision Panzer III hiding behind the back left tank. It is indeed slightly shorter. But, in the 3 models that I ordered of the same model, all three have different stowage on the back of the model! I thought that was pretty nice. It came painted with some mud on the tracks. A basic paint job but one that will work. I can throw on some markings and call them done. The T-70s I have nothing to compare them against so they are fine in my eyes.

One thing that is noticeable is the pitting in the surface of the vehicles. It is very noticeable in the T-70s in the front. I could take the time to fix it, but to the naked eye on the table, it won't be as noticeable as it is in the pictures. At $5/tank with no shipping through their eBay store, these are a great value.

But like any manufacturer, they don't have everything. I still have Matilda IIs and Valentine IIIs to get, as well as the Panzer IV f2. Cruising on over to my other favorite site, Gaming Models, I saw that Craig has both the Valentine and Matilda's that I want. Wargame Models of Ohio only has the Matilda II and the close support Valentine III. I sent him an order for three of each. I asked about the Panzer IV f2 and he said there was little difference between it and the G model. To prove it, he said he would chuck one in the box for me to check out for free. Great guy and excellent service. He has made models for me in the past and added them to his inventory. Anyway, those are still on order.

Lastly for me, I ran out of bases for my pirate miniatures. I have been basing my new Sharp Practice stuff on 20mm round bases that fit a Litko sabot base for them. Only using Sabots for the Spanish as my pirates will be not be able to take a formation. The good news is that I have now finished two groups of Spanish regulars and three groups of Spanish Militia. The bad news is, I ran out of the bases and can't complete them. I put in an order to Litko yesterday to fix that.

While I was basing things, I worked on some Soviets for my Cold War Chain of Command. I painted up six infantry wielding Aks with the under slung grenade launcher. I only had bases for 4 of them. The other two remain stranded on their painting stick. I am basing those guys on 10mm square bases. I have also finished out an AGS-17 team and a heavy MG team for the Soviets as well. I have more support options waiting in a drawer for bases to arrive before I start working on them.

Lastly, I had posted about a package of toys from England a few days ago. I saw that Warbases made their announcement about their new 15mm line of Roman buildings. That is what I received. I picked up the Mansio and a villa. They look great. However, there are a ton of parts. It will take some time to get those together. Until then, they reside in a drawer.

Birthdays and other stuff

Well my birthday has come and gone, but the sale is extended till Saturday at midnight.

I have an interesting weekend planned. My wife is going to North Carolina for the weekend for some scrapbook retreat. My son and I are to accompany her. The surprise for me was the invitation to bring some miniatures with us and paint. Well this had me rummaging through my cabinets to see what I want to work on. The first few drawers in the cabinet are all AWI related. My Rebels are in pretty good shape. I have plenty of militia infantry at this point to do most of what I want.

My provincials on the other hand are sorely lacking. My next AWI supplement, I am determined to have pictures of my miniatures in it. So I have a large number of provincials in the take with us box. Lots of Old Glory and Lancashire casts there as well as a gun and gun crew. I am bringing enough that I should be able to finish off a company sized unit at 1 to 1. At the moment I have but 11 painted provincials plus an officer, drummer and flag bearer.

Next up, I put my Santa Clause figures into the mix so I can get those painted up. The sculpts are pretty nice. I just hope my painting does justice to them. I think they are a unique addition to my target's existing collection.

Lastly, some Roman infantry has entered the box. Yep, the 16 sword armed Auxilia from the two packs of Corvus Beli are on the way to the mountains this weekend. As well as a couple of Centurions. Then my command elements are resolved.

While we are talking about Romans, I have decided on how to finish off the roof on my watchtower. I found some HO scaled roof tiles that look like what I want. I am going to buy that and see how it goes.

Sorry for the lack of posting but my motivation is at an all time low for some reason.

Buying more Toys - The Roman Legions Grow

Eureka Minatures has offered a special for free shipping from Austrailia for the month of December if you are a subscriber to their newsletter. This seemed like a great time to try out some figures.

Image taken from here: http://www.viajesconmitia.com/category/nuestra-tia-recomienda/musica-ratonera/

I had been eyeing some of the AB Romans for a while. I love their Napoleonics. The Romans looked as good in the pictures so I ordered a couple of sample figures, namely their Pilus Primus, Centurion and Optio figures. For some reason the line does not have any Auxiliary figures. But these looked like dandy big men. We will see how well they mix with Rebel and Corvus Belli Romans.

While cruising through their catalog, I saw that they sold Museum Miniatures from their website as well. I could not find any images of these figures anywhere. What interested me was that they had a variety of Auxiliary miniatures that included Auxiliary Musician, Standard, Centurian, Infantry. On the Eureka site, they sell these as individual figures. From Museum, they are sold as packs of 8. There are two different codes for Auxiliary Infantry so I am assuming that there are only two poses of these fellows. I will soon find out.

So I will have a force of Romans that is very command heavy at the moment. I have lots of command figures and now 2 infantrymen on order. My next order will be for a pack of the Rebel Auxiliary Infantry. Those look like they only have 2 poses as well. I will probably get a few packs of Corvus Belli as well. Ultimately I will need to get some packs of shields from Corvus Belli to make sure that shields matches between the units. Also I will only have to buy one type of shield transfer. According to the Red Rampant site, I probably want a shield that features an eagle with lightning bolts as the unit I want to model had Roman Citizens: Cohors II Raetorum civium Romanorum equitata.

I will start with the infantry and add some cavalry later.

Projects Gaining Momentum

I have two projects that I have been tinkering with lately. The first is a Zulu War/Ninth Frontier War project. Well, I just committed to buying some miniatures for this. I decided to go the 10mm route. I picked up the Pendraken Zulu packs that are available. That gives me 30 Zulus, 10 command figures and a chief. A way top heavy organization at this point but there will be more sooner or later. I think the scale will give a very nice mass effect and allow me to field hundreds of them on the table at once. We will see how this develops. Buying them is one thing. Getting them painted is something else entirely.

For the Zulu project, the next order will be from Steve Barber miniatures with their Zulu starter pack. Who knows, maybe after Christmas. Anyway, I have two scenarios fleshed out for the Ninth Frontier War that I need to game out. We will see how it works.

Next up is my Germanic Limes project. I have picked up the Rebel Miniatures command pack a while back that just this week got an undercoat of paint on it. I also just ordered the two Corvus Belli Command packs form the War Store. Again, very top heavy at this point as I have NO troops, just leaders. I will flesh them out at some point but this will be just a trial run to begin with. Corvus has some really nice packs that I want. The marching troops with mules and their excellent ballista with cart are on my want lists. But those are future things. I need to come up with some infantry first.

Welcome and other ramblings.

Since the last post, we have had Inchigh74 join the ranks here at Wargamers Odd's & Ends. he runs the blog 1914-45. It is a sight that oddly enough covers wargames taking place between 1914 and 1945. Stop on by and take a look.

I still can't get my mind off of the Early Imperial Romans. The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to look at gaming around the Limes fortifications on the German frontier. If you have any interest in this, one site that caught my eye that I am reading away on is the JAMES CURLE's A ROMAN FRONTIER POST AND ITS PEOPLE: The Fort of Newstead in the Parish of Melrose that can be found on http://www.curlesnewstead.org.uk/index.htm. There is also a PDF of this floating around as well but the site has been very nice reading.

I am getting tempted to attempt to build a Roman fort in 6mm with some Baccus Roman figures for larger scale actions and then a watchtower in 15mm for use with skirmish figures. Just not sure what I want to do. There is the Hotz's Roman Seas sets for terrain as well. There are some nice looking buildings there. Basically everything to build one of the Roman Legionary forts plus a nice Roman town outside the fort's walls. If nothing else, it would provide a template to work with to attempt to make my own. According to the web site they should not be hard to put together. Then again, I am likely to glue my fingers together as well.

Given that my scratch building efforts are not that great, what is out there? Well, JR Miniatures has a Mile fort. Several places have Roman tents. Just not sure what else is out there.