Projects for 2021 and completed projects from 2020

Back in January of last year I posted the following projects for 2020. Projects for 2020 are as follows: All are 6mm unless noted otherwise. 

Complete Late Roman/Byzantine army completed 

 Complete Sassanid army completed 

 Add cavalry to Achaemenid army completed 

 Finish Warbands not started 

 Make additional built up areas in progress 

 Make pine Forest not started 

 I have a dozen two foot square interlocking mats that have been painted a light brown to finish in progress 

 I have a bunch of 28mm Fantasy figures in various stages of painting to finish. Finished some armies, working on others 

 Add a few more 28mm science fiction building paper buildings. completed 

 In addition to the above I also completed a 28mm sci-fi alien battle group, sci-fi IFV's and tanks. I could have done quite a bit more, but spent the later part of the year doing things other than wargaming. 

This year I will be working on the items that were not completed. The 6mm warbands and the pine forest are the lowest priority at the moment. The 6mm built up areas, two foot square interlocking terrain mats, and the remaining 28mm fantasy have the higher priority.

Byzantine and Sassanid Persian Cavalry

I finished basing the Sassanid and Byzantine cavalry that I painted this month.  The figures are all from the Baccus 6mm Sassanid Persian line.  Currently no one makes all the figures needed for Early and Maurikian Byzantine armies.  However, by adding shields and paint, I was able to convert the Sassanid cavalry to close approximations of the Byzantine counterparts.

I was able to locate a set of 3mm and 1.5mm paper hole punches.   2mm would have been a better size for the Byzantine shields and with the 1.5mm punch being too small I used the 3mm punch.  I had hoped to use Paintshop Pro to reduce the late Roman shield patterns from the Notitia Dignitatum, but they were too detailed and did not print correctly.  I ended up just printing red on cardstock and punching out the shields that I glued to the figures.

The Sassanids are on the left and the Byzantines are on the right.  There are 180 armored horse archers in the back, 180 lance and bow cavalry and 18 command figures.   The Byzantines have 144 lance and bow cavalry on unarmored horses in the back, 144 armored horse archers in the middle, 72 lance and bow cavalry on partly armored horses in the front, and 8 command figures.   I have other command figures for the Byzantines also, but those are from a while back.   The 72 figures on the partly armored horses were in a previous post.  I will be adding flock to the unfinished bases later today.



I was painting these figures throughout the month while taking breaks to paint the Achaemenids and NKE's.
The Achaemenid cavalry that I finished earlier this month are here
and the New Kingdom Egyptian army is here

The total figures painted for this month are 923 mounted, 677 foot and chariot crewmen, 30 chariots, and 60 chariot horses.

Sassanid Persians and Byzantines

I am in the process of replacing my Sassanid Persian and Byzantine armies.   I did have armies composed of figures from Heroics and Ros, but sold them to another club member a while back.  I would have kept them, but the figures were based on outdated information.  Currently only Baccus makes updated figures for Sassanid Persians.   Unfortunately they do not make Early Byzantine or Maurikian Byzantine figures.   However, with a bit of painting and adding shields to the armored horse archers and the lancers on unarmored horses the figures will pass for Byzantines.

The following pictures are of the 180 Sassanid Persian armored horse archers and the 72 Byzantine cavalry on partially armored horses.   I still have 180 armored lancers to paint for the Sassanid Persians, 144 armored horse archers for the Byzantines, and 144 lancers on unarmored horses for the Byzantines.

To distinguish the Byzantines from the Sassanid the Byzantine cavalry will have iron armor for the partially armored horses while the Sassanids will have bronze armor for their horses.  I also gave the Byzantine cavalry red standards and shields while the Persian standards and shields will be in multiple colors.   I did try reducing and printing shields from the Notitia Dignitaum, but the images would not print clearly.

 The Byzantines

The Sassanid Persians

Achaemenid Persian Cavalry

I completed the second set of figures this morning.   They are from the four different sets of Achaemenid cavalry made by Baccus 6mm.  There should have been a total of 180 figures, but six of them were from some other nation.

New Kingdom Egyptians

One of the clubs that I belong to has a painting "competition" for the month of April.  The option of the contest is to paint as many of unpainted figures as possible.

Today I completed one of the painting projects that I am working on this month.   The army has three "divisions representing the Amun, Re, and Suktekh divisions.   Each division was given a specific color to differentiate them. These are red, yellow, and blue.  In addition to the three main formations there is the Pharaoh in front center, two additional commanders, two units of guard infantry and one unit of Nubian archers.

Each Division has four units of archers, two units of close order fighters, one unit of Nubian archers, one unit of light infantry and 9 units of chariots.  The middle chariot in the front row is the division commander.  There are 176 infantry figures in each division, 18 charioteers plus one standard bearer, 18 horses and the 9 chariots.

The guards have 64 figures plus the 16 Nubians  The Pharaoh and commanders have 12 figures and
one mounted scout plus the chariots and horses.   Total figures painted for this army is 678 figures, 61 horses, and 30 chariots.  Except for the Pharaoh, who I purchased from Baccus, all figures are from Rapier Miniatures.

South Bay Gaming Club meeting March 14

There were four games at the club meeting today.   Form on the Admiral's wake (age of sale0 rung by Bob,  American War of Independence in 54mm run by nick,  WW2 air run by Chuck, and a fictional modern armor game run by me.

This was the battle of Salon de Companerismo had the Union Federal de Buena Vista first division fighting the first division of the Republica  Democratica Popular de la Cucaracha.   The UFBC first division had three combat brigades and one divisional artillery brigade.   The combat brigades had one brigade with two tank battalions, two puma battalions, an engineer battalion and one artillery battalion, one brigade with one tank battalion, three puma battalions, one engineer battalion, and an artillery battalion, and one brigade with three boxer battalions and an engineer battalion.   The divisional artillery brigade had three MRL battalions and one AA battalion.

The RDOC had a brigade with three tank battalions, one BMP battalion, and an raillery battalion.  The second brigade had two tank battalions, two BMP battalions and one artillery battalion. The third and fourth brigades had one tank battalion, one BMP battalion, two BTR80a battalions and one artillery battalion. The divisional artillery brigade had three artillery battalions, one MRL battalion, and one AA battalion.

The rules used were Lightning War - Red Storm, which are available for free from  LWRS group.io   We did use some house rules for the game as we kept the ground scale to one kilometer per 10cm (four inches) instead of the recommended doubling for the modern period and  changed the quality ratings by increasing them by 5 and using a roll of two dice instead of a single die roll for activating formations.  The table was 24km square.

View of the battlefield from the northwest

At the start of each turn two six side dice were rolled for each brigade and any modifiers are added.   For this scenario there were none.   Both sides were rated as good with a rating of 8 for all units except the RDPC artillery brigade. which was fair with a rating of 7  The die roll is used to determine the order of activation for each combat formation (brigades for this game). The score for each of the formations on both sides determines the order of movement for the turn.   The highest score can move first or choose to move later in the turn.  This gives the higher scores an advantage over lower scores as they can choose to move when it is to their best advantage.  The next higher score now has a choice of moving or deferring their move to later also.   The same applies to each formation in turn and can force the formation with the lowest score to move first.  This process is repeated until all formations have moved.

Indirect fire is then resolved followed by  direct fire.   It is possible for artillery fire to disorganize a formation which would then cause it to only fire with half its combat factors.   Artillery fire is not guaranteed as the unit calling the fire has to roll equal to or less than the artillery formations quality rating and calling divisional artillery has an additional negative modifier applied to its rating.  Artillery fire is very good at disorganizing units, but causing casualties on armored units is difficult due to the save modifiers.   Infantry in built up areas can also be very difficult to cause casualties on.

The UFBV used march and road movement to move quickly forward and gain a positional advantage over the RDPC.   At first casualties were very light.   The RDPC was advancing from the east and managed to occupy the town on the south center edge of the battle field.   The UFCV advanced towards that town and prepared to storm it with a pair of infantry battalions.  Artillery and direct fire had disorganized the DRPC defenders. If the UFBC could roll high enough for initiative on the next turn the two battalions would be able to move first and assault the defenders before they were able to recover from disorganization.  They were able to do so and their assault drove the defenders from the town.

View of the town on the turn prior to the assault on it.

Center of the battlefield on the same turn viewed from the southeast

Attacks by the RDPC to the south of that town were halted and driven back  In the center part of the table UFBV artillery and direct fire badly damaged another couple of RDPC battalions.

On the northern flank neither side was making much progress.   Artillery and direct fire from a Leopard 2 tank battalion damaged another BTR battalion.

Combat had taken a full rules day of six turns.  Both sides paused for the night and combat resumed in the early morning of the next day.  At this point UFBV artillery and direct fire took a toll on RDPC units. By the end of turn eight the two RDPC brigades on the southern half of the table had two exhausted battalions with possibly more by the end of the next turn.  It was judged a UFBV victory. We had played for about four hours with a short lunch break included.      

End of turn five.   RDPC tanks would occupy the hill in the left center and their infantry would occupy the town to the left of it.  UFBV infantry would advance up the road towards the town and the tank battalion on the road in the right center would advance through the town in the bottom center then deploy above it.

                                                                                                             
We have tried several different rule sets including Fistful of Tows, Spearhead, Cold War//Blitzkrieg Commander and others.   These played the fastest of all of them and were easy to comprehend and use.  The rules are available for free from https://groups.io/g/LWRS

Scutarii at MWS meeting

Dave Howard and I got together for a game at the MWS meeting on February 16.   The armies were Pyrrhus and Republican Rome.  Keith also participated on my side commanding the left flank.  While Rolf and Frank assisted Dave.     The armies totaled 420 points each.   The Romans had a full consular army of two Roman legions and two Latin Ala totaling 16,800 infantry and 2400 cavalry.   Pyrrhus had 2400 cavalry, 12 Elephants, 14000 Greek and Macedonian phalangites, 4000 Tarantine Phalangites and 1500 mercenaries.

I planned an echelon attack leading with my right flank and having Keith hold back the left flank.   The Romans spread out on the wings of the battle.   Keith was presented with the opportunity of attacking the two Roman cavalry units on his flank with all three of his cavalry units and charged into them.   Unfortunately his die rolls were not effective.   The Romans were able to bring up infantry units to envelop his cavalry and eventually destroy them along with capturing the general commanding them.   This left our left flank in a dangerous position with the Romans having enough troops available to overwhelm it.

On the right flank I was initially successful breaking some of the velites and cavalry opposing me.   However, Pyrrhus and a couple of other cavalry units became embroiled in a fight with several Roman cavalry units.   Eventually both my cavalry and Dave's would be destroyed, but Pyrrhus managed to extricate himself.   One of the elephant units broke and rampaged into my right flank phalanx unit causing little damage before eventually succumbing to wounds.

In the center the legions and the phalanx units were engaged in combat all along the front.  As Roman units became exhausted they were replaced by units from the second and eventually the third line.   The phalanx units were also being worn down.   One of the Tarantine units had become shaken and might have broken in another round or two of combat.   Having broken some of the velites on the Roman left I had a cavalry unit in position to threaten the flank of the Roman center.   the Romans countered by shifting some Triarii to counter this.  Because the Romans had spread their army out they had stripped some of the Triarii from back rank this left them without enough replacement units for the combat in the center.  At this point we called the game.  During the next round of combat several Roman units would have been destroyed and would have likely caused most of the remaining infantry in the center to flee.

The cavalry on both of our flanks had suffered severe casualties, but with the Roman center broken we would have been able to counter any flanking moves by the remaining Romans.  Roman losses were about 5000 or so as we did not have enough cavalry to pursue the 10,000 routers.   Our losses were about 1800 cavalry and several hundred infantry.   A Pyrrhic victory.

 Beginning of game Romans on the far side are advancing.

Our opening move.  On the following turn the phalanx units would move towards the left to more directly confront the Romans.  My right flank cavalry and elephants were heading towards the gap between the legions and the Roman left flank cavalry.  Dave on the right and Rolf on the left. (Photo by Mike O'Brien)

Projects for 2020 and a review of projects for 2019

Back at the beginning of 2019 I posted my project plans for 2019.   These are listed in black with status in Red   All Projects are 6mm unless noted otherwise.

Finish Late Roman/ Byzantine army  Still to be done
Finish Sassanid Persian Army  Still to be done
Finish Warbands  Still to be done
Finish lace wars armies  Completed
Finish Napoleonic armies.  Completed
Purchase and paint modern engineering equipment after GHQ finishes releasing the vehicles for early this year.  Completed
Make 2mm towns and villages. (counted about 40 for one scenario)  Dropped plans for 2mm army
Make some more 6mm towns, villages, and farms.  Made some, more to do
Finish painting 2mm armies.  Replaced with 6mm Franco-Prussian and completed
Paint about a dozen 25mm sci-fi figures I dug out of storage.   (yes, they are actually 25mm figures from 35 years ago)  Completed
Make jungle.  Got some left over palm trees and bamboo to place on Litko hexes.  Completed
Make pine forest.   Bump chenille on Litko hexes.  Started

Items that were added and completed
purchased and painted some 1:285 Leopard 2 Revolutions
Finished painting some 28mm fantasy figures.
Finished the 28mm castle
Purchased and painted some 28mm science fiction figures
Printed and assembled a 28mm spaceship using World Works Games First Light, expansion, and other sets.
Printed and Assembled the 28mm Desert Village and Desert Fort sets from Wargames Vault.
Printed and assembled a 28mm Science Fiction town using World Works Games Mars Station set.
While most of the above were not reported on the blog, they can be seen in several of the blog posts.

Projects for 2020 are as follows:

All are 6mm unless noted otherwise.
Complete Late Roman/Byzantine army
Complete Sassanid army
Add cavalry to Achaemenid army
Finish Warbands
Make additional built up areas
Make pine Forest
I have a dozen two foot square interlocking mats that have been painted a light brown to finish
I have a bunch of 28mm Fantasy figures in various stages of painting to finish.
Add a few more 28mm science fiction buillding paper buildings.

End of Year Gaming

I haven't  posted for the last couple of months.   During that time I have participated in a several games,  run a couple at the conquest Avalon convention and painted some additional items.

At Conquest Avalon I spent Saturday gaming, taking part in a French and Indian War game using Rank and File which ended in a draw,  a Ridiculous Vanity game where my king charged the opposing commander and due to an extremely unlucky set of die rolls ended up dying,  and a KISS Rommel game commanding the British at Toburk.    The British were overrun.  On Sunday I ran a Franco-Prussian War game using 1871 rules.   This was two Prussian line corps vs a French four division corps which was a draw.

I also ran a Franco-Prussian war game at the Miniature Wargaming Society of Sacramento using Bloody Big Battles this was Prussian victory.  Of the two rule sets 1871 played better, but was not that satisfying a game.   I will be trying Rank and File for a Franco-Prussian War game in 2020.

After trying KISS Rommel, I went looking for a better set of rules for large scale battles.  I found the turn sequence for KISS Rommel which had the moving side doing all the firing with no return fire from the defending side to allow one side to gain a distinct advantage.  The Tobruk game used a die roll for initiative.   On one turn the Germans chose to move second, moved up to range and attacked the British causing a few casualties and removing some of the defensive works and mine fields.  On the following turn they again won the initiative, moved first this time and took out more of the defenders, while breaking through the defenses.   At this point there were not enough British left to stem the German tide.

The last game of the year was a fictional lace wars game set in H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen universe.   I again commanded the Ilter army.   The scenario was from the Wargame scenario book.   We got to choose seven units from the list of forces available,  I choose a heavy cavalry unit, five infantry units, and the two artillery piece unit.   The opposing side chose the two artillery piece unit and six infantry units one of which was light infantry.   Both sides got to designate one of their units as veteran and would use a die roll to determine which of the other units was raw.   I choose on of the infantry units to be veteran as did our opponents.  Both sides die rolls resulted in one of the other infantry units being raw.   Both sides had two subordinate commanders.  One of them was aggressive and the other was not willing to follow orders.   I did not know what they were like as Mike, the gamemaster told them in private prior to the start of the game.

We started the game in road column with one unit on the table and the rest following behind.  Fortunately my aggressive commanders units were the second command in the column and my insubordinate commander was the last in line.   I lead with the heavy cavalry, followed by the grenadiers.   The other two commands had two infantry units and one of the two guns.

We won initiative for the first turn and my cavalry quickly headed down the road and turned left at the junction.  The Grenadiers and the next command followed.   The third command headed off the road to the right to secure our right flank.

On the second turn my cavalry moved into position to threaten the flank of the lead two infantry battalions.  The opposing side had occupied the village with another of their infantry units, had another marching behind the village and woods to their right flank, had the two guns occupy a hill to the left of the village and had the other two infantry in front of the guns.   My grenadiers move up to the central inn at the junction.  The second command deployed the gun to the right of the inn and moved up the infantry just to the left of the grenadiers with the lead battalion on the hill.  The third command move up and deployed its gun and infantry on the right on the following turn. Due to their guns being deployed back on the hill they were firing at long range while ours were firing at intermediate range with twice the effectiveness of theirs.

On the third turn the enemy's lead battalion charged my grenadiers.   The fire from my grenadiers was not enough to halt the charge and a bloody fight ensued for control of the inn.  Both sides lost half their men and my grenadiers were forced back.  Meanwhile my cavalry charged the second battalion of infantry and routed it.   On the following turn the cavalry again charged causing that unit to run further and then hitting the enemy grenadiers in the flank routing them.    Over the course of four turns Princess Gwendolyn's regiment of horse would engage in the two charges and come under fire multiple times from the enemy's infantry.  They were able to extricate themselves from that situation and move to the left flank of our aggressive commander's infantry with only one of six bases having been lost.

Our aggressive commander had regained control of the inn and the survivors of the grenadier battalion moved up to occupy it.  While all this was happening our right flank and guns had been engaging  in a fire fight with their opposites.

The enemy's aggressive commander was the one opposing ours.   One of his infantry units charged ours on the hill and was thrown back.  This set up the situation where our infantry unit and the heavy cavalry would be able to make a joint charge into the unit that had been thrown back.  Our artillery and musket fire caused one of the infantry units in the center of their line to loose over half its men and rout.   One of our gun crews had been driven from their guns by the enemy artillery, but was able to return to their gun the next turn. Our right flank command had taken some losses during the exchange of musket and artillery fire.

At this point the game was called  as a victory for our side.  with three of the opposing infantry units having fled the battle.   Our grenadiers were at half strength and only good for occupying the inn or defending.   One unit of infantry on both sides were still at full strength.   All the other infantry on both sides had taken casualties, but were still effective.  With the game called we were not able to make the combined cavalry and infantry charge we had set up.   A lucky result for us would have seen a fourth enemy unit routed and destroyed.  

The following pictures were taken by Mike, our game master.

 End of the first turn.  My cavalry on the road at the bottom.

 Turn three charges by our cavalry and their infantry at the inn in the middle

 Turn four the cavalry continues charging into the flank of the opposing grenadiers.

 Another view of turn four.

 End of game our cavalry and infantry are preparing to charge.

 End of game from behind the other army

.End of game.   Our army is on the left and the other is on the right.  The unit at the bottom of the picture is their grenadiers who had recovered from being broken by our cavlary.  Our right flank had fallen back due to casualties, but was still in good order.  Their guns are on the hill at the bottom right and their other two infantry units are to the right center with one on the road and the other at the base of the hill.  The unit on the road would have taken fire from both our guns, the grenadiers and the second line of infantry on the hill for a total of 12 dice  while the cavalry and the first line would have charged the unit at the base of the hill.  While it was not guaranteed there was the chance that both of those units would have broken.

Franco-Prussian War Project Part Seven

I finished painting and basing all the baggage wagons and limbers and I am in the process of adding the flags I printed to both armies.   The Prussians have been finished and the French are about one-third completed.   This will be finished this weekend, leaving only flocking the bases as I have time.  The armies will have their first outing at the South Bay Gaming Club meeting on the second weekend of October.

I used some flags I found on the Warflag website and others from the L'Armee de Napoleon III book.  Paintshop Pro is the graphics program I used to reduce them to the proper size for the figures.    This program allows me to keep the detail of the flags as they are reduced in size.  As an example of how this is done I will use an original image that is 25mm from the bottom of the flag to the top and has a resolution of 72 dots per inch.  It will be reduced to a height of 5mm which is one-fifth of the original.   In order to keep the detail from becoming blurred I multiply the dots per inch by a factor of five, which is the reciprocal of one-fifth, resulting in a resolution of 360 dots per inch.

After reducing and saving them to a folder on my computer, I then copied them into a word document.   The images were copied as many times as needed with some extras.   After cutting them out they were folded and glued to the cast flags of the figures.

Below are pictures of the printed flags.   These are all about 5mm tall.  The first picture shows almost the entire set of printed flags.   All German flags are from the Warflag website. From top to bottom there is Bavaria, Saxony, Baden, Wurtemberg, Hesse, Prussian cavalry, Prussian infantry,   French flags from Warflag,  and French flags from the L'Armee book.  I kept the guard flags separate from the others at the bottom

The next two images are closeups that I hope show the detail of the flags.

Franco-Prussian War project part six

Finished painting and basing the French line cavalry yesterday.   I ended up with more than I had originally intended to.   While I was doing the Germans I realized that I had forgotten to include the army reserve artillery.  I also found a few more figures in my collection that I had previously missed.  Fortunately I came across an Ebay listing for 13 packs of French infantry, cavalry and artillery and was able to win them at the minimum bid price.  This, with shipping, was still less than purchasing the additional infantry and guns that I needed.  The additional cavalry also allowed me to put six figures on each cavalry base instead of the five that I would have had to do previously.  I still ended up with eight more units of cavalry than I had planned.

The entire French army now consists of the Guard Corps and ten infantry divisions in three line corps.   There is a cavalry division in each of the corps and enough for the three reserve cavalry divisions.  The purchase also allowed me to replace the ACW Zouaves that I was using for the guard Zouaves.

The additional figures I came across in my collection also added enough to increase the Prussian infantry divisions to seven.   I will eventually purchase some additional infantry and guns to add an eighth infantry division making three Prussian line infantry corps, the Prussian Guard corps, a Bavarian corps, and two reserve cavalry divisions..  This will be just about enough to do Mars-la-Tour.  

The picture below has the cuirassiers, chasseurs and hussars in the left column from front to back and the dragoons and lancers in the right column.  In 1868 new uniform regulations were issued for the line cavalry.   The dragoons would keep their helmets, but would be changing their green tunic for a dark blue one.   The lancers, hussars, and chasseurs would all exchange their head gear for red kepis.   The Hussars and chasseurs would exchange their traditional uniforms for a blue tunic that was lighter than the dragoons and cuirassiers.   This change was only partially implemented by 1870.   Le Armee de Napoleon III shows all kinds of combinations of uniform pieces in the various cavalry regiments.  Hussar regiments are shown in their traditional uniform colors with both the red kepi and their original head wear.   I decided to paint the chasseurs and dragoons in a mix of units that have some in their new uniforms and some in their old uniforms.   One regiment of lancers has the red kepi.  The figures are actually Rush's lancers from the ACW range that I had spares of.

This only leaves limbers, wagons, and generals to finish painting and flags to add to the units.

Franco-Prussian War Part Five

Finished the French infantry.   Still have the French cavalry and Generals and the baggage to complete.   Below are the final five divisions consisting of a total of 960 infantry.   Troops are based on 1.5 inch by .75 inch bases (38mmx19mm) with 16 figures per base.   These are for the 1871 rules where each base represents a battalion.  All figures are Heroics and Ros.

Terminator and Cimmerian

I recently purchased some tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from Kurzwell Corporation   They are listed as heavy ifv and Leopard 3 6mm.   They are based on the video of the hypothetical version of the Leopard 3 on  YouTube .   They arrived in the mail on Saturday and I was finally able to start painting them today.   They have all been primed with green spray primer and are now having the other two colors applied.  Clicking on the pictures will provide an enlarged view.

Fresh from the paint shop.   I went with NATO three color for these to distinguish them from the Domain vehicles.   The tank and the IFV are similar in size to the Darkest Star Federation vehicles I am using for the Domain which can be seen here.   I still have eight more of each to finish and base.

 They are more expensive than GHQ, but this does make a good future MBT.   I have decided to use Cimmerian as the name for the MBT

 This is the IFV version.   The hull is the same as the MBT.  The turret is based on the Russian BMPT-72, also known as The Terminator.    The turret of the Russian vehicle has a pair of 30mm auto-cannons and two pairs of ATGMs mounted on the sides.  It doesn't show in the photos, but there is a rear hatch.

 I chose the MBT name to go with the nickname given to the Russian vehicle as an obvious reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger's two more well known movie series.  There had been plans for a new Conan movie starring Schwarzenegger as the older King Conan, but that has apparently collapsed.

 All nine IFVs finished

 All nine MBTs

 left side view.

IFV  right side

MBT right side

I need to figure out vehicle stats for the two vehicles for both Future War Commander and Fist Full of Tows 3.   Both rule sets are one vehicle equals a platoon, so once I have finished painting them I will have a battalion of each.

May Painting Projects

Got a few projects painted this past month.  I am working my way through the unpainted figures.  Still have quite a ways to go.

216 Hellenistic Zystophoroi.   These are Baccus Prodomoi figures being used for the heavy cavaalry.  They are made with a strip of three different poses.   The middle pose is the same as their Companion figure

 288 Indian Infantry.  These are also from Baccus

 256 ACW Confederate infantry.   Figures are a mix of Baccus and Rapier.   Baccus has two poses in their skirmish pack.   Standing shooting and standing loading with no command figures.  Rapier makes standing shooting, kneeling shooting, standing loading, three different advancing poses, a march attack pose, and three different command packs.

256 ACW Union infantry.   The flags were made by reducing larger scale flags using Paintshop Pro.   Original flags were about 30mm tall at 72 dots per inch.  They were reduced to about 6mm and the dots per inch were increased to 360.  This kept the same level of detail as the originals.

Industrial Park

Finished assembling a set of industrial buildings and a factory from IliadaGameStudio    Most paper buildings are usually residential structures or churches.  Modern industrial buildings are rare.   I added a residential house from one of the other sets to the factory to make an office annex. 

The industrial set includes a page of pavement.   I printed that on paper and cut sections from it for parking areas and driveways.   Thanks to the texturing of the pavement the seams where the sections are joined on the modular sections are almost invisible.  I used white glue to adhere the pavement to the mat board and glue the buildings in place.  In a couple of places this caused a few stains that added  the effect of oil stains from vehicles.

In addition to the three round tanks, three rectangular buildings, and two Quonset huts the industrial set also includes nine 40 foot containers one of which is the red one at the center right.  There are two additional structures that can be added as desired on the building at the top right.

The buildings are on modular sections that can be arranged in various ways.

Eumenes 2 vs Antigonas 0 part 2

The second game was played on Sunday at the Miniature Wargaming Society of Sacramento.   The first game can be viewed at http://18clovehamhock.blogspot.com/2018/04/eumenes-2-vs-antigonas-0-part-one.html   Gary and Dave commanded Antigonos' army while John and John commanded Eumene's troops.

The armies for both games were as follows.   Where two numbers are shown for number of units this indicates left and right flanks respectively.  The elephants are listed as left, center, and right.  Troop numbers and types are based on the discussion on the Society of Ancients forum from the past year.  In Scutarii ach unit represents about 500 infantry, 300-500 cavalry (300 for this battle) or four to five elephants.  Infantry and cavalry units had two bases each and  the elephants had one base.  the rules do allow for using a single base for cavalry or infantry units.

There are some discrepancies in the number of troops in Diodorus account of the battle.  This was discussed on the Society of Ancients Forum prior to April.  Patrick Waterson suggested a remedy to the difference in the number of cavalry between the overall numbers and the individual unit totals by reducing the formation of 2200 Tarentine cavalry to 200 as there were seldom any great numbers of them and assigning 100 men to the formation that did not have any listed.   There is no mention of light infantry in the account of the battle, but about 20,000 light infantry were provided to Eumenes by his supporters and light infantry are mentioned previously in Antigonos army.   Hellenist armies often provided a light infantry escort for the elephants of 40 to 50 men.   This would require about 3000 of the mercenaries in Antigonos army and account for about 6000 men in Eumenes army.  The disposition of the other 12000 that are estimated to have been present presents a bit of a problem.  If they are part of the elephant screen then they would either extend out past the flanks of the main battle line or form a solid line in front of it.

The players had some leeway in where they deployed their troops other than the phalanx centers.   They had to keep their cavalry units on their historical flanks and the elephants kept their basic groupings of left, center, and right.   The extra light infantry in Eumenes army ended up being deployed to the right of the phalanx in a sixteen rank deep formation, similar to the deployment of the light infantry in the Seleucid army at Raphia.

Under units where there are two numbers that is the number of units on the left and right flanks respectively.  For the elephants the three numbers are for left, center, and right.

Antigonos
UNIT	ATTACK	DEFENSE	MISSILE	MOVE	MORALE	POINTS	UNITS	POINTS
ANTIGONOS	ADD 1	X	X	14"	+/- 1 OR 0	free	1	0
Generals	ADD 1	X	X	14"	+/- 1 OR 0	free	9	0
Bodyguard	5	5	X	12"	11	12	0,1	12
Companion	4	5	X	12"	11	11	7,3	110
Heavy Cav.	3	5	(2")	12", 14"	10	8	5,3	64
Thracian horse	3	4	(2")	12", 14"	11	8	0,3	24
Horse Archers	2	4	4"	12", 14"	11	9	3,0	27
Mercenary horse	3	5	(2")	12", 14"	11	9	0.2	18
Tarantine cavalry	3	5	(2")	12", 14"	11	10	1,0	10
Macedonian phalanx	3	6	X	6"	11	9	16	144
Pantipodoi	3	6	X	6"	10	8	16	128
Mercenary Peltast	3	5	(2")	6", 8"	11	8	12	96
Lycians etc	3	5	(2")	6", 8"	11	7	6	42
Elephamt and Lt Inf escort	4	6	4"	8"	10	13	3,6,7	208
								883
Eumenes
UNIT	ATTACK	DEFENSE	MISSILE	MOVE	MORALE	POINTS	UNITS	POINTS
EUMENES	ADD 1	X	X	14"	+/- 1 OR 0	free	1	0
Generals	ADD 1	X	X	14"	+/- 1 OR 0	free	9	0
Bodyguard	5	5	X	12"	11	12	0,1	12
Companion	4	5	X	12"	11	11	6,4	99
Heavy Cav.	3	5	(2")	12", 14"	10	8	1,2	24
Light Cav	3	4	(2")	12", 14"	10	7	2.2	28
Thracian horse	3	4	(2")	12", 14"	11	8	2,0	16
HYP and Silver Shield pike	4	6	X	6"	11	10	12	120
Mercenary Phalanx	3	6	X	6"	11	9	12	108
Pantipodoi	3	6	X	6"	10	8	10	80
Light Infantry	2	4	6"	6", 8"	10	6	24	144
Elephamt and Lt Inf escort	4	6	4"	8"	10	13	10,10, 10	390
								1021

This time the Antigonid left flank cavalry was not as aggressive.  The horse archers did move out to the flank and skirmished with opposing cavalry, but the other cavalry remained where it was in the battle line.   The elephants of both armies engaged each other.  On the other flank Antigonos' cavalry was gaining the upper hand and had driven off some of the opposing cavalry.   The opposing phalanxes eventually made contact and after a drawn out fight lasting much longer than the previous game the Silver Shields again routed their opponents.   The rout of the Antigonid center ended the battle with Gary and Dave conceding the game.   Losses for Eumenes were about 1000 with over 15,000 of Antigonos' men routing.   Pictures below.

 Initial dispositions viewed from the hills.

 Antigonos advances with the horse archers at the far end moving to the Eumenid flank.

 Euminid commanders John and John

 Antigonid commanders Gary on left and Dave on the right with an observer.

 The armies advance.

 View from the open flank as mercenaries and elephants make contact.

 View from the hills as the opposing elephants collide and the Antigonid phalanx attacks some of them.

 overview of the battlefield.

 A gap opens in the Antigonid line as some of the mercenaries flee from the elephants.

 The phalanxes clash.

 view from the other side

 Both sides start to take casualties

 view of the battlefield from the hills

 inconclusive fighting on the open flank

 view from behind the elephants and light infantry.  unengaged Antigonid heavy cavalry in right rear of picture.

 Chris joined the game later on the Antigonid side taking over the phalanx.

 Antigonid phalanx in trouble as most of the units become shaken

 another view of the fighting as the left flank of the Euminid phalanx advances to take the place of the elephants that were driven off.  Based on discussions on the Society of Ancients forum where it was noted that other than Magnesia and Zama it appeared to be that elephants would leave usually leave the battle instead of routing, we had them depart if they became shaken during a morale test.

Final view of the battlefield.  Chris had just tested the morale of the phalanx units as once again the Silver Shields routed their opponents..  One unit of the Euminid pantipodoi is routing near the center of the picture, but had no effect on the other units.