Roman Road Works

I've decided to try and blitz all my terrain problems this week as I had a few days of work. Next up on the production line were my Roads I had bought from War games Terrain. They are nice pieces and most of the 'heavy' work has already been done. I just thought they needed a little extra something to pull them up with the rest of my collection.
Above can be seen the original and on top, my fresh start with sand and grit extras. Already, even without paint I think there is an improvement. I plan to add all kinds of road side extras, like branches and planks of wood (fallen from carts). My friend gave me the idea of adding a Roman Mile stone to the roadside, a must!

Also muddy tracks and ruts will be added using PVA glue like with the river ford earlier on the Blog. My main worry is sourcing enough brown paint to cover them all, there's a lot. I think there will be a lot of watering down involved.

A Gift from the Gods!

My endless praying to the household gods paid off this week, with the release of another Stephen Dando-Collins book. These books are written so well and contain such descriptive writing that they can keep me enthused for months after finishing them. A matter of real importance to a painter/gamer and model maker. The new book is called 'Blood of the Caesars'.

This one though has deviated away from famous Legions and has concentrated on the story of Germanicus. I'm a little disappointed about that, but Stephen hasn't let me down yet. Germanicus's campaigns in Germany will more than make up for it I'm sure. Joy!

Thinking of making a marsh?

Now that my rivers have been brought up to speed I can start thinking about making some marshes for the battle board. I decided to make my marshes big to cover a large area on the field, this is so troops will be forced to trudge through them rather than skirt around the edges.
I used my old favourite, Daz air drying clay to make the shallow contours of the swamp. Again this is all being made up as I go along, so I'm not sure what the end results will be. Well, something is better than nothing so watch this space for the results.
Here are the two marshes in their early stages.

River Sections

This week I have been spending time working on my river sections for the Campaign. I plan to start on some marshes soon, these will be the last things i need to do to complete my terrain for the game. I can't wait to dive in and get going.

I created this muddy ford by using loads of PVA glue and mixing it with flock, then adding hundreds of tiny hoof and foot prints with the end of a brush. I later gave the mud a very light brushing with a gloss varnish to give it a wet appearance.These river sections were originally from War games Terrain, but as always I like to add my own little touches to things and so added rushes and reed beds. Also the colours were more stone than mud and earth, so that was another thing it changed along with adding grit, gravel and various flocks. Above are two fords, one muddy, the other stony. The shallow river bed was made by painting tiny stones and rocks on the river, then covering with gloss varnish.By adding small amounts of flock to the rivers edge and then varnishing, water plants/weeds were created.

The Eastern Promise

I've finally got round to starting those Armenian Cataphracts from Alanicus's army of Anatolia and I couldn't resist the odd conversion or two. The figures I decided to use were from Old Glory's Sassanid Persian range , their conical helmets seemed very Armenian to me

I used 'green stuff' from Games workshop to make half of them cloaks. These will be painted a light yellow/brown with reddish borders and highly decorated. The good thing about painting up Cataphract units is that you can use them for loads of different eras, these will also fit into my Seleucid army.
TIP; By marking on the anvil the spot for the best results, the whole process became a lot easier and took half the time. A simple tip I know but it really helped to cut down the preparation time.

Tullus watches and waits (Campaign 95)

With the two Armies in Gaul face to face, Tullus gives the order to dig in. With the Senator Plaudicus in one ear and young Fulvius in the other, crying out to attack at once, Tullus leans towards caution. An uneasy peace settles along the frontier in Gaul as both armies watch each other for signs of movement.
Tullus knows with Alanicus moving further west, Secundus's forces will be stretched and divided. He therefore decides that time will be his best Allie against Secundus in Gaul.
To add further pressure to Secundus, Tullus starts to build a port in Aquatania in preparation for an invasion of Britannia.


Above, Tullus ignores the whining of Plaudicus to advance on Rome.

Lines are drawn in Gaul (Campaign 94)

The mighty Dewolfus patrols the border defences of Lugdunensis. With Tullus marching his Army of Gaul into Aquitania, a frontier was created with that of the forces of the Secundian Army of the Rhine.

Tullus's newly acquired Army of Gaul, now sits along the Aquitanian border waiting for the order to attack. Dewolfus is no fool however and requested that he not be moved from Lugdunensis for just such an emergency.
The young, charismatic M.Plinius Fulvius, commander of the Army of Gaul is yet untested in battle and yearns to test his metal against Dewolfus and earn a place in the Histories. The wise old veteran Dewolfus has heard these rumours and hopes to goad Fulvius into "doing something foolish"

The wolf waits.

Alanicus restructures the army of Syria (Campaign 93)

As a young officer Alanicus earned his name fighting in the deserts of the East. Holding back the endless waves of nomadic peoples was like trying to hold back the shifting sands his commander once said," as soon as you think you've got them, they melt away again only to appear behind you". Alanicus was a lot older now but his experience fighting these nomads in the sands had not been forgotten.
These people with their hit and fade tactics could be put to good use for the Alanicus cause. With this in mind, Alanicus started to restructure the Army of Syria, stationing large numbers of Auxiliaries to garrisons and replacing them with fast, mounted nomads. He had come to respect the Syrian bow at first hand and now drafted hordes of their archers into the army. A heavy unit of Cataphracts was also sent down from Armenia to give them some back bone. Alanicus was crafting a swift, agile killing machine that would make the sky rain with arrows and the ground thunder with hooves.

Armenian Cataphracts bolster the Army of Syria, giving some heavy weight to the units of bowmen.

Shield Designs for Celtic and Germanic units

The Celts; when I set about designing my Celtic army I started by trowelling through hundreds of reference books and pictures from the Internet. Once I had a taste of the style and motifs involved I set about designing some of my own. I have included some of them here, hoping they may help other people in painting up units of the same type.

For the Celtic Patterns I stuck to very organic shapes and lines, almost plant like, the Art nouveau of it's time. Below them can be seen simple tunic patterns and checks. All these designs are just fiction of course but they do give a very Celtic feel to the shield, but most important, they are easy to paint. Painting my own shields I needed designs that were simple and wouldn't take up too much time. mixing and combining elements from these designs can lead to hundreds of variants. Also by changing the colours, even more possibilities can be achieved.
The Germans; For the Germanic shields I went for a more brutal approach than with the Celts. These patterns are bold statements with big thick dark colours and motifs, giving them a more geometric feel with straight lines and shapes. If there are any curves, they are thick and less plant like than those of the Celts. Also the background colours on these shields will be very plain, being just browns and other dark, muted colours.
I hope these designs help in some way. Being Ancient history, designs and motifs have not really survived to this day, giving a huge chance for the imagination to fill in the gaps. Have fun with it is what I say....enjoy.

Celts in action

Play testing Field of Glory

A Celtic skirmish line approaches a village with plunder on it's mind. With the release of the much talked about Field of Glory rules, a test battle was arranged and set up to see if they lived up to the hype.

There were lots of things I liked about the game, the unit sizes for a start and the Impact combat is a great idea.

As with all new games the going was quite slow at first and we had to call it a night before we could actually finish the game. I didn't waste the chance to get some tasty pics though.
However, It did give me a chance to Release the Boar and use my Celts in anger for the first time in a game! I thought they looked great on the field and they inspired me to paint some more. Which is a good thing, for it takes hundreds of them to make a decent looking army.

Tullus strikes it rich! (Campaign 92 )

In this month the Gods truly shine on Tullus and his beleaguered troops. Not one, but two mines are discovered and opened. The first being of gems and the second, a huge gold mine in Africa.

Tullus feels secure enough now to offer Cyrenaica a large bribe, they of course flock to him with open arms. The Province of Cyrenaica borders that of Alanician Egypt, bringing the two super powers into direct contact.

The army of Tullus arrives at the border just as night falls and both armies loose sight of each other in the darkness, in the morning, the Alanicians are shocked by the size of the Tullician army and pray to their gods for re-enforcements. It appears that L.Cornelius Gracchus has brought the whole of Africa with him to fight for Tullus.

Members of the tiny garrison of the 6th Farrata, strain their eyes through the darkness to get a glimpse of the African forces under Gracchus.

XVI Flavia Firma join the fight.

I took a huge gamble the other day and repainted a unit of the III Gallica to represent the 16th Flavia Firma. Alanicus's army of Anatolia is made up of Vexillations of the VI Farrata and the XVI Flavia Firma, so after a long time thinking about it, I decided to bite the bullet and do it. They used to be the sandy yellow seen in older photos but now they look completely different in a madder red. I gave them a very Caesarian motif to match their older style shields .
I still have three cohorts of III Gallica (a whole legion in the game) so I don't think they will be missed that much and I'm glad I went for it. The more variety in the colours and designs within the armies the better I think.

The colour and design was influenced by the unit of Evocati I had painted earlier, seen in the background with the white plumes.

Flaccus rides again

With the character of Flaccus becoming a bit of a legend in the campaign, I thought it was only right that I select and paint up a figure for him in the game.

There were a few I had my eye on, but finally went for this one from 1st Corps, the horse is from Foundry along with his standard bearer.

Ready and waiting

Close up of the main tower with its access hatch and Artillery piece. The Gate has been designed so it can house four Artillary pieces, enough to make any horde think twice.
Auxiliaries keep a watchful eye out for trouble, from the safety of their new home.
Detail of the breached section, showing the stone balls used to smash it down. These were made of clay left over from the walls.

With the four wall sections and the gatehouse, there will be enough to span the entire length of the gaming board. Also, with two sections placed at right angles at each end, a fort can be made on the table edge. Let the games begin!

Finished Gatehouse

Detail of the finished gate with it's massive crossbar. The crossbar overlaps one section of the gates when closed.
Open the Gates!
Detail of the stone steps to the Artillery plateform.
I quite like the way the gates look a little shoddy and rough. They appear more like stable doors to me, but they look tough and thats the main thing.

Finishing Touches

Painted and flocked, the walls are finished. After being sprayed black they were dry brushed to a yellow/brown.

The gates are drybrushed. The black undercoat can be seen on the turf wall infront.
With everything painted, the gateway is painted in thick PVA glue and scored with waggon tracks. These should look great when painted.