Delayed Update!

Hello again chaps, tis been too long. This is what happens when you foolishly decide to do a teacher trainee course. Anyway all done now so I have to time to paint!

First things first, here are a few pictures of my Macedonian Hypaspists to asisst Alexander! I quite like these figures (Xyston) and I think they have come out quite well. I painted the motif on the shield myself, which Im quite happy with!

Next up and continuing with the Macedonain theame we have my Hetoroi, again made by Xyston. Again, I'm quite happy with these chaps!

To end with we have some pictures of some ww1 Austrians by Scarab minatures. These are my first 28mm figures and I really like them!

On other news I have started to paint for others for a bit of cash. I'm mostly doing ships so if you need anydone and want them for a fair price, get in contact with me!

Happy gaming!

Osprey Army of Herod the Great Review

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I have no real interest in Jewish armies, apart from the Maccabees, so I bought this book for the sake of having another one for the collection. However a quick flick through revealed a book that would capture my imagination.

The main theme of the book is as per the title, the Army of Herod the Great. As a result it covers a small subject period covering about 160 years most of which focus’ on the king himself.
As with most Osprey books there is a brief description of Herod’s live and his relationship with the Romans and also a glimpse on the time period slightly before and after the life of Herod. The main focus is on the composition on the army.

As you may of gather I have somewhat fallen for this book. The subject matter is incredibly interesting and covers a fascinating period where the arms, appearance and tactics of a lot of the Hellenistic armies changed from their Macedonian origins to that more of a later republican Roman army. This for a diehard Hellenistic fanatic is incredibly useful and I would recommend anyone with a similar passion to acquire this book.

The author, Samuel Rocca, presents his work in an incredibly readable way, which always get my vote; a book with an interesting subject matter that is written in a laborious fashion always ends being a disappointment. I’m unaware of any other work by Mr Rocca but I hope he continues to write for Osprey (hinting at the Maccabees).

The art work is by Christa Hook, who I usually sometimes have issues with (my own personal taste) but once again I was more than happy with the results. Each plate is illustrated beautifully and clearly demonstrates the evolution of this Hellenistic army as well as the supplementary auxiliary troops that one could expect to find in the army of Herod the Great.
All in all I good read and useful resource for the wargamer/modeller.

5/5

WW2 Skirmish-Eastern Front: Rules of Engagment

Right then boys and girls (cos clearly women come to this site), a rather delayed update.

First things first. Much has been going on. Have played a lot of different wargames as of late but mostly these three, check your six, the rather brilliant General Qaurters 3 and the also epic Rules of Engagment. I also have been doing a lot of reading, so two more books will be reviewed, both of the ancient world.

Pictures of various figures will be uploaded to but my photographer is ill so I wish him well and a speedy recovery so he can crack on!!!! Mercanary!

Any way, this week at my club (the fantastic mid Somerset wargames club) we did a practise run of a Rules of Engagment, a very brilliant World War 2 (though highly adaptable) platoon/company basesd game. We are going to be puting on a display game at the Shepton Mallet Model engineering show in April so we thought we better try out our game!

Background.

Ok so its 1944 and the Red army is pouring into Hungry. The objective for the Russians was to take a small industrial complex and take control of a broken down Tiger II (this idea was taken from STCW where some Yanks or Brits were trying to take a Strumtiger).

The German/Hungarian objective was to try and defend the tank until it was repaired.

The Battle Field from Russian eyes.

In regards to forces I forget how many Russians there where ( I think about 6 squads) but they were bolsterd by 2 T34/76s, a T60/70 and an SU85.

The axis had three squads of SS, two Hungarians, a Hungarian Sniper team and two Italian sqauds who were wearing desert clober (I don't have enough Hungarians yet so my brave Italians turned up). Support came in the form of a Panzer IV H and a Pak 40 for the Hungarians, a Stug III long barrelled and a Skfz251 mit 37mm for the Germans and the Italians had a M14/41.

Russians with armoured support.

Initialy things went well for the Axis (well the Hungarians) The sniper missed but his buddy claimed a kill. The Panzer IV opened up with its MG and cut down most of a squad and a rfile squad supported by its LMG open fire and claimed some kills.

Then things went in the Russians favour.

A morter opened fire and took out some Hungarians in a ruin. The sniper's freind was shot and fell out of the tower and some plucky Russians stormed the building and finished the sniper off.

The Russians advance but the squad on the left has been cut down by the panzer behind the wall.

The Axis tried to fight back ( I say Axis, the SS didn't fire a shot all game!). The mortered Hungarians fell back to rally behind the cover of a wall whilst the Pak40 took a pop at the morter and managed to cause surpression.

The remaining Hungarian rifle squad fended off some advancing Russians and the brave Italian tank team took a shot at a T34 only to have its shell bounce of the Russian tank. The Russians riddled the Italian tank with machine gun fire in reply, killing all the crewm within.

Axis forces vainly trying to hold the soviet advance

The Russians presssed on, overwhelming an Italian squad in close combats whilst the T34's mopped up the other Italian squad.

Soviet SMG squad jumps over the wall to deal with the Italians and in confronted with the Rallying Hungarians.

Time constraints meant that the game ended early but it was a good match up so this is probably going to be the game we take to the show. As mentioned above the SS didn't enter the combat but know doubt they would later and would of slowed the Soviet advance.

3 of us played the game, one with the Russians and the other two with the Axis. I took the motely crew of Italians and Hungarians as I have a thing for the underdogs!

A great game and I recomend buying RoE if you want a good skirmish game. We are planing to do a cold war game at some point by hashing the rules a little.

More updates to follow!