Cheap flexible river

       The Housemartin came to me needing a five-foot long river for a game he wished to present at Pro or Con. I dug around in my terrain pile looking for a suitable river model. Finding nothing to match the need, and not having done a terrain item in a while, I decided to make one. I based my model on a section of Eco Rug as it is cheap, strong and doesn't fray or tear. I needed a flexible material to build up the riverbank and create texture for both the shore and the river. My answer is cheap water-soluble latex caulk. It is flexible, paint-able and easy to to work with. I cut a length of Eco-Rug about eight inches wide with an irregular edge, I then marked the center and laid out a 4 inch wide river that wandered along the length of the piece. You can follow the step-by-step below.

 

 

I got mine at Lowe's for three bucks a tube,

 you can source yours as you like 

 

Ship Happens, Part IX 1/600 USS Susquehanna; or making the Bambu earn its keep Part II

 

        A little while ago R.U.P. brought his ACW naval rules over for a test-run. We used my 1/600 models and had a most enjoyable evening. This, of course, got me thinking about adding to my collection of ACW ships. Checking online for the prices of metal models nearly caused an aneurysm.  I retreated into the idea of scratchbuilding some models when the thought occurred to me that I own a 3d printer and there might be some STLs floating about on the internet that I could put to use.

        Lo and behold! There are more than a few. One particularly generous fellow that goes by the moniker R_A_T_ offers sets of Union or Confederate ships free of charge. I downloaded several of his designs and set to work printing them in 1/600 scale. In about six hours I had more models than I can paint this week but I decided to give the Susquehanna a try. I replaced the bowsprit with a bit of wire but all the rest is 3d printed. I rather like the result.

 

 

28mm Egyptian Infantry from Wargames Atlantic

 

Midgard and The Problem of Peltasts

       Having played well over a hundred games of Midgard in the past eighteen months our group has run into a number of questions that cannot be properly addressed within the letter of the rulebook. Primarily the way that the rules group troops into only two types of order; close order and skirmish order. Either packed shoulder-to-shoulder or scattered in a free-flowing cloud. The sort of dispersed order that many historical formations employed to move rapidly, or cope with rugged terrain, can't be properly modeled. Thracians, Celts, Spaniards and the specifically organized peltasts from the Greek military tradition cannot be reflected within the rules. After trying various tweaks we gave up and decided to step outside the letter of the rules and concoct a new troop type. 

        To try to make a unit that behaves the way that the historical prototypes did with the attendant abilities and limitations. They should be terrain insensitive, but still have the ability to fight close-formed troops with some hope of success. To model the lower number of troops in the space their stamina would have to be lower. We struggled to make as few changes to the rules, and to use existing rules as much as possible to model the abilities of these troops. After play-testing we decided to modify the points as well. In the end we came up with the following.

       First reduce the points cost by two. Then reduce the stamina to three. Last endow them with the Agile trait, but only in the forward movement aspect (see sketch below). You can enter this as a trait in the  Midgard Force Builder software by using the Settings and  entering the Custom Unit Traits with the Trait of Peltasts a point reduction of two and the entering the Description of "Gain Agile, lose one Stamina".  Please note that you will have to manually modify the printout of your list because there is no facility in the Force Builder to reduce the Stamina to three. Each troop type keeps all its available Traits such as armor upgrades or characteristics like Brutal or Drilled

  

       These troops use the Agile trait when moving to the side or forward, any movement behind the rear of the base is restricted and use the 1/2 Spear-throw move stick. They DO NOT have the ability to Evade and cannot pass through formed units. They shoot at the end of the turn with the other formed troops.

 

      We have found that these changes effectively model the behavior of the historical troops without any major overhaul of the rules. The unit can maneuver over terrain, still posses significant fighting power and lack the staying power of denser formations. Observations and feedback are welcome.
 

25 Years ago today; Never Forgive, Never Forget

The Trojan Wars Grind

        If it wasn't for the fact that the box of minis is almost empty I might have given up by now. What started as a "fun side-trip" has turned into a serious trudge (mostly because of those wretched boars-tusk helmets) that is rapidly sucking the fun out of the enterprise. Yet I persist! All that remains is a few archers and a half-dozen or so chariots. Anyway, enough of my grouchy ruminations, I have completed the latest batch of Bronze-Age warriors and they are happy to meet you.

 

please excuse the tatty looking painting sticks, it was around 1am when I got these done

 and didn't have the energy to pop them off the stick and rank them up for photos