There's no place like Rome!

So the first part of the 'Roman terrain build' part of the current project is done with my collection of Warbases MDF buildings and fortress wall now complete and ready to grace future tables.

The completed collection of fortress, temple, villa and spare medium store room

I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of putting these models together and working out how I wanted them to look.

The idea behind this collection is to allow me to have table features that immediately tell the casual observer that this battle is somewhere on the frontier of Moesia or Pannonia or indeed outside the walls of Sarmizegetusa where the artwork from Radu Oltean's great book on the Trajananic invasion of Dacia inspired the plan to build a fortress wall that could double for Roman or Dacian.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/dacia-roman-wars-volume-one.html

The Roman temple took a bit more work to move it on from the last set of build posts I presented with the addition of the portico roof that also needed tiling together with a few strategically placed cocktail sticks.

 
In addition the panelled door was fun to paint and I developed a way of watering down the beige brown to allow it to run into the circular scrolls and really bring them out.

I also decided to leave the typical Roman style fence or railings in the original MDF as I thought to my eye the colour was perfect as it was. Another plus point for MDF, in that yes you do need to wor on it to make it stop looking like it but occasionally it works in its own right.

The wall sections are easy to build and very cost effective and I am sure I will add a few extra to allow for the Zvezda Roman artillery I picked up on Ebay to have plenty to shoot at, not to mention a battering ram, testudo and scaling ladders.

The interesting challenge the walls create is putting troops on them as my big battle bases are to wide. My solution I think will be to create a few skirmish bases of Romans and Dacians who as well as performing that function in smaller skirmish games will also stand in as my wall sentinel garrison with formed units standing behind the walls to indicate which unit is actually defending a ceratain section at any time.

As you can see there is room to mount wall place scorpion bolt throwers which can also be set up in the towers should the fancy take me.

The fortress gates are a real feature of the model and I acquired a Zvezda battering ran as soon as I put the thing together which also comes with an oil cauldron that could be set up over the gates.

Finally, there is the villa which I added to with a walled gate section and some floor mosaics to wind the barbarian player up as he gaily puts flames and smoke gushing from those arched windows with a few dead and dying slaves lying about the courtyard as a Dacian warband moves off.

 

As with the temple, I decided to leave the balustrade fence 'au natural' and think it matched up well with a similarly panelled door.

You might notice in the previous shots that I also completed a medium store room that with another added could replace the two small ones seen in my completed villa.

This would certainly create more of a footprint for the model but allow more room to put together a formal garden to add to the look and something I will add later.

The interior wall of my fortress will need to be compliment with additional buildings and I plan to build some of the other Warbases offerings to complete it over time.

So there we are, some new terrain to add to the collection and with these first few buildings done I now have my resin marching fort on the desk together with some very nice Baueda Roman tents which will help complete the look.

However the figures need some attention and Warband number three is close to completion so I think they will be up next.

Romano-Dacian Terrain Build Part Three

Progress has continued in the week on finishing off my first few pieces of terrain for the Romano-Dacian collection and the character of these models is starting to show with the application of a few colours.

No work on these today though as I am off to the monthly meeting of the DWG in Exeter where I will be hosting my first game of Dux Bellorum with the Saxon/Viking collection finished off earlier this year along with Mr Steve who will hopefully be contributing a few of his Scots and Irish to bolster numbers so we can include a few players a side.

I am hoping to 'break the back' of this little project tomorrow and put up a few close ups in the week when they are finished.

I have also picked up a couple of blank MDF terrain bases from Products for Wargamers so I can start practising putting together some other scatter terrain items along with some new trees.

More anon
JJ

Romano-Dacian Terrain Build Part Two

This time of year, namely early spring, is ideal for me to get stuck into a bit of terrain building which I like to do in our sun lounge.

The light in the room is perfect for constructing and painting and the weather is comfortable thus avoiding it being too hot to sit for several hours at a time messing about with terrain.

So picking up from my last post, the buildings were put together but needed work to stop them looking like MDF.

The first part of that process was to apply the Warbases sets of Roman tiles, which I think are a must purchase item if you are going to build these kits as I find the stencilled roofs don't really cut it, if you'll excuse the pun, and the tiling adds that much needed three dimensional effect, particularly when they get painted.
 

There is something really satisfying applying tiles to roofs and aligning each row, one with another.

I know this kind of stuff is not for everyone, but I see this as all part of the creative process that makes the hobby such fun and, once done, leaves you with a great sense of satisfaction.

I guess the other aspect is that the models start to feel more self created rather than bought off the shelf.

The Villa and Walled Gate House are supplied with dowel rods to complete the roofs with a ridge tile, but the temple isn't. With a much narrower gap that needed filling once the tiles were on I scratch-built my ridge tiles with cocktail sticks liberally applied with PVA to fill the grove.

Note the temple building doesn't have its veranda roof and railing up yet as I wanted to leave the wall open for painting and so will add them afterwards.

Likewise the Villa front porch roof and railings are not stuck on so I can easily get at the front wall to paint it.

Once the tiling was done I needed to something about those lasered joints on the corners of each building.

The roofs were taken care of with their layer of tiles, but those corner joints are an eye-sore with MDF models and in my opinion need covering.

So each building received a coat of watered down PVA to seal in the brown gunge that can ooze from these joints if you try and paint over them.

The next stage was to smear a layer of wet plaster over each and every corner seam, that is until I ran out of plaster, so decided to prime a few of the completed buildings with my trusty 1829 Clove Brown emulsion paint from Homebase, which does the job off giving that bitter chocolate brown undercoat.

Once I had replenished my supply of quick dry plaster the day was spent undercoating all the other buildings and wall sections with not a nasty MDF joint still in sight. In fact you might think this lot was resin!

I know Martin at Warbases has some lovely looking curved wall corners he has created that I am eagerly looking forward to and then you will be able to produce a Hadrian's Wall effect as well.

Anyway, focus JJ on the job in hand. With the undercoat on and dry we can now press on with the really fun bit of making this lot look pretty and ready to grace the table.

One final little extra was to produce some floor mosaics for my villa, which will have its roofs detachable and so I decided to copy Jim Duncan's idea, see the link below, of adding these examples taken off the net and resized appropriately.

http://jim-duncan.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/roman-villa-in-my-back-garden.html

I now need to refresh my memory on the look of these buildings following the various examples visited here on JJ's and with memories of Xanten to inspire the work on the city wall.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-romans-in-britain-part-two-bignor.html
http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-romans-in-britain-part-one.html

Dacian Wars Project Update

One of the fun aspects of keeping a blog like this going, over time, is that you get to see how projects percolate into fruition as ideas are worked on and refined.

None so than the current project focused on the Dacian Wars of Domitian and Trajan where I posted about ideas to build a collection around back in December 2015 and even constructed a campaign module using the Hail Caesar campaign book scenarios and linked campaign as a basis for that collection.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/ancient-campaign-plans.html

I have that campaign in Cyberboard ready to go and have taken forward the plans around the collection to set up the games involved, as recent posts have illustrated.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/JJ%27s%20Dacian%20Wars

That said, as I have thought about this collection the plan has broadened into a wider scope taking into other Principate campaigns that would be fun to do such as the Year of the Four Emperors in 69 AD and the campaigns of Germanicus into Germainia following the Varian disaster.

The linked scenario, ladder style of campaign battles is great, especially for involving groups of players fighting separate scenarios as part of the greater backdrop and I still intend to develop that plan.

However I was keen to explore the idea of having a campaign where the armies and set ups were entirely in the hands of the players as results of the decisions they took in response to events and circumstances, with armies manoeuvring on a map that encompassed the normal fog of war.

The whole idea being, to create battles that have that all important context behind them and thus give meaning to the result.

The last few weeks I have been bringing those ideas together with the help of other peoples ideas such as James Roach and his great blog and lovely collections over at 

http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk

James' collections are an inspiration to the kind of games I plan to develop around this period and he has some great ideas around those I have outlined here.

The map you can see of Dacia and the neighbouring tribal and Roman regions, now hanging in my games room, is my own creation based on those ideas, as are the cards I have put together using a great site highlighted recently on TMP by Anatoli who also has a video clip up on his own blog page on how to produce such cards.

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/make-your-own-unit-cards-tutorial.html

The really cool thing about this system is that armies on the map are in full view of all the players with the fog of war being built into the campaign by the cards and how they are played. Not only that but I now have a system of generating my armies and relating the result of any tabletop battles back to the map in lost strength-points without too much book-keeping and mental stress.

I aim to give the system a stress test using a simple die combat system to replace the figures on the table while they are still being put together, so I'll do a post about that going forward.

Talking about constructing armies for the tabletop also reminds me that I am also in the process of recreating my map world on to the table; and my 15/18mm terrain collection will not be fit for purpose, hence a build project similar to Trajan's own efforts, all be it in a smaller scale, is now going ahead.

This week I finally got some time over the Easter Bank Holiday to get stuck into my Roman buildings that I have been acquiring in the time between now and that post back in 2015.

 
With all the Napoleonic work completed, I now have time to give this part of the project my attention and as you will know, I love the aspect of the hobby that is putting things together.

Like plastic figures, MDF has revolutionised our hobby and I have thoroughly enjoyed constructing my Villa, Temple and Fortress together, not to mention a few wagons and carts.

This lot are now awaiting the addition of roof tiles and then, after sealing with a PVA wash, to have a good lick of paint together with some interior finishing.

In addition to these, I have a Roman marching fort to get done, plus loads of new trees and scatter terrain to build and those river sections will need a bit of tarting up before they can grace the table.

These buildings are just the start as I have to get some appropriate German/Dacian hovels and a Roman Limes tower, as seen above, plus enough wattle fencing to shake a stick at.

All the buildings are from Warbases and the wagons are from 4Ground, that I picked up from Colonel Bill's Store.

Colonel Bill's

My river sections are from Products for Wargamers

Products for Wargamers

Finally thank you to Martin and Diane over at Warbases who sorted out an issue with some pieces on my city gate that was resolved quickly and helpfully.

JJ's Dark Age Collection

As anyone who has been following the blog over recent months, will have noticed that in between the posts about trips to Holland and Over the Hills play-tests, there has been a collection quietly building in the background.

Viking Hirdmen
Dark Age Warriors
Saxon Thegns

Things got started back in September last year, but the inspiration to get this collection built can be traced back to our trip to York last June with all the Viking inspiration that city can generate coupled with a re-visit to Dux Bellorum as a potential rule set to use.

Devon Wargames - Dux Bellorum

My Saxon (nearest to camera) and Viking hosts all sabot based up and ready to go

Whilst putting this lot together I had to start thinking about storage and basing, the first consideration has seen me join the rest of wargaming humanity by purchasing my first set of Really Useful Boxes together with some inserts from Warbases to carry multiple layers of figures in the nine litre boxes.

Warbases RUB Inserts

The Viking collection complete with its motley band of archers

When not in transit I plan to put these chaps in the room display cabinets, but hopefully two nine litre RUB's will carry this lot, the rules, a bit of terrain and markers.

With opposing forces mustered I now need to start thinking about terrain

The other consideration was basing which ended up with me using the six figure rectangular sabot bases for heavy infantry, be they warrior or shield wall and the three frontage skirmish bases for my light troops.

One last part of the plan was putting together a few Saxon and Viking helmeted warriors together with some suitably styled shields which will act as markers on my generic warrior bases to indicate the team they are on. That way I can mix and match my warriors between my Saxon and Viking forces as the scenario dictates.

The bulk of these figures are Gripping Beast plastics and I have enjoyed working on them

In time, I plan to add a few other pieces to this core collection including a few mounted types and eventually another group from the ninth century like some Welsh to represent the groups down in the far west country.

Alongside the warriors I want to get some casualty figures to sprinkle about the table as required and I thought a few civilian types including the odd monk or priest would make a nice addition.

The Saxons can field a strong armoured component together with slinger and javelin skirmishers

The Viking collection is configured to allow a raiding or army set up under Dux Bel.

Whilst adding bits at last November's Warfare show I invested in a lovely looking Celtic cross from Trevor Holland at Coritani/Magnetic Displays.

Celtic Cross Painted or Unpainted

I think the cross should serve as an interesting objective marker.

The archers were picked up at Warfare last November

The Viking archers are metals from the Gripping Beast range and are supplied with loose bows.

These are Gripping Beast metals which work well with the plastic ranges

The Saxon skirmishers are built from the Dark Age Warrior plastics using javelin or slinger options

In addition to other figures the shopping list also includes getting a range of Dark Age buildings and a timber wall to do some attacks on Burghs with a few scaling ladders thrown in for good measure.

Having visited Lydford a few years ago, which was a Royal Mint back in the ninth century and actually beat off a Viking attack against its walls, I fancy trying to build a scenario around it.

These chaps should allow for the annoyance factor in any Dux Bel game

I also intend to add a lot more banners, and thanks to Ray Roussel for making available some of his own designs. They really are nice and add a bit of variety to the LBM produced options. I just need to put a few more standard bearers together, so that is on the list as well.

A few extras were added to the collection including this downloadable Viking banner from Ray Roussell's blog - cheers Ray

Don't Throw a One - Viking Flags

My Celtic Cross, my first piece of period terrain

With this project now done I now just have one smaller one to attend to, namely a couple of sections of 28mm Fallschirmjager and a certain famous Captain in the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard who will be gracing the table at this summer's trip to Chez Chaz for our north Devon big game and then I can finally turn my attention to the big project, the Romano-Dacians which I am really looking forward to getting stuck into.