ANCIENTS RULES

There are so many Ancients rules sets around that I think it is a major deterrent to anyone starting out to actually game this period. I started when God was a lad (OK, maybe in his late teens) with WRG 6th Edition and, though I never mastered them, at least cut my teeth with them. They were my first real rules, not ones I had copied out of a book (I didn't know it was illegal then! I was only a kid!!!), but I so savoured that first win - I used someone's Seleucids against a Trajanic Roman army in a club competition and fielded all the wierd stuff. I can still remember my scythed chariots crashing into a legion and an auxiliary cohort and then rolling +4. 101 casualties I believe, and two routing Roman units....

Then, after a short hiatus when we all decided we hated WRG 7th, came the DBA/ DBM sets. They took off in a big way, but, looking back, left no sense of feeling, just that you had taken part in at best a chess game and at worst some sort of mathemetical experiment.

Then came WAB. Quirky, sometimes downright odd, often frustrating, but accessible, familiar, colourful, with a few sample army lists to get you going and I was back in the room (so long as a strict recreation of history was not what was required). They are still my favourite set, especially in their latest incarnation, warts and all. I have sniffed at Crusader, passed up Impetus and Warmaster and left Clash of Empires in my lunchbox so far, should I get peckish, but WAB still comes out top of my ancients menu.

I can live with the quirks and go with the fun. Thus, my Indians and my Medievals are all based to WAB and I am unashamed to say I am a WABBER (or whatever they call themselves in polite society).

THE ARMY THAT NEVER WINS

Two more images from the army that never won.....

THE FIRST PICTURE POST

The first image!!!!! Ancient Indian general on elephant, painted by me, Vendel Miniatures castings and based to Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB). I have so far proven utterly hopeless with my Ancient Indian army, losing on all three of its outings so far, twice to Persians (too many bows for my pachyderm posse) and once to Macedonians. I am sure there is a knack with this army and, when I discover it, I expect to do a lot better. Could it be front ranks with spear and shield? Could it be more chariots? Fewer elephants? Melee rather than missile infantry? I will let you know when I do!

By the way, this Luddite has just put a piccy up for viewing!!!!!

(On my home page rather than in "Ancients"....)

PHOTOS and other nonsense

Now, call me a Luddite if you will (I won't mind, as it is somewhat true), but I promised pictures when I started this blog. I even spent a few moments taking some during last week's Stafford Gamers pirate encounter and, again, before work this morning. I have even uploaded them to my computer and they rest happily in my folders as I type.

BUT REST IS ALL THEY WILL DO UNTIL I REMEMBER HOW TO UPLOAD THEM ONTO HERE!!!!!

Where is a nephew or two when you need him? YOU SHALL HAVE PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Just as soon as I have worked out the techno bit....)

Pirate game, 15/10/11

Ever had one of those days when you couldn't hit a bull's botty with a banjo???

15th October at Stafford Games - four pirate crews all after treasure being chaperoned by one of their number in a hedged, barn area. I shot, shot some more, melted down the local church roof to provide more bullets, shot a lot more and killed...............one whole enemy pirate!

And my photos look all yellowish as the light in the gamesroom is not great. I will post what I have, but, like the classic school report - "could do better". (Both the pirates and my photography).

Time to lose Cap'n Morgan on a desert island somewhere and draft in Dutchy van Drijver and his trusty first mate, Wim Unwigger, latterly of the dodgier areas of far off Rotterdam.

On The First Day Of Blogmas...

Hello to anyone who has happened across my ramblings, whether by accident or design. I am a middle-aged Luddite who has decided to go technical and share a few thoughts, pictures, ideas and other stuff about my main passions in life after my family, namely wargaming and military history, and their physical manifestation - WARGAMES FIGURES!!!!!!!!!!!

I buy too many, I paint too few, I have been doing it for years and I love the entirety of the subject so much that I can cover pretty much something or other from 500BC to 1970's, with fantasy and sci-fi thrown in. I guess I should make the date range from 500BC to 40000AD.........

I will add the aforementioned thoughts, pictures and so on, and, when I get the chance (like tonight at Stafford Games perhaps, depending on how the pirate game goes.....), a report or two about my escapades in the world of miniature warfare.

It is 13th October, 2011, a day passing unnoticed, I suspect, in the world at large. But it is also the day I started to blog.

G