Apologies for the lack of updates lately. I haven't really been doing anything much worthy of blogging. I'm still, very slowly, working on my terrain boards for Partizan. The length of time I've been on with them, anyone would think they were going to be really spectacular - well, sorry to disappoint anyone, but they aren't - progress is slow because I'm busy, but also because I've more or less run out of storage space for terrain. So what I'm doing is using 3 mm MDF. The trouble with that, as you can probably imagine, is that it warps. But by treating both sides the same I.e. painting one side, allowing it to dry (and warp), painting the other side and allowing it to dry (and warp back to flat), and so on, I seem to be winning. But it is slow, because I have to wait for things to dry completely before doing the other side, and there are ten boards to do.
I'm also thinking very hard about rules - adapting AVGVSTVS to AVRELIAN for the war with Pyrrhus, and also just beginning to think how to change them for use with Late Romans. As regards Late Romans, I think I have, at long last, found the beginnings of the 'ultimate' range of figures: Musketeer Miniatures - Bill is working his sculpting magic on Late Romans - the ideal opponents for his Early Saxons and Goths.
And I'm thinking about the Wars of the Roses. I've never done any Medieval wargaming, so I've got a lot to learn! But buying and painting the Perry Miniatures bombard may have been like kicking a pebble off the top of a mountain.
Warlord have very kindly sent me a copy of Hail Caesar. It is, like Black Powder before it, a veritable feast of eye candy... Apart, that is, from far too many photos of my armies. I think the game will be fun to play - no, actually, having played it with the Nottingham Mafia, I know that it is fun to play. The rules are very flexible, and written to be the complete antithesis of the rules-lawyerly products from the likes of WRG. It deserves to be popular with those wanting to push 'ancient lead' around a table with some mates, and should, hopefully, prove unattractive, because of the 'loose' nature of the rules, to those who enjoy competitive geometry and a really ill-tempered argument.
Lastly, and the reason for the title to this post, the 'first' issue of the revamped Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine has arrived. I haven't done more than flick through and look at the pictures yet. it looks very good... But oh boy, does it stink! What an horrible smell. ;-) Oh, and yet more pictures of my Middle Imperial Romans and Sassanid Persians.
Sometime soon, I may just feel like grabbing paintbrush again... Aventine almost have some Pyrrhic pikemen ready, and then there are those delicious Late Romans singing their siren song to me.