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Happy Christmas!
A very happy Christmas to all my readers. Riders on camels seemed like the least inappropriate wargaming-related photo to post. Did the wise men in the story of the nativity (Matthew 2: 1-12) ride camels? I suppose we'll never know. I have made a downloadable, DIY, Christmas card, in the form of a PDF for you to download and put together here - you'll need a straight-edge and a scalpel or scissors! Enjoy!
Bleuch!
Hello everyone. I'm suffering - I've got the dreaded lurgy. I've basically been horizontal since I posted those hastati- on Friday I literally couldn't stand up - had to crawl to the toilet. I'm slightly better today - I've able to sit up for part of the day, and can bear the aches and pains so long as I'm thoroughly drugged up on Cocodamol. …
Allied Hastati
Hi folks! Here, at last, is the unit of Allied Hastati I've been working on. Fine models from Aventine Miniatures and equally fine transfers from Little Big Men Studios. They were, as always with Aventine's products, a real pleasure to work on.
Whilst waiting for the transfers to arrive I've been doing quite a lot of work on AVGVSTVS to AVRELIAN, including taking the time to learn how to make 'interactive' PDF files, so I can organise the rules in such a way that the digital version will have working hyperlinks - both the table of contents and cross-references between pages. So, I know I can do that - so I ought to be able to 'publish' a version which will work well and look good on tablet computers like Apple's iPad.
I've also done various minor things to the rule mechanics themselves - the basics (Movement, Missiles, Melee and Movement) have been 'settled' for quite some time and work well - recent work has all been on more peripheral areas. The first draft is all but done now - I just need to complete a short section on orders - probably no more than half a page!
Leves
Here's my latest unit - some Aventine Miniatures Leves for an allied legion. I've almost finished a unit of Hastati for the same legion too, but need another five shield transfers (from Little Big Men Studios of course - where else?) before they're done.
Now, what to do whilst waiting for the transfers to arrive...
I could do the Principes and Triarii for this legion, but as I'm still waiting on the transfers, I couldn't finish them either.
I'm waiting for some pre-production figures from Warlord Games for my Early Imperial Romans - I can't start those, because they haven't arrived.
I bought myself a unit of Successor Phalangites from Crusader Miniatures which I could paint. I bought them mainly so I could compare them with the Aventine figures. Height and bulk-wise they're not a bad match. They're quite nice but their necks seem a little short, they're a bit 'regimental' (i.e. all in virtually the same pose, bar for differing helmets) and the poses seem a bit stiff and 'wooden' too - but then I suppose, as they represent pikemen standing around, there isn't much opportunity for dynamic posing...
Ultimately, once Aventine get on and make some phalangites of their own, I'd expect to 'scatter' these Crusader Models around the units, to add a bit of variety. I've also got a unit of phalangites on order from Gripping Beast, with the same things in mind.
Good News!
Today, I got my figures (Romans, Britons, more Romans and Sassanid Persians) back from Warlord Games. Many thanks to John Stallard's friend Karen for driving them over to me. Very little damage, easily sorted out this afternoon. So now I can plan some wargaming over Christmas, which will be nice.
iPads again
The (weekly?) discussion of the merits of PDFs and whether people love them or hate them is happening on TMP. My own personal opinion (which may not be worth much - I'm probably much more of a geek than most wargamers), is that the days of professionally printed wargames rules are probably numbered.
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