Prefect Figulus Third Battle.

My Good Friend Quilpius,

I am in the centre of a huge mess.  My Auxilia are surrounded in a marching camp we have constructed near the old Tungri Oppodum.  The enemy have been using this hill fort as a base for their slave raiding operation, which is all well and good, but they haven't been paying the Empire their cut.  

And by "The Empire" I mean of course me!

I have had an attack of cowardice and spent the evening dead drunk and in tears.  My First Spear, former legionary Centurion "One Eyed" Julius seems to be really cheerful at the prospect of our heads becoming German hut decorations  He has a plan to charge out tomorrow, taking the fight to the enemy.

"Up the Fecking ramparts young Prefect sir," he told me.  "Not more than a couple of hundred fecking blue arsed Batavi up there and we have fifty Tungrians… Easy meat!"  He is quite mad.

I need more wine to see me through the battle tomorrow.  To be honest nobody would notice if I was dead drunk anyway.

Remember me to my friends in Rome (not the pleb ones obviously)

Your poor friend,

Figulus

The tabletop

The old Oppidum of the Tungri not occupied since the days of the Divine Julius has a group of "rebel" slavers mainly of the Batavi, but working with the Corrupt Procurator of Tungrorum.  The 1st Tungrian Cohort has been attacked here and have constructed a marching camp at a village near the base of the fort.  They are now surrounded but plan to break out and attack the hill fort.  

The table has a large clearing around a Germanic village in the centre, beside the Marching camp on the baseline with the hill fort above.  The surrounding woods are dense.  My Auxilia Century must  hold the marching camp and then charge out to assault the hill fort.  If Figulus can pull this off  his reputation will increase and he can continue recruiting for the cohort.

Roman Auxillia force:

Six tent parties of 8 Auxilia,

one Group six slingers

Centurion Julius and Optio. 

The Renegade force:

One band of 8 Mounted Nobles

One Group of 10 armoured Noble Warriors on foot

Four Groups of 10 Warriors,

One Group of six javelin armed skirmishers,

and three Chiefs

The Game

The Auxilia stand to arms in the marching camp.

The hillfort looks a tough proposition.

Gallic rebel Cavalry swarm around, slightly our of focus.

The Centurion and drunk Prefect lead their men out.

The Auxilia take on the enemy besiegers around the fort.  The enemy have split their forces but it will still be a hard fight

The Gallic Cavalry throws its chance away.  Those dice are terrible

The Auxilia get stuck in, clearing away warbands.

The Centurion leads three tent parties against three warbands near the fort.   The dice of fate are decisive.

And the Optio also breaks through a warband.  No sign of the Prefect though.

The Batavi rebels were always going to fight to the end.  The Centurion assaults the hill fort.

Meanwhile the Optio leads another group up the hill. Our brave Prefect seems to be in the front line... almost...

The Rebels are broken and surrender.  The Prefect managed to get up here on his horse!  

A good start to this project, but the Men of Bronze rules only translate so far.  I like the focus on formation,  and Dan Mersey's dice to activate mechanism, but the command structure is too weak for my Romans.

The 1/72 plastics work really well, big enough and detailed enough to challenge the 28mm route I normally would have gone.  The cost is a quarter of even plastic 28mm figures. 

It seems that the 1st Tungrians have come through recruiting and training well,  and are now ready for a posting to the frontier.  Even our young Prefect seems to be shaping up, given enough wine!

To steal a line from Simon Scarrow, Figulus and One Eyed Julius will March again...

Prefect Figulus second battle.

To: General Quintus
Legatus, 1st Legion "Germania"

Old Uncle Q,

many thanks for the kind words you wrote to get me the appointment as a Prefect, but honestly I was happy in Rome.  Quilpius had just invited me to his Emperor's Birthday Party Orgy... but perhaps I missed a flaming arrow with that one...

I have some doubts about Albinus Suspicious, Procurator of Tungrorum.  He seems to be in league with Gaius Julius Vindex of the Batavi in slave raiding within the Province.  If I find any evidence of this he should pay a nice sum to keep us quiet...

My next move is to move my recruits to the old Oppidum of the Tungri.  We will practice our sword drills and marching camp construction far from the prying eyes of civilians especially Albinus the Procurator.

Many thanks for sending me old Julius your former First Spear by the way.  He actually knows what he is doing!  I intend to copy him exactly, except for his inventive use of profanity.

Your Nephew,
Figulus
Prefect, 1st Tungrian Cohort
Written at Aduataca Tungrorum at the Camp of the Tungrian Cohort, 793 (anno urbis conditae)

The tabletop

The old Oppidum of the Tungri has not been occupied since the days of the Divine Julius.  The 1st Tungrian Cohort has been recruiting steadily (with two more tent parties painted up!) and have camped at a village at the base of the fort.   With evening coming on the Cohort stand to arms.  They face an attack by renegades lead by Marcus Batavi.

The Batavi and Ulpii  have been raiding the Tungri for slaves to sell to the Procurator.   Hearing that the recruits of the Tungri are to be isolated the enemy take the opportunity to attack.

The table has a large clearing around a Germanic village in the centre, with the hill fort above it.  The surrounding woods are dense.  My Auxilia Century must occupy and hold the village, destroying the raiders.  If Figulus can save the village his reputation will increase and he can continue recruiting for the cohort.

Roman Auxillia force:
Six tent parties of 8 Auxilia,
one Group six slingers
Centurion Julius and Optio,
and one Prefect hiding in a Roman travelling coach  

The Renegade force:
One band of 8 Mounted Nobles (actually just six)
One Group of 10 armoured Noble Warriors on foot
Four Groups of 10 Warriors,
Two Groups of six javelin armed skirmishers,
and three Chiefs

The Game

The full century

Centurion Julius attacks using a core of four tent parties.  The enemy oblige by attacking in the centre

The slingers hold off the Javelinmen making it look easy.  

The corn scattering slave trying to farm this field is a scratch build

My Roman travelling coach is being drawn by Enzo, my Italian WW2 ammunition mule.  Enzo is unhappy.  The Prefect is inside the coach dead drunk.

Gallic Noble cavalry move on the Roman left

The Optio leads a tent party out and they brace for the charge.

An excellent shot of Enzo behaving like a mule behind the line.

Its a brawl, but the Auxiliaries get the best of it.

The Optio sees off the Cavalry killing four.

Having defeated one group of Javelinmen the Slingers engage the second.

And its a sling bullet massacre.  Some really good slinger dice here.

The barbarians retreat from the centre of the Auxilia.  Centurion Julius has won the second battle for the Tungrians.  

Now he just has to have a word with his useless Prefect.

Prefect Figulus' first battle.

Written at Aduataca Tungrorum at the Camp of the Tungrian Cohort, 793 (anno urbis conditae)

Quilpius my dear young fellow,

Sad to say I won't be at your Orgy for the Emperor's birthday.  I have been sent out to Germania Inferior and ordered to take command of a new Cohort of Tungrian Auxiliaries.  As a Roman citizen I shall be one of the few Prefectus who isn't a jumped up Tribal chief.  Of course since I was born in Tungrorum when daddy was the Procurator here, I am a hairy arsed barbarian in the eyes of most folk in Rome, but at least I shall have my Family's equestrian narrow stripe to warm my prejudices.  
Once raised we will be posted to the Border near the Batavian Island.  What could go wrong?

As my friend you are doubtless thinking "Figulus? In the Military?  RIDICULOUS!"  May I say I wholeheartedly agree.  Fortunately my father consulted General Quintus and sent a retired veteran Centurion with me.  This man is a former First Spear of the 1st Germania and cannot settle to civilian life, an ancient, one eyed, veteran Centurion named Julius.  He claims to be a survivor of the Varian War some thirty years ago.  I will happily hide behind this worthy fellow and claim all of his decisions as my own.

My orders are to recruit the cohort up to strength and then report to the Legatus at the nearest fortress on the Rhennus.  Once again I am beyond Fortunate since the commander of that fortress is none other than Old Quintus himself, and I am to operate under his orders as Legatus of the 1st Germania.

It seems I need six full centuries, yet I found only some fifty men gathered by the Procurator.  He claims that raids by barbarian bandits from the Arduenna forest have prevented recruiting.  I suspect he has been dipping his fingers into the Emperor's coins and even selling off recruits as slaves.  He may even be in league with these "bandits."

Tomorrow I will head for the territory of the Tungri and attempt to recruit a few hundred more  of these big blond fellows, and perhaps deal with the barbarian bandits causing the trouble.

Your good friend,
Figulus

Getting a new project ready...

So I've been re-basing up the 1/72 Auxilia, onto individual 18mm washers, with my big men on larger ones.  The core force has six tent parties of eight men, and an attached group of six Slingers as skirmishers.  Clearly they are a small Century, but scaled up are a cohort at 1:10.

My Gallic/Germans (and Germania Inferior would have a mix of Belgae and resettled German tribes) have six groups of ten tribal warriors, a group of eight armoured Gallic nobles and two groups of six German javelinmen.

Yet to paint the Cavalry for either side but they will eventually have two groups of eight as optional extras.

Initially I'm going to tweak the Osprey Men of Bronze rules but I'm getting this ready for the forthcoming Lardy Ancients skirmish rules.  For accompanying terrain I was inspired by Big Rich's German village on YouTube, and have knocked up some "A" frame huts. 

I am intending to do the blog reports as a series of letters to my old friends Quintus, a Legionary Legatus, and Young Quilpius a newly appointed broad stripe Tribune.

The Game

The Belgae and Ulpii  have been raiding the Tungri for slaves to sell to the Procurator. An Auxiliary Century recruiting in the area intervenes...

The table has a Germanic village in the centre, surrounded by woods.  My Auxilia Century must occupy the village destroying the raiders.  If Figulus can save the village his reputation will increase and he can begin recruiting for the cohort.

Roman Auxilia force of four groups of 8 Auxilia, one Group six slingers and two Leaders.  

The Belgae force: one Group of Noble Warriors, three Groups of 10 Warriors, one Group of six javelin armed skirmishers, and three Leaders

The Tungri village looks to be a quiet sort of place

and the villagers are clearly former gladiators

Flavius Suspicious, my Optio, leads the slingers in advance of the column

The Centurion leads his men on behind the slingers

But that village seems no threat

Across a field of root vegetables of some sort the Optio spots naked javelinmen.

And behind them are warband warriors

The Centurion advances to the village.

Belgae rebels, and lots of them!

The enemy send in their armoured nobles

The scrap in the root vegetable field, the Optio and his tent party clear the attacking warriors.

In the big fight outside the village the Tungrians outclass the opposition - in dice throws anyway

The key moment as the Optio swings his tent party in on the barbarian warriors

A case of "don`t roll a 1" for the enemy General.  Dead!

First Spear Julius "One Eye" with his vine stick and a job well done...

Scratch building some sailing ships (again)

So technically speaking I've been building ships, again, but this time I was experimenting with my scratch building techniques.  Having bought a few of the Warlord Games 1:700 ships I wanted to see if I could get a scratch build anywhere near the quality of the production ones.  Judge for yourself...

I started with some thin plywood shapes from the works.  Several sizes and pretty much fine as the basis for hulls.

The other materials I used were a small balsa sheet from Boyes, and wooden drink stirrers liberated from my favourite local coffee shop.  I used the thin paper till receipt to create the crinkly sails.

A schooner and gunboat or cutter in 1:700.  They work quite well for me.  My figures, 10mm, will be used for landing missions.

 The schooner and gunboat bow on.

The Kogge, my version of a 1:700 Medieval ship.  Ok so I just wanted to see if I could do it, but six of these bad boys would complement my 6mm Baccus feudal army.

A view from up the poop.  All of my Masts dismount for storage, but this model needs more detail.

And my attempt at a light trireme.  It has some promise but perhaps the oars could be better if replaced by nylon from an old hairbrush (or a Poundship hairbrush for the squeamish)

And the view from the business end of that ram.  Poisedon's Warriors perhaps?  This is the model I like best of the four.

I hesitate to say this but they will look great painted...

Cruel Seas, what's in the box

A cheque for £50 from my old folks for my birthday has been sitting in my account for a month.  Who uses cheques anymore? And more to the point who posts them to Cyprus?  I decided to blow the lot on a memorable birthday present so went for Cruel Seas by Warlord Games.
Nice heavy box!

I had already scratch built some coastal Forces in 1:300, long before I heard of this game and it's scale so I was curious to discover if I had my model scale correct.

The starter set comes with ten plastic boats, six Vosper MTB and four S-Boats.  It has some dozen sea splash markers and torpedo markers, also in plastic.  The A0 double sided gaming surface was a nice surprise, one side being much darker than the other, perhaps representing night actions.

Cards for the boats, coloured cotton wool for hits, wake and plume markers, and heavy card terrain and markers.  The rules are glossy and come with a getting started booklet.  Since I was called back to the UK urgently the game cost £40 from the local model shop with a heavy 20% discount, I think that's well worth the money.

First things first I measured the plastic models against my balsa and bits builds.  I'm quite proud that they are pretty much spot on.  Not only that they are detailed as versions that the Warlord ones don't make up into.  This means my fleet now has 8 Vospers, 1 x MGB, 1 RAF Sea Rescue launch vs seven S-Boats.

Beyond building the plastic models and getting some games in I'm not sure what I intend to do with this in the way of linking the scenarios together.  It strikes me that Young Johnny Quilp may return to wrest control of the North Sea from the Hun, perhaps as part of a random patrol solo game.

My Vospers have a dice frame mounted on the stern to take a damage dice.  With 8 boats I have a lot of scope for games, but at 1:300 not too much tabletop...

My Scratch build List
Two more gunboats
British Corvette
Axis Minelayer
Trawler
Tanker
Coastal tramp steamer
Sinking S-Boats
Sinking MTB
Sinking ship bows & stern
Wreck or channel bhoy
Sandbar marker
Shoals
Coastline with port
Coastline with beach
Lighthouse
Mist
Squall
Tracer markers
Searchlight markers
1:300 aircraft

The fleet in dry dock...