Shadows in The Desert

The highly regarded "Shadows in The Desert" by Kaveh Farrokh, covering the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids is now out in paperback in both the UK and US already. Amazon are selling it at 30% off list price.

• UK Version of Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War
• Us Amazon Version of Shadows in the Desert
  

Madaxeman Invitational FoG Tourney

I'm running a 1-day mini FoG tourney in London on the 17th of May. Full details via this link.

Oxford Doubles Report

Poles in action in a themed Eternal Empire competition - 4 match reports.

New Era Donnington Miniatures

Just added some pics of painted Donnington "New Era" medievals to the 15mm Directory. Donnington have also got a full set of pictures on their website as well now.



They are pretty much all either in the Men at Arms or Barded Knights directories.

New 15mm Supplier Added

Just added Baker Company, who produce 15mm Siamese & Burmese figures, to the 15mm Suppliers Directory

Chalons sur Marne

I hope to be playing in a mega-FOG game today (the afternoon of 3rd April) leading the Rugian contingent at Chalons against the Romans. With a bit of luck I may even be posting photos and updates from the game in real time on this page.

Samurai Armies 1467-1694

Samurai Armies 1467-1694 is the latest tome from Osprey in their Battle Orders series. Written by Stephen Turnbull (who along with Anthony Bryant has authored most of Osprey's range of Samurai books) this volume covers the period of Japanese history when the country was split into a multitude of rival princedoms and Samurai leaders fought for local - and eventually national - dominance.


The book itself is a weighty tome - no "8 pages of colour plates with some sketchy and largely irrelevant bonus text wrapped round it " Osprey this one!


This volume's 96 text-heavy pages do go into detail on Samurai history & politics of the period, giving an overview of how Japan changed and developed and highlighting the origins of the key players and clans. however - and most importantly for the likes of us gamers - there is absolutely stacks about warfare, battle tactics, uniforms, heraldry, with detailed maps and tactically astute accounts of battles and campaigns - in fact, everything from page 21 onwards is pretty much about the nitty gritty of warfare.

The book covers a number of key wargame-related topics in great detail, devoting many pages to each. The 17-page "Campaigns" section covers battlefield formations, communications, weaponry and how evolutions in weaponry (ie the arquebus) affected samurai tactics throughout this period.

20 Pages of "Strategic Engagement and Battlefield Movement" follows several key campaigns and uses them to highlight the classic array of formalized - and formula-busting - tactics used by key generals of the era.

A further 18 page section addresses in yet more detail the great battles of the Tokugawa Shoguns, from the unification of Japan through to the formation of the first real "Japanese" army and its abortive mission to subjugate Korea.

Summary:
For someone like myself for whom Samurai armies are not a passion, but something which fits into the "I'd like one one day just for the painting" the book is initially a somewhat challenging read, with a host of names of Japanese leaders and the rather confusing histories of various warring dynasties crammed into the first few pages.

However once this is out of the way (which it is quite soon) the book quickly kicks into a new life as something that almost seems to have been designed as a wargamers companion, and the speed at which I was able to take it all in increased dramatically.

By the time I'd finished I felt confident that the book had given me just enough history and background to put a context around what must be on many peoples "to do" lists, and shared enough pictures and uniform guides to inspire me to have a go at the uniforms, banners and flags as well. For a wargamer thinking of dipping their toe in Japanese waters then, it'd be hard to see how a one-volume guide to the period could be better put together.

Buy this book now from Amazon

Xystons Monsters!

Just added some new photos of the Xyston Theurophoroi to the 15mm photo gallery, as the size of these chaps seems to be a regular subject on many discussion boards. I've put up comparison shots with Essex, Old Glory, Corvus Belli and also some other Xyston ranges as well.

FoG Surveys

The FoG WIKI now includes polls on each and every army page so you can give your opinion on how each army performs. The options are:

• Great all round army
• Good, but only in its own theme/book
• Not great, but still a solid choice
• A near-duplicate of a better list
• Eccentric - Terrain or matchup dependant
• A real dog I'm afraid
• None of the above

There's also a new Survey you can take on how you'd like FoG tournaments to be set up.

Become a Fan of Madaxeman.com on Facebook

If you have a Facebook account you can now become a Fan of Madaxeman.com! just click this link and sign up as a fan!

10mm Medievals on eBay

Another one of the nicely painted 10mm Medieval armies I'm selling (Italian Condotta or Ordonnance French) ends on ebay this Sunday. For the listing click this link

New Medieval Figures from Donnington

I've just gotten my hands on some of the new Medieval figures from Donnington (due to be released at Salute 2009) - and very nice they are too.

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Having chatted to Damian at last weeks Doubles in Oxford, it seems these figures have been designed by a totally new sculptor for Donnington, so are a big step forwards from some of their other ranges. The figures themselves are compatible in size and bulk with the popular medieval ranges from Essex & Corvus Belli, but have more innovation and animation in poses than the Essex ranges. They even stand up very favourably when set against figures from my personal favourites, Mirliton and could be mixed IMO with any of these three manufacturers with no problems at all. The first 3 ranges on offer are 100YW, Swiss and Low Countries - so plenty of Men at Arms and halberdiers all round, as well as some longbowmen who will give the well-regarded 100YW Corvus Belli range a stiff challenge in the popularity stakes - especially as Donnington have nicked an idea from Peter Pig and slipped in a longbowman giving the Frenchies the finger!

Donnington intend to sell these new figures under a slightly different brand to the rest of their ranges (maybe "New Donnington" - which I suppose is better than renaming the old lot "Classic Donnington"!), and at a higher unit price. They still intend to offer the option to buy figures individually, but probably will offer unit-sized packs as well. There is a good variety in each range with at least 4 variations for most types of troops, and if they continue to allow you to mix and match their horses (of which there are 12 on offer in the 100YW range) when you buy the variety you can achieve could be very impressive.

The figures generally come with open hands, or at least hands that need to be drilled to accommodate spears or pikes, although some of the halberdiers come with cast-in weapons. Donnington intend to offer a range of weapons with the figures, maximising variety within each unit. The clever innovation with the range is visible in the above photos of the horse-less Men at Arms - the guys have been cast with a "Vamplate" (no, I didn't know what it was either) on their hands, which creates the hand guard part of a proper lance when its drilled through to take a metal wire spear - very cute!

Overall these look to be a really good range, and continue the recent trend of ever-improving 15mm figures with more "human" proportions, lots of variety and some genuine thought going into the poses to create more interesting units. There are plenty more pictures of these in the 15mm Photo Gallery (search for "New Donnington" in the "manufacturer" field) - and I'll be adding more as I get to take some photos of them. Details of procing etc haven't been released yet, but if you contact Donnington or go along to see them at Salute I'm sure you will be able to get hold of some soon!

Warmaster Medieval Eye Candy

Three armies now painted up and on this site in their full glory with bucket-loads of photos.

Ordonance French,

The Black Army of Matthieu Corvinius,

100YW English / WOTR,

Fully Updated Tactical Tips

The Tactical Tips section of the Wiki has been fully updated, revised and extended, and is all here in it's full (Field of) Glory. Its in the WIKI, so if you have any bright ideas to add to it, you can do so !

Another 10mm WMM Army on sale

This time the army on offer has options for Italian Condotta or Ordonnance French. It - and all its pictures - can be seen now on eBay now via this link.

Stronghold / Jacobite added to Supplier Directory

I managed to find a link to a full listing of the Stronghold/Jacobite ranges which worked and so I've now added them to the 15mm Ancients Suppliers Directory.

Don;t forget that if you have pictures of figures from any of the ranges in the 15mm Ancients Suppliers Directory please drop me a line as I'd love to add them to the Directory and Photo Gallery.

New "News" Page added

I've added a new page that pulls together all the latest postings from various Yahoo Groups and Wargaming news sites, and previews them here on this site. It's available here. If you can't be bothered logging into Yahoo groups to see if anything interesting is happening, this is the page for you to bookmark!

Xyston Gallic Nobles reviewed

Xystons latest release is a pack of 8 armoured Gallic infantry. As usual they come with separate shields, which all have well-sized anchor points for the figures hands (although some of these figures don't seem to accommodate / need shields). There is also a separate "ornament" which sits on top of the helmet of one of the warriors.

This is a picture of the figures as they arrived, so a little flash needs to be cut off the swords and some other parts of the figures, but nothing too technical. Having picked up some Xyston Gaeasati recently, these figures are noticably more well-fed, even allowing for the fact they are wearing both clothes and armour, making it easier to see them fitting in alongside other ranges. The armour (in fact, all of the figure) is well cast with good detail to pick up drybrushing, and the poses are well animated although anatomically a touch suspect in cases (see this review elsewhere for comments).

The first figure is waving a sword (which is cast with the figure avoiding risk of it falling off with use). The second, with the seagull-attachment to his helmet stands on a rock, looking forwards, and the third lunges forward again with a sword cast in hand.

The final figure is holding his sword slightly uncomfortably, but has a great moustache and rather angry demeanour. The other photo shows the first figure again, but this time from the rear.

Overall another nice set of figures from Xyston, not as stylized as their Gaeasati warriors, but yet again it would still be difficultto mix these chaps with anyone else's figures as they are rather large. I have managed to combine them on the same base as the Fantassin/Warmodelling Gauls, but they tower head and shoulders (literally) over my Essex, Old Glory and Corvus Belli troops.

10m Medieval Army Photos !!

I'm selling a 10mm Warmaster Medieval army on eBay right now. for lots of photos follow this link. For the listing on eBay click here.

Total War : Empire - Out Very Soon!

The new 18th Century Total War PC game is out in less than a week - and I'm excited! The review in PC gamer gave it 94%!!! There are several demo videos available for Empire: Total War (UK Edition) here. Amazon are offering it for under £28 in the UK or $46.99 for the US version with free delivery via those links.

Five of the FoG army lists books are now fully added to the FoG Wiki. That's history, figure recommendations, external links, and sometimes army lists and tactical advice for every army in the RoR, IF, SoA, LT and D&F books. They will keep being added to - maybe you can add something yourself?

Wargamers Calendar

You can now add a self-updating UK Event Calendar to your own Wargame Website or Blog by linking to the one on this site. Its dead easy, and adds some useful and constantly refreshed content to any website. click this link to get your own version on your site or blog.

Madaxeman.com has a Blog!

Well, to be honest it's had one for a while, but I've just tidied it up and I'm quite proud of it. The Blog is accessible here and whilst it looks different, it is in fact a standard "Blogger" blog so if you have your own Blog you can link to it through all the many very, very clever Blogger widgets.

The Blog is a technical fix to help me feed news onto this site, and everything that appears on the Blog also appears here as well so no need to bookmark anything twice - but it does have an archive of "news" items, some other sorting options, the chance for you to leave comments and some more toys as well.

If Blogger is your thing, it's worth a look...

Complete Painted Armies on Sale

I'm gradually adding to the eBay listings pages on this site, and the latest page has a listing of complete painted armies for sale. If you ever want to quickly check what's on sale on ebay, but can't be bothered with the hassle of logging in and searching, my eBay listings pages are idea for you - see the full set of them on the right!

Baueda's range now added to the Photo Directory

All of Baueda's "new" (ex 50-Paces) Viking range, and their Emeshi, Flaming Pigs and Ottoman Incendiary Javelinmen now appear in the photo directory on this site.

Match Reports from Burton 2009

Meet The Spartans as they meet Persians, Dominate Romans, Selukids and Graeco Bactrians in 4 full action match reports - with added Hannibal and Leonidas as well!

Naismith & Roundway 15mm Ancients Suppliers

I've added these two brands (both manufactured by Navwar) to the 15mm Ancients Suppliers lists so you can rate them. There are some photos of Roundway Swiss now in the Photo directory too.

User-guide to Medieval Irish

The FoG Wiki has had a great guide to the Medieval Irish added by one of the Wiki users. Take a look - maybe it'll inspire you to have a try at adding something yourself to the Wiki? Nearly 400 Wiki pages are being viewed every day, so any contribution will help other gamers!

Basing Figures - The Movie

I've created a short YouTube movie on how I base my figures - its available by clicking this link. I will dig out some more links to basing guides and add them to this page soon - if you know any such sites please email me with their url's.

Snowed In?

With much of the UK snowed in, many gamers may well be bored and at home this week. Luckily I've compiled a list of good timewasting things to do on Madaxeman.com. Follow this link for a list of ways to pass the time instead of painting figures!