The Madaxeman Christmas Bonus - a one-off, festive ADLG Match Report

In a rare festive treat, your post-lunch turkey-digesting can now be undertaken in the company of a one-off Madaxeman.com L'Art de la Guerre Battle Report, featuring a matchup between the Sassanid Persians and Attila's Huns!

Santa's sack is positively bulging as it seeks to contain the excitement in this report , which is as comprehensively stuffed with goodies as a classic Christmas pudding is stuffed with health-and-safety-challenging sixpences.

There are maps, comments from both of the generals involved as well as Hannibal's usual pithy analysis, a host of animations and videos and all of the usual captions and comments too.

So, grab yourself an egg-nogg, pull up a comfy sweater and dive into the Sassanid vs Hunnic Christmas Match Report! 

The Ancient British Panzer Division - in ADLG

That well-known Barkeresque wargaming trope, the Ancient British Panzer Division, gets a surprise but strangely welcome outing in these three L'Art de la Guerre competition reports all taken from the recent Central London Invitational 1-day event.

This is your chance to thrill to the rumble of 32 separate wheels as the 15mm British Catuvellauni tribesmen race across the tabletop towards the Carthaginians and the Seleukids, before rounding off by taking part in a Very British Civil War against a more pedestrian flavour of Ancient British.

The reports are now laid out in a new wider-screen format with bigger pictures, but the same hapless captions and post match-mishmash of commentary and analysis from Cassivellaunus himself as well as Hannibal. The three opposing army lists are also referenced and included.

Trust me - these reports are wheely, wheely good !

The Chimu - 15mm Lurkio figures

You know how it goes, you have lots of stuff on the painting table, some of which you might need fairly soon... but that long-neglected project somehow insinuates itself into your mind and forces it's way to the front even thought it's of no use whatsoever?

Well, in the last week or so, that project for me has been painting a DBA v3 Chimu Imperial Army 1350-1480AD from Lurkio, that I won in a competition more than a year ago.

I don't really play DBA all that often, I have no intention of expanding the army to a full ADLG one, but these guys had been waiting to be painted and, well, one day I just got the bug...

See the full army here.

Derby 2017 - time for the big toys to come out to play!

Having been painting, making and generally faffing around and not quite finishing my 28mm Patrician Roman army for the last 18 months, the annual Derby competition suddenly hove into view and offered up not one, but two opportunities to put the figures on the table.

The end result are 5 well-packed and imposing L'Art de le Guerre battle reports featuring sumptuous imagery of troops that are actually big enough to be able to see with the naked, unaided human eye!

Across the weekend the army from the tail end of the Roman Empire fought its predecessors, its contemporaries, its allies and it's mortal enemies - and even, on one notable occasion, itself - on a series of 6x4 tabletops in an aircraft hangar in the East Midlands.

See for yourself why the fall of the Roman Empire may actually have been FAKE NEWS, and why the 28mm game might well prove to be the absolute real sweet spot for Ancient wargaming with the L'Art de la Guerre ruleset.

Yes, these reports are possibly your gateway drug to mainlining the seemingly almost daily releases of plastic multipose 28mm ancients figures now on the market. Read on with care...

Derby not Derby, the "Post-Derby" Madaxeman.com Podcast

In this episode featuring regular guests Dave Dave and Aussie Simon, the Central London A-Team are travelling home by car and discussing the merits of the new "Derby not Derby" venue, undertaking a highly detailed pint-by-pint review of the pubs and restaurants of Market Harborough, and get into some actual wargaming-related discussions about army list composition for L'Art de la Guerre and the upcoming UK competition schedule.

You can stream the episode from here, or download to listen later at your leisure...



The match reports for the games in this podcast are not far behind...

Alexanders Companions Go Tilting at Windmills

After an unfeasibly long delay, the 6-game "Worlds 2017" set of L'Art de le Guerre match reports are now released into the wild in all their multi-faceted glory!

Set in the sun-drenched uplands of Salamanca in Western Spain, the biggest event in the world draws out Hannibal's only true rival, Alexander The Greats own army to take on opponents from across the swathe of time, from their own back garden in the form of the Classical Indians all the way to the Middle Ages and the Ordonnance French.

Thrill as Alexander himself narrates in these 6 match reports, stuffed full of videos, inappropriate accents, suggestive double-entendres and all manner of painted lead as it refuses to melt in the Spanish heat, and Gasp as Hannibal skillfully and not at all politely deconstructs it all after each game.

And, in a special ADLG bonus, Even The Man, The Legend, The Hero - El Kreator Herve Caille gets a look-in as Alexander's Phalanx clashes with the authors own concoction of an army in Game 4!

It's a widescreen epic - read all about it here!

Patras 2018 !!!!

Just heard some brilliant news - the Greek wargaming community have now taken up L'Art de la Guerre, and are planning on bringing back the near-legendary Patras tournament in 2018 !!!

It's now more than a dozen years since myself and a crew of Central Londoners made the trek across the Peloponnese to play in the Patras DBM tournament.... The epic report is still on this site and available here.

And here's the equally epic lunch!

The local clubs are looking at dates at the moment - as soon as it's firmed up we're on!

Army lists from my 6 opponents at The Worlds now published on the Wiki

The armies fielded by my opponents in the recent "The Worlds" L'Art de la Guerre event in Salamanca are now on the ADLG Wiki:

They were, in order of play

• Classical Indian
• Graeco Indian
• French Ordonnance
• Delhi Sultanate
• Christian Nubian
• Sassanid Persian 

My own two army lists were taken from the Alexander The Great list.

Battle reports are underway and being written... but here's some in-game pictures to kick things off... 

Carlos Vasquez and the Oiran

Carlos Vasquez is literally the new Hotness in Malifaux, a tanky Henchman with some exuberant flaming attacks.

I picked up the model, together with a box of Oiran on a recent trip to play at the English GT at Wayland Games, looking to expand my Showgirl crew.

Carlos is a slightly tricky but rewarding model to assemble and paint - the trickiness comes in whether or not to pin him. I did... find out why on this gallery

The Oiran are more straightforward, with some fiddly small pieces. Learn about my choice of colour scheme here.

What an Atmosphere! The Rus get in some ADLG action

Hot on the heels of The BHGS Challenge comes Dogs of War, in the excellent Bristol Independent Gaming Centre.

This was a Dark Ages & Early Medieval themed L'Art de la Guerre event, and in keeping with my efforts to try and get as many of my long-forgotten armies on table as possible under ADLG I had elected to wheel out the Rus - with a Viking ally.

The "Wall of Spears" was a new thing for me to try in L'Art de la Guerre competition gaming, so the big question was whether that was because everyone else had missed the tactical potential of such an army, or because it was a bit pants and I hadn't worked that out yet.

See how the men from the Ukraine did in these 5 rather linear battle reports!

Aircraft photos from RIAT 2017

The Royal International Air Tattoo is one of the world's best airshows.

The weather this year wasn't great, but I still managed to get some half-decent photos of some of the aircraft:

 Belgian Sea King Air Sea Rescue

Italian Tornado

Patrouille Suisse - F5E

Apache

F22 Raptor

The USAF Thunderbirds