Drive to the Rhine - An ADLG Beer n'Castles German mini break

With ADLG taking vigorous root in Germany's Ancients competition scene, Two Daves and a Madaxeman took a road (and rail) trip across France, Belgium and Germany and on the way ended up in a variety of castles, museums, cathedrals and of course schitzel-serving bierkellers - all of which you can now share in too! 

Sandwiched inbetween two epic travelogues are 5 Madaxeman Match reports as the Palmyran army of the ever-feisty Zenobia takes on Arabs, Byzantines (twice), the Might of Imperial China, and the Xia Xia Nomad Empire in a series of battles

The reports also feature a band new educational component, in the shape of a suite of painstakingly accurate and fully researched German exclamations and a number of entirely plausible German compound words as well. 

To top it all off there is also an accompanying podcast to listen to as well. 

Click through and enjoy the road trip !

Donnington Clubmen

 One of the cool new units in v4 of ADLG are the Palestinian Clubmen who appear in a number of the later Roman armies.

With o-one really making figures for them, I had proxied a few Legio Heroica arabs to act as medium Clubmen, to which I have now added some close formation Heavy Infantry using Donnington's Arab MUF10 Sudanese lutatman from their New Era Crusades range

Here are the jolly fellows, together with some more Old School Donnington Auxilia.  

Random 15mm January Work in Progress

 With the Lockdown Podcasts due to start again next week and the UK in what feels like it will be a hard-lockdown lasting at least into March, I've been chewing away at some bits and pieces before embarking onto an actual major project.

Here's a few photos of the WiP figures (all pre-matt varnishing, as it's too cold to do) - there are loads more photos on the Madaxeman Website

These are a mix of Essex and Magister Militum/Chariot hoplites, with a lone New Museum commander in the front rank.

The white leather armour itself was white undercoat, then a wash of ArmyPainter Dark tone to pick out the details, then it was painted white leaving the recesses clear of paint so the shading was left only in the recesses.

These are mostly the "boring" Essex Arab spearmen, again stripped in Biostrip, undercoated in white and then with GW contrast paints applied to mirror the 28mm figures I did a few months ago.

These are Donnington New Era arabs, based up as Saririyah Pikemen from the Fatimid Egyptian army list and painted in Contrast paints

The Donnington New Era arabs fit well next to Essex infantry size-wise

I've also been thinking about upgrading my Roman Carroballistas for a while, and Tamsins painting of these Donnington figures flagged up in the podcast spurred me on to finally get around to it

The ballista and cart on the left is from Donnington, on the right its from Essex - but all the crew are Donnington, sold as singles.

This is a rebasing project, separating my rather vast (mostly) Two Dragons Rus/Viking DBM army into separate ADLG Rus and Viking forces (and possibly creating a Viking army I can sell on eBay too)

I'm also taking the rebasing moment as an excuse to repaint the spears as well. Spears do tend to get chipped and bent, so repainting them all makes a big difference to how new the army looks.

Getting distracted by a variety of projects is sometimes a good thing, as it does mean you can get a sense of achievement from making a noticable difference to some figures - and at the moment we all need some achievements to mark down!

Equally, taking advantage of the extra time we've all been gifted at the moment does allow some experimentation, and the hoplites certainly fall into that category as I tried a very different painting style, taking almost a week to do these handful of figures

Either way, a break from launching into the next major project is great, and when it throws up some interesting figures, paint styles and creates some reason to use new(ly rebased) armies in future that otherwise might have languished in a drawer thats great too.

There are loads more photos of these on the Madaxeman Website

Oooh-err Missus! It's a B.I.G. Abona !

Way back in the mists of time in a far flung corner of this sceptred isle a band of well-muscled 25mm army-carrying wargamers gathered together to celebrate the Roman era of British history (and, more pertinently, how it was portrayed in Carry On films - of course).

The end result was the BIG Abona Festival, a 2-day, 4-game 25mm ADLG event with a theme of all armies valid at any date during the Roman presence in Britain.

To this esteemed gathering I elected to take the Vikings, who just about squeaked in with a dateline before the end of the Sub Roman British list. Just.

Many months later the four reports of the Viking's exploits are finally published for your delight and delectation, as the Norseen take on the Mongols, Ancient British and two very different sets of Roman soldiery in full widescreen technicolour.

Read on for the usual mix of poor puns, comedy captions and expert analysis - this time with added rubbish rhymes!
 

Double the Roman Trouble in Wales..?

Another year, another Doubles L'Art de la Guerre outing as ADLG became the biggest game in town at the traditional UK Wargaming season curtain-raiser, the Godendingdangdag Doubles in in Sunny Wales.

This year saw the event move out of Usk and into the rather spiffing purpose-built venue at Firestorm Games in Cardiff.

This did mean that most of the games appears to be played on the surface of a battle-blasted alien planet (note to self, bring cloth next time) but other than that it was regarded as a great improvement by everyone who joined in.

But, did the new venue prove a happy hunting ground for our Roman and Judean combination?

Read these 4 map-heavy match reports and see how the Early Imperial Roman & Judean did against the Chinese Northern Dynasties & Chi'ang, the Ostrogoths and Gepids, the Greco-Indians and Kushans and finally Don Alexander the Great and the Classical Indians.

If you ever wanted to know just what the Romans Ever Did For Us, the answer is surely hidden in these 4 reports!

Aaah-oooh - it's the Dacians of London Again..!

Fresh from drinking a pina colada at Trader Vics, those barbarian scallywags from the land of Dracula, the Dacians, touch down in Central London for 3 games of Roman-period themed L'Art de la Guerre goodness.

Marvel at how this usually somewhat underpowered army performs against Mithradates, Rome and the Germanic Tribes in three punchy and to the point match reports, complete with the usual smattering of captions and other tosh.

Be warned though, it's not going to be subtle... !

Roll Call 2016 - Taking a Pontic punt at ADLG

As ADLG makes it's way onto the big boys table of UK competitions with a 16-player field for 15mm ADLG at Roll Call 2016, discover how Mithradates of Pontus manages to almost (but not quite) control his many and varied disparate troop types in 5 games against all possible flavours of Romans.

Yes, it's 5 brand new Match Reports, complete with rules hints and explanations for what might well be the worlds most popular Ancients competition ruleset right now, L'Art de la Guerre.

Faenza Game 2 now posted

Persians vs Romans, Kenneth is back....

Rebel Mini's Roman - Pics & Review

These chaps are now painted and in the Ancients Photo Gallery. As a preview, here are some of the pictures.


Overall they are nice looking little figures, although it does need you to stick on their (separate) shields at a variety of jaunty angles to give them any real attempt at animation. The shields all come with well thought out "plugs" on the back, into which each figure's left hand fits snugly, allowing you a very decent chance of glueing the shields on in a secure manner - although I always try and glue separate shields to a 2nd anchor point elsewhere on the figure just to be on the safe side. Castings are clean, and the blokes themselves are normally-proportioned, not cartoonish - which makes them appear quite slight compared to some of the chunkier ranges out there. Size-wise they look to be a mite smaller than Old Glory, and almost exactly bang on the same as Corvus Belli's Romans.

Overall however its still a limited range of figures, only 2 varieties in each pack, and expensive compared to many other ranges means this feels to me like a range that might not quite make the cut despite being pretty good.