Imperial Armies of the Thirty Years War (Men-at-arms)

Out on 10/10/09, a New Osprey release for all FoG R playtesters! This history of the Catholic armies of the Hapsburg Empire explores the role of infantry and artillery during the TYW, charting the progression of weapons, organization, tactics, and colorful uniforms used by the infantry and artillery! Boom!!

Wiki Upgrade

I'm upgrading the Wiki software at the moment, so it may not work for while!

Match Reports from Britcon 2009

The Marginally Less Morally Bankrupt Dominate Romans enjoy another outing - this time in a damp Augustine Manchester. Read all about it here.

More Fogipedia pages

Added Anglo Danish, Middle Anglo Saxon and Carolingians to the FoG Wiki, and a few more photos to the photo directory - and someone else created a Uratian Page too! Gradually working through the 6 monster Britcon reports too - maybe ready by the weekend !

Quote of the Day

I've just added a random Military-themed quote over at the top of the right hand column of this site - it's different every time you reload the page. I hope you like them!

Empires of the Dragon released imminently!

Get the Big Fat millions of pages book on the Chinese, Samurai and Koreans (and all those chaps on elephants) from Amazon - out on the 10th Sept apparently.

Match reports from Devizes

Now posted on the Match Reports section of the site. 10mm action....

Match Reports from Rome

See how the Dominate Swarm managed to win another competition !

10mm Parthian WMA Army for Sale

I have found myself the possessor of well over 2000 points of Parthians based up for WMA, and so unfortunately about half of them have to go. They are very nice, and include Steve Barber Camel Cataphracts and some lovely Steve Barber horse archers too. On sale until next Sunday.

You can see them on eBay here

Europe's best FoG Army List?

My MLMB (Marginally Less Morally Bankrupt) Dominate Roman Army is now online in the FoG Wiki by clicking the title of this post. The match reports are underway as well, but not yet ready to publish.

Campiones!

In a turn-up for the books I return from Italy as the newly crowned Campione della Tuttti Europa di FoG !! Taking the huge, embarassing trophy back on the plane - and meeting some I know through work in the departure lounge - was not something I wish to repeat though... Battle report to follow in a couple of weeks.....

Day 1

One big win, one narrow defeat on day 1. My tougher Dom Romans are doing ok, but failed to finish off a load of ottoman LH this pm to lost 16-9 after a 25-0 this am vs Ordonnance French.

Posted with LifeCast

I'm In Roma!

For the IWF Euro's, and gentlemen, let me tell you, it's already hot hot hot! Birra in an ice cream parkour last night to set the tone nicely, and 2 games of FoG to look forward to today.

Posted with LifeCast

WRG Armies & Enemies books available online

The WRG Armies & Enemies series should be part of every ancient and medieval gamers library. But they are sadly out of print. So I've set up a page that drawn in current eBay and Amazon 2nd Hand listings for all the books and pulls them together in one place. So if you want that missing copy, here's where to look!

Britcon - 14-16 August 2009

I've now published a full trader list for Britcon 2009 on this site, as well as details of all the competitions, and a schedule of events. Its available here

FoG Oath of Fealty nearly here...!

Oath of Fealty has snuck up on us all and is only only a week or so away from release. If you click this link you can pre-order it POST FREE from UK Amazon for £10.45 (as of today - that's more than £2.50 cheaper than Caliver Books as a comparison), or $16.47 in the US from this link, however you'll need to buy another $9 of stuff to get free shipping in the US.

More Wiki Pages created

Been gradually adding a few pages for "Wolves from The Sea" armies - and adding to those created by users of this site as well. The "manufacturer recommendations" section is going to look rather similar for all of these armies I think!

D-Day by Anthony Beevor

The UK's best selling book right now is Anthony Beevor's new tome, D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (that was a link to Amazon if you want to check it out). It's also now published in the States here - D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (likewise a link). You can get it from both sites post-free. Should be a classic....

Unpainted lead

Pictures of bare metal from Old Glory, Strategia et Tactica, Rank & File, Outpost and Khurasan all now added to the 15mm photo directory

Evergreen Aerospace Museum

Juct gotten back from holiday and added a few pictures of an air museum we managed to sneak into. This one is the Evergreen Aerospace Museum, home of Howard Hughes' monstrous Spruce Goose prototype transport plane. Lots of WW2 and post war aircraft, but lots and lots of Spruce Goose photos!

FoG Resources Page

Now has a more comprehensive listing of the most recent updates to the Wiki - with details of each update. See the main menu link above.

Posted with LifeCast

UK Games Expo in Birmingham 5-7 June

The UK's most all-encompassing Gaming event takes place from 5-7 June in Birmingham, with board games, wargames, RPGs and LARP all happening. If you are anywhere near there, I'd thoroughly recommend you drop in and give it a go, as there's so much going on - click the headline to go to their website.

Madaxeman Invitational Battle Reports

Romans vs Illyrians and Romans vs Parthians now posted, with commentarty by Caeasar and Hannibal.

PC Games on Amazon

Just added a page which carries Amazon.co.uk's current bestsellers list for PC Strategy & Roleplay games to this site.

Britcon 2009

I'm helping out the BHGS with the "trade stands" side of Britcon this year, and have signed up with Miniature Wargames to help promote the show. If you are a trader and are interested, get in touch with me on the email address above. For more details you can click on the title of this story, or simply read on:

Britcon 2009 - Trader News.

Britcon is not only the UKs largest gaming competition, it is also one of the North West’s best attended Trade events with around 700 competitors and visitors expected at UMIST in Manchester, over the weekend of the 15th and 16th August.

Britcon’s USP remains our many competition periods, which guarantee the presence of some 300+ gamers at the show throughout the entire weekend. In 2009 we will have competitions for all of the most popular 15mm & 25-28mm Historical and Fantasy/Sci-Fi rules, including Flames of War, Field of Glory and a full suite of Games Workshop events. All of these periods have seen a flurry of new rulesets and army supplements over the past 12 months, so if you are selling products which are compatible with any of these rulesets you can be sure that many of our visitors and competitors will be looking for new figures, terrain and gaming supplies to bring their armies up to scratch with the latest rules and lists this August.


Our Trader rates have also been frozen at their 2008 level, with a 6’ stand starting at just £75 however in response to feedback from our current Traders we have made a number of changes to the show to help you achieve better sales from this year’s events. These include:

• A new partnership Miniature Wargames which will see the 2009 Britcon Show Guide appear in full in the August edition of Miniature Wargames, so all their regular readers will receive it in addition to our usual distribution of free copies being handed to each and every one of the expected 700+ competition and expo attendees at Britcon 2009.
• Miniature Wargames will also be offering specially discounted "Britcon 2009" advertising rates to all of our traders the August edition of the magazine, giving you a saving of 1/3 on their standard rates. If you want to make sure that every competition gamer, day visitor and a further 7,000 active wargamers across the country know you are at this year's biggest UK wargames competition, you can now do so at an even more cost effective manner than ever before.
• The 2009 Show guide will now also include editorial space for a 50-word catalogue entry for all of our exhibitors, allowing you to highlight the ranges you will be bringing to the show, as well as announcing any new product launches and special offers you may be running at the show.
• To increase the volume of day visitors, we will be undertaking more expo-only promotion than ever before, with advertising in all of the main journals and an online campaign where we will be posting regular announcements about our exhibitors to all the major online portals and forums used by UK gamers.
• To help you make sales to our expected 300+ competition gamers, we will be sending out a series of regular email shots throughout July & August to all the registered players specifically to promote our traders, so if you have any exciting announcements or news to share, or if you simply want to encourage our gamers to "order in advance - collect at show", we want to hear from you!

As well as all these new initiatives, our 2009 competition schedules will again feature the very popular and specially extended "Shopping Frenzy" session on Sunday lunchtime, and we will also again be offering discounted Traders accommodation rates and parking within the University Campus, making your stay in Manchester as economical as possible.

In order to take advantage of the extra promotion available via the August edition of Miniature Wargames you will need to confirm your participation as a Britcon Trader by Friday June 26th, and provide artwork by Friday July 3rd. Traders booking after this date will still enjoy all of our on-site and web-based promotion, but will miss out on the extra benefits of inclusion in the August edition of Miniature Wargames.
To find out more about our new enhanced 2009 Trader Packages you can download and complete the Britcon Trader Form from the BHGS website, or contact me at tim@madaxeman.com
To book space in Miniature Wargames show issue please contact Gareth MacFarlane at Miniature Wargames on 01354 695559.

 On behalf of the BHGS

Madaxeman Invitational - The Results

Final Placings (and armies) are

1st - Ray Duggins - Visigoth - 35 points

2nd - Me - Late Republican Roman - 29 points

3rd= - Alan Goodearl - Illyrian - 28 points

3rd = - Nik Gaukroger - Hepthalite Hunnic - 28 points

5th - Graham Willmott - Palmyran - 27 points

6th - Kris Pugh - Parthians - 22 points

7th - Brian Holmes - Classical Indian - 19 points

8th - Carlos Ferrao - Dominate Roman - 17 points

9th - Michael Row - Sassanid Persian - 15 points

10th - Geoff Punshon - Western Hunnic - 5 points

Madaxeman Invitational

Manchester United may have just won the Premier League, however The Madaxeman Invitational takes center stage in the world of Sport as of tomorrow. The first round draw has already been released, and pits...

Early Vandal vs Western Hunnic
Late Republican Roman vs Illyrian
Dominate Roman vs Palmyran
Sassanid Persian vs Parthian
Hepthalite Hun vs Classical Indian

If you are in London and fancy a pint tomorrow, please feel free to drop in.

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.

Rebel Minis Romans

Just got some 15mm Romans thru the post from America - so they are being sped thru the painting table and there will maybe be photos as soon as tomorrow!

Posted with LifeCast

Hedges & Trees for terrain

With spring in the air here in the UK, I've added Auction Listing pages for you to buy wargaming trees and also clumped foliage for making hedges & bushes, so now you have no excuse not to make your scenery as good as your figures!