18 Dec 2018

Xyston "Egyptian Spearmen"

Along with the Assyrians the festive Madaxeman workbench has been a home for quite some time for 2 packs of Xyston Egyptian Spearmen, bought from Damian at Donnington at Attack! in Devizes earlier this year.

They fall into the category of "I'm not quite sure what to do with them but they are great figures so I bought them anyway". If only there was an army list for this I'd be able to field all sorts of stuff from my collection much more often!

There are probably a couple of armies that they can appear in - some of the "non NKE" Egyptian ones in the ADLG lists, and given the shields I could maybe sneak them into an Assyrian or Babylonian lineup as well I guess.




I did the clever painter-y thing on their kilts of doing darker stripes of blue, and then adding a lighter, thinner stripe inside them to give an impression of some texture.


White undercoats for the men, black for the shields. The shields are stuck on with my go-to solution for shields, 2-part "liquid metal" epoxy from Araldite (affiliate link).



Basing is the usual sand + Rustins Wood Stain + 2 layers of drybrushing before adding some tufts and static grass



14 Dec 2018

UK Ancients Competition Scene - year-end snapshot

With the festive period now closing in fast it's time to repeat my now-almost-as-traditional-as-sprouts snapshot summary of the state of play in the UK ancients competition scene.

The full analysis will again be out in a few months and cover to the year to April-ish (and will cover other rulesets before you all ask - this is just the 'big 6' most popular ancients sets) however but as of today the headlines are as follows:

Summary:

Total Player Numbers:


1.   ADLG (36% of total pool across all 6 rulesets)
2.   DBMM (18%)
3.= DBA  (13%)
3.= MeG (13%)
5.   FoGAM (12%)
6.   DBM (7%)

Net Change 2017-18

1. ADLG (+19)
2. MeG (+13)
3. DBMM (+4)
4. DBA (-)
5. DBM (-2)
6. FoGAM (-28)

New Competition Players for each system in 2018

1. ADLG (53, or 46 excluding overseas)
2. MeG (28, or 26 excluding overseas)
3. DBA (16)
4. FoGAM (11)
5. DBMM (11)
6. DBM (2)

Attrition Rate among prior competition attendees (compared to 2017)

1. FoGAM (39 / -44%)
2. DBA (16 / -31%)
3. MeG (15 / -29%)
4. ADLG (30 / -18%)
5. DBMM (14 / -13%)
6. DBM (4 / -10%)

Overall that means a net growth of 6 players year on year in 2018 - which is nice.

Worth noting also that 76% of UK Ancients competition players across the most popular 6 sets are now playing DBx-based rules systems - an impressive achievement for a certain Mr Barker and his ideas almost 30 years after the launch of DBA 1.0!

Ruleset Details

ADLG
ADLG remains the most widely played ruleset by some margin, with 180 players having taken part in at least 1 of the 31 (yes) ADLG events during the 2018 calendar year. 12 of the events were 3-round/1-day format events.

That number represents a net increase of +19 players on the 161 who played in a UK event in 2017, with a total of 53 new faces appearing in UK ADLG events for the first time in 2018. 7 of these came from overseas, the other 46 being new UK-based players to the system.  

30 UK-based players who took part in a UK ADLG event in 2017 failed to reappear in 2018 (18% attrition) with 10 more overseas-based players also not returning to these shores in 2018 (25% if overseas players are included).  

The most active player took part in 15 out of the 31 events which were staged, and the most active 21 players between them represented 1 in 3 of all competition entrants across the year

68 players took part in just one event, including 13 overseas players. Excluding these international visitors gives a figure of 31% of UK-based ADLG players only taking part in one event this year.

(There is a one-day ADLG event being held in Scotland on December 27th, which may nudge up the total player number by 1-2. It will almost certainly also reduce the 'only played once' figure, as 15 of the current pool of 55 "only once" players are based in Scotland).

DBMM
DBMM remains in clear second place in popularity, with overall numbers also showing growth in 2018 with 88 players taking part in at least 1 event during the calendar year - an increase of 4 from 2017's total.  

This increase included 11 new faces to the UK circuit, the biggest 1-year influx of new players DBMM has seen since 2011. 14 players from 2017 failed to show in 2018 (13% attrition), but with a handful of lapsed players also returning from previous years the net effect was to record a small increase of +4.

The most active player took part in 11 out of the 18 events which were staged, with the most active 10 players between them representing 1 in 3 of all competition entrants across the year. 8 of the 18 events held were 1-day format and 26 players only appear in the rankings as a result of their participation at these 1-day events, including the reduced-format DBMM100 competition.

33 players took part in just one event, including 7 overseas players. Excluding these visitors gives a figure of 29% of UK-based DBMM players only taking part in one event this year. 

DBA
DBA has been stable throughout the last year, with 65 players featuring at UK events held in 2018. This is dead level with the number of players who took part in at least 1 event during the previous calendar year of 2017.  

This overall stability masked a churn of 16 new players coming into the circuit and 4 returning after skipping 2017, offset by 20 who failed to reappear after 2017 - a 31% churn level.

Two players came close to a clean sweep, entering 12 out of the 13 events staged in the year, and  with the most active 8 players between them chipped in with 1 in 3 of all competition entrants across the year. 

18 players took part in just one event, representing 29% of the UK pool of DBA players. 

MeG
Now entering its 4th year of being played in the UK, total UK MeG player numbers have now drawn level with DBA on a total of 65, marginally outstripping FoGAM for the first time in the process.

65 represents a net increase of 13 players year on year for MeG, with 15 players of the 52 who took part in at least one MeG event in 2017 failing to reappear (29% attrition) and 28 new faces showing up for the first time at MeG events. Two of the new players were from overseas, half of the new faces only played in one event - but, impressively three of these brand new players dived headfirst into MeG and racked up an impressive 30 appearances between them in their first year of playing.

The most active single player took part in 13 out of the 16 events which were staged, and the most active 8 players made up 1 in 3 of all competition entrants across the year.

22 players took part in just one event, 2 of whom came from overseas, meaning that 31% of all UK-based MeG players only took part in one event this year.

FOGAM
With a new edition out in January, 2018 has been a year of some change for the UK FoGAM tournament scene with 61 people taking part in a UK-based event this year. 

This represents a net fall of 28 from the previous year, with 39 players dropping out of the AM circuit (44% attrition) and 11 new players entering events for the first time. Of the 11 new players, 6 came from the Wessex & Solent clubs and only appeared at events held by the Wessex club. 

The most active single player took part in 11 out of the 15 events which were staged, and the most active 8 players between them contributed 1 in 3 of all competition entrants across the year.

24 players took part in just one event, none of whom came from overseas. This represents 39% of UK FoGAM players only taking part in one event this year - the only set to deviate noticeably from the "31% play only once" norm in this respect. 

DBM
Numbers for DBM again pretty much managed to hold steady year on year, with 37 people taking part in the 9 UK events held in 2018 - a marginal reduction of 2 overall compared to 2017. This figure includes 2 new players debuting in 2018, offset by 4 non-returnees who represented a 10% attrition rate.  

The scene continues to be split into 2 circuits with some overlap. 29 players participated in the 6 events held in the West Country, with 11 of these players not venturing into Norfolk/Essex. 27 players appeared in Norfolk/Essex, with 9 of them not making a journey westwards to roll dice this year.   

The most active DBM player took part in every single event held, with two more making all bar one competition this year. The 4 most active players contributed 1 in 3 of all competition entrants across the year. offset by a dozen players (33% of the total pool) who only took part in one event this year.



(Whilst some players appear in the stats twice this is discounted for the analysis as its reasonable to assume the numbers of multi-ruleset players are kinda similar to last year. And it's too much work to de-dupe them by name as well )

(I've also dropped Swordpoint from this abbreviated listing this year, as there only appear to have been 5 events held last year, with at most a dozen players attending each, down from around 17 per event in 2017) 


13 Dec 2018

WiP 15mm Assyrians

A Museum Miniatures January sale order finally makes it onto the painting table... after the somewhat disappointing outings so far for the Mycenaeans, these are the first bases of Assyrians to be fully finished as I test out colour schemes for this army.



The uniform scheme I’m going with is rather dour, with dark blues and reds. This seems to suit the ruthless efficiency of the Assyrian war machine. 

No doubt the final army will also end up having the old classic wargamers trope of different coloured shields for the Elite and Regular quality troops!

 


I an still undecided about patterned horse blankets. Could easily look too gaudy. 



My original army list to use the figures I bought doesn’t bear much resemblance to any of the Assyrian lists I’ve been beaten by this year, so an extra order may be required. Luckily there should be another sale along soon!

 



28 Nov 2018

Yummy-yads in Spain - Food, Castles and ADLG!

The Umayyad Caliphate in a few short years managed to build a mighty empire stretching from Asia to the shores of the Atlantic ... but now they faced their greatest mission, The Conquest of Spain (reached via Bilbao airport, travelling in a small metal tin).


Yes, after somewhat of a hiatus here are 5 match reports of yet another fairly randomly selected ADLG army fighting at a competition held in Northern Spain at Estella.


In these reports the Umayyads take on the Armenians, Alexandrian Macedonians, Maurikian Byzantines, Arab Indians and finally the Medieval Polish, whilst Team Central London take on a variety of three course meal options, tapas plates, obscure Basque spirits and rather nice Rioja, all of which get featured heavily in the writeups.


Finally, in a totally new departure, Siege Warfare comes to Madaxeman.com as the intrepid CLWC crack castle-wall-storming brigade meanders through the hinterland of Castile visiting an array of Moslem, Visigothic and Reconquista fortresses, all of which are photographed and presented for your delight and delectation.


Be extra careful if you are squeamish about roast pork products, otherwise just be careful of the poor quality jokes and captions and the sub-standard gameplay (as usual).

17 Nov 2018

Norman / Spanish Mini-Me!

Having recently done some 28mm Norman/Spanish/Crusader spearmen, and seeing that their colour scheme seemed to work, I decided to retro-fit some 15mm mostly 2 Dragons infantry with the same heraldry.




These guys may well get used in an army soon, as some of the castles around Spain the CLWC team saw on our way back from Estella were pretty inspiring in terms of making me want to field a Spanish El Cid era army.






More of these photos in the upcoming Estella Reports!

10 Nov 2018

Egypt Arise! (well, "rebase" actually..)

After a rather salutary outing with the Myceneans last weekend, and rather than focusing on painting new stuff I took it upon myself this week to rebase a 15mm New Kingdom Egyptian army that I've not used all that much in recent years.

The rebasing now puts them onto ADLG 40x40 bases in the main, using MDF from Warbases. Most of the figures are Gladiator Miniatures, a range which has just been bought by Ian from Fighting 15's  with a few Essex and even Irregular Miniatures thrown in for added variety.

The basing is done with sand, glue, Rustins Wood Stain and some drybrushing - the technique is show in this YouTube video I made a few years ago with the same technique for Saga miniatures.


















They may not fight any better, but at least they are now consistently based to match my other "Biblical" armies like the Myceneans

3 Nov 2018

28mm Norman-era spearmen & knights

I picked up some great value Saga Norman/Crusader figures at a Bring and Buy a while ago, and have been working out ways of using them also for L'Art de la Guerre.

For the Knights the answer has been to buy a few more mounted figures, based them up on 60x60's to create some extra bases, each with a single figure and two metal-shod strips either side of them. The Saga-based knights can then magnetize onto theses bases, meaning that I get a 3-knight base for the "cost" of just one extra figure.




I'm not planning on using a full Norman army in ADLG (just yet...) but these guys will be a nice Christian Spanish allied contingent for the 28mm Arabs I'm planning on painting sometime next year.

That allied contingent will probably need a couple of bases of Crusader / Spanish spearmen units, so I did pick up 2 packs of Crusader Miniatures Normans who painted up very easily and quickly.






The men are all undercoated in black then quickly painted in a simple uniform colour, which barely shows as there is chainmail covering most of them anyway. The shields are intended to look "Spanish".

These are the Saga spearmen I picked up in the Bring & Buy - their basing is just too big to work using sabots to turn them into close-formation ADLG spears, hence the need for extra figures, but the shield patterns gave me a good key for the rest of the men I painted up to match them.


Some nice and simple figures, and a quick paint job making a ready made allied contingent. 
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