Salute- Countdown is on...

So Salute is now just  over a fortnight away so we are into the final straight as it were.
 In my previous post I origonally  neglected to tell you that we WOULD be taking the 25mm Sash and Saber range. The ACW range is still growing and VMI cadets have been added as well as Union "Lightning Brigade"

Rebel Firing Line- These are Sash and Saber 25mm figures

So as a taster here is a pic of my few 25mm rebs- I tend to  play ACW in 40mm  but these are dispklay case units  often seen on our show stand.

 Landsknechts from the Old Glory  Italian Wars range.

 We'll also be taking the Italian Wars range- Landsknechts, Swiss, Italians, Spanish , as well as the Ottoman Turks and the Wars of Religion

Turkish Janissaries assault the Wall of Fort St Elmo. Old Glory figs - the Knights being represented by figures from the Wars of Religion range.

 As I looke at the picture of the assualt I'm reminded of past Salutes with customers threatening to overwhelm us threatening us mercilessly with bits of plastic and portraits of Her Maj!
 Long may it continue !!!

Fantasy and Sci- Fi are "Just another period" and more Salute info...

 I've just , in the last hour received my copy of MW no 372- The one with the Salute show guide in it. Henry opines that Salute is the most intensive shopping experience  at a European show- and he's probably right- I've been on the receiving end for over 20 years and the aching joints at the end of the show ......
  He's also touting the Perry's new  rich boys showing off book - can't blame him its his job to shift 'em  but that is one product that won't see any of my brass as I simply can't see the point of it except as a wallet- catcher.
 According to the show guide there will be 102 games at Salute of which 50 will be Historical the rest some form of Fantasy or sci-fi  so just over half  of which 29 are put on by commercial outfits compared to a bare half- dozen historical games likewise staged by commercial outfits.
 I'm not sure what that says about the Fantasy/sci-fi genre outside workshop- especially as only one game appears to be Workshop based. Yet for all this activity these 29 outfits - and doubtless others not attending can't support a non- workshop Fantasy /sci-fi Gaming magazine. Pathetic isn't it.. However there is another side to the coin-  where do they advertise- some use the mags for sure but not all by any means there are for example only 5 adverts which highlight non historical stuff in MW372- though these are all full page jobs - 2 by the same outfit.
 However what this state of affairs  does say is that historically based gaming is alive and well at the club level and is still willing to put itself about a bit and at grass roots level is not altogether in hock to the Corporate Dudes as it might appear.
 This has to be good news.

15mm Argentinian troops for the Falklands War . Available at Salute.

 As for this  not so Corporate Dude our stand is  TK21  which is at the end of a block(like last year) near the Wigmore Warriors WW1 game.

Some of the newly painte 15mm 1980/ Falklands British (Painted by Shakespear Studio . This new range will be on sale at Salute.

The plan is to take as much gear as we can fit into the van- legally-  so we are definitely taking  all the 15mm Blue moon that we have- hopefully including the NEW Seven Years War range- which should arrive here around the end of this month or a little after.. All the 15mm Command Decision both WW2 and Modern and all the Fireforce15mm Miniatures and Terrain pieces, Technicals  Irregulars weapons the lot- and of course the new Falklands range. Plus of course the Lil'Flyin' Fokkers Aircraft range.
 From Drabant we'll take everything we have both 28mm and 40mm- the new Normans are on their way to me so should land in plenty of time.
 In 10mm we'll bring most of the Gunpowder ranges but if you want Ancients or Medieval please-pre-order..
28m Sash and Saber ACW and Napoleonic
 Old Glory 28mm Definitely taking Hundred Years War, Italian Wars  Wars of Religion,  Colonials, Wars of the Roses.
We'll add other 28mm ranges if we have room I'd like to take the Crusades , AWI , Samurai, Ottoman Turks (these will almost certainly be going in the van )
Old Glory 2 nd Edition  28mm - All we have. ACW, AWI and Napoleonic..
 Sash and Saber 40mm  ACW, Dark Ages , FIW ECW 7YW.
Sash and Saber 25mm- Definitely taking  ACW - including some new items VMI  cadets and "Lightning Brigade"  as well as all the rest that we have.. Napoleonic and 7YW if we can fit them in 
 Blue moon 28mm Boxed sets- all we have Horror Gangsters, Swashbucklers (this last being the nearest to non- historicals that we do..

British Colonial Heliograph Party- Blue moon 15mm Painted by Shakespeare Studios- we'll have the whole ranges for the Sudan and the NW frontier at Salute.

Other stuff such as resin ships and buildings will depend upon how much space he have left after we have loaded this lot but there will be some at least- most notably  our 1/600th Russo- Japanese War and Pre-Dreadnought range. .

 More news as I have it chaps- see you at ExCel  on the 12th

STOP PRESS ...... 
 My last addition to my order to the USA goes off on Monday so I can take delivery in time for Salute- the order will leave that week- probably Thursday and therefore arrive the following Wednesday 2 April or thereabouts . After this weekend therefore pre-orders will be from stock in hand.

Short Romans in first proper punch-up!

 Saturday the 15th March saw  a gathering of the Tantobie Wargames and Tactical Society at our local pub to play a game

- SHOCK !!! HORROR. 

 March and this one is the first game of the new year, Nevertheless there wwre 5 of us in evidence to play a 15mm Ancients clash using the Tactica system.

The two somewhat scratch armies laid out Romans at the top of the picture.

Armies were Marian Romans and  Early Pontic with figures coming from several collections to make up the numbers as currently I only have a bare 100 Roman legionaries painted (By John Reidy ) Players were- Romans- Dave Huntley- sheepman and Northumbrian Wargamer and Tom Nutt-  both semi- regular TWATS(otherwise from the Border Reivers club) Pontics Floating Jeff and Andrew the Tekkie- who are of course regular TWATS.


 The idea for this game came from WSS no 70 but I had no idea what troops we had available beforehand so had to "wing it" rather more than somewhat. In the end we managed to scrape up two respectably sized forces - though I supected (rightly as it transpired) that I didn't give the Pontic forces sufficent cavalry or light troops

another view- with the distraction of the final day of the 6 nations on myTablet .

  Tactica is a set of rules where deployment is vital to success-  which seems to be very true of Ancient battles  even more than others.  The  mechanisms are simple so don't tax the brain and the core of the rules is "The BattlelineRule" - wherein designated battleline units may not move more than 4inches from each other- this stops units flying about the battlefield and forces you to actually think about deployment- once its deployed changing is difficult if not impossible for most close order infantry.
 The basic problem here was simple- could  the Pontics cave in the Roman flanks before the Legions cut their centre to bits.

Roman Left- Pontic Right as both sides begin to move together.

 Well  both sides advanced with comparatively little preliminary skirmishing- and what there was the Pontic forces had slightly the better of but not really enough- their Sythian Horse Archers didn't get their act together and were charged by the Roman Cavalry who had massed on their  own left Flank. Indeed the Roman Flanks always looked very vulnerable.

Pontic Right- Roman left. Pontic Chariots- wasted on skirmishers and sythian Horse archers  advancing.

 It soon became clear that the Pontic forces has let fear of the Legions colour their judgement- niether of their Flanks was strong enough to deliver a killer blow. Their best cavalry were wasted by a frontal charge on the legions- they died horribly

Pontic Cavlary dieing.. The  Pontic skirmishers did more damage...

 The Roman cavalry were eventually able to destroy much of the Pontic right  the Pontic secret weapon- Scythed chariots- were wasted on some agile skirmishers who eventually forced themm into rout with missile fire.  on the Roman Right a bit of mutual anhilation took place as a Pontic light cavalry unit destroyed a Roman allied unit of theurophoroi but  recievev  such casualties that they  routed in the process. The scene was set for the Battleline Bloodbath .

Hack slash Poke mangle ...  carnage in the Ancient style ...

 It was tough and go for a while - largely due to a couple of very inappropriate snake eye from Dave Huntley which caused two Roman Chorts to decamp untimely  amid Pontic cries of glee. but Hellenic joy was short lived Roman Pila did the damage- effectivly giving the legionaries twice as much melee power as the Pontic foot-  especially the Galations for, whilst the phalanx could hold its own the Galations were not so lucky  and both units broke followed by 2 of the plananx units
 With 4 out of 5 Battleline units gone  as against only 2 of 9 Roman the day was lost to the Greeks and Rome emerged Triumphant.

It was useful to renew aquaintance with Tactica as despite its drawbacks I still like the basic ideas. I need to fiddle a bit with the  set armies idea - for a bit more flexibility but the basic concept is simple and straightforward yet still subtle enough to interest.
 Also I seem to have re-kindled a minor interest for Ancients.
 Thanks to Andrew Oyston- Andrew the Tekkie who took the photos and as always to Jean the Landlady for excellent hot  Beef Butties.

 No Doubt we'll be back there anomn with another game.... 
 

New 15mm Falkland Range.

 Jez of Shakespears Studios sent me the painted versions of the newest additions to Fireforce15 Falklands war range  so I thought I'd take a couple of group pics
 There are now the following packs in the range  to be officialllty  released at Salute.

British Forces.

FFB1 Infantry with SLR. £4.50

4 poses  12 figs

FFB2 Command £4.50

4 poses- Officer in beret SMG x3

NCO Helmet SMG  x3

Radio Operator x3

NCO Rifle- telescopic sight. x3

FFB3 Weapons. £4.50

Prone GPMG-light role.x3

 GPMG No 2 x3

 Prone rifleman SLR .x3

 Kneeling 66mm launcher. X3

FFB4 81mm Mortars £4.50

3 Mortars and 6 crew.

FFB5 Milan Launchers and crew. £3.00

3 2 man teams

FFB7 Command pack 2 £4.50

 Kneeling Officer with map x3

Crouching NCO , SMG x3

Kneeling Radio Op. SMG x3

Prone Sniper x3

Argentinian.

FFA1 Infantry Riflemen. £4.50

4 poses

FFA2 Command.

Senior officer  Binoculars x3

 Radio man – walkie talkie x3

Junior officer standing x3

 NCO waving x3

FFA3 Weapons £4.50

Prone LMG x3

 LMG no 2 x3

Prone Rifleman x3

Kneeling  with Rifle Grenadex3

FFA4 .50 cal and Crew. £4.50

3  guns and crews -9pcs

FFA5 81mm Mortar and crew. £4.50

3 Mortars and 6 crew 

 We've corrected a coupler of earlier errors and added a new alternative  Command set for the Brits  including the Army's most terryifying weapon- an Officer with a map ! 

 Both sides now have 81mm Mortars and the Argentinians have a 50cal and crew- the Britis Milan 1

 So far the range consists of 37 different figures.

Little Darlings - 2 In Colour !

 I have recieved these pics from Nicl Bokarev of some of the new Drabant 28mm releases that he has just finished painting p The pics show the Norman Command and one of the cavalry packs.
 Tast aren't they ?