Earthquakes and Impetus Early Imperial Romans - Progress of a Sort

Hey Folks,

Thankfully my family and I have survived the Earthquake relatively unscathed. Our house is fine and we have power and low pressure cold water, though no hot water as yet. The kids are well and are treating the lack of school like a holiday, it amazes me how resilient they are. Compared to many, and especially those who have lost loved ones or houses (like my bother and sister in law) we are very, very lucky.

My work is buggered. I manage the Vodafone store at the Palms and the mall is currently deemed "unsafe"  We hopefully might be able to get stock and that out on Tuesday if we are lucky but we will be looking for an alternative location until the mall is repaired, however long that might be. 

Alas my model collection was not so lucky:

So that's all my War of the Ring and most of my Flames of War models in broken heaps on the ground. I'm not actually that sad, compared to those who lost their lives it seems a petty thing to be concerned about! Hopefully insurance should cover some of it. The Flames of War Russian army was worth over $1000 alone...

One thing that has been good as in between taking things to people and looking after our "old nana" (who is 87, stubborn and wont move from New Brighton even though she doesn't have power or water!) I have had a bit of time to work on the Impetus Romans.

The quake claimed the converted Equites Alares and they were smashed beyond redemption. The rest of them fared better though so I have made up some more MDF bases and got most of the 400 points army based. So far its:

• Two Generals
• 3 Units of Veteran FP Legionaries
• 3 Units of FP Legionaries
• 3 Units of FP Praetorians (either Regular or Raw Legionaries)
• 2 Units of FL Auxiliaries
• 1 Unit of T Sagitarii
• 1 Unit of S Sagitarii
• 1 Unit of ART Ballistae

So I just have the Cavalry to replace and I thinking of ordering these

Here are some pictures of my lads "in the black"

And one way to keep the kids entertained: My five year old son painting his Moria Goblins for War of the Ring - Got to get that war gaming hobby in young!

Cheers
Jason

Further Impetus on the Brain: Basic Impetus Adversary Armies Project

Hi Folks,

Further to my Impetus Frenzy I have just ordered 1 box of 10 Celt Cavalry and 2 boxes of Germans with my Birthday money.

I plan to do two "adversary" Basic Impetus lists with the goal of being able to demo the game to people. I'm thinking at least one of my mates would be super keen but I also intend to pimp my wares at the local club once they are painted. Funny that I have only played the game once and feel the need to convert others already!

I have worked out a German list using this guide: Full to Basic Impetus List Conversion

I have also dropped an Auxiliary unit out of the Romans, and demobilised the Balista though the Sagitarii get a slight boost in VBU. IMO (and from what I have read this is a commonly held opinion) the EIR BI list is just a bit "too" good relative to their enemies. Note that the pints value is still higher then the Germans, even with a lower VBU

Basic Impetus Germans

Nr  Unit                                              M  VBU  I  VD Notes
1    CM Cavalry*                               10    5      2    3 Hundreds
4    FL Batavi or Cherusci Warband    8     4      4    2 Impetuous, Large Units
2    FL Elite Warband*                       8     5      5    2  Impetuous, Large Units, Front Rank, Long Spear
3    S Javelinmen                                 8     2      0    1  Javelin

Total VBU: 37
VDT: 18 9
Full Impetus Total Points Value: 145

Notes:
Hundreds - Attached Skirmishers. As Pilum but 2 dice in attack and 2 dice in defence
Impetuous - Must follow up after winning a Melee
Long Spear - Negates the Impetus Bonus of Enemy Cavalry
Large Units -FL may form large units
Front Rank - FL Elites may form Large Units with FL but must be the Front Rank unit

Basic Impetus Early Imperial Romans

Nr   Unit                            M  VBU  I  VD  Notes
1     CM Equites Alares*    10    5     2   3
3     FP Legionarii*              5     6     2   3 Pilum
1     FL Auxiliares                8     5     1   2 Auxiliares
1     T Sagittarii                    6     4     0   2 Short Bow A
1     ART Ballistae               3     1     0  1 Art B

Total VBU: 33
VDT: 17 9
Impetus Total Points Value: 163

Notes: Pilum - See BI Rules
Auxiliares - Negates Impetus Bonus of Enemy Warbands

"List Frothing" - Impetus on the Brain

Hey Folks,

As jamie has pointed out here I have been thoroughly converted to the way of Impetus.

I'm thinking Middle Imperial Romans, so some time before the end of the Severan Dynasty in 235 AD.

After much list frothing I have come up with this:

CP = Heavy Cav
CM = Medium Cav
FP = Heavy Infantry
FL = Light Infantry
S = Skirmishers

Middle Imperial Romans - 400pts

Average Command Structure: 12

Legio V Alaude Command  VDT 24/12

• Fair General
• CM Equites Alares
• CM Equites Alares
• FP Legionarii
• FP Legionarii
• FP Legionarii
• FL Auxiliares
• FL Auxiliares
• FL Vexillationes Lanciarii
• S Lanciarii
• S Sagittarii

Praetorian Command VDT 12/6 136pts

• Poor General
• CP Clibanarii
• FP Legionarii
• FP Legionarii
• FL Auxiliares
• S Sagittarii

So the idea here is that it will be a Stronger Border Legion (Legio V Alaude, in Germania - beacuse thats the shield transfers I have!) with a delegation of Praetorians from Rome.

The FP Legionarii are the heavy foot and I need to have 8-20 of these or the FL Auxialiares. The plan is to form a solid wall of FP Legionarii while the massed Auxiliaries, Skirmishers and the Vexallationes Lanciarii (Basically Heavy Infantry,with Pilum in loose order!) run amok through the rough terrain. The two Medium Cav and the Heavy Cav will be the shock reserve.

I will probably amend this a fair bit but plan to work toward this to start with.

Sperr Infantry Gun Platoon Finished

Hey Folks,

Finished the Sperr Light Infantry Gun Platoon:





This puts me just over 800pts now. I actually used these in a 800pt game vs Adam's US Div Cav last week and while he dealt to them pretty quickly they did bag a M8 Greyhound before the leIG18's were destroyed and the Gun command section legged it.

The command section for these guys are probably the worst German sculpts I have seen from Battlefront, they are all thing and disproportionate. I plan to phase them out and swap in a better command team later.

Amongst other things, I plan to get the PaK 40 RSO's done next so I have the army up to 1000pts

Cheers
Jason

Painted Impetus EIR Auxiliaries

Hey Folks,

I was supposed to do some comission work tonight, and I did do a bit but in my recent enthusiasim for Impetus and my Early Imperial Romans I go distracted, and accidently painted my first Impetus unit: Western Auxiliarys with Short Bows






They are conversions of the Warlord Games Auxiliaries with Games Workshop WFB Goblin Bows, which is why they are a tad large. Pictures are a bit dark but overall I am pretty happy with how they turned out, and they were realtivley quick to do.

I really have to finish Isaac's WFB Nurgle Chaos Warriors, the FOW Sperrverband Infantry Guns and the PaK 40 RSO's before I sink my teeth into this project...but Im itching to piant Legionaries now!

Rebasing the Romans for Impetus

Hey Folks,

I have spent tonight whipping up some MDF bases and re basing my Warlord Games Early Imperial Romans for Basic Impetus:



After much thought about the various types of sabot tray and the different basing sizes I went with the standard Impetus basing sizes;

• Heavy Infantry (FP), Light Infantry (FL) and Missile Troops (T) on 12cm * 6cm bases
• Cavalry (CM in my case) and Artillery (ART) on 12cm * 8cm bases

This is the Basic Impetus Vol.7 EIR List with 1* Equites Alares (CM), 3 * Legionaries (FP), 2 * Auxiliary (FL) and 1 * Auxilliary with Short Bow (A) (T).

Not pictured yet is the Carroballista on Cart as I haven't built it yet! For my General I'm just going to use my legate on 40mm base as a marker and whack him next to the unit he has joined.

I will sand and gravel the bases soon and maybe add some twigs for texture. I very much like how much better the units look with a bit of space between the models, its much more realistic then Warhammer Fantasy. As an aside by using the 12cm * 6 cm bases I can still use the army for WFB or WAB, but each base of 10 Legionaries would count as 18 models! Talk about saving on models...

Very much looking forward to my first game of Basic Impetus vs Jamie's Scot's on Tuesday night.

Spiders! - 1000pts WotR Battle vs Thrydon's Battlehost

Hey Folks,

Here is the Battle Report for the first outing of Druzhag's Spider Swarm. This game was vs Jamie and his filthy dirty Hillman, Thrydons Dunlending Battlehost with Uruk Crossbows.

The Spider army was;

• Druzhag


• 6 Coy Giant Spider


• 6 Coy Giant Spider


• 5 Coy Giant Spider


• Spider Queen


• Spider Queen

The Dunlending host was (IIRC);

• Thrydon + Battlehost


• Allied Tainted


• Allied Dwimmerlaik


• 5-6 Huscarls


• 5-6 Huscarls


• 5-6 Huscarls


• 4 Uruk Crossbow with Captain

We decided to play Shieldwalls and VP's. as usual, so we don't have to think too hard after a long day! I also thought I might try and write this from Druzhag's perspective...

" I, the mighty Druzhag, Lord of Beasts and all I can sees am happily hunting game with a few of my Spider friends when the foul stench of Man-flesh and Uruk-flesh fills my nostrils. From their filthy appearance and shaggy beast like hair I figures these are the Humans from Dunland. Surely the giant ape loping at the heads of the collum of men is the Man known to us as Thrydon. The spider scouts have also spotted the fingers of the Black Hand, two Nazgul march with the man-things and also some Uruks from Isengard. I is trouble buy what servants of the Black Tower and White Hand might be doing together...this cant be good for the poor misunderstood beasts of the Misty Mountains. They will come here and expect us to fights for them in their wars, and we have trouble enough of our own with that scum Durburz form the dwarf-hole Moria. We will not be used by either power, and now my Spider friends and I will teach them a lesson. First we will lurk behind this hill screened by these two small copses, then we shall pounce on them and FEED"

"Damn, the Nazgul must have sensed we are here, the man things are deploying for battle"
"There seem to be more man things then we expected, we shall feed well but will have to be careful how we pounce on them. The Uruk-things have crossbows and these could kill many of my children from afar..."
"I motion my children forward and move towards a flank of the man things, I see two Nazgul before me amongst the foul smelling throng. I use call the winds to push back the closest men and then call the earth to sprout roots and hold them fast. More of my children move to support me as well as one of the Queens"
"The Nazgul attempt to use their dark sorcery to frustrate my attempts, but their will is weak and while they cloak myself and my supporting children in darkness they man things are laggards and fail to close with us. We shall make them pay dearly for their inaction"
"We have the advantage so move to engage the flank of the man-things. I call more of the children and four more spiders scuttle out of the nearby woods and move to flank the men. I infuse my spider children with fury and then shatter the shields of the man things with my will. The Nazgul attempt to stop us but their sorcery is weak and the men can not reach us from where we lurk"
"My poor children behind the hill are surprised by the Uruk-things with Crossbows, who advance to the top of the hill and slay many, and then force them back"
"With a mighty chittering my spider children spring forth upon the man things, with the calming presence of the Queen behind them they fear no Nazgul and we crash upon them in a tide of black stingers and mandibles"
"The fury of my children burns hot and the entire flank of the man-things is slain to the last ape before they can even lift their weapons. Their is a piercing scream as one of the Nazgul is undone to flee back east shapeless and cast down. The children feed well! All does not appear to be going our way though as from the distance I hear the death scream of one of the Queens. In her last mind speech she spoke of facing the large ape Thyrdon and fighting him to a standstill, alas she was then tired from her exertions and was hacked to death by his minions"
"We have turned the flank of the man things but they are still dangerous. There is a wild scream as barely clad savages erupt from hiding out of a copse of trees behind us. The remaining Queen goes to investigate. More spiders come to my call and we attempt to pin the second unit of man-things in place. The remaining Nazgul uses his dark sorcery to save them from certain death though and my spider children are forced back from the melee. Still full from their recent feast the children fail to move fast enough to reach the man-things and it is only the freshly arrived (and hungry) spiders that engage the man things. They slay many but 5 of the children are slain as well. The Queen slays some wildmen but is injured and is unable to charge again into the masses of savages"
"From afar and over the hill I hear the cries of my children as the charge the large ape's warriors only to dash themselves to death on the solid wall of shields"
"Before me I see the savage remnants of the second unit of man-things, with a cold hunger in their eyes my children prepare to finish them"
"With the Uruk's on the hill, and my children around me diminished I feel the battle slipping from my grasp. Quickly I call more spiders and am rewarded for my friendship when six of the children arrive. I then move to join them and urge them to move with all speed around the flank of the Uruks and out of arc of the deadly crossbows. The Children that were with me move to devour the Wild-men while the poor children close to the Uruk-things are savaged to ruin by a hail of barbed bolts. The hungry children over the hill from me devourer the last of the 2nd man thing unit but both my children set to engage the rear of the Uruk-things and the children near the wild-things are tried and unable to gather the strength to pounce. The Queen is made of sterner stuff and devours more wildmen but is grievously wounded"
"The light of the day is brightening and many of my children have been slain. The large ape Thrydon has lead the third cohort of his men and we lack the strength to eat them too. Likewise the Uruk's with crossbows have slain many more children."
"Our queen has devoured more of the wild men but is very badly hurt, so now is the time to return to our lairs and return with more of my children"

So in the end I had lost 17 coy's of spider and a Queen, while I'm pretty sure Jamie's units were 5-coy of Huscarls so he lost maybe 11 coys plus 3 wild men and a Nazgul. I reckon that's a win to Jamie.

A super fun game with a super fun army, the Spiders will hunt again soon.

Arachniphobia - War of the Ring Spider Army

Hey Folks,

This is my "Secret Project" for War of the Ring, an Army of Spiders!

Gleefully I sprung this on Jamie tonight:

The beauty of this army is that it was ridiculously cheap and easy to make. In my random perusal of the crappy discount stores in my Mall where I work I found these:

For the princely sum of $3 each! They are a great size and there are 12 different types in each packet. I then proceeded to clean out two malls work of these plus I also tracked down a couple of large plastic spiders at $3 each as well to use as Queens.

• Cost of Spiders: $18
• Cost of Basing: Free
• Look on Jamie's Face when Unleashed: Priceless!
  
  The bases are just MDF and Bark with a mix of Gale Force Nine flocks. The painting was simply spray black, dry brush dark grey, dry brush (lightly) light grey, paint eyes and red stripes (GW Dark Flesh Base, then a DF/ Red base highlight) then paint the fangs
  
  The army works out to be at 1000pts;
• Druzhag
• 6 Coy Formation of Giant Spiders
• 6 Coy Formation of Giant Spiders
• 5 Coy Formation of Giant Spiders
• Spider Queen
• Spider Queen
  
  This leaves 7 Bases of Spiders for Druzhag to "Call" with his Summon Beasts Ability.
  
  I played a game vs Jamie tonight with them and they did very well, but are terribly fragile. I will post a battle report for this game in the next few days.
  
  Here are some more shots of the Horde :P
  
  

Its a bit of a Joke army, but terribly easy to do and a good way to game on the cheap.

Sperr HQ & Magnetic Squad Numbering System

Hi Folks,

I have been busy on a "Secret Project" for War of the Ring so have not done a whole lot of work on the Sperrverband this week. I have managed to finish the Hauptmen and his 2iC though so I can now feild a legal, painted army.




I had my first game with my painted units (about 750pts) vs Stephens Confident Trained Canadians last Thursday. We played the standard 600pt misson with a single objective centrally that goes "live" on turn 6.

I didnt take any pics sadly but I had the Sperr HQ, Full Sperr Pioners, Sperr Infantry Platoon with 2 HMG's, 2 Mortars and 3 StuG's. Stepehn had HQ, 2 full Rifle Platoons, a Carrier Patroll festooned with MG's and 3 Shermans and a Firefly.

It started badly when Stephens UC's recced up and shot down 3 Pioneer Teams but then my StuG's got the drop on the Shermans and won that exchange. The Sperr Infantry managed to get their HMG's into a building and that combined with deadly accurate fire from the two tube Mortar platoon managed to wear the Canucks down untill eventually they broke through Compnay morale. It was an intersting game as there wasnt a single assualt, but alot of close range shooting. Stephen got unlucky though as I was on the wire at one point and had to make 5+ morale rolls for both the Sperr Infantry and Pioneers in one phase...if they had of run it would have beeb game over.

I'm liking how they play, but will have to be more cautious when advancing and look for covered approach routes.

Now below is my "Magnetic Modular Numbering System" that I am working on. Basicly I have found a German Cross on the web and then used Publisher to put in squad numbers/ names on them. They are then cut out and stuck to some adhesive backed magnets I found in a 1-8 Dollar shop.




They dont magnetize well to the same stuff though so I am going to get some rare-earth magnets and drill a hole in the bases for them. That should hold better.

The system allows me to swap sqaud numbers and designations around easily. It means that if I Kampfgruppe sections I can whack a "KG" icon on them and never get them mixed up. It also means I can swaps teams around to do a range of Mid War and Late War companies.

I will post up an image of the Publisher File if anybody wants one.