1000 Foot General's leadership tweaks

The 1000 Foot General has a post on leadership tweaks for your generals in Hail Caesar games.  This is a great idea and one I'd love to check out.  If you play HC, or if you just want to change things around in your games, head on over and take a look at what he's got.

Alexander the Great

Numidian Light Cavalry

Today I completed another unit for the Early Imperial Romans.  This is six Numidian light horse from Warlord Games.  Light cavalry has always been one of my favorite units.  The speed.  The hard hitting strikes on the flanks.  The fragility if you use them wrong.

All six of them.

Hail Caesar Battle Report - Rome vs Carthage

Saturday was the monthly Hail Caesar game.  The local shop was running a tournament so I hosted Jonathan at my place.  Our armies have both grown to the size where we can get some interesting tactical situations going.  It was both fun, and frustrating, and resulted in a staggering loss for Rome.

By the way, I recognize the anachronism of a Roman army with an emperor fighting against Carthage.  It is what it is, those are the armies we have.

Lots of maneuver, not many Romans left.

I didn't go to Salute (or Adepticon, or Reaper Con)

Anne, of Anne's Attic has started a new meme, or at least she's started one if it takes off.  She did not get to go to Salute, or any of the other big shows going on right now.  Her suggestion is that all of us in that situation tell everyone what we did do.

I've taken the liberty to expand it from just Salute to also cover Adepticon and Reaper Con, since they are both going on this weekend as well.

Roman army - Group shot

Jonathan and I played another game of Hail Caesar yesterday, though that's a story for another day.  Knowing that the game was coming up, I've been trying, frantically, to get everything painted.  Jonathan has done a much better job than me of only bringing painted units to the table.  March's cock up put me behind but I came very close.  Both of our armies are coming along nicely, though HC will play better with a lot more models than we have.  Still, here's an army shot, showing everything that is done so far.

All that are painted.

Eastern Auxiliary Archers

Today I completed another unit for the Romans.  We had a snow storm roll in and everything was shut down, so I had most of the day to paint.  This is a unit of eight archers for my Roman army.  They did strong work in their last fight, which was their first outing, so I have high hopes for them now that they are painted.

Auxiliary archers.  

Praetorians!

Making up for March's failure, I finished this regiment of 21 Praetorians in the last week.  One will go on the base with the Emperor.  Sixteen will be in the Cohort and four are extra.  I'm really pleased with how this unit came out.  They are my favorite so far in this army.

He's so bad ass he can't even be bothered to draw his sword.

March and April

March was a complete failure for my hobby.  I didn't play a game.  I didn't pick up a brush.  I didn't assemble so much as a single 15mm figure.  Nothing.  While I have valid reasons (vacation, new job) I am still feeling down about it.

My plan for April is ambitious, probably too much so, but I have to pump it up to get my mojo back.

March.  This says it all.

Painting for February

I'm a little late getting these guys up but it just got nice enough to get them varnished.  Colorado, being the weather whore that it is, gave us a little bit of everything this week.  We had a blizzard last weekend.  I drove to work in white out conditions on Tuesday.  Today it was 70 degrees and perfect.

Of course the first thing I thought of was, "I can finally get some stuff primed!".  As soon as I got home I rushed out and primed about half of what was on my work bench.  It turned out that I was out of brown primer for the horses, thus only half.

Half of one Auxiliary Cohort.

Hail Caesar Battle Report - Rome vs Carthage

Two weeks ago Jonathan and I played another game of Hail Caesar.  Both of our armies are growing, starting to look like real armies.  We are also gaining an improved understanding of the rules, though only playing every few weeks is not really aiding in that.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Cohorts, forming the left wing of the army.

LotR Rules for EIR Romans

I've been working on a list to play skirmish games with my Early Imperial Romans.  I play LotR/Hobbit, so that seemed like a natural fit.

Round, Lord of the Rings style bases.

Painted Romans - January goal

January is over and I managed to meet my goal of painting twenty figures.  Will miracles never cease?

Veteran Command

Hail Caesar Battle Report - EIR vs Carthage II

Today was another game of Hail Caesar.  Jonathan and I have both added to our armies, though he has actually painted his units.  As usual we met down at Collectormania, arriving just in time to get a table.  The place was packed today.  We had a fair amount of interest with quite a few people stopping by to see what we were playing.  This game went much more smoothly that our last one.  We did not bother with points, just using the special rules from the army lists and bringing whatever we had ready.

2012 In Review and 2013 Plans

How's that for an inspiring title.  I love seeing what everyone else plans for the year, and how last year's plans panned out (or more often did not).  Since a large part of my keeping this blog is to keep track of my hobby, I also look forward to seeing what the last year held for me.

This was the biggest accomplishment of the year.

Final assembly

That's it.  I'm calling it a year.  No more hobby will happen before the 1st.  I accomplished most of what I was aiming for the last few days though.  The pile waiting for priming has grown.

Auxiliary Command from Warlord.  Very nice models.

Hail Caesar Battle Report - EIR vs Carthage

A month ago (I know, I'm a slacker), Jonathan and I played our first game of Hail Caesar.  We've been working up to this for about seven months, so it was much anticipated and long over due.  We each brought three units, what we had assembled and ready to go.  We did not play with any mods, or terrain on the table, aiming simply to figure out the rules.  There was a lot of flipping through the book.

The Carthaginians form a line.

End of year frenzy

I've been out of action for the last two months.  The blog's been quiet because I have not done anything hobby-wise.  My shoulder is starting to feel better, at the same time that I have a week off of work.  I'm trying to get a whole bunch assembled so that if the weather gets nice enough, I can get it primed.  I have a fair bit primed already, but most of it is not for any current project; rather they are artifacts of past attempts to paint armies.

Several of my kickstarters have come home to roost in the last two weeks.  First through the door was Fanticide.  This was the rules, cards and a Liberi war band, as well as a sample pack and the unicorn.

Painted Romans

For Valentine's day my wife bought me five boxes of Warlord Games' Early Imperial Romans.  Great woman.  I finished off one of the boxes here.  The second box are not much different, to be honest.  I now have two Cohorts of Rome's finest.  One more unit and I'll be ready to try out Hail Caesar with Jonathan in November.

Command.

Four month plan +

There's a lot I want to do this year, since I'm trying everything that catches my fancy for twelve months.  I've called it the year of rules but I'm also dabbling in scales, mediums and genres.  The only real rule I have is that all of my gaming activities have to be games.

This year I'm deliberately being a gaming magpie.

Transfers

Shield Transfers.  They are a must for Romans, unless your freehand skills are much better than mine.  The Warlord Legionaries come with a sheet, and very nice looking they are too.  All you need is the decals, some water and your normal hobby tools.  What could be simpler?

 I hate them with a passion I normally reserve for living things.