British Hill Fort - Finished

And here is the finished fort.

I undercoated it with white acrylic spray and then Tamira olive green spray.

Mud was put on with Winsor & Newton acrylics. The rocks were painted Citadel granite acrylic and then layered with dilute light grey. Finally, static grass was sprinkled on top of diluted white glue to give a grass effect.

Job done.

British Hill Fort

There are more than ten thousand Celtic  "hill forts" in England and Wales. They are somewhat misnamed because most are not forts and many are not on hills. They served as restricted areas for livestock, grain storage, religious centres and aristocratic strongholds. They presented only a minor obstacle to am organised army and were captured by the Romans by direct assault with artillery support, not siege works.

I built this example for Hail Caesar games. I am not the world's greatest modeller so I kept it simple. I bought an Amera plastic 'large hill' with a flat top for the princely sum of a fiver. This is 33cm by 29cm and has a flat top. It is robust and has a central support underneath so you can stand metal models on it without disaster.

Three packs of two part epoxy putty for seven fifty provided the earthworks and three pieces of North downs flint from my back garden completed it. The gate barriers are from a Warlord Plastic Scorpion Box.

Total cost so far: £12.50

It is designed to be representational, rather than literal. Under the Hail Caesar rules it counts as a 'building' with no rules modifications except that it is garrisoned by one standard infantry unit (a warband) and one small infantry unit (slingers).

Into the Hinterland - Caption Contest

"Into The Hinterlands" is out in the USA. This is the authors picture that got left off the sleeve of the book for reasons of space (photo by Jo Drake). I am the one in the red shirt.

A signed copy to the best caption.


What have I just said to Dave?

Caesar's Legions

I have been painting furiously over the last few weeks.

From left to right:

Gauls
Warchief
Four Warbands of 10-12 models on a 10 by 7cm base
Two Cavalry Units each of two 7.5 by 5cm bases that can be used side by side or one after the other.

British
Warrior Queen on chariot
Small unit of slingers, individually mounted
Two Warbands
Chariots on 4 by 9cm base, used in pairs for a standard-sized unit or singly for a small unit

Roman Legionaires
General with hunting dog
Mounted in groups of ten models on 5 by 10cm bases

Roman Auxiliaries
Medium Infantry mounted as Legionaires
Cavalry mounted as Gauls
'Cretan' Archers, ten models on a 7 by 10cm base

Germans
Warchief
Cavalry/infantry, six to eight models on a 7 by 10cm base
Warband, as Gauls

I play Hail Caesar at a roughly 50% unit size from the examples given in the rules. This is much better for a two player game on a home dining table. The original scale is designed for multiplayer games on a large table, for people with lots of models.

The 50% scale is convenient because it is easy to double up units to get back to the original scale if necessary. I mount the models together on a single stand because it is so much more convenient for both storage and playing. They are mounted on plastic card which could easily be cut up with a pair of scissors without removing the models.

A standard game would be ten units divided into two divisions with a general and subgeneral to command each. Point values for each stand are irrelevant and can be ignored. I suggest that a player be allowed to employ up to two 'large' units for every two 'small' unit that he fields.

This is biased slightly against the Celts.

To add some unpredictible spice the Celtic Player can roll a D6 die against the table below to modify the Celtic Army Size.
Die Roll        Result
1.                 -1 Unit
2.                 No Effect
3.                 No Effect
4.                 No Effect
5.                 +1 Unit
6.                 +2 Units

Warlord Roman Auxiliaries

Warlord Roman Auxiliaries

Given my usual quick paint job with shading/varnishing carried out simultaneously using Army Painter Dark Tone, finished with Vallejo Satin to 'take the shine off' and stick down the static grass on the base.

Gossip

I have agreed with Rick Priestley to write a Campaign Supplement for Hail Caesar with the working title of Hail Britannia. As you might guess, it will be about the Roman conquest of Britain.

The hardback version of Into The Hinterland is out in the USA. I now have to knuckle down and finish Wolf In Shadow as Dave is already writing the plan for the second in The Citizen series.

And today is my 33rd Wedding Anniversary!

The pic today is of a Thames Barge leaving the Medway to pass out into the mouth of the Thames.

Ancient German Cavalry

Caesar describes German cavalry in his description of battle against Ariovistus.  Cavalry were deployed with lightly armed infantry in a 1:1 ratio and they would work together. He foot were selected for their speed and they clung to the horses to keep up. German horse did not use the Gallic saddle so could not fight so well mounted. But they slipped easily on and off the horses as circumstances required. They were highly aggressive and were happy to attack horse using saddles, such as Celts or Romans.

I created infantry-supported cavalry for my ancient German army using a 7.5cm by 7.5 cm base.

The stats are as follows:

1)      Cavalry so move 9”

2)      Clash 7

3)      Sustained 6

4)      Short range 3

5)      Long range 0

6)      Morale Save 5+

7)      Stamina 6

I raised the sustained and save stats by one from standard light cavalry to indicate the staying power of the infantry in the formation.

I used Wargames Factory models.  A pack of cavalry and one of infantry costs around £35 and makes four cavalry units and one warband, which I treat as if it was Celtic.

One point is that WF German cavalry have Gallic saddles. These can be omitted from the models by gently bending in the riders’ legs until they fit the horse.