Wargamers Annual 2020 ....

In this years Wargamers Annual a summary of my Romans V Gaul project, the simple rules and a couple of game scenarios .....

The Romans in Scotland ...

picked up a nice little book form a charity shop...

lots of stuff I didn't know and an informative section on the Antonine 'wall'.

bits for interiors and bigger photo backdrops

Getting ready for a feast ...

A recent Ebay pickup, four resin cast items for a large feast or party ...

 will need to make a suitable interior room plus more people and servants too :)

Higher Backdrops for picture taking

To get some higher backdrop boards I bought a couple of the standard Daler art board sheets - colour Delft Blue. They provide a basic taller backdrop for picture taking...

 The blue is a bit light, need to experiment a bit, but at least a full height picture of the ship is possible (and also larger buildings when made); I may add some clouds to one sheet and keep the other plain.

Playing with forts (4) .... stone roman fort and ditch

I thought it would be useful to be able to represent the roman fort/town with stone wall having a ditch as well. I made a simple causeway pice and also a ramp to bring a road up to the right level.

The rear of the roman wall, a bit bare inside the fort - I can use some basic buildings I have to fill in for roof age (I may make a couple of small barrack buildings)

 the ditch is represented by the gap between a straight table riser section and hill sections; the small causeway is made from cardboard and stone effect paper.

 the ramp made using same materials as the causeway piece and gets the road up to the right level...

Thats all for now on forts :)

Playing with forts (3) .... one for the Gauls

Managed to setup something to represent part of a Gallic (or Celtic) hill fort. I used most of my pallisade section pieces, but was stuck for the ditch - I decided to indicate the ditch using some thickish cut-outs form some old table mats covered with the green fabric of my hill pieces and table risers. The indication of the ditch is sufficient, it will do for a game or backdrop.

The two nice huts are from J G Miniatures, they are really good models may invest in one more.

Playing with forts (2) ... Roman Style Wooden fort

Dressed up a straight ditch configuration for the romans with the wooden palisade sections; looks reasonable..

From the inside.....

The ditch, with a new causeway piece ... (yep those backdrops are too low - OK for general gaming though)

 a look down the table, perhaps what a gaul may see if looking at it having climbed up a small tree....

Still working on a more curvy look to provide something for the Gauls.

Playing with forts ...

Starting in one of the things on my list - making a section of gallic fort (or similar).

First up I just put the palisade sections out in the corner of the table ...

way to flat really, so after faffing about with my table riser sections and hill pieces, have something that has a sort of ditch and is on a low hill.

its a bit straight for a gallic/geltic hill fort but would do for a roman wooden fort, I can use a similar scheme with my stone walls to give the roman fort/town a ditch. Need something more curvy for the gallic hill fort.

Stuff for the future ....

I've been working on a shortlist of contexts for future games and things to model; I seem to have got a list to work with, see below.

Contexts for games & story lines

• Roman 'pacification' of areas beyond the current northern military frontier, I have been looking at some of the schema used for campaigns in Denyers Bits and Bobs Blog -  https://denyers.blogspot.com/.
• Gallic Inter-tribal conflicts
• Voyages in northern climes of the of roman military ship Aurora

Modelling/Conversions

• Roman Testudo
• Section of gallic hill fort
• roman street scene

A little bit of help ....

Awoken by the din of battle after a long sleep following a late night binge, two slightly bleary visiting warriors have a quick 'pick-me-up' drink from the druid and head out to disperse the remaining attackers ...

The Nasturces attack Dervadunom...

The conflict between the Pretentiates and the Nasturces has been brewing for some time; cattle raids and skirmishes.

Somewhere to the north of the roman military frontier in the territory of the Pretentiates tribe.... At the settlement of Dervadunom,  all is quiet...

---oXo---

A woman out for a walk by the stream has spotted a large group of warriors coming up  the valley...

Scouts from the Nasturces tribe near the settlement

a group of warriors set out from the settlement to investigate ....

when they reach the stream some ways down the valley, they spot the approaching warriors ...

they sound the alarm ...

the alarm is heard in the settlement and more warriors are called to arms ...

As the warbands of the Nasturces approach down the valley, the warriors from the settlement position themselves to defend the line of the stream ....

They attempt to hold off the attacking Nasturces...

while more warriors form a second line of defence between the rocks that traverse the valley...

the warriors defending the stream fall back, they are outnumbered...

as the the lead warband of the Nasturces advances further down the valley, two more warbands are moving up behind them...

The lead war band attacks the Pretentiates defending the rocks ....

they work their way round the flank, but cannot make progress in the middle and fall back to wait support.....

while the Nasturces gather their strength the Pretentiates fall back towards the settlement ...

The Nasturces attack again ....

and push them further back towards the settlement

The Pretentiates manage to disengage and fall back into the safety setllement

The Nasturces make an attempt to attack and get into the settlement ....

the attack fails, they haven't sufficient warriors left to gain entry ...

the Nasturces mill about for a bit and then retire back down the valley... a successful fighting retreat by the Pretentiates has saved their settlement.

Roman street scene ?

A little project to tinker with, some ideas for a roman street scene - using some cut up boxes as mockups and a little sketch

ideally I would use it for story lines and displaying my civilian figures.

Gallic Warrior ...

finished off painting my gallic warrior conversion .. quite pleased with the result ...

Gallic warrior conversion ....

I picked up a modern farmer figure with some animals of varying sizes in a local charity shop; the farmer has ben converted to a gaul holding a spear....

with this conversion done, I'm almost at the bottom of my 54mm bits box.

Roman Civilians (the market etc)..

The roman civilians are now all painted up and ready for use in story lines etc. Shown below with improvised backdrop buildings (not roman in style but close enough).

The market stalls set up ....

The seated figures with an attendant (one of the market stall holders)

I'll have the larks tongues and my wife will have the snails..