Strength and Honour Roman Legions

Legio I Adiutrix

The game of Strength and Honour at the club last week, which I had to miss due to being unwell went down very well and has led to a lot of interest in the rules. A few players are already putting together armies which gave me the incentive to review the two core armies that I have already completed, one Parthian and one Imperial Roman.

The first of these is an Imperial Roman army for Trajan's Parthian campaigns, which is very much a core force as it only has three legions, Legio I Adiutrix, Legio II Traiana and Legio XV Appolinaris. I think I now need to expand this army to include the other three legions - Legio III Cyrenaica, Legio XII Fulminata and Legio XVI Flavia - as well as adding an Ala of cavalry or two. 

I have a legion base and blocks spare and enough cavalry blocks for at least one base, so that's not a bad start. I could also add some skirmishers, although I think I have enough auxiliary units for the moment. This expanded army will be the one that I can use to try out the rules before I move onto the Parthian army, which may also need a bit of a boost with some additional horse archers bases.

Almirante Barosso

           

While sifting through the storage box for US pre-dreadnought cruisers at the weekend, I discovered that I have a spare model of USS New Orleans. This was a sister ship to the Brazilian protected cruiser Almirante Barosso, built in England and launched in 1896. This means I can now add a Brazilian warship to my non-belligerent flotilla, although I suspect the Brazilians will pick sides in the conflict, most likely alongside the Chileans rather than with the Argentinians?

Pre-dreadnought Third Parties

 

I've been unwell again over the last couple of days, so my best laid plans to spend some time at the workbench went sideways. However, I have sorted out the final few models to paint for my fictional South American conflict, with the focus being in the non-belligerent third parties, namely the USA, Great Britain and Peru. Fortunately, most of these have already been based and undercoated earlier, so are ready to go.

The USN is represented by the cruisers USS Charleston and USS Baltimore*, with the USS Marblehead and the gunboat USS Yorktown in support. The Royal Navy have the protected cruiser HMS Intrepid and the armoured cruiser HMS Ariadne. The Peruvians meanwhile have their two scout cruisers, Almirante Grau and Coronel Bolognesi. 

Finally, I've included the obsolete central battery ironclad Almirante Cochrane for the Chileans, just because I like it! The deadline for painting these is the end of the month, leaving the merchant ships high and dry for the moment but starting the Red Actions! project alongside the pre-dreadnought painting.

*I may replace these two older cruisers with some more up to date ones, if I get the time?

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Red Actions! Reinforcements

            

I didn't have quite enough of the new Russian infantry to equip my White battalion so thanks to a timely discount voucher, I have ordered some top up packs from Peter Pig. While I was there, I also added a couple more limbers, a Putilov field gun, some gun crew and HMG teams and enough greatcoat wearing infantry to kit out a company. I'm going to get started on this project over the coming week, last weekend being a wash out as far as wargaming workbench time is concerned due to illness. 

A Smorgasbord of Shipping

            

It's freezing in the garage today but I've stuck at it to assemble a smorgasbord of shipping for my South American Pre-dreadnought project. 

First up, we have the Chilean central battery modernised ironclad Almirante Cochrane, using the old and now out of production model. 

Then we have the two Peruvian light cruisers that I converted earlier in the week, with the Almirante Cochrane for comparison. 

Next, two Royal Navy cruisers which served on the North America and West Indies station, the Apollo class cruiser HMS Intrepid and the Diadem class cruiser, HMS Ariadne.

Last of all is a selection of merchant shipping including a couple of tramp steamers, four colliers or mineral carriers, an oiler, a small liner, a couple of tugs with barges and a packet steamer, the latter a model of SMS Wolf repurposed for the job. 

I'll get the bases textured and the models undercoated tomorrow, but I'm off to warm up by the fire now, as I'm ********* freezing!

Nimitz

I'm keen to have a crack at this new set of WW2 naval rules by Sam Mustafa, being a fan of his Maurice rules. The rules cover most of the major combatants, as you'd expect, but not the French as yet, which is a little inconvenient. There's another potential player at the club so it's worth me splashing out on the pdf, as the chances of getting a game are good. In the longer term, the built in campaign system looks really interesting and there's loads of potential for solo play too. It's not cheap, however, with the print copy weighing in at £40 and the pdf at £25 plus printing costs. Blimey!

Dogger Bank Battlecruisers

 

I was sorting out my box of 1/2400th scale Tumbling Dice models yesterday, many of which I acquired second hand, when I realised that I have several of the battlecruisers for the Dogger Bank action in January 1915. 

The range has now expanded to include all of the models needed for the Dogger Bank scenario in Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnoughts, so I thought why not get the rest? These include Lion, Tiger and New Zealand as well as Derflinger and Seydlitz.

I've been meaning to have a crack at WW1 naval wargaming for a while, the first idea being the hunt for the Goeben and Russo-Turkish Black Sea battles, but this scenario is too good to miss out on. I'll see if can squeeze it in at some point later this month, as it won't take long to paint the models. 

Red Actions! Artillery

One of the things that I've been mulling over recently is the basing for Red Actions!. We've decided to go for a standard 30mm x 30mm square, with three infantry figures per base or two cavalry, the latter to keep the cost down a bit as both sides tend to have a lot of horse.

The artillery has been another conundrum, as the RFCM standard 40mm x 40mm looks a bit too wide, even if it allows for plenty of crew, while also being a bit too short. I've decided that a 30mm frontage looks better, with the depth being flexible, depending on the model gun. 

So, a bog standard 76mm Putilov looks right with a 45mm long base but a 122mm Schneider howitzer, for example, looks better on a 55mm long base. I think this is an ideal compromise and has the added advantage of looking right when a limber is attached, as that also used a 30mm wife base. 

Peruvian Scout Cruiser Chop Shop

Almirante Grau and Coronel Bolognesi

 

Almirante Grau (top) Nitaka (bottom)

Spot the difference!

I made up for lost time today and converted two Nitaka class protected cruisers to make the Peruvian Almirante Grau and Coronel Bolognesi. I didn't use the Sentinel class cruiser models that I thought I was going to convert, as on closer inspection, the Nitaka was a far better match once the forward sponson gun mountings were removed and the funnels repositioned. I think they came out quite well in the end and are not far off the actual scout cruisers in size, shape and profile.

Red Actions! AFSR (1)

A lot of lead..and I've left out the armoured train!

I've now sorted out the figures and models for the Red Actions! AFSR White Volunteer Army, something I've been meaning to do for a while but just didn't get round to. As you can see, this is a big project so will take up most of the next few months. I'll make a start on the core units, infantry and machine guns, at the weekend. I've decided to use the newer figures for the infantry and will build four companies each of five bases plus a machine gun base for each company, this being close to the maximum size of unit allowed in the rules, so that I have some flexibility.