wargaming is everything from gaming on the table top with dice, painting figures, reading history, collecting figures, scenery and rules through to geography, politics, art, crafts and imaginative writing……..
So well into first month of scenery season and yep – zero progress….
However my late Romans are moving along nicely and not only have I started rereading some great books but I have added to the book mountain.
Heathers better book – the other one is technically fascinating but hard work. JJ’s trilogy remains my all time Byzantine favourite and of these the first book is brilliant. Hearder’s Italian sprint is just simply an enjoyable read.
I already have some useful material for later Roman armies.
My Byzantine leanings have always caused a problem
However I happened to search for 4/5th century eastern Roman books and lo and behold there was an osprey on provincial forces and specifically units.
The book I found was only available to order……
I took a punt on the western publication instead that came out in 2024.
Initially I was dissatisfied as a quick flick through showed no shield detail discussion in the text or contents.
A second detailed read revealed a more interesting approach in this MAA. The book illustrations are composites of western empire wide discoveries carefully matched to recreate a likely dressed soldier. And the image notes are brief because the whole book is dedicated to the illustrations with its content referenced to the illustrations.
So no generalised text padding – it’s straight in and descriptive. In fact Latin terms are only partially explained with no appendix so you need to get online if they are not tripping off your tongue already.
So I actually like this offering – maybe not for all subjects but it (they) will complement my other books.
2024 publication whose Eastern compliment is due out in August It’s always good to buy loads of flat pack furniture for the season of scenery challenge…….
Trouble is what do you do with the furniture left over……..
I do hope to get going on my scenery but before embarking on scratch build items I think this small bridge might be in order.
My beloved first small stone bridge by Bellona has long gone to scenery heaven along with its larger sibling. So this EWM item caught my eye when I was shopping for Fauxterre 1930 kit.
Right now I am meant to be in scenery mode – it’s summer and Dave stones season of scenery has monopolised summer wargaming in recent years.
However the late late very very late Late Roman show landed and so I am painting forces for Rome and Sassanid Empires instead.
This project started a long time ago which of course is another story.
Yet my recent excursion into medieval May painting did drag me off the 19/20th century theme that has dominated my gaming since Norman’s in the south collided with Covid and the Schleswig Holstein Wars about five years ago.
The net result is I have been drifting back in wargames time and that’s why I read up a bit more on various blogs about dominion of the spear rules.
The author has referenced quite a few other rules authors – notably bob corderoy of portable wargame fame not to mention lots of army lists.
Essentially the ruleset is what I would describe as a stripped down version of DBA which I think if it had been offered in the nineties would have been ridiculed given DBA was the stripped down rules of the day.
I was sceptical about these rules but the various comments and blog posts were well reasoned and so I had a bit more of a dig and then took the plunge.
Wargames Vault is the online shop to get them from.
In fact I went for two of the pdf’s – the core rules and the 36 ancient battles set. With the former you can play anything historical or fantasy etc. with the latter the author presents structured refights from history as scenarios.
On the face of it if you like campaigning (tick) solo wargaming (tick) quick narrative gaming (tick) then these rules might just be worth a look.
My own reference point for these rules is kingmaker which I played back in the late seventies and early eighties. The advanced rules included a three “battles” (left, right and centre) a side option to replace the simple card turn battle result of the basic rules.
Over the years I used it with various simple rules in my solo ancient and medieval campaigns.
Then it got dumped in favour of DBA either using 15mm figures or card token armies on a 60cm square board.
The requirement was a quick game to add some flavour and inform the narrative – usually around character development.
It was always intended to keep the campaign at a certain pace which made bigger wargames impractical.
These rules absolutely fit that bill. Perhaps better than DBA.
What’s interesting is that they’re so stripped down you would think there is limited opportunity other than repetition of outcomes and that vanilla is the only constant flavour.
Now I have yet to play them but the read through is encouraging. They look to contain sufficient detail/variety whilst absolutely delivering a fast game.
Suffice to say I have the itch to campaign which is a very dangerous distraction from painting late Romans or creating 1/72 scenery.
Well ok, I am an occasional sci fi gamer – I own five parsecs from home solo rules – have some figures – even scratch built space ships courtesy of AHPC. However it is very hit and miss.
Alas I have few sci fi heroes as such unlike all those American comic characters. In fact this sends me back to my childhood. You will need a cup of tea…….
Back well before Wargames entered my brain (courtesy of my local library), my mum not only made me airfix kits – biplanes and railway wagons on her ironing board!! But she bought my Ranger magazine which very quickly got absorbed by look and learn. You can still get the old annuals but they are full of serious kids learning stuff.
It was fun to learn through these magazines all sorts of stuff – even historical battles which did have a big impact on me, but every week there was one half page that got all my attention.
A real mix of sci fi and ancient/medievals
It was all about the Trigan Empire. And it was fantasy history told in a comic strip style with a literal colour bomb compared to most of the magazines black and white text, illustrations and photos. Later on colour invaded most of look and learns column inches, indeed it’s massive archive is still well used popping up all over the place on the net.
So what did trigan land do to me? Well it meant my giant plastic castle for 54mm – plastics, in my case, saw ancient Romans, Greeks, knights in armour fighting acw and ww2 soldiers. I never had any pike and shot or napoleonic or seven years wars 54mm toys – and they were toys some with ring hands so the ancients could be armed with guns just like in the comic strip.
Mixed up history telling set me up for a life of imaginations narrative Wargames. Either absolutely no regrets.
I had no paints at this time so figures came as they were.
I had a lot of fun and as it happened even though my American relatives and my sisters pen friend sent marvel comics I was unshaken except for those 1 dollar giant 20mm plastic armies advertised on the back pages. I think I asked my ever helpful mum to buy me some but to no avail: Airfix kits were liberally bought and I then got a secondhand model railway … …..Wargames would have to wait.
And all those now rare comics were just binned…
What a carve up – of genres?
I distinctly remember the lokans who were the nasty guys always fighting the trigans who were really Romans armed with ray guns but usually preferred cold steel. Mind you everyone seemed to prefer cold steel if they got in a close fight – Ray guns for distance only of course – no cheating!
Anyway although I eventually discovered wargames and straight up historicals at that, I retained this rather period feel sci fi memory even through all the Star Wars, aliens and other film eras as well as my copious reading of sci fi books in the seventies – Asimov etc. I even read all 27? books of the Perry Rhodan series…in which the global stock markets were manipulated using clever computers, there was the space station in orbit of course – more like a space airport and agriculture comprising automated harvesters working across land untouched by humans – all proper early seventies make believe founded on real science of the time – algorithms and heuristics and robotics were just getting going back then.
Anyway unlike Roger I rarely modify let alone build figures so lacking a Trigan hero (yes I know I could hunt down a Roman but…) I have opted to celebrate their existence by a paint mod using some modern toys for those anti heroes – the lokans.
I tried to emulate the colour palette if nothing else…
These were 100 for a fiver type of sell if I remember from the bovington tank museum online of all places – never been though.
My nasty lokans posing in front of my sci fi AHPC scratchbuilds – how many discarded household items can you spot? Of course you know one is a Klim class space trader ship….
One thing you get from sci fi plus challenges is the freedom to play around with colours and paint types. I feel obligated to paint historical figures based on all that flimsy yet absolutely accurate historical evidence to be found in books and online.
Not so my sci fi guys but of course I needed to use the comic strip as it was my jumping off point. So these guys got some contrast paint treatment alongside the usual Vallejo and citadel colours.
So there you have it a few bad lokans 2026 style to celebrate the heroically forgotten trigans.
You can buy bound books of the comic strips for what it’s worth.
Back in the nineties? I picked up this selected compilation book. Not necessarily my favourite remembered stories but the artwork is from the early days pre 1975 which is the best. It’s the artwork that makes the comic strip work of course.
After several painting challenges where I intended to illustrate Flora Sandes things combined to make it happen.
First I joined Forgotten Heroes for a June painting challenge. I intended to paint some ACW figures.
Then I happened upon some freebie Russians in 28mm and I suddenly remembered my much failed 1:72 ideas about a Flora Sandes figure.
The result is basically a build from the multipart sprue which have some female head options.
The basing grit material is from an old pot from games workshop which seems to be lasting forever as you can see
Ok so this is all Russian World War Two kit while Flora Sandes is a heroine from World War One where she uniquely served in the armed forces of Serbia.
I say unique because she was the ONLY British woman commissioned to serve as a soldier in the whole war.
Born in Poppleton near York, Yorkshire, Flora volunteered as a Red Cross medical orderly in the Royal Serbian Army fighting the Austrian Empire.
She transferred into the military arm and eventually achieved the rank of sergeant major and then after the war ended senior captain.
She died in 1956 having lived in Suffolk after the end of World War Two.
Her Wikipedia page reveals an amazing story – wounded in action, decorated with the highest Serbian military award, marrying a White Russian general, detained by the Germans in WW2, global speaker between the wars……go read it.
For this figure I chose to go with white primer
Painting wise I used Vallejo yellow green for the uniform with a wash using citadel contrast plaguebearer flesh.
Usual Vallejo colours for boots and belts etc. although I used 021 dark flesh tone for once instead of 018 flat flesh. Seraphim sepia goes on top.
My main miniature scale is 1/72 or 20 to 25mm (because scale creep has a very long history). So I am not in the current mainstream 28mm (whatever that height that means anyway) or 15mm (another much varied war gamers scale).
28mm dominates the supply chain these days while 6-15mm seems to be prospering as a counterpoint – skirmish versus mass battles?
The ubiquitous 1/72 “do it all” scale is now largely unloved by gamers although the modelling fraternity still love it for aeroplanes, ships, vehicles and railways.
I have a soft spot for the “ubiquitous” scale and therefore trawl the supply chain accordingly.
Sadly metallics in the 20mm to sub 25mm are in decline – quite simply sculpting and casting in metal is an art and craft which you don’t start doing at the drop of a hat.
The mainstay of this production industry is not getting any younger and of course 3d printing from digital models inevitably looks the modern progressive thing to do if your starting out as a maker in this hobby
Many of the 20-25mm small metal casting businesses revolve around one of two key people and when they stop working there is often no one else to take on the business.
My current figure collection includes
B and B miniatures
SHQ
Irregular Miniatures
Warrior Miniatures
Frontline
B and B miniatures shut up shop a couple of years ago. They had one of the few extensive ranges for Franco Prussian forces in 20mm.
I should have bought more when I did but did not see the writing on the wall.
SHQ sold out to grubbies tanks who will cast some ranges to order – notably for me Kennington although I always liked the WW2 ranges.
Ian Kay at Irregular hung up his working gear this spring after 45 years. His vast range of figures in so many scales will be a loss to many gamers. I believe the 2/6mm ranges live on through a former employee taking the plunge.
Warrior miniatures run out of Glasgow by John in his 80’s has been on hold due to poor health but he did restart in 2025 only to find he needed to rework his manufacturing to make things possible. Since the June announcement I think things have gone quiet again.
Frontline and IT UK closed its doors this spring as well. I have some of their very nice ww2 vehicles.
As I have a broad tolerance on scale and indeed figure matches I can still access ranges to support my gaming, notably using injection moulded plastics sold as toys back in the fifties and sixties.
Yet today they produce some outstanding miniatures for gaming. Even so this industry has seen rocky times with Hat Miniatures seemingly stopping production at one point – think warlord just stopping – you get the picture.
Right now I am painting 1/72 metal medievals from Tumbling Dice. They come with separate shield and some separate heads. Casting is crisp with no flash and minimal mould lines – a fiver gets you 8 foot but I buy the discount packs where you get an army for 70 quid.
In the pic are some SHQ crusaders mounted in the middle and foot in foreground while some Caesar 1/72 plastics are at the right rear of the picture. Tumbling dice 1250 era mounted blue/yellow plus foot with large kite shields are to be seen middle left.
My no1 son got a bit frustrated with a fujimi kit and I offered to repair it – yep it was tight fitting flexible tracks so loved by modellers. As it happened one of my 50p practical wargaming articles was about just this issue – advocating dumping them in favour of homemade ones of a paper spine and transverse thin plastic sheet pieces….the 1990’s….
The kit that came half baked
Nope I just dug out a mini stapler and moments later I had a secure connection. Gone are my days of heated screwdrivers creating rivet heads much as sometimes I could get them perfect. Yet they still tore apart …..huh hmmm.
Trouble with stapling is you have to get the tension just right – too tight and the wheels snap, too loose and it looks all wrong.
I had to smash off the upper hull to get the tank track out from misglued parts when it first arrived for repairs….
Needless to say I cracked some idlers.
And of course being a fujimi kit no1 son had also lost patience with the minuscule parts…… sometime later I am crawling around on the carpet looking for those very same parts – I look up and see my medieval hordes glaring at me!
The Tank commander is nervous as nearby are lots of soldiers armed with edged weapons and no paint on them…..
Anyway not satisfied with fixing no1 sons Kv 1a than I get the same model in the bring and buy for him and he says as I am doing a good job on the first one I can just make the other one from scratch……..
Part two resumes with a dose of medieval warfare….
Lewes 1264 by Mogsy Makes as I know of him opted for some serious sloping ground
I did arrive with a purchasing plan – that failed to survive contact with reality. One intention was to buy Midgard rules but in the end it was a “no” despite my feeling it was a fantastic display and they really did go at the game, unlike some tables where actual progress was harder to determine.
Painting quality was top notch The arrays on show made you want these armiesThe icons did not detract from the game Not all the units were dressed for a night out at a seventies discoThe Mogsy makes blog explained the walls of Lewes were a mini “bin rescue” projectThis game moved along at a fair pace
I did buy some cobbled lanes from “Early War Miniatures” – last year I bought some of their muddy lanes. The latex material means they sit better on some gaming set ups and scenery.
A brace of samurai games provided variety
Unexpectedly I dawdled past the Dutch section on the EWM stand while checking to see if they had any Italeri plastic WW1 1/72 italians (which he did and I now have – using them for my Fauxterre 1930 forces). Suddenly I remembered buying some home defence books at Fiasco 2025 in Leeds (in the royal armouries bookstore), and before you knew it a Dutch roadblock was in the bag along with a small stone bridge (nice shape) which matches the cobbled road pack and a Dutch armoured car……hmmmm
Stunning 18th century and Baroque armies were common as muckBuildings to match the figures tooThese are correctly proportioned 30mm figures so look overly slender to the average wargamers engorged eyes – still they look fantastic en-masseApproximately 1500 to 2000 figures graced this table.
I strolled out to the small bring and buy. This visit yielded some now rarer imex 1/72 wagons and horses sets while next door I snapped up 13 (lucky for me) practical wargames magazines. The reason being, the seller must have had a mid nineteenth century bent, because of all the articles on acw but more importantly 1848/1859 and 1866 Italian independence wars featuring heavily.
League of Augsburg put on an impressive displayThe buildings on show were fine models and very pleasing on the eyeImpeccable paintwork
I was on a roll and back at the Lance and Longbow society stand I took ownership of a book about Stoke Field 1487 (another long in the tooth project of mine). The society zone is a really good aspect of Newark shows and it was sad that it seemingly fell foul of the change of organisation at Hammerhead in March.
A regular feature at Partizan
I met and had a chat with Chris, he of “not quite mechanised” fame. This time he was having a rest from his hex ww2 participation games which are most enjoyable and ideal show games.
One of the many ACW games being demonstratedBodkins ACW table caught my eye as much for the amount of information they provided at the table edge – a lot of homework done here.
Still finding plenty of wandering energy, I passed by Iron Gate Scenery a couple of times looking aslant at their new castle model. I collected nearby some Frankish metallics in 1/72 from Tumbling Dice – hoping they get painted but don’t hold your breath.
Lego style wargames
Away in a corner Parabellum from Birmingham where there with their plastic figures – I snapped up a Strelets (Ukrainian company) city levy box for my current medieval madness.
Sci fi was more visible in the participation games area – this one was put on by Tangent miniatures
And then mid afternoon I returned yet again to north stars demo table. It was ACW – 25/28mm crusader figures very nicely proportioned rather than heroically fisted 28/33mm figures.
I think these were painted by Nick Eyre who casts these crusader miniatures at North Star
I think we need to start recording 28mm scale in double references as the variation in height and muscularity dwarfs even the 20/25mm dilemmas of the 1970’s.
I found this demo game an enjoyable watch because one of the guys clearly liked explaining what was going on although they offered me to play – it was faster with them even though the rules are new to them as well
Anyway I liked the table, I liked the figures and I enjoyed the guys explanation and interaction – ok so their in business but there is still a good way to sell and show while there are also bad ways.
It’s a 6×4 feet table and with nice scenery and great figures at a “home” scale I found it more engaging than the very impressive “club” or “group” set ups fine though they may be. Both Partizan and Hammerhead have lots of smaller table games.
Later after numerous pop ins to watch them play out the rules with explanations to others I finally returned having bought “musket and tomahawks” core rule book plus the new “kepis and bayonets” period piece they had played, to tell them I was at least one punter sold on the demo.
Back to a restart – the forces were set up to enable a quick engagement
Bearing in mind the core rules – single figures skirmish and originally 18th century oriented have no place in my gaming spectrum you may be thinking there is erratic and then erratic.
Some excellent very specific units which nick eyre talks about on the Lead Adventure Forum website
But the clinchers were the figures played with in the demo were multi based not singular and being ACW not that far from my stamping ground of 1848/1859…..
Simon Millers vast game A fine townFantastic miniaturesAn astounded Mr Miller spies a measuring stick on the table! (Only joking)
Yet that was not my last splash even though it was a big spend of 50 quid at Caliver. I am hoping these rules get more use than another French authored set “art de l’guerre” – loved the production values of what in effect is an improved DBA but hardly given a run out since ancients slipped off the gaming agenda.
Which reminds me I was buttonholed by the guys promoting DBF – fanaticus, which seems a new version of DBA set to be published. Whilst long in the tooth DBA has always been playable as a house game – getting rid of the wordy complexity of course.
My loot turned out to be a lot more than I planned…..
Anyway my final tour brought me again to Iron Gate Scenery where I succumbed to a Scottish castle…..maybe in a few weeks time, given they sold all their stock at the get go and now have a string of orders to fulfill.
This castle was unavoidable – at the main hall entrance but crucially modelling natural river stone or cobbles instead of the usual dressed stone in the walls. This random rubble look was just too compelling.
All in all a great day out – games, people, figures, rulesets, shopping or just looking and absorbing with loads of people enjoying their hobby their way.
Thanks to the organisers, traders and those volunteers-clubs and their unsung supporters!
And then they were gone – not stayed this late in a long while.
Another bright May Day and I was off to Partizan in Newark – it invariably scores on weather over say a chilly February VAP in York.
My place in the queue started nearly at the gates – not bad for a 0945 arrival
Fortunately the bring and buy in the pop up gazebos at the main hall entrance had their sessions done before a mega deluge mid afternoon flooded the place.
Some gloriously painted armies took to numerous battlefields
In the dry main hall there was a frenzy of gaming, talking, shopping, inspecting the forces on show and well just looking.
Some stunning buildings
I got to Newark before ten and the queue had doubled by the time we got moving at our point at 1010, I felt sorry for the pre bookers who, only later on, were plucked from the main queue to get priority entry.
ACW was very popular in the demo zone and I became preoccupied with a game on one of the smallest tables!
The Partizan show was organisationally good with more food stalls and seating outside plus the extra toilets which thankfully now seem a permanent feature.
These guys come every year – there are quite a few stand regulars. But there the similarity ends here as these chaps offer a raised playing surface which is simply great on the eye and of course the players back!
The Partizan space management was good with an open entrance area and generous aisles. This managed space approach contrasts so much with the disjointed effort I saw at VAP 2026 in York which had very congested areas alongside literally empty space.
“A Raised battleground” is standard with these guysWarlord sell these pre-painted buildings – very nice indeed
Talking to someone with experience of both shows – gamer stand set up and access seems very good at Partizan, whereas at VAP only traders were given easy access and stand gamers had to park with punters and haul all their gear in and only use lifts and stairs (ground and first floor level both have vehicular access at York racecourse).
There was a lot of smoke on one table – winning the most “realistic award” for a black powder demo of the show I think
VAP should be a gem of northern shows but somehow it isn’t – well not for me anyway.
Ok so the naval game was at it creating smoke as well.
Back to the Partizan show – I enjoyed the visual displays but strangely baroque/seven years war and acw were very popular demos while ancients and ww2 seemed less apparent and napoleonics almost non existent (Sharp Practice in the Lardy zone excepted). I am also excluding here the “regular” tables who often put up the same or similar presentations year on year – attractive though they may be.
Fantastic detail on this Vietnam game in the lard zoneA venerable? Airfix girder bridge or the equally venerable Rovex/Triang model or printed facsimile?Attention to detail made this the best diorama game on show for me
Unpopular periods include the Crimean wars – rectified here by a 1/72 demo comprised of fabulous vintage 20mm Hinton Hunt and Douglas figures and the guys were happy to talk about them.
The smoke has still to clear on some fantastic figuresI had a good chat with Mark Lodge Fabulous 20mm figures classically painted
Westbury war games meanwhile did another Baroque period bash but I only got there at the end of the day – I stayed till nearly four pm which has not been the case in recent years.
A splendid battle lineSimply realigning the forces battle lines can make your rectangular table bigger but also more interesting
The Wargaming Erratic 