Work in progress: Sarmatians I painted up 2 bases of the Sarmatians as a test batch. The paint scheme of the barding is meant to replicate the armour made of split hooves/animal horn that is reported by ancient writers. I've assumed that the common Sarmatian warrior would be able to afford metal armour for himself, but would opt for the cheaper - and lighter - armour for his horse. Normans vs Vikings Here's a time-lapse movie of the game Cpt Arjun and I played today. Paint Scheme for Warring States Army Here's a reference photograph showing the current paint scheme of my Warring States army. Click on it for a larger view. Warring States: the Core Army I've reached a point where I more money than time to paint - which is not to say I'm fabulously rich, but rather to note that the amount of time it takes me to paint an army is prohibitively expensive - in time lost with family, friends, time lost at work, and time lost in sleep. Certainly, DBM-sized armies are no longer a reasonable proposition. I'll soon be sending off a bunch of unpainted Warring States figures to a painting service, to swell the ranks of this core DBA army. It's a surprisingly hard decision.I know they'll not turn out exactly the way I want them to, or the way I would have done them. I know I'll feel less of a connection with figures I didn't sweat over to paint. But I also know that I'll appreciate the time I didn't lose painting them.I'm not giving up painting altogether, just to be clear - I am starting on a DBA Sarmatian army soon, after all - but the day of the large project is over. It's small little cohorts of armies for me now, or the painting service.The above figures are the DBA Warring States army that I completed recently. This is an all options army for any of the 7 Warring States. Ilkhanid Mongols Versus Late Byzantines Something a little different for this week's battle report: presented in comic book style =)Click on each picture for a larger image. In the saddle again: The Mongol Horde This is my Mongol horde, ready for their coming battle with the Mamluks this Sunday. Slightly more than half are figures I painted, and the rest (the greener looking bases) were bought off eBay. A Mongol army from Tabletop Games was the first set of lead miniatures I had, though I've since thrown that first lot away: it was atrocious. (it was a DBA army, and Cpt Arjun got the Alexandrian Macedonian, while another friend got an Early Imperial Roman and a Tang Dynasty army. Ah, the old days ...) This current horde is all Essex, and contains almost every type of light horse figure - you'll find Cumans and Sung mixed in with the Mongols.All in all, this army comprises 38 Light Horse bases (inclusive of 4 Camel bases I just painted up) and 16 Cavalry bases. There are 5 General bases that are also Cavalry, making a total of 21 Cavalry. After painting an all infantry army (Sea Peoples) and playing an infantry heavy army (Polybian Romans), I've decided to go all Cavalry for a change. My next target is a DBA Sarmatian army: 12 bases of Knights and nothing else ... Sea Peoples Campaign: The Finale The Sea Peoples Invasion campaign came to a spectacular end this Sunday, with the last two battles fought back to back.The Sea Peoples started game 3 with their largest army to date - 3 full brigades of the dreaded warbands were in evidence (well, nearly 3: one was missing a base, and so could not benefit from the warband rule in Warmaster Ancients).The defenders had the usual line up, with their heavy chariots forming the core of their army. A thin line, but a powerful one.By the mid-game, a clear fracture was developing in the Sea Peoples' line: the middle brigade of warband, and the two units of elite troops, had failed all their command rolls and were not making it into the fight: the clash between the slow moving warbands and the Hittite chariots (capable of archery, skirmishing, and evading) was played out after the Sea Peoples' screen of chariots and skirmishers were swept away, and the warbands could not close in with the evasive chariots. Both wings were crushed under the weight of the Hittite attack, and the Hittites won a famous victory, turning the tide of the Sea Peoples' advance. The only minor consolation for the Sea Peoples was the elimination of one general on the opposing side, but they would now go into the fourth and final game will a much reduced force.With no chariots or skirmishers, the last battle was a complete rout for the Sea Peoples: their reduced force could not make it back to the coast for a retreat, so there was no Dunkirk for them.All in all, the Sea Peoples campaign has been a zippy and fast-paced one, which let the Napnuts re-acquaint themselves with the Warmaster rules. Sea Peoples Campaign Battle 2 We played the second game of the Sea Peoples Invasion Campaign today.The game started with the Sea Peoples advancing on the left (1, above), where a brigade of warband took up a strong position on hill. (I've merged several photos to show the "before" and "after" of each turn: the final positions of units that moved are the red portions of the image) The Sea People centre and right stalled in their advance, and the screen of skirmishers on the right were driven back by the Hittite Chariots (3). The defending Hittite army advanced strongly in the centre, with archers deploying in front of the main force (2).The Sea Peoples' left wing charged into battle, and that flank quickly broke up into a series of small battles, with the warbands pursuing the retreating Syro-Canannites in all directions (2, 3 and 4 above). In the middle, one unit of Chariots took the brunt of a Hittite attack and stalled it (1), while another charged an exposed enemy unit aided by one unit of Elite foot (5), wiping out the centre units in what was to prove to be the decisive action of the battle (the defenders reached their break point in this melee and were forced to retreat). On the right, an advance by the Hittite foot was counter-attacked by the Sea Peoples' warbands, and driven back into the brush (7). The remaining Hittite Chariots were kept out of the action by archery from the skirmishers which pushed them back (6).The Sea Peoples took minimal losses and won a major victory ... but their next battle will see them facing even heavier opposition, as the Hittites bring their heavy chariots into play ...tags:gaming,wargames Invasion of the Sea Peoples: Our New Campaign Cpt Arjun and I kicked off our new campaign with a low-key game today.The opening skirmish represented the first contact between the vanguard of the Sea Peoples' migration and the local Syro-Canaanite defenders. Warmaster Ancients was the ruleset used, and the game was a straightforward encounter battle.The invading Sea Peoples out-pointed the defenders 3 to 2, and were all infantry, while the defenders had equal numbers of chariots, infantry and skirmishersThe initial advance of the Sea Peoples was halted by skirmish fire from the chariots and skirmishers, driving the Sea Peoples' skirmishers back through the mass of their troops ande confusing some of them. A failed charge from the Sea Peoples' left their infantry hanging in front of the chariots, and was a followed by a general charge from the defenders, enveloping the mass of the infantry block on 3 sides. The melee that followed saw each side losing one entire unit, but the weight of numbers on the Sea Peoples' side overwhelmed the Syro-Canaanites, who broke when their general was killed. The campaign is off to a suitably bloody start, and the next game will see the defenders rallying more troops to stem the tide of the Sea Peoples' advance.tags:gaming,wargames Hittites versus Mycenaeans: Playtest of "King David" rules Cpt Arjun and I ran a test game of the King David rules last week, to get a feel for how the rules might work in a campaign. My general sense of the rules was that they were typical of run of the mill rules, with a moderate degree of complexity (activation requires initiative rolls, alternate activation of units, and points expended for turning, stopping, etc) and some interesting elements added by the ability to play "favours of the gods" (allowing or forcing re-rolls by either player).Here you see Arjun's Hittite chariots breaking through my Mycenaean spearmen. Chariots are emphasized in this ruleset: they are easily the most powerful, expensive, and difficult to handle unit.More battle reports will come as we experiment with the rules.tags:gaming,wargames, 15mm More Qin Chariots More photos of the work in progress. One more Qin chariot painted up, this time a regular one. I've put it next to the General's chariot for comparison. I decided on a black and white colour scheme for the chariots, as opposed to the red and black for the general.One thing that is very obvious from this photo is how the 40x40mm base that DBA mandates for chariots is quite inadequate for 15mm figures. Every chariot I've got - Mycenaean, Sea Peoples, and Chin, can't fit properly on a 40mm base depth. They're based either with half a wheel sticking out the back (as seen here) or on a 50/60mm base (as with the Sea Peoples).They should simply change the basing to 40x50mm, or 40x60mm. An added benefit of this is that the manuever for chariots becomes more complex: square bases are always easier to maneuver on the gaming board, since they occupy the same space with each 90º turn, whereas turning with a group of chariots that are deeper than they are wide would mean a change in frontage and depth for the group. It's messier, and more approapriate for a unit that historically was very sensitive to terrain and difficult to turn and wheel.tags:gaming,wargames,DBA,15mm Work in Progress: Qin Chariot My buying and painting cycles are about 6 months off-sync - in other words, I tend to buy something and only start painting it half a year later. Part of this is due to the backlog of things waiting to be painted: part of this is because I buy miniatures in excitement and optimism, and receive my miniatures in nervous realisation of how much work that little pile of lead implies.I received reinforcements for my small Qin force sometime last year, but tonight (after an inspiring viewing of Hero) I started on the Emperor's chariot. What you see is still work in progress, but is mostly done except for final touches and basing. The tiger skins on the backs of the horses were a joy to paint.The canopy is the only part not from the kit, and is based on drawings of chariots from that era that I've seen: reference this picture for example:Although possibly out of place on a war chariot, the canopy is appropriate for an Emperor (or the King of Qin, as he is at this stage). Civilian chariots, as seen above, also featured seated drivers, which seem to be lacking in the Essex models. Presumably everyone stood in a fighting chariot.The canopy itself I owe to my good friend LK, oddly enough: it's the top piece of foil from a bottle of Pol Roger 1996 champagne that he and I had some time back (well, he more than me, since I don't drink). At the end of it all, he suggested I keep the foil, which he found useful for things like stowage and tarps on his 1/72 tanks. It was the only thing in my "bitz box" that had the suitable shape for the shallow saucer-shaped dome, and it worked perfectly.In all, the Essex Qin I bought last year will add another 2 chariots, 2 bases of crossbows, 2 bases of light horse, and 4 bases of spears to the army you see below, bringing it up to a proper DBA size. I've gone for a very stark colour scheme for this army - black, white, and red, shaded in greys and off-whites (greatly influenced by the look of the Qin army in the movie "Hero").tags:gaming,wargames,DBA,Qin,chariot Vikings blooded The Vikings had their first outing today: you can read the battle report here.It feels a bit odd to be playing with figures that you haven't painted yourself - it's hard to feel a sense of attachment to them, since they were bought off eBay. One thought in retrospect though - perhaps this detachment is beneficial, since it prevents you from having a "favourite" unit or base. After all, our tactical decisions on the gaming table might be clouded by the emotional attachment we have to, for example, a base of figures that we spent extra effort in painting up. The scythed chariots in my 20mm WAB Persian army were something like that - horrible track record, and very little value for money, yet I kept fielding them.Something to think about.tags:gaming,wargames,vikings The Vikings are coming! The War of the Roses campaign hasn't ended, and we've already moved on to preparations for another campaign. This time round it's the 1066 campaign Cpt Arjun is organising.As part of that, I'm fielding a bunch of Vikings, won on eBay through Cpt Arjun. More pics of those later, since the glue's still drying on the magna-sheet bases, but here's a pic of an old Viking ship I've had for some time. The model is by Heller, and is called the "Drakkar".The base is new, having been put together last night and painted this morning. Wall filler was used to sculpt the waves, left to dry overnight, and given a simple paint job this morning.tags:gaming,wargames War of the Roses Army: King Edward IV Command Base Edward has a posseIt's the last 10% to complete a project that takes up 90% of your time. I'm still painting up the last drips and drabs of the Yorkist army. Here we have the mounted command base, with Edward, his standard bearer, and two knights as bodyguard. This is one knight too many for DBx mounting, but as I had a knight spare that wouldn't have gone anywhere, I thought I might as well mount them all on one base. This also helps distinguish the commander base from other bases.The knight on the right bears a small shield with my best effort at a falcon-and-fetterlock design: his friend on the far left bears a shield with a Yorkist white rose. The standard bearer carries a long-tailed standard with a crowned lion and Yorkist suns in splendour.tags:gaming,wargames War of the Roses: Casualty Figures Finally got round to painting the casualty figures for the War of the Roses campaign. These guys come in poses that just make you want to caption them ...(1) "My contact lenses ... where're my contact lenses?!"(2) "You have failed me for the last time ..."(3) Thomas hated having his pager go off in the middle of a battle.(4) "Err ... your Majesty? Wake up: I think the battle's starting ..."tags:gaming,wargames War of the Roses Campaign Just a quick post to point out the battle reports for the War of the Roses campaign, which I've been writing over at the Napnuts blog. I'm playing the Yorkist side of the campaign.The battle reports can be read here:Game 1Game 2Game 3Game 4So far the battles have escalated in ferocity and intensity from game to game. Royals have died twice (both Lancastrian); battles have been won by attrition, by betrayal, and by death of the opposing commander, covering every outcome Arjun wrote into the rules (that's what I call play-testing). We've stretched Warmaster Ancients to the limits (and some would say broken it). All in all, a good campaign so far.tags:gaming,wargames,warmaster,15mm Captain Tight Pants Those of you familiar with Firefly will recognise this figure (Heresy miniatures) from his gun. As yet unpainted, the coat will, of course, be brown. In the meantime, he's just shiny.(You must excuse the unusual background - glimpses of resin 15mm tents can be seen, as well as the remainder of the War of the Roses army)tags:gaming,wargames,firefly,browncoat Yorkist Banners and Standards The best part (from a painter's point of view) of gaming the Wars of the Roses must be the colourful heraldry, especially the flags. Here are a selection of the Yorkist flags I'm using.(1) and (2) are Standards used by Edward IV. (1) depicts the white rose of York, within a sun (a rose en soleil, the sun in splendour)(3) is the Royal Banner(4) is the Falcon and Fetterlock, a device used by Edward IV and his father Richard Duke of York before him(5) is the White Boar of Edwards's youngest brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III(6) is the Black Bull of George, Duke of Clarence, Edward's other brother.tags:gaming,wargames,flags WOTR: Game 1 The game report for our first battle in the War the Roses campaign is up here. The short summary is that FG and Arjun did all the hard work, slugging it out over a hill in a vicious battle that ended with the death of Henry VI himself. Looks like the campaign is off a bloody start, as Queen Margaret takes over the reins of the Lancastrian government and prepares for the next battle ...tags:gaming,wargames The Wars of the Roses The Napnuts' War of the Roses campaign kicks off today!Another marathon painting session brought the bulk of my Yorkist contingent to completion. Not shown in the photo above is the artiller base, off to the right. The standard front and centre is Edward IV's, depicting a white rose en soleil. To the left of this command base are some crazy loonies with 2-handed swords. To the rear are Yorkist billmen, in murray and blue, the colours of Edward's house.I bought the bulk of the figures as DBA army packs from Essex, with the intention that after the campaign was over, I would have a separate Yorkist and Lancastrian army to play with - hence the billmen lurking behind in the suspiciously Lancastrian colours of white and blue. I won't put any Lancastrian standards or banners on until after the campaign though.The next step is to finish up the light cavalry, some skirmishers, and the billmen I have spare. Might put some other flags and banners on - like a boar for Richard.tags:gaming,wargames "Diorama" photography Miniatures wargaming and photography are two of my hobbies, and so I read this article with great interest: link.This photographer takes photos of real cities and landscapes, and makes them look like dioramas and miniatures. It's surreal ... for someone who tries to do the reverse (make dioramas look like the real thing) it's strange to see the real thing made to look fake.Anyway, I hope to put up some photos of the War of The Roses armies I've been working on the past month. The Napnuts are starting a WoTR campaign soon (an idea that had it's genesis in a coversation Arjun and I had over tea in the coffeeshop) and I'll be fielding a contingent of troops for it. More on that later ... after I emerge from a Chinese New Year holidays spent bottled up in the study, painting.tags:gaming,wargames Scale Creep Miniature painters and wargamers are used to the problems that scale creep bring to trying to create an army that looks consistent. The definition of "15mm", for example, varies ever so slightly between manufacturers, enough in some cases to be obvious.I've never seen scale creep quite as bad as this though, and all within one set of miniatures. Unfortunately, I can't remember which manufacturer this is: I have a habit of buying figures that I paint only months, sometimes years later (who doesn't?) and this set has been lying around for a long time gathering dust.This is a 15mm elephant and crew. Each square on the grid is 10mm. Starting from left, note the size of the elephant. Now look at the mahout - a bit short, but he's squating, so fair enough. Look at the javeliner - about 16-17mm from foot to eye-line. Look at the standard bearer to his right: a 20mm figure in all but name. Now look at the general, furthest on the right - clearly a 20mm figure, and he comes up to the shoulder of the elephant. Scale creep between different units is bad enough, but this is ridiculous - assuming you could fit all of them into the fighting tower (which you can't: another problem), the size disparity would be stare you in the face.tags:gaming,wargames Carthaginian Spearmen 15mm figures from Corvus Belli, shield decals from Veni Vidi Vici.This completes the main infantry component of my Carthaginians. I have Spanish scutarii to paint up, and am waiting for some Gauls to beef up the force, but the main part of the army is complete. With judicious borrowing from other forces (for example, borrowing the cavalry base from my Spartan army, and some Polybian legionaries to act as veterans in acquired Roman gear) I could field this as a DBA army now. I'll post a photo of the full force once I finish flocking all the bases. The other components of the army can be seen here, and here.tags:gaming,wargames,miniatures,15mm Balearic Slingers Just completed 8 bases of Balearic slingers - mercenaries who served famously in many mediterranean armies in the classical era. Coolest thing about them? Hair-nets (yep: they wore hair-nets). Most difficult thing to paint? That's right: hair-nets.They are posed in front of the remaining Carthaginian forces: in the back, you can just seen the Poeni spearmen, and on the left, one of the elephants. I really should give those elephants names ...tags:gaming,wargames,15mm,miniatures Elephants, Camels, and Mules Latest paint work:(1) Carthaginian Elephants. These are the latest additions to my growing Carthaginian force.(2) Pack Camel. This will serve as a baggage element for my nomadic horde type armies.(3) Pack Mules. Always useful as baggage elements. I got the idea for the basing from Mike Sng: the bases are flocked to look like the mules are travelling along a track, which adds a little something to the look.tags:gaming,wargames,15mm,miniatures Testing a Miniatures Bag One of the biggest headaches going up to Gamecon was transporting my miniatures. For day to day travel, I transport them in metal biscuit tins (as shown here). All of my miniatures have a magnasheet layer on the bottom, so they stick to the tin, minimizing movement.Long distance travel is another issue altogether. Carrying several heavy box of miniatures on a 5 hour coach journey is a challenge - even though the bases are magnetised, the boxes musn't be jolted or the bases will come loose and start scratching the paint off each other. On our trip to and from Kuala Lumpur for Gamecon1 last week, the bag with my armies had to be delicately hand-carried throughout. I use a bag with roller wheels, but have discovered that unless the floor is perfectly smooth (and even tiled floors aren't), the jolting and bumping from irregular floors was still enough to upset the figures. In the course of both coach journeys, bumps in the road were enough to cause 3 or 4 figures per box to be out of place after every trip. Each one is like a loose cannon on a rolling deck, liable to scratch other figures.I mention all this because Damien, the proprietor of Paradigm Infinitum, showed me this bag when I dropped by the other day, and asked if I wouldn't mind reviewing it. "Sure", I said.The BagThe bag is basically a holder for 6 foam trays, each with 30 cut-outs to hold miniatures. The foam trays are made with a harder layer underneath as a base, and softer foam on top. This sort of foam tray has been around for some time for the Warhammer players, but this one is cut more for the historical wargaming crowd. The bag zips open to allow access to all layers at once, has a pocket in front large enough to hold rule books in A4, and an internal zipped pocket for dice, tape-measures etc. There's a shoulder strap as well as a carrying handle.The first thing to mention is the cut-outs in the foam layers are all 40mm by 20mm, whereas figure basing varies widely in historical wargaming (from Napoleonics to WW2 to Ancients). However, the majority of ancients and medieval wargames adopt the DBx basing, which (for 15mm figures, the dominant scale) is 40mm wide by varying depths (up to 40mm), and this is what the various layers of foam in this bag are cut for. In fact, at 40x20mm, they'll fit (in DBx terminology) Spears, Pikes, Warbands, Blades, Psiloi, Auxilia, but not mounted figures (which are 40mm by 30mm at least).You could cut your own holes, which is not a bad idea: if I were using this bag, I'd want to store one DBA army (12 bases minimum, with up to 20 for some armies because of the options) in one layer for convenience, and the only way to do that would be to take knife to foam and customize it myself - no big deal, and most gamers have a do-it-yourself mentality anyway. With 6 layers, and maximum efficiency, one could transport an entire DBM army in this bag.The LayersThe foam layers can be seen in this photo below:The shallowest layer (Layer 1) is 25mm deep. A base of my Carthaginian Poeni spearmen fit with no problems. The Qin's spears stick out a bit, and the Spartans stick out a lot. This depth would fit most Blades, Psiloi, and non-spear types. Two of this layer came with the bag. The foam grips the sides of the bases quite well: even though these bases were 40x15mm in a 40x20mm cut-out, the snug fit means that you could turn the foam layer upside down and they wouldn't move. Why you would want to do so is another matter altogether.The next layer (Layer 2 above) is 35mm deep: I've placed the ruler next to the chunk of foam that comes out to show you the depth. If you look closely at the photo, you can see that while the Carthaginians have sunk completely out of sight, and the Qin spears are sticking out by the barest millimetre, the Spartans are still sticking out. At this point, I should mention that the Qin are from Essex Miniatures, and are thus a fairly reliable guide to the length of spears out there, while the Spartans were equiped with brass spears of my own making, and are probably as long as most Pike figures. Two of this layer come with the bag.Layer 3 is 50mm deep. No problems. This layer should hold all but the longest Pikes. It's deep enough that removing the figures becomes a delicate affair. This is where the 40x20mm size helps, with the extra room for fingers to manuever to grip the base for removal. At this point, I began to think that a 40x30mm size might be an even better idea: you can fit all types of bases in (excepting Chariots, Elephants, and Baggage), the foam keeps smaller sized bases snug, and the extra space facillitates removal. One of this type of layer comes with the bag.Layer 4 is almost 80mm deep. If you have 15mm figures with Pikes that long, then you have serious insecurity issues. Switch to 28mm - you get longer spears there. One of this layer comes with the bag, but I can't see myself using this depth at all. Better to get two more of Layer 1 or Layer 2."Take it home, try it out, kick it around a bit ...", he said.OK then.I put one base of the Qin spearmen in the bag (in a 35mm deep layer, 3rd from the top, corner pocket - since the corner pocket is the most vulnerable) and proceeded to ... well, kick it around a bit. I threw the bag. I kicked the bag. I put the bag on a ledge and had it fall off (this is when I discovered the shoulder strap, which I used to tug the bag off the ledge. This is not, I should add, the normal use of the shoulder strap). I even exposed the bag to the savagery of my household cats. As you can see from the picture above, the cats couldn't have cared less about the bag - which is a shame, since I was looking forward to adding a section to this review along the lines of "Resistance to Attack by Wild Creatures".The bag survived with nary a scuff (don't worry Damien). The figures?Spears slightly bent, no other damage. Those of us who paint miniatures know that this is par for the course: lead spears will bend at the slightest provocation. The only decent way to get around it is to get brass or steel spears. I should also point out that I kicked that bag really hard, and when I say I threw it, I really threw it (see photos of said bag airborne, above), so this is not the kind of treatment you'd expect the bag to have to protect your figures from (unless you decide to check in the bag at the arirport and leave it to the mercy of baggage handlers - who will treat it like this). All in all, the foam did its job well.More importantly, the biggest advantage of using foam like this is isolation of figures: bent spears I can deal with, but scratches and dings inflicted by one lead figure slamming into another are more serious.In conclusion? Not bad at all. I can think of some people (including a friend who has always had problems transporting his delicate model tanks when he flies in from Hong Kong) who could use a bag like this (or at least the foam trays). Cons include the larger overall bulk (I could pack in 3 times as many figures into the same volume, but with obviously less protection) and the limited range of the cut-outs at only 40x20mm - but as I said before, if I were using this, I'd modify the trays myself anyway to customise them for my own army.To be honest, I'd probably still use my metal tins for day to day movement in Singapore, but this would've been really useful for the 5 hour trip to KL last week. I sat in that coach with my bag under my chair, wincing at every bump in the highway and wondering what the damage would be like when I unpacked them at journey's end, an experience I'm not eager to repeat soon.tags:gaming,wargames,review Terrain Building: Mycenaean Tholos Tomb Here's a piece of themed terrain I built for my Mycenaean army, modelled on the tholos tombs the Mycenaeans built. The flat area on top is large enough to hold one base of figures, so this can function as a camp element.The tomb itself was shaped from styrofoam, then covered in putty filler. The masonry was from a 1/35 diorama kit I bought some years back, and which is still supplying my masonry needs in all sorts of scales - in 15mm, they look like large stones, in 1/72, large bricks. After the filler set, the whole thing was covered in sand, sprayed black, and then dry-brushed in successively lighter shades of brown towards the top.Here's a link to a wikipedia article about Mycenaean tholos tombs.tags:gaming,wargames,15mm,DBA The Napnuts at Gamecon1 This photo is best viewed large. 25 separate shots went into this composite, showing a panoramic view of the Napnuts and Broken Bayonets' exhibition area at Gamecon1. At left, you can make out two floating heads belonging to David and Mike (an unfortunate side effect of people moving around when you're taking stitched-together panoramas like this). Seated at the table are Boon (with two heads showing - see previous comment), Corbon, and two of the BB who I can't quite make out from this angle.On the main table facing us is the Austerlitz game (at left) and the Zama game (at right). Just visible at far right is the DBA game between my wife and me - her first game, where she beat me using the Sea Peoples versus the Mycenaeans. In the background we can see what the exhibition hall at Gamecon1 looked like.For a better view of the hall, check out the original, super-large size here.tags:gaming,wargames,miniatures DBA Battle Reports: Mycenaeans vs Sea Peoples I played 5 DBA games over the weekend at Gamecon1, managing to blood my newly painted Mycenaean and Nubian armies.The first game I played Mycenaeans versus the Sea Peoples, commanded by my dearest wife. The battle unfolds in the three panel photograph below.(1) I set up with all my Heavy Chariots (Knights) on the left, and the pikes on the right with a line of skimishers (Psiloi) screening to the front. She set up with two groups of blades in column on the road, a reserve in the middle, and Psiloi in the woods.(2) I split my chariots into two groups, the nearer one to engage the centre in co-operation with the pikes, the further one to hook left and try and catch the Sea Peoples in the flank (or at least tie up some of their forces to guard against me). My wife very adroitly redeployed her columns to face this threat, aided by good PIP rolls versus lower PIP rolls from me. In fact, once the centre became engaged, all my PIPs were tied up trying to work out the developing mess battle, and the flank attack never hit home.(3) By this point, the Mycenaeans are on the wrong end of the Sea Peoples blades. I've lost 2 Psiloi units in on the right, and one of my chariots has been flanked and chopped to pieces. You can still see the empty 40mm by 40mm square space formerly occupied by the hapless chariot. The battle was clearly over by now, with me only one element away from break-point.Lessons learned?- Expect a new army to lose on its first outing.- Expect to lose against your wife.- Roll higher next time.tags:gamecon1,DBA,wargames,gaming