Oh no! The thread to dread is back :o
Complete with ahistorical opponents and alliances, fought with the most obscure and complex rules in the known universe, and narrated by fuzzy photographs that make the tiny figures seem like coloured blobs.
First up, my Thracians took on Herod of Judea.
Yay! \0/
And another new army in its first outing takes on ahistorical opponent. :o
This time its the kingdom of Osrhoene against the Greeks from Thessaly.
Short report attached. Longer report on my website for those still on Easter holidays.
David (dwkay57)
Just followed up your link to read battle report re Osrhoene against the Greeks from Thessaly. WOW!
Great presentation.
I just wish I knew how to expand your central photos, and minimise your margins. The text in your margins and arrowed / coloured boxes are essential to the story but seem to take up a lot of space compared to your photo in centre of page. And your other photos elsewhere recently show off your small tin men excellently.
Having read your report I feel I have a better grasp of your use of hex terrain to create a grand tactical map like tabletop; and another WOW your terrain layouts are BEAUTIFUL.
Do you make your own terrain hexes or use likes of Kallistra / Hexon terrain tiles?
CarlL
David just followed up your battle report of Thracians took on Herod of Judea. Great. Ditto comments above.
Imperial Dave, if you and David (dwkay57) could address notes I made about picture to text ratio, then I think you would have a lovely 'series' potential for future Slingshots.
CarlL
Thanks for the feedback CarlL.
All the terrain hexes are from Kallistra although a lot of them (e.g. woods, scrub, heath) are the plain tiles with my own toppings added.
Were you referring to the photographs in the short or long reports?
I sold all my kallistra hexes and kind of wished I hadn't.....
David (dwkay57)
I was thinking of your beautiful reports on this tab. The style is great, with text and text label. It just appeared like the figure photos could be bigger sized and the text margins reduced so re-balance the page but as my tech / software abilities are so naff I am not sure how that could be achieved.
CarlL
The reports on this thread are the "short" reports - ideal for Young Jim's coffee breaks. There are longer - sometimes much longer - reports, for those with more stamina, on my website (veryverylittlewars.wordpress.com). These have a slide for each command move within a period and include close up photographs.
There should be a zoom facility (the plus sign at the top of screen) when you open the .pdf. This increases the whole slide not just the photograph though but might help.
When the battle is fairly small then there is a lot of white space but this quickly gets consumed if the battle is large with a lot of commands (see Battle 115 in 2023 and 110 in 2022 in other threads in this section) and I struggle to explain a complicated interaction. But I'll have a ponder and see if I can alter the layout slightly to enlarge the photographs, although this will show how badly I have painted daubed the figures :-[
David (dwkay57)
Your photo in post 2983, under "What was the last game you played" (in General Discussion section) clearly shows you are not daubing your lovely 6mm figures!!
I thought that photo showed how a photo image can both show off the small figures and give a good panoramic image of the tabletop battlefield. It takes a lot of patience to paint 6mm to this good standard. And to get your terrain looking good. Well done.
CarlL
Very good standard I would also conclude. Am aiming to get some 6mm done shortly.
Swag from salute
Thanks for the compliments guys. I think I've reached a reasonable painting standard now (refurbishment of some of the earlier armies has revealed horses with brown, black, metal silver and grass green legs!) but if you look at the gallery on the Baccus site ......
As you write Carl, the overall impact of the terrain and the small figures seems to work very well.
And keep it going Dave...it does inspire me to do more 6mm
Due to another rift in the time-space continuum, my two Armenian kings finally had the opportunity to face each other. Tigranes the Lesser was supported by his Parthian patrons, whilst Artaxias had his Persian overlords to assist.
Short report of the battle below. Longer report (split into two parts) available on my website for those (especially in the UK) expecting a wet bank holiday weekend.
Really nicely laid out report Dave
And currently boiling on holiday down in Cornwall
In what is probably the nearest you will get to a historical match up by me ;D ...
...my Greeks from Thebes took on a mid-western Persian satrapy. Perhaps it wasn't that historically accurate after all, but a fun and close battle.
Short report below and longer report for those wanting the full excitement on my website.
Thank you for an enjoyable report.
David
Another excellently illustrated AAR
CarlL
Wandering back out of the sunset, bigger but probably no better....
The first battle in the Principia was between my three Celtic British tribes and some Romans.
There are lots of advantages to having a bigger table, but one of the disadvantages is that it is difficult to get the whole table in shot at one go. As you will see from the attached report.
More detailed and longer report available on my website.
David / dwkay57,
Wow! What a tabletop. Love your battle-report style. Excellent and great link we can all enjoy.
Was it just my eyesight or were some pages (3-5?) darker than others?
OK, I know these are tiny men, but a close up of a victor or two or of a combat would be good to insert (IMHO).
CarlL
If you've ever been to Maldon you will know that when the tide slurps (as opposed to rolls) in the on-shore breeze brings with it dark clouds, salty rain and squawking seagulls. As it ebbs, the sun tends to come out again along with the smell of fresh squelchy mud.
Alternatively, I could have forgotten to switch the lights on or stood in front of the window and blocked the light. ::)
If you look at the detailed report on my website, there are some more detailed or close up photographs on the longer battle report.
And awesome it is as ever Dave
Two of my poorest performing armies were pitted against each other in a bit of a scenario encounter in my latest solo battle.
It turned out to be a bit of nail biting battle for the two commanders.
nice report David and the annotations to the diagrams very useful
Great link (to battle 128)
EXCELLENT terrain.
Very well presented report too.
It all has the feel of a mini campaign or linked skirmish and battle engagements on a grand tactical frontage.
Is this just my imagination (led astray by the small scale troops) or a plausible reflection on what seems like a very grand tactical engagement?
Remind me, please, David, what rules are you using?
CarlL (king of memory loss!)
Thanks for the feedback Carl, glad you are enjoying the reports.
I think the best description is a "grand tactical engagement sometimes within a plausible scenario". Hopefully, over 2025 I'll re-investigate and undertake another campaign, probably using JGL' mechanisms as the basis in a similar way to the Greek campaign that featured in Slingshot way back in about 2018ish. In the short term now that I have a larger playing surface (with no real world time limits), I'm probably going to focus on recreating some of my earlier larger battles that were either too cramped or had to be abandoned early.
In terms of the rules, I have written my own ones. The link below provides some information on how they work. The pages probably need a bit of an update to reflect latest modifications but are still probably OK.
https://veryverylittlewars.wordpress.com/the-rules/
David, I enjoyed that game you ran for virtual participants a couple of years ago. If you ever felt like doing something similar again, I would be very keen to participate.
Now that the Principia is operational doing some more hosted battles is on the agenda for 2025. As I will be able to leave the battle in progress it should mean that participants won't be rushed into responding and lead to a more relaxed process. I'll be in contact when I'm ready to go!
That should be a great help David
I was going to upload the latest solo battle report here, but for some reason the report is too large as an attachment. ???
I'll try and sort out why. But for those who can't wait follow the link below:
https://veryverylittlewars.wordpress.com/2024/11/30/battle-129-november-2024/
Managed it ;D but had to crop down some of the photos and reduce the resolution on others.
Anyway here are Xerxes' Persians taking on a mix (but probably not historically accurate) of Greek states.
Much longer report on my website for those who have already completed their seasonal chores.
and very good it is too David...must have taken ages drawing all the directional arrows!
Excellent battle report 8)
Not too much time Dave. I always do the long report first and then the short report. Once I have the P1 slide done in the short report, the others are fairly quick - just copy the current slide, slot in the new photograph(s), use the detail report to remind you of what happened, and it's just a case of changing the end points and updating a few words.
Its still remarkable for your diligence in constructing the reports
The remarkable diligence is those people who have read all 3 parts of long report....
Quote from: dwkay57 on December 02, 2024, 08:33:05 AMThe remarkable diligence is those people who have read all 3 parts of long report....
well worth the effort
Anyway I drink coffee out of a large mug ;)
Quote from: Jim Webster on December 02, 2024, 08:43:28 AMQuote from: dwkay57 on December 02, 2024, 08:33:05 AMThe remarkable diligence is those people who have read all 3 parts of long report....
well worth the effort
Anyway I drink coffee out of a large mug ;)
Me too! 8)
David
The first image of your long report is very stunning and really gives a feel for a grand tactical battle arena. I know your figures are small but how big is this space? The image gives a big tabletop feel? (I lost sight of how many hexes long this battlefield is, is it 24 hexes?)
I see its ten / eleven hexes (alternating) in width; but not sure what size hex you use. Are these 15cm width or much smaller?
All these questions as I have many little figure armies for 19th century and your report and terrain quality encourages me to dig them out!
Anyway on the the AAReport: I really liked those paired photos showing unit (apologies division / corps) advances in context of the wider terrain, paired with the 'close up' shot of the troops concerned, as this adds to the drama of the report. And to the visual impact the little men can have, even on a giant battlefield!
Detailed, and incredibly well illustrated, and a mix of style with a sense of "Herodotus reported" mixed with "Previously" at the movies! Great fun if complex by virtue of moving around battlefield in a blow by blow account.
I assume the rules (given its solo play) determine the morale state (and so the eagerness to engage or fall back)?
CarlL
CarlL, thanks for the feedback and glad you, and the others, are enjoying the reports.
The hexes are from Kallistra and are 10cm across from flat edge to flat edge. There are 26 rows of them either 10 or 11 deep (i.e. across). The playing surface is about 2.3m x 1.1m.
I'm trying to investigate further options that would allow me to photograph the whole battlefield without distortion or trying to patch separate images together, but not much luck so far.
Yes, morale is tracked at various levels and impacts eagerness, or lack of, from senior commanders to individual units. I've bored on it in several threads but happy to provide more information if needed.
For the final solo battle of 2024, a few more Greeks ventured to the Near East to take on an alliance of two of the local warlords.
And very good it is too :)
Another great AAR, David. I always enjoy your reports and look for to many n 2025. :)
Interesting battle 8)
What I rather like about your Commagene and Herodian army is the feeling that they're quite good when they're small but the bigger they get the more you end up padding them out with dross
My 6mm Commagene army is based on my 25mm Commagene army which in turn was determined from the Asiatic Client allies in the Early Imperial Roman list (no 64 Book 2 WRG January 1982), hence quite a bit of it is in the D to E morale classification. But being rather small (the army size, not the figures or the general), Antiochos can generally be close enough to "shout loudly" at them (Steven Fry as Wellington in Black Adder 3) which gives them a touch more resilience.
When researching Herod's army, I came to the conclusion that he had a core of good troops (probably Roman trained) but due to Augustus' watchful eye couldn't have too many of them, but did make use of militia / settler types to bolster numbers and provide some form of local protection against bandits and raiders. Hence the two provincial meros which are generally of low quality, armour and command leadership.