….wasn’t built in a day

First legion painted and based (but not textured). Velites, Hastati, Principes, Triarii, cavalry to rear. I have some command figures to place when I decide where.

Dice holders. A new departure for me. The plan is to use Basic Impetus. What I hadn’t thought of is how I’m going to pick the tiny little dice up!

The Holocaust and the Roma

These days I tend to listen to an awful lot of podcasts. I'd heard this fella (Dr Waitman Beorn) on We Have Ways some time ago and saw that he had his own podcast. The episode below caught my eye. A subject I never knew anything about (beyond the fact the Roma were on the list of groups targeted by the Nazis). I remember a page in a series of magazines about WWII from the early 70s showing the various badges that different groups had to wear - yellow stars, pink triangles etc. Beyond that, I knew next to nothing. Pretty much the same as most people probably.

It won't be any surprise to anyone who has more than a passing interest in History, that the picture is much more complex than might be supposed. A fair amount of time is needed just to discuss who the people under discussion were. There wasn't even agreement at the time. In 1944, the Germans released people that the Dutch authorities had sent to them as Roma, that the Germans considered were not!

The sobering thought for me personally is that, had Britain fallen under a similar or the same regime, my mother's grandparents (if not her mother) could have ended up being 'removed'. They lived in a fairly small town. An ordinary town, full of ordinary, decent people. It couldn't happen here. Could it?

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-holocaust-history-podcast/id1727015690?i=1000653191869

https://www.waitmanwbeorn.com/

Ancient and Modern

Came across this article today. Evidently the device has been used for some time in recent conflicts. Not being a modernist, or really an ancientist * (to coin a term), I wasn’t aware of their use in WWII.

https://www.forces.net/ukraine/how-roman-empire-technique-inspired-ukraines-caltrops-being-used-against-russia

I know the polis here in the UK use something similar: a roll out ‘mat’ of spines to puncture baddies’ tyres without the car running out of control.

* side note: my bases should arrive tomorrow so I could have the first legion based by the weekend. 

Test base sizes

I finally got the time to start the preparation of the Punic War figures I bought. I've put some sample groups together.

Pic 1 has 3 lines of Hastati and 1 of Triares.

1st Line: 2 ranks of 5 on 4x3cm

2nd Line: 2 ranks of 6 on 4x3cm

3rd Line: 2 ranks of 5 on 3x2cm

Pic 1

Pic 2 - Triares

2 ranks of 5 on 3x3cm

1 rank of 6 on 3x2cm

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 3

Line 1: 2 ranks of 6 Hastati on 4x3cm

Line 2: 2 ranks of 6 Triares on 4x3cm

Looking at all that, I'm minded to go for bases 3x3cm with 2 ranks of 5, or 4xcm bases with 2 ranks of 6. The extra depth makes handling safer and has a reasonable amount of spacing for men who are supposed to throw pila. Probably the former as this permits 4 bases of Hastati, 4 of Principes and 2 of Triari as the heavy infantry element of a legion. This will fit nicely on one of my hexes.

Mini Update

I still haven't taken the plunge on the basing. Peter is right that bases 3cm wide will be fiddly. A legion (inc cavalry) will require at least 20 bases with this scheme.

Velites 8; Hastati 4; Principes 4; Triari 2; Cavalry 2.

Sabots will help, but that just delays the whole process while I decide how that will work.  But never fear, I have thoughts of a radical solution that doesn't involve sabots but does give me what I want to do. I will test it tomorrow.

I have however nearly completed the painting of a legion and started a second, which is some sort of progress.

Rules rule OK

Or keeping the Impetus going.

Thanks to Neil (see comments in last post) I bought a discounted copy of BI 2.0. They duly arrived today. Not had a proper look at them just yet, but the format would get a thumbs up from that chap at Little Wars TV. They’re ring bound.

Nice!

Salute haul

I was thinking about posting some pictures of Salute but others have done that much better than I ever could. For a real visual feast head over to Big Lee’s blog/YouTube.

Instead I’ll share my small, but valuable catch. First up was not a purchase at all but the thoughtful gift, or gifts of two books by David-in-Suffolk, of the Ragged Soldier blog fame. I’ve read the first already, and look forward to delving into the second.

David knows you can take the boy out of Grimsby….

Bull Sand and Haile Sand forts, originally built in WWI, are still there at the mouth of the Humber. The latter is close to the low water mark on the Lincolnshire side - but the sands are notorious for shifting.

An armed trawler. This happens to be one my maternal grandad, a deep sea fisherman sailed on, though I don’t know if he was on it during the war. I do know he did convoy escort work on the runs to northern Russia and minesweeping duties. Northern Gem was involved in the infamous convoy PQ17. 120 Grimsby trawlers were lost during the War I think the pre-War GY fishing fleet was c.700.

An anti-personnel device known as a ‘Butterfly Bomb’. I was brought up on warnings of these things. Dropped in 1943 the last casualty was a boy some time after the War. The book shows German POWs sweeping for them in 1947.

The second book is this:

I believe there’s one about the First World War too.

So a big thank you to David!

My only purchase of the day (I had picked up a couple of Ospreys at a stall but they only took cash) was a set of rules from the Society of Ancients. Naturally, if you saw that I’d recently acquired armies for the Punic Wars, you’d assume that I’d bought rules that either specifically covered the period or were those all-purpose ancients rules like WRG. Obviously I didn’t. I got these:

They are specifically for armies of competing Greek city states, made up mainly of hoplites. The intro explicitly states they were not designed for the Persian Wars or the Hellenistic period, but include some suggestions for the former.

There’s a phase of the game called ‘let the gods decide’ where players draw cards which can be positive or negative.

These rules intrigued me at the stall, and still do, having read them through. The essential feature of the rules is that there is very little scope for fancy tactics. The leader’s job is to get the men geed-up for combat, give the order to advance and keep order. They remind me of Hoplomachia hoplite battle rules by the Perfect Captain, though much less complicated. Also, they have some similarities to Loose Files and American Scramble (AWI) with variable movement and disorder points. Which gets an immediate thumbs up from me.

Primarily aimed at large scale figures, with figure removal, they do have an option to use casualty markers and base removal so they can be used with 6mm figures (my chosen ancients scale). I could use some of the spearmen from the Punic Wars, and supplement with ‘Italy-based’ Greeks/Italiate hoplites. What’s Classical Greek for mission creep?

Scipio and Barca raise their armies

Whilst I was on the way to Salute (more of that later) I got a message from the Margravina to say that a small parcel had arrived for me.

Excellent stuff! When I opened the pack I thought "crikey that's a lot to paint and base". Of course if I'd been more organised I'd have known what bases to buy from Pendraken today at Salute. I want to play around with different sizes and combinations before I commit to buying any bases.

Romans on the left, Carthaginians on the right.

650 inf, 84 cav and 5 elephants. Not bad for the money!

Something to do in these longer, light evenings!