Of Greece and Carthage

Wow, one week without posting. Well, Real Life struck me hard and I was very busy/tired/ lazy. Just take your pick. So, while still painting, I didn't have enough mojo to post some news. But I think I have to now. I had promised you a batrep, you'll get it.

Une semaine sans post, il fallait le faire. C'est just que la vraie vie a pour le coup ete rude, et j'ai prefere peindre plutot que poster.

Eliott and I had a game of Art de la guerre last Thursday. He was discovering the rules with his Spartans whereas I got to play my Carthaginians. Even though I got the initiative, he decided to go on the defense, meaning I would get a bonus for moving first. Always interesting. Then we rolled for the terrain and here is what we got. In those rules, you have to write down your deployment, so you never know where your opponent will put his best toys. In this case, the hill on Eliott's side was an objective to ignore, and the brush on his right would be ideal for my medium troops. So I decided to attack there, while delaying on my right on I also put my veterans facing the hill, just to protect this flank. Eliott, put his javelinmen in the brush, and his allied corps on his left. The Spartans would be behind the hill. Oh yeah, a bit of overkill there. But that was exactly the deployment I was expecting.  Then, we rolled to know who would move first, and not surprisingly, I won. So here we go!

Eliott, jouant spartiate, voulait decouvrir Art de la guerre. J'ai donc fait une partie avec lui, jouant mes Carthaginois. Clive me rejoindra par la suite, et le cours de l'histoire va changer rapidement.  Le deploiement est classique de sa part, avec Spartiates au centre, derriere une colline, un corps allie sur sa gauche, et un corps de harcelement dans les buissons a droite. De mon cote, je vais ralentir a droite avec ma cavalerie legere, proteger au centre avec mes veterans et foncer avec mes mercenaires veterans sur ma gauche, non mais.

My medium foot, unchecked by Eliott, moved as fast as possible, and was already almost in striking position at the end of turn one. I sent my light horse to harass Eliott's ally. Eliott reacted by moving his army forward, getting into position on the hill, and sending his shooters forward. 

J'avais bien fait, car mon corps moyen peut se deplacer tres rapidement et se retrouver en position d'attaque en un tour!  Le reste avance tranquillement et se positionne. Eliott avance, les Spartiates prennent la colline et les javeliniers s'approchent...

Then, Clive joined me to play on got to move my two corps on the left side. And I think the dice gods were with him this night, as you'll see in a moment. Whereas Eliott and I were struggling to get decent dice for both command and shooting, Clive had real snipers in is ranks, and started decimating the javelinmen, and still closed for the kill with his veteran Gauls. Eliott is pushing my ligght horse away, but I keep coming back, he he you got to love the light cavalry. To counter the threat on his flank, Eliott started to move his Spartan down the hill. But my veterans were waiting. Oh yeah, it would be a real manly discussion there, very soon.

Et la Clive a profite de la clemence des dieux du de. Ses tirs sont dignes de cartons de snipers a la foire du trone. Il fait absolument ce qu'il veut, affablit l'adversaire, et se prepare a attaquer Eliott de tous les cotes. Ce dernier helas futloin d'etre aussi chanceux. C'en fut presque demoralisant. Il essaie de conjurer le sort en envoyant ses Spartiates vers mes veterans. Ca sent la confrontation virile.

And then... the titans clashed (hum). Eliott's javelinmen were massacred, one after the other. if only they could have done some effective shooting. They can evade, of course, but then, Clive was everywhere. The spearmen were now facing each other, and I must say, the Carthaginan veterans failed to their reputation, by losing their melee, and taking hits along the way. Meanwhile, because the Spartans had opened their lines, one of my light horse unit took advantage of it, slipped between them and moved fast towars the Greek camp, he he.

Et les Spartiates ne faillirent pas a leur reputation, gagnant les premiers combats. Serait-ce suffisant? Car le flanc droit d'Eliott volait en eclat. De plus, en se repositionnant, Eliott brisa sa ligne, laissant de gros intervalles que ma cavalerie leger put exploiter en se dirigeant vers son camp...

Eliott was unable to reverse the situation. His dice were not very good, whereas Clive was rolling hot ( I did ok). And after a quick decision, I sent my light horse against the Greek camp, giving us the victory. The Greeks broke, and we only had lost... 4 points out of 24.

Comme vous pouvez le deviner... Le camp fut pille. L'armee grecque derouta. Les Carthaginois avaient perdu... 4 points sur 24.

Just a quick note

 -What are you doing sir?

-I'm writing a note about all my enemies and I'm trying to insert a curse about balloons... Hmm tricky.

-Oh, I'm already terrified sir. I'm scared of balloons!

-Baboons, Baldrick, not balloons...

As I told you yesterday, I was at the club to play Art de la guerre with Eliott, who wanted to have a go at the rules. In the end, he liked them, that's what I can at the moment. You'll get a hopefully detailled batrep as soon as possible, but now I'm a bit busy, I'll be tutoring this afternoon and the whole week-end... Oh, and I managed to get some colours on part of the Romans. There again, a pic asap. But, because I'm a nice guy, I'll give one foretaste from yesterday's game: Eliott was playing a Greek army with some Spartans, against my Carthaginians:

Hier soir j'etais donc au club pour faire une partie decouverte d'Art de la guerre, avec Eliott. Je vous ferais un CR le plus vite possible, c'est juste qu'en ce moment je suis un peu deborde avec tous les cours a domicile que je donne, surtout le week-end. Bref, pour faire simple, Eliott a aime le jeu, c'est cool. Il jouait une armee grecque avec du Spartiate dedans, contre mes Carthaginois. Et pis j'ai aussi passe un peu de couleur sur les Romains, mais la encore, photo a venir.

Skinned

-My lord, I'm ready to do everything to get this minis done.

-Everything lady Farrow? I think I can arrange it in a most pleasant way.

-Good, otherwise the Queen said she would chop your head off.

-...

24+1 minis to go heh. Mind you, it's not that big a deal. But I'm sure you all know this feeling, when you're about to finish a project, you tend to get slower... Yup, I might struggle a bit for this lot. I'm fed up with Romans at the moment. Anyway, I managed to put the skin and brown base colours. But for the rest, I think I'll divide the lot in two. Much easier in  my eyes. See you. Oh, and tonight it's off to the club to get another game of Art de la guerre: 4 players. Yay! Everyone wants to try it!

Bon, en theorie, 24+1 figos, ca devrait etre rapide. C'est juste que j'eprouve un certain sentiment, que vous devez sans doute connaitre, a l'approche de la fin d'un projet... Bref, je vais plus lentement. Le truc, c'est que j'en ai maintenant ma claque des Romains. Du coup, si j'ai passe les bases chair et marron sur l'ensemble, je vais diviser mon trvail en deux groupes, ca devrait aller mieux. Et demain, hop, nouvelle partie ADG au club. Youpi!

Do you like the smell of herbs, weed...

-Distinguished members of this Parliament. I, William Pitt the Young, want to denounce the abuses from our prince regent. This past month only, he spent £1000 on perfume...

 - Fiou Fiou Fiou

- ...£1000 on socks...

- Eurgh Eurgh Eurgh

-... and a disgraceful £40 on so-called herbs

- coooooooolllllllll

Not that much done yesterday evening on the painting front. I was more in the basing mood. So I definitely finished the Roman fort by adding some flocking, and then I also finally finished the Roman cavalry with the brown wash and the stone drybrush. Then a dab of grass, and tada! Here they, ready to be sent to their rightful owner in France. I now only have 24 foot and one horse to paint to finish this army.

Meme si je n'ai pas beaucoup peint hier, j'ai surtout fait de la finition,avec flocage de la terre sur le fort romain, et soclage de la cavalerie romaine. Voila. C'est fait, et le tout va partir d'ici peu rejoindre leur heureux proprietaire en France. Plus que 24 pietons et un cavalier et l'armee sera finie.

We don't need no education...

-I have a cunning plan sir

-Baldrick I'm exhausted, so, unless this cunning plan of yours is as warm as a blanket and comforting as a French lady's bosom, I think you can pin it in your Family's cunning plan history book and leave it there until it smells as good as your hat.

-What's a book sir?

There, at last! I finished painting the fort and varnished it yesterday evening. It might look as is if it took me some time to do it, but now I also work on Sunday mornings! Oh the joy of teaching students about to pass their exams. Still, it's easy money for me, so I won't complain, and besides, it'll be over in a month. Now, without any further discussion, here it is: as you can see, I just need to add the flock on the earth parts, and voila.

Enfin, il est termine. Le fort romain a ete vernis hier soir. Ca m'a pris au total quelques jours pour une peinture simple, mais bon, je travaille, et notamment le dimanche matin, pour faire reviser des eleves qui paniquent avant le bac. Heureusement tout sera fini dans un mois, et puis ca fait toujours des sous en plus pour se payer des nouvelles armees. Il ne me reste plus qu'a rajouter du flocage sur la terre apparente et hop, finito.

Of wall (again) and umpiring

-Sir, with all due respect to the Roman ingenuity, I don't think this two feet high wall will stop a foul-smelling rampaging horde of barbarians.

-Come on centurion, look at the size of my skirt, and I tell you this:  we were right to do this and trust me they will be so scared they'll grow hair everywhere.

-You mean they will turn into Scots?

Yesterday evening, I went to the club to host a game of Art de la guerre between two people who were interested by the rules, Richard and Jay. i brought my Chinese and Carthaginian armies, ready to play with. We really started at around 7.40PM and the game was over with a clear Chinese victory at 10.20PM. Yes, this is a fast game, even for beginners. And they were satisfied by the game. Though it's a I go you go system, and you use some pips, still the game runs smoothly. And the pics? Well, When en route to club I discovered I had forgotten it, sorry... But don't be mad at me, I'll give you some. Before leaving, I had time to do the highlights on the Roman wall. Now, I need to wash the wood, and I think it'll be done.

Hier soir, j'etais au club pour faire une initiation a Art de la guerre. Debut a 19h40 et fin a 22h20. Je trouve que c'est pas mal pour des debutants, surtout qu'il y a eu une victoire decisive des Chinois sur les Carthaginois. Les joueurs ont apprecie le systeme, et la vitesse de jeu. Donc c'est du tout bon, pari reussi. Petit probleme, pas de photos, car j'avais oublie mon APN. Argh. Pour compenser, voici l'etat d'avancement du mur romain, avec ses eclaircissements. Il manque encore, je pense, un petit lavis sur le bois et ce sera bon.

Of walls and sand

-Rotten wood, bloody sand, dangerous mud. Oh yes George, this is definitely my idea of a nice holidays in France... At least here we're warm and cosy.
-Well sir, apparently, wargamers seem to enjoy this
-Barbarians

Wednesday is children's day. Yup. I've been quite busy caring my sweet little general, so I couldn't do much. But I still managed to paint the base colours on the Roman fortifications, and then glue some sand on the many bases I have to finish. I've also washed and cleaned 1 point of SAGA troups, aka 8 bondis for my Viking warband. Tomorrow, I'll be at the club umpiring a demo of Art de la guerre, with three new people who can be interested. Cheers.

Pas vraiment eu le temps de peindre aujourd'hui. J'ai quand meme reussi a mettre les bases sur les fortifications, et coller le sable sur les plaquettes terminees. J'ai egalement pu nettoyer 1 point SAGA de warband, a savoir 8 bondis. Demain, demo d'Art de la guerre prevue au club.

Of 30 Years war, rules, minis and a another competition...

- I hope your rules are not barkeritic, gamesworkshopy or even worse, French.
- What, what and what? Damn it!

Out teaching yesterday evening, so I didn't make any real progress on the painting front. On the other hand, I read the 30Years war module for Art de la guerre in the French magazine Vae Victis. Quite interesting, though nothing revolutionary. The author used some principles from DBR, but put some conditions, so in fact, you should have something resembling a real period battlefield. There are though some bits here and here I'm not sure of, but I'll ask them on the forum.

If you're interested in the period, you'll find a review about the main 15mm makers, with lots of pictures. You can find other infos there and there.

Meanwhile, I've officially started an Internet Painting challenge with Durutti at Pousseplomb. I have up until July 8th to paint 6 points of Saga troops... Going to be hard. Better start now.

Etant parti donner un cours hier soir, je n'ai pas vraiment peint. Par contre j'ai pu lire le supplement ADG pour la guerre de Trente ans. Pas mal avec de bonnes, et des reprises a priori valables de DBR. A voir, surtout que j'ai quelques questions et je vais les poser sur le forum.

Si vous voulez d'autres infos, allez sur ces blogs, El-frances et APA.

Parallelement, j'ai entame une POM avec Durutti. Objectif: peindre 6 points SAGA d'ici au 8 juillet, fiou, va etre chaud, vu mon programme de peinture. Enfin, je vais avoir du boulot.

Of Adder, Romans and Impetus

I'm back, you lunatic freakazoids!How dare you think I could have been useless? And now, thanks to my shiny costume, I will submit you all. Baldrick, have you changed your thong?









What? Three days of week-end and no post? Well, to be honest, I can't really go near the computer on the week-ends and besides, both my wife and daughter were sick... So, no real blogging for me. But then, things were looking better yesterday evening, so I managed to go the club to participate in a game of Impetus. Interesting rules, and quite complementary to Art de la Guerre: they're both fun and fast ( though AdlG might be faster), and Impetus is brutal and chaotic, whereas AdlG seems more manoeuvre oriented. So, complementary rulesets, yay.

Did I do anything part from this last week-end? I certainly did. I finished, at last painting the Roman cavalry, and started prepping the fortifications for the camp, from Baueda.
And yes, thanks to your support, Blackadder is back!

Hop, trois jours sans vraiment blogger. Il faut dire que je ne peux vraiment m'apporcher de l'ordi le week-end, et mes femmes etaient malades, alors... La situation etait toutefois meilleure hier soir, donc j'ai pu m'esquiver vers le club pour participer a une partie d'Impetus. Les regles sont interessantes et elles sont complementaire avec Art de la Guerre car le but recherche n'est pas le meme. Impetus me parait plus brutal et chaotique (dans le sens chaos de la bataille), et recompense l'attaquant, tandis qu'ADG est plus axe sur la manoeuvre pour obtenir la meilleure situation possible d'engagement. Bref, deux bons systemes selon moi.

Dans le meme temps, j'ai fait un peu de peinture, et j'ai donc enfin termine les cavaliers romains et j'ai commence le camp. Courage, l'armee romaine est quasiment finie. Et grace au plebiscite, Blackadder est de retour.

After one year of hard work...

Indeed people. Today is my blog's birthday! Hurray! 1 year of blogging on Blogspot, where I discovered lots of charming, funny, interesting bloggers, got hooked by many good projects and of course where I posted my humble musings and painting.

Happy barfday!

Thanks to you, I was always motivated enough to keep painting and blogging, and consequently, my painting level improved quite substantially. I dare say I'm not a bad one now, and it's thanks to you.

In fact, I might consider taking more painting commissions now, once the Romans and one or two other things are finished.

 Now, without being as posting efficient as Tamsin, I'll try to post as many times as possible, and I wanted to ask you all: For about 3 weeks, I posted a comment loosely based on Blackadder. Do you think I should continue?

While you're thinking about it, I recommend you to visit Ian's blog, with lots of interesting stuff about ECW and obscure battles, amongst other things. And there is a give away.

Et voila. Ca fait un an que je bloggue sur blogspot. 1 annee remplie de projets et d'envies glanees sur les autres blogs. Grace a vous, j'ai pu rester motive pour continuer a peindre et m'ameliorer, et sans me vanter, je pense que mon niveau s'est un peu ameliore, au point d'envisager de reprendre des commandes de peinture, des que 2-3 trucs en cours seront termines.

Je vais donc continuer a poster le plus regulierement possible, et j'en profite pour vous poser une chtite question: devrais-je continuer avec mon delire Blackadder?

Pendant que vous reflechissez au sujet, je vous engage a visiter le blog d'Ian, sur lequel vous trouverez des choses interessantes sur la guerre civile anglaise, ainsi que quelques batailles peu connues. Ca vaut le detour.

There! You look a bit more human now

I was at the club yesterday evening, mainly for watching a game between Tim's Chinese and Alan's Successor army for the second round of the Ancients competition. Yes I was spying, gathering some intel, but it's always interesting to see other people playing your army.  I now have some more ideas to play my Warring States. Thanks Tim. So, As you would expect, I didn't do much painting. There you're wrong. I had enough time during the day to ink/wash my unit, and start the highlights.

It should be over quite soon I think.

Meanwhile, I now know my opponents for the second round of the Ancients Comp:

- Chris and his Neo-Assyrians: lots of heavy chariots and good shooty cavalry. Argh

- Andy and his later Seleucid: pikes, cataphracts, and lots of nasty stuff. Don't know what to expect from him

- Dave and his Mid-Republican Romans.... Arrrrrrggggghhhhh. Lots of killing machines. I'll have to avoid the legions as long as possible to hope for a win.

Etant au club hier soir, je n'ai pas forcement fait beaucoup de peinture. J'y etais surtout pour observer comment une armee chinoise peut se debrouiller face a une armee de piques. J'ai maintenant deux-trois idees. Durant la journee, j'ai pu passer les encres et les lavis sur mon unites d'archers, et j'ai egalement commence les eclaircissements.

Phew! You guys need a wash

As I told you last time, I didn't think I could paint last Tuesday, because I would be out tutoring a A-level student. Yup, I was right because I was home at 10PM. But yesterday I managed to get my bowmen unit ready for washing and inking. As you can see, nothing too fancy:

So, two steps to go and they'll be done. Great. I should then think about future plans:

- base the four medieval units

- finish the Roman cavalry (the shields need to be done, and then basing)

- paint some Nappy

- paint the Roman camp and fortifications.

I'll think about the rest next week. Cheers

Comme je vous l'avais dit, faire des cours de soutien le soir, c'est sympa, mais ca empeche de peindre, surtout quand on rentre a 22h. Bref, hier je me suis rattrape et j'ai termine les bases des archers. Il ne reste plus qu'a encrer/washer, puis eclaircir et baser. Pour la suite, petit programme de peinture, a objectifs modestes. On verra si je tiens.

Bows and Thirty Years war... again?

The Mirlitom unit has been varnished and is now almost finished. So I've just finished prepping my new unit. Yes, I know, more longbowmen, but this time, they all come from Corvus Belli. I also did the brown and flesh bases. More on that tomorrow,  if I'm motivated enough because I'll be out gibing a lesson until 9PM...

I also learned that the new copy of the French wargaming magazine, Vae Victis, had an expansion module for Art de la guerre, to play The Thirty Years War. I immediately ordered it and I'll give you a review asap. Cheers.

Tandis que le vernis seche sur mes Mirlitons, j'ai commence la peinture apres preparation d'une nouvelle unite d'archers, Corvus Belli cette fois. J'ai passe le marron et la chair de base. La suite va arriver rapidement si je suis motive car je commence une serie de cours le soir... Et j'ai egalement commande le numero de Vae Victis, car le module guerre de trente ans pour ADG me faisait de l'oeil.