DBA with a Twist!

The first round of the Magister Militum per Capitoline Territorialis circuit, DBA with a Twist! will be held at the Austrian Australian Club at Mawson, in Canberra, on Sunday, 4 May 2014.

The circuit is made up of a number of DBA competitions, fought in Canberra, throughout the year, where points are amassed by gamers who compete in each round of the circuit, for the annual award of Magister Militum at the following year’s Cancon.

Each year, DBA with a Twist! is run with a different rule modification to the those  published in DBA 2.2 rules.  This year the command distance is restricted to 600 paces, so that if an element/group is further away from its army’s general, an additional PIP must be paid to permit movement of the element/group.

In every DBA competition I enter I like to play with a different army.  It certainly increases the level of difficulty for me, as it means I can be fielding an army, comprised of unfamiliar troop types.  This proved to be a disadvantage on several occasions at the last two Cancons, but I'm always up for a challenge!

So why field a new army? Simple, I have so many unpainted DBA armies, if I don’t do a new one each time, I’ll never get them all painted!

After careful consideration, and with some assistance from Greg, an excellent DBA gamer, I have decided to run Mound Builder Americans (DBA Bk IV/10).

This is definitely not an open competition army, but given the command restriction I feel it might have an improved chance.  Additionally, as Greg observed, running a litter general would be cool!

The army comprises of a litter bearing the general, one element of Honoured men (ie Blades), four elements of bow armed Honoured men, and two elements of skirmishers or psiloi, as these elements are referred to in DBA.  Finally, there are four elements of stinkards or warband comprising five models per element.  The requisite camp element depicts two warriors engaged in playing chunkey, a popular game with Native American tribes.

I am using 15mm scale figures, sculpted by Alan Marsh and supplied by Nic from Eureka Miniatures.  

The figures accurately show the use of atl-atl spear throwers and stone edged clubs wheeled by the warriors. The ‘Great Sun’ is depicted being carried on a litter.  A shaman is depicted carrying a severed head whilst wearing a long cloaks.  These Indians are believed to have taken the heads of their enemies as trophies, even though they were regarded as being less aggressive to neighbouring tribes.

Stage one of the army's construction: the figures are cleaned prior to being affixed to their bases.  There was minimal flash and mould lines evident.  I have replaced the cast on litter supports with others made of florist wire.  The warband figures armed with spears will have the upper portion of the spears replaced by wire.

Stage two: will see the army undercoated in black and then a coat of Vallejo ‘light brown’ applied to all exposed flesh.  Clothing, primarily loincloths will be painted in various shades of ochre for the ordinary troops.  The nobles will be depicted wearing red cloth with shell trim.  The colour red is believed to have been sacred to these Indians, as it is the colour of cedar wood, which is unique, in that the tree's leaves remain green all year round.

The Mound Builders were a tribe of Meso Americans, who flourished between the seventh and thirteen centuries AD in the Mississipian valley region of North America.  Their ‘empire’ stretched as far north as present day Canada and as far south as present day Texas.  The Indians constructed large mounds for burials and perhaps other ritualistic purposes.  It is believed ditches and palisades surrounded these mounds.

On the basis of this supposition I am using a mound with palisade as the army's camp.

The largest known mound is Monk’s Mound, or the Great Sun mound, located at Cahokia in present day Illinois.  It is estimated that at its peak, Cahokia was home to more people than contemporary London. 

The mound is one hundred feet tall and covers an area of 16 acres.  It is but one of the mounds which remain in the area.  Given the dimensions of the mound and that the construction was completed by people carrying baskets filled with soil and the available workforce it has been estimated that the mound would have taken three hundred years to complete.

Prior to European invasion, these Indians died out.  The specific reason for the cause of their extinction is unknown, however the most likely cause was a combination of diseases associated with dense habituation, the use of permanent sites and poor sanitation.

Though the Indians lacked a known written language, it is believed that they were essentially a passive race, engaging in internal warfare only to gain arable land and water resources.

Historically, the army’s enemies were the Dog People and Pueblo Culture (DBA Bk III/41) and Eastern Forest Americans (DBA Bk IV/9).  I have both armies.  The former lies in the bowels of Mt Neverpaint whilst the latter is painted but awaiting the application of flock and tufts to its bases.  Another enemy were the Aztecs (DBA IV/63).  I don’t have suitable figures for this army as yet, so it will have to wait until next year at the earliest before it will join the collection.

Remember me: the lost Diggers of Vignacourt

It was a rainy weekend in Brisbane, but I ventured to the Queensland Museum, forgetting that it was school holidays!

I wanted to visit the new travelling exhibit, on loan, from the Australian War Memorial.  It comprises 74 black and white enlarged prints.  Fortunately such sombre images didn't attract the interest of the hordes of screaming children and their harried parents!

The prints were made from glass negatives and are a part of a collection comprising of, in excess of 800 glass plate negatives, which once belonged to Louis and Antoinette Thuillier, who operated a photographic studio in the French village of Vignacourt during World War 1.  

The village was positioned behind the front lines of the Somme.  It held a casualty station and provided a recreation area for soldiers serving in the British Commonwealth forces, so the photographs are a combination of formal poses and more relaxed candid shoots, capturing the larrikin character of the Australian Digger.  

Despite the name of the exhibit there are several photos, depicting Indian and Chinese members of the British Labour Corps, a group of diminutive Gurkha soldiers and French civilians and soldiers.

The enlarged photographs depicted the various uniforms and markings worn by Australian soldiers, denoting rank, years of service and even the number of wounds sustained during the conflict.  Some unit insignia are evident as well.  Of interest, there is an example of an Australian soldier wearing a goat skill over jacket, due to the extreme cold experienced during Winter.

The glass negatives, together with a canvas background, depicted in the photograph below were recovered from the attic of a French farmhouse in 2011.

In addition to the photographs, there were a number of physical exhibits which struck me as demonstrating just how small, in statute, the soldiers of WW1 were when compared to present day Australians.  

Above is an example of the clarity of photographs included in the exhibition.  It depicts Lieutenant Sydney Carroll, MC of the 4th Machine Gun Battalion, on the right of frame in the side car and the cigarette smoking rider is an unidentified Lieutenant, who is also a Military Cross recipient and is believed to have served as a staff officer with the headquarters of 4th Brigade. 

The collection will be touring twenty two cities and towns within Australia over the next four years.  I highly recommend it.

Progress continues!

March just blew past with bad weather assailing my Queensland bastion and no posting!

An update on my SYW project

After accepting I would have to break my resolution, now four months old, not to buy any more metal figures for a year, I was reminded by my wife, I should check the inventory she and I complied in December 2011 for the AB horses. 

Hmmm, yes, I actually did have a box of over thirty AB horses, which would be prefect as replacement mounts for my Austrian and Prussian forces.  So, resolution remains intact, and the re-kindled project moves on!

Whilst recovering these horses from the bowels of Mt Neverpaint, I came across another ‘bright shiny object’, in the form of a cache of mechanical walkers or gears produced by the Canadian manufacturer, Dream Pod 9, for their ‘Heavy Gear’ rules.

Yet another project rekindled, or another bright shiny object!  

The 'Heavy Gear' models are the second generation, pewter figures sculpted to 1/144^th scale, which comes out roughly as 12mm, by Canadian, Alain Gadbois. This range replaced the earlier larger 1/87th scale gears and was released for the Tactical Rules variant in about 1997.  This cache was still in their original packaging.  Should I try to sell them as is, or?

Of course, I couldn’t resist I had to assemble them!  My explanation to myself for the diversion is, it would only take a couple of evenings’ work to do so and then I would have them ready for painting.  Perhaps, a further day or two for the painting and besides don’t painted figures always get a better price when offered for sale?  And in the interim, I can always have a couple of solo games with them.  Memories from over a decade and a half ago flood back!

The first faction assembled awaiting painting, is the Southern Milicia depicted below:

I am able to field a fire support cadre, comprising, from right of frame to left, along the back rank, a Long Fang Naga, a Black Mamba, a Spitting Cobra and in front, a Command Jager; the first of two general purpose cadres follows, comprising of a Command Jager and three Jagers; the second general purpose cadre, is understrength, it comprises three Jagers, of which, one is a Blitz Jager, one is a Flame Jager and the third a Jager; in front is the reconnaissance cadre, comprising three Iguanas and a Jager Para, fitted for air dropping, as is one of the Iguanas, which is the cadre’s leader.

To the right of frame, there are two infantry cadres equipped with Jackrabbit motorcycles and side cars and another infantry cadre, which is transportable in a HPC 64, hover APC recovered from an unsuccessful invasion by the Colonial Expeditionary Force (‘CEF’) on Terra Nova.

On the left of frame, there is a Hover tank cadre, comprising of four HT 72 tanks, again compliments of the CEF.  I have modified these by the addition of extra weaponry located on the tank’s turrets.

I have also disposed of all of the hexagonal plastic slotta bases, which came with the gears and flight stands which came with the tanks and have replaced them with 3mm MDF circular bases of varying sizes.  The infantry are mounted on 10mm diameter bases, the gears, tanks and APC are mounted on 30mm, while the Naga is on a 60mm base.

The plastic bases were generally too small to accommodate the bigger gears, and no bases were supplied with the jackrabbits, the infantry or the Naga.

For the tanks and APC, I have used a clear plastic stand to enhance the hovering effect of these vehicles, rather than the black plastic ones which were supplied. 

Next step will be to undercoat these models with a matt black.  Followed by the application of a base coat for the camouflage.  The camouflage, depicted below, is designed by Dream Pod 9 for use by the Southern Milicia when it is deployed in the desert or badlands terrain on Terra Nova.

I enjoyed putting the models together.  The pewter is soft so it’s easy to remove mould lines.  The figures are well sculpted and re-pay careful assembly.  The most time consuming part of the exercise was the removal of the model's slotta base, unnecessary if I had retained the original bases.  

Though no assembly instructions are provided, the location of the various components can be determined by reference to the small photographs depicted on the cards included in the kits.

The other faction, the Northern Guard will follow.

As for rules to use with these models, I may elect to get a copy of ‘Future War Commander’, as these are quite popular and I would be able to run the gears, tanks and infantry as is.  Alternately, I might go for the actual ‘Heavy Gear’ rules, which are obtainable, as downloads from the Wargames Vault