New Newline Designs - Thorakitai

In June I received some lovely samples of some brand new Newline Designs 20mm Hellenistic Thorakitai. Filling in a much needed troop type in this scale, not only for Newline's comprehensive 20mm Ancients range but for 1/72 in general, those looking for Thorakitai to work along side their plastics will find these useful. Along with the African Veterans which can easily be used as imitation legionaries or more armoured Thorakitai with greaves these brand new Thorakitai represent the line art shown in Duncan Head's classic Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars - showing a thuroes bearing spearman with a mail shirt that lacks the reinforced shoulder yoke. 

When I received these in June they were a much needed tonic, with the way the last year and this year had been going. I immediately cleaned and prepped them. I used bristles to make the spears and the swords - I was aiming for a Kopis like sword. As ever they painted up remarkably easily, undercoated in black then dry brushed in an appropriate metallic, it didn't take too much effort to block in skin, tunic, straps and helmet. I've tried to show some versatility in the two poses offered spearmen, Javelin and sword armed warriors here. 

I was hoping this would prompt a break in the dry spell of painting but so far it has not been the case. The ongoing issues mentioned elsewhere have been very draining and I'd rather get back into painting when i have the time, energy and patients to enjoy it again. Even getting a chance to sort this blog out has been difficult. These are on my Newline shopping list again once I have the opportunity to stock up on these I will be doing so.

So here we have a impromptu diorama of possibly Ptolemaic soldiers moving through an oasis, or along the Nile. Of course are useful for any despotic Hellenistic Dynast. 

Are you not EntertAIned!?

I'm going through my blog post drafts, working on getting them published, this is a little one I started a while back when, longtime friend within the hobby, Dougie was having fun with AI backgrounds. He sent me some of my Iberians emerging from an ancient forest, intrigued I asked him if it could make an arena setting for the Newline Designs 20mm Gladiator conversions, and I was pleased with the result. I was meant to post these months ago (June I think) but as I have mentioned in a previous post general life has been too much all year and has been impacting hobby pursuits. I try to keep working on little bits here and there, floating between what I fancy, building miniatures, paper soldiers, research and rules writing. Sometimes just whatever I can manage, a look through a wargames book or magazine to keep or build interest. As of late it has impacted further and I've had almost no capacity for the hobby, my new hobby being, fending off "help" from various local services that lack awareness or training in the UK's Statutory Framework. This is why I have not really updated this blog for a while, all writing energy has been going into complaints and data rectification requests.

Back to hobby talk! AI seems to be regarded between a novelty and the devil incarnate, based on the things I've seen on social media. A fad will have a few moments of intense action, such as the AI images of imagined action figures or the bringing to life of wargames miniatures into an unsettling scene, reminiscent of the film Young Sherlock Holmes when inanimate sculptures come to life to attack people. Then there are reactionary responses that seek to ban their use in groups, and when its so overused, this is understandable, but for the fact that the gimmick soon wears off anyway, it seems heavy handed. There are the legitimate concerns of artists losing out and that creative work is being lost to AI, and it seems that technology continues its meteoric rise in replacing human labour in general. While this is clearly happening, commissioning an artist is out of reach for most people, personally I wouldn't buy cursed AI images over professional artists' prints, but one day we may not can tell the difference, however if you have a project in mind that needs some graphics resorting to AI generated images is an option.   

Ultimately, these LLM are currently out there and like all human inventions its how you choose to use them that counts, users need to be very discerning and be wary. In a wider context how societies will regulate their use will be vital. So far however I'm finding it a useful tool, especially for bouncing ideas off, brain storming, and looking for feedback and suggestions. With a bit of work it might be useful for solo gamers, probably not so much as an opponent directly but for suggesting general strategies you could enact on the table top, probably in a RPG style format, it has potential but will require thoughtful use. I'm interested in how others view them, and if they use any AIs and what for?    

Lost Battles: Magnesia 190BC

Rome began with Eumenes who forced the withdrawal of the Scythed Chariots, no one else suffered from this flight from the field but the continued combats wore down the levy light infantry. The Roman veteran cavalry swiftly dispatched the Galatian levy horse on the Seleucid left, this caused the yet to be bloodied levy heavy infantry on the Seleucid left to withdraw. Fighting in the centre was inconclusive while the Seleucid levy skirmishers on the right became spent. 

The Seleucids countered, somewhat on the back foot, the Roman advance had pressed the Seleucid in the rear of the battlefield so they needed to push the Romans back. They started in the centre the Seleucid Light Infantry pressed the velites back being able to retreat behind the legions they avoided a second hit. The Seleucid phalangites used their depth to push the Roman legions, there were two successful attacks one had to all out attack by becoming spent, hoping that the greater numbers of Seleucids would pressure the Romans with less troops, causing veteran legionaries to become spent. The second was also an all out attack but this time the phalangites in their effort expended two veteran legionaries as well as themselves. The Seleucid left after seeming quite brittle pushed back hard, Eumenes guard (who forgot to rally) took a hit along with the Roman allied cavalry and the veteran Cretan archers.

The Romans after taking some hits knew they had to press their advantage, having control of most of the battlefield was dampening the spirits of the Seleucid troops just as much as the damp conditions were dampening bow strings. Roman velites pushed themselves almost to breaking point to shatter the Seleucid levy skirmishers. Another Seleucid skirmisher swarm was shattered, the resultant morale of the Seleucids saw a levy heavy infantry rout and the withdrawal of an average heavy cavalry and the levy cataphracts. The flight inspired the withdrawal of last light levy troops in the centre.

While the cavalry on the left withdrew to fight another day, the remaining troops felt the pressure, they had to start breaking Roman troops before the Roman right regrouped to attack their flank. The elephants pressed some veteran legionaries inflicting a hit as Antiochus finally got into the fight his Agema wrecked havoc on the Roman lines with allied legionares and veterans becoming spent. The cataphracts followed in the carnage and in their attempt to emulate the kings guard exerted themselves inflicting damage on two veteran legions.

The Romans used to dealing with elephants and inflicted a double hit the levy phalangites taking the brunt of the elephants wrath. A following veteran legion finished off the elephants and the levy pikes routed from the field. Antiochus himself was under threat the Agema received a hit but the king rallied his men.

The king knew this was his last chance, after his men rallied they once again undertook a thunderous charge destroying veteran legionaries and the Velities sheltering behind them. Roman morale held despite the looming threat of light cavalry to their rear who appeared after skirting along by the river. The Silvershields brought their strength to bear shattering average and veteran legionaries, this caused the remaining veteran legionaries to rout as well at the velites in the centre. The light cavalry now headed to threaten the Roman centre but the phalanxes did not make any headway.

By now the victoriuos roman right was geared to strike the flank of the phalanx and after the final phalanx became spent a unit of pikes were shattered causing the rout of the remaining two and the levy light cavalry quietly withdrew, the victorious Roman right now swept towards the Seleucid camp, the Roman centre now thier opposing troops dissipated, turned to finish the Silvershields with another shattered phalanx and another two routing units after a attack from their left flank. Antiochus could only withdraw, the cataphracts routed following the kings decision and Antiochus he hoped to rally his army to fight again, and that the Romans were bloodied enough to slow their advance into Asia Minor!       

Rome 

Shattered: 1 x ALE, 2 x VLE, 1 x ALI  

Rout: 1 x VLE, 1 x ALI 

Spent: 3 x VLE, 1 x AHC, 1 x VHC, 1 x VLI                                      
74 Seleucid VP (94 with handicap)

Seleucids 
Shattered: 1 x LHC, 2 x LLI. 1 x IEL, 2 x APH

Rout: 1 x LHI, 1 x LPH, 4 x APH, 2 x ACA

Withdrawn: 1 x SCH, 1 x LHI, 1 x AHC, 1 x LCA, AL + VHC
109 Roman VP

Clear Roman victory (Narrow victory with handicap)

Thorakitai Advance

In the dark days before discovering Newline (a long time ago now) I was hunting for thureophoroi, I grabbed a few Hat Thracians that had suitable figures and to get them in strength would leave lots of spares, I needed to secure a source of dedicated thureophoroi. I got hold of some Xyston thureophoroi, sold as 15mm they seemed about 18mm, I contemplated using some creative basing to incorporate them or to simply change to a more common scale of ancients as I  really liked the Xyston miniatures. I then came across the Newline with their comprehensive selection and would be a closer match to the plastics I already had so the Xyston's ended up in a drawer.

What I loved about Xyston's figures was the helmets which were interesting and varied, I thought the size of their heads were roughly the same as Newlines so I thought while I was doing head swap conversions I could create a unique unit of Thorakitai using the Xyston heads and the Newline Designs 20mm African Veterans advancing. I missed the faces on the Newline figures but those heads were used on the Cretan Archers and now I have spares for future conversion ideas. The command figures remained unchanged.

I experimented a bit with the painting, I dry/over brushed the helmets with Vallejo Silver and used Agoras Dunes Contrast paint to give them a bronze tinge this was also applied to the greaves. Its an effective way todo metallics and something to consider for future projects. I also applied Contrasts to the shields again more of an experiment but I'm pleased with their turn out.

I got the railway background out to do some photos so I redid the last thorakitai conversions and attached below. I also got some pictures of  the Moria Goblins finally so that will be a post at some point. I've also had a bit of solo gaming in so once written up there will be some posts on Strength & Honour, Dominion of the Spear and Lost Battles. On the miniatures front I'm preparing some Celtiberians for now but time at the desk is very sporadic and progress slow. I could also pick up some plastic sets that are part built but I'm into ancients currently. I'm wanting to pursue Punic wars campaign so expanding armies for that is a goal as well as expanding armies for Hellenistic states namely Ptolemiac troops for Raphia.     

Thorakitai

 

I'm pleased to get this unit done representing Thorakitai, armoured Thureophoroi essentially, they were a labour love being a head swap conversions. Note if there were to be a dedicated set of 20mm Thorakitai made I would still certainly get them! The Command is the standard Macedonian command figures from Newline Designs 20mm Macedonian range, they just have shields from the Maccabean range. The rank and file troops are the African Veterans standing from the Carthaginian line. I snipped off the metal spears and drilled out the hands, filed the parts that the spear connected to on the tunics to add a replacement bristle spear. This allowed a small bit of variety as the spears can be held at slightly different angles and more bend resistant. The main conversion was the head swap. The heads were procured from the Greek range from mainly the old style Thureophoroi sculpts with clean shaven faces (I believe they have been re-sculpted with beards going off later purchases) also some heads from the newer Hellenistic infantry code. The heads were placed in various positions to give natural variation.

It was a tedious task but I was pleased with the conversion, they didn't have the smoothest joins but I tried to make out they were the sort of scarves ancient warriors might use to protect their necks from armour rubbing against it. Again the shields are the ones from the Maccabean line. I went for a blue theme with the unit and spent a bit more time highlighting the tunics.

I'll post up the African veterans soon, I've been distracted this week working again on a campaign setting for the 2nd Punic War. As with other campaign rules and rules is general they begin to get more complex so I'm trying to keep them as simple as possible with some flavour. I've settled on Strength & Honour for tactical settings and I have a map made so I'm working on getting it functioning but there's still lots of decisions to make with army lists and victory points.    

The Best Laid Schemes.....

We've had a lot on our plate over the last few months, its been one thing after another with the whole household being burned out and the hobby has had to take a massive back seat. I've been very slowly doing a bit of painting and a rare test game of home brew rules but I haven't had the time or energy to keep up with social media side of the hobby, keeping up with my favourite groups/forums/blogs or Blogging. While things have improved a bit of late its still not plain sailing and time to concentrate on hobby stuff is very limited. 

I've been getting the odd moment to paint here and there  over the past few months and I've finished the Moria Goblins and some Carthaginian veteran spearmen. A conversion of African armoured spearmen into Hellenistic Thorakitai is almost painted to completion. The Veterans are ready to post up, I haven't done any photos of the goblins yet, I was contemplating having a suitable Moria-esque background but I'll eventually get them dug out and photographed on one of my usual backdrops. I had also been preparing a post about painting Wargames Atlantic Les Grognards so another upcoming post at some point.  

On the gaming side I got the Strength & Honour Supplement as well as Command and Colors: Ancients printed off with view to getting to grips with them. Strength & Honour's Reversal of Fortune system in which failures in combat and movement switches the active player provides enough friction and chaos to make a great soloable game. With Command and Colors the fog of war provided by the limited stock of card actions seems to have potential for soloing and by all accounts its a fun system. However as mentioned above I haven't had the time or the mental energy to sit down, digest and get more familiar with the texts but I'm hoping that will change in time. 

In the mean time I needed something that could fit onto a page or two and provide a plausible and fun game, even my 2d6 Ancient rules were feeling too clunky and taxing for my tired mind. I once again looked at One Hour Wargames, the base rules leave much to be desired for me personally but the core mechanics and the scything simplicity provides a great base to build a more expansive game. The trick is to build up slowly and I found the first attempt while providing an entertaining game I added too much too quickly. I went back and began to strip back unnecessary rules and took the main message of the book in that does it NEED that rule and does it add anything substantial to the game? 

Invariably because I'm focusing on Hellenistic era specific troop types and roles need to be added, as well as command and control to some degree. Unit stats became more of a thing within this expansion. On the One Hour Wargames Facebook group I came across a post about using to hit dice instead of a damage roll also known as the "More Chaos" modification, just what a set for mainly soloing needs so it was quickly adopted. Where I have kept movement and combat as simple as possible, and added in a simple activation system I ended up adding in rules for flight and pursuit. 

I've tried to keep them simple also but its more rules to add and to follow, more complexity and I'm not sure if they're truly necessary but I feel that when a unit breaks, according to Professor Sabin, is when the casualties would significantly mount up and why they would be so lop-sided and I feel that would take up quite a bit of time. While the victors pursue and cut down the fleeing enemy they aren't turning any flanks unless they are finished chasing their foe or their commanders have enough control and awareness to stop the pursuit and break the next formation. This harks to Total War games where the pursuit and chasing down units can mean the difference between destroying an army or letting it escape to continue to be a thorn. That along with wanting to basically have a Campaign context for table top battles made me want to include such a thing in the rules. If a unit is caught and cut off it reduces army morale further and if its part of a campaign a loss of a unit. As like with most of my ideas its very untested.

Eventually I set up an impromptu battle, the aim was to see if I could have a quick, satisfying game that was easy to set up, play to a conclusion and pack up within an hour or two. I did a classic Carthage vs Rome in Iberia (Iberian Allies on both sides) Rome had better infantry with four good legions. Carthage had more and better cavalry, Elephants and two units of Veterans so skewed in their favour unless the legions get stuck in.

Carthage moved the whole army without issue, Rome advanced their skirmish line and main battleline but the cavalry were hesitant, but the worry was being driven off the field early. Unlike my previous rules or because of them the skirmish clash has been written to be quick and decisive while having a small chance to inflict hits on the main battle units. 

Not long after the Punic cavalry started engaging the Roman cavalry and began to drive them off after a few turns the Roman cavalry melted away and the Punic cavalry began to organise themselves to threaten the Roman rear. Once the Punic cavalry stopped pursuing the Romans they were able to chase down fleeing Iberians running from Elephants. The Roman allied Iberians were struggling with the Elephant unit and the African infantry and Gauls never really got into it with anyone by the time the battle came to a dramatic finish.

The main lines began to clash in places the legions opposing the Iberians began to push them back, but the opposing generals lead their respective veteran units to decisive conclusion. The Roman legion had already took a hit from dealing with Carthaginian skirmishers. In this battle both the African veterans and Legions get 3 attack dice (if the Legion was at full strength it would get an extra die). Both leaders committed to the attack adding a further die but this die came with a risk of death or injury. As you can see below it was an intense fight, both units required 6s to lose strength points both generals were injured and would have missed their next phase. However after taking 3 hits the legion were sent into flight losing their general in the chaos much to the relief of the now battered African veterans!

Overall it gave that quick satisfying game I was after. It had chaos and unpredictability but not to the point of frustrating and generally playable. I think these ones are just about ready to post up with a bit of cleaning and tweaking.