A Fistful of Centaurs

Having been thinking and working on Aristeia again I have had the compulsion to work on a few Greek figures. To this end I have added to the three original Centaurs I made last year. These additions include a Centaur hero and two archers. This gives a total of six Centaurs, one hero and five regular.

The full herd of Centaurs

Like the other examples these Centaurs are a conversion of Victrix plastic hoplites and Perry medieval horses. the hero is simple enough but the archers require a little explanation. The arms are from the plastic hoplites with the hands taken from some Perry plastic archers. The use of such 'long' bows, not being the type of bow found in the Aegean and its environs, is purposeful. First of all it helps to create the idea of the 'other' for the centaurs and highlights their barbaric and non civilised nature. Secondly, they were all I had available as I have no recurve/eastern style bows.

Archer Centaurs

Rear of archer Centaurs

Hero Centaur

 I think this is the full amount of Centaurs that I shall make, at least for the foreseeable future. My hopes are to cobble together a few Satyrs using Citadel Ungors. However, the kit seems to require a great deal of detail removal to be suitable so some experimentation may have to take place. There seems to be limited alternative to this experimentation as most metal examples of Satyrs lack a certain je ne sais quoi.

Aristeia Activation Methods

Work on Aristeia still continues, even if the blog is not updated with much. This work however, is relatively slow. A lot of it is me second guessing my methods or reasons for having something do a specific way, which does not help. In the example used we are going to look at the activation methods.

The original activation that was to be used for Aristeia was something quite simple; IG/UG or just alternating units. I have scrapped these methods for a number of reason

• It limits the way in which units and players can interact
• IG/UGs not 'responsive' enough while alternating does not give enough variability
• Alternating focusing too much on many small units?

In light of some of these complaints I have decided upon a card based activation system. These have been quite popular over the past few years with many games (Sharp Practice, Muskets and Tomahawks etc) using this method. I feel that such a method allows for a relatively responsive system where the choices are important and the for the ability to add cards throughout the deck during the game. These may be random events, Hero or Deity abilities and the like. It also gives some greater weight to NPC interaction and 'decisions' as it is unsure when they will take a turn.

I am unsure whether a hand system (where you draw the cards but add them to your hand to be played during the turn rather than instantaneously) would limit some of the randomness and allow for a more 'tactical' approach while still keeping a level of uncertainties, especially with cards added during a turn.

Hopefully I shall get a quick set of mechanics written down to test out in the near future.

Romano British

Just a quick update today as I have not done much wargaming related. I have based a small number of Romano-British Pedites/Pedes that have been sitting around for a quite some time. I have also been reading over a few bits and bobs in regards to the Sub-Roman military and the nature of it's uniformity. This is mostly manifest in the nature of shield designs and the transfers I must purchase (creating my own for these more complicated designs would not be worth while). Little Big Men have a very fine range of shield designs compatible with my Musketeer/Footsore and Gripping Beast figures.

With the new SAGA being released this month it has renewed my possible interest in the game (the last time I played SAGA was in the summer of 2012!). I have, however, also been coming up with stat-lines for a possible LoTR SBG conversion. Such conversions exist for many games and I have been basing a few changes off those from an issue of the Wargames Journal, from 2006, designed for the 9th/10th Centuries. It's only a quick tweak as the rules are mostly fine. I'd like to put my version up as soon as I am happy with it.

Some proof reading and fiddling with Aristeia continues but I currently lack the enthusiasm for Ancient Greece at the moment and as such do not feel compelled to do much with regards to it. I should be back too it relatively soon but it's always fun to do a few different projects.