Syracuse holds out

I couldn't make it to the club yesterday, but Gordon won as Syracuse against William and Simon as Carthage. Mark said at one point a week or so ago that if the great powers continue to be unable to conquer anything, we might need to tweak the game. So far we have ruled that a draw counts as a victory for the defence, in that it forces the attacker to retire. Perhaps we should amend this so that if a great power manages a second draw against a province (not another great power), then a deal is struck and the province is assimilated voluntarily. Which doesn't preclude a later rebellion, of course. I mentioned this idea to Gordon and he wasn't convinced, but I think I'll moot it more generally before next week's game: Persia tries again to conquer Aegyptus.

Tarentine Light Cavalry

Twenty years ago I painted a Pontic army for a friend of mine for Tactica, and then bought them all back from him a few years later. These Tarentines (Essex figs) were part of the army. In between Romans I've been slowly revamping my classical period figures for use in our ongoing Empire campaign. I gave them a touch-up, added some shield transfers, then varnished and rebased them. I still have a soft spot for Essex figures, and I used their Seleucid figures for the Pontics. After adding to them subsequently, I have a huge phalanx army plus extras to use for pretty much any Successor state, and later. I've always liked the idea of using one manufacturer for an army as much as possible. If I ever get round to it, I'll do a 1st Corps army to fight them, but that's probably a long way off...

On the painting tray for October

In September, I finished everything I wanted: 24 Principes; 24 Triarii; 4 legionary command figures; and 12 slingers. I also managed to renovate 8 Tarentine light horse. This month, the schedule will be to begin Legio II for Zama, with 24 Hastati and 24 Principes. As part of my ongoing revamp, on the tray also are: 8 more Tarentines; 12 Seleucid Xystophoroi; and 15 Greek casualty figures, some of which need painting from scratch. Since I started keeping this record, I've been able to complete everything I hoped each month. It would be good to keep this going; fortunately, the cavalry are already well advanced.