Scenery for DBA 3.0

DBA is played on 24" x 24" battlefield... and various bits of scenery are needed... I've been making various bits over the last few months. I've made two MDF boards - one for Desert, and one for all other battles.

 

24 x 24 MDF Board... covered with PVA glue and sand... and dry brushed with cheap tester pots of house paint...

PLOUGHED FIELDS... house filler on MDF boards covered in PVA and sand, then painted...

MARSH... polystyrene pizza base, PVA and sand... plus some resin water effect and a few basing tufts...

ROAD.... 3 x 8" straight pieces of thin MDF, PVA and sand... and painted to look like roads..

RIVER... 3 x 8" pieces of thin MDF... sand and PVA just along the edges and painted to look like a river...

A RIVER / ROAD crossing place - I made one of these 8" x 8" sections with a bridge from Leven miniatures...

WATERWAY - 2 x 12" pieces of thin MDF, with PVA and sand beach/edge...

A selection of HILLS - Pizza bases with PVA and Sand...

I made a few plain one level bases like the hills -
to put different removable items on to represent different things -
here we have a stone circle EDIFACE for the Ancient British.

WOODS with removable trees..

SCRUB - small pieces of green scouring pads chopped up and covered in PVA before painting...

A FORT for the Ancient British. Huts from Leven Miniatures... fencing from coffee stirrers.

A CITY for the Romans. Buildings from Leven Miniatures... wall and gatehouse made from thick cardboard.

A FORT for the Romans. Tents from Leven Miniatures. Coffee stirrer fences...

The Roman CAMP.

The Ancient British CAMP.

An example of the board set up and ready to play..
 

24" x 24" MDF Desert board

Desert CITY - a couple of bits from Leven Miniatures - the rest made from cardboard...

OASIS with removable trees...

ROCKY ground...

DUNES / DIFFICULT HILLS made from polystyrene pizza bases...covered in sand and PVA...

6mm Ancient British for DBA 3.0

Here is my Ancient British Army for DBA 3.0... with all the various options...

II/53 Ancient British 55BC - 75AD

 

1 x General in Chariot (LCh)

1 x General on foot (3Wb)

2 x Light Horse (LH)

3 x chariots (LCh)

4 x slingers (Ps)

9 x Warband (3Wb)

1 x Sacrificing Druids (7Hd)

 

They are all Rapier miniatures apart from 2 of the chariots which are from Baccus 6mm... as I'm typing this I've just realised I need to base up 2 more units of slingers.... (they're already painted anyway!)

So now I've got 2 full armies for DBA... Romans vs Ancient British... I want to do some armies with camels and elephants next....

 

6mm EARLY IMPERIAL ROMANS for DBA

And so here is my first 6mm Army for DBA 3.0 (That's De Bellis Antiquitatis version 3.0).

Early Imperial Romans 25 BC - 197 AD (II/56 in the rule book).

 

They are metal 6mm figures all from Rapier Miniatures (apart from the bolt-shooters which are from Baccus Miniatures). The Rapier miniatures took about 6 weeks to arrive, but they were worth the wait, they seem slightly nicer models than the Baccus ones in my opinion, and they are also more reasonably priced. I ordered these Romans and also an army of Ancient British/Celts which I am half way through painting....

 

I decided to go for white tunics on the Romans, red shields, and white plumes on any helmets. The Numidians have blue and beige shields. The General has a white cloak and white horse to help him stand out on the battlefield.

 

In DBA the army you field always has 12 bases of troops, but you can choose from various options, so I have made bases for all of those apart from the Gladiators and Roman Light Camels (which I'm not going to need for battles in Ancient Britain!)...

 

1 x General on horseback (Cv)

1 x General on foot (4Bd)

2 x Equites (Cv)

4 x Legionaries (4Bd)

4 x Auxiliary Pedites (4Ax)

1 x Archers (4Bw)

1 x Slingers (Ps)

2 x Numidians (LH)

1 x symmachiarii (3Wb)

1 x Lancers (3Kn)

1 x Bolt Shooters (Art)

 

 

28mm Perry Miniature for scale comparison!

Joy of Six 2018.... 6mm wargames show...

I found out about the "Joy of Six" wargames convention last year, unfortunately it was after it had been on. I made a determined effort to get there this year (which wasn't too hard as it is held at one of the Universities in my home city of Sheffield!). The "Joy of Six" is a convention specifically for 6mm scale wargames... which means tiny figures... but lots of them - and scope for playing all kinds of battles.

 

 

I would estimate there being around 150 people there, there were 24 games on the go, and about 10 stalls selling 6mm miniatures, scenery and rulebooks...

 

I got to play two games whilst I was there; A game of "Commands and Colors Ancients" - actually a boardgame by Richard Borg quite similar to his "Memoir 44" game - but we played on a handmade board with 6mm armies replacing the tokens, which was very cool! And I got taught how to play a game of "De Bellis Antiquitatis" by one of the Chesterfield gamers from C.O.G.S. which I really liked. A quick tactical battle game played on a small 24"x24" board. I really enjoyed both games, and I have now ordered the De Bellis Antiquitatis rulebook. The C.O.G.S. guys play "DBA" regularily, so I'm hoping I can get over and play some more with them...

 

Commands and Colors Ancients

De Bellis Antiquitatis

 

It was a really great day out, I met some really nice people, saw some very impressive scenery, and got to play a couple of excellent games. I picked up a couple of cheap Osprey skirmish rulebooks from one of the stalls too - "Broken Legions" and "Dragon Rampant" which look very interesting.

Here are some more random pics I took on the day: