I’ve been getting to grips with the new Version 4 rules for L’Art de la Guerre (ADLG), a game for ancient and medieval mass battles. I started playing it last year having previously tried DBA – it’s an excellent game but one that’s hard to master (or, in my case, play remotely well).
Lockdown meant I didn’t get that many games in with Version 3, but I learned the basics with Republican Romans and Carthaginians. Over lockdown I painted a Parthian army, which plays very differently and is very challenging. I decided to also build a couple of Ambush markers for my second game with them. Ambushes are an important part of the deployment step in ADLG, being used as decoys or as actual ambushes to deploy troops later in the game.
I had a painted camel cataphract left over from the Parthian list, which I based using a couple of rocks, some lichen, and grass tufts. The ground cover is from Geek Gaming Scenics’ excellent Base Ready range (I think the large rocks might be too). This one is Patchy Plains, which I used for the Parthian army. I highly recommend this range for quick and nice-looking basing; it comes in bags of static grass, flock, stones, and aggregates which give an instant impression of a specific environment.
The second marker used a couple of spare Numidian javelinmen, which in this context can serve well as all sorts of generic classical Mediterranean light infantry. Here I used Base Ready Mediterranean, a few different tufts, and greater celandine root for the tree trunk. This makes excellent realistic tree stumps, logs, etc. For terrain pieces I also use it with valerian root and dandelion root for tangled roots and bushes. They can be bought as medicinal herbs and as rabbit food, and give good results at 15-32mm scales. I used a larger piece here, the idea being that the javelinmen are sneaking around it.
Ominous Turkey Wargaming 