Madaxeman's Wargames Blog

6 Video Reports from Alicante 2025

In 6 mercifully bite-sized video reports I run through the mixed fortunes of the once all-conquering Swiss army at the recent Akra Leuka competition in Alicante.

For anyone who's listened to the Podcast, you'll already know it didn't go especially well, so here is your chance to see just how badly things panned out for the Swiss in their games against the Serbs, the Ottomans (twice), the Burgundians, the Condottieri, and finally the Hussites in 6 consecutive YouTube video batreps.

You can watch them all embedded in this website here, or jump straight to full-screen YouTube action by following this link which will play all 6 reports in sequence (if you can bear that much excitement in one go!) 

First posted on 12 February 2025 | 5:30 pm

The "placed" lists from Beachhead 2025's ADLG events

Having just gotten back from plating ADLG at Beachhead (where I somehow ended up 2nd in the 28mm pool with 3 wins and 2 defeats - go figure!), I have managed to quickly upload the "top 3" lists from the 15mm and 28mm competitions to the ADLG Wiki on this site.

They are:

15mm

• Classical Indian
• Sahelian Empire
• Seljuk Turk

28mm

• Burmese
• Early Successor 
• Seleucid

There will be some reports - eventually - of my 5 games too, but here's a few tasters to get you started...

First posted on 9 February 2025 | 9:47 pm

Alicante & Cartagena - the Podcast, and The Videos

The first Madaxeman podcast of the year hits the pod-shelves in both audio and video formats as the team discuss the recent expedition to Cartagena and Alicante.

To mark the new year and new start for what is hopefully some more regular podding, this episode is tentatively titled "Episode 1, Series 5" and sees 4 brave podcasting gamers hit the airwaves and chat about their trip to the South of Spain in mid January to take in the Akra Leuka tournament at the upmarket Benidorm that is Alicante.

We also take in the Worlds Largest Collection of Model Tanks, the current state of play with which 15mm metal casting companies are currently closing down, whether "Paella" is actually just "Rice" with a different postcode, if a War Wagon collapses in the forest can a Swiss Pikeman hear it fall, if anyone has ever seen a bigger chorizo nugget, whether we are all now far too old to understand this 3D printing malarkey, and if double-carbs is the missing link between Glasgow and the entire Iberian peninsula.

The guests on this podcast are Dave "From The Podcast", Dave "Ming the Marxist" and Mark "The FWC Man", all of whom you can actually see on this YouTube version of the Podcast.

The lists we all used in Alicante can be found on the Madaxeman ADLG Wiki.

• Marks Hungarians
• Tim & Daves Swiss
• Daves French Ordonnance  
• My video of the Cartagena Military Museum

First posted on 29 January 2025 | 11:39 am

Grab a Toblerone and head to Farnborough!

 Yes, after a somewhat lengthy delay the 5 battle reports from the L'Art de la Guerre competition at Warfare 2024 have finally made it to these pages, allowing you to see the Swiss army in all its glory!

  

In each battle the highly complex and over-engineered Swiss plan unfolds in full Alpine Cinemascope, accompanied by ferocious yodelling and a faint whiff of burnt fondue

First posted on 24 January 2025 | 1:14 pm

A New Year Bonus - a video of a lot of tanks!

As a pre-New year treat, I've uploaded to YouTube a rolling montage of photos taken during my visit to the Kubinka Tank Museum outside of Moscow all the way back in September 2006, long before the museum became part of the Patriot military theme park (around 2014) - meaning at the time getting access was a bit of a challenge to say the least!

The photos in this video have already been on the Madaxeman website for quite some time, so much so that they may have been overlooked - hence dropping them all into a video that you can play through in the background when you are doing something far more interesting.

If you do see any pictures that are worth a second look then at least you can go to the website and check them out again at your leisure, without my occasional bursts of ill-informed commentary interrupting your tank-based visual enjoyment.

The Kubinka museum hosts a wide variety of tanks and armoured vehicles developed and used throughout the 20th century by the Soviets, Germans, Allies, Japanese, Hungarians and other nations.

Around 60% of the exhibits are Soviet-era vehicles, with lots of experimetal prototypes, the most recent display being the Object 172, the prototype of the T-72 MBT. Most Cold War-era Western tanks (from the US or Western Europe) were war trophies from the Middle East, Africa, Vietnam and Latin America, which were all sent to the armour testing facility at Kubinka to study and focus on any strengths and weaknesses.

First posted on 31 December 2024 | 12:00 pm

A Festive Bonus - a dozen Gladiators!

 Yes, the interminable ADLG 28mm Republican Roman army project has now hit a Christmas milestone, with one of the novelty items in the army list hitting the interweb in the shape of these dozen Gladiators.

They are all from the Crusader Minis range, which I think do a very good job of staying stylistically in keeping with the mostly-Foundry Legionaries I've posted previously, but at a much lower price point of £7 for 4 instead of £14 for 6! 

I also did almost all of the shield patterns myself, the exception being the chap at the back who uses a spare Crusader Roman Cavalry transfer from LBMS - unsurprisingly the shield was an exact size match for the CRusader cavalry shields ! 

The flesh is my now-standard layering of white base, Darkoath Flesh contrast then Vallejo Dark Flesh real paint, whereas all the matallics are black undeercoat and a drybrush of metallic.

  

I was particularly pleased with how this laurel wreath shield came out - it's a white base coat, GW Contrast Blood Angels Red (which does leave a bit more texture on the shield than a straight normal paint coat woudl do), then the laurel was initially picked out as a series of white blob over which I then painted GW Contrast Mantis Warrior Green. 

 

Very chuffed with the musculature of the guy front left as you look at this base of figures. The casting really helped show where to paint, and the Darkoath Flesh layer then gives you even clearer guidance as well.

The yellow on their loincloths is Yanden Yellow Contrast. 

The blue shield pattern is hand painted too (OK, this is a bit half-hearted compared to transfers, but...), but the notable thing about this is that the yellow bits are painted in a single layer straight onto (wider) black lines, using the new Warlord Games Fanatic paints - Demonic Yellow in this case. 

This is the first yellow paint I think I've ever owned that had enough coverage to give this density of colour on top of black, straight out of the dropper bottle - highly recommended.

The same technique and paint was used on this red shield too. 

Talassar Blue is the loincloth colour here.

And, here are the set, ready to accompany the Roman army into battle, and you to the dinner table for some turkey and stuffing!

And here's an AI-generated video of the guys being animated and aggressive!

 

First posted on 25 December 2024 | 11:00 am