Tales of the missing Magi and a few predictions
It is a little known fact that there were in fact FOUR magi who made the trip to Bethlehem. The problem was that the fourth, who went under the less than magnificent name of F’tuth, while being pretty damn good at the old foretelling business was not that hot at basic navigation. Instead of meeting up with his mates, Melchi, Caspo and Balts, he completely messed things up and headed north, forever to ride out of the story and the legends. As a result, he was unable to hand over this important gift to the infant. Debate has raged for centuries over the nature of this fourth gift. As we all know, each gift; gold, frankincense and myrrh, had a symbolic significance. What was destined to be added to them, but was never delivered?
The answer to this question was recently unearthed in the form of a scrap of Papyrus discovered among thousands of others in a cache excavated in Egypt, dating from the fourth century AD. These few words were enough for us to finally discover the nature of the missing gift.
F’thuth’s gift was, in fact, symbolic of an Everlasting life in the form of a box of exquisitely wrought figurines, made from the base metals of lead and tin. The fragment also supplies us with the words meant to be uttered by F’thuth as he handed them over. ‘While ever these objects remain untouched by the brush and pigment of man, their owner may not die.’
Strangely enough, this belief has survived somehow amongst a small and generally derided community of believers who collect and paint figurines, but always have a selection, ‘untouched by the brush and pigment of man’…
No camels where harmed in the making of the above.
Which brings us nicely to the annual Baccus review of the year, where we can publicly test my abilities in the fields of scrying, foretelling, predicting and making things up as I go along, but STILL managing to make it all plausible.
So, did we manage to match up to the predictions in 2023?
For the ‘Ancients’ period, our existing Successor range will be overhauled, resculpted and brought up to modern standards.
Off to a flying start! The Successors were indeed given a makeover, and, as is usual with this process we took the opportunity to expand the choices available.
You will get to hear the pitter patter of tiny chariot wheels as I am determined to get some Assyrians added to the catalogue.
And it’s at this point that the wheels come of the chariot, big time! One of our regular sculptors has had to take time off from his duties which affected some of our plans. The new Assyrians were one of those projects that were affected.
However, we did release a bonus, previously unannounced surprise release in the form of a rather jolly set of Sumerians.
Moving ahead a few centuries, the ‘Crusades’ period will be graced by the addition of both pre and post Manzikert armies.
Weeeeeeellllllllllll…..we sort of got there. The later army was released and proved to be an instant hit. Let’s face it, what it there not to like about this lot?
We actually did get most of the earlier stuff ready to go, but for various reasons these were held back from release this year.
Staying roughly in the same time frame, we did add some new army packs and a boxed set based on the incredibly popular Ravenfeast 1066 campaign rules.
We will aim to complete the work on the Great Northern War ranges, releasing the resculpted Poles, fleshing out the Russians, adding the Cossacks and giving the Turks their own cavalry.
Most of which has actually happened. The Poles were released
The Russians received lots of new stuff
The Cossacks arrived as a range in their own right
And to round it all off we released new flagsheets for the Poles, Russians and Cossacks
So, what about the Turks? Hold the anticipation and keep reading!
Once the above is completed we shall be finally entering the Italian Wars. This has been a long-standing ambition of mine, and as a visual spectacle I cannot think of anything that can be better served in 6mm. Gendarmes, Landsknechts, Swiss, Spanish – lots of big colourful banners and a cast of larger-than-life characters. One to look out for!
We didn’t make any progress on this project in 2023 as the GNW refit took longer than planned. However, 2024 is looking very promising…
We then leap forward to a far less colourful, but nonetheless important period, as we will continue the steady expansion of the Second World War ranges. Both British and Germans will find their late war ranges completed. The US and Soviets will receive a full range of vehicles.
For fans of the British comedy programme, ‘Yes Minister’, this was what Sir Humphrey would have described as a, ‘Bold’, statement. Shorthand for, ‘Needlessly optimistic, reckless and bound to get you into trouble.’
Let’s start with the positive. We did indeed release an awful lot of British and German codes. The Germans headed the release table with over twenty new codes being made available, giving them loads of much-needed AA support and finally the really iconic heavy armour in the form of Tiger Is and IIs
The British were not to be left out as the range received numerous additions, mostly in the form of tows and transport, but with a couple of big guns as well.
The US forces continued to expand, most notably in the form of the much-anticipated American Sherman variants
And finally in this section, the Soviet army finally got its very own AFVs with two iconic vehicles – the T34 and the IS2
Our first set of aircraft models will take to the sky, and while I am channelling Nostradamus, I will state that we will be entering the North African theatre of combat.
It’s a well known fact that Nostradamus was remarkably erratic in his predictions and could get some things completely wrong. It rather seems that I was channeling the old chap on one of his off days…
Yes, our lovely Typhoon model did take to the skies, but the others that we had planned to release were held up due to those pesky, ‘technical difficulties’. It has been incredibly frustrating for us. And yes, we didn’t get sand between our toes and North Africa remained untouched.
Away from the models, after a hiatus of a few years, the Polemos rules system will be given some attention, with overhauls of some existing publications and the release of new booklets.
Ah, some good news here! Our Napoleonic, War of the Spanish Succession and Great Northern War rules sets have all been given a complete facelift and are now available in full colour.
We also released Peter Riley’s booklet which adapts his brilliant FPW rules for use with the Risorgimento.
I will finally make available some extra Pony Wars rules and scenarios.
Moving on here, nothing to see, citizens, no need to dwell on this….
There will be some more videos added to the Baccus You Tube channel, starting with Seven Years War Prussians.
In translation this reads, ‘There will be one new video released this year starting and ending with Seven Years War Prussians.’ Sadly, there are only so many hours in a day, and the anticipated schedule fell foul of this.
Finally, we will stage the Joy of Six 2023 at Sheffield Hallam University on Sunday July 2nd. More details to follow.
And, as tends to be the way of things, it did go ahead and was the biggest and bestest to date, with more games, traders and attendees than before. It really was a great show and has set new standards across the board. The only question is, ‘How do you top that?’
So that was 2023. On the whole I think that we got more right than we got wrong, despite a couple of epic fails. The products that we have released really do form a very nice platform for what is planned in the next twelve months.
So….having explored the time of Baccus Past, let us look to Baccus To Come….
As is traditional with these things, I will work chronologically beginning, well, at the beginning.
We will continue to explore the Bronze age with the release of the early Arab/Desert nomads who proved to be such a constant nuisance to the more civilised folk of the middle East. We haven’t entirely given up on those Assyrians either…
After that, more Byzantines. Quite a few more, as the aim eventually is to have coverage of the Imperial army from the 5th to the twelfth centuries, along with various opponents on the way.
I’ve a mind to see if we can squeeze in a couple of overhauls of older Ancients ranges, but I won’t make any rash promises at this point.
Which brings us to sort of, ‘Pikes and things that go BANG’, area. Firstly, I will VERY confidently announce that we will shortly be releasing the final codes to complete our 18thC Ottoman Turkish range.
This news is doubly important, as it will mark the end of the massive update of the GNW ranges, and secondly, it releases the sculptor to start work on the much-anticipated Italian Wars figures. This will be a massive undertaking as it really is an epic project. Sculpting has already started on the first figures, and Italian Wars releases will become a staple for the next two or even three years. This range will have the ‘X Factor’ and will be suitably spectacular.
Strangely enough, many more Second World War releases are in the pipeline. We are at the stage with the British and German forces of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s for late war equipment.
The plan is to finish the process over the next few months. The US and Soviet armies will be all but completed by the end of 2024.
However, the main set of releases over the next twelve months will see the release of the first models for the North African campaign. We have actually got quite a lot done already and we are anticipating a regular set of releases as get into gear.
Staying with the 1940’s theme, the aircraft models will begin to roll out, and they will be jolly nice, if I say so myself.
In a break from our normal releases, we will be bringing out our own range of Teeny Tiny Terrain models to complement our figures. In the usual Baccus manner, these will be ‘different’, so keep looking out for their release.
The renaissance of the Polemos series will continue. Firstly, the ‘Ruse de Guerre’ rules have been upgraded to full colour with the new edition due to be released early in January 2024. Next, the finishing touches are being put to an ACW Companion to our existing Polemos rules for the period. These will have scenarios, extra army lists and a campaign module for both, ‘On they came’, and, ‘Crisis of Allegiance’.
We will FINALLY be releasing a set of rules that have been much-promised but never delivered. However, this time I am prepared to state categorically that we will be publishing a Polemos rules set for the Seven Years War. These have been completed and are only awaiting layout, which will take place once the ACW Companion is published. They have been writing by Glenn Pearce and are based upon his innovative, ‘Ruse de Guerre’ set.
The Joy of Six will be taking place at Sheffield Hallam University on Sunday July 14th. We will shortly be opening booking for games and traders at the show and we’ll let you all know when that’s put in place. I am looking forward to seeing what you’ve all got planned this time around. It really is the highlight of the year as far as we are concerned.
Not quite a Baccus release, but one which should be of interest. Helion will be publishing a guide to 6mm wargaming.
While I will admit to having a certain personal interest in this publication, I am sure that it will serve well to spread the word about the Joys of Six to a wider audience.
And finally, we have that section where I offer ‘Thanks’ all round to lots of people. To start with those who work for, with and around Baccus, without whom no new releases would see the light of day or little men be made. Then there all of you who support us by buying what we sell and without whom we could never exist. I’d like to thanks those who attend the Joy of Six as game hosts, traders and visitors – without your support, there would be no show. It one of the joys of my job to be associated with each and every one of you.
On behalf of the Team Baccus may I wish you all a wonderful 2024.
