Bruttium 206BC. vs Paul.

Last night Paul and I had an Ancients game,Hannibal vs Scipio,with a bit of a twist,in that Scipio had "rumbled" Hannibal's ambush,and routed his ambush troops,ie Celts,who,when the game started were already running back towards the Carthaginian lines.

This is the scenario we worked off.

This photo shows the overall view of the board,with the Romans on the right and the Carthaginians on the left.

This shows the Celts being chased back to their lines,they had to go back two moves and take another move to reform,this disrupted the Carthaginian moves on that flank,and gave the Romans (Paul) time to manouvre his front line of Hastati onto both flanks.

This shot shows Paul's Hastati on the move,meanwhile I had launched my Elephants on both flanks against the Roman lines.My plan was to hold my centre until the flanks were secure then attack along the whole line.Paul was quite happy to take his time,and he didn't want to come over the stream until he was in a position to support the Triarii .

This shows my Numidian cavalry giving the Triarii a hard time,and giving the Celts time to reform.

THis is my left flank,Elephants charging into Paul's Princepes,and my Spanish cavalry supporting,and out of shot,to the left,charging into the Roman cavalry.The cavalry battle had just got started,when disaster struck.............

Both Elephant units were beaten in melee,and had to take a morale test,they both failed,and on the throw of another dice,stampeded to their left,straight into the cavalry melee!! Both sides had to take casualties,and by the time the Elephants had cleared the board,the cavalry melee was never resumed,mainly because my centre was assailed by pila throwing Romans,who managed to destroy my Spaniards.

The game was decided in the centre,a mass melee taking place,but also on my right flank,the Triarii launched themselves across the stream,drove away my remaining Celts,and put my light troops in real trouble.

I remember this man,ah yes it's Dave!! he popped in to watch Paul and I grapple with this fast and enjoyable game,and also to show us his latest painted figures,Chasseurs....

                          

Very nice too,can't wait to see them on the board.

I have a rather large Marlburian game planned for Sunday,when,hopefully,the "famous five" will be in attendance,Roll on Sunday.

"modern" game vs Brian 8.11.12.

This morning Brian and I had a "modern" game using tanks,artillery,infantry squads,helicopters etc.etc.
Now I may have mentioned before that Brian was "dismal" with his handling of cavalry in a previous game,and I am reliably informed that the modern version of cavalry is Tanks!! I have to report that Brian's handling of his tanks in this game was,as previously, DISMAL !!

This is the scenario,Brian had to have a "column of march" written out and also a battle plan c/w objectives,this he did with great efficiency.None of my troops were on the board at the start of the game,although I did have to have them marked on my map.

This is how the board looked before we put any troops on to it,the objective was to capture the village,which is on the right background as you look at the photo.

This is the village,I had an Infantry squad plus a heavy machine gun unit hidden in it,I also had a tank behind the village.

This shot shows Farmer Putin,with his faithful dog,who,on the third move was judged to have had it's balls blown off by a stray anti-tank shell !!Well he's very near the action!!

This is one of the highlights of the game,Brian,with great aplomb,announced that he was going to put his "chopper" on the table!! I don't know where he has played wargames before,but we are not that kind of club !!
The "chopper" actually did a great deal of damage to my infantry in the woods,and to my tank in the village.

This shot shows the "chopper" attacking the village,and my "blowpipe man trying to shoot it down.

"GOTCHA!! Brian's helicopter,to give it it's proper name,gets blasted out of the sky.

Some good (lucky?) anti-tank shooting, combined with a good bazooka shot took out two of Brian's 4 tanks, in one move.(dismal Brian,dismal!)

Now I'm not quite sure why Brian was attacking this herd of cows,they weren't being aggressive or anything! I would like to assure all of our readers,that no animals were hurt playing this game,apart from the dog,that is !!
This is Brian's outflanking move and was very successful,makes up for the dismal use of his tanks,I suppose.

This shot shows Brian's "cow killer" squad knocking out my last tank,with a very long range bazooka shot.

Brian's yellow squad,emerging from the woods and taking heavy fire from my machine gun and infantry fire from village,I failed to stop this advance and was eventually attacked from two sides, and had to give in.

This shot shows my troops defending the village,I did manage to inflict casualties on Brian's attacking squad,bu overwhelming numbers began to tell,and even my cover couldn't protect me from mortar,small arms and tank fire.

The end!,village captured,tanks blown up,mortar destroyed,and dog away to the vets!!

this was a good fun,enjoyable game.rool on tonight when I will be playing Paul in an Ancients game.

Paul's birthday bash.Napoleonics 4.11.12.

As this was Paul's birthday (57th!!) we decided to put on a fairly large Napoleonic game.We drew lots and Brian picked the British,whilst Paul and I took the French.

This is how the board looked before I put the troops on in their starting positions.

This is the board with the French positioned on the left of the shot,facing the British on the right,occupying the town etc.

This is the scenario ( and advert for Smoggycon!) although fairly straightforward,this proved to be a bit of a test for both sides,with move and counter move throughout the game.
Paul and I had decided to extend my left flank,and make movement in the centre,as though we were going to attack along the whole line,whilst Paul would send his,not very good, Westphalians against Brian's left flank,hoping he would divert troops from his centre,I would then be in a position to launch my infantry and cavalry against a denuded right flank.
This all sounded very grand,how things can go wrong against a determined opponent!!

This shows my first brigade crossing the stream and attacking the town,held by Brian's newly painted 27th foot reg't,these British proved to be too stubborn for their own good,and remained in possesion of the town,despite repeated attacks,for the whole of the game.

As the 27th were holding fast,Paul was busy doing a great out-flanking move with his infantry and cavalry,Brian did counter attack,and despite losing one infantry regiment,Paul held fast,and was eventually in a good position to threaten the town from two sides.

Just when we thought everthing was going "swimmingly", Brian brought on his Spanish allies,consisting of cavalry,infantry and horse artillery! The guns did a bit of damage to my dragoons,who were then charged by the Spanish dragoons,I had to throw in my Hussars,who were in turn charged,in the flank, by the British light dragoons!! Quelle mess" as the French would say!!
This flank turned out to be the ruin of me,Brian handled his troops well,and finally my whole flank broke under the pressure and ran away,sorry I mean retired.

Meanwhile,on Paul's flank,his cavalry are gradually pushing the British cavalry and infantry,relentlessly back!! Hurrah for some success,the British infantry you can see in the background are being taken off the board,having been ridden down by my Hussars.

This shot shows the beginning of the end to my flank,infantry forced into square,gunners running away( not retiring) and cavalry being beaten,in the background you will notice a lack of troops attacking the town.Where is Grouchy ??

Ah, there he is,another magnificent attack put in against the town and the dreaded 27th foot.In the background Paul has just won an important cavalry melee,and driven the British dragoons back,allowing his infantry to begin their outflanking move.

The Wallsend Wellington,no need to look so smug!!Brian certainly has picked up our way of playing,and is confident in the handling of his troops,although at the end of the night he did say, he was stressed out and would have to go and lie down in a darkened room!!

This shot shows Paul's outflanking move,even though this was successful,we had failed to take the town (bloody 27th!!) and so Brian was declared the winner. I had completely failed to achieve my objective,my flank was in tatters,only Paul could hold his head up at the end of the game,for the French.
This was agreat game,which had everything in it that you would expect in a Napoleonic game,melees,firefights,counter attacks,etc. etc.

Roll on Thursday,Probably Modern,we'll see.

Most of the figures used in this game were Irregular Miniatures,with a smattering if Mini Figs,Prince August,and of course,the bloody 27th,which are plastics by Victrix (?)

Spartans vs Persians 480BC

For our game on thursday I opted for an Ancients game,Spartans vs Persians,based on an incident at Thermopylae.

This is the scenario,and positions of both the Persians and Spartans.

This is a shot of the Persian centre and camp,which was the objective of the game.

This is a detail from the camp,showing "dusky maidens" cooking "dusky food"

This photo is of the Persian left flank.

This is the Persian right flank.For this game it was deemed that all the Persian cavalry,except guard cavalry,was away foraging.

This is the overall view of the table,with the Spartans on the left and the Persians on the right.

This is the Spartan left flank,made up of 3 units of Corinthians,and a unit of slingers.

This shows the Spartan right flank,c/w slings and cavalry.

This photo shows the Spartan centre,with King Leonidas standing on the hill behind.

Both sides had a good solid battle plan,I was in command of the Persians,and had decided to hold both flanks back for a while until I could see where the main Spartan attacks were coming from,and then strike!!
Paul was in charge of the Corinthians and Brian, who is about to be called Reggie (Regi for short) for reasons which will become clear as the blog continues,was in command of the Spartans.Both Paul and Regi,had decided to attack the camp and my left flank,whilst holding back on the Corinthian flank, to see what I was going to do.

The photo above shows my left flank being assailed by 3 units of Spartans,assisted by slingers and a unit of cavalry.

This is my right flank,I have attacked the Corinthians,and in sheer blind panic,Brian has thrown his king,Leonidas,into the fight,in response I have launched my guard cavalry at the Spartan king, to stabilise the situation.

This action shot is of my camp being assaulted by the cream of the Spartan army,one unit has beaten a unit of my Immortals,and have pushed them back,this is where I committed a fatal error of judgement,I threw my king,Xerxes, into the melee,to add points,and bolster the morale of my troops.......OH DEAR!!
On the next turn of melee,Brian,sorry,Regi, threw a five on the dice,and was able to throw another dice to see if he killed my king,and guess what???yes he killed him,hence his new name Regicide,or Regi !!

However, undetered,my troops fought on,after all they can elect another king after the battle!!
This shows my right flank in full swing against Paul's troops,this was particularly hard fought,as we were fairly equal in points and morale values.

This shot shows my depleted camp,and the battle still raging on my left flank,Regi is just about to get his Hoplites into the camp and finish off my last unit of Immortals.

The left flank battle continued right up to the end of the game,with successes and failures to both sides,however with superb fighting points and morale ,the Spartans did eventually win the flank.
I have to also report another disastrous intervention,by the commander of my right flank,who bravely threw himself into a melee,and was killed by that well known assasin,Regi/Brian.He must eat raw meat!!

Look at the state of these two, no wonder I can't throw decent dice faced with the brothers Grim!!!!!

This is a shot from the Spartan point of view,of the camp being overun,with the battle for the flank still raging in the background,don't the tents look nice?

It's all over now baby blue!! the camp has been captured,I have two commanders killed,one of them is the King,both flanks finally beaten,and my troops streaming off the board,ah well, there's always Sunday to look forward to.

This was a colourful and exciting game,filled with mistakes from the Persian high command,but nevertheless enjoyable,well done to Regi and Paul.

I think it only fair to mention that all of the fighting figures on the board are from the Warrior Miniatures range of Ancients.