Successful Successors!

These Thursday morning games with Paul are just getting better and better -Todays foray into history pitted Ptolemy against Antigonus,and it was another "cracker" of a game!

Terrain map and table before any movement-I was Ptolemy and Paul was Antigonus(on the left of picture)

Top photo shows the "calm before the storm"-bottom photo shows the STORM!!-Billy Smart didn't have as many Elephants as this!!(but probably handled them better!)

Things are starting to hot up-my phalanx is advancing "En Echelon" and my first line of peltasts are advancing to contact Paul's-it's going to get messy soon!

Top photo shows my 2 strong phalanx units mixing it with Paul's units,bottom photo shows the Elephants running amok-I said it would get messy!!-Why would anyone have Elephants in their army by choice??-bloody things!

Top shot shows the on-going melee between phalanx units,bottom shot shows all of the phalanx units making contact-these melees went on for three or four moves before we both had units retiring(it's good being retired!)-look at the centre-the peltasts are slaughtering each other-neither side gaining a foothold!!

This is move 7,and my plan has just come to fruition-my second line peltasts are just about to hit Paul's phalanx in the flank-however,his second line of peltasts are still fresh and could sweep down on my centre,so we decided that a  draw was  a good result for both of us-at least I hadn't lost!

The final shot just had to go to the remaining Elephants-still rampaging around the place-absolutely great game,I lost 7 officers to Paul's 3-same old,same old!!! Roll on next week,maybe Brian can come along,you never know! Next week might be a Jacobite game.

A Colonial Classic!

It might have been 5 or 6 degrees outside,but inside the Garage this morning it was 30 degrees and rising ,in the Sudan where the British were about to face a Dervish Horde ....................

The scenario and table before any movement-Paul was British,I was the Mahdi(I must be mad!)

Detail of the British square,and detail of the Ansars position in EL SHOKAR.(note Palm Trees!)

Top photo shows the first wave of Hadendowah infantry and camels,which Paul's scouts "found", bottom photo shows the square's response to them-"right face,fire!"-you could tell from the outset that this was going to be bloody! The Hadendowah's advance was matched by a "sortie" from El Shokar by the Ansar infantry and cavalry.

Top photo shows the Hadendowah's three waves on the board and approaching the square at a rate of knots,bottom photo shows the Ansar infantry and cavalry also approaching the square. Paul had cleverly manoeuvered the square away from its original direction,moving it along the edge of the board,making me having to move farther,subsequently getting shot more-the swine!

Top photo shows the Hadendowah attack-awsome or what? Bottom photo shows the Ansars getting a taste of rifle fire from the front of the square.By this time Paul had dealt with my Camels with a combination of artillery,rifle and Bengal Lancers-has the man no mercy in his heart?-NO!!!

Bye,bye Ansars!! A cavalry battle developed on my right which I was confident that I would win,after all I had twice the number of figures in the melee that Paul had- but guess what,the "diabolical demon dice thrower" bloody well won,throwing high dice to my low-how does he do it???

Look,he's outnumbered,and even out-flanked,and he still won!-I challenged his officer to fight mine,one against one,and he won again (I think I'll take up knitting instead of wargaming!)

This shot shows the state of my "army"-all is lost,apart from one major success..........................

On the last throw of the dice,I broke into the square-to no avail,of course,I was faced with a whole side of the square that hadn't been involved in any fighting!!

The  whole game was absolutely great,spectacular,colouful and exciting-what more could you ask for?(well a win would be nice!) Roll on next week-possibly an Ancients game using the same terrain.

Skating on thin ice!

Strange title for an ECW blog!!

Oh what a wit,Torville and Dean-hilarious!!!!

This is the game that Paul and I played on Thursday-another "corker",Paul was Royalists and I was Parliamentarians.

My advance begins-centre and right troops first,hoping to take out Paul's cavalry and capture Windmill hill,my left was to hold position until contact was made by my centre and right-foolproof plan(only it was made by a fool!!)

My "foolproof" plan was thwarted by Paul,who left his defensive positions in Torville and Church Hill,and attacked my troops!!-as you can see an almighty fire-fight developed,prior to "push of pike"-absolutely cracking stuff!

The cavalry battle in the centre was an awsome sight-Gay(steady!) Cavaliers against Dour Ironsides-actually it was very one-sided as Paul decided to throw horribly high dice against my horribly low dice-the man has friends on the "dark side",I'm sure!!

Top photo shows the developing cavalry melee,unit after unit being fed in to support one another,bottom photo shows the infantry fire-fight (but note vulnerable flank!!!)

An overall view of the table,showing the terrible position I have got myself into-Paul is pretending to write orders but is actually communicating with some "dark force" somewhere,giving him supernatural dice throwing abilities!!! The push of pike was great to see,but ,of course, Paul won most of the melees,killing alot of my Officers in the process!

What a picture-my cavalry are fleeing,Windmill hill is still in Royalist hands,and my infantry have been forced to form a massive "square-type defensive formation-is it all over??

YES!!-although I had infantry in Torville,Paul held Church Hill and Windmill Hill,and most of my troops were on their way home(!!) so I graciously handed him the victory!

After he had gone,I checked Paul's dice,and as I touched them thunder and lightning echoed around the garage and a Crow could be heard "cawing" outside-surely he isn't-is he???

Another great game(for one of us!) probably Colonial next week,possibly involving palm trees in the desert somewhere!-well done to Paul,a well-deserved victory.

 

Cross my Palm(s) with silver!

For the past few years I have been using Coconut Palms as any old Palm Tree for my Sudanese,El Cid,in fact any deserty-type game that we play-but of course it's not correct!-so what to do??

THE WIFE,is always ordering "stuff" from Amazon(have you heard of them?) and she always asks if I want anything-well,this time I did-I asked her to order me some proper Palm Trees-within two days they arrived..............................

24 assorted sizes(6/5/4/3 inch high palms)-they didn't have bases with them,apparently because they are classed as "cake toppers!-what kind of cake would have palm trees on it??-so I got out my trusty box of washers,and got to work with No Nails,UHU and Superglue!

Palms galore-plastic,nicely coloured,and I think, quite realistic looking,not bad for £17.50.

Top photo shows the palm on its shiny washer base,bottom shows the palm on its MDF base.

I mounted them in singles,doubles,threes and a couple of fours,for variation-the bases wre old ones that I had,so no extra expense!-I "tetrioned" the washers and any bits of the bases that showed the MDF poking through,dipped them in "flock" and...............................

The finished articles-watch out for them soon!!!

 

Bloody Marvellous!

That's the only way to describe the game that Paul and I had yesterday!! Carthaginians vs Romans is always a good "tussle" but to actually play against Paul (the demon Numidian light cavalry commander!) was a real treat.

This is the terrain map that was delivered to Paul a few days before the game,so he could plan his "ambush"-he had to have some troops at all the marked positions(A,B,C etc)

Top photo is my army in position,bottom is the formidable army that Paul had,ready to be put in their ambush positions!

As I advanced into "The Valley of Death" Paul exposed some Spanish troops on my left flank and blocked my way with Spanish and Carthaginian cavalry-I only hope he doesn't put something in my rear(oo,er missus!)

But,of course, he did!! forcing me to try and form up(top photo),then the Elephants appeared to attack my leading Hastati,whilst the Spanish infantry attacked my flank,and a grand cavalry battle was also instigated_has the man no mercy!!!(NO!)-I was in all kinds of trouble but my plan was to try and form a massive two legion square......................

Top photo shows my attempt to form the square,bottom photo shows the Elephant battle,which I eventually won,sending them crashing into the back of the on-going cavalry melee-great stuff!!

This shows my second(rear) Legion being attacked by a combination of Numidian cavalry,skirmish troops(javelins and slings) plus the dreaded Gallic infantry(who didn't do that well-hurrah!) but I still hadn't fully formed my square,and was wondering where the Elite African infantry would appear!

Top photo shows my rear legion being "broken" by the Gauls and light troops,bottom photo shows the Africans appearing on the same flank as the Spanish-this was the only tactical error that Paul made in the whole game-he had no room to manoeuvre his Africans,but,as it happens, they weren't really needed-I was lost!-only one order for the Romans now-"BREAK OUT!!

These two final photo's show how my attempt to "BREAK OUT" was thwarted by Paul's cavalry,in the top photo,and his Gauls etc in the bottom photo!!

By any standards this was a great game,but to actually have an opponent was even greater! We,hopefully, will be playing again next week!