Zulu Game 27.9.12.

Paul,Brian and myself had a very exciting Zulu game this morning,Brian was in charge of the British contingent,and Paul and I commanded the Zulus.
Brian had to defend a camp and stores area,he had patrols out in all directions, and information was continually being pased to him via the different patrols,he had to make decisions based on the information and adjust his dispositions to suit.

Ancients game,Macedonians vs Indians 22.9.12.

Last night's game revolved around an Indian town being beseiged by a Macedonian army,and the town being relieved by two Indian armies.I took the part of Alexander and Brian and Graham took the parts of the Indian commanders.
The above photo shows the town being attacked,ladders in place,and seige towers in the front of the main gate.

This is a shot of the "epic" struggle in the centre,with the Indians beating the Phalanx with a combination of chariots,elephants and infantry,imagine my surprise when Graham( commanding the Indians on this flank)announced that he couldn't win and that I had the advantage!!

 

This shows the town being defended by Brian,a good job he made of it too,I only managed to get one of my units into the town,the other three being thrown out with great skill.

I seem to have "lost" the other photo's I inserted onto this wonderful blog interface,they're probably floating around in "cyberspace" somewhere!!

The outcome of the battle was somewhat confused,with Graham giving up when he had me beat,and Brian beating me on his flank,and suddenly I was announced the winner by Graham!!Brian was willing to fight on but as the alliance was shattered there was no point.
The highlight of the game was when Brian sent an elephant unit to Graham's assistance,this was consequently beaten in a melee and was forced to retire into Graham's infantry!! and caused alot of confusion and chaos,forcing Graham's infantry to also retire,maybe that's what made Graham think he couldn't win,never mind we'll be playing on Thursday.

Marlburian game 20.9.12.Spanish vs Allies.

This shows the Spanish troops preparing to defend the flank,at the end of the game.

This shot shows the final British/Austrian attacks on the defences.

Come back Spanish cavalry!!



Big gap in British main line.



Austrians being "ejaculated" from the village.

British troops crossing the stream,being met by "poor" Spanish cavalry.

Brian!! what are you doing,those are your best cavalry being shot at from the village.

Graham's guns have pounded a breach in the defences,however he didn't take advantage of the gap,who knows why not!!

This is the flank commanded by Paul,a good mix of infantry and cavalry supported by a gun battery.

This is the Spanish left flank commanded by myself,the Infantry was "steady" but the cavalry was "poor",the result when attacked was "predictable"

This shot shows part of Brian's defences,in front of the town,he did a brilliant job of holding them,against great odds.

This is a view from the Allies side of the board,showing the town and defences.

This is the scenario.
Astute readers of the blog will have realised that this blog is not of the same standard as previous blogs,this is because "BLOGGER" have decided to change the Interface(??!!), and as i'm not great with computers under any circumstances,I have had tremendous difficulties in working out what to do etc.Never mind things can only get better!!
Roll on Sunday.

Ancients game 16.9.12.Scots vs Romans.

We played an Ancients game last night,utilising the "winter terrain" from Thursday's game,however this time we were in Scotland pitching a Scots army gainst a Fort and a relieving column.Graham and I were Scots and Brian and Paul were the Romans.
The scenario is below,Brian was in charge of the fort and Paul was the relieving column,Graham was besieging the fort and blocking the gap,whilst I was attacking the relief force. This is an overall shot of the board,in the distance the relief force is just coming onto the table,whilst in the foreground the fort looks to be in real trouble,with warbands approaching fast!

A closer shot of the fort and its gallant defenders.

This is Paul's force,marching in double column,with cavalry at front and back,a wise move.

This is a shot of my warbands about to move across the stream and attack the Romans in the flank,Paul is too "wily" for that and formed his cohorts in a double line,chequer board formation,which stopped my warbands in their tracks for a while.

Paul's formation,including 3 TESTUDOS,first time on the table!!

This shot shows Graham's move towards the gap,after a while the law of diminishing returns started to apply,and a real bottle neck started,with neither Romans or Scots able to move!!

Graham is attacking the fort in this shot,Brian has launched his cavalry gainst a couple of warbands in an attempt to stop them surrounding the fort,this was quite successful.After a couple of melees against the walls,Graham actually got into the fort,but Brian reinforced his defenders and pushed him back out!!

This shot shows my centre advancing,I had held them back to see where Paul was positionong his cohorts,I saw an opportunity,and charged!Initially the Roman line held,but weight of number began to tell and eventually I managed to push a couple of cohorts back,and this started a "rot".

This is aphoto of the central battle,with the Romans fighting on their flanks and front,this was real wargames pressure!

Graham's warbands are "retiring" in this shot,with Brian,hands in pocket (surely not still looking for his plums!) yelling abuse after them>

This shot is the "gap" where alot the fighting took place,Graham's warbands are being shot at by Roman skirmishers.

It's all over now,cohorts being pushed back in the centre,and the relief force was never going to get to the fort,give in Brian and ask for terms,we'll treat you well,honest!!

This was another good game,with lots going on and never a dull moment,roll on Thursday.

Napoleonic game 13.9.12.

This morning we had a thrilling and exciting game,including some "magic moments",and an incident involving Brian's plums!!
This is the scenario,Dave and I took the French commands and Paul,Graham and Brian took the Russians.I suppose this was really a straight forward "bash" with both sides attacking each other,but it was areally good game.

This is an overall view of the table with the French on the left and the Russians on the right,a small town filled with Guard units is in the foreground. This shot shows the heavily contested French left flank, and of course the Russian right flank,before any action .The stream was crossable with no deduction,so this area was ripe for attacks.

This shot shows the "move of the game",Paul advanced a unit of Cossacks against my gun battery,which forced my gunners to retire behind the inf. line,thus stopping me from Cannistering the approaching Russian inf.He then retired the Cossacks,leaving me "high and dry".

This is agood indication of the action along the whole length of the board,we had everything including,fire-fights,cavalry melees and infantry melees,good stuff!

This photo shows Dave's attack across the stream with two lines of inf. supported by cavalry and guns,it was to prove an attack too many however,as he was eventually thrown back by "dogged" Russian infantry,and a well placed shot from Brian's gun battery.

Undaunted,Dave launches his left flank cavalry against Graham's cavalry,however Dave was beaten eventually and was forced to retire,exposing his flank.

This shot shows Paul's attack on the town and my infantry line,I managed to stop his first attack,but a second column of grenadiers marched up to the walls and took my Guard inf. on!!

This is either a new "boy band" or a line up for "crime stoppers"

This shows Graham contemplating his victory on his flank,whilst Brian has got his troops deployed in line,behind Graham's "pounded and pummelled" line of infantry.

This is Paul's mass attack on the town,our centre and left flank had gone and we decided that all was lost for the French army.

This is the final photo showing the "gloating" Russian cavalry and the "skulking" French cavalry,never mind ,there's always another day !!

It was good to get us all together,especially as the game was so good,roll on Sunday !!

The Testudo Factory keeps producing!

For this,my third Warrior Miniatures Testudo,I elected to base the figures in three's for ease and quickness of painting,this proved to be a good decision,and enabled me to complete the Testudo in record time.
This first photo shows the figs. stuck onto their bases and painting bases. Another shot showing the three's.ready to be undercoated.

This shot shows the testudo undercoated.

Shields painted and flesh on,in this photo.

All figures painted and ready to be based,in the shot below.

Testudo on its base awaiting flock and rocks etc. to be put on.

All three on the table,this gives a good idea of what they will all look like.

Another angle of all three completed Testudos,only two to go!!

If John at Warrior Miniatures is reading this blog,I would love some feed-back or comments,cheers!!

Battle of the Metaurus 207 BC.played 9.9.12.

We fought this very interesting battle,last night, as a wargame and not an actual re-fight of the battle itself.Paul took the part of Porcius and Livius,Brian was Nero,and I was Hasdrubal. This is the overall view of the table,with Nero in the far right background,facing the Gauls,whilst the Roman centre/left faced my Ligurians,Spanish and Africans,with the cavalry facing each other in the foreground.

These are my Gauls,who were a mixed bag of good and bad fighting points,but were faced with a Legion,supported by Paul's whole back line of Triarii,and a cavalry unit.The Romans obviously meant to beat me on this flank,and of course, they did!! but not until I gave them a bit of a fright by coming down from my hill position and attacking them.

This is my centre/right flank,composed of light and heavy infantry and Elephants,which somehow managed to remain on the board for the whole game and did alot of damage to Paul's cavalry.

This shot is of the Roman centre/left,composed of two combined legions,in their traditional 3 lines.

This is the Roman right flank,commanded by Brian,and consisted of one full legion and a cavalry unit.

The cavalry battle!Paul attacked my cav. from move one,this surprised me,and he was successful until I moved my Elephants over to the flank,to disrupt his cavalry.Feeling desperate,Paul put his command figure into the fray,and he was killed,resulting in his cavalry having to take morale,luckily for me,they failed the test and routed!!This resulted in me being able to move my cavalry onto the exposed Roman flank,causing all kinds of problems.

On my right flank,things were not going according to plan,Brian,in this shot,has launched a furious attack against my Gallic cav. and has backed them up with two units of Princepes,this force won the ensuing melee,and forced me to commit my warbands into a precipitous attack down the hill,not a good thing to do!! they too were beaten,morale was taken,and they took off,dragging the other warbands with them!

This is the clash in the centre,which swung both ways,and I was only saved by my Elephant and cavalry moving onto Paul's exposed flank.

This is our new member,Brian, looking very pleased with himself,having given my Gallic contingent a right old beating!

This shows the aftermath of the "Gallic Departure" Brians legion and supporting troops rushing over the stream and taking my hill,thus exposing my left flank.

This is the final photo,showing the Carthaginians winning in the centre,and forcing Paul to move troops to protect his flank.

We decide that a "draw" was a fair result,and I was happy with that,we all enjoyed the game,roll on Thursday.