Successor Battle vs Brian.

As this was going to be Brian's first ancient game in total command,I decided to do a Successors Battle,and included in both sides would be,Light troops,Phalanx troops,Peltasts,Elephants,and of course Cavalry.

This is the scenario,with Brian as Antonigus,and me as Seluccus.

This is a shot of my beautiful lines before the game started,elephants in the distance,phalanx in the centre,and out of shot,my light troops guarding my right flank.

This is Brian's line before the battle commenced,a mirror image of my lines.

This shows Brian's unusual "chequer-board formation" with his Phalanx units,he was hoping to throw me off balance by advancing in this formation,luring me into the gaps-no chance!!

  This is a shot of my "arrow" formation moving forward,I had hoped to attack Brian's centre,whilst holding back my wings.

 

The two phalanxes clash,centre first then the whole line,I was successful in almost all of the melees,and pushed Brian back,however on both flanks my luck was not so good,my light troops were being beaten and pushed back,and on my left flank,my peltasts,after initial success,were beaten by a combination of peltasts and elephants.

What a mess!! my light troops are losing everwhere,although I am winning a heavy cavalry battle in the centre of this shot.Brians tactic of using his heavy cavalry against my light troops paid off,and he won this flank convincingly.

On my left flank things were not going well too,this shot shows my peltasts being driven back onto my support unit,how did that happen??

The final photo,my elephants meleeing with Brian's,you will notice a two to one advantage to me,however I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,by throwing a most miserable dice score,and lost!!

With his elephants rampaging all over me, and his peltasts pushing mine back,and his light troops victorious on the other flank,Brian was declared the winner.( even though I had "ploughed" through his centre with my phalanx!!)

This was a good game (if your name is Brian!) and very enjoyable,roll on Thursday.

                                                                                                                          

 

The Pacific,1942

We wargamers are nothing if not flexible in our approach to the games we play,and to this end,Paul,Brian and I had a rather different game last night,involving Aerial combat in the Pacific theatre !!
We ended up having two games,for the first game Brian commanded the Americans,consisting of USS Enterprise (aircraft carrier) two Corsairs and two P40's,whilst Paul and I commanded the Japanese,consisting of four Zero fighters.Brian had to bomb our base,we had to bomb his ship.

this is a shot of one of our Zero fighters taking off from the base.

Here is the Enterprise with her "escorts",after a few moves,Paul and I both came to the conclusion that Brian must have been a "top gun" fighter pilot in the R.A.F. in a past life,because he shot the proverbial s--t out of us in the subsequent fight!!

Paul and I came up with this cunning plan,he would take on the might of the American air force,whilst I would sneak around the flank and bomb the carrier.This plan would have worked except that Brian had "second guessed" us and sent a plane to intercept mine!

The shot above shows on of the Zeros that happened to bypass the corsairs,attacking the carrier, and being fired upon by anti-aircraft guns,the reult was that the zero was shot down!! However we did manage to score a hit with another of our planes,and slowed the carrier down to half speed.

A Japanese success! One of Brian's aka "the Red Baron" P40 in trouble,Paul managed to shoot this plane down, as it was heading towards the base,two other planes did manage to get through our ac/ac fire and bomb our base to bits!!

This photo shows the Japanese base under heavy battack from two Corsairs,the ac/ac gunners on the base must have had their eyes shut when aiming the guns,because they missed every time,allowing the Americans to drop their bombs.

The base in flames! With Brians superior flying skills we didn't stand a chance,see next photo!

Oh dear, Zero going down,bringing the total number of aircraft we had left to ZERO !!

The second game we had saw me vs Brian, cos Paul had to go and pick up one of his daughters,who had been to see a Boy Band.( we both thought that he secretly wanted to get his photo taken with them and get their autographs!!)

I took command of the Americans and it was just a re-run of the first game! It must be that the Japanese air force was not up to scratch tonight!

Both games were very enjoyable,and it makes a change from figure gaming.
roll on Sunday,when we will have a depleted crew,but will,of course, still have a good game-probably Ancients.

This final photo is of some Austrian Seven Years War cavalry that Paul bought on Ebay,he brought them up for us to OOH and AAGH over,very nice figures,and well based too,when can we see them on the Board Paul??

Seven Years War game 21.10.12. 40mm figures.

Before I start this blog,I must mention that I promised Brian that I wouldn't mention his handing of the Elite Prussian Cuirassier brigade,big men on big horses,beautifully uniformed,with razor sharp swords,high morale and ready for a fight,led by no other than the world famous Von Seydlitz,who,at one point,were overtaken by a tortoise being chased by two snails.Yes Brian as promised I will not mention them,my lips are sealed,I will not utter a mutter,wild horses (sorry!) will not drag the truth about these potential game winners from my lips,so don't worry you're embarrassment is safe with me,and no-one will ever know about the disastrous mis-interpretation of the movement rules governing these wonderful heavy cavalry,which should have swept away the lighter Austrian cavalry facing you,and who,instead,plodded their way across the wargames table like so many Blackpool donkeys !!
So, onto the battle,we picked blank envelopes from a pile, and I was lucky enough to draw the British contingent,Paul picked the French,Graham the Austrians,and Lester Piggot,sorry, I mean Brian,picked the Prussians.

The above photo shows the scenario and map,and starting positions of the 4 armies.

Up close and personal,Brians Infantry storm the Austrian defences,and after an exchange of shots,got stuck into a melee,the Austrian cavalry can just be seen massing in the background.

From the word "go" I elected to attack the French with my whole force,this photo shows my Guards regiment attacking the village of Unterglau,being defended by a "raw" regiment,who stoutly defended the position,and actually drove me back!!

This is my "determined" cavalry,thundering into Paul's,equally determined cavalry( avoiding the well placed coffee cup,showing Napoleon turning his back on us!!) I know I promised not to mention the Prussian cavalry,but,look Brian "that's the way to do it!!

This shot shows the fighting on the Prussian-Austrian side of the board,the Prussian guards have just seen off a raw regiment of Austrians from the Hamlet,and are preparing to occupy it themselves.The French guns are firing opn my advancing infantry.In the far background you can just see those troops of Brian's which I promised I would not mention,advancing (slowly) towards their "demise"

This shot shows Brian's infantry meleeing against the barricade, and Graham's cavalry staring to move towards the "unmentionables" who are in the process of being cannistered,again !

The on-going fight at the village,with cav alry battle in full swing on the flank.I won the first two melees with my cav.then Paul reinforced his unit,and the pedulum swung the other way,and I was forced back,this coincided with a defeat at the village walls,was all lost?

This photo shows Brian's weakened (remember the cannister?) unmentionables being attacked by Graham's allied Bavarian cuirassiers,this was a prelude to a massive heavy cavalry melee,which, unfortunately, the Prussians lost.

The village is un-occupied! Paul's raw troops had had enough and their morale broke! however I had no troops near enogh to capture the position.Paul was moving his guard regiment up to retake the village, and I was reforming a couple of regiments ready torecommence the battle for this fine looking village.

Brian's guards have occupied the Hamlet of Ober-glau,and are in a position to split the Franco-Austrian armies in two,if only his cavalry can win the battle on the flank and sweep around to take the Austrians in the rear.....

This is a shot of the last of the Prussian infantry being shot to death,in the background can be seen the cavalry battle ,which,it must be said,was not going the Prussian's way!!

The final photo had to be the Prussian cavalry being "clogged" by the lighter Austrian cavalry!

We had failed to capture all of the Franco-Austrian positions so ,technically we had lost the game,however the game was played with excellent humour,and we all enjoyed it,roll on Thursday.

Phew,Brian, I think we got away with not mentioning your handling of the Prussian heavy cavalry!!!

Two games in one day,I love retirement!

I may have said it before and I'll probably say it again,but I love retirement,it has meant I have had two great games in the same day:the first game was against Brian on Thursday morning and involved a Marlburian battle,the second was against Paul on Thursday night and involved an Ancient battle.

Brian gave me a right old "toasting" this morning,his "british" army knocked me for six at every step,we've obviously taught him our rules too well.The above photo shows the British advancing and firing on my hapless Bavarians,trying to defend a ridge,whilst on the left,out of shot,a cavalry battle was going on,I did manage to beat Brian in the first rounds but then he got the better of me in the subsequent rounds!!

This shows the cavalry battle on the central plain,my dismounted dragoons on windmill hill have just beaten back Brian's first assault,however I had only two shots with my dragoons,and he assaulted a second time with a combination of infantry and cavalry,and beat me !!

This shows the "demise" of my infantry holding(?) the ridge,almost all of my units who were called upon to test morale.failed and "retired".

With my dragoons in square and the rest of them cowering in terror in the windmill grounds,my infantry streaming away,I had no alternative but to declare Brian the winner-he put it down to skill and tactical ability,I put it down to beginners luck!! Me, a bad loser ? Nooooooooo!!


Tonight's game involves a Roman legion taking on local tribes ,nothing new there then! The roman auxilliaries had been tasked to burn a nearby hill fort,which,as it turned out was defended by Noble infantry.

This is the fort,which I made a while back,and have never had it on the board until now,this was the scene of some heavy fighting,with my Nobles taking on Paul's "raw" auxilliary infantry.

This is the overall view of the table,with the fort in the foreground,the aux. column moving towards it, and the Romans facing the Barbarians in the distance.

From the first move both side's cavalry were determined to beat the opposition,the cavalry battle went on for the whole game with both Paul and I throwing in infantry support and extra cavalry units,and even at one point both commanders were in there fighting !! After a great melee I was the eventual winner,and once the Roman cavalry were beaten,their whole right flank was exposed.

The barbarian war bands attacking all along the Roman line,with javelins whistling and pila thudding you could hardly hear yourself speak!!For a while the Romans won the melees,but once my second line got stuck in,the advantage turned my way.

Meanwhile on a nearby hill!! Paul's "raw" auxilliary infantry take on my "veteran" noble infantry,result-inevitable!!However it must be said,that,because I was outnumbered,I had to put myself into the fight to add an extra couple of points,otherwise I think I might have lost!!

The final shot, the Romans are in dis-array,my cavlary are triumphant on the flank,it's all over.

Two very good games,both as enjoyable as the other,roll on Sunday,when we'll be having a Seven Years War battle using my Prince August 40mm figures,should be good

Here is apicture from my latest brain scan!!! I love retirement,have I mentioned that before????

Gladiators from Warrior Miniatures.

A while back I noticed Warrior Miniatures were advertising a range of Spatacus/Gladiator figures,so I ordered some,and have just got round to painting them now,see what you think

I quite enjoyed painting these figures and possibly intend to use them when I can manage to get a Spartacan (?) army organised,I'm always amazed at Warrior's range of figures,and his very competitive prices,check them out.







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