Two Ancient battles,and the Russians are coming!!

Yesterday saw Brian and I having a game in the morning,and Paul,Brian and I having a game at night-with a "passing" Dave observing!!
The first game was a Roman republican army against Pyrrhus-this proved a formidable game pitting Pila against Pike-not for the faint hearted!!After a good and exciting game,Pyrrhus(Brian) beat the Romans(Me),but the game itself brought up some good questions as how to work out who would have the advantage after the Pila had been thrown,and the long Sarrisa had come into play-this was great stuff,and to me,what wargaming is all about.

At night Paul was in charge of a Carthaginian ambush force (some of them hidden in some woods) trying to stop a column of Roman reinforcements,from reaching an occupied camp-Brian was in charge of the camp,I was in charge of the column.

This shows my column advancing towards the camp,with Paul's Elephants,cavalry and Spanish infantry advancing towards the column!!-surely Brian will leave the comfort of the fortified camp and help me(??!!)

Paul's advance has just begun in this shot,his Numidian cavalry are going to give me hell(he thinks!!)-The central force was the real worry-a good mix of troops-Paul's plan was to get around the front of the column and cut me off from the camp,and if (if only!!) Brian was to come out of the camp to help me(if only!!) he would spring the ambush from the woods in the foreground(the troops in the woods were Gauls and Celts-thousands of 'em!!)

This is my left flank-I have given the Numidian cavalry and Spanish light infantry a "bloody nose" using hit and run tactics,and am now retiring to my main line,however the pesky Numidians kept up a barrage of javelins,and eventually forced me to retire further than I wanted to!!-ie off the board!!

My main line is under attack from Paul's centre troops-the elephants have made contact with my leading troops,and his cavalry(I was outnumbered two to one!) are gradually getting around my flank-oh if only (if only!) Brian would come to help me-he's sitting in the bloody camp with 4 units of Princepes and 4 units of Triarii-HELP!!

Oh look,it's move six and still the camp people are not moving-has the man no shame??-obviously not!!

This is move number 8 or 9,and Brian has been shamed into leaving his camp,and has walked straight into the Ambush!!-It's all over now-I am fighting with last of my troops on my left and in the centre,and Paul has managed to cut me off from the camp-Brian is doing an "eightsome reel" with his troops-infamy,infamy-they've all got it in for me!!!

My left flank is lost,so is my centre-Brian is being cut to pieces,so we decided to ask for a draw-well, shy bairns get nowt!!Paul graciously told us to go and poke our swords up our Togas,and he was declared the winner!
Another good game,frustrating,but good.

Dave and I have been painting figures-

WOW!! this is half the unit he bought at Middlesbrough show,the other half will be completed shortly.

I have been waiting for almost three years(yes three years!!) for Paul to finish his Austrian Seven Years War army,so in frustration,I have decided to paint a Russian army to face my Prussians.
I have decided that I will only very crudely(and for me that's par for the course) paint the figures,without any "embellishments", and that included such incidentals  as belts,cartridge boxes,buttons etc. in other words just basic colours to identify them as Russians-green and red!!

The above photo's show one hell of a contrast between Dave's approach to painting and mine.

I have finished a whole brigade(three regiments) and will be starting the second brigade next week.