Perry reinforcements

New acquisitions

Naturally with the anticipated return of my wandering Sri Lankan figures my thoughts turned to complimenting my 1815 Dutch-Belgian Division so... what to do for cavalry?

Fortunately our own voracious Collector and multi millionaire MW was sending away for more figures. How better to grow the collection by tagging onto his order .. nice one Mike.

Apparently the world supply of figure metal will be exhausted now!!

So what did I order then?

Food for thought!

Whilst browsing through a couple of books,lastnight,I came across some very interesting facts about the Vikings-they actually invaded parts of Spain and Portugal, as well as venturing to Africa!!-Now that's food for thought for another wild campaign!-Moors and Vikings and Christian Spanish armies fighting each other......................

 These are the facts that I unearthed,so that I could plan a campaign(maybe!).

Possible routes for the Vikings-I have armies in 25mm for all the proposed participants.

Possible battles,as per the map-interesting.How I find time to do household chores I just don't know!!

Large battle-small figures!

As part of my on-going campaign,I fought this battle last night,and yet another fantastic game it was,full of excitement,colour and nerve racking tension(who could have thought that of a solo game??)

This is the scenario etc.On the throw of a dice,Horlix,the Semoness king,"sussed" out what Crustinuts had in mind for the two hills,and sent warbands from his back line to support his cavalry(damn!!!)

Top photo shows initial moves-not all of the front line warbands would move! bottom photo shows the "encounter" on hill A-in the background you can see that the warbands have now decided to attack the auxiliaries "en masse"

Top shows the aux. infantry and warbands getting stuck in-an even melee for a while,but casualties are mounting on both sides! bottom shows the troops on hill B facing each other off,but the Aux. infantry have managed to get through the woods,and are now in a position to out-flank the Gauls.

Crustinuts,worried about his left flank(Hill A!), is sending 5 cohorts from the legion to support!

The on-going melee is reaching "crunch time" as both sides have taken horrendous casualties-maybe time to exchange lines??

Top photo shows the exchanged lines-now the Gaul's 2nd line faced the legions,who threw their pila,and charged home-inevitable result!!! Bottom shows the troops on hill B in melee-the Gauls were out-numbered and suffered badly-however things were about to get even worse for them!

Top shows the uneven fight on hill A-the Roman cavalry were eventually forced to retire(it's good being retired!) bottom photo shows Scrotum's reserve cohorts marching to surround the Gauls on hill B-things are not looking good for the Gauls!!

The Semones are retiring everywhere,the troops on hill B are being wiped out,and the Aux.infantry have now reformed behind the Legions-all is lost for Horlix and his warbands-only one thing left for him to do-Fall on his sword!!!

As I said,this was another great game,the only thing that would have made it better,is if I could have had an opponent!!

One final shot of the board-a suicide charge by the remnants of the Semones' 3rd line can be seen-they were wiped out to a man!!

What none of the three Roman commanders saw was a group of German cavalry lurking in the woods-just observing,nothing else,just observing!!!!

 

Preview of Campaign battle.15mm.

I hope to get this large(if you can call 15mm. large!) game fought out sometime tomorrow or Thursday-it should be exciting,as the whole campaign rests on whether or not the Semones can beat the Romans!!

 This is the terrain map and battle plans for both sides-dice throws will dictate some elements of the game,such as Semones initial movement and Aux. infantry on the right flank,getting through the woods,plus whatever I can come up with to complicate the battle plans!!

This shows the troops deployed as per the map.

The Romans,look at those beautiful lines,who could possibly beat them??

Ah,well..........................,possible contenders,the Semones!!!

One,last,tantalising shot-full report when the battle/game is done!

The Germans have arrived! The Germans have arrived!

I have now completed my German contingent of 24 Warbands and 7 Cavalry units.................

Top photo shows the entire German army,bottom photo shows a detail of the warbands.

The German cavalry!

Within my campaign,the Semoners have allied themselves to the Parisii,who have agreed to amalgamate with them and beat the Romans-they have agreed a time and place to meet,however,there's always an "however", the Germans have descended on the Parisii and wiped them out!! so the Semones(who are unaware of the situation) will have to face the Romans by themselves!-this is going to be the next battle/game to be fought this week.

Meanwhile,Scrotum Maximus,the hero of Genabum,has narrowly beaten off a raid,by the Semones,on his camp,and is on his way to meet up with Crustinuts and Arsolius-so the Semones will be facing two full legions plus auxiliaries and cavalry!!

These two photo's show the initial attack by the Germans against the Parisii.

Two more photo's showing the Parisii ,infantry and cavalry,being well and truly beaten!

These two photo's show the attack on Scrotum's camp-the auxiliaries and cavalry are away foraging,and could only return on the throw of a 2 or 5-they did,but were not needed!!

The "foragers return,and fight it out with a "blocking force" sent by Horlix,the Semones King.

A breach in the camp walls-this was not too bad,as a couple of cohorts had seen off their respective adversaries,and rushed to help!-The Gauls are taking too many casualties to sustain the assault,and decided to retire(it's good being retired!)

There they go,leaving Scrotum with his first victory commanding his new 24th Legion-note the tents in the camp-a luxury Crustinuts doesn't have-well,not until Scrotum meets up with him!

I am looking forward to the next battle,which,I'm sure will be observed by the Germans,who will, no doubt ,want to take on the winner!!

 

The Germans are coming,the Germans are coming!

As part of my ever expanding Gallic campaign,(which is slowly taking over my life!) I have decided to incorporate a migration/invasion from Germania into Gaul,so that not only can I have Germans fighting Romans,but I can also have Germans fighting Gauls!!-where will it end? The first "batch" of Germans that I have painted are from the Suebi (Suevi?) tribe .............................

Twelve warbands of infantry and three units of cavalry-the infantry take a bit of cleaning up,but the end result is worth it.

Detail of the infantry-note the traditional Suebi "Hair knot".

According to "Tacitus" they attacked in a wedge formation-I don't fancy the chances of the guys in the front rank!!!-But what of the rest of the Germans?

Well,they're on their way-twelve warbands of infantry and four units of cavalry-more than a match for both Romans and Gauls!!!(Only some of them shown here-rest are on painting table,under-coated and ready to go!)

 

Ambush Battle-15mm.

Last night I forgot about everything this virus is throwing at us,and concentrated on having another thrilling and spectacular game,in my Gallic campaign.

 Opening move-the Gauls have appeared on the hillside,whilst the Aux. infantry have formed a defensive position around the baggage train-in the background you can see the Legion formed up to face the threat from a force of warbands-Crustinuts must make a decision-does he weaken his Legion by sending a few cohorts back to support the baggage,or does he just leave them to fend for themselves?

The attack begins! but not all warbands decide to join the fray at once-rather they stood back to see how the others did!!(throw of dice,2/5 they didn't move,3/4 they did!) The Gallic javelins did considerable damage to the Auxiliaries,which would tell later on when melee was reached!

Top photo shows everyone and his Grandad joining in the fight-bottom shows the "stand-off" between the Legion and the blocking warbands,but Crustinuts has decided to send 3 cohorts to help the baggage troops-hurrah!!

Top photo shows casualties mounting(red pom-poms) on both sides,but a breach has been made in the Infantry line,in the background you can see the equal cavalry melee going on,but in the bottom photo the 3 cohorts from the Legion have charged the Gallic cavalry in the flank-this,they did not like,and took to their heels-another hurrah!

Oh no! the Gauls have captured one waggon(full of food and tents) and are making off with it! The Auxiliaries are in real trouble now,as another breach has been made in their line-can the cavalry and support cohorts make it to them in time and save them???

Yes they can-being attacked in the flanks and rear,the Gallic position became un-tenable,and they started to give ground and retire(it's good being retired!)

Two shots of the same thing-Romans having formed a line, and the Gauls being chased away!

The Semones king,Horlix(The Horrible) claimed a victory,even though he lost 5 warbands and 3 cavalry units,however the capture of a waggon more than made up for his losses!The Roman casualty list consisted of 5 Auxiliary infantry cohorts-a considerable amount ,and one that may curtail the campaign,until reinforcements can arrive!!

This was another wonderful game,full of what-if's and grand dice throwing/rotten dice throwing,long may it continue!