I have always found Greco-Persian games colourful and exciting affairs,and last night's game was no exception.
These first two photo's show the scenario and the table layout.Brian commanded the Athenians on the hills,and I commanded the Corinthians and Spartans,whilst Paul took command of the whole Persian army by himself-no mean feat!!
The battle opened with a cavalry clash,which Paul won,due to superior troops and superior dice throwing!!(that's my story and I'm sticking to it)-My Corinthians(in the foreground) are advancing to protect the right of the Spartans as they form a line.In the background Brian is under attack from Wild Hill Tribesmen-they would prove no match for the Athenians,but Paul had a secret weapon in the form of Daki(or Dahae) horse archers,who would upset the apple cart towards the end of the game!
As the first wave of levy troops attack up the hill,the Athenians just stand and coolly repulse them-we always said Brian was repulsive!!(note the horse archers "lurking" in the background.)
Whilst my Corinthians are engaging the Cardaces infantry and Paul is sending some levy infantry against my Spartans(how very dare he?) both hills are being attacked!!-Brian has landed his reserve Hoplite unit on the left hill,just in case!!
In this shot my Spartans are nicely lined up and ready to go-but so are Paul's "Immortals"-Brian appears to be looking to the Gods for inspiration(or help!!)
Brian is successfully defending his hills,and driving the levy troops back down them-the horse archers are still "lurking"-Paul used these well and inflicted casualties on the Hoplite unit standing in front of the temple,causing them to retire!! Combined with the retirement and a fresh assault by the levy troops,the hill was taken-however Brian held onto the other hill-hurrah!!
We now come to the low point of the battle!!-To bolster my fighting values in the melee on the far right flank(ie Corinthians vs Cardaces) I put my Corinthian Commander into the fray to add an extra two points-this was both good and bad!!-I won the melee-hurrah,but got him killed-Boo!! Resulting in the whole of the Corinthians having to take a morale test-and,of course,they all ran away-woe is me!! This left the right flank of the Spartans,who were now engaged with the Immortals,up in the air and vulnerable to attack-I can't remember the exact words Brian used,but was something like-"oh dear John,we might have just lost the battle!!"
Paul's Cardaces moving to attack my Spartan flank-is Paul having a breakdown??
By this time Brian's Athenians have boarded their ships and are sailing back to Athens singing Athenian sea shanties and drinking Athenian rum-not a bad idea that!!
Yet another good game-it looked the part,and without my "error of judgement" I am convinced Brian and I would have won,but well done to Paul.Roll on Sunday,probably English Civil War.
I have just spotted an error in the initial map-the Cardaces should be where the Immortals are and vice versa-apologies!!!!
Spurred on and inspired by a couple of articles in Slingshot number 297,I decided to put on a river crossing game last night,with Alexander's Macedonians facing a couple of Indian armies.
These photo's show the scenario and map plus the table before any movement,and without the "boat troops" who would appear on move number 4.
Paul was in command of the main Indian army,and Brian was in charge of the reserve/flank force of King Akbar-I was the exalted personage of Alexander!!
It was a daunting prospect to have to cross the river with these beasts waiting at the other side-however I had two catapults,which got rid of two of them,and this was my cue to advance the phalanx-hurrah!!
My plan was to attack both the defended hills,disrupt the Elephant lines,sweep around the right flank with my Companion cavalry,to arrive on the far bank at the same time as my "boat troops" arrived-master plan,master tactics,master optimist!!-as though the opposition would let it happen!!!!
"Master Plan" in operation-cavalry advancing against little opposition yet-but Brian is sending his whole force against me,and I'm still in the water-where are my boats?-Paul is looking pensive-always a bad sign!-It means he's thinking-woe is me!!
The boats have arrived,and just as my cavalry made landfall,Brian's elephants arrived to disrupt them-my advantage of good cavalry is gone-double woe is me!!-In the background my phalanx is advancing,and both hills are being well defended by Paul-come on Macedonians!!!
Brian has played his hand beautifully in this shot,with his elephants causing my cavalry a real headache,he has charged and driven the Royal unit of Companions back into the river,and,to cap it all,his infantry are now nearing the gap,to put pressure on my peltasts,out of shot to the right,who are trying to form up-triple woe is me!!!!
My Agriannian infantry are trying to drive an elephant away,I have captured the left hill,my phalanx is just about to mix it with the remaining elephants,but I am losing heavily on the right hand hill-Paul has left his main infantry line back enough from his elephants,for them not to get disordered,if the elephants go on the rampage!!
With a loud cheer(from me!) the elephants fail a morale test,and decide to go "walkabout",but they had done a bit of damage to the phalanx,which would leave me vulnerable when Paul launched his Indian infantry against it-we decided that,as the infantry were bow-armed as well as spear armed,that they could shoot first and the charge in-this tactic piled the agony onto the phalanx-quadruple woe is me!!!!
The Indians are holding their own,and a couple of "Taxis" of the phalanx are in trouble-if I am forced to take a morale test,they could go!!-I have abandoned my attempt to capture the hill in the background,and now Paul is using the troops stationed there to threaten my flank-hey,that's not fair!!
This shot shows the state of my right flank-the cavalry look strong,but aren't!-my infantry are being battered,by topless maidens(would you believe that?) and my phalanx is breaking up,so we decided that the Macedonians had failed to get across the river in force,and that the Indians were the winners-well done to Paul and Brian.
This was another exciting and tactically thoughtful game,thoroughly enjoyed by all three of us.
Roll on Thursday-don't know what we'll be playing yet.
In the absence of Brian,who is sickly,the "Terrific Trio" donned their sandles and swords,and took themselves off to Egypt for this game.
These two photo's show the scenario and the table layout,before any movement,Paul elected to command the two legions(and a damned fine job he made of it too!!) Dave was in charge of the Hittites and Egyptians,whilst I took command of my Pa'Arasites and the Chariots-it was mentioned before the game started that the chariots would never pass their M.O.T, with all those emissions coming out of the back of them!!(it's supposed to be dust!!)
Hmmmmmmm!!
Obviously the newer(probably Nissan,'cos the're Dave's) version,with improved engine and nil carbon emissions!!
Belching clouds of noxious gases,the chariots roll forward and skirmish with Paul's auxiliaries on his left flank,whilst the two centres advanced against each other.Paul had also launched a good force against the Hittites in the pass(gates)
The centres have clashed in this shot,Paul threw his Pila,but I am spear-armed so had an advantage in the first round of melee-I was going to need it!!
Paul first threw in his cavalry to soften Dave up a bit,then followed with his cohorts-Dave's line held,but he was out-numbered-could he hold on???
On the Roman left,my heavy chariots have made contact with some Gallic cavalry,and,it has to be said,that they didn't do too well!!-Paul chased me back to my original position,where,thankfully,I still had my light chariots,who proceeded to "pepper" the cavalry with arrows,and eventually drove him back-hurrah!!
The fight for the pass continued,officers falling like nine pins,Hittites getting pushed back,then the Romans getting pushed back-heroic stuff of legends-it was at this point that disaster struck!!!-one of the light tubes packed in (a sign from the Gods??),but we managed to rig up temporary lighting and carried on-hurrah for good old British ingenuity!!
Dave had now got his Egyptian troops into a good position and was about to charge and teach these damned Romans a thing or two!!!!
That's the way to do it!!(is this Punch and Judy or wargaming??)
Dave's troops were spear-armed too and this caused Paul a bit of a problem,and he was pushed back for a move,but then reformed and came back in with a vengeance,and drove Dave back-wargaming at its best.
My centre troops are beginning to get weakened by continuous changing of lines and pila throws,and I am getting pushed back,except the far right flank,which I have all but secured.
Dave has managed to get one of his heavy chariot units to charge into a cohort,but the rest of the Egyptians are looking "tired"-the pass has been taken by the Romans,so we decided,after 14 moves and 5 hours of play,that the Romans were the narrow victors!!
This was another great game,thoroughly enjoyable in all aspects-well done lads,and get well soon Brian,and lastly,a very happy 2015 to everyone.
The "fab four" had what can only be described as an amazing ACW game yesterday-we started at 10.30AM and finished at approx. 3.00PM and got 14 moves completed! that was in between Oxo's and nibbles and a load of laughs-great stuff to blow away the Christmas excesses!!
This is the scenario and table before any movement-Paul was Grant,I was McClellan,Brian was Lee and Dave was Jackson-my reinforcements were due on the board on move number 5,and then both sides got reinforcements on move number 10.
Paul surprised everyone by abandoning his positions and moved forward to deny Brian the cover-this is going to be serious stuff,but Brian swept forward through shit,shot and shell,and made a good attempt to force Paul's flanks.
Things were pretty quiet on my flank-Dave and I moved our troops into position,then the "Chatanooga Choo Choo" arrived carrying two brigades-I now had 3 brigades against Dave's 2-hurrah!!-but could he hold the line??
The top photo shows Dave's flank,with Jackson hurrying his troops into position to stem the veritable "flood" of union troops-he placed his artillery just out of shot on the far right of the photo,and it did untold damage to my third brigade as it descended down the hill from the rail track.
The bottom photo shows Brian's attempt at out flanking Paul-this very nearly came off,but was stopped by Paul deploying a gun battery on the flank of the advancing "Rebs"-yee hah!!
The top photo shows the battlefield on move number 11-Lee and Jackson look worried!
The bottom photo shows Paul's reinforcements progressing against Brian's flank,and giving him hell-hurrah!!!
The fight for the "cornfield" continues on my flank-although I had more troops than Dave,I was not making much headway-probably just a matter of time though(?)-Paul and Brian had fought each other to a standstill in the centre-but each was in the process of capturing a flank(Brian,our left,Paul their left!!)-so,because it is still the Christmas season of "Good Will",a draw was declared-the relief is clear to see...............
On the Confederate side at least!!!
Well done us,a great game,very exciting,and fast paced-with 21 regiments and 3 batteries per side,this was a fairly big game which ran smoothly due to the fantastic organisation-I wonder who organised it!!!-The biggest laugh of the game was when Brian suddenly realised that he hadn't read his "blurb" on the battle(attached to his clip board!) and hadn't realised that he had reinforcements coming onto the board on move 10-oh how we laughed!!
Roll on Friday-another all day game,probably Ancients.
I thought I might share some of my Xmas joy with you all.........
The "usual" pressies that a man gets at Xmas-after-shave,socks,undies,booze-but what's that lying in front of them?
It's only a replica 1st century Roman Gladius,that's all!!-I am well chuffed.
Detail on the scabbard is excellent-who else but a great wife would have thought of a present like this?
The next Roman game is going to be interesting-especially if I am losing!!!!
Last night the "Fab Four",Dave,Paul,Brian and I had a very intriguing Marlburian game.
We picked sides and Brian was in command of the Irish,Paul was in charge of the Bavarians,whilst Dave commanded the centre and right of the Danes,and|I took charge of the left.
Brian had a most difficult task crossing the river,because not all three sections were crossable!!-this shows his regiments having to change direction,as only one section was crossable(he had picked pieces of paper marked"yes" and "no" and placed them,face down of course, on the river sections)
My cavalry can be seen moving into position to block access to the bridge.
This shows Dave's advance into the "Valley of Death"-he marched forward and formed up,then Paul unleashed his master stroke,and extended his line,using his back line regiments,and in one move had out-flanked the Danes!!-So,as usual,it was up to me to save the day-oh hell!!!
I have told all the "boys" that if they want their photograph taken they must salute me,which is why Paul is saluting!!
My infantry are attempting to storm the ridge,supported by my other cavalry-this was a disaster for the infantry,but fairly successful for the cavalry who managed to capture Brian's artillery placed on the ridge-HURRAH!!
My cavalry have stopped all Irish movement,and my gunners have done a lot of damage to them,however a good volley sent my artillerymen fleeing into the farmhouse for a move,which relieved the pressure on Brian,allowing him to move some cavalry and infantry across the bridge-in the background you can see the ferocious fire-fight going on between Paul and Dave.
The fight for Windmill Ridge!!-I have captured the guns,and am involved in a melee,on my right,however Brian is about to "pile" more units into the fight,and drive me back!!
This is a good shot of the whole table,showing most of the action-Dave's cavalry were in danger of dying through boredom,and his gun hasn't fired a shot yet,and why isn't he saluting????
Cavalry action at last-hurrah!!,plus a lucky shot from Dave's gun not only "toppled" a couple of points off Paul's rear squadron,but also killed the officer-pure skill of course!!-on the left of the picture ugly gaps are appearing in our lines-oh dear!!
I just had to include this shot-Dave's cavalry riding down a whole regiment of Bavarians,despite being shot at-hurrah,hurrah!!!
Regiments are starting to "retire" and it looks as though we aren't going to achieve our objective-is this another win for Brian and Paul??
Yes,all is lost,Brian has managed to get his infantry out of square,and with the ridge lost,we had no other option but call for a draw!!-this was,of course, rejected and Paul and Brian were declared the winners.-well played to all.
May I take this opportunity to wish all of our readers and followers,a very merry Christmas and a great New Year,and hope that 2015 is a peaceful one for the whole world-wouldn't it be good if the only wars that are fought were Wargames?
