Sunday, 26 June 2016

A Clash of Shields

I had some good company last night and I put on a game of Sword and Spear for them and I tried my hand at Game Mastering the game. I made 2 400 point lists as follows:

Mid Republican Romans
1 General
2 Captains
5 Hastati/Principe- armored
1 Triari
1 Cavalry - armored undisciplined
2 Velites

Vs

Gauls

4 Warriors - Large
1 Warrior
1 Gaestati
2 Well Equipped Cavalry
1 Slinger
1 Archer

Deployment

The Gauls lost the scouting and set up their large heavy infantry on their left with their flank anchored to the tower there. The regular warrior, the Gaeseti and the 2 cavalry set up near the woods on the other flank. The light foot were set up in the centre.

The Romans set up their heavy foot in a line opposite the large w
Warbands with a hill between them. The lone Cavalry held the flank of the line and the Velites set up to counter any flanking plans the Gallic cavalry might bring.

The Roman battle plan was to capture the hill with his heavy foot and assess from their whether to press the attack against the large Warbands opposite him. The Roman Light Foot and Cavalry were assigned to stall or eliminate any flanking maneuvers from the Gauls.

Romans on the left Gauls on the right


The Gallic plan was to refuse the flank with their large Warbands until the flank attack was successful and then surround the smaller Roman army.

The Gallic General struggled to maneuver his flanking force around the forests but did manage to crush the two Velites sent to oppose him. The timing was not good as the Romans were able to close the range with the Gallic Large Warbands before the victorious Gallic Cavalry could come to their aid.

The Gallic Archers was frustratingly effective against the Roman Heavy Foot as it advanced, inflicting three hits on one of the Hastati.

The initial charge by the Roman Heavy Foot was devastating and the Large Warbands were quickly too damaged to benefit from rally rolls. One of the Large Warbands fell out of the battle line to chase the Roman Cavalry that was threatening the flank after it chased down and evading Light Archer. The Large Warband defeated the Roman Cavalry but was badly missed in the clash between the main battle lines. 

Losses were even with both sides losing their two Light Foot and a Cavalry. The Romans were able to gain the upper hand in the scrum between the heavy foot and force the Gallic army to retreat when 2 of their Large Warbands routed.

After battle discussion concluded that the flank attack from the Gallic Cavalry arrived to late to be effective. The flanking Gallic Heavy |Infantry were to slow to contribute to the battle, except to destroy the stalling force of Roman Light Foot.

Armored Roman Heavy Foot with a general attached are hard to kill. The Gallic Heavy Foot did not get to use their Impact ability as they feared charging against the Roman Pilum.

The Gallic player was new to the game and I think he would enjoy playing a more disciplined army next time.

Thanks for a fun game Jonathan and Martin!

Large Heavy Gallic Foot set up next to the tower

Gallic battle line


Roman Heavy Foot advance up the hill



Gallic Slingers stand off Roman Cavalry and Heavy Foot!


Roman Heavy Foot try to keep their formation as they advance


Gallic Flank attack with two Heavy Foot, two Cavalry and two Captains emerge from the forest and are met by two Roman Velites






The last stand of the Velites


Gallic Cavalry threaten the Roman rear. The Hastati turn and pin them before they can cause to much trouble.


The Romans close with the Gallic battle line and dismantle it!


Late game






Saturday, 25 June 2016

New Toys




It is not too often that I get to order up miniatures but I had the pleasure of seeing some arrive in my mailbox this week. My Prussian army gifted to me by Yankee Jeff did not have any command figures so I ordered some from Essex Miniatures. My plan is to paint them to match as close as possible to the original figures. The Essex figures were very nice but still a little large for the figures in hand. I am a devout Old Glory customer. OG is cheap like me and allows me to indulge my megalomania and collect huge armies. I based and primered the new figures and added a painted figure to use as reference. 22 command stands to do plus a 3 horse command unit with Blucher.

I truly enjoy the routine of painting and find it a great way to relax. I hope to transfer that energy and discipline to terrain building. I have been pondering making 15mm buildings. I am concerned that my skills and patience will not be up to the task and have even considered purchasing instead (gasp). Perhaps I will purchase a good how-to book instead. Any recommendations out there?

Back to painting...


Here are my command stand flags printed from the excellent War Flags web site. http://www.warflag.com/


Yankee Jeff gave me the Prussians in this very cool wooden wine box. I refurbished it and added my newly rebased figures back to it. It is a beautiful day here in Nova Scotia so I went on the deck for some well lit pictures of the new bases and cool carrying kit.


Wooden wine case


Top layer with generals, cavalry and limbers


Bottom layer with infantry and artillery


Jonathan is coming or a game tonight so I put together a rebased Corp of Brunswickers for him in a travel box. Here is a sunny picture of them before they go to their new home. These are from Yankee Jeff's donated collection.

Brunswickers with marching orders


Saturday, 18 June 2016

Bloody Romans!


Just wanted to post an update re the C&C Ancients game today. C&C Ancients is a board game that converts very well to a miniature game. The scenario was Epic Beneventum with Pyrrus of Epirote vs Rebublican Rome as found on the website. This was the first time I have played with a full compliment of players with 4 a side. It was a lot of fun and the battle was back and forth with Rome pulling out the win 15 flags to 14. One of the memorable moments was watching our elephant rampage, killing a friendly general, a cavalry unit and damaging another,  before heading for the hills. We met a couple of potential new recruits to the group and hope to see them at the game table again.



Wednesday, 15 June 2016

New Recruits

I collected and painted a German army for WWII about two years ago. They have never been used. I have been corresponding with my local WWII gamer guru Phil and we are planning a campaign around the second battle of Kharkov 1942. The figures are 15mm from Old Glory except for the odd Battlefront figure. These are based for Flames of War and focused on an Grenadier Company with armored support. Perhaps this will get blooded during the campaign soon.

20mm AA and crew
 75mm Anti Tank guns and crews


 Infantry Gun and crew
 105mm Howitzers and crew


 Heavy mortars and crews

 Command stand
 HMG and Crew
 Grenadiers
 HMG and crew

These tanks were fun to paint. I used mostly spray paint and blue tack to get the camo pattern.

PzIIIs
 Pz4Ds
 Pz4F/Gs
 Tiger 1 done with airbrush

 Panther D

 StuGs
Marders
 Stuka!
 150mm IG airbrushed
 Light Mortar and crew
 Medium Mortars and Crew
 Engineers
 Scouts