Big Battles

Grab a cuppa and settle down. Sunday night and Rob Broom arrives for a couple of days of War and Conquest, one of my two favourite games. 

The first action involves my Seleucids against Spartans, Rob is a big fan of Greek warfare and I knew this would be a tough fight, I have fought Greeks/Carthaginians before and they are tough opponents, too tough in my book up against phalangites but that is another story, I just had to get it in. My army had three pike units and two mercenary hoplites with an elephant for support as a core, the supporting troops were horse archers, archers and cataphracts, I was relying quite a bit on the armoured horse to help me win. First up the terrain did not favour me and I felt crushed into the centre, this became quite a problem for me as events unfolded, I also found my right flank looked decidedly weak and I could only spare one of the hoplite units to protect it with a load of skirmishers, Rob likes skirmishers as I would find out. The Spartans had a couple of elite units backed up with allied hoplites (not sure about all the enemy units), covered by a horde of skirmishers and some small cavalry units. 

Massed pikes.

Seleucids.

Spartans

The battlefield.

I thought I could run the cataphracts up and threaten the Spartan right while my infantry ran forward to engage the Greek main line. At first I did well on my right and and there was a lot of confused fighting around a wood on that flank, Rob decided to send an elite Spartan unit to this flank while another sat behind the front line, I was happy that the perceived threat had been blunted. The left flank also seemed to be going to plan despite all my units being in a log jam around the villa and the annoying house on the hill, sadly for me my cataphracts were held up by some Greek cavalry which they should have rode down and were prevented from turning in to help my phalangites as the lines clashed.

That damn terrain.

Come on boys.

More blood spilled on my left.

And now came the down side, I found it incredibly difficult to actually kill the Greeks despite doing a good number of hits due to their armour save (kevlar became the word of the day, Rob liked that). I lost a phalanx very quickly and the victors smashed into my hoplites, things were not looking good. The fighting on my right became ever more confused as I now had to pull the cataphracts away to pursue the routing Greek cavalry, the only good point was that Rob had two units which could not make it into the fight while I mopped up the right flank but to my chagrin a small unit of Greek cavalry had escaped, surely they would be no problem. I lost another phalanx and now had only one left, my hoplites in the centre were fighting like Trojans but just missing out on success. It was now that I managed in the ruin of my plans to bring the elephant into action and get revenge on one of the enemy hoplite units.

Crises for the Seleucids.

Nellie puts a smile on my face.

More confusion, my useless cataphracts failed a morale test as my last phalanx bit the dust and failed to hit some Spartans in the rear, but just as I was about to look for a white towel Nellie and my hoplites won through and routed their oppressors. Could I hold out, no I couldn't, those pesky light cavalry hit my hoplites on the right in the flank and the cowards ran (this was their first taste of battle), my cataphracts did come back but were beaten in the end, I think the elephant was my only survivor I could not continue.

A very hard and intense battle which lasted around six hours, several times I wailed and gnashed my teeth at Robs luck while ignoring my own, I did make a meal of the cataphracts not helped by the bravery of the Greek lights standing against them. And don't mention those damn hoplites running from villagers on mules! 

We cleared away and set up the next game, my boys were up, Legio XII Fulminata against Rob's beautiful Masai army, he was playing it as Celts, lots of huge warbands with again a horde of skirmishing units. The Legion had a core of heavy legionary infantry in the centre with auxilieries on the flanks, arcehrs and light troops on the left and cavalry on the right, I had very few skirmishers. I basically had to hold the barbarians for the first clash when they had everything going for them and then grind them down, steady boys.

Thunderbolts ready!

The battlefield.

The Masai (Celts).

My Lanciarii on the left swept forward and saw off a couple of the small skirmish units there and then began to threaten a large fanatic warband, which was drawn off to deal with the elusive skirmishers for the rest of the game taking them out of the battle. I had drawn off one cohort to move to my right while my cavalry sorted out the enemy there, things were looking good. The legion heavy infantry had now all advanced as far as I could as a large, difficult hill was making life difficult for Plan A. On the left my massed archers and the javelins of Aux. Co. I goaded a warband into attacking, the auxiliaries held and I then positioned two legionary cohorts and the archers to take advantage of the enemy when they broke through, to my amazement and Rob's disgust these guys held on turn after turn and I used the time wisely. I had now completed routing all the enemy on my right and began to move against the remaining enemy troops in the centre.

The armies advance.

My cavalry swing wide.

Rob's rally point.

Rob was not the only general to be disappointed, my Contari swept through my horse archers in pursuit of a warband only for the archers to fail a morale check as they tried to get out of the way and they routed off the table. Despite this annoying set back the Thunderbolts were ready for the onslaught, in came the first large warband and was duly held by a cohort of recruits, Cohors I now came in on the enemy flank and put paid to their fight. The second huge warband hit Cohors II and III and again were held, Aux. Co. II now came in on their flank, my archers then smashed into the flank of the victorious warband who had been held back most of the battle by Aux. Co. I enabling the Twelfth to prepare for the assault.

Flank attack one.

Flank attack two.

The price of taking on the Thunderbolts.

Needless to say I was overjoyed at the Thunderbolts performance, Rob had some bad luck and his attack had been slowed by one warband refusing to charge during one turn, again giving the Romans time to prepare. With their flanks gone the Masai were left with no option but to try a furious charge, which thankfully failed. Aux. Co. I although eventually ground down and routed were undoubtedly the men of the match.

Tuesday morning and the final battle, Rob chose the Saxons and I took the Romano-British, we used my armies. Strangely enough Rob went cavalry heavy and put them all on his right flank he then put four infantry units in the line with some Gedriht in reserve with the King. I took two bodyguard units backed up by some Milites, I put a cavalry unit on both flanks, once I saw the deployment I decided to quickly advance my bodyguards to hit the Saxons opposite before their Hearthguard could enter the line, my left was to act cautiously.

Saxons.

Romano-British.

The battlefield.

As the battle opened I saw an opportunity to throw caution to the wind and attacked the nearest enemy cavalry with mine while also sending skirmishers in support, this proved to be spectacularly successful, one cavalry unit was routed and the other two suffered casualties as their skirmish supports ran for the rear. Rob tried to get a cheeky flank charge with one of the units but I moved against them and forced them to run. Meanwhile my infantry had hit the enemy line and pushed their opponents back while his King manouvered to come into line. On the right I routed the enemy skirmishers and began to annoy the one Saxon unit there with my cavalry while threatening it with my Pedyts.

Fighting breaks out along the line.

All is going well.

Now we approach the Saxon left.

The whole Saxon right began to run as I brought my victorious cavalry back into action, one infantry unit ran and one was dispersed. Although the Saxon cavalry managed to rally and attempted to get back in the fight numbers and circumstances were against them and they were again forced to rout. By now Rob only had his Ceorls and his Gedriht left on the field, the former were losing their fight and my cavalry had now formed up and were ready to deliver a flank attack to ensure victory. The Gedriht stood surrounded on a hill while the army fled, Rob handed over his sword.

Rob did not have much luck in this game and failed most of his morale checks which ensured his cavalry took no real part in the action, his infantry were outclassed by the British Comitatus and although putting up a fight eventually fled.

The Ceorls in trouble.

The last of the Saxon cavalry also in trouble.

Three terrific games and I learned a couple of things about the rules which I had not understood, I do have a couple of reservations, no rule system is perfect, but for me War and Conquest almost hits that target and that's what matters. Rob was a worthy opponent and a fine bloke to play against having made the journey all the way from Bristol on our faltering road system. Till the next time, I have a Triumph to prepare for, now where did I put that red paint ..........

For King James

 After a few weeks poor Rob was well enough to make it to the club, he brought a Jacobite scenario using Muskets and Tomahawks rules, strangely though these Jacobites were in Welsh Wales. The lord of the manor was a Jacobite supporter (based on a real person) and had at his disposal a number of Scots left behind when the lads returned north and sundry others loyal to the 'king over the water'. Myself and Ian were the local government troops tasked with capturing said big wig and taking him to the nearest gaol.

As we approached the manor there was a party in full swing and we held off until several hogsheads of ale and porter were imbibed in order to make our mission easier, sadly as Ian's troops moved on the main building they knocked out a drunk sentry who dropped his musket and the shot alerted all and sundry. Ian's men now took on some militia in a nearby barn and was roundly whipped while his remaining troops invaded the 'big hoose'. I charged another barn and beat up the militia hiding there before moving to support Ian, I was fairly slow but managed to pick up a suspect from the mob escaping the mayhem in the manor, he was either the lord or his brother.

The Manor.

My boys arrive.

Several civilians ran around like headless or rather drunk chickens, I managed to hold off several attacks and make my way to the departure point, most of the enemy now seemed to concentrate on Ian's men and a great many bit the dust. I did begin to wonder just how many Jacobite sympathisers were in this part of Wales. Just as I got close to my objective more of those disloyal types managed to bar my exit, however despite several furious melees I managed to get my hostage to safety, but only just, it turned out he was m'lud's brother. I think we also got the man himself or perhaps he was killed in the confusion, someone in fine clothes was.

Jacobite supporters.

My stalwart lads ready to head home.

A fine bash and well run by Rob with his usual trademark stunts "do you really want to look in those barrel's in the courtyard?" 

I have completed yet another unit for the Romans, an auxiliary cohort stationed on the Rhine frontier, V Dalmatarum, a veteran cohort who had all been given Roman citizenship for their service. I have another to paint but have decided to take a rest from heavy infantry and instead do a unit of skirmish archers. I am painting these guys a lot quicker than I thought I would. 

I have dug out the red carpet here in the Bunker for some wargaming royalty (tongue firmly in cheek). David Bickley of GHQ popped in on Thursday and we spent a good time chatting on various topics of our great hobby. I also have Rob Broom coming for a couple of days gaming on Sunday so I will be busy. My Seleucids and the Thunderbolts will be out in force, our third game will be a large Dark Age bash. Depending on how we get on we might manage a small Bolt Action game before he leaves on Tuesday. I am really looking forward to these games. Rob is bringing Spartans and his Masai, the latter I think I have already said are beautiful and will be pretending to be a Warband army, think Celts with feathers. The last time the Twelfth fought them back in 2016 I got a Triumph out of it, can I repeat this feat of arms?

I have also been busy on the map front, I have a couple of projects which for some reason seem to be never ending, a correction here, an amendment there. I have started on the Arab-Israeli atlas and am looking forward to seeing the printed version of Wargaming the Italian Wars after its debut at Salute, I have seen a proof and it is wargaming eye candy at its best.

Arab-Israeli atlas.

 

History of 8th Virginia Regiment AWI.

 

History of Saudi Arabia.

Bremen 5.1: Cat and Mouse

 I was all set up this week to head for the Sudan and teach Johnny Foreigner how to respect the Empire when we found out there was parents night on at the school which holds the club, which would mean parking would be a nightmare, so it was cancelled and I put away my tea bags, Ambre Solaire and gave Watson the night off. 

I painted instead and completed my Roman horse archers, and very nice they look too, I am very pleased with them. Next up is one of my Auxilliary cohorts, I got them cleaned and sorted out spears as they were not getting pilum, I then realised I had used the spears with points and not with a flat spearhead. Why did this bother me, although there is evidence that the pilum or a similar spear/heavy javelin was still in use during the 3rd Century, it was may have been called a spiculum but to confuse things this may simply have implied a pilum with a long metal shaft, no lead weight. In order to give some of the troops a spiculum as opposed to a pilum I wanted the pointy spears without a broad head, these would be given to the remaining regular legionaries, get to the point I hear you say, well I got up in the morning and changed all the spears!

Despite losing out on the club, mate Robert popped in to complete our game on Table 5 of our Road to Bremen (scroll down) Chain of Command campaign. I was holding out in one corner of the field while the British tried their best to strike without taking heavy casualties, we had both already lost a squad each. I had managed to get some reinforcements in the shape of a Pz IIIN and it was causing problems for Robert as I could cover both approaches to my defences with it.

The British of course threw mortar smoke at me everytime I looked threatening, but this is a two way weapon and allowed me to move around under cover of the barrage without taking losses. Robert eventually did move towards my line but I manged to get the tank and an MG42 team into a good position to shoot his assault squad, it dived for cover but now found itself in the sights of my men in a nearby barn, this was too much and they routed.

Sadly for the British their attempts to kill off the lone MG42 came to naught and it managed to retreat into cover, my line had held and the British were now another squad down. Robert decided to withdraw and fight another day. The dice Gods had been kind to me and unkind to Robert, perhaps his luck will change with his next attempt to force his way through on the road to Bremen. I can feel a mortar barrage coming, we don't usually use these as they upset the game but the British may have no choice but to use one in order to force their way through.

Friday and another game in the Bunker, ACW this time and a learning experience for Ian, I therefore set up a small battle so I would have time to explain the rules. I set up the Battle of New Market famous for the charge of the Virginia Military Institute students, which inspired the attack of the schoolboys in John Wayne's The Horse Soldiers, one of my favourite movies. Ian chose to take the Union which has a green brigade set up just north of the town on Manor's Hill while the Rebs deploy on Shirley's Hill opposite them, the Confederates really need to push hard before the rest of the Union troops arrive from the north.

I had taken this onboard and set my boys forward only to be hit by a lucky artillery shot which sent one of my large infantry regiments skeddadling for the rear and off the table as I failed to rally them, not a good start. I sent my cavalry out on my right to flank the town and come in on the Federal left, my infantry trotted forward as fast as they could. At some point, the Union morale broke and several regiments ran for the rear leaving a very large hole in their defenses, I scrambled to take advantage of this but it was taking time, Ian tried again to set up a defensive line but again this was forced back. My artillery kept letting me down and doing no damage except to plough up the fields to its front.

The set up.

Forward boys!

Reb cavalry flank march.

Union cavalry turned up and made for my right flank, my own cavalry now took up a position in the woods and built hasty works, I decided not to push them into the sea of blue which was now to their front as Federal reinforcements began to arrive in large numbers. Despite the disparity in troops I continued to push against the Union right as Ian got into a bit of a traffice jam as his last reserves turned up. Although the Yankees put up a decent fight my up until now useless guns found their range and began to pummel the Union line, the VMI battery being extremely succesful. For a minute it looked like I would be forced to stop my attack but my troops came through and Union morale collapsed, the high ground was mine.

Union line is forced back.

A brave but fruitless attack by US Colored Troops.

Union cavalry advance.

This is a nail biter of a game, the only thing in the Confederate favour is that many of the Union regiments are green, it did not help that poor old Franz Sigel was shot down, nor me when one of my brigadiers hit the dust and held up my advance. I cannot complain about my dice luck on morale and my shooting was usually very good unless it came from the mouth of a cannon. 

We have the heights.

So, another week of combat over, next week at the club I believe we have the Jacobite Rebellion at the club, or something along the lines of 1746. No big plans but the week after I should have a couple of days of War and Conquest as author Rob Broom is booked to come up, looking forward to that, especially as the Thunderbolts should get a run out.