Mea Culpa

 Club night and an opportunity for the Thunderbolts to wreak revenge on my Seleucids under King Ed after the last debacle. War and Conquest rules with armies of 2,000 points, neither of these armies perform at their best at less than 2,500 points but time constraints at the club calls for smaller forces.

I took three Roman cohorts one of veterans, skirmishers, Lanciarii, Auxiliary archers and Contari, Ed had two pike phalanxes, one veteran, Theurophoroi, javelin skirmishers, a bolt shooter, Skythian horse archers and the dreaded cataphracts. The cataphracts had done for me the last time we met and I was hoping my archers would soften them up for my Contari to take them on. I lost nearly all of the deployment rolls so basically had to field my army first, I thought things were not too bad but I had hardly any missile troops positioned to hit the cataphracts, my infantry held the centre and I put my Lanciarii on my extreme right just to annoy the Seleucid flank and keep the Theurophoroi busy.

 

Seleucids left, Thunderbolts right.

Twelfth.

Seleucids.

I won the first initiative and that is when things began to go wrong, I decided to let Ed go first so that my massed missile power could wipe out his skirmishers then move on the pikes or help confront his cavalry, thirty shots later one of the skirmishers must have lost his balance and fell on a spare arrow as he was the only Greek to die from the arrows and slingshots. I did manage to get a shot at the cataphracts but again it was a waste of time. I reinforced this failure for at least two more turns expecting some kind of return but not getting any, I did manage to eventually kill off the Skythians but it was a poor trade off for the time and effort it took.

 

Damn cataphracts.

At last the legionary's advance, but too late.

My Contari were ridden down by the cataphracts only managing to kill one while my whole troop were lost. My massed archers always seemed to be in the wrong place and brought nothing to the battle. Meanwhile with the threat of Seleucid cavalry in my rear, I had at last ordered the cohorts forward hoping to beat the pikes before the cataphracts could intervene, I smashed into the Greeks but had forgotten to expand my ranks, something I nearly always do and need to do if I am to beat a phalanx, I won the melees at first but the pikes held, numbers eventually told and the tables were turned. I had one more chance, Cohort III had an opportunity to hit a phalanx in the flank, but Ed had anchored his flank on a steep hill, the cohort failed to reach the enemy flank. Time was running out and the cataphracts were almost within charge reach of my line, sailing through what I would like to have described as a blizzard of missiles but which was in fact a slight wind. I gave in to the inevitable and offered my sword.

 

The lines meet.

A tough fight.

Ed handled his small army with skill while I made several bad decisions which I think cost me dear. If I had quickly moved my infantry forward and changed their formations I think I might have beat the phalanxes before the cataphracts could become a threat, but I didn't, I wasted three moves trying to kill off some skirmishers. I think I should also have had my massed archers on my right rather than the left where the enemy cavalry never gave them a chance to use their superior numbers. The Twelfth is not used to losing and twice now their Legate must carry the major share of the blame for the defeats. The threat of decimation however has not gone away.

I finished the first of my 'archer' cavalry from Steel Fist, and although at first I was a bit dubious I am now a fan, the figures represent perfectly the troop type they are supposed to be. The Foundry light cavalry on the other hand look a bit too light, the ones I have have practically no armour at all and 'archers' should be heavily armoured. I am sure there were lighter, non skirmishing cavalry but I am unsure of how they would be treated under the Furioso rules as they are not mentioned. At the same time as buying these cavalry figures I also bought six Steel Fist gendarmes, once again I was not impressed at first but now I have to admit they are very nice, a tad larger than the Foundry figures so I shall keep them in their own unit rather than mix them although you possibly could. The bad news is that the rider comes in separate pieces, head, sword, weapon with arm and plume, I buy metal not to faff about gluing bits and was disappointed with this aspect of the figures, also some of the plumes had no corresponding hole in the helmet and it is a devil to try and drill a hole in such a small thing, I left three off. I also found it difficult to get the lower arm/hand with the weapon to fit with some of them, I am also not a fan of soft lances/spears on whatever figures they come with and hate to see lovely figures with bent weapons. I swore I was not going to get any more of these, but I might relent as they do look good when all built up, this is also a personal opinion as I am sure more nimble fingers would make lighter work of it, but I cannot.

Archer cavalry

After the faffing, very nice.

I have now officially retired although many would profess that I have not worked in several years. My wife and her mates brought around a surprise buffet at closing time as they wanted to be my last customers. I also received some gifts and cards from grateful customers and I will admit some I will miss although I will no doubt run into them at some point in the village, but don't spread that around and ruin my image.

On the cards at the moment are building some terrain pieces for my eventual battles in 16C Italy, adding more cavalry to the army and some French pike. I have a large ACW game planned for the 18th and next week back to the Eastern Front as the Hitlerites try to kick down the rotting door of the Soviet Union.