Elephants and Bamboo Bows

 Big news this week, for me anyway, is that I have reached the grand old age of 72, yes I know I don't look it but the inside feels about 82. I received some nice books from my Christmas wish list, I have went all digital this year and put a list on Amazon for people to pick from. So far I think it is working.

My presents, one more to come.

I have been searching and adding some 1/72 planes for the odd strafing run on my tables as a side project and to date had sorted an FW190 for late war and a Stuka for early and mid, I also bought a ready built Spritfire kit from my grandson for my Normandy+ British. I had just about given up getting a Russian aircraft until mate Robert told me he had visited an Antique warehouse in nearby Ingleton and they had kits for a decent price. I set off and sure enough found a treasure trove of 1/72 painted, die-cast models. I reined in my wallet and settled on a Yak-3 for my Russians and spoiled myself with a lovely Henschel 123 for the Jerries, I just couldn't resist it. This biplane was operational in the ground attack role up to and after Barbarossa, it was so good on the Eastern Front the Luftwaffe asked for the factories to be re-opened to make more, but they had already been dismantled.

Yak-3 and Henschal 123.

I am continuing to dust my vehicle collection and am about half way through, you can see the effect better on plain painted vehicles but I am committed to giving them all a coating. Meanwhile I have recieved a few more buildings, two rural barns from Empires at War (unpainted) and two houses from Charlie Foxtrot, most of my collection of buildings are Colin's so these will fit well on the table. All this in expectation of more WWII gaming in 2025. Very happy with the Empires of War, we have some at the club but I now know they are 15mm and 20mm and not 28mm due to the size of the barns, might have a word with the treasurer.

Club had our big Christmas game this week, this year we went full on medieval, the table was fairly open and each player had a mounted knight, these were let loose to win Honour and Money fighting against other knights they came across or challenged, there were also tents, a stable, church and blacksmith's where bonus' or not could be picked up. My quest was pretty unspectacular as I found nothing in the first tent and after several combats I had to retire to heal my many wounds, I was inches from death. Once healed I came back to find a large, buxom wench holding tankards of beer whom I 'rescued' and escorted off the table earning me some sheckles. On my return I failed miserably to move very far and then found myself at the mercy of Fran and Dan's dismounted men-at-arms and subsequently expelled from the game. No photographs I am afraid, too many kids there, sorry.

The rules were vaguely Hail Caesar and worked very well for the mayhem which raged throughout the evening, everyone enjoyed themselves and we were treated to Julian's excellent mince pies as always. That's it for this year at the club, we have had a very succesful year with the introduction of new games and new members while having to annex another classroom to contain our growing numbers. We have a Curry night booked for 3rd January and then a return to business as usual on the 7th.

Yesterday Ian turned up with his Classical Indian army for a try at War and Conquest, I was commanding my Seleucids which have only seen at most half a dozen battles since I raised them. I knew Ian would have a lot of bamboo longbows and a few elephants and maybe chariots so I was a bit worried about my lack of protection in getting across the table and into hand to hand combat. I decided to go a bit heavy on skirmishers as a shield, Elephant Escorts with javelin, elite Cretan and Skythian archers and a normal unit, backed by two pike blocks, some mercenary hoplites and a light infantry unit of Thorakiti, oh, and an elephant. Ian deployed and had a solid centre of archers, supported by spearmen and a lot of elephants, I noticed many more in his boxes, on his flanks were light and heavy chariots.

Seleucid and his army.

The Indian King.

Deployment.

 I dithered a bit at first but knew I couldn't stand around for long, so sent my whole line forward, my Skythians were cut down but their morale held and they duelled with the light chariots for most of the game. On the other flank my light cavalry charged and cleared the heavy chariots here and eventually managed to turn and hit the Indian left flank. I kept targetting the elephants with my skirmishers before they fell to the torrents of bamboo arrows, I had success with one elephant which routed and expired when the mahout killed it as it approached its own troops, this rout also meant a unit of spearmen also ran for a time.

Damn chariots.

A formidable enemy.

Get stuck in boys.

My hoplites took some severe casualties as they advanced but at last managed to strike their tormentors who simply could not stand up to them in close combat, this was the same story as my pikes also managed to close with the Indian infantry albeit the White Shields took heavy casualties from the archers on their march forward. It could have been worse but my sacrificial skirmishers did their job against all the odds until they were killed to a man.

My hardy Escorts.

 

Take that small fry.

The Seleucid advance.

 As his infantry fled Ian threw in his elephants, the hoplites were caught in the flank and destroyed while the White Shields fought off two elephants, one the Indian Kings mount. The Thorakiti also managed to hold and eventually kill their beast. I now threw my own elephant into the flank of the triumphant Nellie which had routed the hoplites, my larger animal won through. With his last offensive now stopped and routed Ian handed over his sword.

The end for the Indians.

 This was a very interesting game and I think I was lucky in that it was Ian's first game, his army has a formidable weapon with the elephants backed up by scores of archers and the skirmishing chariots if used well can be a frustrating challenge to neutralise. Where the army falls down a bit is that the infantry component have less than average morale although bodyguards and mercenaries are available, so if contact is made they have a struggle to compete against hoplites and pikes. I felt outnumbered as the Seleucids are an expensive army and was forced into going forward and into close combat as fast as I could, something I would not normally do unless the circumstances are right. Ian also managed some superb shooting dice which sadly, for him, did not continue over to his melee rolls. It was great to fight a WAC battle again and against such an interesting army, I do hope we can do so again as Ian has several ancient armies at his disposal.

That was the last battle for 2024, I have put everything else including map projects on hold until after new Year, I do have those buildings to paint up but that's it. I will do a rerun of the year as usual later. January already has around four games scheduled for here in The Bunker so I will be off to a flying start.

A nice gift from David Bickley, 2025 Calendar from GHQ.