If only .........

I have now finished my War and Conquest weekend courtesy of my son Stewart. My new 3rdC Roman army is basically finished and ready for the tabletop and as much as I would have liked to lead Thrax's boys in battle my son Stewart regards Roman troops as walking tanks, so I let him take the new army. I have to admit I have a superstition about the 'Thunderbolts' and felt I could not abandon them so the first battle would be a 'Civil War', quite appropriate for the 'Crises'. I also wanted to show him that the Romans are not invincible so decided to take a Barbarian Warband army for the second battle, tongue firmly in cheek, again an appropriate clash for Maximinus Thrax.

The Twelfth mustered with four cohorts two of which were recruits, the supports were one Auxiliary cohort, some Auxiliary light infantry along with some skirmishers, the cavalry were horse archers and kontos armed Contari. Across the field were four legionary vexillations and some Lanciarii, these were supported by skirmishers, Contari, German cavalry and Roman horse archers, a bolt shooter completed the line up. I realised too late that my right flank was going to be in trouble, so I held the III Cohort back just in case, I then made things worse by losing my Light Infantry but to be fair they had refused to charge into the enemy javelins in the wood which then set them up as a target for the enemy Contari.

Legio XII Fulminata.

Thrax.

Thunderbolts on the left, Thrax on the right.

On the left I did manage to chase off the enemy horse archers but lost my own to the Germans, I now felt pressured to attack the enemy infantry before both my flanks failed. My assault proved a triumph and two of the enemy fled, despite being commanded by Thrax himself XXII Primagenia also fled in sympathy. Stewart looked despondent but my men could not catch the routers and most of them managed to rally and come back, my Contari tried to catch I Minerva in the flank but had to withdraw. So far my massed archers had failed miserably to inflict casualties on anyone they fired at, much like Stewart's bolt shooter, but unlike the Scorpio my archers broke for the rear having suffered horrendous casualties. 

Both sides advance.

My unfortunate horse archers.

German cavalry.

Still early days.

On my right Auxiliary I had fought magnificently but their enemy once again returned and just as things were again looking good they were hit in the rear by Contari, nonetheless they fought to the last man and tied up both these units for some time. Things are a bit hazy now, but the upshot was that I stabilised the right flank and routed the Contari and Javelins that were there, II Treverorum managed to hold out after being routed twice. Despite fighting a depleted II Cohort Thrax and his bodyguard were being beaten back. Stewart handed over his sword.

My Auxiliaries surrounded.

Roman v Roman.

Thrax leads XXII Primagenia.

My light infantry refuse to charge.

I made a mistake leaving my right at a disadvantage, however if I had put the Contari on the right my left would have been easily overwhelmed by two cavalry units against my skirmishers, so it was a hard decision and I was lucky that I got away with it. The Twelfth had proved themselves once again against a difficult opposition and remain No.1.

On Sunday it was a very different battle Barbarians against a well trained, professional Roman army. I fought one of the most memorable battles years ago against mate Matt Smith who took a Warband army against the Thunderbolts, the Twelfth gained their fearsome reputation in this battle which was a tremendous but ultimately victorious struggle, I wanted to try such a fight again. This time I was the Barbarians, and I kept it simple with five large warbands, some Noble cavalry and some skirmishers, I was going to keep it simple and just charge the enemy relying on my numbers and skill in the first clashes. Stewart brought three vexilations and three Lanciarii with two cavalry units and also some skirmishers. We deployed one unit at a time and by the end we were on the opposite sides of the battlefield.

Germans on the left Romans on the right.

Romans.

Germans.

 I thought the Romans were going to have difficulty getting past the terrain so set my warbands off immediately at speed to close them in even further. The Romans managed to grab a hill on their left so I decided to leave this alone, they were happy to stick to their hill so I took on the javelins with Warriors 2 and sent them packing. I also managed to rout some archers and a Lanciarii unit, on the debit side I lost a warband to Thrax and his bodyguard, however overall things looked good. On the other hand my pursuers continually failed to exert any enthusiasm and the enemy kept rallying, this would happen time and time again.

Roman archers run away.

My leader about to hit the Roman centre.

Things are looking good.

Intense combat.

My Leader fought magnificently in the centre but once again actually managing to maintain the success was sadly lacking, I had been doing very well on my left but again the Romans would flee only to come back as my men had left their trainers with the wagons. The Contari, who had routed three times now came to the party and caught a warband in the flank, this unfortunate unit now routed, my remaining warband on the left was now surrounded by Romans and although fighting like Trojans eventually succumbed to the pressure. I was now left with only two warbands and my Noble cavalry, the latter had been threatening Thrax and his men and would have found it difficult to ride past him to help on the left, maybe I should have at least tried but they kept Thrax out of the fight for most of the game. Soon I was left with only my leader and the remnants of his hard fighting warband, it was time for me to hand Stewart his sword back.

I am ready to charge the centre.

 

Get after them!

  

The above does not do justice to this intense conflict, at least twice it looked like the Romans were on the ropes but my lack of decent pursuit moves and Stewarts incredible morale throws allowed them to came back time and time again. I will admit some of his early routs were also the result of some bad morale throws on his part. This will go down in the annals as the Battle of the Whingers as we both implored the dice gods not to desert us, if only this or if only that, and yes, I actually changed my dice half way through.

We chose 3,000 point armies and took our time so each game lasted around five hours, with eats and some beers, a satisfying and best way to play a wargame. For me War and Conquest brings highs and lows, frustration and elation while allowing me to put large armies onto the table and throw buckets of dice, nothing else I have seen or played can beat it. Yes it is Old School, but tell me anywhere that 'New School' is better, in wargaming or elsewhere.

I made a supreme effort before the battle to finish off my last unit of Lanciarii so that Stewart would have the complete army to choose from, I also painted up my Slave Trader set from Foundry as the Rally Point. I was on a roll and managed to weather the Pz I and Bunkerflak, I also found another Panzer I in my 1939-1942 box, duh. I got a Luftwaffe 88 crew from Empress as they have jackboots for early war, I will only be able to put two figures on the vehicle as there is just not enough room, the others can act as extra gun crew for Chain of Command.

I have a busy week ahead, mate Robert will be here on Tuesday and Wednesday for some games in the evening although we have not decided what we are doing yet. I also have an important appointment with the NHS on Wednesday, or at least I am hoping it is. 

I continue with my work on the Arab-Israeli atlas, about a third of the way through now.

 

Swiss Again and Konigsberg Finishes

 I got a call last week out of the blue to say mate Robert would be in the area and if I had time would I like to play something, we had been playing a Chain of Command campaign but that sadly has had to be put on indefinte hold. We decided therefore to do something Italian Wars, I once again looked through the new book to find something not too large and fairly simple, I went for Agnadello. Basically the Venetians were caught on the march and they were decisively beaten by the French after a heroic attempt at holding them off, they were not helped by some of their troops withdrawing and leaving the remainder to be slaughtered.

Robert took the French as he had dabbled in Renaissance warfare a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away and had had a French army. The scenario has an allowance for the Venetian and French reinforcements to turn up but I elected to fight without them as we did not have the time so I was hoping that my pike blocks behind the dry ditch would hold off the Swiss and with a bit of luck my right would also hold, otherwise I was doomed.

French on the left, Venetians on the right.

Venetian right.

French left.

I gingerly moved my right flank forward as the French send mounted crossbows around that flank and two Swiss blocks to try and flank the ditch on the left. Surprisingly Robert managed to keep his men from going hell for leather against the Venetians as he sent his Gendarmes against my centre. At least he did up to a point, one of the Swiss units which had been trying to turn my flank gave up and went for the defenders behind the ditch, if they became disordered perhaps I would have a chance. The French Gendarmes in the centre wiped out my Stradiots and to my suprise a small pike block which had had the temerity to attack them, at the same time the Swiss facing my right made short work of my Italian shot, I was struggling to hold back the enemy tide. 

The clash on the Venetian right.

The right collapses.

 

The Swiss breach the breastworks.

 My own men-at-arms were now attacked on my left and were soon whittled down and were ready to run for the rear, further along the Swiss had indeed been disordered fighting over the ditch but were still throwing back my men. On my right my army had gone, there was nothing between my survivors and the rest of the French army, it was over.

Would the arrival of the reinforcements changed the course of the battle, probably not, it is a hard ask that the Venetians stand against the Swiss although I think it is well worth fighting, just in case. My luck had not been great and my guns failed to fire several times as the enemy advanced, Robert also seemed to have the edge with the initiative dice. Nonetheless my troops did not fight as well as the Venetians on the day.

We finished fairly early so I met Robert later for a drink and then returned in time to sort the terrain for Matt and I's last game of the Konigsberg Campaign. We did not follow the instructions as it seemed almost impossible for the Germans to win the way victory points were constructed, but in the end decided to fight a battle on each of the seven tables and see who won. We both had three wins each as we entered the final showdown. Matt had four squads some with a few men down, an MMG and a PzIV, I had a very beaten up platoon with a T-34/85 as support, I doubted the battle would be worth Matt's trip down from Penrith before he won.

An early panzer.

The German infantry surge forward.

Now Comrade!

Matt got off to a good start and managed to win the Patrol Phase and ensure I was stuck in an orchard although to be honest there was really nowhere else for me to go. The Germans came on very agressively and the tank clanked on to the road, a surprise to me at this early stage. As my turn rolled around I set up my infantry in the orchard just out of sight of the enemy, but in the next turn I decided to bring on the T34, boom, up went the Panzer, the game had just changed. To make things worse for Matt I then got an extra turn, my troops moved up in a firing line and destroyed the lead German squad, my tank also put paid to the MMG as the crew broke and left the field, German morale plummeted to 5 or 6.

The Russian defenders await.

A good shot.

More Germans.

The high point for the Soviets.

Then it all went pear shaped, my tank became virtually useless, if lucky it dealt out some shock but couldn't kill anyone, the German infantry left the church and it was my turn to recieve the hurt, a deadly turn from Matt destroyed one squad and cut another in half, I was now feeling the effect of having lost so many men in the previous battle. My NCO's were constantly hit and with the departure of one squad my morale fell from 10 to 5 in jig time. Still I held out hope as I still had a tank, sadly another deadly volley from the Germans took me to 1, even with one die I managed to get the metal beast to fire, but again it was pathetic, my last, slim chance had gone. Matt captured a JOP and it was the end.

It's all over.

The game, it swung my way for a time then back to Matt, victory for both sides was on a knife edge, I just had to hold out, but I didn't, damn tank. So Matt won (Happy Matt?), although I argued that if we had played the campaign as per the rules I would have won, and I am holding on to that, with both hands. We had some really good games from this but I think the overall campaign ladder is flawed in favour of the Russians although at times they seem to suffer from a lack of support points. Who knows, we enjoyed it.

The Roman commanders are now complete, Thrax himself along with two provincial military leaders and four Vexillation commanders. I now have my first close order Lanciarii unit primed and on the desk.

Thrax.

Thrax.

Senior officers.

Vexillation commanders.

I have ordered up three more books now that I am almost finished Douglas Murray's latest bestseller. Budapest I saw in Waterstones and was intrigued, I also saw the Siege of Malta there but got it online. I then read an article on the Hitler book in the Spectator which was interesting and decided me on getting the book, I was surprised that it was published by Osprey.