Wednesday 14 January 2009

Woe, Woe and thrice Woe!

Marius' army, under my command, yesterday suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the German army.

The Roman army was deployed along a low ridgeline just to the west of Mutina:
The Germans attacked along the line of the Aemilian Way:










The German centre was led by Boiorix, hero of Vercellae:


A German left hook piled pressure against the Roman right. An attempted Roman counter attack by an outflanking force against the rear of the German army ended in disaster, with German cavalry, charged in the rear by Numidians:
However the Germans demonstrated that they could fight just as valiantly to the rear as to the front, by killing the Roman General leading the attack!



By the end of the game the Germans were lapping around the Roman wing in a most alarming way. A second German attack against a weak point between the Roman left and centre also inflicted serious casualties. Here Romans can be seen retiring into Mutina, whilst Marius leads the rearguard:One glimmer of hope for the Romans, is that the majority of the casualties were suffered by supporting allied (generally light) troops, and that most of the legionaries lived to fight another day; which is just as well as the German and Celtic army now controls Italy north of the Apennines...

12 comments:

Secundus said...

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!I don't think I have ever seen such a well put together and painted Celtic army...beautiful! It must be getting on for Tactica size, it looks huge!! I quite blown away. It also helps me to relise what my Celtic army will look like one day.

I like the way you have included German light infantry within the cavalry bases, I was planning to do the same with my lot and it's nice to see someone else has done their research.

Also it's nice to see all the different makes of figures within your units. All of them i reconize.

Those roman buildings you mentioned look fantastic, I had a go at making a roman villa but it was the pan tiles which were the tricky thing. Those buildings of yours are excellent!!!! Again wow, what am inspiration!

BigRedBat said...

Hi thanks Secundus- I think I was looking at your Blog, whilst you were on mine!

I have 220 celtic warband and around 100 cavalry and lights, and will probably only add a few more units of foot to the army, which is around 75% there. About 2/3 of the minis were painted for me by a friend. One day I want to add a big wing of chariots... and the wagons, elsewhere in the blog, are for the camp.

Re miniatures- we both go for the same ranges. You might like to check out the Miniature Design Studio Celts- they are very nice and make very excellent younger warriors, I just bought a few packs:- http://www.miniaturedesignstudio.co.uk/index.asp

If I get a chance later I'll take a pic of my own villa, my Scottish mate John did a real job on that!

Cheers

Simon

Secundus said...

100 cavalry! Thats a lot of painting, well they look stunning. I like the way you are finishing the armies right up to the last little details, like the baggage train.

When finished the army will be a master piece! You have given me a reason to carry on with my own celts, thanks. The rules you use for your battles, they must be for large numbers of figures are they?

Secundus said...

Those new Celts look good, I like the 10 duplicates for £750 that sounds good value.

Secundus said...

I've had to just quicky run and add mine up out of interest now. It was worth doing. I stand at 158 warband and skirmishers and 10 cavalry lol. I need lots more to stand a chance in WHAB against a Roman army of 2000 points. Chariots are a quick way of making up the points but I like the idea (a bit like you it would seem) of large numbers of warband screaming towards the enemy.

BigRedBat said...

Hi Secundus,

Sorry I have 39 Gallic cavalry, 70 light infantry. Which is about 50 light infantry too many! I don't think there were a lot in most celtic armies, they should be wall-to-wall warband with a few sniffy aristocratic cavalrymen. I still need more warband, because they are still heavily outnumbered by my Romans.

I'll grab a photo of the lot together, tomorrow.

Cheers, Simon

Siaba said...

An impressive army, Simon!!
Very nice!
What were the rules used ?

BigRedBat said...

Hi Siaba,

We use command and Colors; Ancients boardgame rules, which are great with miniatures: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14105

Great wargames rules- simple, fast and loads of suspense.

Simon

Siaba said...

Thank you Simon!
I really like the look of the armies, far from the isolated bases of DB..like.
Is an hex grid absolutly necessary to play ?

BigRedBat said...

Hi Siaba, I've heard some people play without he grids, but personally I don't think it would work very well.

The grids aren't too hard to make, or can be bought from Hotz Artworks in the US. The really good thing about them is that they help the game run really fast; no bl**dy measuring!

In fact all my minis are based for DBx, I just try to make it look like they aren't!

Siaba said...

Thank you, Simon!!!
I'll ask Greg for more informations about the way this ruleset works.

BigRedBat said...

Greg has played some big games of C&C, and Battlelore so he should be able to give you a good idea of how it works. Cheers, Simon