Fun at the Wargames Holiday Centre

The Metuarus

Last weekend I decamped to the WHC "Annex" with a fair proportion of my collection, for a jolly weekend's gaming. I call it the "Annex" because there were too many games to fit in the WHC proper, so Mark and I hired a suite in the hotel where the gamers stayed. This proved very comfortable and convenient, and maximised both gaming and drinking time! Some of the gamers took full opportunity of this and looked a little ragged on day two, mentioning no names, Andrew.  ;-)

Above is the pre-game packing, and below the fully-loaded BigRedBatmobile. Minis and terrain for four games (AndrewBrentnall brought the fifth).

Here are photos of the games, in no particular order.

The largest battle was Ipsus 301 BCE (above and below).  This had over 2000 miniatures and was 18' long, played on a special mat which Deep-Cut tell me is their largest they have ever made. I've just sold another one, so there are two of them, now! Below is a new elephant in his first battle.

Above is a view of the central sector of the Ipsus battlefield.

Chum Andrew Brentnall ran a splendid Edgehill battle in 12mm, above and below. This was very popular- we will be running it at Partizan in May, and for the Uxbridge boys (who missed out on the chance to play) if I can think of a way. The new ECW rules worked seamlessly.

Flanked!

More shots of Ipsus, above and below.

Above, scythed chariots inflicted terrible blue-on-blue casualties in several of the Ipsus games. Ipsus is so large it can take up to a dozen players at a time- most of the other games took six.

Above my new Persians, painted by The Shauns (Watson at back, McTague at front).



This battle above and below is Ruspina, 46 BCE. It's a an interesting, asymmetrical game with hordes of Numidians surrounding Caesar's recruits. It was very popular- fought four times I believe, with victories to both sides.

Above- Romans attack at Ruspina- you can see the playing cards that most people use with To the Strongest!

Ruspina- the Romans glimpse the cornfields beyond the ridge-line, and a mass of Numidian reinforcements (including elephants, below)!

Ruspina again- Roman baggage can be seen, below. I have lots of pack mules now.

Above and below- the Metaurus. Velites above race Gauls (below) for the ridgeline- the velites take it! I am very proud of my heather.

And last but not least is the Frigidus, the Eastern and Western Empires slog it out to see whether the Christian East or resurgent pagan West would triumph.

Above, the Leones Iuniores defend the valley for the West. Below, there were lots of Goths in this battle.

...and lots of cavalry!  The unit in the left foreground, below, is on my 20cm grid deep base- the back strip has been placed at an angle, to show that it is disordered.

So these are the only photos I managed to take, I hope you enjoyed them! I now have a relative lull until the next WHC event*, which will probably be in October. I'm thinking about games for this- one will be definitely be Leuctra with a super-deep Theban phalanx.. If you fancy coming along drop me or Mark Freeth a line and we'll let you know dates.

*(Aside from finishing the ECW rules and basing my ECW army).