Showing posts with label After Action Reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label After Action Reports. Show all posts

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

To the Strongest! with the Essex Warriors

Here are some pictures of Last Sunday's games of To the Strongest! that I played with the Essex Warriors in their Writtle fastness.  

We fought Nicopolis 48BC, a scenario set during Caesar's Civil War, twice. A Pontic army under Pharnaces, son of the near-indestructible Mithridates, attacked one of Caesar's subordinates in Armenia. The Romans were soundly defeated, but soon after Caesar arrived in person and defeated Pharnaces in less time than it takes to say veni vidi vici.

I used pikes for the Pontic army, although it is more likely that by this time they would have been imitation legionaries. Pikes are so...  moreish; and they might have been there.


Above is the view from behind the Pontic lines. The Romans look somewhat outnumbered! Below the Pontic scythed chariots are revving up. They performed very poorly in the first game but rather well in the second.



The Roman line is thin and mostly of raw recruits, to boot. The skirmishers are less than enthusiastic asiatic archers.



Above, Pharnaces' bodyguard see off the Roman cavalry. Below the Romans (unwisely) advance to meet the phalanx. No good ever came of fighting a phalanx on the flat...



The Roman left (top above) was made of sterner stuff; the veteran XXXVIth legion. These performed well in both games.


Above, thureophoroi steel themselves for the fight.


In the first game (above)  a single phalanx fought three cohorts to a standstill. Below, in the second game, the Pontic's Skythian cataphract allies (on the right) rolled up the Roman wing.



The Pontics won the first game and the Romans (very narrowly) won the second. Below are some of the Essex Warriors; a fine bunch of chaps! Around a dozen Warriors played across the two games. I hope to revisit later in the year!


Sunday, 12 July 2015

Athens and Sparta Part III


Here's the situation in mid-game; the Spartan units are circled in red.  Top right are the Spartiates, who have moved past the flank of the Athenian line, accompanied by a unit of psiloi. The rest of the line are stepped back in echelon with a unit of lights on the extreme left of the line. The Spartan cavalry are in reserve, but a unit of Athenian psiloi (who had been wandering lost off the table) have turned up behind them (below). Have a look at the tunic borders; Steve Jones painted these, he's very talented.


Below the Spartans having chased the Athenian cavalry and lights off of the table, are starting to turn towards the enemy camp. The Athenian cavalry have returned behind them. The Athenians now outflank the Spartan left, and several units on both sides are in states of disorder.



Above a view down the line. Below the Spartiates and cavalry have managed to redeploy squarely across the Athenian flank.


Below late in the game here is an unusual scene; the Athenian cavalry (left) are charging the flank of the Spartan phalanx, whilst the Spartan cavalry (right) have just been charging the flank of the Athenians in the lower right corner (who are doing their best to charge their own way out of trouble!). The Spartan horse have been charged in the flank and disordered by the Athenan lights. I've never seen cavalry on opposing sides charge in parallel before. An exceedingly confusing melee!


I don't have photos of the very end of the game, which was won by the Spartans who broke two of the Athenian phalanx and captured their camp. It was closer than it sounds from this; the Athenians were themselves close to breaking the Spartan left. All in all a very enjoyable game, and a fine outing for the new Athenian units who were necessarily crushed in their baptism of fire!

If you don't already have them, the Athenian and Spartan lists can be downloaded from here.

Friday, 10 July 2015

Athens and Sparta Part II

This is the second part of my after action review of this week's ancients game. We left the two sides deployed in long lines facing each other, the Athenians commanded by Strategos Shaun and the Spartans by Ephor Ian. Both sides had their better units on their right wing. A couple of light units, one on each side, were off-table due to Stratagem cards, of which more anon.  

The Spartans had out-scouted the Athenians and so moved first. They advanced diagonally to the right, using "hoplite drift." Unfortunately their leftmost phalanx (in the foreground) failed to activate (on an Ace) and a gap opened in their line...


In the Athenian turn (below) they advanced their right but their activations weren't good enough to get into the gap. By the way, I'm using my new Deep Cut Studios mats. These are really good, particularly the cloth ones (the vinyl ones are too shiny for good photography). I marked the grid out by eye, using tufts.


Below is a shot of the test of the table, with the Spartan camp in the foreground. Note that the Spartan hoplites now outflank their Athenian equivalents. Beyond the hoplites the Spartan cavalry, on their nags, face their better-mounted Athenian adversaries, whilst light infantry lurk in the olive groves.


In their second turn the Spartans (below) managed to close the gap in the phalanx and brought on the light infantry  unit that was missing at the start of the game to cover their extreme left. It turned out to have been in reserve off table (as per the stratagem card). 



And finally, for today's post, the battle lines clash.  The Spartan phalanx, having inclined right a second time, now outflanks the Athenian hoplites by two units (and two elite Spartiate units at that). Opposite them is just a unit of Cretans and the Athenian horse, who can't challenge a phalanx frontally with any hope of success...  On the other hand, though, the incline has left a gap in the Spartan line that is held only by a unit of ekdromoi lights! A calculate risk, as Ephor Ian put it.  

Stay posted for the conclusion of the battle, tomorrow...

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Not Noreia 112BC


Here are some shots of a game of "To the Strongest" I played with mate Ian last week. In the foreground a horde of migrating Germans approach a Roman blocking force protecting a town. Below is a photo of the Roman centre and right, including three of their four legions. All of the photos are clickable.


The Roman force was Polybian, organised into small units of 8-16 figures, whereas the Germans (proxied with Gallic figures) were in 40+ strong blocks. One of the reasons I wanted to fight this match up was because I'd read an account of one test game where the small units of the Roman legions were entirely swept away by a wild Gallic charge, and I wanted to check that this wasn't going to happen every game!

Below Ianus advances the Roman and Numidian cavalry screening his left, against my rather scruffy German cavalry (most of whom were "raw").  


The velites also rushed forward and showered the German warriors with their javelins, disordering several of them (note the stepped-back element in the right foreground). Disordered warriors only hit on an 8 instead of a 6, and are really hard to rally. I pushed the warriors forward as quickly as I could, in an attempt to minimise Roman shooting, and eventually managed to catch and kill a couple of units of pesky velites.

Below is a view from behind the German right.  At one point I managed to get a scruffy German cavalry unit onto the flank of the left-hand Roman legion (rear, centre, in the wheat field). Unfortunately the legion's Triarii flanked them, in return, and drove them off.


In the centre, below, the warbands collided with the Roman line. They managed to smash through the Roman Hastati and then the Principes, but took a lot of casualties along the way, becoming progressively disordered.  It is very hard to rally warriors when the enemy are in charge or shooting range.


Unfortunately the Roman Triarii proved too tough a nut to crack, and I just couldn't kill them and break through to loot the temples on the edge of the town. It turned into a very narrow Roman victory - they had one medal left when the Germans ran out!

It was a very enjoyable game that lasted around two and a half hours.  I took some video clips- I'll see if I can work out how to post them, tomorrow. We played the game using my new "Chits of War" instead of playing cards, you should be able to make them out in some of the photographs.  The last two sets of chits (more to come in a couple of weeks) and the rules are available in my shop.

Monday, 2 June 2014

Bloody Cremona!


Here are some more photos of the Roman Civil War game that I ran yesterday at Partizan, in the grounds of Kelham Hall. 

One benefit of this year's move from Hall to tent was the vastly superior lighting.  Yesterday I felt very much like Van Gogh must have felt after he relocated from Paris to Provence... Time was so short, however, that I am afraid I completely failed to take any pics of the other games, several of which were quite spectacular, particularly the lofty Keren and muddy Lardy Verdun game.  

Several of the below photos were taken by Dave D. and John T., who played in the game, together with Agema Greg, Nigel M. and Jean. The players were as good-natured a bunch of wargamers as one could hope to come across.  A big thank you to John T who was a huge help in setting up and knocking down the game. 

In our re-fight, the smaller Othonian force attacked aggressively from the outset.  Their cavalry, although outnumbered almost three to one, smashed the  poorer quality Vitellian cavalry and turned onto the flank of the enemy infantry. Beyond the Po, the Batavians killed the Othonian gladiators, losing a unit to an ambush from a small wood, in the process. The main infantry fight was extremely even but, after hard fighting, the Othonians managed to overturn history and achieve a narrow but very worthy victory.

We had quite a few visitors, and I talked to as many as I was able. I also managed to chat with some of the people from other tables, notable the Newark Irregulars, all three of the magazine editors, Phil from the SOA and Northstar Nick, and old friends Craig Cartmell and Richard Crawley, amongst others. 

The players picked up my "To the Strongest!" rules very quickly and required surprisingly little intervention from me, which was convenient as I was stretched very thin.

Lawrence and Tricks, the Partizan organisers, did a fantastic job of moving the event to the marquees, on such short notice. I absolutely loved playing in the tents, and would be delighted to put on a game in them again. I fear that the additional cost and the risk of bad weather may preclude this, though... I hope there will be room for me, in tent or hall, in September!

I'll be running this game again, and several others on a similar scale, at the Wargames Holiday Centre near Basingstoke, on the weekend of 28th/29th June, there are still spaces, give Mark Freeth a call!

Without more ado, here are the photos!  All are clickable, and the video can be watched full screen.

Initial deployment; eight regiments of Vitellian cavalry, face three Othonian units.  The former were slaughtered...

The first of the eight Vitellian cavalry units are removed by Agema Greg...

The pontoon bridge.  I liked the bridge, even if everyone who came by the table seemed to prefer the vineyards.  ;-)
Battle lines clash amidst the (offending) vineyards.
Othonian Praetorians advance along the raised Postumian way; this terrain piece came out very well.

The plain near Cremona was extensively farmed, and divided into rectangular plots; perfect for my grid-based rules!
Batavians cross the pontoon bridge, shot at by gladiators from the Othonian boat
Othonian self-propelled artillery benefit from the elevation provided by the raised road.

I Adiutrix (forground) battle XXI Rapax (rear).  The commanders of both legions fell in the heavy fighting.
Finally, below a video of the battlefield I took after the end of the game, showing all of the figures and the terrain pieces.



Friday, 28 February 2014

Chaeronea 86BC dress rehearsal

I'm putting on weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre, in late June, and have been rehearsing some of the games I intend to run there.  Chareronea 86BC is one of my favourite battles, and last night Dr. Simon, Ian, Jay and a new visitor, Steve, fought it to a bloody (and somewhat unexpected) conclusion, using the rules I am developing.

Below are the Pontic host; General Archelaus leads his xystophoroi bodyguard and Scythian heavies forward, whilst scythed chariots and archers screen the Brazen Shields and Slave phalanx.


Below, the Roman lne is drawn up, below the acropolis of Chaeronea.


Both sides advanced and battle was joined along the length of the line.  The greek allied cavalry on the Roman left did a sterling job throughout the game, resisting and eventually defeating twice their number of superior-quality Pontic cavalry.


Below, the pert buttocks of the Galatian garrison of Mons Thurium; these were surprised and destroyed by an attack from the rear!


The Romans advanced quickly, but were pushed back by the enemy phalanx.  On the Pontic left, their horse archers and thureophoroi, units which have never previously so much as scratched a Latin, managed to kill several cohorts and the course of the battle began to turn against the Romans. 


Eventually Pontic pressure all along the line told, and the Romans broke.  It was a close-run thing, though, as by this time, much of the Pontic phalanx was, itself, ready to break.  A little more Roman luck might have seen an entirely different result.  This re-fight was the best ever showing for the Pontics, who have previously been very roughly handled by the Romans.

If you'd like a chance to play this game (amongst others), please drop Mark Freeth at the Wargames Holiday Centre a line.

Friday, 24 January 2014

Somewhere just south of the Wall

Last night a full contingent of the Muswell Militiamen gathered for a second game with my emerging Late Roman collection. The Picts have crossed the wall, and are threatening a fortified Roman town. The Roman field army formed up in a long thin line in front of the town's walls, leaving the town behind them un-garrisoned.  This latter was a decision that they would, all to soon, regret.


The Romans moved first and dashed forward, trying to take the ridge between the two armies. They only managed to get a toehold, though, before their movement activations ended. In the Pictish turn the northerners seized the rest of the ridge. They had a surprise up their sleeve, too; one of the stratagems they had drawn before the game indicated that one of their units, in this case the Saxon allied cavalry was off-table, lost. They diced to see if they would arrive, and where, and there was a collective drawing of breath as the cantered across the Roman baseline straight into the town, and commenced to loot the legion's baggage (below)! Presumably they had stumbled across an unguarded rear gate...



Above is a shot of the Pictish left, nervously awaiting the arrival of the Roman cataphracts, and below is the fighting for the ridge. Shortly after this shot was taken, the Roman unit in the right foreground had to turn around and march off, to attempt to assault and recapture their own camp!



Above, on the left flank, a unit of Roman skirmishers made skillful use of the terrain to hold up the advance of a Saxon warband (above), whilst a unit of auxiliaries contested a patch of newly-made heather with Pictish spearmen (below).



The game was very confused and very enjoyable.  The thin Roman battle line broke up very quickly (below), with several veteran legiones making for (and capturing some of) the Pictish baggage, whilst doing their best to fend off flank and rear attacks.  The Picts won by a fair margin, largely due to the instinctive looting abilities of their Saxon allies.




I've come away with a few more suggestions and rule tweaks, which I've been working on this morning. Mate Craig has very kindly sold me some beautiful Late Romans that I want to paint up before out next game, in a few weeks time, and I think we will play Longstreet again next week.