Showing posts with label Athenians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Athenians. Show all posts

Friday, 27 January 2017

Cantabrian circle


Are you old enough to remember the Cantabrian circle rule in WRG 5th Edition? It must have made a big impression on me, 'cos most of my light cavalry seem to be getting based that way. These light cavalry are circling to throw their javelins. These Greeks will mainly serve with my Athenians but their first outing will be in the big Ipsus game in Basingstoke, when they will proxy Tarentines.

They are are on a pair of my 19cm magnetic bases that fit together to make one large base, and will constitute what I am calling a "combined" light unit, which I'll be publishing a new rule about soon. http://theminiaturespage.com/rules/boards/msg.mv?id=5685

I am pleased to report (from my tracking spreadsheet) that I am 66.4% of the way through basing the extra 836 minis I need for the games; slightly ahead of schedule!

Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Ally Pally to Crystal Palace

On Sunday I motored from Alexandra Palace in North London to Crystal Palace in Sarf London, for what turned out to be a very enjoyable day at the SELWG show. 

This year I took a very portable ancients game.  Instead of the usual heavy terrain boards, I brought a large rubber mat and two of the Deep-Cut studios terrain cloths that I have recently started importing. I brought a relatively modest game, too, with only around 500 Spartan and Athenian minis, around 110 each points if you know To the Strongest! This lot weighed together was less than half the weight of my usual gaming load, and still looked very satisfactory.

Here are the Spartans in their crimson and bronze simplicity:


...and again from the other angle:



The Athenians (above) are an army that has only just reached critical mass; I'm painting more up for the coming Ancients Weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre.


Above, I've re-flocked some hills to match the new mats- I've very pleased with them!

We played two games to completion; one lasted 90 minutes and one 2 hours. The Spartans lost their general five minutes into the first battle (stabbed in the back by the "Infamy, infamy they've all got it in for me" card) but nonetheless still came close to winning. They triumphed in the second game. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. I have no photos of the game in progress but there are some on Big Lee's blog, together with photos of the other games.

The SELWG club members were very helpful and friendly and I was delighted that the game was nominated in several categories, coming second in one (?) and winning "most child friendly" courtesy of  young gamers Emily, Alex and Nick (the latter has been playing TtS! since he was 8!). This was great since I felt the calibre of the games was really high this year and because I always hoped the game would be one that could lure in a new generation of gamers.

A big "hello" to everyone I met- there were so many of you! Particular thanks to those who played the game, the SELWG team for all their hard work, and to Ian for his duties as sherpa and photographer.

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, 8 July 2015

Athens and Sparta Part I

Last night I decided that I had had just about* enough Athenians to provide some opposition up against my Spartans. Here are pictures of three of the five Athenian phalanx; the newly raised phalanx is at the top. I love Steve's hand-painted Octopus! The single figures are hero markers.




N.B. One doesn't need to use this many figures to represent a phalanx; 18 or so would do just as well. However I do like to "go large."

I drew up rosters for my To the Strongest! rules by editing the appropriate army lists in the free "Frogs around a Pond" booklet.  Here are the Athenians; currently quite a high quality force. Later I will field more raw allied hoplites so that I can extend the line.


Here is the Spartan phalanx, waiting, silently for the pipers to signal the advance:


And here's the opposing Spartan list:


Both armies are 100 points in TtS! terms. The Spartans have a pair of elite Spartiate units, which, unlike other hoplites, can turn without penalty. The Athenian light troops and cavalry are slightly higher quality than their Lacedaemonian equivalents. 

Tomorrow I'll show some photos of the battle and write a brief review.

* I had to use a few Bruttians to bolster the Athenian ranks and later Thessalian cavalry pending the arrival of the Hippeis.

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Athenians

At Partizan Steve Jones very kindly sold me his WAB-based Greek army, and I'm around 70% of the way through rebasing them as an Athenian force to fight my Spartans. It is just too hot to take proper photos today, but here are the fruits of my labours, so far; the first seven units.


I have based all of the light infantry on my new large 18cm wide bases. This is fast becoming my personal standard for use with "To the Strongest!". They look great on such bases, and are really easy to move around the table. I have far too many lights compared to hoplites. I think this is partly due to Foundry selling a high ratio of lights to hoplites, and partly because the lights are so much easier to paint! The hoplites are based 12 to a stand.

Steve did a stunning job painting these including tunic borders and shield designs. I'll show photos of the individual units during the course of this week.