Sunday, 6 December 2009

Ruspina 46BC Part II; Opening Moves




In my previous post I described the deployment of the forces for this refight of Ruspina.  We drew chits to see who would play which side; I drew the Caesarians, and was to be ably assisted by TimeLine Barry who played Dubius Status, my Tribune.    My old adversary, Ian, played Caesar's old adversary, Labienus.

Caesar decided that his strategy would be to advance as swiftly as possible in order to minimise shooting casualties and to pin the elusive enemy (who, even without their off-table reinforcements, included no less than18 units of skirmishers!) against their baseline.

Above is the situation after the Caesarian second move; the Caesarians have moved up to drive back the Numidian skirmish line.  Caesar delegated Dubius Status to roll the combat dice; needing to get a "green on a one in six chance, he managed to roll no less than 5 hits on 10 dice! 



Above, the Numidian skirmishers in turn managed to inflict some casualties on Caesar's line.  The unit on the far right has already been reduced to a single stand (gulp!).  Caesar's archers have moved into the line on the far right.



Here's a cloesup of the rather menacing situation on Caesar's right, which was eventually completely surrounded by the Numidian host.



Caesar lacked a suitable card to recover the situation on my right, but had an "Order Medium Units" card which enabled him to throw the left half of his line forward, at the double. This meant that Labienus would need to react to this on his next turn, or Caesar would be able to snaffle two units of his light infantry.  This had the effect of relieving the pressure on Caesar's other wing.



Labienus successfully pulled back two of the threatened units but Dubius Status was able to isolated a third, and destroy it with some more highly effective dice rolling.  The Caesarian line, on the left, has pushed right up to the Numidian horse; leaving a wide gap in the centre of the line!  It looked , for a minute, like Caesar was poised to break through onto the ridge and into the greenfields, beyond.



However fate had other plans; Labienus played an "Inspired Leadership Right" card and brought on Petreius and 5 units of Numidian reinforcements.  Defending hills, the Numidian Auxilia are better than legionaries; Caesar realised that he would need to break through somewhere else, instead!

The next installment of this battle will be published tomorrow.

Saturday, 5 December 2009

Caesar's Matter of Loaf and Death (Ruspina 46BC) Part I

In 46BC Caesar led three legions of recruits (leavened with some veterans) out of his camp in Africa, to gather grain.  He was unaware that his former lieutenant Titus Labienus, now a Pompeian General, was in the area with a vast force of Numidian light infantry and cavalry, and several thousand veteran German and Gallic cavalry that Caesar had once counted as his own.  Worse still, another Pompeian General, Marcus Petreius, was moving up to support Labienus with another force of cavalry and a very large force of Numidian infantry.  The ensuing battle lasted the better part of a day, and Caesar came very close to being comprehensively defeated; arguably closer than in any other battle of his career.

Last week I finally finished my Numidian light cavalry and so decided, in order to christen them, to refight this battle using the Command and Colors Ancients rules.  It is a fascinating battle because the sides are so asymmetric; the Caesarians are mostly heavy infantry, and the Pompeians almost all light troops.  The Caesarians have a nightmare trying to pin down and destroy the faster Pompeians, but the latter must prevent the former from taking the ridge and moving on to achieve their grain-gathering mission.



Here is a view of the battlefield.  On the left are the Pompeians; twelve units of Numidian light cavalry, six of light infantry, and three of German cavalry "with bridles".



You may be able to make out Titus Labienus (centre on a white horse) at the head of his heavier cavalry, screened by the lighter Numidian cavalry.  Another large Pompeian army, under General Petreius, is lurking off table behind the ridge line...



And here are the Caesarian lines; twelve units of medium infantry, a very lonely-looking unit of Gallic cavalry on the extreme right, and a unit of archers scurrying up from the camp to support the line.  Caesar is the general on the round command stand, furthest from the camera.

We were playing the Caesar's legion amendment, which allows legionaries to move two hexes (but not attack) and  the Caesar rule which gives a unit that Caesar is accompanying an extra dice.  We also played a house rule to reduce the casualties that light troops take when evading; essentially troops who are faster than those attacking them only take one dice of casualties; those of a similar speed, two and those slower, three.  This was critical because under the standard C&C(A) rules, evading Numidians would have been shredded!

Victory was set at 8 units destroyed.  Any Caesarian units exiting off the Pompeian board edge (towards the Pompeian granaries) would count as one block towards the total.

Tomorrow I'll post the first part of the battle....

Friday, 4 December 2009

Masinissa's Cavalry- Completed!

Here are the 66 Numidian light cavalry, Prince Masinissa himself, and 4 horse casualties for our big Zama project.  I've just finished around half of them, and retouched the bases on the older batch to match.  The picture is clickable...




The figures are a total mish-mash; Foundry Numidians and Greeks, A&A, Gripping Beast, Crusader and Renegade, but work rather well together.  They had their first outing last night, and I'll be doing an after action review of their first battle, over the weekend.



I'm really pleased with the overall impression.  I might wack some "dust clouds" on the bases...   Next year I'll add a final 6 figures to take the number to 72.  And Nick is painting a Spanish bodyguard unit for Masinissa...

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Zama Table II


A progress shot of the table for the April 2009 Zama Game.  The objective is to make a board 18' long by 4' deep. 

So far, I've made 9 x 9mm MDF sections, each 600mm x 1200mm.  I've glued 10mm thick styrofoam to the top, unisng NoMoreNails.  I am pleased to report that there appears to be little or no warping.  The foam is a little soft and prone to damage, but I expect that it will toughen up when I apply gloop and paint to it at a later stage.

Tuesday, 1 December 2009

No time to take photos...

...but I have a plan to take lots of pics of another wargame on Thursday night.

I am busy with life in general, but also busy because I've successfully glued 8 of the 9 baseboards for the Zama game together, and finished all the Numidian cavalry that have burdened me this last month.  Huzzah!  Hopefully photos tomorrow.

ps Greg; happily NoMoreNails worked a treat for said gluing; in fact I'd recommend it.  It might be a different formula to the lot that gave you trouble.

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Profiles of the Muswell Militiamen

Our micro-wargames club is situated in Muswell Hill, and has been running in various incarnations since the late 1980s, but has always included Ian and BigRedBat.  MHM is very much a "micro" wargames club; with a membership, including affiliates, always in single figures.  We claim to be London's smallest and friendliest wargames club.  Dr. Simon, a relative newbie of 5 years standing, has suggested that we post some brief profiles of our members and associate members.  There will be additional members that I'll add to this page as time permits.


Dr. Simon writes that "Lording over toy soldiers seems to be in my blood - I voiced my first swear word when I was three as my parents shagpile carpet wrought havoc with my attempts to line my plastic armies up parade style. Since then I have evolved from throwing marbles at them to throwing dice at them (with little improvement on my generalship). My collections are mostly 28mm -from Eastern Caesarian Roman, to the Moorish Conquest of Spain, taking in the Italian Wars, French in Mexico and the French Foreign Legion along with way - and ending with 15mm ww2). The small membership of the club means we get to try out varied stuff without too much objection (just don't mention Skirmish to Simon). Mostly known in club for my ratio of painted figures to unpainted bases. Currently working on a Command and Colors version for Star Wars battles... Style of generalship might be best described as 'erratic'."


Bloggerista BigRedBat (the other Simon) has been wargaming ever since he can remember.  From Airfix Romans he eventually graduated to 15mm Donnington and Minifigs Romans, and more recenty hulking great Saleh, Copplestone and Aventine Greeks and Romans.  In the past he has been obsessed with WW1, WW2, W40K, Indo China, Roleplaying, and Hordes of the Things (amongst many other periods); his tag comes from his Glorantan-era BigRedBat model.  Simon is particularly obsessive about basing, and gets very stressed about Dr. Simon's eclectic approach to the subject!  From time to time he likes to tackle a vast project  and is currently organising a big Zama game for 2010, with the help of Dr Simon and various associates, including Dr Simon, Gloranthan Greg, Nick "the brush" Speller, Craig Davey and the helpful chaps at Aventine


Ian is BRB's 20 year plus wargaming nemesis.  Ian's historical hero is Alexander the Great.  He always has an excellent grasp of whatever ruleset we are playing; he plans turns ahead, and always seems to have a reserve of heavy cavalry or tanks massing near the schwerpunkt.  BRB has established two key tactics to deal with this: firstly, he has learned to be very lucky at critical moments, and  secondly, when things are going badly, he handicaps Ian's superior intellect with generous libations of red wine.  Consequently honours remain broadly even.  Ian has a splendid collection of board games, and a very impressive Xyston Hellenistic army; also some stunning Praxian nomads.



"Gloranthan" Greg Privat lives near Paris and is an associate member of the Militia.  Around 6 years ago BigRedBat stumbled across Greg's Gloranthan Army site and emailed him; a couple of months later (not that he's bitter!) Greg replied, and the rest is history.  Greg visits the UK once or sometimes twice a year, and BRB and he have colllaborated on various projects, including the Salute Dwarf Mine game (the Mine is gently decomposing in BRB's cellar).  Greg is the fastest and most prolific painter BRB has ever encountered, and has painted perhaps 250 minis for the Zama game, alone.  BRB also got into blogging after enjoying Greg's efforts.  Greg should stay off the coffee!



George M, who is often known by his alter ego of Father Georgi, and is often mistaken for Jesus, has been gaming since 1990, when, at the impressionable age of 11, he was taken to the Games Workshop store in the Plaza. Somehow, all those demons and harsh gothic space marines fired up his tender young mind. Thus began a long downward spiral into collecting and painting a large number of toy solders. He discovered Ancients in 1998 when he attended the SOA open day at Red Lion Square and saw the Parries playing a games called WAB. Over the next few years he experimented with a game called Deadly Boring Manoeuvres or DBM as it is often called and Vis Bellica ( which was truly awful) These days he counts listening to obscure progressive and psychedelic rock bands, travelling through Europe and worrying if he will ever clear the lead mountain as his main interests.  Years in the Hobby, approaching 20. Despite BigRedBat's best endeavours to rescue him from such base heresies, George M still plays WAB and the occasional game of WMA.  Armies: Classical Greek, Sassanids, Normans, Burgundian Ordinance, Medieval Swiss, Medieval Venetian, Medieval Albanian, Italian Wars Spanish,

Other occasional Muswell Militia gamers and associates, whose profiles will be added as time permits include: Sebastian, Nick "the brush" Speller, Chris, TimeLine Barry, Craig, Dave and Aventine Keith.

Friday, 27 November 2009

Chaeronea Refight- Part III

This is our third and final visit to the Chaeronea refight (if you missed part I and II, you might like to read them first).

You'll recall the Romans have pushed forward very aggressively, and have the Pontic's pinned to their baseline.  In my Pontic turn I counterattacked with my heavy units; the two Bronze shields, with their commander Taxiles (just visible on the left of the frame below), and the two units of slave phalanx.  These achieved considerable success and killed several units of legionaries, although suffering serious casualties themselves. 


The Romans, in their turn, pressed forward but the dice gods were less favourableto them. Some Pontic units managed to hang on by a thread, such as the archers (central, below).  If they had been killed, the Roman CinC might have been able to deliver a nasty momentum attack on the unit behind.


Although many of my Pontic units had taken a pasting, I still had the advantage of numbers in terms of units because of the mass of Thureophoroi in my second line (the Pontics outnumbered the Romans several times over at Chaeonea).  I threw these, and my sole unit of heavy cavalry, into the fray.  In a spate of lucky dice rolling I managed to destroy or drive back the Roman units involved attack.


The Romans regrouped (above) into a line, but now look very badly outnumbered!


Recognising how badly they were outnumbered, the Romans fell back towards their reserves...


The Roman Right wing hadn't been engaged (nor the Pontic left).  Ian and Barry regrouped their forces on the right for one last try...


Attacked...


But the dice and their earlier heavy casualties were against them and the Pontics prevailed (they reached the 9 units lost limit we had determined at the start of the battle).

It was a very enjoyable battle, and I hope it gave Barry a good idea of how the rules work!  I'm hoping that we'll be able to get some of our other players together and refight it next week as part of our Roman campaign... if we do I'll make the Romans a little tougher to help counter the Pontic advantage of numbers (perhaps reducing the number of units by 1, but giving each remaining unit 5 hits instead of 4).