Let's get naked! 28mm Galatians

A newly painted mob of Galatian Mercenaries joins my Hellenistic forces. Galatians were a Celtic people who from 280 BC rampaged across Greece and through to Asia Minor, where some of them settled. They were mercenaries in many Hellenistic armies, sometimes fighting naked and sometimes with looted equipment. Galatia eventually became a Roman province in 25 BC.

 

These figures are a mix of naked figures from Black Tree Design, from their naked Celtic, naked German and naked Greek ranges - which are fairly extensive. As you can see I don't think there is a single duplicate figure. I asked for them all to be supplied with a mix of Celtic and Peltast shields which Black Tree obligingly did. I ordered 24 but was sent 28 as order was delayed when they couldn't find one of their naked packs.

 

In ADLG rules these are 'Heavy Swordsmen Impetuous Elite'. They will happily cut their way through most enemy infantry, and very dangerous when they first hit. When close to the enemy it's also very difficult to restrain them from charging if you don't want them to though!

I painted them very simply and quickly with only two tone skin and other colours. Wasn't sure this would be ok but in the end I thought I was happy enough with the look in a mass of figures. Skin is just Vallejo Heavy Skintone highlighted with Vallejo Elf Skintone 

I based them up with four 4 figure bases and four 3 figure bases. A tight fit on the 4 figure ones!

 

Thanks for viewing. This post also reminds me I still haven't added pictures of my Republican Romans despite playing quite a few games with them now. Must do!

Epic 4K: Skitarri vs Tau

Another test of Skitarri 2.1 list vs a Tau list with air assault capability this time.

I switched out the Plasma Destructors for some Volcano Cannons, and mixed them into other formations rather than keeping them separate. Ordinatus artillery formations were again at more points. Figures once again a combination of Guard and Chaos proxies.

Incompertus, 4000 POINTS
Gryphonne IV Skitarii Legion (NetEA 2.1 (Approved Candidate version))
==================================================

ORDINATUS MAJORUS [550]
1 Ordinatus Majorus, Ordinatus Golgotha (Hellfire Missiles)

ORDINATUS MINORUS [600]
2 Ordinatus Minorus, 2 Minorus with Quake Cannon, Minorus with Carapace Landing Pad

ORDINATUS MINORUS [450]
2 Ordinatus Minorus, 2 Minorus with Gatling Blaster, Minorus with Volcano Cannon

ORDINATUS MINORUS [450]
2 Ordinatus Minorus, 2 Minorus with Gatling Blaster, Minorus with Volcano Cannon

SKITARII DEMI-CENTURY [425]
2 Secutor units, 8 Hypaspist units, Magos Character, Minorus with Support Missile

SKITARII DEMI-CENTURY [325]
2 Secutor units, 8 Hypaspist units, Minorus with Corvus Assault Pod

SKITARII DEMI-CENTURY [225]
2 Secutor units, 8 Hypaspist units

SKITARII DEMI-CENTURY [225]
2 Secutor units, 8 Hypaspist units

SAGITARII DEMI-CENTURY [275]
5 Sagitarii units, 5 Rapier Laser Destroyer Unit

ORDINATUS MINORUS [475]
2 Ordinatus Minorus, 2 Minorus with Volcano Cannon, Minorus with Gatling Blaster

Tau list, no Supreme Commander this time, and a massive BTS formation.

525		FW Cadre, 12 Fire Warriors, Ethereal, Bonded Team, 2 Pathfinders, 2 Gun Drones, Devilfish
325		FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray
325		FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray
325		6 Crisis Suits, Shas'el
325		6 Crisis Suits, Shas'el
200		Pathfinder Group, 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish
200		Pathfinder Group, 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish
200		Pathfinder Group, 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish
200		Pathfinder Group, 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish
225		4 Railhead Hammerheads
175		4 Tetra, 2 Piranha
175		4 Tetra, 2 Piranha
200		Protector Class Cruiser
150		Orca
150		Orca
150		2 Barracuda
150		2 Barracuda

Turn 1

Deployment as below. The Tau BTS is holding the central buildings and ruins.

I win Strategy Roll, and Minoris Support Missile fires at the BTS but only killing one unit (could only get 5 under the templates due to good spacing).

The Tau target the Corvus Minoris, stripping it's shields and damaging it with a co-ordinated fire involving Hammerhead Tanks.

I marshal advancing the formation and restoring shields.

On the right flank, my Minoris take fire and no damage, but then advance...

... and destroy the Tau Hammerheads.

My two other Minoris formations on the left flank advance and target the Tau BTS formation killing more units.  I also manage to line up two volcano cannons to target the Ethereal and kill him, removing fearless ability from the formation.

Amazingly after all the fire, the Tau BTS has only just broken though! It retreats to the backfield, taking more fire from the Minoris Artillery and suffering more losses. My Majoris artillery manages to wreck a pathfinder formation.

Tau Barracudas strip shields from the Corvus Minoris again.

And end of turn, first Tau air attack lands...

... and with crossfire wrecks the Minoris formation leaving it with only one damaged Minoris remaining.

Then another air drop on the next flank...

...another crossfire and Hypaspist formation is left with only two units remaining.

Lastly Tau Spacecraft arrives (represented by AX-10 here), and destroys the Corvus Minoris and last Minoris from the wrecked right flank formation.

End of turn.

My Sagitarri have moved to the central building.

Turn 2

Tau win Strategy Roll, and Crisis suits destroy a Minoris and strip shields from the rest of the formation.

Crisis suits on the other flank cross fire a Hypaspist formation, but do little damage and retreat to the woods with their jump jets.

I marshal my freshly damaged Minoris formation forwards restoring shields and removing some blast markers.

I also engage and almost wipe out a Pathfinder formation, as Barracudas target my Hypaspists.

Tau advance and target my Sagitarri but do little damage.

My Minoris artillery breaks the left flank Crisis formation, killing three of them. The Majoris Artillery only kills a single unit from the right flank Crisis formation.

More fire is exchanged with little extra effect, and the turn ends.

Turn 3

Tau win Strategy Roll again. Crisis Suits jet forward and target the Minoris artillery but fail to damage them.

Infantry from both sides contest the central buildings, and both sides take significant casulaties.

My Minoris roll forward to a Take and Hold Objective and destroy a couple more Tau formations before they are in turn broken.

More fire is exchanged, but formations on both sides are suffering from suppression and casualties and the game shifts to a battle of slower attrition and positioning.

Turn 4

I throw my Supreme Commanders formation into the central buildings to prevent the Tau gaining "They Shall Not Pass" and "Defend the Flag" and both sides concentrate on doing as much damage as possible. 

Game fails to go to turn 5, and then the game is over. Tau have one objective (Take and Hold), Skitarri none. Victory points are approximately Skitarri 1600, and Tau, 1300.

Conclusion

A closer game this time, though still a Skitarri victory by Victory Points. I thought it would be easy to get the Tau BTS formation after I killed the Ethereal. However after the air drops I felt I needed to redirect my artillery fire to prevent being overrun at my Blitz, and couldn't get the last three units from this Tau BTS formation all game. The Tau air drops were quite devastating, especially with crossfire and some favourable dice rolls but then they were blunted by less favourable circumstance and return fire. Volcano cannons were of course overkill against almost anything in the Tau list, but still useful with their range and power. They would have been even more useful if Tau had taken Mantas of course!

Once again this game I frequently used marshal actions to recover shields and remove blast markers and this was an effective tactic. There were many activation failures as blast markers accumulated and Skitarri were reduced to holding the central area and batting away the Tau attacks. I made sure I threw enough weight into the centre that Tau couldn't get an easy victory with 'Defend the Flag' or 'They Shall Not Pass' though, meaning Victory Points would be decisive and likely in favour of Skitarri as they turned out to be.  Artillery formations once again very tough formations to take on effectively and preserved Skitarri Blitz and BTS well.

Epic 4K: Skitarii vs Tau

After last game where Andrew used the Skitarri list we swapped over and I gave it a try. I had been rather vocal on Tactical Command forums recommending that the Quake Cannon Ordinatus should cost more points and thus we thought we would try them at the suggested 600 rather than 500 points in this game. Similarly I used the Golgotha which is another war engine macro artillery formation (though more limited in that it will have probably run out of ammo by turn 4), at 550 rather than 500 points.

For this game I used a mix of Imperial and Chaos war engine models and infantry, though I did actually have one of the Ordinatus style models from Vanguard for the Majoris!

Incompertus, 4000 POINTS 
Gryphonne IV Skitarii Legion (NetEA 2.1 (Approved Candidate version)) 
================================================== 

ORDINATUS MAJORUS [550] 
1 Ordinatus Majorus, Ordinatus Golgotha (Hellfire Missiles)

ORDINATUS MINORUS [600] 
2 Ordinatus Minorus, Minorus with Carapace Landing Pad, 2 Minorus with Quake Cannon

SAGITARII DEMI-CENTURY [275] 
5 Sagitarii units, 5 Rapiers

SAGITARII DEMI-CENTURY [275] 
5 Sagitarii units, 5 Rapiers

SKITARII DEMI-CENTURY [425] 
2 Secutor units, 8 Hypaspist units, Magos Character, Minorus with Support Missile

SKITARII DEMI-CENTURY [225] 
2 Secutor units, 8 Hypaspist units

SKITARII DEMI-CENTURY [225] 
2 Secutor units, 8 Hypaspist units

ORDINATUS MINORUS [425] 
2 Ordinatus Minorus, 3 Minorus with Gatling Blaster

ORDINATUS MINORUS [425] 
2 Ordinatus Minorus, 3 Minorus with Gatling Blaster

ORDINATUS MINORUS [575] 
2 Ordinatus Minorus, 3 Minorus with Plasma Destructor  

Andrew used his Viorla Tau with a heavy number of tanks.

4000 points, Third Phase Tau v6.8

375		FW Cadre, 2 Pathfinders, 8 Fire Warriors, Ethereal, Devilfish
325		FW Cadre, 8 Fire Warriors, Skyray
325		FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray
225		FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish
200		4 Fusion Hammerheads
300		4 Fusion Hammerheads, Skyray
225		4 Railhead Hammerheads
225		4 Railhead Hammerheads
225		4 Railhead Hammerheads
175		Kroot Kindred, Shaper, 9 Warriors
175		Kroot Kindred, Shaper, 9 Warriors
200		Pathfinder Group, 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish
175		4 Tetra, 2 Piranha
175		4 Tetra, 2 Piranha
175		2 Tetra, 4 Piranha
200		Protector Class Cruiser
150		2 Barracuda
150		2 Barracuda

Turn 1

Here's the setup. I am clustered near the ruins in the centre of the table though with some Minoris on the flanks. The Tau are spread out to avoid the artillery barrages, and with plenty of garrisons forward of the line.

I win strategy roll and open up with the one shot Minoris Barrage wrecking one of the Tau formations and putting BM on two others.

The Tau concentrate fire against my Plasma Destructor Ordinatus with co-ordinated fire, so that I end up just marshalling them to remove blast markers and restore shields. Thus they cancel out the firepower that had been just been thrown at them, but the Ordinatus are not able to do use their own guns in return. Given they are slow firing and can only fire every second turn I decide this is not a great disaster though.

My Hypaspists engage in a firefight and wipe out a suppressed Kroot Formation in the centre of the table, and take one of the buildings.

The Tau then concentrate fire on my left most Ordinatus formation stripping shields and breaking them, and the Tau Spacecraft arrives and misses with one shot, but destroys an Ordinatus with the other.

More fire is exchanged, with the Tau Fusion Hammerheads managing to break my lead Hypaspist formation and force it to retreat, and several more Tau formations being mauled. The Majoris wrecks a Hammerhead formation destroying two tanks.

End of turn 1 losses.

Note all the dead Secutors who had no luck with saves this game against Tau Fusion Hammerheads and Snipers!

Turn 2

Tau win Strategy Roll, and launch a co-ordinated fire mission with Recon and two Hammerhead formations. This breaks my lead Minoris formation and destroys one of it' number, and they fall back shields down.

The Majoris fires again and wrecks another Hammerhead Railgun formation before it can activate, destroying two tanks. Hammerheads are a priority target given their threat to Ordinatus units.

More fire is exchanged and Kroot sweep forward in a firefight breaking a Sagitarri formation, losing two of their own in the exchange.

End of turn 2 before rallies.

Below the Plasma Destructors have advanced and fire two of their number wiping out a Recon formation, their massive guns being an expensive and too heavy option for the matchup in this game!

The centre showing the battle for the objectives and buildings here.

Turn 3

Both sides infantry continue to take heavy losses in the built up area as buildings are contested, and locations change hands.

The Plasma Destructors advance wrecking more Tau tanks though only one can fire this turn. Ordinatus artillery continues to take a heavy toll with each barrage rendering a Tau formation combat ineffective.

A look at the situation in the centre. My Supreme Commanders formation has advanced to contest the central building but a Tau Sniper takes out my Magos so no more rerolls!

View from my baseline.

Turn 4

Tau have been throwing forward broken formations to slow the Skitarri advance and prevent me winning on objectives. Even the Tau Command formation takes on this role, and their Supreme Commander is also killed along with his entire formation.  The Minoris Quake Cannon formation manages to get lucky and shoot down three Barracuda with its AA just to add insult to this loss.

The Majoris is out of barrage ammo, so drives forward to use its hull weapons, which still helps out against broken Tau formations. 

Turn ends and I have the 'Break Their Spirit' victory condition but nothing else, and the Tau have "Take and Hold" but no other victory condition.  Game fails to go to a turn 5 and so we go to Victory Points.

Skitarri have destroyed 2887.5 points of Tau.

Tau have only destroyed 1362.5 of Skitarri so a win to Skitarri.

Conclusion

A protracted battle of attrition, but the Skitarri forces managed to out-attrition the more lightly armoured Tau in the end. One point in the Tau favour in this battle was that the Ordinatii firepower (e.g. Plasma Destructors) was often overkill and thus inefficient against the 'pop-corn' style list used here with 18 Tau formations vs 10 Skitarri. The artillery Ordinatii were reliably destructive and didn't fail an activation in the game which added to that effectiveness. They were also so well protected by shields and being at the back of the table that the Tau prioritised targeting the more easily reachable Ordinatii which could be markerlighted/crossfired. This was probably a wise move as the firepower from these was also more immediately destructive in power, though also much more vulnerable and challenging to employ as effectively. 

I think we felt the increased points were justified for the artillery Ordinatii, and other formations probably felt about right from this game, though we are planning to test the list again. One thing we also thought was that the ratios and lack of upgrade options in a Skitarii list mean you are rather set in what you can take, and coming up with an exact 4000 points list or something close to that is rather challenging (when using lots of Ordinatii at least). You can take Hydras as an upgrade for 50 points of course, that is a waste when you have integral AA on the Ordinatii. More to ponder...