28mm Ancients Collection

An Ancients tourni coming up soon, so decided to get all my figures out and do some retouching of basing. In January have painted up enough extra figures to run Parthians for the tournament - the cataphracts and horse archers at the back.

Many Macedonians, Romans, Galatians and Parthians, and can be combined in various ways of course to create other classical period armies :)

Figures mainly Victrix and Aventine, with some 1st Corp, AA, Gripping Beast, Fireforge and Perry.
Tournament will be ADLG rules.

ADLG: Eastern Republican Romans vs Alexandrian Macedonian

A 300 point ADLG game at local club vs Brian last week. My Triumvirate Republican Romans (Eastern option under Brutus, with Galatian Mercenary Ally), vs Brian's Alexandrian Macedonian.

Here's the field of battle. I'm defender which is not what I prefer, but I decide to take advantage of some rough ground to help me disorder the phalanx. My Galatian ally is placed in this to try and delay the phalanx and heavy cavalry wing of the Macedonians, with the aim that my legionaries will engage and destroy the flank of the phalanx.  Opposite my Legions are some Thracians and a weak cavalry and elephant wing.

Thracians and Phalanx, painted by Gary Chick for Brian, as is the whole army. Gary Chick seems to be able to pump out armies very quickly. Nicely done!

The battle is joined, with Phalanx and Thracians fighting the Legion in the centre, while my Galatian ally holds position, allowing it to be outflanked by Macedonian cavalry. But this outflanking would happen anyway and the rough ground will at least hinder the cavalry and phalanx more than the Galatians.

Rules Note: Rough Ground in ADLG gives -2 to Pike and Cavalry, and -1 to the Galatian Heavy Swordsmen. Given combat factors are generally in the range of D6+1 to D6+3 a differnce of +1 is  significant enough.

Over on the left flank, my horse archers harass the Macedonian elephants, gradually wounding them, while cavalry chases off the enemy light horse.  Eventually one of the elephants is routed and stampedes into the other one (one in six chance!), which is also finished off.

The centre, my own javelinemen are in the centre of the line for once, against the Thracians (neither side penalised by the terrain). My Legionnaires grind forward against the phalanx, and also through the rough terrain where they are somewhat reduced in effectiveness, but still more than a match for the Thracians due to their armour, elite status and extra point of cohesion being heavy infantry.

The Galatians on the left surrounded...

I ran out of my new more discrete casualty counters, and so Brian ends up using his awful "donut" beads on his Thracian javelinmen, terrible! :)

End of the battle. My Galatian Ally infantry has once again been completely wiped out. However their sacrifice on my right has let me win the left and centre and the Alexandrian army breaks, though casualties are heavy on both sides.

Another game was also being played at the club, Andre's Palmyran against Mike's Macedonians, with victory to the Palmyrans. 

Getting sick of brightly coloured tiddly wink counters for casualties, I made these versions which blend in a bit better. The one's and two's are reversed, and the large splatters indicate more serious trouble!

To Ur is Human - Game 3

 Another game of To Ur is Human played a couple of weeks ago, just got around to posting. Once again we used the hidden deployment shown in the last game.

Here is the first turn with my forces rushing up the field. Andrew had painted up more battlecarts, giving us an extra squadron each (2 in his force and 3 in mine), plus some extra foot. Once again he had advantage in heavy infantry, while I had the extra squadron of battlecarts, plus more missile troops.

I throw my Battlecarts into the fray again, causing disorder in the enemy lines, while Andrew keeps his in reserve to try to counter...

The left is contested with my lights falling back before charges by Andrew's forces.

My Battlecarts cause chaos once more.

Though the first squadron comes to sticky end in the middle. 

On my right Andrews forces are concerned about advancing up the difficult hill, and this hesitation means more arrows to the face, and my Battlecarts chase his lights away and swing around behind his left flank.

Andrew's Battlecarts struggle to react to my impetuous Battlecarts which are rushing all over the place with follow up and charge moves.

On my left Andrew's spear have been forced back onto a hill, while the rest of his force is in a bad way.

In the centre my battlecarts are attacking from both flanks, and my archers pour fire into his units.

And over half of Andrew's army is lost and the force defeated.

Conclusion

Another interesting game using this system. Battlecart use is quite different compared to some other ancients rules we have used. They seem mainly useful as something to disrupt and cause absolute havoc in the enemy line, being difficult to manouevre and difficult to react with. Almost like expendable scythed chariots in other ancients systems, except that they are also as tough as your best heavy cavalry!  More useful as an attacking than a reserve force I think. Also on my right here, Andrew held back when I think just charging the missile troops (who don't last long once you get among them), would have been preferable to being a pin cushion. My feeling is that Battlecarts and missile troops are more points efficient than the heavy infantry, but that is just an impression after three games.

Big Battle DBA - Lysimachid vs Tamil

A battle vs Keith M, in Big Battle DBA. Can't remember exact details but my elephants ran into a lot of trouble. Looking at last pics, I think Lysimachid's won, though if I recall correctly Lysimachus himself died, after which his army fought much better (which seems historically appropriate).

Not published until a few years later but here are some pictures of it :)