New hoplites and another elephant.

 Just finished a couple of things for my Macedonian army. 

First up my third unit of mercenary hoplites. Mainly plastic figures from Warlord Games. All shields hand painted as usual. At some point I will expand the Greeks into their own army. 

Next we have my second elephant. I got both elephants in a bargain box full of old and newer ancients at the Phalanx Wargame show. for just £20.  These are old Hinchliffe elephants but with newer 28mm crew squeezed in. I also glued a shield to each side of the howdah to add more colour. 

Here is a photo of both elephants.

 The rear one had his head replaced with a head from a plastic elephant. 

I need to get them on the gaming table soon. 

Next up is a unit of 'Silver Shields', 32 pikemen will take me some time but the shields should be easy; then another unit of peltasts.    

The Spartans arrive!

 For this week's game we adapted another scenario from the Pyrrhic Wars book to fight it out between my Macedonians and Ian and Charlies Greeks. The scenario is based along the coastline, any troops forced back into the sea that runs alongside one flank will be destroyed as it is a rocky coastline, otherwise, for us it was a typical encounter battle. Charlie bought along his new unit of Spartiates, I could only hope they suffered the fate of all newly painted troops. 

Deployment: Greeks to the left, Macedonians to the right. The coastline is just below the lower photo edge (looks like a river as that is what we used!). We are all very pleased with how good our ancient games are starting to look. More new troops will appear soon. 

Ooo look, some freshly painted Spartans. Charlie had done a great job with these. 

On my 6ft wide table it was an almost wall to wall line of phalanx, broken only by the woods on the Macedonian right. I wasn't quite sure where to point my Companion cavalry so I placed them in the centre hoping to wait for a break in the Greek line. 

Ian's light troops try to dominate the wooded area. over on my right. 

Back on the left, failed orders from Charlie's Greeks gave me an opportunity to charge one end of their broken line so the pike phalanx came crashing in. Charlie's peltasts got squished and destroyed by the Macedonian pike. You can also see my Hypaspists charging the Spartiates.

Over on the left my peltasts had already charged and cleared greek skirmishers from the top right wood. Now my light cavalry rode up in support tying two Greek phalanx's in knots and keeping them busy all game. 

My Hypaspists broke Charlie's Spartiates (he has already removed them); the curse of the newly painted troops strikes again! Charlie's division were now close to breakpoint.

My light cavalry cleared away some Greek skirmishers but then Ian's hoplites got involved so my light cavalry fled. 

At long last, my Companion Cavalry, which I had positioned in the centre patiently waited until the flank of a hoplite unit offered itself. These were the Theban Sacred Band. They all got wiped out to my huge delight. 

Finally my Greek Mercenary Hoplites helped by the Companion Cavalry made a greek sandwich of Ian's last unit in the centre and with Charlie's division now broken Ian withdrew his few remaining troops and victory went to the Macedonians. I often complain about my poor luck on the dice, not today, overall I threw well unlike Charlie whose dice throwing was truly awful in the first half of the game. All troops had managed to avoid being forced into the sea so no-one lost troops that way. 

Another great fun game and it was particularly pleasing for me to see my troops finally do well. 

15mm General D'Armee

 With 5 players today we decided to run a game of General D'Armee as it has been some time since we played. Nigel was hosting and had done quite a bit of work to set up a scenario based on one from an old General d'Brigade scenario book. He mixed the forces up a bit and we ended up with the French against the 'Allies'. Ian and Charlie were the French with Howard and myself as the Allies and Nigel umpiring. 

French on the left, Allies on the right. With the Allies holding 3 of the villages, the French just one, the French had to try and beat the Allies back and claim at least 2 more villages. In number the French had the edge but it was going to be a difficult game with probably over 30 units per side. The game looked great and we set too with relish.  

The view from behind one of the Allied villages. 

The French start their advance. 

Ian and Charlie commanding and moving the French forwards. 

A close up of a village that was soon to see plenty of fighting. 

Nigel is gradually building up a great collection of Napoleonic terrain. 

The Allied cav advance slowly, looking for French skirmishers to chase off. 

Note the unit markers Nigel created to help us know which unit is which. 

The village that the French owned. 

Napoleon watches his troops advance. 

His artillery had already taken out two batteries of Allied artillery. 

Ian and Charlie's dice throwing was amazing with their artillery, ours was dreadful.  

Waiting for the French.

One quick assault and the French were in. That meant both sides held two villages. 

The allies strike back. With four dice each, Ian scored 4 hits for the French and I threw four 1's, no hits. Typical of my luck so far. 

Next turn I re-enforced my assault. I had nine dice and score 1 hit, Ian had four dice and scored 3 hits. It was just not my day. The French hold onto the village. 

Then Charlie advanced the French cavalry. 

One quick charge and another Allied artillery battery had gone although Howards artillery did inflict 6 casualties on the French Lancer unit. 

Some of our cavalry posed to defend our centre. 

At this point we ran out of time with the French definitely gaining the upper hand. It was decided to continue the game next week. Sadly neither Howard or I can make it so Nigl will take command of all the allied forces, surely he must have better luck with the dice than we did!

Thanks to Nigel for organising a great game. 

Another 28mm Hail Caesar Game.

 Firstly a couple of new units for my (never victorious) Macedonians (who will one day be expanded into a Successor Army as well). 

A pair of Bolt Throwers. Figures by '1st Corps'. These made their debut today. 

A second unit of light cavalry. Figures by Victrix. 

You may note that I/we are happy to mix our figure ranges within an army. 

Today Nigel and Charlie commanded the Late Greek army with Ian and I commanding the Macedonians. The scenario was adopted from the Pyrrhic Wars supplement and tweaked a little to suit my collection of scenery. Could the Macedonians grab a victory for once? 

Greek deployment, Charlie as overall general near edge, Nigel far side. 

Macedonian deployment, myself as overall general at the top with Ian commanding my late Greek mercenaries.  

Macedonian General urging his troops forwards. 

The Greeks soon grabbed the rough terrain hill with their skirmishers. 

My Macedonians and Nigel's Greeks closing in on each other. 

On the other flank, the Theban Sacred Band chased off Ian's peltasts then his light cavalry too. 

The phalanx's clash. 

The 'double one' shows how effective my new bolt throwers were being so the crew set fire to them!

My phalanx's eventually overpowered one of Nigel's but combined with other losses his division was now broken and had to with draw.  

Here we see Charlie's two phalanx's on the left closing in on the temple guarded by some skirmishers and the (useless) bolt throwers. Top right corner shows one of Ian's phalanx's holding bcak the Theban Band (off picture). 

Charlie sends his newly painted skirmishers to try and oust Ian's skirmish troops from the wood. They failed and fled!

As Nigel's division withdraws (with his pesky slingers still pelting my troops as they go) my division could start to try and turn to go and help Ian. Seemingly now outnumbered the Greeks withdrew leaving the Macedonians victorious for the first time, Hurrah! 

Once again Hail caesar gave us a cracking game that could very easily have gone either way. Ian was very canny in his harassment of Charlie's troops and keeping his main phalanx's out of trouble. Then once mine and Nigel's big clash on the left had been decided my units were able to start to turn towards Charlie force as well. Great fun and so nice to win my first game with the Macedonians. 

28mm Macedonians v Late Greeks again.

 For this week's game we adopted scenario 1 'The Eagle Soars' from the recent Hail caesar supplement 'The Pyrrhic Wars'. We were using 2 smallish armies of 300 points in two divisions each. The scenario has the two sides attacking each other over a river and a long area of rough ground. I was still using my (never won a game yet) Macedonians and Ian and Charlie were using Ian's Late Hoplite army again. Good news is that Charlie has been out and bought some Spartans although it will be a while before we see them in all their glory. 

I only used one unit of companions today, swapping them for a unit of peltats and another skirmish unit which I thought may be of more use in the rough terrain. 

The full glory of Macedon.

and some ever victorious Late Greeks.

Ian's division looking strong defending a hill. 

Bird's eye view, Macedonians at the bottom, Greeks at the top. Note the river (fordable but could cause disorder ) and the long strip of rough ground, passable but slowed down to just one move and may cause disorder). This was a tough table of terrain to fight over, especially for the phalanx's in any rough terrain. 

Hiding somewhere off table is my set of new Royal Macedon Purple dice which were doing brilliantly over the first two turns. Good order throws allowed me to throw my skirmishers and peltasts forward to threaten the enemy. 

Over on my left flank the bulk of the macedonians advanced, the red counters showing which units suffered disorder crossing the river. 

Ian's Greek hoplites advance more cautiously. 

Charlie charged my peltasts with the Theban Sacred Band who failed their evade test and got caught and thus destroyed. This was the start of bad things for Macedon as the purple dice lost their luck. 

Risking the rough ground my Hypaspists lost their phalanx rules in the rough stuff and were soundly beaten by Ian's Greek Hoplites. 

The Hypaspists about to break. 

After much maneuvering over on my right, one of my Mercenary phalanx's had caught one of Charlie's in the flank and pushed them back. Next turn I was able to charge my victorious Hoplites into the Theban Sacred Band and after two rounds of melee destroy them...that felt good, note the good scores on the purple dice, I needed 3+ to hit!

However, elsewhere my right division was broken and the phalanx above became 'shaken' during the melee so with few troops left I conceded the game.

After this very enjoyable game we were left wondering why any army would attack across a river, over rough terrain and up a hill. However, it did create some very interesting situations and we all enjoyed the game. 

So far the score is Macedon 0 v Rest of the World 4!