Back to Fantastic Battles.

 It was great fun today to play a 15mm 'Fantastic Battles' game with Ian as it is one of our favourite set of rules. Ian was using his deadly 'Undead' led as usual by the Warlord Kroogan Hymax. I used my Wylde Elf army led by the mighty Mage Princess Leofran who rides her unicorn into battle. The scenario was a fairly straightforward one with a bit of flavour added by using both the 'Objectives' chart and the 'Random Events' as well. 

Princess Leofran glanced up towards the summit of Tol Berwyn where dragons once dwelt. She wished she had a dragon fighting beside her today. Leofran patted her unicorn, Corwen and turned away back down to her army. She had seen enough, the undead were advancing. 

Elven war songs sounded across the valley whilst the undead advanced in utter silence. The Undead Warlord Kroogan Hymax made a wide gesture with his arms whilst chanting and the whole undead force came to an immediate halt. Silence fell across the land between the two forces. Leofren gave a slight nod of her head and the elf knights mounted on pegasi took to the air; the battle was about to begin. 

Here is the rough outline of how the table was set up. 

Deployment before mishaps.

Undead to the left, Elves to the right. 

We were using the Objectives chart on p23 and a quick dice throw each decided that the Undead had to try and capture the high ground (there were no hills so we swapped this to capture the woods instead which would upset the elves) and the elves had to rescue a damsel in distress. Ian placed a single figure in contact with one of his toughest units to represent the damsel (we called her Princess Marielle). 

Mishaps forced one unit of undead forward and another one backwards. 

The elf pegasus riders were sent forwards by mishaps too. 

Undead dragon withdrew from a poor mishap throw. 

Turn 1 and the elf pegasus riders moved forwards again, taking up a blocking position against any undead who may advance between the pond and the wood. 

A good birdseye view of early movements as the elves advance to get into missile range of the undead. Elf shooting proved to be quite effective early on.  

A random event causes a unit of undead archers to swap allegiance and join the elvish army! We decided the story behind this random event was that Princes Leofran used her mysterious magical powers to cause this. Ian then charged the treacherous unit to destroy it before it could cause any harm on his own troops. 

Elf eagle allies swoop in and kill an undead wyvern. 

Over on the left flank a unit of centaurs supported by mounted elf archers take on undead infantry and after a couple of rounds of melee destroy them.  

In the centre the undead Hydra and his skeleton supports were also killed/destroyed by a unit of elf rangers.The undead casualties were starting to mount up. 

The undead rogue known as 'The Piper' attacked the elf rogue Emyn Lockhard and kills him in a duel. The Piper then went on to attack and kill an elf captain called Cadvan Longspear. This was starting to reduce my command capability. 

Sensing the end of the battle the elf pegasus riders charge into skeleton archers to try and destroy them.  

The elf rangers get caught in another fierce melee with another unit of skeletons. (the purple dice are a reminder of their 'empowered bonus in the melee from a spell).  Warlord Kroogan Hymax waded in to assist the undead but gets killed by the elf rangers who are also killed. However, the death of Kroogan Hymax causes a huge 'resolve' loss across the undead army which now collapses in defeat.  

My Treemen had just charged into melee with an undead dragon which with the help of the resolve loss caused by Kroogan's death is also slain. A great victory for the Wood Elves (it is not often I win at Fantastic Battles against Ian, a true master of using traits to great effect). 

Neither side achieved their objectives. The undead were nowhere near capturing any woods and the Princess Marielle was escorted from the battlefield by one of the few remaining undead units (a quick 50:50 dice throw decided this which could be an objective for another game?).  

Ian and I both had great fun playing this game which left us wanting to play again soon. 

We both think that Fantastic Battles is one of the best fantasy rulesets around.

Normans v Anglo Danes and Vikings, game 2.

 This week Charlie took on the role of scenario creator with a game inspired by last week's encounter battle won easily by the Normans. It was Charlie's Normans against a combined Anglo Danish and Viking force although sadly Ian (Ianberht) was ill and missed the game so I controlled both the Anglo Danish and Vikings forces with Charlie in charge of his Normans.  

I set the table up as described in the map that Charlie drew. A few quick dice throws soon decided which side deployed where and who was the attacker. I had to deploy the Anglo Danes in the lower deployment zone whilst half of Charlie's Norman force then deployed in the upper deployment area. The other halves of our forces were in reserve and it was going to be dependent upon the draw of a card as to where they came on. 

We also used my random cards to vary the quality of our leaders. 

Sir Robert de Baskerville was leading the Normans this week and this is his deployment.

Lord Ianberht was back to lead the Anglo Danes despite the Normans calling for the Pope to 

ex-communicate him for being so troublesome. 

The Viking allies turned up before the Norman re-enforcements. 

The Vikings, led by Svend this week happily entered the table close to my right flank. 

(however I forgot that units moving in column still get one move even if the order roll is failed and the new Viking leader proved to be not very good at throwing for orders). 

Charlie moved his Normans quickly across the board to threaten the Anglo Danes. 

Ianberht held his troops secure atop the hill. 

The view of the Normans approaching the Anglo Danish resolute on their hill. 

Then, Ianberht threw caution to the wind and with a wild yell of 'Ut, Ut followed by a few Godemite!' the Anglo Danes charged down the hill at the Normans before they could form their proper battle line. With my order dice allowing me the two moves I needed my guys crashed into the Norman infantry destroying an archer unit and forcing a unit of heavy infantry to withdraw. 

At the left end of the Anglo Danish line one unit of Ceorls were defeated which helped spin the battle line around a tad. 

With the archers gone my Housecarls swept on into a unit of Norman knights , nearly catching them in the flank but they turned to face the rampaging Housecarls and got battered as the Housecarls swung their huge dane axes to great effect. 

It took two rounds of melee to defeat the Norman knights and the Norman commander Sir Robert de Baskerville was killed in the melee. His son was quick to take over command but he was a lesser man.  

My Thegns were pushed back onto the hill (content to Rally up there). Happily the Anglo Danes caused enough damage to the Baskerville's Norman division that it broke and fled the battlefield. 

Slowly the Viking allies were starting to feed into the battle. 

At the top of the picture you can see the Norman reserve moving in column fast down the road . 

Charlies mounted units from his reserve arrive and try to sneak past a unit of Vikings who by now were mostly in position. My viking bondi archers hit the Norman knights with bow fire, killing two and forcing them back in disorder

With the combined Anglo Danish and Viking force only one unit down and a few points of damage rallied off they adopted a strong defensive position with most units also having support. 

Thegn Ianberht looked on in wonder as the remaining outnumbered Norman units decided to withdraw leaving the Anglo Danish/Viking alliance victorious. 

With a huge roar of victory the cry of 'Ut, Ut' was taken up again. Lord Inaberht who had fought in almost every fight was declared 'man of the match'. 

Thanks to Charlie for devising a hugely entertaining scenario which did seem to backfire on him a bit with his reserve entering the table at the furthest point away from the action. 

Hopefully we can fight a third and deciding battle in this series of games soon.  

Finally, here are a few photos of my latest unit for my Macedonians, the Silver Shields. 

It took me a whole month to paint these. They are mainly Wargames Foundry with a few Crusader Miniatures. The standard bearer is from WIP Games and Miniatures. 

Normans against Saxons and Vikings. 28mm Hail Caesar.

 Another game of Hail Caesar this week. We have discovered that games of around 300 points in 2 'divisions' work well on my 6' x 4'ft table. Charlie brought along 300 points of his Normans to take on 150 pts each of Ian's Saxons and my Vikings. It was a straightforward encounter battle with a small added challenge for each side.  The attacker has to raid a small dwelling in the opposing half of the table and get away with a wagon loaded with loot. The defending side has to try and get a mounted messenger off the opposing table edge (a plea for aid perhaps?). I also produced a set of cards and players drew one card per leader figure. These cards could increase your leaders abilities or add an extra skirmish unit to your force or any number of things. A quick dice off decided that Ian and I were the attackers and Charlie was the defender. 

My Vikings look across at the approaching Normans, especially the Norman cavalry on the left. 

Vikings and Saxons to the left, Normans to the right. 

The white cards are from a random pack which can upgrade your leader, add an extra unit or there also a few 'random' events. My Viking leader Torsten was upgraded, Ian (Ianberht) got a random event which allowed us to place a marsh in front of the advancing Norman cavalry. Charlie's main commander Beohmund was upgraded to Ld 9 and Roger de Baskerville got a Papal Banner allowing him to re-roll a failed Break Test.  

Charlie sends his Norman cavalry forward. 

Note the red headed figure hiding at the back, that is the messenger. 

He easily got across the board as Norman missile fire forced my archers sent to hunt him down were forced back behind a hill and in disorder. 

Ian's saxons form a defensive line to face the approaching Normans. 

The house is the one we needed to try and loot., we never got near it. 

Breton light cavalry harass Ian's Houscarles with javelins. 

Ian charges in, the Bretons counter charge...

No more Breton Cavalry., the only unit Charlie lost.  

So far so good for the Saxon/Viking alliance. 

Charlie attacked my Vikings with a combined infantry and cavalry attack.

My Vikings received a right good beating and the whole division broke and my commander was also killed in the melee. My luck was dreadful today, makes up for last weeks good luck! 

On the Saxon flank, Ian's force were also in trouble with quite a few disordered units. He used his turn to withdraw across the stream. The unit of skirmishers in front of the Norman cavalry is all that is left of the Vikings and they are trying to withdraw. 

At this point a resounding  and well deserved victory was declared to Charlie and his nasty Normans. 

We play again next week, same sides but Ian and I are hoping for a better performance, especially from my Vikings.   

Macedonians v Greeks in 28mm

 Back to Hail Caesar today which is one of our favourite rulesets to play. Ian and Charlie deployed an alliance of mainly Thebans with a few Spartans whilst I deployed my Macedonians facing them. However, Charlie was due to arrive a little late so Spartan deployment was delayed for the first turn or two. 

Ian's Theban hoplites. 

My Greek Mercenaries helping the Macedonians. 

My Macedonians are ready for battle. 

A closer view of the Greek Companion Cavalry. 

So with Charlie and his Spartans delayed my Macedonians decided to advance. 

My Greek mercenaries also advanced, but not quite as quickly. 

Turn 2 and I decided to declare a charge. I would need 3 moves for my Macedonians to contact the Thebans and that is exactly what I got so my companions and pike phalanx supported by the Hypaspists hit the Theban line.

The Greek mercenaries also advanced towards Charlies Spartans who were just appearing. 

A couple of rounds of melee saw the hoplites in front of my companion cavalry break and my pike units were steadily pushing the other hoplites off the board. 

All of Charlie's troops had arrvived by now and he wasted no time in attacking. Charlie was in control of the Theban Sacred Band (unit with clubs on their shields) and also his Spartans.  They attacked my Hypaspists and broke them after a couple or rounds of melee.

Charlie then advanced his hoplite units beyond my pike block in the hope that I could not attack him. 

In the top of this photo my Greek mercenary hoplites finally get into the action fighting the Spartans. My Pike block has turned around to get back into the battle, aiming for the Theban Sacred Band. My Greeks defeated the Spartans and with the Sacred Band already on 5 casualties a Macedonian win was declared. 

Another fun game played with 2 divisions per side which just fits nicely on my 6x4 foot table with a bit of room for manoeuvre. I was very surprised just how well my dice behaved themselves today with some great dice throwing at just the right times. Ian was trying to hold until the Spartans arrived but my quick moving Macedonians outwitted him and then fought really well and took full advantage of the opportunity given the them by the delayed Sparans. 

Next week we switch to Normans v Vikings and Anglo Danes, can't wait!