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!

Macedonians v Late Greeks with Hail Caesar

 With my newly painted Macedonian army not doing so well (they lost at 'On Bloody Ground' against a Successor army then lost at Warhammer Ancient Battles against a Late Greek army) how would they fare today when using Hail Caesar rules against the Late Greeks again. With me commanding my Macedonians Ian and Charlie were joint commanders of the Late Greeks. 

The table was set up with quite basic scenery and the dice decided that I would deploy a division first then the Greeks etc... We only have enough figures painted for 2 divisions a side but on my 6'x4' foot table this is plenty with a little bit of room left for manoeuvre. My Macedonians were also awarded first turn. 

The Greeks assemble.

A view along the Macedonian line. 

View from above the Macedonian line. Note the quite open terrain. 

My light cavalry advanced quickly to harrass the Greek skirmishers sheltering in the wood. 

Ian and Charlie got caught re-arranging their hoplite units so I went crashing into a lone unit of hoplites and then threw really bad dice so that combat was a draw, I had hoped to break them and smash through the enemy centre. 

With the Greeks having more missile troops than me I had decided not to hang around but to get stuck in quickly, my dice throws for orders often had a different idea! 

Ian's new unit of Theban Sacred Band come crashing into my Greek Mercenary Phalanx's. This combat bolstered by the phalanx rule of they can only be defeated and forced to take a break test if they lose a melee by more than 2 meant that this lot were still locked in melee at the end of the game, although both were 'Shaken' by then.  

My central attack went slowly but eventually we forced one lot of shaken hoplites off the table then destroyed the other. 

My cavalry charge on the right flank failed by a few inches allowing Charlie to smash a unit of hoplites into my Companion Cavalry. With my cavalry supported b a Pike Phalanx to their left I was confident of the win...but lost!

It took a few turns but Charlie eventually broke the Companions, elsewhere Ian had broken my left division. On the last turn I still had a chance if my units would obey their orders...they didn't, my order throws were appalling. This allowed Ian and Charlie to mp up a few more of my units and claim a hard fought victory. This was a very exciting game where it seemed first one side then the other had gained the upper hand but sadly for me my Macedonians lost again. Three losses in a row and I can't see my Macedonians forging a huge empire that history will remember forever! We play again next week, I shall have my revenge. 

28mm Vikings plus a Macedonian elephant.

 I have just finished my 4th unit of 28m Vikings plus an elephant for my Macedonians that I got as part of a £20 bargain box of 28mm ancients from the Phalanx Show in 2024. There were 2 elephants in the box so I will paint the second one up soon. 

The Vikings are all 28mm Wargames Foundry. Foundry very kindly have a page of 28mm Viking flags and banners that you can download to use for free. I happily printed the page and chose the banner you see, painting over the printed version as my printer is not so good. 

All shields are of course hand painted.  

The elephant is I think an old Hinchliffe model that has had a plastic Britain's elephant head crafted onto it. Thus it looks a bit big and lacks tusks. The mahout is the original model but the crew in the howdah are a metal Wargames Foundry Macedonian with his pike arm raised a little and a plastic Victrix Greek archer.

I added the shields to the side of the Howdah to add some extra detail, the Macedonian stars are also hand painted. I tried to create a brownish grey colour for the elephant with some fleshy highlights on the ears.