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.