Late Romans v. Goths

Romans: Jim, Steve & Mark.
Goths: Mike & Chris.

The Romans are on the left in the pics.

The Romans have legionaries in the centre with auxilary infantry then cavalry on both flanks.
The Goths have massed their infantry in the centre, in double lines in the middle & cavalry on both flanks.

The Romans advanced both wings while the Goth charged in the centre.

The legionaries are having a rough time in the centre, but the Romans are using theri better command control to manoeuvre to advantage on both flanks.

The Roman centre has collapsed but si has both of the Goth flanks.  The Goths are
counterattacking the near flank & trying to hold off the Roman left. 

The Romans right is bewing driven baway from the centre, but the Goth right has been noutflanked & has collapsed.  

The Goths fail our new army morale test.  Both sides have having lost half their units, but the Romans have more untis left on the field fit to fight (ie unshaken). 

The game a bit unrealistic in that the victoroius Goths would have pursued to pillage the baggage rather than wheel to the flanks, but also the Romans would have given up on losing nearly all their legionaries.  But it was a great game. 

Rome v. Carthage

Carthage: Mike & Steve
Rome: Jim, Mark & Chris

Romans on left: Legion in the centre flanked by allied spearmen.  Right flank medium cav. Left flank heavy cav & peltasts.
Carthos on right: Citizen spearmen in centre with elphants on their left & scutari on their right.  Heavt cav on right flank. Heavy & light cav on left flank.

The Carthos advanced their right. The Romans advanced their centre while pulloing back their left & extending their right further to the right.

On the far flank the Punics cavalry has charged the peltasts & the scutari have charged the legion.  
On the near flank the Roman's allied spearmen supported by triari are preparing to take on the elphants & their cavalry hang back away from those smelly elephants.

On the far flank the Punic cavalry has disposed of the peltasts & turned to deal with the Roman cavalry.
The scurai are slugging it out with spearmen & legionaries. 
The citizens are still hanging back.
The elephents & spearmen are hard at it.
The near flank cavalry are still both hanging back.

Heavy fighting along almost the entire frontwith wins & losses on both sides.

On the far flank the Carthos are finally getting on top.  
In the centre, it is still indecisive.
On the near flank, the elephants have had a win & a loss, but the triari are taking care of the winning elephants.  The Roman cavalry have worked their way around the flank.

On the far flank the Carthgos are now mopping up the last reisistance.
In the centre the citizens are on the verge of breaking.
On the near flank the elpahnts have been beaten & the Punic cavalry is surrounded

There a flurry of units of both sides being broken & both sides failed their army morale test at the same time, so it was declared a draw.  

The army break test is one of the trickiest rules to get right.  In the last two weeks it has failed to give a satisfactory result.   Some time ago I suggested an alternative test based on the number of unshaken units left on each side after one or both drop to or below half strength but we never came to a decision. 
.
 

 

Macedonians v. Persians

Persians: Jim, Steve & Mike
Macedonians: PeterM & Mark

Macedonians on far side from their left flank: Mediam cav, peltasts, phalanx, companions.
Persions on near side from thier right flank: Medium cav & horse archers, levy & hop;ites. spahabara, levy & hoplites, medium cav & horse archers. Both sides advance in echelon, leading with their right flanks.

The cavalry on both flanks are in combat.  On this flank, the Persian cavalry is being supported by infantry rurning the companions left flank.

The infantry ghave now come to grips in the centre.
On the far flank, the horse archers support is helping the Persians to get on top.
On the near flank, the infantry support is giving the Persians an edge.

The Persian cavalry are winning on both flanks, but the phalanx is getting on top of the spahabara in the centre.

The Persian centre has collapsed, but the Macedonian cavalry is in deep do on both sides.

Both sides have lost over half their units, so by the rules it's a draw, but we fought on anyway.

After igoring the army morale rule, the Macedonians are doomed as they cannot stop the Persian cavalry destroying the phalanx with bow fire. 

Seleucis v. Antagonis rematch

Antagonis: Jim & Mike
Seleucis: Steve & Chris

Antigonis is on the left.

Seleucis adavnced his whole line, but faster on both flanks,
Antigonis held is position except for sending his Galacian cavalry across the rear of the army from left to right.   He did this both to avoid cavalry fighting elephants & to reinforce his right where Seleucis has put all his cavalry.

On the near flank Antigonis' Greek cavalry with peltast in support held on until the Galacian cavalry arrived. 
On the far flank Antigonis is fighting a delaying action. 
In the centre, Seleucid=s wa relctant to attack the Galacians on the ridge & the small but vteran Antonig phalanx.

On the near flank Seleucis' cavalry is being beaten back.
In the centre Antigonis' phalanx has counterattacked as peltasts outflank the Seleuci phalanx.
On the far flank the Seleucid attack is slow to develop.

The Seleuci cavalry is now totally defeated & the Seleucid phalanx is being rolled up from the flank.
In the centre, the Galacian have charged down the hill to pin the Seleucid phalanx.
On the far flank the Elephants have attacked teh end of the ridge, but the Galacians with peltasts in support are holding the flank.

Antagonis' left has held on as right rolls up the Seleucid line.
Seleucis concedes the battle with half his army broken & the rest doomed to being surrounded.  Antigonis lost just one unit broken.

The armies were similar this week except last Seleucids had a small advantage (1.3%) by having companions.  We swapped the companions for Greek heavy cavaltry thsi week so Antigonis had a small advantage this week.  The advantaged army won both times, but in each case the winner also had the better plan.     

  

 

Ancients: Seleucis v. Antigonis

Seleucids: SteveJ & Chris
Antigonids: Jim & Mark
28mm figs M2M house rules.

Antigonids on near side.
Blind deployment on map with only restriction being phalanxes must straddle the centreline.

Seleucis started with a slow general advance.  Antigonis advanced his right.

Antigonis' attack on the right ran into a shower of hot dice.  His medium cavalry shattered against Peltasts while half his Galatians were stopped by elephants.

Seeing his right was struggling Antigonis attacked on his left. 

Antigonis' counterattack had only mixed success.  On the left end of the line some of his heavy cavalry broke on contact.  Petasts somehow held the line against Companions as his veteran phalanx got on top of half of Seleucis' phalanx. 
On the other flank half the Galacians were broken by elepants & the rest being pinned by half of Seleucis' phalanx tas the elphants wheeled onto their flank.

Antigonis' phalanx is his only winner as Seleucid cavary wraps around his left flank & elepahnts around his right flank.  His army fails army morale & breaks.
 

Sunday school BA

Chris' Soviets v. Jim's Germans: 1250 pts, Key Positions scenario
Soviets mostly Regulars, Germans mostly Veterans.

Pics from German side.
There are 4 objectives: The bridge, the road junction & the ends of the two ridges overlooking the other objectives.
The German's had a clearer run towards most of the objectives than the Soviets & both sides made plans in accordance witht hat.
The German plan was to rush the 3 objectives on the left & hang onto them.
The Soviet plan was to grab the far objective while moving up to a position where they they could engage from cover the Germans on the other objectives where there was no cover & then counterattack.

The Germans gained 3 objectives then lost very high casualties exposed to from Soviet fire down but without cover.  But a German attack by Pioneers down the left bank of the river past the bridge disrupted the Soviet counterattack & a few survivors hung onto each of the objectives to give the Germans a costly victory. 

ACW 15mm again

We made a quick scenario using last week's armies & terrain, but a simpel encounter battle.
Union: Jim, PeterM & SteveJ: 32 inf, 6 cav, 4 parrots all regs
CSA: Mark & Chris: 24 inf, 6 cav, 4 Naapoleons, all vets

Both sides deployed with cav on both flanks.

The Union advanced quickly on their right to seize the village.

On the near flank both sides took up defensive positions out of musket range & exchanged artillery fire.
On the far flank the Union extended their line to the right & advanced.

On the near flank, the Rebs initially got the better of the artillery duel having 4 guns to 2, but the Union moved 2 guns from the right flank to behind the village to support their left.
In the centre, Reb artillery & then musketry drove the Union out of the railway station, but the Union had reinforced the vuillage from their left & the Rebs didn't attack.
On the far flank the Rebs kept pulling back as the Union wrapt around their left flank.

At this stage the Rebs conceded the battle.  The battle was remakable in that it was decided by maneouvre with remarkably few casualties.  Not one unit was broken & only 1 on each side shaken.  The Union used manoeuvre to utilise their superior numbers & avoid serious engagement while the Rebs never got into a potionw here they felt able to close up to to take advanatge of their veteran status. 

 

ACW 15mm

 As Chris had just finshed painting the last of his hoard of 15mm Confederates we did ACW to give them a run.
Union: Jim & SteveJ.  Reb: Mark & Chris.

The Union has a division of 8 raw troops in the village defending a stores depot.  The Confedates ar atttacking the depot from the right with 2 corps, each 12 inf, 6 cav & 2 guns, all veterans.  The Union has two forces coming to the rescue on the roads from the left, each 12 inf, 6 cav & 2 guns.

On the left the Reb cavalry has advanced to engage the Union cav & disrupt the Union deployment while part of their force firea t the village & the rest set up to repel the Union counterattck.
On the far flank, half the Reb cavalry occupy the farm while 1 infantry brigade moves up in support & 2 infantry brigades & their artillery attack the village.

On the left the Reb cavalry was beating the UNion cavalry until Union infnatry flanked them.  They then withdrew having fullfileld their mission of delay.
On the far flank, the Union cavalry has gone around the occupied farm while their infantry prepare to attack it. 
In the centre, Rebs are softening up the Union with fire from both sides.

On the left, the Union has deplyed & is advancing. The Rebs have set up to receive the attack.
In the centre the Rebs have assauted the village & Union resistance is crumbling.
On th far flank, the Rebs are putting up stout resistance in the farm as the Union cavalry sweep around it, Half of them take on half the Reb cavalry while the rest charge the Reb guns on the hill.

As the Rebs storm though the village, the Union on the left are finally ready to attack.
On the far flank, the Union infantry have finally taken the farm.  The Reb cavalry are winning the cavalry fight while the Union cav who rode down the Reb guns (too late to save the garison) have gone on into the woods apparently planning to outflank the Reb's left. 

On the left the Union have initiated a fire fight.
In the cntre, the Rebs have taken the village as the Union infantry prepare to counterattack.

On the near flank, the Union got the worse of the firefight & have pulled back out of range before any units were broken.
On the far flank the Union are counterattacking & gradually wearing the Rebs down, but they held out until nightfall.
The Union cav in the woods failed to get through fast enough to be any help to the Union right.

The Rebs declared victory claiming to have destroyed the supply depot & being able to withdraw over night on one road.  The Washington Post headlines claimed a Union victory after the Rebs withdrew.  





  

Bolt Action

 Jim's Germans v. Chris' Soviets in Hold until relieved scenario

The Germans are defending the bridge.  Pic from Germans side of the table.

The Germans had a better plan which was backed up by the dice gods giving them a decisive victory.

English civil war

Parliament: Jim & Mark
King: SteveJ & Chris

Pic from parliament's side.  Both sides have 6 pike & shot, 4 musketeers, 8 cavalry & have deployed with P&S in the centre, cavalry on this flank & musketeers on the far flank.

Parliament advanced in echelon, right flank forward, but held their cavalry on the extreme right back rather than charge uphill.

On the far flank Parliament have formed a defensive line in the farm as the Royals advance.
The near end of the Parliament's infantry line has charged home but is getting the worst of the combats.
the cavary fight is still indecive as both side move their reserves to cover their losses.

On the far flank musketeers are exchanging fire in the farm.
In the centre, the P&S are exchanging fire.
Right of centre 2 of Parliament's P&S have been broken, but the winners are shaken & parliament has a fresh P&S in reserve.
Both sides have won some & lost some in the cavalry fight & used theri second line to plug the holes.

The battle came to sudden end as in one turn:
On the far flank 3 Royalist musketeers units broke.
Left of centre two Royal P&S have broken under fire.
Right of centre, the 2 victorious Royal P&S brioke under the fire of th Parlient's reserve unit.
On the right flank, the Cavaliers have finally attacked the end of the Parliament's line & broken thru, but it's too late.

The Royalist right & centre have collapsed & the victorious cavaliers are not numerous enough to redress the balance.

It was aninteresting battel with a bit of tactical finesse as both sides shifted reserves to fill gaps in the theri line.  The near flank was pretty much a stalemate, but Oakie's luck trumped Chris in the firefights on the far flank.