ACW 28mm

Having been on an exhausting bushwalk today I wasn't up to doing much tonight, so the rest of the gang went DIY.  They re-used the terrain from last week, but selected ACW armies each of two similar divisions & swapped the buildings from European 15mm to ACW 28mm.

Union: Chris & Steve.
CSA: Mark & Mike.

Thre was no need for me to do anything as unpire as they all know the rules well.  There was actually less discussion about rules issues than usual. 

Union left flank (Chris) v. CSA right (Mark).

Union right (Steve) v. CSA left (Mike).

The battle was indecisive with low casualties so neither side even close to breaking & objectives were also evenly split.

Bolt Action: 2 x 1250 pts games

Germans: Jim & Steve
Allies: Mike & Chris

The 4 forces strated in the four corners of the table:
Steve's Germans Left foreground.  Jim's Germans right foreground.
Mikes' Brits far left. Chris' Soviets far right.
We used two dice bags, one for the left side of the table & one for the right side, keeping both sides in sych turn by turn.  Most fo the combat was side by side, but cross tabel fire was allowed & was used a bit. 

Steve's Germasn formed a defensive line on the hede.  Mike advanced but the combat on that side of the table never got to close quarters. By the end Mike had lost one unit & Steve none.
On the other side of the table both sides advnce & there was plenty of action in & around the the large wood right of centre.   The Germans got the better of it losing just 1 unit while destroying 7 Soviets units.
 

Byzantium v. Arabs take 3

 didn't get back from a bushwalk in tiem to set up a battle so we recycled last week's armies.
Byzantium: Mark (cavalry), Chris (infantry)
Arab: Jim (infantry), Renfrey (cavalry)

Both sides put all their cavalry on one flank, so it became two battles, inf v. inf & cav v. cav.

The Arabs advanced their infantry whuile the Byzantines advanced their cavalry, so both leading with their strongest arm.

On the right, the Byantine light horse swept away the Arab horse archers, then made way for the cataphracts.
In the infantry fight, both sides' left the left were doing well.

The cataphracts are predicably chewing up the Arab heavy cavalry.
The infantry fight has turnd into a revolving door with the Vargangians & allied inf being broken on the Byz's right while the Arab rigth also broke.

The Aeab infantry have broken more untis than they lost & have the upper hand, but the Aeab cavalry has been destroyed, so the Arabs fail the Aamy Morale Test & the Byzantines lose again.

Maybe given the continued Arab losses the new points system hasn't gone quite far enough, but on the other hand, the Arabs may have got a bad run of the dice tonight.
 

Byzantium v. Arabs: Take 2

 After the last few battles I realised that our points system favoured smaller better quality armies.  So I designed a new sprreadsheet to address the issue.  Applying the new system to the armies we used last week, it deeemed the Areabs to be well outppointed - which wa sthe feeling we got playing the game.  On the new system the Arabs got some more units for this week's battle.
Arabs: Jim, Renfrey & Chris
Byzantines: Mark & SteveJ

The Arabs are on the left.
Both sides deployed their infantry in two lines in the centre & put most of their cavalry on the near flank.

Both sides advanced their left flank cavalry.
The Byzantines are advanicnt heri centre slowly while the Arabs keep their infantry back on their ridge.

On the near flank the cataphracts have broken the Arab cavalry's first line, but with significant casualties.
On the far flank the Byzantines are suporting their cavalry with their Varangians & foot archers.
In the centre, the Arabs see that the Kontaritoi are stretched thin & have advanced off their ridge to attack them. 

On the near flank the Arab cavalry has been destroyed.
The far flank has turned into a bloodbath for both sides.
In the centre the Arabs weight fo numbers has told & the Kontaritoi are in trouble.

In the centre, the Arabs have wonon the left & centre of the infantry fight, but the Cataphracts having cleaned up the Arab cavalry have started to attack the right of their line.

On the far flank, the only troops left fit to fight are the Varangians.
In the centre, the Arabs have destroyed almost all the Kontaritoi, but they are unable to resist the attack of the cataphracts on their righ flank.

This battle felt like a pretty fair fight so the new points system is certainly an improvement.

Byzantium v. Arabs

 Byzantium: Mark & Mike
Arabs: Jim, Nick & Chris

The Byzantines are on the far side of the table. They have  dployed all their cavalry on their right flank.   The Arabs put 1/4 of their cavalry on their right flank & 3/4's on their left.

The Byzantines immediately advanced their cavalry.  The Arabs sent our horse archers to fire & retire to protect their heavy cav from the enemy horse archers.

The Arab heavy cav is for now holding on against cataphracts.  Byantine light cavry is attacked the Arab infantry to cover the cataphract's flank.
On the far flank the Arab horse is trying to disrupt the Byzantine infantry's advance.

On the near flank the cataphracts have defeated the fist line of Arab cavalry & is now engaged witht eh second line.  The Arab horse archers have reformed into close order to support the second line.
Arab infantry is attackong the light cavalry covering the Cataphracts flank.

The Cataphracts are finally prevailing, but are themselves spent in the progress.
But the battel is being decided in the centre where the Arabs made the mistake of massing their light infantry & thus leaving gaps in their line.  The Byzantines exploited the gaps to make flank attacks that destroyed the Arab centre. 

The Arabs probably erred in not concentrating their cavalry, but their big mistake was leaving gaps in the infantry line.

The armies were equal in poits according the o the current spreadsheet, but recent experience has been that better quality armies are winning all the battles indicating that the points system needs a tweek.