A first go at the English Civil War

Last nites game against my dad was I my first stab at a English civil war game. Using Pike and Shotte rules I took command of the Parliament forces lead by Essex and my Dad took command of the Kings army. The game ended in a very close draw, both sides had lost Two Batallias each. Both my Cavalry brigades fought very well, breaking the cavaliers right flank cavalry and even breaking Prince Ruppets cavalry after repeling the initial charge, chasing the Prince from the field (I took a photo of the amusing moment) before been broke by the cavalier reserve cavalry. My infantry faired worse with Essex's troops breaking late in the battle. My infantry brigade to my left flank struggled with its command rolls all night and once they did get into the action it was to late in the day to make a telling contribution. It was a good and enjoyable game. Here are a few pictures of the action..

More troops for the Macedonians.

Continuing on from my last Ancient project post here are some further pictures of my new units, all models once again from irregular miniatures.

Here are some Hypaspists

Companion Heavy cavalry, I will be using these as Hetairoi

Another unit of light infantry Peltasts 

Some mounted generals, the white horse and rider il be using as Alexander

Thessalian medium cavalry

Dark Elves v Plague Daemons 2500 points game

 I fancied having a go with my Dark Elves for the second time since the release of the new book. I changed the army quite abit from last time and opted away from any mounted troops in favour of some solid infantry blocks supported by a couple of war hydras.

Thanks enlarge to the sale of my Skaven army I had treat myself to a few new models for my Dark Elves to go with the Army book and i would be using some of them in tonight's game.

 First up is the massive Cauldron of model with the character options you get in the box set. It would be to get its first outing in tonight's game.

I managed to get a further 10 fine cast Executioners thanks to EBay at a bargain price, making my unit a much healthy 28 strong.

And finally of quite ready for tonight's game are my Black Guard, not cheap on the pocket (thank you Games workshop) but a lovely model I must say. It's the first time in all the years I have had a Dark Elves army I have owned a unit and when they are completed i will have a twenty man (elf) unit. 

Anyway here are some pictures of our Warhammer  game between the Dark Elves and Plague daemon army. The Dark elves claimed a victory with the Cauldron of Blood and Witchelves combining into a very destructive unit, and the Daemons faired poorly all game with the dice gods, fickle things these Chaos Gods!

We rolled meeting engagement as our scenario, straight away the dice started playing havoc with the Daemons,  3 units of Daemons failed to arrive for deployment and would enter play from the first turn onwards from the table edge. All the Dark Elves were curtious enough to be on time.

The Hordes of the Great Unclean One

The Dark elves battle line.

Plague Bearers clash into the Corsairs with a Beast if Nurgle. The Corsairs lose but hold their ground as a War Hydra moves into position to charge into thevDaemons flank.

All kinds of rotting, plague bearing, unclean green skinned Daemons head towards the fighting.

The Death Hag on top the Cauldron of Blood  seeks her prey and sets her sights on a unit of plague Bearers near the forest.

The Hydra crashes into the Beast of Nurgle and destroys it, however the Plague Bearers remain and in the next round of combat break and destroy the horde of Corsairs, and the skulking Battle Standard bearer in he rear rank.

The Darkshards and bolt thrower destroy what remains of the Plagur Bearers who had just overrun the Corsairs with a hail of arrow fire.

The lurking hydra finished off the nurgleings with relative ease and after a couple of rounds of combat the Witch elves and cauldron destroyed the Plague Bearers unit. In the final turn the Witch elves and Cauldron make a successful charge and comfortably destroy a unit of plague drones. The God of Khaine would be most pleased.....

After surviving 2 miscasts but in the process losing all her magic levels, the Sorceress takes haven in the watchtower to have a birds eye view of the carnage on the battlefield.

Ancient Project update

While i was at Smoggycon convention i managed to Purchase quite a few more troops for my Alexander's Successor army from Irregular minitures. I bought some mounted and foot commanders, various light troops, heavy companion cavalry, Peltasts, Thracian light cavalry and some Hypaspists. My dad has been busy painting some of them up so here is a few samples.

First up are some skirmishes armed with bows and javelins and shields

These skirmishes are Crete bowmen and slingers

And finally some Thracian light cavalry and some Peltasts

All in all I have amassed quite a large force, enough to get them on the table in the new year. When I'm at York convention I will be on the spend again and I will be looking to get a couple of bolt throwers and some elephants so I can use the army as a Successors army as well.  

War of the Roses

We ran a war of the roses non historical battle at the weekend seen as my dad had recently rebased the models. We used Hail Caesar rules with a few amendments. I fought with Richard III against my Dad who was Henry VII.

The game was a close affair with me just about getting a minor victory at the end of the evening. Some poor command rolls had hindered my Dads right flank (Stanley's troops) to a almost stand still for the entire game and his left flank (Oxford) after some initial success was broke by my Norfolk troops.In the  centre Henry's and Richards troops fought each other with both sides having success with a possible slight advantage to my Richards troops.

Here's some shots of the action

The Start of the Battle

Norfolk and Oxfords troops clash

Henry waits behind a wall of archers and bill men with his cavalry 

First gains by Oxfords troops as they push the men at arms back though the field and break the Halberdiers 

Richard III and his knights look to charge through the opening in support of the men at arms but subsequently rolls a blunder

Stanley's troops stand and watch the battle contently 

Fighting back from there initial loses Norfolk breaks Oxford and Richards right flank is lost

Richard and Henrys troops clash in the centre

Stanley's troops decide to assist Henry but its far to late in the day, Northumberlands archers hold Richards right flank.

The end of the game.