Macedonians v Indians

H

It was time for our first game between our new Macedonian and Indian armies. We played a staight up battle line game with a few hills and woods scattered around the field. My Dad had drawn a map for his forces and once I had deployed my Macedonian forces I was given a surprise when all the Indian cavalry and chariots were deployed on their right flank, unlucky for me I only had a small division of medium and light cavalry facing them.

My Macedonians were led by Alexander who took command of he Companion  Cavalry division and Porus atop of his Elephant took command of one of the Indian foot divisions.

The Battle was set.... 

The massed ranks of Macedonian Pikes

The Indian battle line 

The Indian cavalry division starts the Indian advance

A blunder from the Indian commander saw the reserve division get a little excited and storm ahead a full three moves.

My first mistake as I hadn't put my Light cavalry into Open order so they could evade the forth coming charge, both units were charged and destroyed by the Indian medium cavalry and heavy chariots.

 

Cretan archers and Peltasts skirmish ahead of the Greek Hopilite Phalanxs.

 

The companion cavalry and Hetairoi led by Alexander ready to charge but had some what been isolated by the supporting infantry division who had failed three command rolls in succession 

The Indian right wing cavalry attack

As can be seen my Macedonian battle line is staggered in steps, the companion cavarly have pushed the Indian right flank back with harassing fire but isolated they have yet make the charge

With the supporting infantry division finally making a move and coming under a hail of arrows from the Indian troops I had to charge with the Companions, the elite Hetairoi coming under closing fire refused to complete their charge....

The Thessalian  cavarly were left with little choice but to charge the Charrriots and cavarly which they refused to do with a ill timed failed command roll, the result was predictable as the heavy Charrriots didn't need a second invitation and supported by the cavarly they broke the Thessalians, breaking the division in the process, my Phalenities were now in real danger of been flanked 

After the Indians infantry managed to hold there lines against the first wave of the companion attack Alexander saw an opportunity to flank a unit of infantry, leading the companions from the front he broke the first infantry unit and sweeping advanced into a second infantry unit.

The Macadonian left flank slowly tries to reorganise its self to prevent a flank attack

The Greek Hopilite Phalanxs were with in a three move charge range, passing there command roll with ease they weathered the closing archer fire relatively unscathered and clashed into the Indian infantry and elephants

The Indian infantry are defeated and the supporting elephants give ground as the Greeks push into the the Indian lines

After destroying the bolt thrower the cavarly charge into the flank of a Maccadonian Phalanxs, despite been at a large disadvantage the pikes stand firm and due to he Phalanxs special rule they manage to hold their ground for the next couple of turns before driving the Indian cavarly back.

The remaining Greek Hopilites moved into support of the Peltasts who had been charged by a War Elephant, along with a unit of slingers these extra numbers forced the elephant to break,making the indian Infantry division broken, the remaining infantry turned heel and started to retire from the field.

The Indian cavarly have now completely out manoeuvred the Macedonian Phalanxs and charged into the flank of the left hand side Phalanxs, although they didn't get broken, two of the three Phalanxs units were now shaken

An Indian heavy chariot in combat with a unit of Peltasts 

The end of the game position, although I had made good progress with my Greek Hopilites and a full division of elite Phalenities and Hypastists had finally reached the front lines of the battle ready to break the Indian centre I had all but lost my left flank and my companion cavarly despite fighting hard had now broken. My Dads Indian army at this stage gained a minor victory having only lost one division to my two.

Well the game was really fun and certainly give me plenty to think about tactically. I was caught by complete surprise by my Dads deployment and was given a complete run around by his two mounted divisions. The Indian army certainly hammers you with a lot of arrow fire which makes it all the more important to get into combat ASAP. When I did fight foot v foot I saw how tough the Macedonian army is going to be. I was hindered by my best division failing to many command rolls and not moving, had these been supporting my Companion cavarly things could well have turned out differently.

I am going to have to have a few more Thessalian cavarly units to bolster the medium cavarly division and maybe some more Peltasts to help guard the flanks of my Phalanxs, oh and a new command stand to replace that useless leader of my Elite division!!!!!

All in all it lived up to my expectations and I'm looking forward to next time we fight these two armies.

The Dark Monoliths of Zhulgozar

We played a scenario from the WH rule book the other day with 2500 pts Vampire Counts v Deamons of Chaos. The scenario saw us battle for control of the Ancient Ruins on top of the most central hill. The Ruins granted various magical benefits for the Wizards in control of the ruins. With hind sight the game would have been better suited to be played with Two different forces as neither side have to take break tests so it was always likely that we would have troops still remaining at the end of the game to contest the objective. Still it was a feisty scrap and for most of the game my Vampires held their own in combat,although in the latter stages with the benefits given to the Plague Bearers from that cursed Epidemius (I will take great pleasure in slaying him one of these days) my core warriors were disappearing a lot quicker than I could raise them! In the end facing defeat I had to play for a draw in the last turn and just consolidate contesting the objective. Here are a few snaps of the game, including my recently purchased unit of Blood Knights which Collin kindly sold to me thanks :-), they preformed admirably in their first outing. 

 a couple of moves in and our two armies have positioned themselves ready to give and receive charges.

The Beasts of Nurgle take early control of the ruins as the undead forces advance.

The Vampire Lord and Blood Knights ready for the charge along side the roaming Banshee who screamed and howled with particular intent in this game!

Some freshly raised Zombies are about to be barbecued very very soon

The Greater daemon of Nurgle faces off against the Zombie Dragon riding Vampire Lord.

The Plague drones charge into the Blood knights but find that they have met their match and fail to do any serious damage, the Blood Knights lose the combat by one , but in their following turn one of the two fallen knights simply rose back from the dead and returned to his saddle of his Hellstead. The Banshee kindly lent her voice to the combat dispatching of a plague drone.

The skeleton horde got a little hasty and charged a beast of Nurgle atop of the hill, failing to kill it they were counted charged by a Plague bearers unit, the Greater Deamon and in the flank by another beast of Nurgle which had earlier disposed of the bat swarms, my 50 Skeleton horde was reduced to 10, ouch but at least they were still there on the plus side. I did have a unit of Varghiests  in the combat flanking the Greater Daemon, but they disappeared as quick as they had arrived thanks to the unstable rule.

After defeating the Plague drones  the Blood knights charged into the Deamonettes who had been dying steadily to the Vampire Lord over the last couple of turns, these extra attacks sent the Daemons back to the realms of chaos.

The Black Knights having been out the game for to long finally found a charge against the Furries who they dispatched with ease.

The Necromancer on the Corpse cart readies the Gouls and Black Knights for one final charge onto the hill and into the unit of Plague Bearers, well that was the plan but the Plague bearers had other ideas and charged down from the hill into the Gouls destroying all but two of their numbers.

The Vampire lord positions himself ready to contest the objective in his final turn.

A Mexican stand off going into the final turn.

The Banshee gives one more final scream, screeching loud enough to fill even a Beast of Nurgle with dread  making it quit the game, however there were still plenty more daemons presently close enough to contest the objective.

Without a shadow of a doubt a couple more turns would have seen the Daemon hordes claim the Ancient ruins,but turn 6 had passed so I managed to hold on to the draw, it was still another useful game for me using my Vampire Counts army and I am starting to understand their strengths and weaknesses better, next up for us will be a game of Hail Caesar with my new Macedonian army against my dads new Indian army, good times :-)

Maccadonians coming along nicely.......

My dad has been busy rebasing my Macedonian Pikemen as we decided to put the figures in three rows per base to represent the Phalanxs better and on seeing the finished results I am pleased we did,  Here is the first division completed.

The division compromises of 3 x Phalangnite  heavy infantry, 1 x Hypastist Phalanx, x 2 skirmishes slingers and a command stand.

The shields now have the recently purchased Macedonian Star transfer on them.

Hypaspists in a Phalanx formation with shield decals, i have used a different star design to represent that they are the elite unit.

My second compete infantry division is the Greek Mercenary Hoplites. I hadn't realised that these units to were in Phalanx formation so these to have been rebased into 3 ranks. Along side the 3 Hoplites Phalanxs are 2 x light infantry Peltasts  and 2 x Cretan Skirmishes armed with bows and command stand.

The Hoplite shields have a mixture of the new shield transfers I bought at York and I think it really brings the units to life.

And finally the first of my completed Light bolt thrower, model by Xyston and a unit of Thracian Rhomphaia Peltasts, these are Magister Militum models, I am really pleased and how these look :)

Vapnartak 2014

Despite the debacle of a Derby performance to forget for a second year in a row with our not so dear friends from across the Wear I still had a lovely time down York and a enjoyable day spent at the excellent Vapnartak wargames show. Just as with previous years there was plenty of trade, some impressive display games, the WW1 game (I think) between the French/Germans particularly caught my eye and a very busy throughout most of the day table top sale. The show seemed to be busy throughout the entire time I was there which was until around 1.30pm, my daughter even made an appearance for an hour although I think she was a little unsure about the crowds of people. Still the most important part was the buying and I managed to get everything on my shopping list bar my Macedonian pikes as Lancashire games weren't there, so these will be ordered tomorrow. I did however manage to get my remaining Companion cavalry and medium cavalry and remaining Hypastist infantry from irregular minitures , I got some very nice javelin skirmishes and Thracian armed Romphia/Javelin  troops from Magister Militum along with all my shield decals and also a couple of light bolt throwers and a Alexander personality pack from Xyston Minitures which look really nice.

Still with some money in my wallet I couldn't help myself and found myself buying some more Germans for my WW2 collection. I recently bought the fall of the reich BattleGroup supplement and fancied doing a real miss match Aux platoon. I picked up all kinds of packs from Peter pig ranging from U boat crew through to Grenadiers armed with Russian SMGs to aeroplane pilots. I think when these are finished they will really capture the feel of how mix and match the German army was in there defence of Berlin. I also bought enough Volkssturm riflemen/Fausts for a full platoon and finally with my last £7 I bought a Sherman M4A3E2 Jumbo tank for my Americans.

All in all it was a good show with plenty to do and see, next show will be Middlesbrough in March so plenty of time to think what to buy next.