Ancient Indians - a rescue.

As I wasn't at Salute this year I spent my day painting. Some time ago I bought a bag of Ancient Indians, which had been poorly painted and weren't in great shape. I'd bought some Late Romans in a similar state years ago, so I figured they were restorable.

I shoved them in a jar of paint stripper and left them for a few months. They came out almost clean and I figured if what little paint was left won't come off with stripper then it won't come off under fresh paint. 

I cleaned them up with an old toothbrush, replaced the damaged bows with brass and missing shields with plastic sheet, undercoated them and painted them up....

Look out Alexander!

The bows are noticeable close up and the plastic sheet shields are thinner but on the table you won't see the difference.

For the adapted Neil Thomas rules I use I'll be able to field 4 out of the 5 units of foot required for the army. One thing I will need however is cavalry. The figures are from Vendel which you can't get in the Uk now, but there is a chap (The Miniature Company) making "similar" figures to match them so cavalry shouldn't be a problem.

As for elephants.....wait n see!

An Un-Pyrrhic Victory

 Saturday saw what should have been the conclusion of the Pyrrhic War with the final battle win the struggle between the King of Epirus and the Roman Republic. Following a further indecisive battle at Beneventum, Pyrrhus withdrew from Italy. 

Our scenario saw the Roman army with half their army deployed on the slopes in front of their camp while the Pyrrhic force arrived in three groups a turn apart from the narrow side of the table. 

Although their force was not deployed for battle the Epirote army was able to sort out its light troops whilst the Romans were quickly reinforced by the troops in their camp and drew up in their famous formation.  Some skirmishing broke out between the Roman and Tarantine cavalry and the Epirote light infantry which gave Pyrrhus further time to get his second wave of troops onto the table, the Elephants and heavy cavalry. 

Two of the beasts and one unit of companions swung out into the open southern part of the battlefield and the Roman cav retired in haste back to a covering formation of light infantry some of whom had fire arrows in an attempt to cow the elephants. 

In the center the Romans had suffered from the effects of the javelins of the peltasts and arrows of the Cretans and were forced to advance. However this left their right flank open and, turning one of the elephants raced towards it whist the other charged into its tormentors effectively trying down the enemy units. 

The legion and phalanx closed, and probably due to the success of the light troops the pikemen began to get the upper hand on the worn Romans. With their flank open they were forced to turn their second line to meet the elephant and hoplites which had turned them and this prevented the principes supporting the hastati in the front line. 

On the left flank hard against the table edge the third elephant, supported gingerly from a safe but effective distance by the other Epirote unit of heavy cavalry, drove in the Roman infantry and destroyed two units. This opened up a gap for the unchallenged 4th phalanx unit which wheeled into the Roman front line.

Although this elephant was soon over come and that on the the opposite flank was eventually cut down the third had done its work and together with the overlapping phalanx sealed the fate of the much of the Roman center.  The cornicens sounded the withdrawal and the Romans withdrew, the battle was over. 

Notes - 

This battle was the least well described of the three encounters between Rome and Pyrrhus. The King seems to have suffered in part because he could not shake his army out into line of battle as it deployed and when the elephants took casualties, these turned on his front line and caused some damage. 

Our scenario allowed the Romans to deploy most of their troops but there was a pause between them starting and the two lines meeting which gave the Epirotes time to organise and get his elephants away from the front of his line where they could be disruptive.

The Romans won most of the initiative rolls, but suffered from poor save throws, whilst the gods smiled on the Epirote light infantry and elepants when it was their turn.

The army lists used, a slight modification from those in the original book, give a fairly accurate and proportionate approximation of the Roman and Pyrrhic army, however the numbers of elephants are disproprotionate. Pyrrhus took 20 elephants to Italy and reportedly had 50 others at home. Casualties amongst them could not have been high or he was able to receive further reinforcements from Epirus because there are 20 in each subsequent battle. These 20 elephants represent less than 1% of Pyrrhus's army in terms of numbers alone but it's clear from history they had a physical and moral effect which was considerably greater than that. How is this best quantified? We'll look at how to peg back their performance or their effect - either in terms of numbers, dice thrown or saves in future games. 

One error in our modification of the rules is that elephants take 4 hits and are a single stand, but our other units now take 12 hits, so are really a stand less. The elephants should therefore be 3 hits each. 

Thanks to John and Eric for playing the Romans - battles with the Carthaginians, Macedonians and Seleucids are still to come for these armies at least and I have a Persian army which is also thirsting for action so there will be more ancients battles throughout the year.

Action on the road to Canneloni

Last night we took the opportunity to kick off a new set of linked game  set around a narrative theme of the invasion of Campari (a sort of proxy for Savoy) by the armies of Naples, using Parma as their staging point and with the inability or unwillingness of the other Italian stages to get involved due to bankruptcy or tacit approval if not actual support.

Real details will be thin on the ground as this is just a narrative for the games to sit in. It gives us an excuse to fight battles on the tabletop and that's all that matters for now.

The scenario was picked from One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas, which as an excellent set of maps and army selector charts perfect for the size of game that fits our Tuesday evening slot and the rules which we have developed. This scenario involved the defence of a road which passed through a choke point between a wood and small lake. Defending this position was a small force from the Duke of Campari's forces comprising two regiments of foot, a unit of skimishers and an artillery piece. Advancing up the road towards them were 3 regiments of Neapolitan foot, a unit of skirmishes and two regiments of horse, courtesy of the random army generator! The horse were useless for the battle but made perfect sense for an advance guard. 

On the left the battle got underway with the two units of skirmishes opening up a lively fire, while one of the cavalry regiments stood off to observe. In the center of the table two Neapolitan regiments advanced to try and batter their way through. On the right the third regiment tried to creep round the edge of the lake and outflank the position. 

The fire fight in the middle of the table was particularly ferocious and the Swiss took heavy casualties until the white coated regiment Italiano was able to draw level and add it's musketry. 

On the right the La Reina regiment made it round the lake and deployed under canister fire then charged and took the gun. However this left it exposed to a flank attack from a Campari regiment and it gave way and flat back the way it came.

However their mounted namesakes had drawn up behind the lake and prevented any exploitation of the gap. By now the Campari center was had collapsed and the remaining Swiss and Italians advanced, the latter taking some shots from the skimishers on their flank. 

Campari's men right had no option but to retire, abandoning their gun. The cavalry negotiated the path round the lake but the narrow terrain delayed them and allowed the infantry to escape and fight another day. A strategic victory for Naples, but at heavy cost.

Guadalcanal for Bolt Action

We've been fans of Bolt Action for a while at the local club. It's a nice simple set of rules which means it's easy to play a pick up game. You need to be a little organised with your force and know what you have and how much points this is worth for a balanced game, but it doesn't take much to chuck some scenery on the table and crack on. 

Sometimes however you want a little more detail and depth. And so it was that we picked Guadalcanal as the setting for a series of linked game using our newly acquired Japanese and US Marines. 

The Bolt Action source book "Empires in Flames" has an excellent level of introductory background detail for the whole of the war in Asia and some great scenarios. A few weeks back we played Alligator creek and the Japanese managed to sneak a squad across the river on the last turn to secure a marginal victory. Next time I will deploy my Marines on the river bank!!

Last nights game was a follow up action - The Raid on Tasimboko. After Alligator Creek the marines  sent a force by destroyer to raid a Japanese encampment and supply base. Initial reports suggested that large number of troops were deployed there but the marine CO chose to ignore this. Despite landing and passing signs of large numbers of enemy in the area the village was only lightly defended by a rearguard force. These guys still managed to hold up the raiders until they were flanked and gave them a scare by opening up with a 75mm howitzer over open sights. However the marines carried the day and secured some vital intelligence info which served them well later in the campaign.

Our game featured a scaled down version of the attack. In stead of the company level action we took down to a squad level game with two waves of two Marine raider squads attacking two Japanese squads. The Japanese defender had a number of support weapons but a limited number of personnel - crew for the weapons had to be told off from his rifle squads and counted as inexperienced when using the guns and MMG. This gave the defence a disorganised feel but didn't cripple the Japanese player. The whole board was open jungle except for a strip down the table edge representing the beach and coast area.

The marines moved up from the jungle in two waves, one to the front and the second arriving on turn 4 from the flank. Their rifle and BAR  fire managed to keep the defenders back and pinned down while they advanced. The marines were also able to call in support fire which whilst it did not kill any defenders made them duck back with several pin markers. The Japanese 75 opened up as did the MMG  and caused some light casualties which were swiftly attended to by the marine medic. 

The critical part of the game came when the crew of the Japanese 75 were driven off by a poor morale test and the marines were able to concentrate on knocking out the MMG. With that threat gone the closed to short range on both the front and flank. 

It didn't go all their own way however - a last gasp banzai charge by the defenders took out a marine squad, but by this time the rest of the defenders were dead and three marine squads were at the edge of the village. The game was over.

A fairly close result to the historical battle, even with the scaled back size of the game! 

Cossacks - the sons of Taras Bulba!

The Russian project continues. I wanted some Cossacks but not the regular kaftan wearing types of the late 18th and 19thC with regulation equipment and uniform. I wanted some wild steppe warriors who were happy to fight anyone as long as there was plunder to be had and songs to be sung!

TAG seemed like the obvious choice as their Renaissance range had some wild looking fellows. I'd never bought from them before and had no idea of what I would be getting although their figures did look good in the pictures. After a slight xmas related glitch the figs arrived a few weeks ago.

I was disappointed with the horses, they looked, well, almost dog-like and I was tempted to change them out for something else. However I stuck with them and when the horse and rider were saddled up they didn't look so bad. The riders were just the bunch of rag tag cut throats I was looking for!

Here they are again in the bare metal. 

For inspiration I stuck on the Yul Brynner film Taras Bulba - after all what Saturday afternoon isn't complete without a matinee - especially one with sword fights and a cast of thousands! It was terrible, but terrible in a good way and certainly inspired the painting.

As some of these fellows were stripped to the waste it was clear they were riding in midsummer, so white blouses with some cuff and hem trims were the order of the day for those who weren't feeling the heat. Those insisting on wearing something thicker were given a blue kaftan to match in with my Cossacks gunners and to continue their theme. Everything was give a wash or army painted sting tone ink. This made them look a little bit more weather worn and brought out the shading and details. This is a perfect replacement for my old citadel inks. 

Lastly they needed a flag. As they were Cossacks flighting for the Tsar and not the Sultan I thought a religious icon would be appropriate so I found a pic and scaled it down and stuck it to some wine bottle foil I had. A little disguising with some paint hid the foil/paper join.

As I wanted to use these figures for skirmish games I used single bases which will sit on the round bases I had with the recess cut. I've sanded down the double width edge this time so it looks a little  flatter and less of a step. 

Base texturing will take place when I finish the next unit of Russian foot.