AMG 16 - a great weekends wargaming

I spent last weekend playing some fantastic games with some great people from the AMG forum. The games were amongst the best I've taken part in and the company really couldn't have been better. It looks like this is set to become an annual event and I've landed myself right in it as I'm organising the next one!

The first game up was a refight of the battle of Soor, from the War of Austrian succession in 1745. We used the Honours of War rules from Osprey for this. 

The Prussian right wing, facing the Austrians up the hill.

The Saxons advancing in column toward the town and Prussian center.

The Prussian left, with their camp.

Facing them the Austrian left.

Frederick's cavalry charge up the hill

The Austrians advance on the left. Cresting the hill they become exposed to the Prussian guns. 

The Saxons creep closer.

The Prussian left flank is threatened. The guns wheel to fire at the cavalry.

Battle rages in the center

The Austrians close, but has anyone in camp spotted the danger?

Doesn't look like it!

The Prussians didn't quite have the numbers or the dice to punch thru the Austrians. It was getting close though and there were only a few units difference. Great set of rules for big games - this one was  larger than the scenarios in the book, and everyone picked it up quite quickly. 

Thanks to Colin and Robbie for running and umpiring the game!

After that we retired for a while and had a few drinks and then a nice dinner followed by much more drinks til late in the night....

Day Two was more 18thC, this time Great Northern War - a fictional scenario based on a river crossing in Finland. The Russians were to cross the river and surprise the Swedes, who were forced to bring up their forces to hold them back.

The Russian right crosses the Saari

As does the left, oh and here come the Swedes!

Time to get out of there!

The line will advance!

On the right the Russians drive forward....

But it's all over on the left......except for the "Russians Who Would Not Die!"

Another cracking game, run by Paul with some home made rules which seemed to capture the spirit of the antagonists really well. He must have done a good job as I bought a load of Musketeer Russians from him!

And that was only lunchtime !

So.....time for one more game?? Oh yes I think so!

The time, The Sudan!

I'd managed to get myself cut off from by mahdist troops and had to hold out until rescued. That collumn seemed a long long way up the table!

They came on thick n fast and my Egyptians blazed away with their rifles to hold them back, but they burst through the zariba. 

Help is at hand!

However I managed to take out a fair few the Arabs and fuzzies attacking my position and destroy their captured gun. My brave fellah's advanced and escorted her ladyship to the collumn which by now had battled it's way through every clump of bush, dune and rocky outcrop full of the chosen one's tribesmen, lost and found the path, helped the war correspondents who'd wondered off and even bought some dirty postcards! 

Another great game, this time using The Sands of The Sudan rules and some very very very nice classic Hinchcliffe and new Perry figures from Dave. A special mention also goes to his hand made terrain mat - looked almost as deserty as the real thing.

Thanks very much to Graham of Crann Tara for organising the event and to everyone I gamed with. It was a real pleasure and I'm looking forward very much to doing it again next year.

The Battle of Granicus

On Sunday we had another ancients game. This time a refugee of the battle of Granicus using our modified version of Neil Thomas's Ancient & Medieval rules. 

The battle had some interesting twists and turns and generally followed history, except that Alexander and the companions were eventually surrounded and cut down and the left flank collapsed despite Parmenion's best giving their all. 

Er...so not like history at all!

Well I can explain - we gave the Persians 5 cavalry units including 2 horse arches, 2 light infantry and 4 auxiliaries. This was more than enough to undo the normal Macedonian tactics where the companions are screened and the phalanx flank protected by light cav and skirmishers. I suspect I interpretated the Macedonians as having too few hoplites in their force too. Saying that it was a close run thing and had some dice throws gong the other way Alexander would have crashed through his opponents. 

So looking ahead to Issus, we'll be using 3000 foot/2000 cav to a unit and only using the army lists as a broad basis but until then, here are some piccies.....

More Indians

I've been reviving a Vendel Miniatures Ancient Indian army I purchased second hand. That's meant I've had to use replacement figures since Vendel are no longer available here in the UK. They are now owned by Sgt Major in the US, but I'm still waiting for a reply to an email I sent a month or so ago, so I started to look elsewhere.

The Miniature Company make a range of Indians designed very much with compatibility with the Vendel sculpts in mind. I'd seen some pictures of these on the Lead Adventure Forum and decided these would be the best replacements for the cavalry I need. 

The figures arrived last week, nice clean castings. Tall and robust they certainly fit with Vendel in terms of size, but they are a little more rounded than the square built figures from that manufacturer. 

I was a little disappointed with the horses however. I know they probably should be pony sized, but the big rider looks a little too large for the beast. You can see from the pic that the rider is taller then the horse. The pose of the rider and construction of the horse possibly doesn't help - it comes as a two part casting - much like some of the plastic horses out there.  The sculpt itself isn't bad, don't get me wrong, I'm just not comfortable with it for my own picky purposes. 

I decided I would give something else a try and went for the horses available separately from Conquest games. These are not huge beasts but are a little taller and better proportioned, IMHO. 

Overall I am happier with these and will get some undercoated this weekend. I've also remounted my few Vendel cavalrymen on them as well and together they make a nicely varied unit .

I will be using The Miniature Company again, service was excellent and I think I'll probably use the original horses for my chariots which need something to draw them. 

Whist these guys are drying I shall be returning to my SYW Russians - time those Hussars got a lick of paint.

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.