Romans and Seleucids.

 I had myself another game of ancients with the rules in Neil Thomas' Introduction to Wargaming book.

I have made the elephants less effective against infantry (six dice as opposed to eight) and especially light infantry (only four dice instead of eight) so we'll see how it goes.

Here we are getting stuck in...

The Romans beat off the Cataphracts.

The white tunic Velites are taking on the elephant and score two out of it's four hits.

But then they break, oh well, nice try!.

The green shield Romans suddenly break!.

The Romans are beating this phalanx though.

There is some jockeying for position.

The Roman cavalry finally break.

The Triarii see off the Phalangites.

The Companions and Agema crash into the Roman infantry.

The left flank Phalangites are just hanging on.

The Triarii hang on as the Velites arrive to help.

The Seleucid elites are now getting the better of the Roman infantry.

The Green tunic Velites flank the elephant and it flees straight back missing everyone before it dies.

The elite Seleucid cavalry eventually rout the Romans.

The Companions and Agema then flank the Velites but only score a measly two hits!.

The Seleucid archers come down from the hill to threaten the Roman flank. They never hit a thing with their arrows and watched the battle from the sidelines but did their bit just by surviving.

The Velites are not so fortunate this time and are scattered to the four winds.

The Romans are down to two units now and the Seleucids win the battle.

Another very entertaining battle, I have been tweaking other parts of the rules, introducing Peltasts as a troop type and mucking about with the combat dice table. I am looking forward to seeing Neil Thomas' full rules when they arrive.

A canny little Punic Wars Battle.

 After playing yet more Combat Commander for a week or two I decided on a change. I dug out my 15mm Ancients toys and have been playing the rules in Neil Thomas' "Introduction To Wargaming".

Today I had a Punic Wars encounter.

My bases are all 40mm square so the units are officially too deep but who cares?. 

Having said that if I rebase the infantry to 40x20 I will have twice as many bases and should be able to avoid using stand in units such as Marian Romans in my Camillan army as in this game.

Rome on the left and Carthage on the right.

The lines begin to clash.

I have tweaked the rules a bit to account for Pila and to make the Warband troop type more effective if they charge home.

I also let morale tests cascade by taking a test rolling 1d6 per base lost, if it fails to achieve the required score another base is lost, another test is made and so on...

I don't know if this is how the author intended it but I like the possibility for units to collapse dramatically.

The Carthaginian skirmishers break exposing the elephant to the Roman Princeps infantry.

Numidians and Velites battle on the ridge.

The Roman cavalry are getting the better of their Gallic counterparts.

The elephant wipes the floor with the Roman Princeps.

Twice!.

Elephants are very powerful in these rules, I may reduce their combat dice in future.

These Numidians are harassing the Roman Triarii with hit and run javelin throwing.

As the green tunic Velites do the same to the Spanish Scutarii.

Despite being flanked by the Numidians the Roman cavalry see off the Gauls.

Roman Hastati break.

And the Roman cavalry are in a spot of bother but grimly hang on.

In desperation the green Velites take on the Spanish.

The Triarii are up against it too being charged by both Libyans to their front and Numidians to their rear!.

Somehow the Romans rout the Libyan spearmen and in the background the Velites rout the Spanish too!.

The Numidians withdraw from a fight they cannot win.

But then the elephant gets among the Roman cavalry and the Romans lose the battle by the narrowest of margins.

What an enjoyable game, it took just over an hour to play. I have sent for Neil Thomas' "Ancient and Medieval Wargaming" as I reckon I can get a lot of good games out of this system. 

The rules are easy to adjust for my own tastes and although I have played them some years back they have really grabbed my attention this time.

Lobositz refought.

 After basing up my 6mm Seven Years War toys I had myself a battle. Being quite partial to the Battle of Lobositz as a scenario I set it up before deciding which rules to use.

Honours of War and Black Powder were the main contenders but I fancied something different.

I have seen people using One Hour Wargames for bigger battles but couldn't face tracking fifteen hits on forty plus units. I then found a post on John Acar's blog in which he discusses units breaking on just three hits link so I thought I would try out his ideas.

One Hour Wargames doesn't feature command figures and I already had a bunch of generals and brigadiers on the table. A quick fix came to me whereby each turn I would roll for initiative and then one commander would move and fight his units then the other side would choose a commander and so on till everyone had acted. 

Here goes...

Bevern's men taking hits in their assault on the Lobosch.

A cavalry clash is imminent.

The cavalry battle ebbs and flows and units are taking damage.

The Austrians are crossing the Morellenbach.

The infantry clash begins.

Lieutenant General Keith supervises his artillery from the Homolka Berg.

Austrian Cuirassiers charge into a fine looking unit of Russian Horse Grenadiers painted by none other than Richard Couture of Kronoskraf.

Russians at Lobositz fighting alongside the Prussians???, sshh!.

The Horse Grenadiers survive though and the cavalry battle rages on.

Draskowitz and his Croats are still holding the Lobosch.

Having crossed the Morellenbach Kollowrat brings his Austrian infantry into the fight.

Lacy's Austrian infantry are outnumbered but still hanging on.

Fredericks cavalry have won the cavalry battle but are now threatened by Kollowrat's infantry. 

The fight for the Lobosch is going very badly for the attackers.

The Prussian infantry begin to fall back under the Austrian pressure.

The failure to take the Lobosch and the relentless advance of the Austrian left forced the Prussians to retire.

Victory to von Browne.

The rules worked exceptionally well and I will definitely use them again soon. The game was fast and exciting and I enjoyed the decisions of which brigade to activate next.

Great stuff!.

I got myself a little treat the other day in the shape of some Army of the Dead for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

They were a cinch to paint, grey primer and a bit of white dry brushing. I tried the blue-green wash malarkey years ago and didn't care for it so I kept it simple this time.

I put a spooky filter on the photo.

I'll have to get them into action soon.