15mm Ancients Field of Glory AAR

Seems I am starting to get more and more games in at the moment, no grumbles there then as it's an area of the hobby that I have not got as much of as I would like. Lee is in the same boat but worse so, the answer then was a game but what should we play?

15mm Flames of War, played once, now packed away for the time being so happy to pass that one over. I have just finished Hougoumont so a play test of the action to try and take this would be good as we need to make sure this action works for the big game but in the end decided to save that for next time as I want to have the surrounding terrain sorted as well.

Other considerations were Saga but Lee needs to get more figures finished, a gunfight but I need to get more buildings finished so we ended up going for 15mm Ancients. Lee was interested in Hail Caesar but with me having just had the one game decided to keep with FoG. Lee last played about 11 months ago and about six for me so rusty was our byword for the afternoon.

My Left Flank

We both went Macedonian, Lee the man himself whilst I went for Early Successor, so lots of pike would be on the table. Lee went for Hilly as we had not gone for this before so why not. He then slammed hills and other objects mostly in my set up area and only thought  of the implications afterwards. We also went 4 foot wide with 750 points, next time it will be 6 foot and more thought into terrain placement (we do not like the method used in the rules). I had a steep hill covering my left flank so sent some light archers to play nice and safe on the top. The two hills next to it were gentle so I loaded these with pike and my heavy bolt throwers. Two lance armed cavalry units were going to go through the gap before I closed the door with more pike. The centre was a real bottle neck as the woods made moving troops on that flank a pain. One unit each of camels light horse (both with bow) and Thracian medium infantry had to pass through the gap.

My Right Flank

My right had two light foot, one bow and the other javelin and light spears and a heavy Galatian foot unit went through the two woods. My camp was placed in such a way that I would have already lost if Lee got to it.

Lee's Right Flank

Lee positioned his Pike on his far flank these would be well placed to attack my pike but the village would make manoeuvring for both sides extremely tight. Two light foot were to link to the centre and be a bane of my cavalry.

Lee's Centre

Lee had his two cavalry units in single line, this would get the most out of them in impact but made them difficult to move. The impressive ground in the centre actually is just uneven so less of an obstacle as it looks.

Lee's Left Flank

Behind the cavalry came some medium infantry, such was the tightness that these did not get into the battle till the end and even then only as a target for my bows but then again I had units doing nothing as well. The second steep hill was occupied by Lee's bow armed light foot.

Contractual Pike Shot

I love my Pike, used them far less than I have had them used against me so was really happy to get them on the table. I have to say that I find the Early Successor Army to be a better choice than Alexander's but that could be just inexperience talking. Talking of which I had three new units on the table, the Galatians, the camels and the bolt throwers, this should be a big mistake given the usual way it works with new figures.

Slow Progress

Lee was slowly moving his pike on the flank, something I was much in favour of. Not that I was doing any better on my left as the foot slowly moved into position. I was doubly lucky as Lee was a little slow with his cavalry. If he had got them out of the bottle neck first he could have caused me a lot of problems. 

View along the line

My plan was to have the camels positioned so that they would support the infantry and their disordering effect would be used only against the enemy cavalry. Mostly this was to work as Lee brought all his three mounted units directly into this area allowing me a small advantage. I doubt the same mistake will be made again.

First casualty 

Lee sent his light horse into the centre void with the intent of using the javelins against my camels but my bolt thrower struck first dropping them a cohesion level and a base with a close range shot that rolled well. The unit was soon to be routed when I turned yet more fire on them.

Pike confrontation

My Archers poured arrow after arrow into the pike but as always failed to have any effect. I could not get them into the battle elsewhere so let them stay hoping for the luckiest shot going but of course it never came.

View for Lee

Lee pushes forward but it's slower going than ever as he has to thread the gap whilst my archers sit and watch. My cavalry had gone through the same area but both units lost a base to fire showing how dangerous it can be. Both also lost one level of cohesion but rallied it back.

Plonker runs away from lights

I was forced to run my cavalry away from the lights, not the way to impress the rest of the army. Of course when the same lights faced off against my Pike he had the same issues I had against his pikes.

Too tight to fight

The lack of space meant both of us were having to queue up to fight. A view of my position shows my cavalry just running into the area that was to be the main point of conflict.

Galatian Contact

It's a game of inches, well in this case a few millimetres as Lee charged my camels and rolled a 2 for his Variable Charge Distance losing an inch. He got blasted by my a bolt throwers light horse and the just missed bow armed camels. Then I charged the cavalry with my Galatians. We gave the advantage to the cavalry being lance armed but whilst Lee won the impact I won the melee round. At this point his cavalry should have retreated back a move but we missed that and they stayed in for the following turns.

Bow V Light Spear

I then pushed past the cavalry/infantry melee and sent my lights to take the steep hill from the defending small unit of Cretan bow. First though I would have to survive a couple of rounds of bow fire.

Galatian Victory

Lee's cavalry being four wide suddenly turned against him. He had two bases in overlap on one side allowing the artillery and camels to continue the barrage and costing Lee a base and a cohesion level. Th close combat was then brutal and he soon was down three bases for an auto break and these were his elite cavalry.

Pike Clash

Lee knowing he was losing in the centre left drove his pike against the hill before he could get an overlapping unit in position. He was taking on two blocks allowing me one overlap and the hill. However his troops were the better quality, which would win?

Flank Charge!

Back on my right I was able to pull off the not often seen interception of an enemy charge by infantry. Worse still it was against cavalry and straight into the flank with the auto drop of one cohesion. Even though I was only one base wide Lee was to roll poor against my impact and follow on melee being also routed though he did bring them out of the route soon after.

New Dice full of love

Nothing can help your attack when your opponent rolls like I did in the pike battle. Winning the melee after a inconclusive impact allowed me to bring in that overlap and now Lee started to loose cohesion bringing his dice down further adding to my advantage.

Going Down

Of course once the odds are against you it's only a matter of time unless you can get more troops into the fight. I was trying to cover this by moving my best pike onto the flank. Lee would have to face my best pike with a smaller unit that could not be supported whilst in danger of having their battered block rout through them. This is exactly what happened, my blocks were taking a base off Lee's block each round and Lee was dropping a cohesion each time and so suddenly had one disordered block about to be hit in the front and flank. Time to call it we thought. Shame about a couple of mistakes that could have changed the battle in Lee's favour and given how long it was since he played it was not surprising I had the better of the action.

Good then that both of us enjoyed the game still feel we can go forward with the rules and want to go at it again only lets not leave it so long eh?

Dominate Roman Legion An Analogue Entry

Got my first unit into the 4th Annual Challenge off to Curt before I was forced to down tools due to a combination of Roleplaying and Office Party. I should have been out tonight as well but the cars died for one last time and we had to go shopping for a new one. Looks to be sorted but you know it will cut back the painting even further LOL.

Here we have 24 Essex 15mm figures that took paint fairly quickly and overall were not bad at all to paint. They are a mix of old Essex and new castings as I have been given a 15mm army about 18 months ago and I have been wanting to get them started for ages and this seemed the best time to get it on.

I really enjoyed painting the Draco but the other legions need to wait for the book to arrive before I will try painting them up though that could be any day now.

I am looking forward to doing more of these as they are not the typical Roman army, maybe one day I will paint up one of those but for now I will keep with something a little different.

I managed a couple of longer sessions so to be able to get them in before the few days break and pushed the basing a little as I should have left them over night before the final stage but went for it.

A watered down ink was used on the white clothing as pure white seemed so wrong. These will be used in Fields of Glory which is still our preferred rules and the system we were supposed to be playing tonight before my hopes were dashed.

FoG Ancients Battle Report Photo Heavy ;-)

Matt and I got in another game a few weeks back but the blog giveaway kind of got in the way. But better late than sorry here we go.

The compact force in the distance is the ever ready Macedonian army commanded by Matt whilst the stretched force is mine. The dark green hills are steep whilst the one the colour of the table is gentle. Brush is in front of the gentle hill and broken ground is just beyond the two steep hills on the left. 

I wanted to try a Hoplite heavy force to see if smaller units of Hoplites could somehow run rings around the pike blocks rather than trying to overwhelm his cavalry with greater numbers. What follows is the result of such a plan, enjoy.

As you can see Matt goes for a solid mass of troops. Under this formation I have a good chance of swinging into both his flanks, I hope this will be the case.

Matt ends up splintering out from this formation and as such the first moves are one of move and counter move. I get a few infantry units moved to support my cavalry as they are really out classed by Matt's Lance armed Superior Companions. I have reduced the size of my cavalry units so I can have the same number of units but this leaves me vulnerable to his cavalry so I will need to use my infantry to throw Matt off when it looks like he will get the better of my boys.

I kept the scythed chariots and sent these against his bow armed cavalry just like last time. Unlike last time his bow armed cavalry did not drop my cohesion on my way in. Could I get a win against these this time? Notice the cavalry to the right of the chariots? They had the same target but were intercepted on route, bit of a bother.

My light javelin armed horse had kept chasing the Macedonian light infantry back towards the board edge. The infantry did a fairly good job of retreating but sooner or later I would catch up or they would run out of table. In the mean time as I had a General in contact I was moving the flank Hoplites and crescent shields up at a fair gait. The Macedonian camp was looking likely for a visit.

But back in the centre things had started to look a bit worry some. The scythed chariots did pick up a cohesion drop as did my supporting cavalry. The chariots going to die as they won't break through. I'm starting to wonder if they are worth sticking with. Well they will get another one or two runs out before I go so far as to stop using them.

I do rout the bow cavalry by attacking them with Persian Crescent Shields mostly down to the flank charge which also cost them a base. Now I need to extract the unit from the claws of the pike. Both of us were starting to have a very messy force with units pointing is all sorts of directions.

Slightly further down the line and I have a cavalry unit ready to rout but have foot getting in position to cause a headache for Matt's cavalry in turn. Matt is trying not to charge almost as much as he is charging. It's lots of fun but quite head scratching trying to work out the best moves. The game could be decided here so lots hanging on the choices we make.

My cavalry rout causing another cavalry regiment to loose a level of cohesion. Things starting to unravel, I need a few things to go right to correct the slide.

A down the table shot showing all units, Matt still has most of his forces in roughly the same area. I on the other hand have failed to make use of my numbers (made worse by the fact that at this point we realised Matt had failed to put one of his pike blocks on the table!!!)

Finally get so close that Matt will not risk another evade, there Matt has three units of light infantry, if I break them all and sack his camp I have the game, I just need to hold things together in the middle.

I charge home after suffering no casualties in Matt's turn and straight away make my mark sending the Cretan archers to fragmented and the slingers down one cohesion level. The javelin armed lights in the middle hold firm. The camp is so close now, just one more push and I can get through to it.

Auto break for another of my cavalry, at least these went down through troops loss but lesson learned, must use six base units for average quality.

By this point the centre was in real trouble. One block of Hoplites had to about face and stand ready for a charge from the cavalry whilst I was hoping the leader would rally one of my routing cavalry. Meanwhile the pike blocks would keep marching towards my hapless infantry.

I start to push past the lights, one of which has routed off. I continue to keep winning the rounds of combat but just can't force casualties of drop their cohesion. These lights are putting up a great scrap.

Finally the pike blocks start to split up into single blocks so they can hunt down more of my infantry. Not quite the roll I wanted them to be forced into!

The Hoplites manage to face the Companion cavalry but are already disrupted, I needed to win this one before the Phalanx's get in close, this looks unlikely. 

It's my turn to be caught in the middle. One unit of horse facing the rust rallied bow cavalry but supported by a phalanx whilst alongside them is another companion cavalry regiment attacking crescent shields whilst on the other side the Hoplites try and hold on. 

Matt continued to press on all sides and I had the last two required units break causing an army break. For the first time we had played a game to the end rather than a count up. Lots more learned and I know the better troop selection for my Later Achaemenid Persians, though my play was not up to scratch I know I need to play a better tactical game.

And those lights? Yep they were still fighting it out. It was reasonably close though. If I could have got something heavier into that melee than light horse I would have got the three units routed and nothing between me and the camp would have given me a great chance of the win. 

well played to Matt and we had a great battle. Next up will be Matt's recently rebased Parthian's who have a long history of doing me harm. I just hope I get a few early wins before Matt gets used to usig them under the new rules.

AAR Persian and Alex tilt again.

Yes yet more FoG battling again. Matt was up for a second game and I promised a little more sparkle to the Macedonian army which I supplied in the form of a pair of elephants, added a unit of Thracian's with Heavy Weapons and Bactrian LH with bow and short spear. Just to use up all the points I fortified his camp. This of course led to an increase in the Persian side with me taking an extra Superior HC with shortspear and sword, a second unit of Crescent Shields (MF Light Spear) and a unit of Saka LH, though I plan to paint up some of these as Cavalry a some point. Once the battle was well under way we agreed that I got the better of the reinforcements as the Elephants wee slow to join the battle whilst both of us were unsure what MI with Heavy Weapons would do against Cavalry in the open, well read on to see.

 

So intent on getting into the game I failed to take a pic of the start up, though this one was part way through Matt's first move. He is cavalry heavy on his right whilst in the foreground you have my right flank that is mostly cavalry with one unit of MI. I outnumber Matt but he has the edge in class. The darker green oval represents a patch of rough ground, a steep hill is peeking out next to my units, a gentle hill next to Matt's phalanx.

A view of my line before I started to move. The rough ground closest was a real bugbear for both of us as it split the action u. Early on it blocked Matt from attacking my flank and later on protected his flank from attack. As last time we placed terrain and then diced for moving it rather than the dictated original placement. My force consisted of eight mounted units, two LI for skirmishing a single Hoplite unit and two medium foot with light spears. My aim was to overwhelm Matt's cavalry with numbers and isolate his pike.

 

Our Cavalry face off, I was reluctant to charge in early as I wanted to get my flanking force to get closer to engage his flank or any reserves. In the way was a few light units so I expected them to join a few turns later. However Matt used his LH with skill and if I made a move to charge his flank I would in turn be at risk from a flank charge from the Prodromol lance armed LH. I had miscalculated the amount of time it would take me to pass the broken ground and as such I had units that were not to join the battle till late in the game as they were trapped behind other units. These were also available to protect routers if they came back but still a wasted opportunity.

 

A deeper shot of the whole action. Two units of LH facing my LH in the centre, the Lance armed LC in Matt's reserve and the light spear Cavalry acting as my reserve. Right at the opposite side of the table I have a single unit of Persian Cavalry and a LH with light spear. Far behind them trundle the Hoplites. Matt would be less hesitant to charge in the following turn.

The pike was typically slow at entering the battle and Matt lost double moves as he sent them to different targets. Not the elephants in the background. Both getting their first action. Again we saw very little missile damage, I am considering arming all my cavalry with bow for my next game to see if the added bases firing will tip the scale.

The clash, I had positioned one unit of four bases to be able to intercept a straight charge so this unit was picked as a target. This was to give me an advantage in the other two combats so long as I withstood the impact phase.

The view from Matt's side shows the units I had sitting around for most of the game. At least the MI got to practise the shuffle as they kept expanding and contracting to allow whichever unit looked most likely to be defeated.

On the opposite flank it was far more open and a quicker result. My LH having survived the trading of arrows charged home and won the impact attack. These guys were rolling really well, Matt on the other hand seemed cursed with poor rolls for the vast majority of the game. His MI and my Cavalry were to find out that MI in the open do not like it up 'em. Soon Matt was to loose both units with rolls that were making me blush.

Did I mention Matt had bad rolls? Well I also had a few, but then I also had a good supply of good rolls as well. Early on the Persian Cavalry net to the broken ground was put to disorder but stood more rounds of combat and managed to disorder the Agima and start to reduce their bases. This did not stop me becoming fragmented but again the Agima also became fragmented and lost a second base. Now just another base loss would remove them from the game. I suffered far fewer base's lost than Matt as I only seemed to fail a death roll if I needed 2+ to pass.

 

In the centre Matt had pushed back my skirmishers onto he steep hill whilst my Persian bow fired at the flank of the phalanx with no effect at all. My mounted troops on my left flank had finished chasing their victims and were about to swing round. The LH to attack the camp and the Persian cavalry to try and pressure the phalanx. Matt broke my light spear armed LH with his Bactians who disrupted my Crescent Shield as they burst through. Fortunately the Bactrians would not fair well even against Disrupted MI if they were to charge in. Matt charged his elephants into my cavalry and both of us were rather surprised with the result. Even though my cavalry were disordered by the elephants I won the impact and then the melee. Yes the curse of the rolls but none the less it was unexpected.

 

At this point we brought the game to an end as it was both getting on as most of my cavalry were still at full strength (one unit routing) I was in a position to defeat all he had left except the pike.

 

Matt again enjoyed the game and still likes the rules so things look good that way. Maybe next time we play bring out the Seleucid army though it still needs more work to get some of the better options.  Matt was talking about his Parthian army and worries that with the reduced effectiveness of bow would it still be viable. Matt always went down the all mounted route and it was a devil to play against. I think it can still be potent but will play different if only because you have to have the whole unit visible to shoot where under 6th all you needed was a single base as long as it was in the right formation. Hopefully in the next few months we will find out.