That's A Lot of Bristles.

As 2016 limps out of the building I managed a few good long sessions at the painting table and I needed them! I knew I had another 400(ish) Baccus figures landing in my lap Christmas day so I wanted to get this lot off the table before the year came to an end.

Those who have followed this blog for some time know of my plans to paint up twenty phalanx of pike, each numbering 96 figures. These bring my total up to fourteen and with another four all bright and shinny waiting to be prepped that will get me so close to that target.

My shields always look better from a distance ;-)  Now I am reaching the magic twenty I do think that maybe once I have enough opposition for them I really need to think about doing more, after all if twenty look good how good would thirty look?

Well this is what fourteen look like. At some point we plan to put on a game at Joy of Six, as it stands it will be the end of the pike era facing the Romans. However it could yet be against the Persians, all depends on what we get painted up. Lee is sorting out the Romans and I have made a start on the Persians. 

Obviously the Macedonian armies are not just pike and as such I need quite a supporting cast but I already have a fair few cavalry and other troop types but it's the phalanx that takes the time and of course adds most to the cost. Each base costs £6.60 in figures alone but it's worth it for the effect alone. However each block is the equal to four Napoleonic infantry battalion. Sobering thought.

I plan to get the next four blocks done before the challenge finishes but that really depends on progress of other projects. Both The Boy's and my 15mm SYW armies need to see a fair bit of the challenge, and I have other 6mm periods to scratch so diversity in 6mm with a curve ball or two in 15mm just to keep an edge to what I have on the table.

These four got the addition of casualties which makes use of the open space in front of the troops. Something that will see further use and lead to other additions. 

the gluing of the pikes remains one of the more time consuming parts but it also gives a sense of achievement as it acts as a real countdown to being done.

Keeping with the SYW I have half based my Santa Clause this morning and hope to get pictures of these and the unit of Hussars Lee gave me just before Christmas.

15mm Ancients Turn

I mentioned I would be painting up a more varied range of figures through the painting challenge, well in keeping with this I again swap scales though I seem a little stuck in Ancient times.

Two units of Persian medium cavalry for my rather old Persian army. I have a lot of these guys in my army, though these are a tad different to the majority as they have bow cases on their backs.

These are actually old Chariot Miniatures castings bought via Facebook on a trading page. A great sense of Nostalgia seeing the old yellow packing slips from days gone by. Magister Militum now provide the figures and I will be calling on them at Triples to pick up one more pack so I can paint up another unit as I have eight of the twelve figures I need.

Whilst I used lots of different colours I was still able to do some batch painting with twenty four figures in play. The same goes for the horse colours.

I have yet to use these guys but they will see some service next week as I face Matt's Han Chinese for the second time (write up of game one to follow).

The bow cases received some rudimentary art work, nothing to write home about but again adds another splash of colour. When I first painted up units for this army they were all uniform colours. On rebasing I took the opportunity to split up the blocks of colour which I think works better with the Persians.

As I can't resist a bit of fun in my games I added a little bird on one of the bow cases. Is it historical? of course not but that's not the point ;-) 

Next up is a unit of Agema for my other Ancient armies. I am a little on the short side on Macedonian and Successor cavalry so wanted to increase my options. I still need more of the basic companion types which will be further addressed at Triples.

Unlike the Persians these guys are all painted the same. I have had to play around with one of the figures as his Kontos had broken off so a cutting off of the pole under the arm and repositioning of the arm and he becomes the commander.

I now have two rather large armies that won't need much more in the way of troops, though the Macedonian/Successor/Seleucid army will have a few more options I can paint up and play about with. Once this is done I really don't see me doing another 15mm Ancients army as I really don't feel the need to dive into another as things stand. That of course till I see the next must have.

15mm Macedonian Pike Phalanx

With the interest in Hail Caesar continuing to increase and at least one opponent looking to switch their 15mm over to the rule system I have been galvanised into painting up some of those long standing members of the lead pile. These are a mix of Essex and er someone else?

Whilst not historically accurate I do like to have my blocks of pike to be of different colours and shades, though this is the first green unit. Hail Caesar allows for larger games and it's fairly obvious that whilst I can manage with five blocks I can also get away with plenty more. 

I still have enough figures for two and a half more blocks so it's very likely that these will be taking a turn on the painting table though I still have their 6mm versions on the go as well. 

A block in 15mm costs about £13-15 in lead which kind of adds up when you stop to count (of course we don't like doing that). Is was fun talking to Matt about his Macedonian army and his comment that he had maxed out under WRG 6th only to realise that this would equal I think five blocks. Funny how the rules went from Matt's pike heavy numbers to a few stands under DBA (never looked right) to Field of Glory that overall increased the numbers above 6th and now Hail Caesar certanly allows that figure to be topped. I though I had finished growing my 15mm Ancient armies and now I have a urge for lots more Persian cavalry.

Of course the Macedonian army is a great army for the collector as so many other options become available for the period and at the core of them is a nice steady pike block or three.

Of course you can get too carried away, here is all my blocks together, with two more I might have to stand on the neighbours garden to get them all in shot. Whilst the pike seem to be a manageable price and hoplites are really cheap (not points wise though) coming in ant a little over £6 a unit if you buy enough in one go. Cavalry really seem expensive. Our typical unit is twelve figures, that's £10 a unit, have I become accustomed to the low price of 6mm or am I right that 15mm seems to have increased in price out of whack with 6 and 28mm?

As I mentioned I do plan to increase my cavalry, especially for the Macedonian's as they really do suffer for a lack of cavalry, whilst the Persian's have a lot already I just fancy more.

Hail Caesar First Attempt With 15mm

Matt and I finally got a chance to play again after a few near misses. Matt sent over a few possible games including Hail Caesar, as it was top of the list and been suggested a couple of times I thought it would be the best option. It also helped that I had by this point a number of HC and Black Powder games under my belt so was a bit more comfortable playing a game without Kev and Andy to hold my hand ;-)

Matt and myself are old adversaries with our Macedonian and Persian tilts, though of late we have used my Macedonian's as Matt has yet to commit to rebasing once we settle on a set of rules as Matt is less keen than I am on Field of Glory whilst I am OK with them (especially as I have worked on several armies and have all the books) BUT I am liking Hail Caesar more for it's speed of play and general feel of the game.

I had the first (limited) success of the night and something rather rare with FoG, one of Matt's phalanxes lost a level of cohesion through bow fire. HC also allows the Persians more bows by rearming some of the Kardrakes with bow, something I am happy about as I disliked the loss of the bow in FoG, especially as I had four units armed with them!

 Matt got an alarming triple move for his pike whilst I was slowly trying to mount the top of the hill for some hope of defence. This is a feature that could make or break your view on HC and seeing Pike move that fast over the table was certainly a novel experience for me.

My best commander had a command value of 8 whilst my two other commanders had just 7. Matt's Macedonian's was 8 for the sub-commanders and I had paid 23 points for Alexander himself at 9. This was points well spent as Matt put him with the cavalry and they flew round the flank and went at my rather small cavalry force as the bulk of my cavalry was on my left flank away from Matts.

Matt had three units of Lance armed Cavalry against my spear armed cavalry. I had a second success when one the the three were forced to drop back a turn due to my rolling a 6 to force a morale test. My light horse were being pushed back leaving my cavalry vulnerable.

The attack went well for Matt, whilst I had a good first round I was let down when Matt saved much better than I did, I was one point off becoming shaken whilst Matt was safe from that threat. I failed the test and routed from the table.

The phalanx clash which we thought would be cut and dried ended up being a series of push and shove, the rule that a phalanx counts a loss by up to 2 as a draw saved me tests until both of us became shaken in the same turn.

My cavalry was refusing to move for most of the game, if I could have got it to move with any regularity I could have interfered with the battle in the middle as well as quite possibly smashed his flanking force. As it was it moved once in the first four or five moves, my mistake was having my best commander with the hoplites.

On my right flank I was able to withstand a charge by the single cavalry unit of Matt's not working with the other two. This was against the Kardrakes that rolled out of the box and I was able to bring a Hoplite unit and light infantry in support finally winning the battle and seeing the cavalry off shaken. Matt would later start rallying pips back off but they did not attack again during the game.

I get pushed back in the centre but then win the following Melee seeing one of Matt's blocks off. The other should have gone Matt's way but his best troops were acting in support and started to take the excess casualties without the ability to re-roll pip loss. If the units were switched he would not suffer as much and would have one the melee sooner. In the end my Hoplites were forced to give ground falling back through a fresh phalanx. Due to being shaken Matt remained in position and awaited my next move.

My cavalry finally get moving again whilst Matt repairs his line as best he can and with the hill now in his hands it would be a real push to get up the hill and defeat his blooded pike. My cavaly can't charge his formed pike and I just don't have the troops to take the hill back. All I could hope to do at that point would be to defeat his flank force and then surround his Phalanx blocks, this assumes Alexander does not send his cavalry back round the rear to engage me.

I have four units in the centre directly facing just two of Matt's but two of mine are either shaken or close to it. Before moving in again I would need to rally a pip off the supporting unit and exchange a badly mauled unit with a fresh unit. This would be at least two moves whilst four would be better. All this time Matt would be rallying pips off his pike and making the task as hard again as the first attempt.

Matt caught one of my evading light cavalry units and as such broke one division, this sealed the fate of my right flank and would have allowed Matt several options to cause me bother. This would in turn have forced me to gamble and attack in the centre and the left without fully preparing for the attack. As it was we called time with the win going to Matt and lessons learnt by both of us that will be carried in to the game we have planned for this week.

Whilst the Macedonian army has more power than the Persian it's not as great as it has been under all the rules we have tried to date. However the better command made a huge difference in this game with Matt able to command his troops most of the time, even a blunder allowed exactly what he wanted. This I think is part of the game that you need to master and works well with my idea of how the Persian army acted, large but slow. Our next game will see more units on the table and I believe another cracker, but this time we should get a result as we spent a fair amount of time catching up before a die was rolled.

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?