Han Chinese Persian AAR

Over a month between posts! Well whilst painting has been on an all time low I have been playing games, just not recording them. Hopefully I will get back to normal and get posting again. I have a Saga game this week and a Black Powder game the week after if all goes well. I have even started to paint more regularly again with a couple of 15mm units finished this week just waiting to be photographed.

I have had a few games of Hail Caesar with Matt recently and another with Lee. My Persians have not done too badly so maybe I am starting to use them correctly? Probably the dice have had more to do with it with two games having molten dice. This then is the other game played against Matt.

The thing about the Persians is you get a lot for your money. A lot of low cost units that is. In the distance you can see the Han whilst I have enough troops to wrap round them if the terrain would allow.

On my left flank I send in hoplites and two units of levy bow infantry. These are facing Matts only mounted force so have to be careful, I do have one of three mounted brigades just to the left in the photo that should help some.

Only trouble being that they don't much like moving forward. Matt and his group have developed a few changes to the basic activation rules giving a bonus for units and formations over a certain distance. This usually means whilst at distance you can get a few moves a turn.

On the opposite flank I charge my cavalry into Chinese infantry. In Black Powder crossbows have a few restrictions and other bonus abilities a definite disadvantage is the inability to use closing fire. As such I charged some cavalry units in his infantry on his flank. This is risky as a roll of 6 can cause you a MC that low rolls can cause some nasty effects. Also the cavalry have a 50/50 chance of becoming disordered, in this case I got lucky.

I still had another cavalry division waiting the results of the first attack before being unleashed for a clean up attack. Or they failed to get any moves!!

Back on the other flank I try to bring the Chinese chariots into melee but Matt keeps dropping them back to allow his bow armed crews to cause casualties but I have good save rolls allowing them to continue to march forwards in the hope of finally catching them.

Matt sent his bow armed light cavalry up to my right hand cavalry division in an attempt to get me to charge and in the meantime push up my casualties. This was partially successful but my cavalry are armed with javelins so it's not all one way traffic.

The centre was for the most part rather quite as I struggled to move forward. My right hand cavalry has come back from a bruising round or two of melee and needs time to get sorted out.

Disaster for my hoplites as Matt gets a open flank to charge. He went on to destroy these and move on to the second unit destroying those as well. The first time Matt can remember such good fortune for his cavalry.

However in the middle I had the advantage and was just starting to force the two wings of his army apart.

On my right I had broken some units and now can both more troops most of which were in great shape and the ability to strike from a distance.

One of Matt's brigades on my right was broken and a second flanked and bent back. All the mounted units are mine in the image above with one retreating Chinese unit in the middle. My task here was to get the most forward cavalry behind the Chinese cutting off their retreat whilst bringing the rest around the flank and the infantry to close quarters and simply attack with whichever units are presented the Chinese rear.

We called it at this point, my cavalry had managed to not only charge home against Matt's infantry but won most of the melee rounds causing Matt's position to become impossible to hold.

Persian Satrap Cavalry Part 2

The second post on my Persians is a little different. These are of course my 6mm Baccus Persians and these give me a total of eight units of Persian cavalry so enough to start thinking about playing games.

I went with mixed colours for these two units rather than mostly singular in colour. The usual 18 figures to a base to give them some mass effect.

Like their bigger brothers these were actually started during the challenge and were left with only the horses finished so it felt a bit of a drag finishing them but I was glad to finally get them finished up.

Die holders built in as I remembered to do it! These will be the last units painted for this army for awhile as I need to concentrate on my Seleucids. However some of the units will actually be used in the Persians as well so it's not all Seleucid. Nor will it all be Ancients as I still plan to blend in a few Napoleonic units from time to time.

I also finished off three command bases for the Persians. I will need more but I will also be using Greek sub-commanders as well.

This leaves me with eight 6mm figures needing finishing at some point started during the challenge. This will happen in the next month or so I guess if only to get them off the table. In the meantime I have started painting up some 15mm figures I had prepped for the painting challenge but did not get further with. A side effect of extra prep is that I have a number of units ready to paint though I will be working on others that still need prepping. Hopefully I will get more into painting again. This mornings painting certainly was enjoyable.

With that I should be back to normal on blogging, I have a few computer games to talk about so it won't just be figures etc.

Persian Satrap Cavalry Part 1

OK almost a month between posts! Still sluggish from the Painting Challenge but my mojo is returning as I finish off the figures started during the challenge. It is  unusual for me not to paint from start to finish so having unfinished work for any amount of time is not the norm and I think has really hampered me in getting at them again. I just have a few bases of Greek command in 6mm to finish, something that should get done in a single session if I get down to it. However todays post is about some old Chariot Miniatures I bought over a year ago that I needed to buy four more figures to finish off. The next post will be more Persian Satraps but with a difference.

As mentioned I had to buy four more figures from Magister Militum to finish this unit as they hold the licence to make Chariot now. I have bought quite a few minis from MM and always really happy with the service. Anyways this finished unit will give me far more cavalry than I should expect to need for a game but if I ever want a massive game I at least have most of the troops I would need.

I went with a very basic paint job as I wanted to get them off the table so missed a few details I really should have dealt with.  However they will look fine on the table. As I plan to rebase all my old 15mm to the newer basing style these could be needed just to get a game in anyway.

In reality my Persian army should really not want for anything as I have far more units that I could expect to use though it does allow me to go horse heavy or infantry heavy however I decide to build an army for a game.

I have between two and three units of hoplites worth of figures left to paint (from the same Chariot purchase) so will get these done at some point. Meantime I have a couple of phalanxes with my name on and in 15mm too. After that I will get back into doing a couple of SYW units before getting on with the 6mm Seleucids.

Talking of which I was over at Lee's a couple of weeks ago where he pointed out that I had done my maths wrong. I have ordered the required four 96 figure phalanxes but in fact I missed another FIVE off so need to get even more. That will be just under 30 blocks for the game! We will be starting the rule playtests and scenario tests at the same time. Shame most of it will be just bases for the time being.

 

Baccus Persian Colonist Cavalry

Rather than going into the painting Challenge at a nice slow pace I do seem to have been getting a few finishes done of late. These Baccus Colonist Cavalry APE21 are no exception. With these I am most of the way through the army pack I bought off them about a year ago(?) not bad at all considering I have been also painting up lots of other figures.

In total I have four units of these guys and all painted up at the same time. I still have two units of Satraps to do and then I will be all done for the Persians, well until I get more which will probably be post challenge as I will be working on the Macedonians and some Nap's in the challenge but you know that means nothing.

I went for a lot of mixed colours for these four. Originally I was going to go rather drab but instead went for a brighter finish.

I even remembered to leave room for the dice cells this time around. Once I get the next two units done that will give me eight units of cavalry. I should get painted up before too long two units of scythed chariots that are cleaned up but awaiting me getting more black primer, as are a few other prepped units.

So I am very happy where I am at with this project. I will need a fair bit more infantry and I have yet to paint up a single command stand (again waiting primer) but these will also get done either on the run up to the challenge or during it. Most likely during as I really want to get some other figures painted up and I have a few units that are already started to be finished before the challenge starts.

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.

Persian Command Stand

With me playing a little more Hail Caesar recently and the increase in the number of units I decided I really needed another command stand. The other three have served me well for more years than I care to think about.

As such I thought it would be a great first entry in this years Analogue Painting Challenge. Rather than sticking with the other heavily cloaked versions I have gone for a more heavily armoured type given that I have a number of such cavalry units within my collection.

Most feedback from the post for the challenge has been about how bright they are. I guess playing with Loki and Kev is starting to rub off on me. It was not a concious effort nor was I overly perceptive to the end result. Still I like the look of them so may well try the same style before the challenge ends.

The figures are the good old Chariot Miniatures as supplied by Magister Militum, I have another three possible command stands to paint up at some point, two Seleucid and one Macedonian. Only the latter is not Chariot and I also have rather a lot of Greek Hoplites and Persian Heavy Cavalry so you will be seeing more of this supplier over the coming months.

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.

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.