AAR Lee V Ian, Game 2

After I had played Lee at Maelstrom games it took me two weeks of fairly high pain levels to get over it, was it worth it? My brain says no not really but to hell with that!! So we were keen to try and get another game in as soon as possible to build on our experience with the rules. This was delayed a bit by Lee getting some metal fragments in his eye but this only slowed him down (he built the terrain boards whilst off work ready for the game!!!) So rather than brave the cold of Maelstrom we played in Lee's sauna. He knows I feel the cold more than you normal folk so had cranked up the heat in his man cave. I thought I would pass out it was so warm. We also had stools to perch on so it made for a far more pleasant experience.

A quick word on the boards, lee wanted something that would also be able to be used for 28mm as well as 15mm. Looking at the texture I thought originally he had over played the 28mm and that they would not be so good for 15mm. I was wrong, the bases stood fine on them and they worked well. Lee's games room is so big that this lay out took a rather small part of his total table space. It's a fantastic games room that I hope we will use plenty more in the future.

OK same drill as the time before. 800 points (ish) and Lee was fielding the Macedonian army again and I was using the Persian. Lee has painted up a few more units whilst I have not rebased anything in the last two months but had plenty of options. Both of us learnt lessons from the last game so our armies had changed. Lee had added Elephants (4 of them) and had cut back on the light foot but mostly reduced his cavalry commitment. I had binned a unit of Hoplites and upgraded two of my Cavalry to the best I had on offer. I also had one Paphalgonian Javelin/LightSpear LC unit but it was larger that the original. Another upgrade was the Commander, I went inspired. Again the main idea was to get to know the rules rather than play for kidneys so we both were to do things, just to see that would not happen in a normal game.

At start set up, the village in the foreground was used as much because Lee had just bought it recently and painted it for the game, though it was placed as per set up, unlike the river that was added for the same reason but out of the way as it was just added for eye candy. Now given that Lee 6 weeks ago had no terrain for 15mm at all, suddenly we had plenty, we still need vineyards and olive tree groves which I need to supply but we agreed that I would do these post March 20th as I am in a painting contest. Both Lee and myself dislike the terrain set up rules that with odd dice could have all the terrain in one area, it makes a mockery of winning initiative if then dice decide where a terrain piece starts, lets face it, you have as much chance that that hill you picked will be in your opponents area as your own, and very little chance of it being in your centre. So we simply changed it so that you can place the piece but the rolls for changing it's position were still kept. Having won initiative again I went first.

Again my plan was to get the lights as far forward as possible and slow down the pike. Causing casualties would be a bonus but add a few turns to making contact was the aim of the game. I wanted to win on both flanks but overloaded my left to I hoped guarantee a quick win there. On the right I thought just a Medium Infantry should shake out a couple of lights and backed them with Light Horse bow armed and Cavalry with bow and Sword. Clearly enough.

Lee had the pike in the centre with Elephants protecting the flanks. On his right he had two BG's of Cavalry Lance and two Light Horse, one Javelin the other Lance. His left was just a BG of Cretans and another of Javelin/Light Spear. I had high hops on the flanks, no hope in the centre.

I was to move the left hand Hoplite BG onto the forward hill, knowing this would speed up contact but keen to give Lee a taste of what they could do and hoping that by then his flanks would be shredded. My camp is that sheet of plastic!! well by the next game it will be populated, finished the figures yesterday, now I just need to paint and flock the base and arrange the figures then I can hold my head high.

Oh so brave, Lee was charging them every opportunity and they just melt away, unfortunately often by far to much (AGAIN!!!), fearsome view though. Elephants can really be vulnerable as losing just one base will remove the whole unit but the -2 for shooting and -1 for Elephants really made this a difficult prospect as I could not get enough shots in and when I did Lee would need to roll a 1 to loose out. Rather frustrating as they stood up well but it all added to the fun.

Oh the first of many charges on my right flank. I did get them right up to the board edge where the Cretans would have had to face me but at this point my guys had lost their puff and the disruption they had picked up stopped them charging in. If only I had taken the LC along as well I could have netted at least one unit on that flank and the baggage, in the end nothing more than keeping two LF BG's out of the battle was achieved. Lesson learnt.

I tried being sneaky but I know I missed a rule that would not have been in my favour (I failed to step forward)I charged his Lances with a unit that could only get one base into contact so the impact phase had less effect and allowed my Javelin armed LC to fire. I had charged his LH which had evaded hence the nice looking lines. The net result was the Companions picked up a Disruption, yes Persian Cavalry did something, these were one of the two better BG's, both of which matched the Companion regiment for Quality and Armour though the guys behind were Agima and as such better quality. Note the use of my casualty marker :-)

Midgame and Lee is closing in whilst I fail to put a single dent in the attacking troops. I think next time it will be Javelin Light foot.

The lights on the right, are in fact Prodromoi Lance armed and in trouble. These also disrupted but they managed to do the same to me and I lost a base as well! But they had just 4 bases in the combat whilst I had four and that's before reduction for being lights. I had a good chance of rolling these.

OOOOps! My Cavalry get to grips with the Pike, shame really then it was really the other way round. The pike charged my lights who scarpered and left the Cavalry to take the hit. They help up fairly well but went Disrupted and lost a base. Being Cavalry they at least could get out of it.

Crunch time. My hoplites take on the whole Phalanx and hold out well. Out numbered on the dice they took their lumps and whilst Lee was causing me to loose bases I was doing the same to him but I was also losing Cohesion. The hill was all that was keeping me in it.

Push comes to shove! Close up of the action in the centre. I know I can't win but they held for a few turns, a victory in itself.

Time for Lee to have a play. In a normal game he would have waited but wanting to see if he could make a dent in me he charged up hill into my second Hoplite unit. The nett result was a lucky casualty save after becoming disrupted. The tough girls just kept taking the lumps right to the end of the game. Lee was lucky here as he should have lost them but next time, oh yes next time.

On the other flank I had a chance to charge into the rear of the other Elephants with my lights. As this is a auto drop in Cohesion I was eager to get that done. I passed my Complex test and needed 3 or more to contact so of course rolled a 2 and fell short. A shame as along with a good set of shooting rolls I could have got rid of these guys.

The game ended here. On my left I had routed the Companions and they were destined to go off board without rallying, the Lance LC had been destroyed and the same fate was soon to happen to the Javelin armed LC whilst the Agema was facing off against two fully ordered Persian Cavalry at full strength. This would leave the pike without protection as the nellies were off forward. I doubt I would have stopped the destruction of my centre though. The right was a joke with neither of us doing more than chasing each others tail. We called it a draw though it would have been fun to leave set up to continue to the end.

Lessons learnt. Most important was that we really do like these rules. I hope the Impetus rules grab me as much as these as then I will be truly happy with my Ancients gaming choices. We got used to the rule book a little more, though I am still baffled why they hide RULES in the Glossary section????? They score low on layout and order but if you want fast play rules these seem to fit really well. I am now supposed to be re-basing my ECW for the Renaissance rules sometime in the none too distant as it has fueled Lee to advance that bit further (Help anyone?) As I headed out the door Lee commented on how he needed to finish off a Naps unit that night, whilst I was more concerned with a sit down and maybe a nap happy in the knowledge of a bloody fine day.

So this is what he finished. I'm rather green with envy. Nice one Lee. thanks for the hospitality and a great day. Lets get to the next game.

AAR A Field of Glory Clash!

For my second outing with the rules the plan was to have a warm body on the opposite side of the table. Instead I had to settle for a shivering mass of humanity that goes by the name of Lee. Whilst I really can't fault Maelstrom games for their excellent facilities which includes free use of 60+ tables!!! we just happened to pick a cold day to play. Two other guys were there playing Flames of War and one of them was trying to move his figures with padded gloves on!!! Not only do they provide the tables but also they allow free use of a large mix of terrain, though most of this in fact is more suited to 28mm and a lot of it would be warhammer 40K but still plenty enough to make use (though I had taken my hills and got good use out of them).

So to test run the rules and get Lee's just arrived army out we went for a Late Achaemenid Persian V Alexandrian Macedonian for about 800 points. In fact both of us pipped the points by about 20 so as evenly matched as it would get.

Above is the set up, can anyone see the pike? Now Lee had bought his army off E-bay as he could not wait to get something on the table to play. Yes he owns all the figures for this army in unpainted lead but it did not stop him going for it! As it was advertised as being 800 points and I already knew what came with it I tried a little force matching. The army came with 4 elephants so I fully expected to see these on the table. This was the first thing I got wrong as Lee had been painting up units before weakness struck and swapped out the elephants for some of these units. We both had a three reconnaissance score so it was down to the dice. We tied the rolls until finally after 4 re-rolls I got the draw on him.

Set up was a pain, neither of us like the idea of picking terrain only for the dice to throw them all over the board. In fact your opponent seems to have more say where they go than you do. Am I missing something? Certainly an area of the rules we need to re-read in depth. This was really the biggest sticking point of the game. Lee ha only so far read the rules, no trial for him and when we came to the first combat he confessed to being somewhat confused about the POA but when I explained how it worked to my understanding he was quickly up to speed. Both of us agree the rules are about as badly set out as you could manage.

I had two advantages over Lee. First I had played the rules through once but more importantly I had read a beginners battle report on one of the blogs and knew that getting a missile block of 8 bases is much better than having a block of 6. But even better was my getting 8 slingers against his 4 Cretan Archers, I was happy to trade shots and then go for the melee. Sure enough I was quick to disorder him and soon these were fragmented and caught in an evade for the first rout of the game. I must say these went down fairly quickly but as Lee was in one thin line and no reserves I could just keep going after them. Really these should have been in front of the Pike. This breaking allowed me to go after his baggage as I planned to try and break his army before the Pike got into the battle.

My Next success was driving off his left Flank, in fact it could be said I had one Cavalry BG too many on this flank but time was to show this was not the case. Lee could not hold me on this side but I could not contact him. Here the dice just hated me. Every variable distance roll from this point on on this flank yielded me a 1 or -2 to my charge. Lee always rolled enough to get out of my way. In the meantime his bow fire got a lucky disorder which I never had the opportunity to shake off.

Meanwhile he had drive off my Parthyaian LC which took awhile to get back into position. On the other flank I also suffered a disorder to Javelin Armed LC, rather unlucky but I was rolling pants on Cohesion test after test. Lee then charges the two other Cavalry bases with his Lance armed Companions whilst fragmenting my disordered Cavalry with those horrid Javelin LC.

Next turn and it all went wrong. Whilst one BG of Cavalry remained solid I lost one of the LC BG's to those bloody Javelin LC, my Fragmented Cavalry turn and flee even though they have the General with them, and then one of the other two Persian Cavalry breaks. All of a sudden I have no flank!

Remember my first victory? well they finally make contact with the enemies fortified camp (two charges rolling a 1 for VMD added one extra turn to contact! Obviously this task was to much for them as they kept rolling far to low to take it. Very frustrating. Whilst we could have played on it was fairly obvious who was going to win and by now the room was filling up as the evening groups (Tuesday and Thursday are late nights till 11PM) arrived. Simply put I was worn out, cold and was struggling to pay attention.

Findings.

Both of us liked the rules overall. Yep a few bits left us either confused or thinking that's not right. We are both keen to play again and think we will stick with the rules, not 100% happy but it feels a better and faster game than 6th edition and the lack of bookkeeping is fantastic.

Not enough missile troops but despite the poor range of Javelin you can get them in there, and with anything other than my dice you should whack the beggars as they try to run!

Mistakes were there, but no howlers. CMT's were missed by me, as I get more used to the rules I will be able to pay sufficient attention to whats going on.

Tactically I think I was sound but being unsure of the rules did not make enough use of what I had, I also used terrain to hinder Lee but in fact it was me who suffered so will think on that.

Both of us are looking at the results, what we fielded and tweaking the armies for next time. A rather good sign I think.

Once we got going a lot of the tests and mechanics became routine and we knew the results without having to look to much up. Should play fast and fun.

Oh yes one last point. If you go to the trouble of painting casualty markers, why not take them with you? I was not pleased with myself!!!

Bring Out Your Dead

These figures are just the start of a group of casualty markers that will be used in both FoG and Impetus. I probably have as many as I need for Impetus as I have 13 but for FoG you need up to 2 per unit so I plan to double the number at least but possibly triple. All are 15mm and whilst I will be also using them as markers on 20mm I think it will still work. If not then I guess it's back to dice or card markers but I think these look much better.

Being hexagonal bases, these lend themselves to the 1-6 strength levels really well. I have a fair mix of troop types and they do even more. Next convention I go to I hope the supplier is there (I have forgot the name!!). They also were fun to paint so it's an all round win I guess.

All 13 as seen from above. I wonder if anyone will be offended? I know a small storm was kicked up last year but that also included a scene of a civilian being hung, but this has animal death as well, much frowned upon. Me, well I really don't mind, anything goes really. I have a hangman's base for my ECW that I bought and painted years ago but I am fairly sure it did not come with a figure to hang from it. Now I need to crack on with painting some of the living.

Persian Starter Army

I have a few hundred Persians to re-base and decided to start off with the Starter Army from Field of Glory army list. I gave myself 10 days to do this but managed to get it done in under 7. I will crack on with the rest but will have plenty of other projects to do in between. These figures are a mix of Chariot, Museum, Essex and possibly a couple of others, it's been a long time. All 15mm and until recently based for 6th Edition. My first look at the starter army led me to think this is NOT playing to the Persian strengths and I still feel that way, though maybe the rules will prove otherwise. Not enough bow armed troops and given it will be fighting a Macedonian army too many Hoplites when these are outmatched by the Pike. But on looking at the Macedonian starter army I'm not so sure it's doomed, still it feels wrong to have so little bow and I hate the decision to remove the bow from the Kardrakes and make them Hoplites. Time will tell if I try and get that reversed in our group. If not then I have 100 Kardrakes for sale!

Backbone of any Persian Army is it's Heavy Cavalry. This is one of two Battle groups of 4 bases that the starter army (SA) has and I have plenty more to base up. Originally in units of 10 single colour they are now in units of 12 figures and mixed. Originally of single colour to help work out which unit was which for keeping track of casualties. To the left is one of the three commander bases which long term I will be replacing with a better mix and more of a diorama than just a figure base.

First of two very different Cavalry units, this one is supposed to have bow and does not so will be replaced next year. I would have done it sooner but it is easy to remember they should have bow. The photo shows them in column and nerves gets the better of the lead troops as two horses fall and the other rears. Not sure what the fate of this unit is, possibly e-bay.

The other 12 figure Cav unit, these at least do have bow and whilst right by 6th edition list I feel these are over armoured for FoG, may well change these at the same time as the other unit but I like them so may well keep them.

I had these guys at light infantry under 6th but here they are medium and really I need to get more of them next year as I can have plenty more and this will allow me to swap out the back rank that has some fill in figures. The mixed poses really worked for lights and works for undisciplined mediums though I plan to add other manufacturers figures in as well to make it even more varied.


Both the bow (pictured) and the slingers are facing replacement next year as I am not happy with how I painted them at the time. I will see this as a back end project as they will do but I know long term it will irritate. The SA just has 12 mounted Cav with bow x2, 12 slingers and 12 bow. Really not enough to weaken the enemy before going in for the kill.


The only Light Cav I get is one unit of these guys. Fortunately the army list has plenty more spear armed LC as well as bow armed so not only will all my other figures have an option but my army will have lots of flexibility.

One of the two units of Hoplites. It was a shock that I needed so many under the list but given that the Kardrakes are now seen as Hoplites it should not surprise. I think the mix of other options will mean that the further increasing of the Hoplites will wait some time and will only happen if I find through play that I need more.

Close up of the same block, guy on the left just could not take the pace of rebasing.

I had to laugh when I painted this guy, been years since I did it and he still makes me smile.

Lots more to do but at least now I have what it takes to try out the rules. I hope they will work out fine as I want to go forward and the idea of keeping track of single casualties etc. really no longer appeals.

Creating a Monster

Having bought the rules I wanted to check out the army lists for the army I own (Late Achaemenid Persian) and the one I am working on (Early Successor) and trawling the Internet I finally came across the Osprey site where they have an offer on the army list. A bargain at about £6 so I grabbed a copy. First surprise is looking at the Persian list I could in fact expand my army by rather a lot. Big surprise given that under both 6th and DBM it was almost complete. So maybe in the future I will expand this army still further, need to play it first in case the chance of playing with more troops really is not an option. It does mean though that if I think I have wriggle room for the Persians I have room to swing a cow. It's greatly interesting given the scale I play (15mm) because this could end up really being impressive once all the troops are laid out in their battle groups. But this is not the monster point I was making. Remember Lee from an earlier post, he is a big 28mm fan, I doubt many guys in the UK own more figures than him in this scale. Well after looking at my recent work has got more interested in playing (and building an army!) and just yesterday committed to buying some lead. Fast forward 12 hours and I get a text. He has bought a Macedonian army starter (with extra units) the rules and army list. Now Lee never bothers with anything small so I just know give him 3 months and he will have such a tall led pile I won't be able to see over it. Given that I may well be painting one side of this mountain I'd best take notice.

That on it's own would be enough but I also sold him an electrical 'thing' that he has more use than I and the agreed price is more lead for me. Seems this monster has more than one head! It will be great trying to paint at such a speed as to keep both of us supplied with units ready to play a game. I'm thinking if we combine forces we should have a game sorted in about 4 weeks.

Again if that was not enough I have made contact with Matt, another old opponent and it will be something if his ancient armies want to try new rules (even better if they are already based to go). Now I have a hell of a job re basing all my Persians but such is wargaming.