Wednesday 24 August 2016

Sassanids lead the Romans a merry dance - TTS report

The battlefield is set for a showdown on the eastern plains.



As previously mentioned Steve and I wanted to give the very playable To The Strongest a nice run down at the NWS.  We wanted to find out if we could generate some interest amongst the members as well as have a bit of fun blowing off the cobwebs with the rules.


In addition this would be Steve's first game of TTS and so I wanted to make sure he would get a feel for the game mechanics.


My largest Roman Command complete with undecorated baggage camp - this weekends project


We decided to take our old favourites - Sassanid Persians and Late Roman.  Lots of bow fire, missile weapons from those sneaky Persian and a bit of steel from my veteran legions and cavalry.  Surely the safety of the empire is assured!


My second command - smaller, weaker and obviously magnetically attractive to Sassanid arrows!


Steve' First command resplendent with deep raw foot and lovely Saravan and Catafracts

Second Persian command - they don't look too menacing.




The advance commences...




...bloody more quickly than I anticipated to be quite frank!




Pesky skirmishing light cavalry did a good deal of damage to my flanking cavalry.  They hit often and when I needed
to save it was an abysmal 2 or 3 on the counters.




We really need to stick the shooting and save counters on the back edge as Simon suggests.




My activations were a horror story - I drew out two "1's" in a row and was caught very much on the hop.




Here you can see Persian light cavalry on my flank, and my Equites up at the hill on the left of shot. My Catafractarii
are preparing to swap through the light bowmen and see if they can stem the rot.




Whilst Steve starts moving up the escorted elephants ...just because he could.




I do like the look of the great Persian unwashed - raw shieldwall style infantry




Frontal view - a few spears popped off in transport but they are easily fixed!




Another view of my centre - still in tact you may note.  At least at this stage!




Unfortunately it was at this stage that things started to go very much pear shaped for the mighty Romans.  My right flank was being folded in by the quick and incisive flank attack from my Persian foe.  I had been unable to come to grips on my left flank where I had a superiority and when I did engage the enemy in the centre my attacks were met with considerable ease.


At this point we felt that the Roman commander would set a line with two cohorts of legionairies and some cavalry support and attempt to extricate himself from the situation.  Easier said than done methinks.


The game was a great load of fun.  We bypassed the terrain set-up and stratagems this time but will include them next week.


A big thumbs up from everyone who saw the game.

Tuesday 23 August 2016

To The Strongest - looking forward to tonights game!

Some lovely A & A miniatures Sassanid figures make up this army command.

Steve Y and I are dusting off the cobwebs tonight and playing a game of Simon Millers excellent ancients rules "To The Strongest".


I am always looking for an excuse to get out the Late Romans and Sassanids and this evening will see us going for gold in a battle to the death...or at least until we get tired and want to go home!






I have purchased all the victory medals and chits that Simon sells on his excellent website so recording all manner of occurrences should be far simpler this time around.

Last time we played we gad to mark off the board into grids.  What a pain in the a#$%.  We have a
purpose designed Big Red Bat gridded battle mat tonight.  Fantastic!


Looking forward to the game and having a nice report with some photographs later in the week.  

Thursday 11 August 2016

An old image from days gone by...

Wargames Foundry Joseph Napoleon Regiment


 Just a quick post to show off an old picture of a regiment I still have in the collection from days long ago.  This was a lovely 24 figure regiment that a chap in the Blue Mountains had painted for his own collection and whom I convinced to part with them after some gentle persuasion.  Scott W really is a wonderful painter.


This was a wonderful day full of some great gaming

We used the image for our signage that year for the Napoleonic Wargaming Society's Open Day which featured a wonderful large Napoleonic Demonstration game, a superb AWI demo game put on by Peter Dale and Co. as well as a great Warhammer tournament by Mike Ward and another big 15mm Ancients competition.


Great memories.


Wednesday 3 August 2016

Russian Elizabethgrad Hussars 1805-07

Elite Miniatures Russian Hussars very much looking the part!

One of my early recollections of my childhood was visiting some relatives in Mt Lawley on a Sunday, which for us was always so special.  Different food, a different house and yard to explore.  Lots of fun.  On one particular visit I was busy running about when I passed a room where the television had been inadvertently left on and was captivated.  Massed columns were attacking a battery of guns (even at this early stage of my life Airfix catalogues and Bruce Quarries Napoleonic Wargaming Guide had become part of my life!).

It happened to be the Hollywood version of War and Peace however I believe they had made arrangements to borrow some of the battle scenes from Sergei Bundarchuks grander Russian version.  I sat and watched the remainder of the movie and was captivated.


Another view of this 32 figure regiment
 I mention this only insomuch that anyone who has ever read "War and Peace" will know that Russian Hussars have a mixed reputation for their dashing courage and their rather caddish behaviour!  I think that Peter Moreby from Elite Miniatures has captured that wonderfully in these sculpts.  You can just see them with a girl, perhaps two of them, on one arm and a balloon of warm brandy being balanced in the hand of the other.
 
Lovely view of the cyphered shabraques


Officers to the fore
 These were painted many years ago by friend Nathan Vinson and I am sure he has no recollection of knocking them out.  He can be forgiven though as it was probably 15 years ago!  Hope he enjoys seeing them again.

They are going to get a fair amount of action in the coming months.