15mm - Roman vs Numidian with Allies, 1000 points - Sword & Spear rules

Can you do large battles with S&S rules in an evening. Yes, if you can get on and play. We got to turn 5 out of 6 when we had to stop, why? Quick committee meeting and lots of interest in the game, so we were doing a bit of chatting.

The Armies: Harry supplied a Republican Roman army with Later Successor Ally vs My, Later Successor with Numidian Ally (not historical,I know,but hey, report me)and each army 500points. The Numidian had lots of proxies (most in fact)

We played on 12foot x 5 foot table. Four players, there were 61 dice in the bag and drew out 13 dice each turn. We also put in an extra dice for each General.

Picture heavy. To involved in the game to make notes on who did what to who.

Later Successor army


Numidian Ally


Republican Rome


Later Successor Ally


The table. You can see the bag of dice on the left on the picture.


The battle- TURN 1- usual early cautious manouvers



Dice being used to activate all along the front.


TURN 2- Pike vs Pike




The Numidians ranked themselves three deep to absorb the heavy foot.


Protect the elephants until needed.


Clash of the two pike blocks. Skulls are casualties.


More Pikes ready to move up.


Cavalry getting into position to attack my flank!


The Romans moving straight into the  Numidian Medium infantry.


The Successors clash did not cause enough casualties on either side and with the officers attached, both units kept removing kills in the "end phase".


The game ended up a draw as both sides only lost about 6 units, due to slow moving heavy foot and the Numidian army decided to defend. a lot was learned in this game about big units can take a lot of punishment and pretty much hold their ground!

Attack & Defence. 20mm WWII- Rapid Fire rules

A bit later than Normandy

1200 points Americans Attacking 600 Points Germans Defending.

Somewhere on the German border, 1945

Dave (German), placed the terrain and the American had no say, so lots of killing ground. Harry and I thought Dave would use small pockets of Armour and Dave thought we would go for lots of armour, both wrong.

My force 2 Battalions of Gi's (One lorried, one on foot)
1 Chemical Weapons unit (4.2" Mortars)
2 Jacksons M36 Tank Destroyers

Harry
1 Battalion Lorried Infantry
1 Chemical Weapons unit (4.2" Mortars)
2 Jacksons M36 Tank Destroyers
2 Wolverine M10 Tank Destroyers
1 Recce HT

German
1 AT company Pak43
2 Battalions of dug in Infantry (1 elite)
1 Goliath

I think I confused Dave by bringing on my foot Battalion with the lorried infantry behind, I hope he thought that these were the transports for the GI's

Turn 1




Turn 2 saw the Recce HT take a Heavy Damage (HD). You can see the PaK, under Dav's finger!


Turn 3 - My mortar took out the Pak40 that HD the HT. The Yanks push on




Harry debused and got in cover


And pushes his Wolverines forward


Turn 4 - Mortar FO has dug in, at he wood edge. The Americans push on.


The Recce HT springs a German Trench blocking their path




As the Wolverines move out into open country a 50mm Pak on Reserve Fire (ambush mode), Open up and Destroys one of the M10s, and in the German's turn proper, Heavy damages the other. This could be devastating morale wise for the US.


And my flank got a shock too. A 88mm Pak43.


The lorried infantry push on through the foot sloggers and start to debus


The the US 57mm deploys and more units debus


Meanwhile on the US Right flank, another trenchworks and the M10 took another Light damage, and were still there. And the Battalion HQ found it's self to be the lead vehicle and the truck got destroyed and the HQ Bailed unscathed.


Turn 5- Saw the American left flank overwhelming the defenders




Harry on the right, was making progress too.


Game ended there. The German casualties had been building up and were now taking consecutive morale checks along their front. American victory was a turn or two away!

Even though we had double the points, the Americans made use of them by deploying enough troops on the ground to overwhelm the German pockets.The German player made the force Elite, so it was a tough fighting force and not going anywhere. The consecutive morale tests would been the breaking of them.

Into Byzantium. 28mm Sword & Spear rules

It is 1279 and the The great Byzantine dynasty has been on a steady decline since the fall of Jerusalem, nearly 100 years before to Salah ad-Din or as Western Europe new him, Saladin. The Seljuk Turks had been raiding Outremer for hundred of years and have now unified to take on the great Christian dynasty, still a major player in the area.

At this period, Byzantium relied on a lot of Mercenary allies, which at best would fight and at worst would not turn up when required to muster and defend the empire.

We play our bigger game on longer tables, this one was 8 1/2 foot x 5 foot. The Seljuk Turks are various manufacturers, as are Alan's army.

The Turkish spawling army head for Constantinople after over coming the outlying Christian garrisons and patrols. The Turkish army is 596 points in Sword and Spear rules.


Hearing of this substantial force heading his way the Emperor musters his army to meet the foe on a plain just North of Aleppo. With 594 points and many mercenary units in his force.


With the Emperor's many scouts and he was fighting on a battlefield of his choosing, he watched as the Seljuks deployed for battle and the deployed to counter.
Seljuks Deploy


Byzantines deploy


Turn 1-The Seljuks made the opening move and deployed out to the flanks. The Byzantines send out their light horse to counter and deadly shooting (Turks bad dice) from their Light Horse, scatters one unit of LH on the Seljuks left. First blood to the Christian army.




Casualties Turn 1


Turn 2-The Seljuks move up in the center and take out a unit of archers with some accurate shooting and a gap appears the the Christian Center. Along the line the Seljuks are getting ready to coordinate their next move


As the Christian knights move up their formations, a unit of Seljuk armoured cavalry could not contain their enthusiasm and charged into was was the best unit on the table, and with great combat dice caused 2 casualties ( 1 more and that unit would break). The Byzantine Captain also survived the Commander casualty test.


Christian Casualties Turn 2


Turn 3 - Saw the Seljuks pushed their left and initiate melee the the knights again. The Christian orange dice rolls can be seen just behind where, a moment ago a units of mounted knights stood!


The Seljuks pursued into the unit to the left in the pic and caused a casualty. The day was looking bright for Allah!
On the Turkish right it was ebb and flow with light casualties on both sides


End of turn Situation:


The Seljuks were pressing the Christian right


Christian Casualties were building, End of turn 3 (11 points)


Turn 4- The Turks had a really good round and shot away two more units, leaving a big split in the Christian line. Unable to plug it as the Emperor had committed his reserve units to bolster his far right flank.


The Turks start to push back the light horse on their right.


Both armies centers were still holding firm


Christian Casualties end of turn 4 (17 points)


Turkish Casualties end of turn 4 (10 points)


Turn 5 - The Turks had a very good round and before all the dice were drawn the Emperor capitulated and through himself to the mercy of the Turkish commander


The Turks were combating all along their line


A great game that was closer than it looked. Many thanks to Alan for the game

Notes from Alan, post game
Great pix Phil, and a very tight game with the big clashes mainly going the Turkish way. We have found that these cavalry army games can be very brutal, the armies move fast and cavalry v cavalry is bloody with the follow-ups. But win or lose, putting out big 28mm armies from this very colourful era is always a pleasure. Good news is you can play these big games and get a decision in an evening

In the game, from the Byzantine pov the crack Latinikon (Franks) really did not turn up for the game, and collapsed in short order (I think they are commanded by Arsene Wenger) and too few of the other crack Byzantine units put the big hits in when needed (my Turkopoloi ran after taking a few shots - I reckon Phil's Turks bribed them). As to nationalities tonight I fielded Turks, Bulgars, Varangians (Vikings & English), Franks, Pechenegs, Cumans, Arabs and Armenians plus a few Byzantines ;)

The Turks are a tough foe as although unit for unit the Byzantines are (potentially) better, the huge Turkish shooting capability means you often are carrying a wound into action (no longer fresh) and so their cheaper cavalry can survive the hits and put in a succession of shocks themselves. The Byzantine heavy foot is also formidable, but slow, and by the time it got into action it really was too late to matter.

Interestingly by this period the Byzantines themselves were mainly using Peltastoi as foot in the field - good quality medium massed archers - and those I used acquitted themselves quite well in the game, I think a big bag of them is a must at Salute! The poor quality militia archers I experimented with were just fodder to the Turk shooting.