After a weekend hiatus visiting the dinosaur museum in Drumheller

My girls sharing an ice cream with T-rex

I managed to actually finish my 1/72 Carthaginian army for Impetus. The last elements were the Spanish (all Hat):

There are 3 elements of scutarii (FL with javelins)

Scutari in close

3 elements of caetrati (SK with javelins)

2 elements of cavalry (CM)

And here is the lot of them

I am now working on rebasing and repainting my Republican Romans. They are getting a spruce-up with some VVV shield transfers. This was one of the first 1/72 armies I painted. I would eventually like to develop a map campaign for them.

Dacians first blooding

Dacians won 2 and lost one against Thracians today. First game, Mark tried to outflank me with his cavalry then ran out of pips in a bad position and got picked off. Second game, very early on my general led an advance into the Thracians, but because he is warband, was forced to advance ahead of the main army. He got killed (doubled) on a 4-3 counterattack ( I rolled a 2 to Mark's 6). I was very cheesed off, but got it back in the third game when Mark outflanked me, then rolled three consecutive 1s in combats costing him 4 elements and his general. Wow. DBA is such a stochastic game. I reckon even the best players must lose 1/3 of the time to cruel twists of the dice.

Lessons learned?
- warband are great for getting in contact and making overlaps, but the mandatory advance can pull you out of position and leave you vulnerable to counterattacks.
- a warband general is deadly to both sides.
- Dacians have some good hitting power, but can be outmanouvered by Ax armies in bad going or cavalry armies in good. This is a tricky army to play well.
- Roll 6s. Don't roll 1s. For real.

Dacians for DBA

This week I completed a 15mm Dacian DBA army (II/52). The figures are from Old Glory and they are not bad. I like some of the animation and I think they look the part. The army consists of 1 x 3Cv or 1 x 4Wb General:
1 x 2 LH:
6 x 3 Wb:
Warbands in close, the shield transfers are from venividivici:
1 x 3Bd, these are of course the falx-bearing Bastarnae: 2 x 2Ps:
and the last element is either another 3Bd or 3Kn or 2Ps:

I would likely field either the Bd or the Kn option, and I like mounted generals (3Cv) so in either of those configurations we have an army that can fight in bad going (8 elements of Wb and Ps) and in some good going (Cv, Lh, Kn, Bd). With Ag:1 Hilly it means more often than not, we defend hilly terrain.

This will be my first try at a bad-going army, we'll see how they fare. I am a little concerned that they will fall short of beating either a mounted army in good going or a better configured mountain army with lots of Aux, so this could be a hybrid that doesn't work. On the other hand, it should have some chance of winning no matter what.

Scott and I completed our WAB campaign last night, and what a strange finale it was. In the past few games Scott's large Norman knight unit had it's way with my warbands, so I decided to counter by fielding a single warband of 64 warriors to absorb the blow and flank it with nobles and viking pirates with 2-handed axes to close in for the kill. I also tooled up my king with a steed and 2-handed axe to challenge the Norman Comes to a duel at the beginning of the battle. I reckon that could have gone either way, similar stats but he had a lance and heavy armour on warhorse against my highland pony and thrusting spear, but I also had 3 wounds to his 2. If I went first, I would probably win, but if he went first it could have been tight...

In any case, Scott declined the challenge which gave me d3 (rolled a 3!) points to use towards battle resolution in the game.

This photo shows the Norman Comes with his minstrel (singing Brave Sir Robin, I believe) declining the challenge to face Chief Angus McLovin

These 3 points hung over Scott's head like a cloud for the rest of the battle, proving to be decisive. Basically, his large knights circled my large warband and would not risk a charge. In the meantime, my vikings and nobles chased his other units all over the board getting brutally pincushioned by bows, slingers and crossbows.

They went thataway!

I eventually forced a small unit of his knights off the board (fleed a charge too far) and ran down another unit of foot knights that fled from my vikings (fleed a charge not far enough) and that was enough points for a Scottish win.

Hooray!

But really, it was kind of a non-game. Scott never had a winning position to launch a charge (with the -3 outcome differential sitting over his head) and I never got a decent charge chance. The battle that wasn't, we never fought a melee.

Next up: 15mm Dacian DBA army on the bench in preparation for MayDay.

Where've you been?

Not much in the way of gaming recently, apart from a couple of games of DBA on the weekend with Bob in which my beloved but mercurial Sassanids won one and lost one against Romano-Britons (kind of like a proto-Crusader match-up).

The 1/72 Napoleonic project continues to progress, I now have completed all of the French infantry in my posession including 6 battalions of regular line (Hat):


Some 4 battalions of Young Guard (Hat again):


Some Light infantry (1 battalion, Hat):


and some cavlary, which include a regiment of dragoons (Italeri, very nice):


A regiment of chasseurs cheval (Italeri again, okay but slightly gigantic):


And of course, a regiment of curassiers (Italeri, not bad, bit small):


I am working on artillery and commanders for the French now, and will have enough painted to play a small scenario in Black Powder or Lasalle. I like both of these rules, Black Powder because it looks like fun, and Lasalle because I think it is very well thought out and innovative. I really like Sam Mustafa's work.

Next up: arty and commanders, and next week the final battle against the dreaded Normans. I will have to work on a new strategem since Scotty has been taking it to me the last few times. It will involve a lot of pointed sticks, and maybe some extra Viking mercs if we can afford them...

The Chevauchee at EWG

Tonight I ran a game of Impetus at the club, these are the best-ever set of Ancients-Medieval-Renaissance rules ever written.

Best. Rules. Ever.

I ran the Chevauchee campaign from Supplement 1, this include a map game that sets up the battle.

The sourcebook for the Chevauchee

Tonight, the English (commanded by Jonathan and Terry) landed and started their raid, but early on rolled an epidemic special event, which has the effect of weakening their army every turn. Therefore they were compelled to force a battle early in the game before attrition wore their force down. They were able to contact one of the French armies, but fortunately for the French, they were able to force march their second army onto the same location, thereby forcing a battle between the full combined armies of both sides. The smaller French army arrived exhausted after their forced march.

I had the players set up a flanked battlefield, with the English deployed in the northeast anchored on a central hill position, and the French small force entering from the west and the larger, fresh French army entering from the south.

Dave the elder contemplating deployment

The French deployment to the south

The starting positions on the west flank

The French started their advance from the south side

French knights tucked in safely behind a screen of crossbow skirmishers

And from the east edge, a bit more cautiously

Jonathan contemplating his response, fire perhaps?

Terry decided to advance his longbow to a position near the brow of the cental hill, facing south, they advanced carrying their stakes over their shoulders. Unfortunately, he just underestimated the ability of the impetuous French knights to close quickly, Dave took advantage and the impetuous knights charged up the hill into contact with the English. The English paid for their mistake dearly...

The French charge and sweep the hill

Even though Dave managed some pretty appalling rolls

Doh!
Dave the elder, training his dice upon threat of decimation

The outcome was not much in doubt once the French charge reached the English lines, a couple of English knights managed to draw some blood in counterattacks, and the west flank held out when the French charge faltered in point blank range of longbow, but French nobles completely overmatch longbow without stakes in melee and soon the French were feasting on roast beef in the English camp and Edward was forced to flee the field.

Crunch!

I think everyone enjoyed the game overall. A few observations of interest:
- everyone liked the way the map metagame influenced the battle, in this case both positionally (by feeding back from the map movement to deployment) and by forcing the battle to happen when it did.
- Game play rewards historically sound tactics. The bows were vulnerable without stakes. The French knights were uncontrollable, but their impetuous nature also allowed them to complete charges that would not have been possible for non-impetuous knights.

Allons'y!

Got started on the French this week, starting with this set of line infantry from Hat:

It is superb, really great raised detail, 100 figs in the box with perfect proprotions of grenadiers, fusiliers and voltigeurs to do 4 large battalions of 24 figs, including drummer, nco and officer. They are a very soft and rubbery plastic with takes paint very well but also holds a lot of detail that is very easy to pick out. Here are some shots:






I completed 48 of them this week, I think they are probably the best 1/72 I have ever worked with. The sculpter who does this range for Hat is brilliant, I really like the oversized detail, they look like metals when painted, and the soft plastic takes paint very well and has little flash. OK, they are a bit too tidy and well-equipped for 1815, but frankly I want my toy soldier to look sharp on the table.

Some way to go just yet, next up more fusiliers, voltigeurs then maybe some infantry in greatcoats and Legeres.