Warhammer Ancient Battles WAB new army list book

Warhammer Historical have just released a new version of Armies of Antiquity army list book.

Covering 100 armies from the early classical period to the late medieval. A list of which armies are available is included here.
These lists use a new consistent points system so in the tradition of WAB you can use all these lists freely against one-another but not against any of the existing supplements. Apparently an army of 2800 points in the new points system is equivalent to 2000 points in the old points system. They are ‘bare bones’ lists, so no historical background or pictures of nicely painted wargames figures. This book is for gamers only. In many cases the army lists have been simplified, so to illustrate this lets compare Early Imperial legionaries from both the rule book list and the list in armies of antiquity.
In the most basic way a veteran legionary now costs 24 points compared to the old 20 points in the rulebook. But also gone are the options for heavy armour and javelins. The javelin option is now available in other list, the Middle Imperial Roman where legionaries are generally of less quality and lighter equipment than in the Early list.
Many of the old special to army special rules have gone (no flaming rollers for a Spartacus army for example) and the Samurai list has been toned down from the old ‘Samurai are supermen’ list. All of the army special rules come either from the rule book or this book, so you don’t need to own a copy of your opponents army list book to understand what rules they are using. I like it, IMHO it has moved away from the extremes of army special rules to more of a middle ground and follows the lead started in WAB2, less of characters dominating the game to a good solid ancient wargame with some special rules to give armies unique character.
One of my favourite lists is the Galatians, where all the warriors can be Frenzied making them; lethal in combat, very difficult to control and immune to Panic tests. This is going to make them a very unusual army to use.
A quick read through has found a couple of typos, for example the crew of Late Roman artillery are listed as 5 points each, where in the notes alongside they are listed as 10 points. But that is simple, the cost for extra artillery crew is standard at 10 points, so just ignore the 5 points cost. It will be errataed in due course. Also WHH may also publish some army lists which did not make into this book on their web site in pdf format.
The book also includes some new rules but not many. One of the things I really don’t like is that the additon of characters to model (chariot or elephant for example) gives it a model + character abilities. So an Egyptian chariot with character mounted now will shoot 4 times instead of the standard 2. It seems to go against the general toning down of characters in WAB but hey thems the rules (unless you make a house rule about it of course).

Kadesh game from 1997

OK this is a really old game back in 1997 when I used real film to take pictures, not a digital camera. So the pics for this have been scanned in from the old photos.
Kadesh Anatomy of a Battle by Justin Taylor
For those who have followed Ian Russell Lowell’s articles on the subject, it is obvious that there is some doubt as to whether the battle of Kadesh actually occurred. Since the Pharaoh was not only the ruler and army commander but also a living god it must be very difficult to admit defeat, with the obvious temptation to resort to propaganda. However I would like to present a scenario which allows for an interesting game and might have some relation to events, even if relying heavily on Egyptian references rather than the Hittite dismissals. It should also be mentioned that I have not actually set up and played this. Experience has shown me that to produce a really good scenario a few trial games are required to fine tune it, so this scenario may be rough at the edges.
At first glance Ramases II outlines an almost impossible feat of arms. An Egyptian of 20,000 all told is outnumbered by a Hittite force yet still manages to fight them to a draw despite losing one quarter of the army at the start and another quarter not making it to the battle. However the Hittites did not make use of the 37,000 infantry said to be available and instead relied on chariots alone. My suggestion would be that if the forces used were as described, both empires would have a substantial proportion of their military might present. Because the Hittites operated on a federated basis, most of their army would be allied rather than under direct command. A battle that resulted in heavy losses to their own side could prompt allies to split from the empire, so that even a victory could be seen as a defeat. However by using a fast moving chariot attack to overwhelm one of the advancing Egyptian army corps, the Pharaoh could be forced to acknowledge the weakness of his position and withdraw, with only minimal losses to the Hittites.
From here it is easy to imagine that elated by an easy victory over the Re corps many chariots pursued to the Pharaohs camp, where although they caused much confusion they got bogged down and disordered. The camp would in fact have acted like artificial rough terrain in which the already tired chariotry could be outclassed by the Egyptian infantry.
Forces
A standard Egyptian corps is assumed to be 5,000 fighting men strong, including the crews of about 500 chariots which accounts for 1,000 of the total. The Pharaoh also had two infantry bodyguard units, one of native Egyptians and the other of Sherden slaves/mercenaries. There was also a bodyguard squadron of chariots. I will assume that all bodyguard units were present with the Pharaoh on campaign and that they are in addition to the normal complement of his division. This will make the Pharaohs division (Amun) over strength and with a number of elite troops better able to resist the Hittite attack. In addition to the 3 Egyptian corps (Amun, Re and Ptah) present on the battlefield, the Ne`arin from Amurru are also mentioned. The Ne`arin have confused me, being described as infantry or chariots, I will consider them as a complete corps, probably of allies. At this point it should be mentioned that I am giving the benefit of the doubt to the Egyptians in every case, as in battle enemies numbers tend to be exaggerated. Rather than reduce the Hittite forces by an unknown amount, the easiest way to balance the scenario is to maximise the Egyptians. In summary the total Egyptian force will be 16,000 infantry and 2,000 chariots plus Pharaohs bodyguard, however these forces will arrive on the battlefield in separate groups.
As mentioned the Hittites were a federated force with contingents from various allies. The first wave of chariots is stated as being 2,500 strong with a follow up wave of another 1,000. The infantry which did not take part are described as being in two bodies of 18,000 and 19,000. Should the infantry be represented, as they are not recorded as taking part in the historical text? My view is that they should be so that the option is available to the Hittite high command, as it was on the day, to make use of them. However at least part of the infantry should always be considered as garrisoning the town of Kadesh.
After numbers the other aspect to consider is different combat capabilities. In many cases this is made easy by the army lists available for the rules you are using. The Egyptians are a well documented army using bowmen, spearmen and light chariots with a bow armed crew. The Hittite chariot differed by being heavier and having a spear armed crew rather than bows. To a certain extent the debate about whether the Hittite crew was 2 warriors with spears or 1 fighting crew plus chariot runners, is irrelevant, the difference is that the Hittite chariot had to get in close to do damage where as the Egyptian version could stand off and use their bows at a longer range. However the Hittite forces would include a mix of chariot types as used by the various ally states, some of which would be bow armed like the Egyptians, this should be reflected in the Hittite army list.
Scales
This aspect is vitally important. In Charles Grant’s book Ancient Battles for Wargamers he describes a refight of this battle in which the Re corps manages to stop the attacking Hittites without the assistance of the rest of the Egyptian army. However in his refight only 64 Hittite chariots were matched against 200 Egyptian infantry figures and 8 chariots. Using the correct figures scales of the WRG rules of the time, the Hittites should have had 312 chariots and the Egyptians 62. This is because each chariot model or element represents a far smaller number of chariots than an element of infantry. Chariots must have a less dense formation because they are big, cannot manoeuvre easily and do not benefit from supporting ranks. So when the appropriate scales are used, the main troop type for this battle is going to be chariots! I have used elements to describe the armies as most people are using them, even if like myself just for convenience.
Using a scale of 1:150 for a game with 15mm figures on a 12 foot by 6 foot table, the respective armies are as follows:
Egyptian
· 3 corps (Re, Ptah, Ne`arin) each of 4 elements bows, 4 elements spears, 10 elements chariots.
· Amun corps of 4 elements bows, 4 elements spears, 10 elements chariots, 1 element guard spears, 1 element guard swordsmen, + Pharaoh with a guard chariot.
Total 16 elements each of bows and spears, 40 chariots, plus the bodyguard.
Hittite
· Chariot strike force 50 chariots of mixed types. All chariots have 2 horses and the number of crew is the fighting crew. 30 with 2 spear crew, 10 with 1 spear, 10 with 1 bow.
· Chariot reserve 20. 10 with 1 spear, 10 with 1 bow. CinC Muwatallish here.
· Infantry reserve 20-30 elements infantry
It should be noted that the Hittite infantry should not be grouped under the command of any of the chariot forces. Standing on a hill a mile or so away from their chariots cannot be considered even moral support.
Terrain
The action of the battle takes place on the usual terrain of Syria, a fairly firm layer of sandy soil. This could be expanded to take account of the Al-Mukadiyah tributary of the river Orontes, the river itself and if you are feeling really busy the town of Kadesh (great for a demo game!). In addition you will need Amun`s camp, a collection of tents, supplies and baggage areas, approximately 18 inches across in 15mm scale.
The only terrain related features of the battle were the difficulty the Hittites had getting across the Orontes and the disrupting effect of Amun’s camp. Mark Healy in the Opsrey campaign book on Qadesh suggests it may have taken the initial strike force 41 hours to cross at a ford. This assumes one vehicle crossing per minute. However if the chariots are assumed to cross at 10 second intervals on a front 4 vehicles wide, it becomes a lot more manageable 1 hour 45 minutes . On these calculations the support force of 1,000 chariots would take about 45 minutes to cross, a substantial delay but not impossible. To come to this conclusion I assume that around the major town of Kadesh regularly used fords of some size would be available. On the layout of the camp the best idea would be to dot tents and stuff about, leaving lanes about 1 element wide. In this way any attackers will not get the benefit of flank support and rules could also be included for the possibility of Hittites stopping attacking to go off and loot!
Scenario Format
In the overall view what I am trying to represent is the initial wave of 2,500 chariots hitting the Re corps as it march’s toward the camp of Amun. Re should break quickly and rout towards the camp. The Hittites then pursue and end up fighting/looting until Ptah and the Ne`arin arrive and break them in turn. Pharaoh will have his hands full trying to hold off the Hittites, organise the Amun corps and rally the fleeing remnants of Re. The Hittite king Muwatallish must decide what to do, reinforce the first wave? If so using what? Or try to recall his chariots before they get bogged down,

Initially the Re corps should be placed in a column about 6 moves away from the Egyptian camp. Half of the chariot elements should be at the front of the column and the other elements of the corps positioned behind them randomly (to represent the confusion of the attack). I would divide the Hittite strike force into 4 groups placed one behind the other, which gives 10-15 chariots in each group. This is to represent the straggling of the Hittites because of their crossing of the river. The first group should be deployed within charge range of Re but with no element nearer to the Egyptian camp than the first Egyptian element behind their leading chariots. This should allow at least some of Re’s chariots to escape to warn the Pharaoh of the disaster. The other Hittite chariot groups should be placed a move apart, moving up to support the ones in front. If playing with alternate movement rules like DBM the Hittites will move first. Routing Egyptian elements should move toward the camp.
The elements of Amun should be placed randomly within the camp except for the Pharaoh and his guard units who should be placed together. Although the Pharaoh can start moving his troops from turn one, trying to get them in some sense of order, none of Amun`s elements can move outside the camp until the turn after one of Re’s elements has arrived at the camp.
The arrival of Ptah and the Ne`arin is problematic. Should they arrive randomly, so that everyone is confused or should they arrive some fixed time after the first element of Re arrives at the camp? Arguments can be made for the validity of both methods. In any case Ptah will have a long march to get to the action, although mopping up of Hittite chariots may be required along the line of march. The Ne`arin will arrive much closer and will be able to pounce on the Hittites almost immediately. No doubt much to Pharaohs relief.
The remaining Hittite forces should be deployed in front of Pharaohs camp behind the river. If you are representing the river on your table then crossing at the fords can be done using the normal rules. But if not, get round it by imposing a fixed delay to arrive on table, of 2-4 moves from the decision to cross. Remember it takes the same amount of time to get safely back. Perhaps a limit could be imposed that the Hittite reserves cannot make a move until Re is broken but this could be considered over interference in Muwatallish’s actions.
The stage is set, everyone is ready to roll but what constitutes victory? Any victory conditions set must give a chance for both sides to `win`, whilst encouraging an interesting game. I suggest basing it on the number of elements eliminated or routed, whilst further saying that the Hittites must eliminate a number of elements at least equal to the entire strength of Re. If they fail to eliminate this number of elements (rather than just break them) they will automatically lose. This should encourage the Hittite pursuit but at some point it will not be worth their while to continue and they will seek to end the fight, unless the prospect of total victory over the Egyptians appears possible.
Which Rules To Use
The above has been deliberately non-rule specific to be of use to the maximum number of people. However key aspects of the battle would seem to be; the Egyptian chariots use of bows to fight at a distance rather than the spears of Hittite chariotry, the breaking of Re prior to contact and the rallying of Re at the camp.
For this game we used my own ancient rules, The Die is Cast.
Bibliography
Ian Russell Lowell Various articles in Slinghot
Mark Healy Qadesh 1300BC, Osprey campaign series
Charles Grant Ancient Battles for Wargamers 1976
Phil Barker &
Richard Bodley Scott D.B.M Army Lists book 1
The game in pictures
The players

The table as it was set-up before we placed the figures. You can see the tents of the camp of Amun at the back. Scattered over the table were flocks of goats, haystacks and traders.

The initial deployment. The strike force of Hittite chariots on the right, with the column of the division Re on the left

In this picture the Hittites have charged and broken Re (top left) and the rest of the strike force is advancing against the newly arrived Ptah (bottom left). This was a mistake in the game, as the Hitites knew where Ptah was arriving and in effect ambushed it, unlike the historical battle. In a future game I would have a range of places that Ptah could arrive.

View of the whole battle. The Amun division is forming outside the camp (top left) to meet the pursuing Hittites

Close-up on the Hittite reserve force which in real life was not used. In the game if the Hittites chose to use their reserve force then they had to win a decisive victory or instead they were ruled to have lost - committing the reserve either being a stroke of genius or a huge mistake.

At the bottom of the picture is the remains of the Re division. The chariots have been mostly destroyed but 2 groups of infantry are getting close to the safety of the advancing Amun division (on the left)

The Hittite reserve has been committed (top of picture) and the Egyptian division Ne`arin is arriving at the bottom of the picture

The Pharaoh takes command. The remnants of Re get safely behind Amun where the Pharaoh rallies them and with the Ne`arin division, are able to beat the Hittites off. Since the Hittites committed their reserve force but failed to achieve decisive  victory, then the game is ruled a decisive Egyptian victory, which is how the Egyptians portrayed it of course!

Blood Wolves 40K a flexible Space Marine army

OK I have got back into playing 40K and needed a new army for tthe Ribble Rumble.
I have chosen to play Blood Angels but might want to play Space Wolves, so the Blood Wolves were born. One army to play either chapter. Lots of grey but a bit of red in there as well.
My problem was that I only had 2 days to paint the army. It was already built, all I had to do was slap on the paint. Some of the figures I had bought painted on eBay (Mephiston and the scouts), some of the vehicles also came from eBay (and one the kind folks at GW Preston had given me) but I had decided to paint them myself. Anything thats grey, I painted!
Started on the Thursday morning, worked through until 10pm and then finished them off at 6.30pm on the Friday night. Now all I have to do is get my gaming stuff together and I will be ready to use them tomorrow. One more point, they are all magnetically based (I hate cutting round those 25mm round bases) to help keep them stable in the car. An old tomato box will be their home for the tournament.
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Warhammer Ancients Celts vs Republican Romans

About 2 years ago I used the Wargames Factory Celts to build an army for a local tournament called Toy Soldier.
We were using Warhammer Ancient Battles rules (WAB) and the lists allowed me either to take cavalry or chariots but not both. I chose the option of an earlier army with the chariots. So my army looked like this
General and army standard bearer
3 large units of Gallic infantry (warband) and 2 smaller ones
2 units of chariots
3 units of skirmishers, 2 with javelins/shield another with slings.
I like to mix up the size of Gallic units as different sizes are useful for different things. A large unit is useful to charge into combat with as the extra size takes a lot of punishment and can just overwhelm the enemy. On the other hand a large unit is over-kill if you just want to clear away some skirmishers or are hitting an enemy flank.
My opponent (Phil Stirpe, the cheerful chap in the striped shirt) was using Republican Romans a rather tough army using the triple line formation which allowed him to replace tired units with fresh troops from behind. It is a sad thing that most wargames rules only allow the Republicans to perform this manoeuvre when it continued to be used by Imperial Romans as well but that is a side-track into history. Phil was fortunate to get 2 woods on his side of the table to secure his exposed flanks and thus place his army in the best position to beat mine.
My plan however was simple, to go straight down the middle and out-fight his army. Whilst not being subtle I have found the simple plans work best for barbarian troops. Just in case my simple plan did not work, I also tried to go around both of his flanks.
The situation on the table after my first move

a unit of chariots and a small unit of infantry on the left, 2 big units of infantry in the middle and large and small units of infantry on the right supported by skirmishers. One of my units of infantry has charged the Roman skirmishers and is about to wipe them out.
Close-up on the centre, with the chariots about to fight the skirmishers. You can see the tightly packed Roman army here in a 3 line infantry formation.

the skirmishers stood no chance and were easily beaten. The units of skirmishers either side failed leadership tests and also broke, clearing the way for the chariots to pursue into the Roman heavy infantry. It was a suicidal action but would inflict a bit of damage on the Romans and also prevent the Roman infantry from re-positioning his forces. So I did it.
At this point both my units of chariots have been destroyed, the Roman cavalry counter-attacking on my left very effectively. My only comfort was that the Roman cavlary took so many casualties that they were a spent force, even one round of javelins should finish them off - if I could catch them. But in the centre my infantry had charged home, it was all coming down to my superior numbers. On my right I had no Romans to fight so had swung the forces on the right to help out in the centre.

And the crunch comes. My forces from the right have swept round behind the Romans cutting off their retreat  and although I have lost one of my big units of infantry, half of the Roman army was at this point routing  - I have to say though awful leadership rolls by my opponent.
A hard fought game on both sides and one where both players used their armies strengths to overcome he enemy. Mine vast numbers and his the line replacement system which allowed him to take damaged units out of the line before they broke.

A British army for Black Powder Zulu wars games

Starting with the  British I am now getting the armies painted for Black Powder.
The British (3 units of infantry, 2 units of cavalry, 2 guns and 2 officers) are now painted (guns need a bit more work) and with basic bases. I intend to add rocks and grass to the bases but that is for when I have a bit more time. Figures have been painted in 'heroic' fashion so white helmets instead of dyed. Infantry mainly Wargames Factory. With cavalry, officers, guns and kneeling infantry Empress Miniatures.
The army

The infantry
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I think you get the drift of the rest




And if you want to go large you can follow these links
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Redesign of 25mm Spartan and mixed hoplite designs transfer sheets.

Whilst trying out some of the 25mm Greek shield patterns on the new Wargames Factory plastic hoplites, I noticed that the edges of the transfers were creasing. That was because the carrier film (varnish) could not fit the slightly domed curve of the shields. Now the transfers for the Spartan V (GG5) and mixed hoplite designs (GG8) have been redesigned to only have the
minimum amount of varnish needed. As I hope you can see from the attached picture the transfers fit the shields much better (on the right) and will improve application on all Greek shields, from whatever manufacturer.

You can clearly see the wrinkles on the old designs (left of picture) but there are none on the new version of the designs.

Visit to Stafford Games Midlands gaming centre

Tim Haslam set up an introduction to the Clash of Empires ancients rules, on Saturday 8th October 2011 at the new Midlands gaming centre. Several players from around Manchester went down and here are my photos.
The outside of the gaming centre, on a new industrial estate, so it is wise to have the phone number of the centre in case your satnav cannot get you to right place. Plenty of car parking.


Inside, a wide range of gaming products, rules, magazines, paints, tools, scenery…..

The gaming area with 17 six foot by four foot tables


Then some photos of the games of Clash of Empires we were trying out. In this series of photos I followed a battle between Romans and a Macedonian Successor army.

The Successor force, mainly pikes but with some good cavalry and elephants

The Romans, bunched up to take advantage of their superior fighting skills. The idea being to deny the Successor advantage in numbers.

Now these are some more detailed photos, click on the links underneath the photos if you want to see the full sized pictures.

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Now the action of the game. On the Roman right, some Successor Persian cavalry came round and charged a unit of Gallic cavalry, hoping to expose the Roman rear to attack.

The Gallic cavalry counter-charged, so that they would have the bonuses for charging as well. The combat did not go well for the Persians as they failed to score a single hit on the Gallic cavalry. But the Gallic cavalry scored two kills on the Persians.

The Gallic cavalry combat result was boosted by the presence of the Roman commander and combined with a poor (high) die roll for the effects of combat, the Persian cavalry unit was destroyed and simply removed. The Gallic cavalry then had to pursue (as warband they must do this) and in turn were charged and wiped out by the Successor cavalry in the top right of the above picture. Note: in Clash of Empires wedge formation is represented by a column 3 wide, in which the first 3 ranks fight.
You can see that to be safe the Roman player formed a unit of legionaries round behind the Gallic cavalry, just in case the Gauls lost. When the Gallic cavalry were wiped out, this unit was then protecting his flank. Romans are disciplined troops and able to manoeuvre extremely well under Clash of Empire.
But now the main lines of the armies are ready to clash. The Successors have yet another unit of cavalry going round the Roman flank on the far side of the picture but the river has really hindered its movement.

The Successor commander decided that given all the advantages of the Roman legionaries, it would be safer to charge that end Roman unit with two elephants and see what happened – this is a learning experience after all.

The Roman unit is hit (it failed to do any damage with their pila as the elephants charge in), take 4 casualties and do none in return. The combat result is flee for the Romans and they are caught and run down by one of the pursuing elephants (the elephant rolled a higher pursuit move than the Roman flee move). That Roman unit is simply removed and as a result of a failed morale test the rearmost Roman legionary unit also flees.
 
So this is the situation at the point I left to travel back home

The Romans have lost one unit of legionaries, another fleeing, one unit of cavalry (the only one they had) compared to the Successor loss of a cavalry unit. There is a fairly big hole in the Roman line and 2 elephants ready to charge anything that enters it. The next move is a  Roman one  but it does look as if they are going down to defeat.

New Wargames Factory Greek hoplites

I have just received the new plastic Wargames Factory hoplites and taken some scans of the sprues.
First of all the heads, there are 3 different types on a sprue and there were 10 sprues in the box.

Bodies, one of the bodies has the bronze muscled corselet 12 in the box and another 18 in the linen linothorax armour. All have greaves, so these are for the heavy armoured hoplite figures.

Arms, 5 sets of these and 7 pairs of arms per sprue, so enough for 35 figures.

Weapons, 10 sprues of spears and swords. The sword (kopis) is supplied drawn, for gluing into the hand and sheathed to be mounted on the body. My preference is for the hoplite to be armed with a spear and for the sword to be sheathed. Fantastic looking spears.

Shields, 10 sprues of 3, just enough for the 30 figures in a box. The shield is a total of 16mm in diameter, with the central area very slightly curved (easy to stick transfers to) and 13mm in diameter.

Included with the figures is a new item for WF, plastic bases. 30 of the 20x20mm bases are included in the box.

OK so now the next task is to build some of the figures.

Warhammer Ancients Axes and Axis 2011

With Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB) hard to find these days it was nice to see the Phoenix Gaming club running a combined Flames of War and WAB event on Saturday the 20th August. That meant I could go down to Cambridge pick up my mate Steve Riley and head off for a days gaming in Rushden not far away. Steve seems to live in a wargaming desert near Cambridge, so if you know of any gaming going on round there please let me know and I will pass on the details to Steve. As it turned out I ended up being the sponsor for the event, so took down prizes as well as stuff to sell.
I decided to take Carthaginians the first chance to use the new Carthaginian spearmen I had worked on earlier – you should be able to spot them in the photos.
We were using 1500 point armies to give fast games and my army consisted of
General and Army Standard bearer, both mounted
20 trained African spearmen
32 Gallic warriors
22 Oscan hoplites – the cutting edge of the army
14 Oscan warriors – light infantry, to be used as a formed unit or as skirmishers depending on the game
12 Gallic cavalry
1 elephant
9 skirmishers with javelins
The day consisted of 3 battles using a scenario pack, shown here for info. So on to the games
First game, with defenders in the middle trying to cross the table with the attackers closing in from both sides. I was up against Imperial Romans

the brown felt represented an area of difficult ground. My opponents deployment was 2 units of legionaries on the left of the picture with mainly missile troops on the right. The cavalry played no part in the battle and marched off (to gain victory points) as soon as they could.

on the right I deployed my skirmishers, elephant, hoplites and Gallic warband. The idea was to advance quickly to prevent the Romans from marching off the table (to victory). The Gauls were my fast attack force to be supported by the hoplites if serious fighting was involved.

and here you can see the whole table with my cavalry, Oscan warriors and African spearmen ready to roll in from the other side.
The Gallic cavalry hit the Roman artillery from behind and destroyed them, the Gallic infantry took heavy losses from artillery and bow fire as they advanced but charged and over-ran the Roman archers. But I was unable to break the legionaries and the game ended as a draw. Lesson learned from this game, warband cavalry are too unmanoeuvrable, so don’t use them in your army. Cavalry are there to exploit enemy flanks and rear and these guys failed to do it (the rule, warband only move at half speed unless they go directly ahead unless charging).

A look around at some of the other games going on


Paul Scrivens-Smith the eventual WAB winner with another Carthaginian army

my friend Steve (on left) with his Franks, against an all cavalry Scythian army. The Scythians got first turn and simply rode off the table and to victory. Silly scenario!


this chap has obviously decided to stand his ground, form a semi-circle and fight it out.
Second game, a head to head battle up against a late Persian army

close up on my Gallic infantry

against the might of the Persian army

The game was a fairly simple affair, both sides advanced. I cleared the enemy skirmishers out of the way but was then charged by the Persians. It came down to a combat grind with in the end the better armour and fighting skill of the Carthaginians winning the day. A massive victory for me.
Sorry no pictures of the last game – it was too hectic – Paul and I fought in the floor of a valley, the battle swayed backward and forward, I thought I had him but like in the previous game, his troops were better than mine. Both units of Gauls charged in when they should not have (failed the test for warband charging nearest enemy), the elephants crew were all shot dead and it stampeded back into my own army. A dismal defeat was my fate.
But a great day out, well organised by the Phoenix club who are a great bunch of gamers. Paul got first prize for the WAB side of the event and since he did not want to take two prizes I won the goblet of blood for the most troops killed (I think that includes your own!) on the day.