Kingdom Con WAB Games

Here's some pictures of the two WAB games I helped put on at Kingdom Con this year.

You can look at some more photos of the whole con over at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/97177279@N00/sets/72157626522045682/
Thanks Rene for taking lots of photos.

The first set is a refight of Panion between the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaics. This time with fancy new Cataphract cavalry from the East!

Brief synopsis of what happened. The heavy cavalry on the Seleucid right went in, the Agema cataphracts ended up getting flanked and run down but the other Cataphract unit and Hetairoi slugged it out with the Ptolemaic cavalry the whole game. No one was able to break through.

The Seleucid left held up the Ptolemaic right with his Greek allies most of the game. By the last turn everything Seleucid on that flank was routed though.

In the center the phalanx clashed and fought a couple turns before Ptolemaic Machimoi broke the Seleucid settler phalanx it was fighting and the Seleucid Guard phalanx broke their opponent. The Ptolemaic Hypaspists fought a loosing battle against a barded Indian elephant and finally turned to flight when the Thorakitai flanked them (they got away though). The Thorakitai and elephant were going in for the kill and the Guards turned to deal with the Machimoi when disaster struck. When the elephant charged, the javelins thrown by the Hypaspists spooked the elephant which rampaged right in the flank of the Thorakitai. The trailing Ptolemaic elephant came in to help finish them off.

In the end the Seleucid right was inconclusive, the left was totally broken and the middle was probably going to be swept up on the left. Antiochus the Great knew when to call it to save what's left of his army and beat a hasty retreat.

Setup Picutres

(Seleucid on Left & Ptolemaics on right)

Rocky stream was rough terrain. Rest of stream was considered open.





Fight on Left Flank








Fighting on Right Flank






End







Fighting in Center

Elephant getting ready to charge Hypaspists in front of it.

Elephant going nuts and running into the Thorakitai instead of the Hypaspists... why do I take these again? Jeff joins his in just to cause insult to injury.

These are some pictures of the Late Roman vs Hun/Goth game. Like all good dark age battles, it's over the pigs. There aren't that many pictures. Some are sideways no matter how I turn them before importing, no clue why.

New Goths for Kingdom Con WAB game

San Diego has a new game con and the gaming groups are helping out to hopefully make it successful. I'm going to be putting on two participating WAB games on Saturday morning, April 16, 10AM. The website for it is over at http://www.kingdom-con.com/

Game 1: Late Romans vs Huns and Goths. I'm putting on this game with Tony Rodgers.

Game 2: Syrian Wars, Seleucid vs Ptolemaic Empires. Jeff Jonas is helping me with this one.

Here is some of the Goths I've been painting up for the Late Roman game. They are Musketeer Miniatures figures. Real nice. Next on my painting block are Guard Phalanx from Gripping Beast's Polemarch line.

Julian pictures

Here's some pictures of Julian II, the Apostate I painted up. The figure is from my friend Alex over at Black Army Productions. Julian is in their Champions of History range. It's a great figure and would make a good general for any Imperial Roman army I think.

The Seleucids are heading to Strategicon next week. Stay tuned for some updates on how they did soon after.

Back to Syria

After a long rest, Jeff and I got back together to throw down in the next installment of his Syrian Wars compaign. I've been painting quite a bit and wanted to use all my new units, so we decided on a big 3,250 point battle.

Here is what I had for my Seleucids (broken up in Characters, Cavalry, Infantry, Special, Mercs):

Antiochus III - Successor King
Army Standard
Taxiarch

Companions (10)
Elite Light Cavalry (10)

Silver Shields (28)
Katoikoi Phalanx (28)
Katoikoi Phalanx (28)
Elephant Escorts (8)
Euzonoi (10)

Armored Elephant
Normal Elephant
Scythed Chariot

Thureophoroi (18)
Thorakitai (18)
Ne0-Cretans (12)
Thracian Peltasts (10)
Iranian Levies (44)
Arab Cavalry (12)
Arab Archers (12)

Jeff had 5 pike units (3 normal, 1 Machomoi, 1 mercenary), Companions, some cavalry with thrusting spear, Galation Noble cavalry, an African elephant, some Greek allies, thureophoroi, thorakitai, the dreaded Cretan archers, and some other skirmish troops.

We had two new players (Alex and Jen) acting as sub-commanders. Jen had my right and Alex had Jeff's right. So each side had an extra Strategos sub-commander.

Here is our set up. We wrote down our deployment then just set up. Pike in the middle, Jeff's strong right flank with Companions vs my weaker left with Elite Light cavalry and Scythed Chariot, my companions where on my right with the Arab cavalry against his Greeks.

Some random pictures of figures at the start.




Not much happened the first couple turns. Skirmishers ran out. Archers shot some stuff. Both right flanks played a little cautious. My Thracians got their rhomphaia handed to them by some upstart Neo-Agranians. The thureophoroi were in open order so they went stamping through the woods.

On Jeff's right, his Companions were getting pretty shot up by the Arab archers so them and the Ptolemaic cavalry pushed up. I send in my Elite Light cavalry to to punch through his Ptolemaic cavalry and set up my chariot to charge into the Companions if they charged my Arabs. If things went right I could bust open that flank. My elite cavalry couldn't hit a thing though and ended up being run off.

The Arabs ran from the Companions when they charged. I did manage to his Companions with my scythed chariot and bring them down in numbers so they weren't effective anymore. But all I had on that flank to stop his Ptolemaic cavalry now was my massive levy unit with their flank to them... which can't reform due to being levy.

On my right not too much happened. My Companions were in position behind the woods ready to exploit whatever happened on the either side but nothing much happened to expoit. The Arab cavalry and Jeff's Galatian nobles tangled a bit with the Gauls coming out on top after a few turns.

In the center, I turned my Phalanx to try to meet his so Jeff wouldn't get a too much of an overlap on my left. I had my thorakitai, armored elephant and levy to try to hold up his phalanx there. When the pike did meet, my Silver Shields took a beating from his mercenary phalanx and they took off running. Luckily they rallied next turn. Jeff Machimoi phalanx turned out to be WS2 (you roll to determine their WS when they enter combat) but still dealt a lot of damage. I put my king with my center phalanx to make them stubborn (his randomly determined King ability), which they swiftly used. They ended up falling back leaving one one of my pike units in combat.

Alex charged in one phalanx into my thorakitai and another into the elephant. My thorakitai stayed but the elephant got poke in the eye by a pike and stampeded off. Not looking good for the Seleucids. At this time the Ptolemaic cavalry charged by levy in the flank which failed their panic check and all 44 of them ran into the rear of my line.

The stampeding elephant ran through my fleeing levy and destroyed them. The Silver Shields lost again and ran off. The thorakitai couldn't hold the phalanx any longer and broke. Poor Antiochus III decided enough is enough and called it there. A massacre if I ever saw one. Here's a few ending photos.

So the Seleucids were stopped on their run to Alexandria. We'll have to see if I can keep what's left of my army intact fleeing back to Damascus as I'm hounded by the Ptolemaics. The levy only got chased off so I'm looking forward for them to come back and redeem themselves!!