Paul R's Wargame Spot

Kingdom Con WAB Games

2011-04-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-02-12T23:05:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

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!!

Seleucids at KublaCon

2010-06-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

I took my Seleucids up to Kublacon last weekend for the WAB tournament. Mark let me play the Seleucid Empire list from Jeff's new book for some playtest games. It happened to be a bad time for quite a few people so there was a total of 4 of us were there. This is what I took:

1 Successor King @ 158.0 Pt
Horse; Impact Modifier; Regal Impact; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armor; Horse; Drilled; Stubborn; General
0 Horse @ [0.0] Pt

1 Army Battle Standard @ 83.0 Pt
Horse; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armor; Horse; Drilled; Stubborn; General
0 Horse @ [0.0] Pt

10 Companions @ 285.0 Pt
Close Order; Leader; Standard; Musician; Hand Weapon; Xyston; Heavy Armor; Half Metal Barding; Stubborn; Wedge

24 Silver Shields @ 255.0 Pt
Light Armour; Shield; Leader; Standard; Musician; Hand Weapon; Pike; Macedonian Phalanx

28 Katoikoi Phalanx @ 267.0 Pt
Light Armour; Shield; Leader; Standard; Musician; Hand Weapon; Pike; Macedonian Phalanx

28 Katoikoi Phalanx @ 267.0 Pt
Light Armour; Shield; Leader; Standard; Musician; Hand Weapon; Pike; Macedonian Phalanx

10 Euzonoi @ 60.0 Pt
Hand Weapon; Javelins; Buckler; Skirmishers

10 Arab Cavalry @ 165.0 Pt
Leader; Mixed Weapons; Shield; Light Cavalry; Feigned Flight

9 Arab Tribesmen @ 54.0 Pt
Composite Bow; Open Order

18 Theureophoroi @ 141.0 Pt
Leader; Standard; Musician; Hand Weapon; Thrusting Spear; Shield

18 Thorakitai @ 177.0 Pt
Leader; Standard; Musician; Hand Weapon; Thrusting Spear; Light Armor; Shield

9 Thracian Peltasts @ 86.0 Pt
Leader; Hand Weapon; Rhomphaia; Javelins; Shield; Light Infantry

Total Army list Cost: 1998.0

GAME 1

My first game was against Mark and his Assyrians. He had 3 blocks of Assyrian infantry, 2 units of chariots, and some slingers and archers. My camera was on the wrong setting, so a lot of my pictures were blurred. Here are a few though.

Mark's setup.

Me trying to to wheel my phalanx to match up with the Assyrian infantry blocks. Half movement while wheeling really hurts. My companions ignore the archers in front of them and are able to march right past them to get into the rear. But there are some heavy chariots with the general and ASB there to meet them. My companions end up charging the chariots but can't break them. After a few turns of fighting they end up running off the table.

The Arab cavalry try to hold up the other chariots while my Thureophoroi get in position. The Thureophoroi place themselves directly in front of the chariots and get run down. The Arab cavalry swoop in behind the pursuing chariots and take one down with javelins which cause them to panic off the board.

One phalanx is going toe to toe with the Assyrian infantry. They win most of the combats but just can't get them to break (even after burning their stubborn). The Thracians charge the flank for one final push before the General's chariot army arrives. No luck though. The infantry hold.

My Thorakitai and Arab archers were run off by the red Assyrian infantry which are now getting back into the game. My Silver Shields try to hold them off until my other phalanx (which scared off some slingers) arrive. The Assyrian general's chariots plow into my flanking Thracians, killing them all. This causes my phalanx to break which panics my king, ASB and supporting phalanx. Game over for the Seleucids. It was a very good game which could of gone either way.

We had a few errors pop in since we were using WAB 2 and this is Mark's first run with his army. I screwed up when my wedge flattened out. I was thinking my frontage was as big as to cover the opponents front but it is actually only as wide as my widest rank in the wedge. Opps. Mark ran his Assyrian infantry as WS 4 / BS 4 but I think they are actually 3 after looking back at Chariot Wars. The killer was them being stubborn and causing fear. We goofed on a few morale checks too (we forgot the -1 for being half strength). Going to need a marker for that.

GAME 2

This was against Rob's Ancient Spanish. He had 4 infantry units with throwing spears and feigned flight. One was stubborn. A Celtiberians unit with heavy throwing spears and warband, some normal slingers and a unit of Baleric slingers rounded his army out. He also had a general and ASB. It was an all infantry force.

Rob's setup. Stubborn infantry on the his left by themselves and warband on the right. The Baleric slingers are actually next to stubborn unit but out of the picture.

I had a phalanx lined up against a Spanish unit and the Thorakitai and Thureophoroi had to handle the Celtiberians. My Companions were in the middle.

It went pretty bad for Rob from the beginning. His Baleric slingers couldn't hit anything and when my Euzonoi ran up to throw he charaged them. WS 3 Baleric's vs WS 2 Euzonoi, you'd think it would be over quick. But the Baleric's struck out again and were run down by my Euzonoi. The stubborn warband did a number on my Silver Shields. There were able to mass fire javelins on the hill and caused my phalanx to panic. It managed to rally but was then charged by the stubborn Iberians and swept my Silver Shields away.

My Companions charged the skirmishers in front of them which made their fear test and fiend flighted away, but not far enough away (I caught them by an inch). I blew through them and ended up in the rear of the Spanish line. I ended up sandwiching a Iberian unit between the cavalry and the phalanx. The new 2.0 rule where you automatically die if you are engaged to the front and rear worked out well here. We weren't sure if my units pursued or not after the broken unit is just picked up and if so where they would pursue.

Here is my Companions after running down the skirmishers and charging one Iberian unit to the rear. With our confusions of pursuing we rolled which direction they would go (left or right) and I ran them that way (I actually rolled to not pursue but no luck there).

The Celtiberians charged my Thureophoroi which ran away. This let my Thorkitai to get a charge in on them. With all the heavy throwing spears coming their way, the Thorakitai took a beating but made their break test. Their spears vs the warbands single fighting rank started to take a toll on the Celtiberians. During this time Rob's general joined a infantry unit and I put my King in the phalanx opposite it. When the Spanish charged the phalanx, the Spanish general challenged my King, who happened to roll +1 Wound on the kingly table this game. But otherwise he's a panzy with 2 attacks and 3 strength. The melee went for about 2 turns where my king took 3 wounds (and I was complaining about the extra wound roll at the beginning of the game) before my companions ended it all with a rear charge on the Spanish unit.

Tony with his Age of Arthur Civilized British army list and I played a quick game after this. Tony beat me on our practice game before we left to San Francisco but he had horrible luck on this one. After one charge and most of his units panicing we just called it.

So I'm glad I got a few WAB 2.0 games in with the new army list. All very fun games against great opponents.

Might of Arms Gaugamela Game

2010-04-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

I put on a Might of Arms game at my club the other day. I was thinking of a good battle to put on and decided to go with Gaugamela. This let me use most of my models I've been painting off and on for the last few years.

I used Luke Ueda's DBM order of battle and a map from Wiki for the starting setup. Bob Bryant (the creator of MoA) sent me some of the test rules he's using for MoA II, so I used most of those too. If you are familiar with normal MoA, you'll see some differences in troop types and a Drilled/Untrained rating for troops. I also added a house rule to help differentiate the xyston armed Greek cavalry from the javelin/short spear armed Persians. Xyston armed cavalry get a +1 in combat vs. non-xyston armed cavalry.

Here are the army lists I used. I had to modify the lists a bit from Luke's due to what models I have. I decided to not represent the second line of Persian levy in this battle for one. I made most of Alexander's Greek hoplites as unarmored infantry instead of heavy infantry to try to represent Iphikrates-type hoplites. Both sides ended up around 2200 points without generals.

Alexander
Royal Lancers & Paionians	3	LC		Xyston	B
Royal Lancers	2	LC		Xyston	B
Agrianians	3	SI		Jav	B
Macedonian Archers	3	SI		Bow	C
Greek Mercenaries	6	UI	Trained		C
Greek Peltasts	6	LI	Trained	Jav	C
Companions	3	HC	Trained	Xyston	A
Companions	3	HC	Trained	Xyston	A
Companions	3	HC	Trained	Xyston	A
Javelinmen	3	SI		Jav	C
Hypaspists	6	MI	Trained	Jav	B

Koinos
Phalanx	6	HI	Trained	Pike	C
Phalanx	6	HI	Trained	Pike	C
Phalanx	6	HI	Trained	Pike	C
Phalanx	6	HI	Trained	Pike	C
Greek Mercenaries	6	UI	Trained		D

Krateros
Phalanx	6	HI	Trained	Pike	C
Phalanx	6	HI	Trained	Pike	C
Thracians	6	LI	Untrained	Jav	C
Thracians	6	LI	Untrained	Jav	C
Greek Mercenaries	6	UI	Trained		D

Parmenio
Greek Cavalry	3	MC	Untrained		C
Thessalians	3	HC	Trained		B
Thessalians	3	HC	Trained		B
Cretan Archers	3	SI		Bow	B
Thracian Skirmishers	3	SI		Jav	C
Thracian Horse	2	LC		Jav	C
Thracian Horse	2	LC		Jav	C
Greek Mercenaries	6	UI	Trained		C
Greek Peltasts	6	LI	Trained	Jav	C



Bessos
Scythians	3	HC	Untrained	Bow	C
Bactrians	3	AC	Untrained		C
Bactrians	3	HC	Untrained		C
Sogdian Cavalry	3	HC	Untrained		D
Persian Cavalry	3	HC	Untrained		D
Satrapal Cavalry	3	HC	Untrained		C
Light Cavalry	3	LC		Jav	D
Light Cavalry	3	LC		Jav	D
Light Cavalry	3	LC		Jav	D
Dahai	3	LC		Bow	C
Dahai	3	LC		Bow	C
Indian Hillmen	6	MI	Untrained		D
Takabara Peltasts	6	LI	Untrained	Jav	D
Skirmish Archers	3	SI		Bow	D

Darius
Scythed Chariots	2	ScyChar	Untrained		C
Greek Mercenaries	6	HI	Trained		C
Greek Mercenaries	6	HI	Trained		C
Persian Apple-bearers	6	HI	Trained		B
Karian Deportees	8	Levy	Untrained		D
Mardian Archers	8	Levy	Untrained	Bows	D
Persian Kinsmen	3	HC	Trained	Xyston	B
Kardakes	6	UI	Untrained		D
Skirmish Javelinmen	3	SI		Jav	D

Mazaios
Slingers	3	SI		Sling	D
Albanian Javelinmen	3	SI		Jav	D
Albanian Archers	3	SI		Bow	D
Kappadokians	3	LC		Jav	D
Kappadokians	3	LC		Jav	D
Light Cavalry	3	LC		Jav	D
Light Cavalry	3	LC		Jav	D
Satrapal Cavalry	3	AC	Untrained		C
Persian Cavalry	3	HC	Untrained		C
Persian Cavalry	3	HC	Untrained		C
Parthaians	3	LC		Bow	C
Heavy Cavalry	3	HC	Untrained		D

We played on a 4x12' table with no terrain. Here are some of the battle shots.

Here's the setup. Persians on left, Greeks on right.

Some pics of the Persian battle line.

Here are some of the Macedonians

Both centers moved forward with their cavalry wings keeping the line. The Persian light cavalry on their right starting making a wide swing around to get behind. The Persians through unit after unit against the Companions to stop them from breaking, wearing each unit but never breaking them. Parmenio lost his whole flank except for one extraordinarily brave Thessalian unit, but was able to hold up the Persians enough to allow the phalanx to break the Persian center. A Macedonian win but not an easy one. A fun game for all though.

Companions and hypaspists moving forward.

Persians massing against part of the phalanx hoping to hold the rest of it with the levy.

Parmenio desperately holding off the cavalry hoards.

The Persian center folds before their cavalry can sweep around the flanks.

Companions (Hetairoi) done

2010-01-08T10:33:00.001-08:00

I finished up my 1st Corp Hetairoi. These are really nice models and easier than I thought to paint up. I pretty much carbon copied the colors from Sekunda's Montvert book. Hopefully they done have the freshly painted curse in the next big battle coming up. I'm running out of things to put on banners. It seems almost everyone has a sunburst, so I went with the Seleucid anchor. I still might decorate it up a bit more.

Here are the pics.

Seleucids defeated defending the pass

2009-11-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since Jeff and I had a game but we finally got together to continue our epic struggle for Syria. Jeff's Ptolemaic army was attacking through a mountain pass. It was a standard pitched battle game of 200o points.

I'm going to make this post a bit shorter than others. Pictures are the important part right?

I had:
General & ASB
Seleucid Cavalry (light armor & xyston in wedge)
Silver Shields
2 units of regular Phalanx
Euzonoi
2 units of Thureophoroi both close order
Babylonian Archers (formed unit of levy 24 strong)
Arab cavalry
Thracian peltasts with Rhomphaia (used as skirmishers)

Jeff had:
General and ASB
Elite light cavalry
Regular light cavalry
Mercenary Phalanx
2 units of regular Phalanx
Thureophoroi classed as light troops
Thorakitai
Expert slingers
Cretan Archers
African Elephant
Neo-Agranian skirmishers

Here is our setup, Seleucids in the foreground.

Here are the Seleucid troops.

And Jeff's Ptolemaic army.

Synopsis of what happened:

My Arab cav and Thracian peltasts cause some missile casualties the Ptolemaic light cav opposing them and cause them to rout off the table. My Phalanx line moves up briskly to try to pin the Ptolemaic phalanx. Jeff's phalanx right flank is only guarded by skirmish slingers so I send my Thureophoroi through the gauntlet of fire as fast as they can to get on the flank. My right flank Thureophoroi suriving Cretan, Thorakitai and Elephant missile fire and hold the Thorakitai and Elephant charge... I rolled a 2. My Seleucid cav barely miss a charge on the Ptolemaic Thureophoroi in skirmish and get shot up pretty good. But they hold and next turn cause the Thureophoroi to fall back in good order turn after turn until they are off the table.

By then the phalanx in the middle are engaged. My left Thureophoroi have a flank charge on the Ptolemaic phalanx but the routed slingers keep routing making room for the Elite light cavalry to get in their way and saving his phalanx a turn. On my right, my Thureophoroi end up running leaving my flank open. The elephant runs after the fleeing mercenaries and ends up a big target for my Babylonians. The elephant then stampedes into the back of my right phalanx.... it's all good because they were already flanked by the Thorakai.

My Arabs on the left take a while to sweep around and don't make it before my right and middle phalanx get rolled up. I end up destroying Jeff's right flank but it's his two Phalanx vs my single phalanx and support troops. We declare it a very marginal victory for Ptolemy.

Here are the pictures.

Fleeing Ptolemaic Light Cavalry

Failed charge by the Seleucid Cavalry = a shower of missiles.

The cavalry survives the missiles and the Thureophoroi hold on a 2.

Thracians beating up the Neo-Agrianians

My right phalanx about to flee. It does flee and gets away to rally.

And here it is... it never can get away from this crazy elephant. The general ends up moving away and the phalanx runs from lack of leadership (Ld 6 on these).

The end.

Breaking the Siege at Tyre

2009-09-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

We had our third battle in the Syrian campaign on Saturday. It was a 2000 point Breakthrough battle. The Ptolemaics were trying to get supplies and troops through to the Tyre. I went with a besieging type army, so quite a bit of light troops, little cavalry, and some siege engines.

I took:

A Startegps as general with Army Standard Bearer to accompany him. I also had a Taxiarch to help out leadership wise in units that would be too far away from the General. I had two 28 man Phalanx and one 28 man Silver Shields phalanx. One 10 man unit of Euzonoi skirmishers also came from the Infantry section of the army list.

For Specials I had an armored African elephant with extra crew and a Heavy Ballista. For Mercenaries I used an 18 man unit of Thureophoroi, an 18 man unit of Thracians with Rhomphaia, 12 Arab Tribesmen with bows, and 10 Arab Cavalry.

Jeff had two 24 man Kleruch Phalanx, a 24 man Mercenary phalanx, a unit of Agema cavalry, some Border Garrisons, an African elephant, a unit of 16 Thureophoroi, some Tarentine Cavalry, the hated Cretan archers and some Expert Slingers.

Here are the battle lines. Seleucids on the left side of the table and Ptolemaics on the right.

The game started with the Ptolemaics shifting their main battle line to their right and running the Tarentine cavalry in front of my phalanx to keep them from shifting left to counter. On my left I spent a couple turns firing everything I had at the enemy Thureophoroi to try to get them to panic . They were solid as a rock though marching through the arrow and bolt firestorm. They chased my Arab Cavalry (far enough to get out of he way and rally with their feigned flight) but that opened up an avenue to my ballista and they slammed into that instead. The lowly artillery crew broke and ran as expected but them loosing panicked my Thureophoroi behind them causing them to leave the field. Ouch they were in perfect position to take care of the Ptolemaic Thureophoroi. My only hope on my left was the Arab cavalry.

Everyone shooting the Thureophoroi!!

My Thureophoroi feeling from the broken siege engine. The Arabs hold fast though!

In the middle not a whole much happened. The Tarentines caused a casualties to the Phalanx but had to move out to the flank before they got trapped between the two battle lines. I did manage to shift enough of my battle line to the left to keep in front of the Ptolemaic phalanx.

On the right, the enemy slingers and Border Garrison troops climbed a hill and started lobbing missiles down on my Arab archers. I had my Thracians move up to make room for the Elephant and to threaten the hill. Jeff decided to gamble and charged his Agema cavalry in the middle of my undamaged Thracians. With the most amazing rolling I've seen in quite a while, the 10 man Agema caused 9 wounds to my Thracians and drove right through them. My poor Thracians are starting to get an inferiority complex with the beatings they've taken lately. The Arab archers held with a roll of a 2 on their panic check and shot at the Agema for a few turns to no avail. The elephant had to turn around and spend the rest of the game blocking the cavalry from pulling an Alexander and rear charging my phalanx.

The Thracians about to clear the hill of the poor Border Garrison.

The Agema cavalry charging the Thracians since they were blocked by the elephant and Phalanx.

Which turns out well for them! The Thracians didn't even get a chance to fight back.

The next few turns the elephant kept the Agema cavalry at bay and the Arab archers manned an old temple wall trading missiles with the slingers. The Tarentine cavalry chased the elephant around, trying to get it to panic from multiple little pin pricks but no luck. Finally the Agema had enough and decided to take out the Arabs but facing the wrong direction they were out of the rest of the battle. On the left, the Arab cavalry kept pelting the Ptolemaic Thureophoroi as they turned to get a flank on the Silver Shields. In the center, the battle lines met and started the grind. The Arab cavalry ended up charging the Thureophoroi but didn't break them. They did bring their numbers down to 4 before they were driven off by the combined force of the Cretans and Thureophoroi. All this time the camel caravan is sneaking down the flank with the Ptolemaic elephant next to it.

Elephant / Agema showdown!

Arab cavalry fighting to keep the Silver Shields from getting rolled up.

Silver Shields wearing down the Ptolemaic Mercenary phalanx.

Battleline seen from the Seleucid right flank.

With my flanks done but the Ptolemaic flanks beat up enough they wouldn't cause too much touble, I had to hold the middle and try to keep the camels from crossing my table line. I had move my General and the ASB over to the left to break through the Cretans and hit the camels behind. This left my right Phalanx without any leadership support though. My Taxiarch was fighting with the Silver Shields (and didn't do a thing the whole game! My Arab archers put up more of a fight than this guy) so I had to hope they held (with their leadership of 6...). Well the Cretans held, the camels got away, my right Phalanx broke, and that was pretty much it. The Tarentines escaped with the camels and my phalanxes held a few more turns before we called it.

My General trying to break through the Cretans.

The battle line getting rolled up after the right Phalanx breaks.

My General and ASB chasing off the evil Cretans.

My Silver Shields did well this game (never broke) as did my Arabs. They passed all their panic tests and held up a lot of troops. I'm getting some Companions painted up for next game.

Argyraspides done

2009-09-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update today. My first unit of Silver Shields are finally done. These took about 2 weeks to do. It's funny how much more time phalangites take to paint for me. These are from the Polemarch range at Gripping Beast. The shields are embossed Macedonian shields from Crusader. Just a note if anyone wants to use these shields sometime, they are flat on the back. I had to pull out my drill and make a dimple in the back of each shield so they fit on the models' hands.

I have one more unit of Silver Shields to do but I need some cavalry done before that. I have a 1st Corp Taxiarch on the painting block now. I think I should do my 1st Corp Companions next. It's time the big boys start making their appearance in the Syrian campaign.

Seleucids defend the road to Damascus

2009-09-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today we had Game #2 in the Syria campaign. Following up on their last win, the Ptolemaic Army is rushing to take Damascus. The Seleucids managed to gather a opposing army and block a pass. So this game is in pretty hilly terrain with 2000 points per side.

I had a Strategos as general, a mounted ASB, a Hipparch leading a unit of Politikoi Cavalry (medium cav with xyston), a unit of Arab cavalry (they are like mini Tarentine cav without the Parthian shot, good ballistic skill, large shield... hmm well they can feigned flight at least!), 2 units of regular Phalanx, 1 Silver Shields, unit of Thureophoroi, unit of Thracians with Rhomphaia, some Arab archers, unit of Trallian slingers, and at last a unit of generic Euzonoi skirmishers. I wanted to make another frontier army but with a bit of the higher quality stuff arriving slowing (the 1 unit of Silver Shields). The elephant herd and Hetairoi haven't arrived yet.

Here's my setup. The Euzonoi are off the picture to the left. But battle line goes Euzonoi, Thracians, Silver Shields, Pike 1 & 2, Thureophoroi, Arab archers, slingers with Politikoi Cav behind, and the Arab cav on the way left.

Jeff took a Strategos general and ASB, 3 Kleruch phalanx (basic phalanx), unit of elite light cav (good BS on them), unit of regular light cav, Thureophoroi, small unit of Thorakitai, the dreaded Cretans, some expert slingers, unit of Neo-Agrianians, and finally a African elephant.

This was his setup. The Agrianians are off picture to the left, then the Thorakitai, elite light cav & slingers behind, 3 pike units, elephant, Cretans with Thureophoroi behind looking to climb the hill, then the normal light cavalry on their right flank.

This is view from the Cretans. They had a big target on them this game for the man handling of the Politikoi Cavalry last game.

Close up of the dreaded Cretans.

The first couple turns were mainly moving up with not much happening. The Thracians marched hard to get on the hill in front of them before the Thorakitai, but in the process they got themselves surrounded and pelted after the Neo-Agrianians and Elite light cav ran right through the Euzonoi. The Arab cavalry got into a throwing match with the Ptolemaic light cav across from them and ended up getting charged. They tried to feigned flight but it came up short and they ended up in hand to hand... for the next 4 turns.

This is the Thracians getting seeing the wrong end of the a hail of javelins.

Here is the Arab cavalry fighting over the hill on the left. The Ptolemaic light cav were tenacious fighters almost dying to the man.

Knowing the Thracians can't hold on long my right flank was going to fold pretty quick, I turned my heavy cav unit to go help out. They weren't doing much anyways seeing as their targets in front of them were an elephant and a spear unit. The Silver Shields next to the Thracians charged a phalanx while the Thracians moved up to hold the flank a bit longer and toss some of their own javelins at the Thorakitai. Not a whole lot happened in my turn in Jeff's turn he charged the Thracians in front and behind and moved his elephant and Thureophoroi to engage my Thureophoroi since my heavy cav left them to help out on the right. The Cretans and Trallian slingers have been pelting each other this whole time. Actually one time the Trallians did get too close and got charged by the Cretans but they couldn't catch them and the Trallians rallied. So the Thracians got murdered, the Silver Shields didn't take kindly to seeing their flank wide open from the fleeing Thracians decided to take off with them. Yep this wasn't looking good.

Before the Thracians died....

and after. Well at least they died to the man almost instead of fleeing right off the bat.

Polotikoi Cav turning to save the right flank.

In my next turn I charged in my remaining phalanx and hoped I could pull out a miracle before being flanked by the open Ptolemaic phalanx on my left and the elephant and Thureophoroi beating up my Thureophoroi on my right. I guess be in good with the dice gods because I managed to beat the middle phalanx by one which he failed his break test twice and ran off. His general and ASB saw this and ran too. Then the open phalanx on my right panicked and ran off. All the Ptolemaic pike units ended up either running off the board or getting run down by my phalanx.

Here is a picture of where the pike units ended up after the Ptolemaic line broke. The Egyptian elephant was probably surprised to see all his targets run off into the sunset.

By now the Arab cavalry finally broke the light cav unit they were fighting and started to head back to the center. The Politikoi cavalry got themselves stuck between an elephant to their front and a battered Thorakitai unit behind them. They ended up swinging left and heading down the hill into a hornets next of angry skirmishers. They got their ranks thinned down enough that when they did manage a charge against the Ptolemaic elite light cav it wasn't enough and they fled. The Polotikoi did keep the skirmishers busy for a few turns for the Silver Shields to escape the showers of javelins and block the Egyptian Thureophoroi and elephant. The Silver Shields held the charge from those two units, giving enough time for the red shielded Seleucid phalanx to his the elephant in the rear. That was enough and the Egyptians fled for the hills.

I need to leave a special note for the Cretans and Trallian slingers. They must of had some blood feud because they both stayed until the last. Each giving and receiving turn after turn of fire. Even the Arabs got into it at the end and the Cretans didn't budge.

I practically never made an armor save this game but break test on a 3 or less? no problem! Jeff made a crazy amount of armor saves but a break test on an 8 with a reroll then multiple panic tests on 8's and 9's didn't go his way. I guess it's better have consistently low rolling dice in WAB!

Couple more units

2009-09-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

I finished off some Arab archers and a unit of Thracians.

The Arabs are from Navigator (MagisterMilitum). They are a bit smaller than my Gripping Beast and Crusader figs but I like the sculps and no one else seems to make ancient Arabs. Well Amazon Miniatures makes some but they seem to be very unresponsive even after sending in an order. I found a painting guide for Arab skin on the net using GW Snakebite Leather as the basecoat. After painting the archers with this method I'm not too thrilled with it. I'll try a different color brown next time with my Arab cavalry I have next on the painting block (based off this site http://www.coolminiornot.com/go.php/go/articlephp/aid/310?).

Here are the Thracians. I based them off of the a picture in Osprey Thracian book. This is the first time I painted something from Crusader. They are really nice figs, I just wish they'd make some more Hellenistic Greek type figs.

I got a battle on Monday I'm trying to get the Arab cavalry done in time for.

Run down like dogs

2009-08-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

I had the my first battle with the Seleucids and it wasn't pretty! It was 1500 points but built like a frontier force so mostly cavalry and light units. The scenario was I had to take and hold a Arab caravan in the center of the table. The armies came on in a marching order (1D6 units per turn) entering the table from a 12" section in the middle of the table side.

I had the Old Man, Army Battle Standard, 1 Phalanx, 2 Thureophoroi, 2 Euzonoi (skirmishers), 1 unit of slingers, 1 Politikoi Cav (med cav), 1 Tarentine Cav (oh so nice light cav), and 1 Skythian cav unit. Jeff had a similar army to mine except I had a bit lighter but more maneuverable cav.

Here's the objective and end of first turn. We both got 5 units on the board. Seleucids on the left, Ptolemaic army on the right.

This is the end of Turn 2.

By the 2nd and 3rd turn, I shot the Thracian light cav on the right enough to cause them to break and run off. My Tarentines were charged by the Ptolemaic heavy cav, caught after they fire and fleed (rolled a 5 for distance ugg), were beaten and ran from combat only to get run down again (rolled a 3 this time). So there went my left flank guard.

My 2nd Thureophoroi unit finally came on and I had to send it over to my left flank to try to hold up the Ptolemaic cav. The middle infantry units marched closer and some Galation Nobles cavalry that marched on earlier failed their Warband roll and moved up into charge range of my Politikoi cavalry. I ended up charging them, they fled and rolled high enough to exit the table.

After this it all went downhill.

The Ptolemaic heavy cav turned around to go save their flank and a unit of Cretan archers shot a few cavalry models. When it was my turn to go I thought my cavalry could run down the Cretans without much trouble but I couldn't hit the buggers and ended up fleeing before them. My Phalanx charged the Ptolemaic phalanx but lost and failed both their rout checks only to get run down. The Old Man thought behind the Phalanx would be save ran away, only the ASB stuck around bewildered to see a Phalanx charge into him. My Thureophoroi did do my proud though. They stuck around two turns fighting a enemy Thureophoroi and Thorakitai unit. But finally it was too much and they too got run down.

It all ended with my last Thureophoroi breaking the beat up Ptolemaic Thureophoroi unit that slammed into it from running my other unit down. The Politikoi rallied but can't do anything against a Phalanx blocking it's path. My last Thureophoroi hit the Thorakitai, cried because their lord didn't care enough to give them any armor and ran off the field. So the Ptolemaic army kept the caravan in the end.

It was a good battle. It could of went either way.

Thureophoroi & General

2009-08-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

I won some Thureophoroi off Ebay and wanted to use them for the first campaign game, so I quickly painted up a command for them. The troopers are from Old Glory. The command is Gripping Beast. I need to do a bit of touch up on the troopers. It looks like they painted using the Army Painter dip and it dirtied up the white and yellows a bit. I use Minwax polyshades Ancient Walnut on my figures, but I end up highlighting and painting over quite a bit of the model after I brush on the dip. Here is a picture of the Thureophoroi.

I got 30 of these guys so two groups of 15 troops plus 3 command I'll paint up myself will be two nice units of 18. I need to remember to deepen their ranks a bit when playing WAB 1.5 (which I forgot to do my first battle with them and the Phalanx!).

Next is some Javelinmen I painted up. They are from Gripping Beast too. It's not that great of a picture. I think they look better in person. I'll probably paint the next group of ten in more of a uniform with some sort of shield device.

Before the game coming up I got my 1st Corp order in. So I quickly painted up a general from their Mounted Generals pack. He's the old man that'll lead my armies until the King shows up with the rest of the Argyraspides, Heraitoi and the levies from the eastern part of the empire. For an Army Standard Bearer I think I'll take one of the generals that's holding a sword and give him a standard instead.

Finally here is one of the Phalanx with the basing done.

So what's next? I got the Navigator order in and I got 12 Arab archers all prepped up. I got the Crusader order in too, so the Hellanistic Thracians with Rhomphaia will be after that.

Another Phalanx done

2009-08-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

It took two weeks but I got another Phalanx done. Boy these take a long time. I'm used to painting 15 mm guys. Here's a couple pictures of the new unit.

I still need to do the basing but I'm not positive how I want to do it yet. I'll probably wait until I get a few more units done first then go on a basing spree. I was a bit concerned after I put on all the shields with the upside down anchor and painted one on the banner when I saw 1st Corp sample had their anchor right side up. After a bit of checking around I think I got it right.

I got 10 Javelinmen in the works to get painted up now. These shouldn't take too long compared to the pikemen. I've been looking around to see if there is any info on shields for the Seleucid skirmishers. I haven't found much so far. I'll probably paint them up leather color with no symbols on them unless I find something that looks good.

Seleucids Start Up

2009-08-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

So I decided to start up a new WAB army. At first I was thinking of doing a Picts army from Age of Arthur but I already have a light infantry army with my Bulgars. I wanted something heavy infantry based. It was between a Roman army using Jeff Jonas' Late Republican Romans army list or a Successor army. After seeing Gripping Beast's new Polemarch range and 1st Corp's Seleucid cataphracts I went with a Seleucid army.

I bugged Jeff J. a bit and got some information about the new Seleucid list. So with that I starting planning. Here's what I'm going to start out painting.

Hyparchos as a General
Army Standard Bearer
28 figure Phalanx unit
28 figure Phalanx unit
18 figure Thureophoroi unit
18 figure Thracian unit
12 figure Javelinmen unit
12 figure Arab archer unit
12 figure Politikoi Cavalry unit
9 figure Thracian or Arab cavalry unit

The Phalanx, Thureophoroi and Javelinmen are Gripping Beast figures. The Thracian foot and cavalry are Crusader. Politikoi and Arabs are Navigator from Magistor Militum. I also order some Amazon Miniatures to add to the Arabs archers and Politikoi. Hopefully they will fit together. The first Phalanx is done and the second should be done this week. Next up is the Javelinmen and Thureophoroi.

After the above units get painted, I'll work on getting more of the archetypal Seleucid units done. I got 2 Argyraspides Phalanx units from Gripping Beast; a Herairoi, Agema Cataphract and normal Cataphract unit from 1st Corp all ordered. I'll have to get some elephants sometime but I'm not big into them.

Here's two quick pictures of the Phalanx.