The Elephant In The Room

I finished last year with a post featuring elephants too. 

Then, it was due to event that had happened leading to me gaining some frankly massive armies for the Punic Wars.

This year it's because our big Christmas game actually used those those armies in a massive clash using the rather excellent (especially if you only play a certain period very infrequently) Kings of War Historical rules.

I split the forces available into two roughly 3300 point armies. Unfortunately, Wes was unable to join us this year, so I took control of the Carthaginians and their Numidian and Iberian Mercenaries, whilst Matt and Pete became the bickering Consuls leading the Republican Roman legions and their Italian and Gallic Auxiliaries.

I'm not going to go into the exact forces, but broadly the Roman force had bigger and better blocks of infantry, whilst the Carthaginians enjoyed a significant advantage in cavalry and had the aforementioned elephants.

The Roman deployment was fairly conventional, with the legions in the centre and their cavalry and auxiliaries out on the flanks.

The Carthaginians also concentrated their infantry in the middle, but massed their cavalry on their left flank, and left the right flank to the elephants supported by light infantry.

Opening moves saw both lines advance. The Carthaginians took up an oblique line as the elephants pushed forwards on one flank and only the Numidian Cavalry sallied forwards on the other.

The Romans issued a more general advance as the legions moved up at the double, keen to bring their weight to bear. 

Somewhat surprisingly, the Gallic Light Cavalry charged into the elephants, which went about as well as you might expect.

This appeared to happen because one of the two Consuls (obviously they both blamed each other) couldn't tell the difference between his allied units - which felt fairly historically accurate.

This began an ongoing process of the Romans throwing Gauls at the elephants in an attempt to slow their advance, safe in the knowledge that they wouldn't have to pay their auxiliaries the following day.

Over on the other flank, Numidians harried the Italian Auxiliaries, driving off cavalry and peppering the infantry with javelins.

More Gauls were hurled at the elephants and to their doom. However this strategy was keeping the elephants penned in and starting to whittle down their nerve.

All the while, the legions advanced.

The lines finally clashed as Roman Legionaries fought Iberian Scutarii at the base of the hill, whilst the last of the Italian Cavalry was destroyed by the Numidians.

After Light Cavalry, Noble Cavalry and Fanatics had all failed, it was the turn of the massed horde of Gaulish Warriors to take a crack at the elephants.

These two would end up trampled beneath the feet of fate, but by the time they were gone, the elephants would be in a much worse condition.

Another legion crashed into the Iberians in the centre of the Carthaginian line. The Romans had weight of numbers, but the Scutarii were bolstered by the reassuring presence of the Army Standard and the Sacred Band.

The Roman Commander could only watch in horror as his flank seemed to collapse under the feet of the elephants.

Triarii were hastily brought forward to hold the line.

With most of the Numidians finally driven off, the Carthaginian Cavalry crashed into the Italian Auxiliaries inflicting significant damage.

However, Gauls roared in to drive off the last of the Numidians, whilst Roman Cavalry launch a daring attempt to assassinate the enemy general by taking their horses through the trees to assault him.

The attack failed but did create issues in the Carthaginian lines 

Huge bodies of men pushed and shoved along the line, but no breakthrough was achieved by either side...

...until the Carthaginian Cavalry finally broke the Italian Auxiliaries whilst the Iberian Cavalry that had been held in reserve were brought forward to stem the tide of Gauls and Roman Cavalry that were threatening to break through.

Only a lone regiment of Triarii remained to hold back the Carthaginian Cavalry. Fortunately, holding back cavalry is what the spear-armed elites do best.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, the final Roman Legion rushed forwards hoping to reach the action before the last of the Gauls were destroyed by the Numidian infantry.

They managed to make it into the Africans' flank before they could sweep the Gauls away, just as the long spears of the Triarii finally drove off the rampaging elephants, securing the Roman left flank.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the battlefield, the charge of the Iberian Cavalry had failed to have the desired impact and the Gauls now began to look like they might turn the Carthaginian flank.

However, in the centre, one of the Roman Legions finally broke, but the Scutarii were in no stat to pursue and were surprised to find themselves charged by the Roman Signifier, who somehow held them in place.

This gave the Triarii the freedom to concentrate on the cavalry and a full on collapse of the Carthaginian flank was underway.

A similar collapse was underway on the other flank. Although the last of the Gauls had fallen, so had the African infantry, and only a solitary Iberian regiment and some Balearic Slingers stood in the way of an entire legion.

The fight finally came down to the centre, where following the rout of one of the Scutarii units, the Sacred Band faced a very tired Roman Legion.

Both sides took heavy casualties, but both sides held thanks to the presence of their Army Standards strengthening their resolve.

At the final count, the Romans came away with a victory which would have been overturned had the battered legion in the centre not stood their ground. 

The battle had initially seemed to be going massively in the Carthaginians favour, but the stalwart nature of the Legions, combined with some nick-of-time action from the Triarii and some frankly ridiculous behaviours from the Roman Signifier blocking the Carthaginian advance won the day.

Overall it was a lot of fun to play and proved that Kings of War is a versatile system that's really easy to use and excellent for people who play certain eras extremely infrequently. I'm sure experts could find fault with the historical accuracy, but given that we're unlikely to play ancients again any time soon, it felt right.

In other news, I was 'kindly' given the Battletech Beginner Box by Pete as a Secret Santa present. He's been on at me to get into this for some time and now I've got no excuse.

It has two models and the quick start rules but he knows me well enough to know I'll by at least a couple more mechs to be able to play the smaller scale version of the game.

In return I gave him some Morannon Orcs so we can play the Gondor At War campaign for Lord of the Rings, which I've been on at him about (,you get a sense of how we use Secret Santa here), and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man I received recently as he's a big Ghostbusters fan.

So that's it for gaming this year. I'll be back tomorrow with my review of last year's resolutions and you find out just how badly I've done.

Yes, I have counted up how many miniatures I've gained.

No. I'm not telling you until tomorrow.

Yes. It's bad...very very bad.

Acquired: 291
Painted: 323
Lead Mountain: 589

Inspiration

You often come across discussions about how people got into this hobby and people often talk about being introduced to a particular game, being bought a few miniatures or encountering a particular form of media.

For me it was none of these things. My introduction to wargaming came long before I knew Games Workshop existed, before I'd turned the first pages of The Lord of the Rings, before I'd been to my first wargames show and spent my pocket money on 20 15mm fantasy figures from The Tin Soldier.

My introduction came from these...

For as long as I've been alive, there was a cabinet of miniatures in my parents' house full of miniatures painted by my dad.

I remember sitting quietly at the table watching him paint, captivated. I would stare longingly at the shelves of miniatures wanting to play with them, sneaking a couple out when I thought I could get away with it.

It was my dad who took me to my first shows, and introduced me to the labyrinthine complexity that were Wargames Research Group rules (what the f*** is a 'bound?) and who let me 'command' a unit of Prussian Landwehr in a massive refight of the Battle of Borodino at his club.

It's my dad and these miniatures that has been responsible for me spending a huge chunk of my life engrossed in this hobby.

My dad died in July.

Now, the very figures that started me off have been passed on to me and so I thought I'd show them off.

The Romans

The shelf I would stare at most as a child was full of Republican Romans. I think technically (according to WRG) the army consists of three legions and an allied legion, even though a consular army should have been two and two.

In an interesting detail of how understanding of different periods has changed, the principes (the second line) are armed with long spears, which is apparently only appropriate for Romes early wars against the Gauls and Samnites. Later on, certainly for the more famous Punic wars (for which this army was made), the principes were armed with pilum like the hastati at the front.

I've always loved the allied infantry drawn from elsewhere in Italy. There's actually an allied cavalry unit to complement the small Roman detachment, accurately reflecting the weakness Roman armies had in this period in terms of both the number and quality of cavalry they had at their disposal.

The Carthaginians

The Republican Romans were built to face off against a much larger Carthaginian force.

I think the Cathaginian army is large for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Hannibal is probably the historical commander my dad admired the most. Certainly, if you judged him by the books on his shelves, Hannibal's name was most common and enduring.

The second reason is probably the fact that as a mercenary army, the polyglot Carthaginian army would have been much more interesting to paint.

Perhaps my favourite unit of anything he ever painted are these citizen cavalry. Each shield had painted in an individual design that this photo doesn't do justice to.

The Numidian cavalry also show similar attention to detail. My dad admitted that the leapordskin and zebra-skin shield were probably somewhat fanciful, but he liked them.

No Carthaginian army is complete without elephants, and this army doesn't disappoint on that front.

In fact, there are so many that there's only really the battle of Zama that could possibly require so many.

My dad fell out of painting for many years until I started taking him to a club when he visited. This not only got him painting again, but also saw him begin to rebase models  such as these Gauls for use with Warhammer Ancient Battles.

In fact, he even painted me a full Carthaginian army for WAB, so by combining the two I now have a frankly massive force which can probably be divided into separate smaller armies for the Gauls, Numidians and Iberians.

The Scots

My dad's historical and painting passions shifted from the ancient to the English Civil War, specifically the conflict in Scotland and the campaigns of another of his heroes, James Graham, the 1st Marquess of Montrose.

As with Hannibal, dad had something of a soft spot for the tactically brilliant hopeless cause.

I'm in no way an expert on the English Civil War, and so I don't know what each regiment is, but I am aware that this large force consists of both royalist and convenanter units.

There's some work ahead to work out which is which.

There are a large amount of cavalry, of which Montrose never had many, but that flag right at the front is definitely the royal standard of Scotland, and so at least some of these are royalists.

There are several regiments of highlanders for launching recklessly at the enemy. A tactic that became increasingly less effective as firearms became more ubiquitous.

There are also lotos and lots of artillery pieces.

I think one of the reasons for this is that I bought an ECW army (including plenty of guns) on impulse at one point and then gave it to him when I realised I would never paint it.

To go with the artillery, there's also a fairly hefty baggage train, which point to another of his passions: making things look right.

My dad spent a lot of time painting those things that added nothing but aesthetics to the table. There's a whole load of buildings for different eras that I haven't unpacked yet (due to lack of table space).

As a taster of this, here's just the livestock he painted to go with his farms.

Along with the buildings, there are also several Saga warbands to unpack, complete with civilians and lots of scenery. 

Also, there's only a handful of unpainted models (not added to totals yet, there are decisions to be made about them), demonstrating that lead piles aren't mandatory, a lesson I should take to heart. 

However, in lieu of a lead pile, there is an entire lamdscape's worth of basing materials. Perhaps wargamers are all destined to be hoarders in some form.

This isn't meant to be a maudlin post. I'm going to miss my dad massively, but he has left me with so much. I'm not talking about the figures (although there are A LOT of them), but more the passion and interest in painting and playing wargames and a fascination with history.

I'm going to miss sharing that passion with him, even when he looked at me as if I was mad when I tried to explain what the hell 'Tzeentch' was or the plot of my latest 'He-Man vs Captain Scarlet' game of 7TV. 

I'm going to miss hearing him rant about people on the Saga forum giving Dark Age Scots tartan kilts and saltire flags.

I'm going to miss the only person in my family who actually understood this madness.

New Figs & Chill(con)

Last Saturday saw me heading to the Chillcon show in Sheffield...which was not an arduous trek as that’s where I live.

Unusually, I went to the show alone as my usual band of misfits and miscreants has provided a series of increasingly unlikely excuses: ‘bad back,’ ‘child’s birthday,’ and least plausible of all ‘social life.’

This meant that I was denied the usual show activity of trying to goad other people into spending money. Therefore I endeavoured to goad myself, which was actually tougher than it sounds as I’m in one of those funny phases where there’s not much I actually want that isn’t already waiting to be painted.

Spending money was also made trickier by the fact that some traders who I’d expected to be there (e.g. Crooked Dice) due to their attendance in previous years weren’t. Also others (e.g. Mantic) seemed to have a smaller presence than previously.

I suspect that this is due to the show being quite small and so close to Salute, which I imagine takes a lot of work to prepare for.

There were however a range of other  companies there, including War Banner, who seemed to be sponsoring the show and were demoing Gangs of Rome, and their new Greek game Mortal Gods. In fact the show miniature that I got with my pre-bought ticket is an Ancient Greek. (Top Tip: if you’re going to Chillcon, pre-buy your ticket as it’s cheaper, quicker to get in, and you get free stuff.)

One of the things I like about Chillcon is that there are some small traders that you don really see elsewhere, and the show also acknowledges the fact that role players (and even Larpers!) exist. There is also an awareness that gamers have children and sometimes bring them along.

If I have a gripe about this show, it’s the fact that some features (e.g. the sticker card which you complete with several purchases of £10 or more for free entry to a raffle), although fairly interesting, require you to stay for most of the day to take advantage. To be frank, unless you play every demo game, the show really isn’t big enough to spend several hours at, which means that the spending incentive doesn’t really work.

Having said that, I managed to amuse myself for just over an hour (3 laps) and goaded myself into buying a few things that I’ve pondered for a while:

Kings of War Historical was available at the clearance price of £10, which delighted me as I’d talked myself out of buying it online due to Mantic’s flat £5 shipping.

Campaign: Gigant is the sequel to the Operation Sealion book for Bolt Action, and I complemented this with some Crusader Fallschirmjager from Ainsty Castings.

I also picked up some sabot bases from Warbases for my Sharp Practice force.

Sadly, the free miniature is destined for eBay as I already have a full hoplite army, however, I will add it to some plastics I’m intending to sell.

I also got this chap...

I’ve been hoping to pick one of these up for a while. It’s a pre-undercoated plastic miniature from Wizkids. The detail and casting is excellent, although as you might expect, the gap for that tail will take some filling. It’s also an absolute bargain price given the size of the miniature - drastically cheaper than the same thing would be in resin or metal.

It’s destined for my pulp games, and also a scenario from my supers campaign that I need to get back to.

These purchases, although restrained in the miniatures department, have left the tallies in an even more sorry state. I’m starting to reach the point where I can’t blame Prodos Games for my plight anymore:

Acquired: 97

Painted: 38

All in all it was a good morning out, but I’d hoped that Chillcon would have grown a little in its first three years. I hope it can stay afloat as I like having a local show, and I like shows that are brave enough to try to do things a little differently.

Legacy of the Gods - Episode 1 (7th Voyage AAR)

With no warning at all I've found myself buying 7th Voyage from Crooked Dice and beginning a solo campaign charting the heroic journey of the young Altheus (nerd points available for getting the reference) as he grapples with his heroic legacy and battles nefarious villains and stop motion monsters along the way.

The idea came from a combination of some excellent advice I read online about solo wargaming, a hankering to try out Crooked Dice's rules, a Greek army sitting unused since the demise of WAB and childhood memories of Ray Harryhausen's fantastic creations.

So here goes...

Legacy of the Gods - Episode 1: His Father's Son

The episode opens with a young warrior (Altheus) knelt before a statue of Ares, the God of War, in a ruined temple. After a moment, Altheus stands and moves what remains of the doorway. He pauses, and turns to look at the statue again before he speaks.

"Still you give me no word, no sign grandfather."

He turns to go, but the camera lingers on the impassive face of the statue.

Cut away to a hill overlooking the ruined temple. A motley assortment of Thracian bandits look down towards Altheus leaving the temple.

"Take him," sneers the leader.

The scenario I chose for my first game was a small skirmish between Altheus, a Favoured Champion who'd traded the Insprational special effect for Shield, and a group of five Mercenary extras accompanied by a single Psiloi wielding a sling. Despite my attempt at random deployment for the villains using scatter dice, the villains were clumped together at the edge of the table.

The villains gained initiative and immediately rushed forwards. I decided that in the campaign, all villains would have a 'script' which would govern their movements. The Thracian Mercenaries would always move directly towards the nearest enemy, whilst the Psiloi would do the same, unless the opportunity for a clear shot could be gained.

The Thracians continued to gain the initiative round after round, and Altheus soon found himself under fire and beset by assailants on all sides. Despite his ability to Parry and his Shield, I quickly burned through the event cards (none which were directly useful as anything other than a modifier) just trying to keep Altheus in the fight.

Amidst the flurry of attacks, Altheus began to show his prowess, and despite continuing to lose the initiative, two of the Bandits fell to his blade. However, numbers told and with the event cards expended, Altheus was eventually beaten into unconsciousness and captured.

As Altheus' vision blurs, fade to memories of his younger life in Thebes: playing as a child; being stronger and faster than the other children; learning the arts of war and being told of his heritage.

Altheus' mother tells him than his grandfather was one of the Spartoi, the 'Sown Men' of Thebes and sons of Ares, God of War. Altheus resolves to venture to Thrace, Ares' birthplace, to search for his destiny and prove himself to his 'grandfather'.

Fade back to present, Altheus is chained to a wall and beaten by two Thracians. As his rage builds, we something burning behind his eyes and suddenly the tables are turned and the chains fall loose. Altheus uses the chain to quickly disable his tormentors. He grabs his sword, shield and helm and slips away.

Suddenly, a horn sounds and the hunt is on.

The next part of the story would be the Escape scenario. Altheus would be attempting to flee the table, whilst 5 Mercenaries and 4 Psiloi (1 sling, 3 javelins) would try to stop him.

Altheus luck immediately changed from the first scenario. Not only did he automatically have initiative in the first turn, but the event cards he was dealt were infinitely more useful for the scenario.

The random deployment of the Thracians also helped as a flank was left weakly guarded and Altheus headed straight for it. Whilst the Thracians rushed to stop him.

Altheus was immediately confronted by the Thracian that had blindsided him earlier. However, a skillful parry and winning an initiative roll for the first time helped him to dispatch his opponent with little fuss. Something had changed in young Altheus.

Nevertheless, the Thracians continued to swarm towards our hero.

Judicious use of the Out of Step and Run For It! Event cards allowed Altheus to keep one step ahead and take down several Thracians one at a time rather than get swamped again.

Surveying the damage he had wrought, Altheus notes the advancing enemy and decides that having proved his worth, it was time to leave.

As Altheus disappears over the hill, the bandit leader emerges. With lightning speed he slices the throats of two of his subordinates.

"Failure will not be tolerated. It looks like I must finish this myself. Find him!"

Cut to the ruined temple of Ares, which Altheus has found his way to again. The statue glows and animates as the God of War manifests to speak with Altheus.

"You seek your destiny? It is hidden from me, but you could be a great hero, lay your enemies low and stand alongside Theseus and Heracles. No more running, they come for you. Stand tall and meet your fate like a warrior."

The statue returns to stone and Altheus draws his sword, and walks out to meet his fate.

I decided to introduce a co-star for the finale, and so the bandit leader was a standard Deadly Assassin, accompanied by a Mercenary and a Psiloi on a mission to slay Altheus. Despite bringing in a more dangerous opponent, fate conspired to make this finale much less dramatic than expected.

Having located their quarry, the villains seized the initiative and moved purposefully towards the ruined temple.

Inspired by the words of Ares, Altheus rushed out to attack. In a blur of iron and bronze, our hero dispatched a surprised Psiloi and leapt towards the bandit leader. A furious exchange of blows ensued but the bandit failed to leap aside in time and was caught on Altheus blade. The remaining Thracian fails his shaken test and runs for the hills.

"Who are you?" splutters the dying bandit.

A blood-spattered Altheus stands, and walks back towards the temple. Standing before the statue he says quietly, "I am Altheus, favoured of Ares."

So, that's it. My first real go at narrative solo gaming, and I have to say that it was a lot of fun.

7th Voyage is a really simple and effective set of rules which helped a lot, as I didn't spend my time constantly flicking through the rule book. What's more the simplicity means that this will be an easy game to teach and so will be very good for encouraging others to play what is essentially a niche period.

My solo play house rules worked quite well. The balance is in Altheus favour, but that's not a problem as it kind of gives him plot armour. Also, during the first game, a run of poor roles showed that the bad guys do stand a chance.

I'm adding up his VPs for character and cast development, currently he's got 9 rating points to either spend or save. I've already decided that extras can be added in scenarios without cost, but co-stars need saving for.

I'm already planning a series of episodes where Ares tests Altheus, and my WFB collection is likely to be raided for stop motion monsters.