Warlord Games ECW Pike & Shotte Reinforcements

Thanks to a great deal from a buddy who had some old boxes of foot as well as cavalry, some additions to an ECW Pike & Shotte project are being worked on. So far there are enough foot for two regiments with pike and shotte, and several shotte units as well. I may add some pikemen to the shotte units, or leave them as separate commanded shotte. Wanting to keep this as a quick and fairly simple project, I started with basecoats of spray paint I already had - except for a new can of red.

The flesh, hair, buff coats, armor, leather straps and pouches/bags have been painted over the base colors. I plan to paint some of the pants various other colors for variety.

I hope to start the new year with some Pike & Shotte games. Happy Holidays!

Christmas Rampant! - Last Game of 2021 (for me anyway)

A fair number of us (12 or 13 players) showed up at our buddy Bruce's place (he's the owner/proprietor of Company B) for a multi-player Dragon Rampant game. The last time we did this was in 2019, just a couple of months before the "Big Change." It was great seeing everyone again; most of whom had played in the 2019 game. Although I've been gaming routinely since Enfilade back in September, this was the largest gathering of players for me since then. Luckily Bruce's gaming room is quite big, and although we were somewhat crammed around the gaming table, it still felt roomy. We also were well-nourished with BBQ pork sandwiches which one of the players kindly provided.

The table layout at the start of the game. I used some of my Sisters of Battle figures for my warband. The Junith Eruita canoness in her pulpit being an Elite Rider with mounted missiles and a squad of Battle Sisters as Scouts. I hid behind a tall wall for most of the game taking shots as the enemy (Snowmen and Nutcracker) would expose themselves. My dice rolling was surprisingly good for most of the game. I always managed to activate my units and caused enough hits to help destroy an entire enemy warband and also a dragon (Greater War Beast/leader) from another warband. They survived until the very end of the game - I did a suicide attack with my Battle Sisters (already at half-strength) against unit of heavy foot with predictable results to finish the game and get more refreshments.

Some images of the game - I think we played for about 8 or so turns. With such a long table, with 6 warbands per side, it was surprising each side correctly stayed together for each turn.

My "Sisters" warband taking out enemy with missile weapons from behind cover.

The opposite side of the table where I was playing. That's Bruce's warband made up of Russian (or Finnish?) ski troops.

Missile tossing hooligans.

Evil penguins.

War rabbits mounted on rams.

Might've been due to slipping on their banana peels, but this enemy warband failed to activate for most of the game.

Elves with bows, along with my Sisters providing firing cover on our right flank.

A working Christmas train.

All in all, a nice way to end the 2021 gaming year, although I plan to do one more blog post for 2021 as a wrap up for the year. Until next time have a safe and great holiday season.

Hail Caesar Successor Battle - Antigonid vs. Pyrrhic

Had another great Hail Caesar game today pitting my Pyrrhic army against my buddy's Antigonid army. It was a close run with the Pyrrhic army losing one pike phalanx unit, an elephant and their Companion cavalry, as well as their only two bow units. The Antigonids lost one of their own elephants, two Thracian foot units, a Cretan bow unit and a unit of slingers.

The start of the battle - Pyrrhic forces on the left, Antigonids on the right.

Close-up of the Antigonid battle line. Three towered elephants, one unit of heavy cavalry with lances (xyston), three pike phalanx units, two Thracian foot units with javelins and two-hand weapons, two units each of Cretan archers and slingers (on Rhodian).

The Pyrrhic army. A unit of hypaspist elite medium infantry, a unit of medium cavalry Companion cavalry with lances (xyston), two towered elephants, three units of pike phalanx, two units of mercenary Hoplite phalanxes with long spears, two light cavalry units and two units of archers.

A unit of Antigonid slingers move into the village on their right flank.

The Antigonid right; Thracian foot move up to support Cretan archers.

Pyrrhic light cavalry charge into Antigonid slingers. The slingers able to cause a few casualties prior to being destroyed.

Meanwhile, in the center of the battlefield, Antigonid forces successfully move up towards the Pyrrhic center. The Pyrrhic army failed a few activations early in the game.

Pyrrhic archers in combat with a unit of Antigonid Thracians foot wielding rhomphaias. The archers having no saves were destroyed.

Antigonid scythed chariot charges into a Pyrrhic pike phalanx.

Pyrrhic light cavalry charge into Cretan archer. With the help of another light cavalry unit in support the archers were destroyed - even after inflicting a few casualties from closing fire.

Antigonid pike phalanx units and elephants charge into the Pyrrhic center.

A Pyrrhic phalanx unit attacked to their front by Antigonid pikes and also to their left flank by a unit of Thracians with rhomphaias.

A unit of Greek mercenary hoplites waiting on their turn to charge into the rear of the Thracians. A free move as they are in the 12" proximity rule. Otherwise, the battle rages on in the center between phalanxes and elephants.

The "brave" Antigonid heavy cavalry charge into a small unit of Pyrrhic archers. The archers were destroyed shortly thereafter.

Pyrrhic Companion cavalry counter-charge into the Antigonid heavy cavalry after destroying the archers and making a sweeping advance. For the record, Hail Caesar doesn't have a special rule for cavalry wedge formations. We may come up with some kind of house rule for them later.

The Pyrrhic Companions lost their fight against the Antigonids and broke off the table.

Center of the battle field. The Thracians were soon destroyed by the combined attacks from the two mercenary hoplite units. We called the game soon after this as it would've continued as a slug match between the surviving forces.

All in all, another great Hail Caesar game where we got more familiar with some of the special rules - like elephants and phalanxes. My buddy promised to paint the rest of his command figures - since they might be mistaken for Cleitus. Tomorrow is a holiday Dragon Rampant game which will be the last game of the year for me. Until next time, wishing you all a healthy and great holiday season!

Army of Pyrrhus - Returning to Greece and Macedonia After An Italian Misadventure

Mustering the troops for another Hail Caesar game next week - this time it will be a Successor vs. Successor game against my buddy's troops. Mine are mostly Victrix that were painted up during the lockdown and have yet to see battle. 

The Aventine elephants, Foundry and 1st Corps hypaspists (unit directly behind the wedge), Relic Seleucid (mounted fig on the wedge's right) and Relic Pyrrhus (mounted fig on the wedge's left) are remnants of a Seleucid army which was sold off many years ago, in a momentary lapse of judgement. The two small warbands of Samnites on each side of the hypaspists and archers were painted a few years ago, but also have never seen any action yet.

I'm not sure what kind of elephants Pyrrhus had with him in Italy and upon his return to Greece, but these Aventine ones are the larger Indian types, I think. They probably wouldn't have been as well armored as latter Seleucid ones like these. He did have elephants with towers though, as evidenced from period artwork. Gallic mercenaries could also be added to this army, as Pyrrhus had these too, but for next week's game they'll be left out - or maybe swapped the Samnites out for them.

There are 15 units in total: 3 units of heavy infantry pike phalanxes; 2 units of mercenary hoplites heavy infantry long spear phalanxes; 2 units of Samnite medium infantry; 1 unit of hypaspists Drilled, Stubborn and Elite 4+ medium infantry; 2 small units of light infantry archers; 2 units of light cavalry w/javelins; 1 unit of Companion Elite 4+ medium cavalry w/kontos; and 2 elephants - one crewed with bow. Besides mustering the troops for the game and taking some pics of them, I wanted to post another blog update to make sure the image upload was still working properly. It is working fine again - as these images uploaded without issues.

The next post should be the AAR of the Hail Caesar Successor game on Friday. The day after this game will be a Dragon Rampant Christmas collective game - probably around 10 or so players. I plan on bringing my recently painted Sisters of Battle Junith Eruita flying pulpit. It'll be a single-model unit Elite Rider with all the bells and whistles upping her to 12 points - the max per warband for the game. Until then, thanks for stopping by and checking things out. Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday season - and beyond!

Hail Caesar Gaming - EIR vs. Celt (Britons) - My Blogger Is Working Again!

Phew! What a relief, it seems my issue with uploading images has resolved itself. Anyway, without further drama, here's a report of the Hail Caesar game yesterday.

Thanks to a couple of my buddies, got in a long-awaited EIR vs. Celts Hail Caesar game. In fact, this is first Hail Caesar game I've played (actually umpired) in many years. It was a great game going for 9 full turns, and played with figures never gamed before - painted during the lockdown period. Here's a staged shot of the layout prior to the start of the actual game. Note the roundhouses and Druid objective marker, both recently added, on the far right of the picture.

As those of you who play both Hail Caesar and Black Powder, you know they are very similar in overall mechanics, but there are some interesting differences. For one, support units in hand to hand have their own attack dice in Hail Caesar. In Black Powder, support units values are added during the combat resolution portion. Shooting is also not as important as in Black Powder, and the emphasis is on combat. Anyway, on to the images of the actual game - as usual, I failed to capture all of the action during the heat of battle.

Initial moves by the three Roman divisions. The two divisions on either flank consist of two units of legionaries, one unit of auxiliaries, two small units of archers and a unit of medium cavalry. The center division, led by the army general, consists of one unit of Praetorian legionaries and two units of Praetorian medium cavalry.

Initial moves of the Celts. The army consists of two divisions of infantry and two divisions of horse. The infantry divisions each have three warbands (one of which is made up of nobles clad in mail cuirasses - better saves) and two units of slingers. The horse divisions each have two units of British chariots and a unit of medium cavalry.

Celt slingers charging Roman Auxiliary archers - the archers causing casualties from closing fire - the unarmored slingers having no saves. The slingers had already caused a casualty to the archers in an earlier round of shooting

Roman left at the bottom of the picture; Celtic horses in the background roaming the battlefield for opportunities.

Legionaries and Auxiliaries charging into a warband of nobles - a unit of Auxiliary archers having broken after losing combat with the Celt slingers.

Celt warbands advancing on the Roman battle line, while Celt cavalry and chariots maneuver on the flanks.

The Roman center with the army general joining a unit of Praetorian foot - supported by a unit of Praetorian cavalry to their rear, about to charge into small unit of unarmored slingers. This should have been a cake walk for the Romans. However, due to accurate and deadly closing fire from the slingers - one of the hits being a 6, the Romans had to take a Break Test. This was failed with a score of 2, and the with the casualty, they had to break!

The Roman battle line showing the loss of the Praetorian foot in the center.

A Celt warband being attacked by Roman cavalry to their front, and a unit of legionaries to their right flank. The division commanders of both sides joining in the fight. In the distance, Praetorian cavalry charge into another Celt warband - avenging the loss of their infantry brethren.

The Roman left victorious after destroying the Celt warband.

Praetorian cavalry counter charging Celt horse - the latter supported by two units of chariots, and their division commander (with war hound) joining the fight.

Another division of Celt horse looking to join in the action - somewhere.

Two units of Celt chariots - one attacking a unit of legionaries and the other a unit of auxiliaries. Celt horse supporting the unit fighting the auxiliaries.

Celt chariots supported by cavalry vs. Roman infantry.

At the end of turn 9, the Celt forces had lost enough of their army to declare it a Roman victory - a very close victory at that. Also, one of the minor victory conditions wasn't achieved by the Romans. This was for them to recapture their lost eagle and standards held by the Druid priest within their village on the far end of the table. The Romans actually never made it past the mid-way point of the table, but they had won the game by attrition. 

All in all a very satisfying game. It was great to re-familiarize myself with the rules after so many years. One of my buddies (who played the Romans) and I enjoyed it so much that we're playing a Macedonian/Successor game next week. Looking forward to this game and posting another report as well. Until next time, thank you all so much for visiting the blog and leaving such nice comments. I realized how much this blog is a part of my life after not being able to update it properly (with images) for less than 24 hours! Happy Holidays!

Can't Upload Images (JPG)?

I wanted to post an update about a Hail Caesar game played today, but can't seem to upload the jpeg images. I even tried using my Galaxy 10 phone, but got some kind of error - no image showing up for the upload. Wonder if this is a temporary issues and hopefully will resolved soon. 

I'm posting this just to see if it's just me or if others may also be experiencing this. Below is the "error" image when trying to upload a jpeg.

UPDATE: Upload working again! -