Thud and Blunder

I took a War of the Roses and Tudor English army to Warfare this year in the 25mm post-500 AD period, and came a very pleasing 3rd. The army was mainly chosen because of the excellent Perry Miniatures plastic range for the period, and because its a simple and tough army that suits 25mm on a 6×4 board very well. The choice of generals was based on the army of Richard III at Bosworth, and hopefully everyone is in their correct livery and with correct standards and banners.

The Order of Battle was:

Richard III’s Command:

1 x Reg Kn(S) C-in-C, 2 x Reg Kn(S), 5 x Reg Bw(S), 1 x reg Art(I) = 16 ME

John Howard, Duke of Norfolk’s Command:

1 x Reg Kn(O) SG, 6 x Reg Bd(S), 6 x Reg Bw(S) = 24 ME

Henry Percy, Earl of Northhumberland’s Command:

1 x Reg Kn(O) AG, 3 x Reg Bd(S), 4 x Reg Bw(S) = 16 ME

William Stanley, King of Mann’s Command:

1 x Reg Kn(O) Inert AG, 3 x Reg Bd(S), 4 x Reg Bw(S) = 16 ME

Baggage Command:

8 x Irr Bge(I) Army Baggage

Pictures to follow.

Giving Dr P a practice game for Britcon next week, and he is looking to fight ‘an army with elephants or warband’. Thought about Malay, but think I might try out Later Muslim Indian – the very early Sultanate of Delhi version between 1206 and 1220 before the ex-Ghurids get converted to Jagirs. I don’t have the right elephant figures, but my turks should do for most of the rest of the army.

1 x Reg Cv(S) C-in-C, 3 x Reg Cv(S), 5 x Irr El(S), 3 x Irr Ps(S), 1 x Irr Hd(O)

1 x Reg Cv(S) SG, 5 x Reg Cv(S), 2 x Irr LH(O)

1 x Reg Cv(S) SG, 1 x Reg Cv(S), 16 x Irr LH(S)

6 x Irr Bge(I)

So 3 Cv(S) generals, 9 Reg Cv(S) listed as Mumluks, but I think it means Ghilmen [list is 4-12], 5 Irr El(S) [list is 3-6], 16 x Irr LH(S) Turks [list is 8-24].

The 1 x Hd(O) is irritatingly compulsory otherwise I would go for an all mounted army. The Ps(S) are there to protect the elephants from other Ps.

So the elephants in the centre are the strike force. The Ghilmen command is to delay a flank. The large Turkish command is to envelop the other flank. Despite the elephants, who will get the highest PIP, it should be a fairly manoeuvrable army so should be able to chose its point of attack, unlike most Indian armies.

Figure-wise, I have a load of Turkish/Mongol LH. 6 bases are painted and based, another 5 painted and not based, and 16 more unpainted and unbased, so this will encourage me to paint some of them. My Essex turkish Cv(S) are also quite serviceable, if a little static. So actually all I really need are some armoured elephants with howdahs. Essex do some, but not with howdahs. Need to have a look around. Timurid ones would also be suitable I think.

Update: and while looking for suitable armoured elephants (and finding very few) I have found who made the turkish LH. They are Museum miniatures, which I would have never though – having been unimpressed by their Byzantine range. These are really nice though with lots of variety and very dynamic. I might splash out on some of their lancers when I have finished painting the LH.

The battle for next year’s Battle Day (13th April 2013) has been announced as Chalons (451AD) – the classic Huns vs Romans battle if it wasn’t that the Hunnic army was probably mainly Ostrogothic and the Roman army we certainly mainly Visigothic.

And probably is the big word here. We know that there were lots of Goths involved. And that there was a ridge that was key to the battle. We don’t know where the ridge was, relative to the Goths, or indeed where the Goths were, relative to the ridge. We do know that the battle started late in the day and went on into the night and that there was a fair bit of bed swapping going on – a Visigothic prince tried to kip down in the Hunnic camp but was kicked out, and Aetius spent the night in the Visigothic camp (he wasn’t kicked out).

The good thing is that I have just started on a Late Imperial Roman army; the bad thing is that there were very few Romans in the battle, although some of the local contingents sound like they might have been former garrisons that have become semi-independent principalities, so there might be a bunch of Bd(I) and Ax(O) pseudocomitatenses.

All this means that I need to paint more Gothic cavalry and infantry, which is good because I wanted to do that anyway. So far I think that I will try and use a mixture of Khurasan, Legio Heroica and Old Glory for the cavalry and Legio Heroica (when they come out), Buaeda and Old Glory for the infantry. The Romans are all Legio Heroica who are nicely sculpted, if rather static and chunky. But there is a lot of head variation and they have open hands, which I like. For regulars they look formed and drilled without being uniform.

Continue reading “SoA Battle Day 2013 – Chalons”

The army I took was Marian Roman and the list was (queue somebody spotting its illegal or something like that):

Command 1:
Lucius Licinius Lucullus as a Brilliant Reg Cv(O) C-in-C, 8 Reg Bd(S), 2 Irr Ax(S), 3 Irr Ps(S), 1 Reg Ps(O), 1 Irr El(I) = 29 ME

Command 2:
Appius Claudius Pulcher as a Reg Cv(O) SG, 6 Reg Bd(S), 4 Irr Ax(S) = 24 ME

Command 3:
Gaius Sornatius Barber as a Reg Cv(O) SG, 6 Reg Ax(S), 2 Reg Ps(S), 2 Reg Ps(O) = 16 ME

Baggage Command:
6 Reg Bge(O), 10 TF = 12 ME

For a grand total of 81 ME. Although I was probably the smallest army there at only 52 elements including the baggage, I think I had more ME than most of my opponents because of the Bd(S). OTOH, that means that they can be lost pretty quickly.

The army is a refinement of the one I took to Warfare last year. The main changes were to make the commands more asymmetric to allow one to have the low PIPs (which involved concentrating the Bd(S), to drop the Cv(O) (that just got themselves into trouble), to add the El(I) to try and counter the nasty wedged Kn(F) and to have space to put some real elements to defend the camp.

The strategy was that we would normally try and deploy on just one side of the table and turn a flank, hoping that we could destroy that before the other flank of the enemy could wheel across and engage. Against a mobile steppe enemy we would just hunker down and rely on the toughness of the Bd(S) and Ax(S) rather than advance and risk the flanks as they just evaded away. Lucullus’ command would normally go in the centre as the main fighting command, and get the middle die. One flank command would then be the hinge and would deploy with its auxilia in the camp, giving them a factor of 6 behind the TF and making them very difficult to winkle out. The other flank would then get the high die and push forward as far and fast as possible, using the Auxilia to deploy in the flank zone and push through any terrain on the side of the table. If I defended then a BUA could help push the hinge point as far forward as possible.
Continue reading “Battle Reports from RollCall”

Impressive run out for the Marians at the weekend – two wins and two winning draws. I think I have finally cracked the right about of berserk aggression to cope with an army that is so tough yet so small. You need to be very cavalier about casualties on the hinge command as well. Full battle reports to follow (need to copy them from the Yahoo group).

Taking the Marians to competition again. Slight revamp since Warfare in the light of the games that I played there. Whether it will be enough to cope with the wall of wedged Kn(F) that looks to be there I don’t know. Anyway last preparations in progress. Redoing the earth on the banks of the ramparts for the camp – need to paint them tonight and ink some light infantry.

Feeling pretty rotten today with a stomach bug, but enough energy this afternoon to do the second hill for the Plataia battlefield. This is one of the low 4 foot long ridges  for the centre of the battlefield. Also got the wirecutter running, but actually not as useful as I had thought it would be. Not a very long wire and a tendency to stretch and snap. Tried making my own longer one with only partial success.
Still, that means I have done two of the five hills, which is pretty good going.

The battle has been chosen and its Plataea. Woo-hoo. A fairly simple battle, and two nice armies that I would love to have the figures for (but where I think we can borrow plenty so there is no pressure).

The Greeks from Xyston are very nice, even if they are technically a bit late for Plataea, but who makes good Persian Sparabara in 15mm? Answers on a postcard please…