Though I haven't for a while I do actually play a wargame occasionally, painting and collecting units/figures is my thing but it is still nice to sometimes give the lads a runout as it were!
My Caesarian Roman chaps have not been on the table for a while so I dusted them off and set to with a civil war Caesar Vs Pompey bash on the hex table using the brilliant To the Strongest rules which are recommended to be played on a table marked out with squares but can I assure you be played very easily using hexes.
The two forces were set out, both balanced points wise, Pompay's force (yellow and white shields) having more skirmish troops plus three Heffalump's but with the yellow shield half legion being classed as raw (+7 save as a pose to +6 for the other legionaries). While Caesars force were standard legionary's plus three manuballista which I allowed to move as per infantry.
The field of battle, Pompay's force to the top of the picture, Ceasar's to the bottom. Note the white die behind units, missile troops have a number of shots allocated depending on their weapon, legionaries have one hit pip denoting the use of the pilum. Also the coins in the two camps show the moral of the armies, you lose an appropriate number of coins depending on the unit lost, run out of coins and your army breaks.
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| Three elephant units, each one classed as large but prone to 'stampede' |
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| Numidian cavalry |
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| Pompay's raw legionaries |
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| Pompay's right wing cavalry and skirmishers |
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| Caesarian half legion and manuballista |
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| Caesar's main legionary force with his cavalry reserve in the background. |
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| White shield legionaries showing pilum die. |
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| Left wing Pompeian cavalry close on the Gauls. |
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| Pompay's right wing cavalry led by the man himself swing in a large arc around the Caesarian left flank. |
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| Left wing Caesarian legionaries facing the advancing skirmishers. |
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| Pompeian centre advances. |
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| First casualties, the red die indicates a disordered unit. |
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| The elephants get closer. |
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| Caesar is forced to take his Gallic cavalry reserve to the left to counter the enemy cavalry. |
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| Gallic javelin wound the Pompeian general. |
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| Pressing the attack on the left. |
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| Crunch time, two initial attacks by the elephants but if they suffer a casualty they test for rampage direction inflicting casualties on the way then dispersing. |
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| The manuballista prove disappointingly ineffective. |
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| Pompeian cavalry are slowly getting the upper hand. |
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| After damaging the cohort to it's front the elephant rampages through the same unit but fails to destroy it and is removed from play. |
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| Though the 'red' cohort sits on the flank of the advancing raw yellow Pompeian unit getting two free strikes it still somehow survives and fresh cohorts can be seen advancing to exploit the gap! |
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| Legionaries advance into the woods, maybe not a great idea against skirmish troops. |
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| Damage has been done to the Caesarian legionaries on the hill, can the Pompeian forces take advantage? |
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| The Gallic cavalry is suffering, two units disordered, one lost and their wing general killed. |
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| The gap is widening, raw legions or not they are fighting well. |
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| This skirmish unit has manoeuvred it's way round the red legions flank and will kill their general next turn. |
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| General lost, unit damaged and others having to take a moral check. |
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| This Pompeian cohort has fought its way into the centre of Caesars line destroying on 'blue 'unit. |
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| Caesars right flank is in danger of being turned. |
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| The units behind (top left of the photo) are Caesarian casualties, it's not looking good for them. |
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| The Caesarian centre is under pressure but holding. It's everywhere else that is in trouble. |
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| The red legion disintegrates, the end is neigh. |
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| Skirmishers keep the pressure on. |
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The missiles pore in.
At this point the Caesarian forces loose a unit and run out of coins thereby prompting the disintegration of their army. An excellent battle and credit to the yellow raw half legion crushed their opponents and exploited their success.
Nice to get these figures out again, hope you enjoyed the AAR.
Dave. |
