Another Ancient German warbands

And still they came..........

Warband number four......slowly, slowly will get there eventually.  Mainly foundry figures based for Simon Millers "To the Strongest" rules.

Ancient German warbands

Spring is here, so unfortunately less painting and more enjoying cold beer and great food in the sunshine. 

Below are two units of ancient German fanatics. Figures are predominately Black Tree Miniatures with a few Foundry ones thrown in. I've used the majority of my naked and semi-naked figures for these units to give them more of a wild look.

The banners are actually orc banners from puppetswar.eu. I thought they looked the part being nice and furry like the bits of the clothing the warriors are wearing. 

I've also given most of the figures wicker shields to make them semi-uniform and stand apart from the other German warbands. I have one other warband finished, so only 9 to go!!! So much for the winter project......mmmmm............maybe a spring project instead.

On & Off the paint table

Finally got my arse back into gear and started to prepare the next lot of ancient Germans that I NEED to paint. These figures are all 'Black Tree Miniatures' I purchased a year or so ago.

After watching http://caliban-somewhen.blogspot.com.au/  roll out his Germans and http://wabcorner.blogspot.com.au/ punch out his 'War of the Roses" figures I thought I had better get moving. 

Although I have been getting side-tracked lately, (don't we all), and decided to put a few green skins to the brush.

 I was only going to do ten but a few more have crept onto the desk.

 Friday night was a fantastic 'War of the Roses' game using Andrew's figures. Again we moved the figures around utilising  Simon Miller's great rule set - "To the Strongest"

160pts armies and the game took about 3hrs with 2 players aside - although we did stop for a food break.

I did intend to take a few more photos, but got wrapped up in the game.

Thanks once again Andrew for the use of the miniatures, hope you had a good time .
Cheers.......................now how many ancient Germans do I have!!!!!!

Burgundians

Maybe the next "to the Strongest" game will involve these lads shown below. They belong to a friend of mine, Andrew (Kiwi). He has done a fantastic job these figures and has plenty more in storage.

Photographs taken with my phone unfortunately, so these pictures don't do his painting justice. 

 A small portion of his heavy cavalry.

Late Roman V's Pict

Apologies once again  in advance re the quality of the photos as I used my phone. 
160pts each, with is pretty much all the Picts listed in the army list.  Only thing I was unsure off was the option of "extra archers" to the Pictish spearmen, Maybe someone can let me know what this is about, I had a gander on the forum but couldn't find anything.
Anyway the Picts were very aggressive and march moved across the board. We utilised the new group move which assisted the Pictish in maintaining a steady battle line.
The first photo was a couple of turns into the game. 

 Pictish cavalry assaulting the Roman light cav on the Roman right flank.  Roman

cataphracts, lance lurking behind the woods.

 Pictish deep spear units advance to contact with the veteran auxiliaries.

 Pictish center command yet to reach the Roman legionaries, who had taken up position on the hill. Roman cavalry making a push against the numerous Pictish light horse on the far left Roman flank.

A couple of overhead views of the same turn.

Pict light cavalry moved through the woods to catch the Roman cataphracts in a flank assault (and manage to disorder them),  after the Romans had turned to face the Pictish cavalry who were in the process of forcing the Roman light cavalry off the board.
Both units of Roman light cav evaded off the board and tried in vain to return over the next following turns but kept failing their orders.

As seen from the Roman right flank, 6 of the 7 Pictish spear unit are now in combat with the Romans.

 

Roman cav on their left flank forcing the Pictish light cav back. The Picts didn't always make the evade successfully each time but they kept making their save rolls much to the frustration of the Roman cavalry commander.

The Pictish spearmen were slowly becoming disordered along the line with the Pictish warlord's unit taking two disorders.
Then a breakthrough for the Picts, a veteran auxiliary unit is destroyed, the adjacent Roman units pasted their rout tests. (new rules added since we last gamed)   

But that was the least of the Roman worries, the cataphracts perished under a hail of javelin fire from the Pictish cav. Now the whole Roman right flank was exposed,

The Picts sensed victory as the spear unit turned to flank another auxiliary unit.

Meanwhile on the Roman left flank the Roman cav had managed to destroy their first unit of enemy light cav on the last line.

The Romans were now getting very worried but were now in position to conduct a flank attack of their own. But time was running out.

Disaster for the Romans, the Pictish cavalry commander slips behind the Roman lines and captures an undefended baggage and another auxiliary unit is destroyed. Only one victory point until Pictish victory.

But wait, the destroyed Roman units caused a rout test. The test is conducted and an adjacent legionary unit, who is already disordered, FAIL their two attempts to pass the rout test causing it to break and flee.
Major Pict victory, looks like the Romans will be leaving Britain a wee bit earlier.  The Roman gods can be very fickle as the Romans only managed to destroy one unit of enemy light cav after it had kept the Roman cav busy all game.
Thank you gentlemen for the game. Two played Roman, one new player the Picts, (I think he now likes these rules), one observer (to nervous to join in) and I ran it. Hope I got the new rules right.
Game mat (20cm squares) is from Simon MILLER who also created these great rules.
Happy gaming.

Republican V's Pyrrhic

Apologies in advance re the quality of the photos. Lads can over for a game of "To the Strongest" last night. Usually foes faced off - Polybian Roman versus Pyrrhic.
Two aside and myself running the rules. This time we used the updated Roman list using the Roman line relief rules and terrain placement from the rule book.

 After first turn where the armies conducted march moves towards each other. A couple of units left behind. Stratagems were used resulting in one Pyrrhic command backing up forcing the commander off the table, (he returned shorty after) and a unit of Pyrrhic slingers appearing behind the Roman lines.

 Escorted elephant advances towards the Roman lines ready to make amends for past failures.

 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention "Happy St Patrick's Day". So a couple of quick Guinness's before the game. And a few more throughout. actually quite a few, well ok, a lot really.

 Yes.......the slingers were throwing STONES at the opposition. They didnt manage to achieve anything of note during the game although they were eyeing of the Roman baggage/camp.

 The armies clashed with the Romans making headway on the far flank with their cavalry.

 The Romans managed to get the first blows in disordering a few of the pike units. It was a bit of a pushing match in the centre for both sides. The new Roman line relief rules gave the smaller Roman units a bit of staying power, although in the centre a unit of legionaries was destroyed by missile fire.

 I think we were doing the Roman line relief rules correctly.----- ie the line exchange only occurs in the Romans activation (turn). So in this case with the incoming missile fire the Romans didn't have time to exchange lines. I'll have to check this with Simon Miller (author of the rules) to make sure we are doing this ok.

 Even with the one loss the Romans smashed the far flank and started to move behind the Pyrrhic army, victory was in sight. Then disaster struck................the Pyrrhic elephant and cavalry both destroyed the Romans units facing them on the closest flank and the game was up for grabs.

 But one roman general had had enough and quickly made a grab for the undefended baggage thus putting an end to the upperty Epirot's. The Pyrrhic commander was not amused and commended on the ungentlemanly attack on the camp.

 The final placements of units upon finishing the game. Once again Rome is master of the field.

Great game and great rules that make gaming fun and easy to achieve results..........even with a few drinks throughout.  Happy St Pat's Day.