Punic Wars with Midgard Heroic Battles

 Keeping on with our attempts to try out as many of our existing ancient armies with Midgard, Colin brough over his Punic Wars Carthaginian and Roman 10mm armies last week.

We roll a die for the armies and I ended up with the Romans. This era army is quite limited in troop types, with only a handful of cavalry. Reading the list it seemed perfectly suited to fight historically and set up three ranks deep. Apart from the fact that the Carthaginians would have then easily outflanked me and attacked from both sides (and probably the rear!). My other change would be how to counter the Carthaginian elephants, a unit which had proven decisive in all our Sassanid/Roman games.

The Roman army advancing in turn one.

Whilst the Carthaginians wait6 in a nice straight line!

With those nasty elephants, flanked by Numidian light cavalry.

In the Carthaginian turn, Colin started by having his priest read the Omens, which were not good and immediately reduced his Reputation scare! The Carthaginians advance along their line, the only action being an exchange of missiles between skirmishers on the flanks.

In turn two the Roman velites got more aggressive, charging into the slingers opposing them and destroying the unit.

On the other flank they ganged up on the Numidian horsemen, inflicted casualties.

In an attempt to gain the upper hand on this flank, Colin charged his cavalry into the Roman line and the Numidians into one of the velites. Having pinned the skirmishers in place, he then charged his elephants in as a secondary unit in the melee. He knew that if he had gone in first with the elephants, I would have evaded the charge, sneaky!

Unfortunately, his dice rolling did not match his planning and my velites won the melee, destroying the Numidians. As the elephants were a secondary unit in the melee, they also were forced back...

,,,into the spearmen behind them and failing their command test so they took a wound from disorder. Normally the nearby general could have used one of his mighty Deeds to allow a reroll of the test, but elephants have the Aloof trait, so cannot be influenced in this way. In the nearby cavalry melee the Carthaginians lost and were forced back, pursued by the Romans.

In turn three the Roman cavalry kept up the pressure, whilst the unengaged Roman cavalry swung around behind the melee, to start to move up on the elephants' (now open) flank. The Roman velites moved closer to the elephants and bombarded them with missile, trying to force another retreat.

In the melee the remaining Carthaginian cavalry  fell to the Roman onslaught, with inflicting any more casualties on the Romans.

In the Carthaginian phase the Gauls rushed forward but the attempt to restore their flank was only partially successful. The spearmen behind the elephants managed to move across to block the left hook from the Roman cavalry, but the elephants failed to move. Now they had taken casualties they need to pass a 3+ command test to move, they rolled a 1! At the end of turn three things were looking a bit dodgy for the Carthaginian player, not only were both flanks threatened, he was down to 4 Reputation to the Roman score of 10.

In turn four I just went for it, with an all-out attack along the Roman line.

The Carthaginian centre was forced back, despite Colin throwing just about every general and champion into the fray. Elsewhere the Gaul's lack of armour was telling, even when they held the Roman charge, they took wounds at a much faster rate than their opponents.

The melee round in the Carthaginian phase just completed things, with half the Carthaginian army just melting away!

At the end of turn 4 it was game over, the Carthaginians now had zero Reputation to the Roman 11. An overwhelming victory to Rome.

A lot of laughter and fun in this game, despite the result. We also learned that the counter to elephants was to hit them with skirmishers - historical tactics do really work with these rules.

Romans and Sassanid Rematch with Midgard

 Colin and I got together for a Roman/Sassanid rematch with Midgard Heroic Battles, this time swapping armies from our last encounter. Colin now had the Late Romans whilst I took the Sassanid Persians.

The Romans started by rapidly advancing their infantry forward (Disciplined units are a wonderful thing!). I countered by leaving my rubbish levy spears in place and advancing a unit of archers to get into killing range of the oncoming legions. 

I thought I'd get in early so I rushed my elephants forward to crash into the end of the advancing Roman line.

In the meantime the massed Roman cavalry sat back, waiting for the Sassanids to come to them.

However the Sassanid cavalry commander had the same thought, so the cavalry sat, glaring at each other for the first three turns!

Meanwhile the elephants did what they do best, trampling Roman legionaries and sending them running backwards!

My gamble pushing the archers forward started to pay off, as they inflicted casualties on the Roman auxilia.

But now the Romans Legions can within reach of the levy and charged forward.

As the elephants followed the retreating legionaries, the accompanying bowmen engaged in a archery duel...

...which the Romans lost, just as the remnants of the legionaries dissolved under the elephants attack.

As expected the levy were soundly beaten and pushed back by the Roman legionaries. However, by some fluke the humble Sassanid archers held off the Roman charge and fought the auxila to a standstill.

Now the elephants turned around, ready to charge into the rear of the victorious legionaries.

Changing circumstances now forced the Roman cavalry to advance, on one side to engage my victorious light cavalry.

On the other side to take out the Sassanid archers and counter the elephants. In both cases the Sassanid cavalry responded.

With the respective cavalry now engaged in a fierce melee, there was nothing to stop the Sassanid elephants charging into the rear of the Roman legionaries, not a pretty sight (if you are a Roman!).

As the elephants destroyed their second unit of legionaries, the situation at the end of turn 5 was clear. Sassanids +1 Reputation, Romans -4. Had the Romans forced a cavalry fight earlier it might have been different, certainly I would have been less willing to turn the elephants around to attack the legionaries if they had been a risk of cavalry on their flank.

In both game the elephants were decisive, so we need to think of tactics to counter them, perhaps using skirmishers, as happened historically. The fact that both times the elephants managed to get the charge in on the Roman infantry helped them as well. 

Painting in August

 Here are my offerings for August. I am really pleased to keep the flow going, although I didn't get as much actual painting done this month. I have started on a grand rebasing project on my 28mm collection. This is primarily so that the armies look better when playing Midgard using sabot bases.

First up the painting.

Some more demons for my Jotunheim/Reign in Hell games. Two little flying critters...

...and a big horned beastie.

Then some wood elf cavalry. Nice looking resin figures but a real pain. They were awkward to assemble, the bows snapped off at the lightest touch - I broke one off just trying to paint it!. Then the resin itself was a bit odd, with shiny patches in places. These shiny bits did not take acrylic paint well, so I ended up giving them an extra coat of enamel spray paint to be able to paint them.

Then on to the grand rebasing project. I started with the Late Roman and Saxons/Franks infantry. The bulk of the armies are Gripping Beast  minis, painted nearly 20 years ago. Since then I had added bits, some pre-painted from Bring and Buys, so they were looking a bit hap-hazard. As I have been getting use out of them again with Midgard, I wanted to fix the bases so that they all tied in better when using sabot bases.

The Roman Infantry.

And the Barbarian hordes.

Romans and Sassanids with Midgard Heroic Battles

 Colin and I tried out a different era with our latest game of Midgard, giving me the chance to dust off my 10mm Late Romans and Sassanid Persians. These haven't seen the table top since a couple of years pre-covid, so it was good to get these little metal men out into the light.

The Persian Wars with the Eastern Roman Empire fits quite well with the ethos of Midgard, as there are numerous examples of single combats, both before and during battles, with fit in with the "Heroic" emphasis of Midgard's leaders. For example there are several mentions of single combats during the battle of Dara in 530. Apparently one soldier had to be ordered by his general not to accept any further challenges, after he had killed two Persian champions, because it was feared that, if he was killed, it would dishearten the army too much. In 371 King Urnayr, a Sassanid ally, specifically asked to be placed in the battleline opposite the Roman's Armenian allied contingent. In the ensuing melee, King Urnayr sought out Mushegh Mamikonian, the Armenian general, and fought him in a single combat. (he lost!).

Some pictures from the game.

The Roman Cavalry get stuck in early.

Cavalry action!

In the meantime the Sassanid centre waits as the Roman infantry plod forward.

                                       

Except for the elephants who move forward.

Roman skirmishers seize the rough ground.

The Sassanid's try an outflanking manoeuvre with some cavalry.

The elephants charge up the hill and crash into a unit of elite legionaries, who do not fare well!

Two Roman cavalry units are destroyed, leaving gaps in the line.

End of turn 3, not many Romans left on the table, although now there are gaps in the Sassanid ranks as well.

The high point of my game, attacking the outflanking cavalry with a unit of auxilia. Let's play a version of spot the ball, where was the missing Sassanid cavalry unit?

Unfortunately this was the last melee of turn 3, which ended with a 1:0 win to the Sassanids.

A very bloody game, at the end of turn 2 it looked really grim for the Romans, but I almost recovered in turn 3. It was quite different compared to our usual game, we had melees starting in turn one! Both forces had a lot of cavalry units and we have got used to predominantly infantry armies.

We will replay this next week, swapping forces to see if we can learn from our opponent's mistakes.

Painting in July

 I was really pleased to be quite productive in July, after June's hiatus.

First up a Balrog/Fire Demon. These are a pair of 3d prints i picked, part of a batch of demons/devils. My first attempt make the fire too bright, I wanted the impression of oily flames, the sort that would be producing a lot of dark. black smoke. 

I based one for the dungeon/underground, but I'm not sure how to base the other one yet.

Another big demon with an axe from the same set. This will be joining my Jotunheim Norse-myth based armies for Midgard.

Two smaller devils from the set, these will be summoned bodyguards for a Chronipia sorcerer.

A unit of wood elf bowmen/rangers for Midgard, that I got from a supplier on Etsy.

A pack of frost imps/ Again these were in the set of 3d prints, they will be a flying skirmish unit in Jotunheim.

Sone fiery spirits/ghosts, again for Jotunheim.

A Giant Snow Eagle, another flyer for Jotunheim.

A change of direction, some of Ironclad's new VSF releases, southern colonial types, perhaps?

Finally for July, I expanded by Barrow Downs terrain with some 3d printed stuff. Three small barrows, some ruined causeway roads and walls. These are really nice prints and so, soooo much lighter than my existing solid resin pieces.

Let's hope August goes as well. Probably not a lot of painting as i am planning to revisit the basing on my 28mm historical armies to tie them in better for Midgard games. Starting with Saxons/Franks and Late Romans.