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.

Reign in Jotunheim (Hell)

 When I visited my mate Mark, in South London last month, he introduced me to the Reign in Hell rules from Snarling Badger Studios. I was quite impressed with this little rule set (63 pages), so I picked up a copy for myself.  It's a neat, very simple set of rules. The actual battlefield rules are only 8 pages, the rest of the book is building your Cabal, campaign rules and scenarios.

Although I don't have a collection of GM chaos types, I was sure I could find a wealth of usable minis in my various armies. I don't really have any suitable Hell-type terrain, but I decided to set my games in my (slightly Norse influenced) Jotunheim setting. 

Ross was happy to give it a go and we have started a campaign with Ross playing the Lords of Hell and I played the Demented.

Our first game was the Desecration scenario, The Lords of Hell were offended at some relics and wanted to destroy them, so the Demented decided to defend the same relics, more to piss off the Lords of Hell as for any other reason!

It was a great game, a lot of fun and laughter was had by all. Although I slaughtered all but two of his demons, Ross won the game by destroying more relics that I saved. Keeping you eye on the prize is good!!!

Here are some pictures from the game.

The opposing warbands spread across the table. The blue crystals mark the relics.

The Lords of Hell, or most of them, two minis are out of shot.

The Demented leader and his Devout (lieutenant).

My Spiny Demon inflicts his impaling charge on Ross' Devout.

Opposing Slaughter Fiends clash!

My flying Mephit scans across the battlefield from his vantage point.

My Armoured Demon engages Ross' Corpulent Demon. 

And a few shots of the swirling final melee around the last relic.

Great campaign rules, the after game effects are well thought out and interesting. We are looking forward to the next game.

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.

War of the Worlds Survivors 6

 We played the next game in my post-Martian Invasion campaign this week.

It mostly went well for the survivors, they were very quick at getting to the potential loot caches and searching them, helped by poor die rolls for arriving Martians. Also, with the experience gained from previous games, the PCs have improved and are far less likely to fail Activation rolls. 

Colin and Henry grabbed what loot they could and exited the table as soon as something nasty turned up, in this case a Martian Hybrid walker. Mark found himself caught with the Hybrid in front of him and a Scuttler to his rear. His party split in opposite directions, three escaped safely but one was blasted by the hybrid's heat ray. His buddy heroically came back for him and picked his body up. This gave a couple of very tense turns as he frantically tried to escape whilst enemies were closing in from all sides. In the end it was my appalling activation rolls for the Martians that allowed them to escape the net.

On checking his wounds, the victim was alive, but injured and will have to miss the next game.

Here are some pictures from the game.

The table layout, with a few Shades wandering around. The round bases with assorted boxes etc are the loot markers.

And, of course, an interesting wagon!

Mark's parties gang up on a Shade in close combat.

Opps! Mark's rifleman (top right) took a shot at a Shade advancing on Colin, but just drove it to take cover over the wall, putting it ontop of the loot marker Colin was heading for!

Two more Shades appear and close in on Mark's rifleman. Time to run!

Colin tries a long range shot at a Shade, but his rifle jams!

A scuttler turns up behind Mark's party. Small, armoured and fast moving!

It advances and fires at Mark's leader. A hit, but it just grazes him and knocks him down (behind the wall, fortunately).

  The Martian Hybrid walker arrives!

After Henry and Colin have escaped, Mark's party split up having to fight off Shades as the Martians close in!

A lot of laughs were had by all. Next game, the survivors will be risking a trip into town!