ADLG Later Carthaginian v Republican Roman

Tonight's game was another 25mm ADLG game featuring my 25mm Later Carthaginians against Ted's Republican Romans.

In a similar way to me Ted had not used his 25mm armies in years. His army was mostly composed of beautifully painted very old Minifig 'PB' range figures and was probably even older than my Carthaginians!

Initial deployment resulted in Massinissa commanding a strong force of cavalry and African Spearmen on the Carthaginian left facing a few Roman skirmishers and cavalry, Hannibal in the centre with two elephants and the Gallic warband facing a substantial force of Roman Legionaries and Mago on the Carthaginian left with a mixed cavalry and infantry Spanish force facing another force of Legionaries:

The Gaul's and Elephants rush forward to engage the Roman right flank composed of cavalry and Italian spearmen:

Massinissa leads the African Spearmen forward to support the right flank of the Gaul's. The Carthaginian cavalry remain in reserve:

On the right the Spanish light cavalry advance to delay the Romans:

The Roman cavalry fall back being unwilling to face the Elephants. Hannibal splits his command in two to reduce the risk of being outflanked by the advancing Legionaries before the African Spearmen arrive:

 On the right the Legions plod forward while the Allied Infantry clear the orchard:

Gallic warband and an elephant charge home against the Roman Italian Spearmen while the Carthaginian cavalry move up in support:

Massinissa continues to bring forward the African Spearmen while on the right the Spanish Scutarii fall back to gain time:

The remainder of the Gallic warband and the other Elephant attack the Legionaries. The African Spearmen haven't closed enough to support the attack yet:

Spanish cavalry attack the Italian Allied infantry as they emerge from the orchard:

The Italian Allied spearmen have been broken but the Roman cavalry are well placed to take on the pursuing Gallic warband. The remainder of Hannibal's force that charged into the Legionaries has held up well so far:

Carthaginian cavalry dash forward to engage the Roman cavalry:

On the right the Romans are closing on the Scutarii while the Spanish cavalry continue to battle against the Italian Allied infantry:

The African Spearmen are now looking rather isolated:

On the right the Spanish are starting to make inroads into the Romans, outflanking their line despite losing some Scutarii and cavalry:

On the left the Gallic warband and the elephant have been wiped out but the Carthaginian cavalry has hit the weakened Roman cavalry:

The last Carthaginian elephant has fallen. Hannibal commits the only remaining Gallic warband against some Triarii hoping to break through before the Legionaries can intervene:

On the right the Spanish continue to devastate the Roman flanks destroying more units:

The Roman cavalry are also collapsing on the left. The Roman army has now taken losses on the flanks while remaining solid in the centre. For the Carthaginians Hannibal's command has been wiped out in the centre:

The Romans charge home against the African Spearmen but fail to do much damage. A quick count up reveals that the Roman's have lost enough elements to break the army giving victory to the Carthaginians!

This was a hard fought battle which for a while I thought I'd lose. In an historically accurate manner the Roman centre ploughed through the Carthaginian centre with only a few losses but both Roman flanks collapsed. The Spanish on the right did especially well inflicting a lot of damage against superior Roman forces.

I have to say that Ted's army looked fantastic and the game was certainly a visual spectacle compared to 15mm games despite the small size of the armies compared to DBM or WRG 6th Edition. Hopefully the revival of 25mm gaming at the club will continue!

ADLG Late Romans v Lombards

Having finished the refurbishment of the 25mm Late Romans I thought I should arrange a game for them. Tim (aka 'The Madaxeman') was free and agreed to bring along his Lombards to face the Romans.

The Roman army composition was based largely on the newly refurbished figures so had two commands of Legionaries and Auxila supported by some impact cavalry and light horse.

As usual the terrain in ADLG fell mostly on the flanks though the Romans had a usefully placed gulley on the centre right to anchor their line on.

The Roman right flank and centre:

The Roman centre and left flank:

The Roman left are facing a large number of impetuous medium swordsmen. The Roman cavalry have advanced while the Auxila hold back:

On the Roman right an impressive line of Lombard cavalry lurches forward:

The Roman cavalry on the left engages the enemy while the Auxila move forward to oppose the Lombard medium swordsmen:

A single Saxon warband has charged into the Roman line while one of the Roman cavalry has been flanked by a swordsman. The Romans need to hold out for their support to help out:

On the right the Lombard cavalry have incautiously advanced past some Roman Auxila in the gully. The Auxilia have charged out supported by one of the Roman heavy cavalry:

The Roman Auxilia on the left are charged by the Lombard swordsmen:

In the centre the Romans have continued to advanced while the Saxon foot apart from one warband that charged earlier have held back. There is now a considerable gap between the Lombard centre and right that the Romans can exploit:

On the Roman right both sides throw in more troops:

The Romans are starting to gain an advantage on the right:

On the left the Auxilia are holding out while the cavalry and Legionaries mop up more Lombards:

On the right two groups of Lombard cavalry have been destroyed and the remainder are outnumbered:

The struggle continues on the left:

The last two Lombard cavalry on the right launch a desperate charge:

Mopping up on the left continues:

The Saxons advance! Two Legios are a little further forward than their support and a bit isolated:

On the right one Roman horse archer has been destroyed but the Lombard cavalry are in big trouble and only one survives:

The Lombard army has taken heavy losses and won't last much longer despite having a large (28!) break point. The Romans with their lower break point are a bit further away from breaking but the two isolated Legio in the centre are almost swept away by the Saxon charge:

The Lombard army are now one hit from breaking, the Romans three hits. In desperation the Lombard's charge everything in!:

In typical wargames fashion the first three combats, all of which were initially in the Roman's favour, resulted in Roman losses breaking the Roman army. A series of combats where the Lombard's had the advantage followed with the luck swinging the other way and the Lombard's taking hits to break their army and result in a mutual destruction!:

It is always a pleasure to play Tim and this game was no exception. The refurbished army looked good I think and it was great to see them in action again. For much of the game I thought the Romans would be victorious but the huge break point of the Lombard's saved them. Hopefully the Romans will get more action in the future.

Rommel Early War Russians v Germans Breakthrough

Having played Rommel in 3mm and 10mm this time I played a game in 6mm using Mike's early war Russians and Germans. The scenario was 'Breakthrough' and I opted to be the defending Russians as it was the first time I'd seen them in Rommel.

The Russian army was huge with two infantry formations that had no armour support but a lot of artillery, two large tank formations of poor quality tanks, a few motorised infantry with attached tanks and a tiny unit of well armoured but poor quality T-34's and KV1's. The entire army didn't have any troops rated 'average', the best of the lot was one of the infantry formations which was 'average' in defence! The German army was somewhat smaller and of much higher quality in general.

As expected the terrain ended up with the two German-placed objectives in the open on the Russian left and the two Russian-placed objectives in the centre in cover. I deployed the Russian infantry in the centre to hold the objectives in cover, most of the tanks and the motorised infantry on  the left covering the objectives in the open and the T34/KV1's plus some of the remaining tanks in reserve. The Russian right flank I largely ignored and left open. The Germans deployed pretty much opposite the Russians:

The Germans promptly attacked across their front putting all four Russian objectives under pressure. To win they have to capture two and hold their own objective by nightfall:

The German attack on the Russian centre where the objectives were in terrain faltered quite quickly with few Russian losses and fighting died down in this area as it became obvious the German attacks would not succeed. On the Russian left however the Germans did make progress against the objectives in the open with the Russian defenders taking heavy losses but managing to hang on by replacing damaged formations with fresh ones from reserves. For a while it looked like the furthest forward Russian objective would fall but in a crucial combat one heroic Russian defender of the Motherland held out long enough to be replaced by fresh troops saving the objective!

With night approaching it was clear the Germans were not going to achieve their aims so they withdrew. The situation at the furthest forward Russian objective, scene of the heaviest fighting:

The nearby Russian objective in the open, heavy fighting here also:

The centre objective, after an initial attack all quiet on the Eastern Front here:

The more I play Rommel the more I think it is such a subtle game that really makes you think like an army commander. This was only Mike's second game of Rommel and he went in for the line them up and charge them in plan which works in many sets of wargames rules.

Having played a lot more games as the Germans I'd have considered two different plans. The first would be to commit around 2/3 of the army to an attack on the two objectives in the open on the Russian left. The remaining 1/3 (probably the strongest units) I'd have kept back. Then, if the attack on the Russian left looks like working, I can commit my reserve to finish off the weakened defenders. If it does not look like working (perhaps because the Russians have weakened their centre to support their left) I can use the reserve to attack the centre objectives.

The second plan which would be more adventurous would be to sweep around the undefended Russian right flank to attack the centre objectives while using a small force to pin the enemy left.

Rather like the late war Germans, early war Russians are probably reasonable when defending but would be awful attacking, when at most you can commit nine strength points (plus artillery and tactics) to an attack it is not going to inflict much damage at all. They also suffer badly from their poor organisation with the inability to combine infantry and tanks for mutual support or to spread out the well armoured T34's and KV1's to strengthen the weaker tanks weakening what is already a weak army. This seems pretty historical though!

The latest of Late Romans!

After refurbishing the previous batch of Garrison and Hinchliffe Late Romans from the 80's I still had some figures left. All the Legionary units were originally 12's so each refurbished one had four spare figures.

Originally I was going to just varnish and base them with two types of shield per base but that seemed lazy so I repainted the shields with new patterns. I also found some unpainted figures which provided another four Auxiliaries who could make up the back rank of a Legionary base since I was short four Legionaries and two bases of light foot slingers.

First up are the Legio Comitatensis 'Tertia Iulia Alpina' (this is the unit with the four axuliaries making up the back rank, they have tunics instead of armour but are otherwise the same as the Legionaries) and the slingers:

Next we have two Legio Palatina 'Cimbriani' and  'Armigeri Propugnatores Seniores'. I think repainting the shields was a good idea as they match now but it's a shame I had no officer or standard bearer for them:

Finally I did a couple of bases of horse archers. These figures are by Lamming and are a similar age to the rest of the Late Roman army. I think Lamming were one of the pioneers in producing figures with separate heads, shields and weapons allowing more variety between figures. I'm not even sure which range these figures are from, I have 10 of them that were painted in a rather gaudy selection of colours before the repaint:

That's everything I have apart from the odd figure refurbished and painted now. I think they look a lot better than they did. I've arranged a game for them on Thursday hopefully so they will get at least one outing!

The question is if it is worth buying some new generals, cataphracts and maybe auxiliary archers for them? I looked at Footsore Miniatures and it would cost around £60 compared to using some of my Byzantines which would cost nothing. Maybe I will see how they get on in Thursday's battle!