Alexandrian Macedonians versus Romans - Again

It seems to be a long while since I last played Field of Glory, but thanks to the digital records (my blog) I see that my Macedonians last took the field in November.  Oh, that makes it five months!  In that time I have prepped a few new figures for them, but nothing ready yet.  However I did I one new big innovation - movement trays.  Nothing new there really, but my first large scale use of some home made ones from old CD cases (of the soft easy to cut kind).  While they don't have the sticking power of metal movement trays (all my troops are on magnetic bases) that can be addressed with some steel paper, although it wasn't really an issue.

Anyway, on with the game which took place yesterday and lasted about four hours.  Mark ran his superb Romans (I think Polybians).

800 points produces a good sized army and I couldn't get it all in with a single shot.  The Roman centre was their fortified camp while my crude supply dump was well in my rear.

My left flank on the move.  Already the Roman Gallic cavalry is running away (top right hand corner).

My right flank pushing forward.

Things were looking promising before the arrival of the Roman Gallic cavalry.

My Illyrian javelinmen get the upper hand while the hypaspists take on the cavalry.

Back on the left I am hoping the Roman light infantry are feeling threatened.

My Thracians on the left eye off their opponents; it is said that they are more skilled swordsmen, better armoured and superior fighting troops.  There sure seems a lot of them pack in together, but are they feeling lucky?

Well, on the right my Thracians weren't lucky.  Alexander is trying to rally them before they burst through the Agema which has been redeployed to the right to rebalance the cavalry situation.  The Hypaspists seem to be holding their own...

The left flank is proving to be time consuming, but my superiority of light troops is showing.

And on the right my light troops win their fight.

But oh dear, the Thracians and the Hypaspist have broken and burst through the Agema!

But the Agema fight back, hopefully giving time for Alexander to rally some troops.

My boys are starting to envelop the Roman right, however the Thessalian heavy cavalry are a bit hampered by that field.

The Thracians rally, but don't feel so good.  The Hypaspists leave the field while the Agema bravely fight on.

The centre is not going well for my hoplites, but a pike block is coming to their rescue...

...but too late!  Both Thacians and Hoplites on my left break.  The pike flank charge goes in and the Roman general is killed, but the legionnaires are solid chaps and they fight on, knowing they have the numbers.

The Agema have broken after being charged in the flank by the Roman infantry.  The Gallic cavalry have turned to threaten the Macedonian centre while being harassed by the Sogdian horse archers (sadly to no avail).

Alexander bravely leading his troops at the bitter end.

Time to pick up respective offspring from places of hopeful learning stopped play.  It would have been a Roman victory, although at this stage the Macedonians were slightly ahead in points.

It was a great victory for my movement trays.

We were back playing version 1.0 of FoG.  We had to look up about half a dozen things in the rules during play and had a few other anomalies we settled amiably by die rolls.  An enjoyable game that saw plenty of action and all just about all units engaged at some point or other.

Albatross on a Gimbal

After seeing Stephen's planes able to dive, bank and generally swoop about, I had to have a go to.  I agonised over whether to embed the ball in the plane or something equally definitive, but in the end settled for the much less intrusive option of cutting one of the altitude pegs in half and reassembling with the gimbal.

Now we can soar and also share between planes.  Way to go!

The two planes circled around each other for a while, getting in just a little damage until my plane suffered a catastrophic explosion and that was that.

The night was still young at the NWS and we were able to fit in a game of Sails of Glory.

Stephen took HMS Defence (lower left had corner) and got in an inordinate number of crew hits with his various broadsides that turned my poor Generaux into the Marie Celeste.   Not my night.

From Dreamboat to Shipwreck

The paper boat I was making from War Artisan was coming along a treat.  I had just finished the sails and was taking it for its first official photograph when it sailed off and landed on the concrete floor in my studio, shattering the bow spirit and main mast.

What PVA glue giveth...

Comparison of Sails of Glory 74 gun ship with the paper 64 gun ship.

The paper ship on the Sails of Glory plinth.

The Sails of Glory ship without its plinth, but still with its peg (and therefore supported on two nuts).

Too glum to say any more. 

:-(

Fourth Sail - Game Played at the NWS Wednesday night

And aptly for the fourth sail this game featured four ships and four players.  We used the advanced rules and it was a tribute to all that it played out well given for two of the players it was their first game and only the second game for the third and I am still learning.

The HMS Defence (lower right hand corner) got in a devastating bow rake against the French 74 gun Aquilon from which it never recovered.  It was on fire and had sprung a leak and went down a short time later.

The new ship Le Success also got in a first strike bow rake against the (equally new) British frigate HMS Unite.  It started taking on water but its intrepid crew did their best to repair the damage.  It was last seen limping away.

That left HMS Defence facing Le Success, not an even fight fight and the French were wise to retire.

For the record I was captain of the HMS Defence and Stephen, now in command of his own ship for his second voyage, was in Le Success.  Simon was in his ship, HMS Unite, on his maiden voyage and Mark (yet another one) was undertaking his maiden voyage in the unfortunate Aquilon.

French Napoleonic Cuirassiers

Perhaps my favourite of Napoleonic cavalry units, I was over joyed to find a unit of French cuirassiers in my earlier Christmas present.  My existing 15mm French army has some cuirassiers, but the figures and painting are rather indifferent, but this unit of ABs painted by Dragon Painting Services and touched up by me (rebased, new flag, straitened swords, and a few paint chips repaired) I think do the French heavy cavalry proud.

Only one wonky sword (second from the left, next to the trumpter).  That one was tending to break rather than straiten so I did the best I dared and gave it a good coat of PVA glue which I hope will get it through all future battles.

My passion, as well as my pronunciation challenge, for cuirassiers goes back to the Waterloo movie and the Airfix set.

Third Sail

Last night was the big outing for Sails of Glory as I took it to the Napoleonic Wargaming Society here in Perth.  It went over well bringing in a few more players for some games next week.

Stephen and I played two games using the standard rules.  He was the British frigate and I was the French frigate.

The HMS Terpsichore putting in the death blow to the poor Courageuse with a bow rake.

Second game saw the Courageous get revenge with a final long range shot forcing the HMS Terpischore to surrender.  Apologies for the blurred photo, but it was taken after the last of the grog ration had been consumed.

Next week will hopefully see more ships at sea and the use of the advanced rules.

Second Sail

Today Richard and I got through three games of Sails of Glory using just a frigate each.  It was very much a learning exercise.

In our first game we were challenged by the "taken aback" process, but by the second game we had mastered that to a satisfactory degree.  Then I discovered I had the planning sequence wrong and upon subsequent checking find I was also doing it wrong with WW2 Wings of Glory.  I think this occurred as I transitioned from Basic to Standard rules.

The third game was a good slog.  Subsequently Richard emailed me and it is fitting to quote him:

"Thanks for the game today. It was very enjoyable, just like Wings of Glory. These games are great when pressed for time or perhaps if you don't have the energy to spend hours researching and setting up a game. The ability to play straight out of the box is also a big tick as is the relatively small number of models needed for the game. Looking forward to playing with the advanced rules next time and maybe get both ships into action."

Prior to playing I was concerned about the size of the bases and had been dreaming up all-sorts of alternative basing options, but while playing we found the base sizes weren't noticeable and actually helped moving the models.

Another concern had been the intrusion of the lines on the playing mat.  Again, this also was not noticeable in the heat of battle.

Both this issues look prominent in the photo above, but when playing they disappear.  It is possible the camera actually highlights them due to the use of the flash.

The big test will be taking the game to the club tomorrow night.