Basic Battle of Kynoscephalae in 6mm

EDIT I had wrongly named this the battle of Thermopylae, but I stand corrected.  

Mark Woods, using his fabulous 6mm collection of Romans and Macedonians, created army lists to allow a big battle using Basic Impetus 2.0 (note: not so much the Great Battles option in those rules, just a really big Basic game).

Mark and Michael were the Romans (left and right respectively) while Karl and I were the Greeks (right and left).

It is also nice to have some historical context to game (which is most missing in my Ancients games).  In 191 BC, Roman forces led by Manius Acilius Glabrio defeated Antiochus III the Great and forced him to leave Greece 

The Battle of Cynoscephalae (Greek: Μάχη τῶν Κυνὸς Κεφαλῶν) was an encounter battle fought in Thessaly in 197 BC between the Roman army, led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, and the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon, led by Philip V, during the Second Macedonian War. It was a decisive Roman victory and marked the end of the conflict.

This was my force.

It consisted of:

• Six units of  Agrianians
• Two units of Illyrians
• Four units of Thracians
• Three units of cavalry and
• Three large units of Phalangites

With games of this size, capturing everything in one image is a challenge,

but here is the deployment.

Greek infantry are holding a hill in the centre.

The first couple of moves I spent shuffling my cavalry to the left to avoid the elephants.

Checking distance till contact.

It took a while.

Little legs after all.

The elephants. 

Things got off to a good start with the rout of the Roman light cavalry.

On the right the Greek cavalry didn't do so well.

The skirmishers really earned their pay.

Things have started to happen, and the results are somewhat mixed.

The wheeling Roman unit on the right-hand side of the image will win them the game.

The right wing's right flank has been compromised.

The Macedonian pike armed infantry are hard at work,

the Galatians however lacked staying power.

At this stage I was quietly confident...

The Roman left is starting to collapse.

But it also rapidly went pear-shaped on the Greek left.

The Greek right fell apart as well after a flank charge on a pike block

 by the previously identified Roman unit.

I also put a link to this post in the Impetus forum and included the army lists which I will reproduce here as well:

Roman White Legion  (right flank)
									VDU				I			VD
Hastati						4xFP			5				2			3			Pilum						12
Principes						4xFP			6				2			3			Pilum						12
Triarii						2xFP			6				2			3			Long spear						6
Velites						4xS			2				0			1			Javelin						4
Cavalry						1xCM			4				2			1									1
Elephants						1xEL			5				3			2									2
Aetolian cavalry						1xCL			4				1			2			Javelin						2
Aetolian peltastoi						1xFL			4				2			2			Javelin						2
																ARMY TOTAL									41

 

Roman Red Legion (left flank)
									VDU			I			VD
Hastati						4xFP			5			2			3			Pilum					12
Principes						4xFP			6			2			3			Pilum					12
Triarii						2xFP			6			2			3			Long spear					6
Velites						4xS			2			0			1			Javelin					4
Cavalry						1xCM			4			2			1								1
Aetolian peltastoi						1xFL			4			2			2			Javelin					2
															ARMY TOTAL								37

 

Macedonian left flank
Macedonian cavalry						3xCM			5			2			2									6
Agema						2xFP			5			1			3			Pike						6
Phalanx (front rank)						2xFP			5			1			3			Pike						6
Phalanx (rear rank)						2xFP			4			1			2			Pike						4
Illyrians						4xFL			4			1			2			Javelin						8
Agrianians						6xS			2			0			1			Javelin						6
Thracians						2xFL			4			2			2			Javelin						4
															ARMY TOTAL									40

 

Macedonian right flank
Thracian and Galatian cavalry						2xCM			4			1			2									4
Illyrian cavalry						1xCL			3			1			1			Javelin						1
Phalanx (front rank)						4xFP			5			1			3			Pike						12
Phalanx (rear rank)						4xFP			4			1			2			Pike						8
Galatians						4xFL			4			4			2			Impetuous						8
Cretans						4xS			3			0			1			Short bow						4
Thorakitai						1xFL			5			1			3			Long spear						3
															ARMY TOTAL									40

The boxes under each army list are to cross of the VD value of each unit that is routed.  When all boxes filled the army is broken.  

Viticulture

I've been wanting to play this game for a while and when we had to postpone our Thursday game of Weimar, I had my chance.

Richard was yellow, Russell blue and I was purple.

Need 20 points to win.

Bit of an overachiever I'm afraid.

Purple vineyard

Cards still in hand

Delightful game.  Would play fast once techniques mastered.  I also expect lots of variety in play.

Napoleonic French Casualty Stands

This has been an ongoing saga to perfect casualty markers for Napoleon's Battles.  At this point I have reached the "this will do" stage.  Regardless, glad to have got these figures painted, based and ready to use.

I published this on the NWS Blog on 14 July 2014.  I should have also posted it on my blog.

https://napoleonicwargamingsociety.blogspot.com/2014/07/article-on-nws-from-some-time-ago.html

Article on the NWS from some time ago

This article was my first introduction to the NWS.

When I was living in Canberra, my partner very much wanted to move to Perth (her home city).  I was reluctant.  One of the reasons I put forward might have been associated with wargaming.  As if on cue this article turned up.  It would be ten years ago, maybe longer.  We would need to know Carlo’s current age to accurately date it. 

Anyway, this article gave me strength in the knowledge that there was wargaming on the other side of Australia, Napoleonic wargaming as well, although the picture accompanying the article didn’t look like any Napoleonic game I’d ever seen.

Weimar Take 3

This game allows for multiple endings and yesterday's game, our third, was no exception.  Richard was the DNVP (black), Peter Zentrum (blue), Russell SPD (a light red colour that is perhaps one of the few if not only flaws with this game) and I was the KPD (in pink, but too close to the light red colour).

I took notes, but as always heavily biased to the side was playing.

First agenda was Revolution Now!  Ha ha.  We tried a demonstration in Berlin, no one showed.  A coup attempt in Essen was a fail.  We lost our council in Munich and our operatives in Essen.

Operatives were introduced back into Munich, but a party base was lost in Breslau.  However a demonstration in Essen was successful and lead to an uprising.  A right-wing coup attempt was stopped in Berlin.

We debated.

We lost a party base in Essen but with three remaining, scored 1 VP, our first.

An offer to form Government with the SPD was rejected by them.  Boo hiss!

For the second round we chose Loyalty to Moscow.

We armed the workers and conducted demonstrations in Breslau, Hamburg and Frankfurt.  There was an uprising in Hamburg.  Yeah!

Berlin was taken over by a right-wing regime.  Oh dear.

We failed with a coup in Breslau and demonstrations in Essen and Koln.

But we had seven seats in Parliament and this time formed a coalition with the SPD, and a communist became Chancellor.

Round three and the DNVP (black shirts, right-wing, intent on making Germany great again) staged a successful coup in Leipzig, which added to their control of Berlin and a regime in Hamburg gave them an instant victory.

The Communist controlled Reichstag was very short-lived.

KPD party members after the right-wing coup.

The state of play after the sudden death.

Not that it matters, but the VP totals were:

• SPD 13
• Zentrum 12
• DNVP 10
• KPD 4

At least there were no nasty brown shirts this time.

And here is a press release from the DNVP (courtesy of Richard):

Die Welt

9th January 2025

Aufwiesdersehen Kamerad Reichskanzler!

German Patriots rejoice the fall of the November Criminals!

Photo Sourced from the Bundesarchiv

Weimar: The Fight for Democracy, News from our correspondent at the table’s edge

Taking advantage of being victorious in the Reichstag on the Reparations Issue, on Thursday 9^th January and before anyone could react, Freikorps Brigade Oberland lead a lightning DNVP Coup in Leipzig to topple the Weimar Republic and end the still born chancellorship of Comrade Haughey of the KPD. Comrade Haughey (henceforth known as the 2 minute chancellor) had barely warmed the seat in the chancellor’s office having been handed the reins of the Reich by former chancellor Poskitt of the SPD when he was arrested at KPD Party Headquarters during a rendition of the Internationale.

A lack of policy direction and infighting in the former SPD/Zentrum Weimar Coalition as well as their failure to co-ordinate the Police and Reichswehr to subdue paramilitary elements ultimately lead to the demise of the Republic which had lurched from crisis to crisis nearly resulting in a descent into anarchy.

DNVP Führer Richard announced that “Order had been restored” and that the November Criminals will be brought to justice along with plans to annex Greenland.

Elements of Freikorps Oberland guarding key locations:

Illyrians versus Huns

This time I took command of the Illyrians and Simon used my Huns.  A critical part of succeeding with Basic Impetus is to avoid rolling sixes on Cohesion Tests.  Simon repeatedly rolled sixes...

An atmospheric shot to set the scene

(actually smeary camera lens)

That's better.

Huns win the scouting and mass on one flank.

At least the Illyrians have some difficult terrain to help them.

Advance!

Advance some more!!

Shoot!!!

Illyrian javelins cripple two units of Hun light cavalry

Undeterred the Huns charge.

The result is bloody, but inconclusive

The Hun nobles make a clean sweep,

but their light cavalry is suffering.

And with a few more bad rolls the Huns call it a day.

Lost Berlin

My posts labelled "book review" ain't really book reviews, just me making a note of something I felt relevant to this blog and also to seek closure.  

I used to measure the success of a holiday by the number of books I finished reading (always in single digits, but that is beside the point).  A book read represents closure and nowadays that is more important to me, retirement having significantly reduced the import of holidays.

Also I am working through my accumulation of stuff while trying not to add to it.  

This book I bought for the price of $A4.95 in the early 1980s and carted it around ever since.  It is best described as a coffee table book, but the author. Susanne Everett, at least at the time of publication, was married to John Keegan, the military historian.  This book is about cultural history centred on Berlin between the wars.  Lots of names, most of which I didn't recognise, but enough to keep little sparks of recognition firing.

In playing Weimar I was reminded of this book and thought it would be a good time to read it.  Of course I couldn't find it. Searching was futile and I gave up.  Then it appeared!  Kind of a reverse Murphy's Law.

It is 200 pages, but about 100 pages of images, mostly photos but some posters.  

Of course it covers the Nazi's sublimation of the arts, either by causing talent to decamp or by simply imposing their own, which would be mostly horrid expect for perhaps two films Leni Riefenstahl: Triumph of the Will and Olympia, neither of which I have seen.  They also produced some striking posters, most if not all of which would be banned in these enlightened times for displaying swastikas (often in abundance) or for representing hate speech.  

Written before the fall of the Berlin Wall it makes for an interesting historical perspective.  I am sure the same book if written today would draw parallels between the rise of the fascism and what we are observing today.  The book is oblivious to this of course, but the parallels are plain to see, at least the seeds.

Book read and some interesting background provided for the next game of Weimar in which I will be playing the KPD - the Communists.