At last ...and until the last ... the Greeks again

28mm, To the Strongest, me with some Romans and some against some Romans and Maccedonians ... the December Sunday game of the club. Well even though it wasn't entirely historic (Martian Romans, Spanish Romans, what not romans mixed with my Classical Greeks, you know!) game it was a fun game and my Spartan hoplites pressed onwards vs some Romans quite nicely just until my flank romans broke and them a little later the other flank and then the last part of the centre that just left me ... that was the whole battle. My force now never been defeated (directly) but somehow ending up on the loosing side! You could make a classical drama out of it...
As I forgot my camera, the more detailed rap under here:
http://asienieboje.blogspot.com/2019/12/big-sunday-ancient-to-strongest-wielkie.html

BUT
the last battle in this decade, was a battle with my wife. No - not what you think!
28mm, Classical Greeks, Hail Ceasar+, Spartans vs Athenians and my lovely, better half agreed to play the Spartans, while I was defending the Delian empire. In short, she took the rules, as well as my phalanx amends with strides and in no time, I was pushed in my flank from the unarmoured hoplite allies and lost a complete hoplite unit. That put me on the back foot.

Meanwhile, we had a little cavalry fight where ,I destroyed the spartan horse and some of our peltasts were going to hit the dust as well. That was before the Kings bodyguard (or shall I say Queens?) hit the stage ... nominally/unit wise it was a draw, but Isabella had me in a pincer attack and the bodyguard was just warming up ... I conceded defeat...

That was it from me everybody, a belated Happy X-mas and an wonderful Happy New Year!

The perfect scene set

The Spartans ready to defend her Queen

The Delian Peltasts

The first casualties, mine of cource

two turns into the game, the big clash

the skirmisher are fighting just in front of the backing phalanges

from the spartans point of view

and their General-King

My cavalry victorious but useless ever after ...

my left flank under Spartan pressure

And the Bodyguard (with red shields) gets counter attacked

still my left flank holds ... just on a thread

while my efforst of two holpites vs the bodyguard failes and get pushed back

the left flank is shaken

After my retreat, I sued for peace ... game over  - Spartan won!

1544 - The Battle of Ceresole - with a bit of Kerosine

It was the last weekly game in the club before x-mas and that should be something special!  So I carried my complete Italian Wars 28mm figures over and Me, Bart and Alisdair went for the historical Battle of Ceresole - but with a little bit more umpf (more guns and arquebusiers for the Imperials, more Horse for the French and more Swiss ...

This was the first time all of my new Swiss were coming out to play and so I decided to choose the French and conscripted Alisdair into my service and gave him the left flank and the Bande Neri (did I mentioned we umpfed it up a bit?). So Bart had to play the Imperials-Spanish his Highness Charles V. I had recently finished my second set of large hills, as we that would be the only dominating terrain feature. As with these games they are too big to finish for a club night, but you live only once, so we gave the "skirmishing" rabble a headstart and deployed them in the middle while the big guns, pike blocks and gendarmes were at the edges.

Each had 5 commands, including the king / emperor, and Bart won the initiative and started the advance. Basically you need to advance a lot before you even reach the enemy. My Swiss were crawling in snail speed and we had two blunder (Alisdair and Bart), but eventually we were in shooting range and the Spanish-imperials were peppering the French quite heavy.
Then I felt the need to charge with my Men-At-Arms two guns... also in this period not a good idea not a tin can reached the Germans.

Bart was advancing left right and centre and soon we had the usual cavalry fight on both flanks. I did quite well vs Bart, the title holder in the Club-Horse-Hussar and was fairly proud of me: until Alisdair charged Bart -  with his French Archers ... all through the game he swiped Barts Horse away, much to his chargrin. And I was so stupid to deny him, Alisdair, the French Gendarmes d‘Ordonnance!!! I just nearly lost all of them vs Barts Imperial ones. Next games Alisdair will get the Horse!!!

Then nearly to the ned we killed some units, mostly horse and guns, but at the last turn I made an all out charge and blasted Barts gendarmes away and nearly killed Barts mega Landsknechts pike block ... he just  messed up with the dice and had to re-roll and then just got away ... Any way final count was 1 unit more in the ditch from the Imperials, so technically a French victory, but Bart had the upper hand with the guns and still an operating unit of Gendarmes d‘ Ordonnance ... well if this would have been a Sunday game Me and Alisdair would have to work hard for the victory ... so you could argue and because its x-mas, it was a draw! But my new Swiss weren't defeated! (you know the curse of the new models...)

Well that was it all in all absolutely fun - next Sunday game will be the last in 2019 and a massive To The Strongest including my Classical Greeks ...

The Imperial right flank with mounted crossbows and argulets

The german centre with the large pike block

The Frech centre left with the Gascogne crossbows and in the back the Kings Horse 

The Imperial right flank Horse and Arquebusiers

the initial deployment

the two opponents closing in

Barts advancing the arquebusiers in the front of the pike are his minis ... he promised to paint more

my Swiss (Berner) contingent, light halberdiers in front of the pikes

The German gendarmes and the last seconds of my charging Men-at-arms in front of the guns 

the Borgia swordsmen charge! ... but fail short

... in front of some German Doppelsoeldner

The German Gendarmes d‘Ordonnance

the Holy Roman Empire in one line

The clash of the heavy metals both gendarme units clash in a charge

The French gendarmes even took it while disordered! King Francis I was watching!

but they didn‘t hold out for long!

Then the Germans swipe through to the light gun

the other gendarmes push the germans back, just about it while being shaken

 

while the heat goes on

the French men-at-arms get shot to by landsknecht arquebusiers

Then my french archer clash with German mounted crossbow men - no chance! 

A Landsknechts Pike block advances

The French Landsknechte arrive on the hill!

my final push of my Schwyzer pike into the large Landsknecht block

Former set up ... with more commands

1781 - The Battle of Wooden Hill - AWI campaign

This Tuesday (because of the vote), we continued our little AWI campaign of the 4 brigadiers (28mm, Black Powder and Eve of Battle). This Time Mike (American) and Alisdair (British) had a go at each other, with a little "help" of their team mates (Bart (Franco-American) and Peter (Hessian)). The weather was clear, the Americans had a strategic hill and some scouts, a gun and some dragoons and the Brits the full force of the crown (incl. dragoons but no gun). For good measure (and because of x-mas,) I gave both an extra small unit skirmishing sharpshooters (Riflemen and Jaegers) in the faint hope they will pick these units in the future...

The two sides were fast closing in and started immediately an intense fire fight. Bart had put the rifle men in the forrest patch in front of the British to slow them down, but he rolled abysmal, and then retreated. The Brits came closer and reached the edge of the strategic hill and that was the high watermark of the right flank. The two opposed lines on the left just did what was to be expected - they kept shooting until the hopefully somebody would break.

On the right, were Bart and Peter were sitting, the battle was rather the opposite - very quiet. I heard that both parties would "bottle each other up". Now I don't know, who was bottling whom, as both lines were of similar strength, but maybe it was just a ref to the drinks ...

On the Left though the battle was won and lost: Alisdair couldn't get the damn rebels to break and ordered a charge too late ... his Jaegers were previously shot away and now some Rebels were charging out of the woods into the back/flank of the British line ... another unit vapourised. This was the time when prudence won over want for glory ... and he send his compliments and offered defeat. (after the 6th turn, a player can, to minimize his loss, and offer his defeat and the opponent HAS to accept!!! - after all we are in a gentlemens (war game) club) ... the next time the turn to offer defeat will be one turn longer after the seventh ...

So now Mike is on third place with 2 victory points, while Bart and Peter still share the same 1st place with 6 vp each - giving the Rebels a lead of 2!!! Next time (some Sunday game in January) it will be a Grand battle with all 4 parties fighting ... in the snow (storm) again!!! I guess its our club x-mas/winter game... the 3rd round ... will the crown forces take back the lead? ... we will see ...

The Rebel line on the right

the Rebel line on the left of the hill

The British from the Hill

The Red line

Initial set up

Approachement

The Grenadiers in line with the Line(s)

First volleys and fire fights

The combat in the small woods full of Riflemen

The Rebels right is holding 

slowly reducing the Redcoats

The Grenadiers are still holding

but so do the Riflemen

on the left just quiet ...

The Fusiliers just came up to the edge of the plateau 

the Left though gives them Redcoats hell

until they are conned into a bajonet charge

they never survived ...

the score after the first two rounds