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Friday 22 October 2010

Back to the garage!

After gaming in the salubrious surroundings of Warhammer World in Nottingham it was back to the usual Flaming Pigs venue of my garage!

Nick and I picked two 2000pts WAB armies from the lists Tommy provided for the weekend and I went Oscans and Nick Early Macedonians.

My army was two 23 man Oscan hoplite blocks one with the army general, one with the army standard. I took 2 units of 13 javelin skirmishers, 1 unit of 12 moorish archers, 10 Numidians, 12 Campanian heavy cavalry, my now favourite 18 Bruttian warriors, and a unit of 23 Italian hill warriors (javelin, throwing spear and shield) led by a character. My plan - as ever to use the hoplites to fix the enemy and use the mobility of the Bruttians and the hill warriors to get around the flanks.

Nick went drilled mad. He took three units of pike - all drilled, two of them with half light armoured, and one was stubborn. He also had his companions led by the general (Philip?). He then had a unit of cretan archers, some slingers and some javelinmen. To support the cavalry he had a unit of Illyrian light cavalry, and two mule mounted light bolt shooters. Most worrying he had a unit of hypaspids equipped as thrusting spear and shield and again drilled!

We played on the usual 6x4 table and the terrain was sparse with two hills on the left, one in the corner of the table, one halfway up, and a wood between the hills - they played no part in the battle.

Nick deployed to his left with the illyrians and companions, then the pike and hypaspids led by the cretans, the slingers and javelinmen holding his right flank. Tom joined my army as consultant general! and we deployed with the Numidians, campanians and archers on our right. Then the two hoplites with some javelinmen in front, then the other javelinmen and the hill warriors and Bruttians in fast march column.

Tom and I got first move and swarmed forward on the left with the javelinmen, hill warriors and Bruttians moving at full speed forward. The hoplites wheeled slightly and moved up while the Numidians and archers looked to sell themselves dearly to delay the Macedonian army!

The next few turns saw Nick push forward on his left, while we did the same on our left. We were unable to do much shooting so in the end charged the Numidians into the cretans, and the Campanians into the Illyrians. The Illyrians fled and in the pursuit the Italian cavalry hit the companion wedge behind. Unable to respond to the charge and therefore receiving it to the halt, Macedonian's finest came out of wedge and looked to be in trouble. But the dice gods didn't see it that way and poor dicing meant the Campanians lost the combat when Nick put two oracle points into the result. Morale was good, but the Macedonians had momentum and next round the pike smashed into the cavalry! But again it was inconclusive and the Campanians lost on ranks and this time fled. Meanwhile the combat gods also failed the Numidians who failed to win against the cretans. Again this morale held, but they broke off.

The picture left shows the situation now. The Numidians and moorish archers have pulled back to the flank of the Oscan hoplites. The Campanian cavalry have rallied in a line, but next turn are charged from the table by the pikes and companions.

Meanwhile the Italian Hill Warriors and Bruttians had got around to flank and ultimately charged the middle pike block. Despite the pikes having no armour, they just managed to hold the warriors although the momentum was with the Italians.

And that was as far as we had time to play. The Bruttians and Italian warriors were about to be charged by another pike block and the campanians had fled the table. Nick had lost one of the bolt shooters - overrun by the Hill Warrior's charge, and his javelinmen and slingers.

The points would have been tight - the campanians were gone, and the Numidians were down to half strength, and one of the Italian skirmisher units were in rout. But Nick had lost two skirmisher units and we had two table quarters in our control, while the other two were contested, so maybe the Italians would have sniffed it..... a fun game though!

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