Seleucid vs Galatian clash!

After a couple of weeks of no gaming due to weather and work commitments, Nick and I played a 2000pt WAB game using the excellent draft lists posted to Jeff Jonas's excellent website (now taken down by the 'evil empire' boo!)

I have long struggled to get a Seleucid army I like out of previous army lists, but I actually managed it from these lists. It was just the sort of army I like - mobile and looking to use missiles and open order troops to disrupt and run rings around my opponent. Nick rather surprisingly for him, went for a Galatian army. He's always wanted to use a Gallic army but they just haven't been up to facing a 'mainstream' army in WAB - the only chance they have is to maximise the number of characters in the army. The Galatians seem to offer something different.

The battlefield was pretty clear with two steep hills on my left flank and Nick's right flank. An area of rough ground was about halfway down the table on my right flank, Nick's left flank.

I deployed left to right: 13 javelin light infantry; 32 levy phalanx; 2 heavy bolt shooters; 32 levy phlanx with another 13 javelin skirmishers in front; 24 Babylonian archers; 11 Tarantine light cavalry; 11 horse archers; back up by 10 seleucid heavy cavalry and a unit of 17 Guardsmen deployed as open order peltasts led by the army standard bearer.

Nick deployed from right to left with a unit of javelinmen backed by one warband, then three other warbands with some javelinmen skirmishing in front; some skirmishers with slings and a unit of Gallic light cavalry in skirmish. In reserve was two scythed chariots and on the right a unit of Gallic heavy cavalry. The warbands were all imitation legionaries and as memory serves the centre two have heavy throwing spears; the other two just throwing spears. They all had at least one character in the front rank to give them more punch.

My plan was simple. Sit back with the levy pike and try and reduce the size of the warbands with the bolt shooters, while the right flank went around his left with the line hinged by the archers who can fire full effect in two ranks if stationary. Nick won the initiative and rushed forward as quickly as possible to get his warbands into combat before my shooting could have an impact.

In my turn I charged his centre javelinmen with my skirmishers but lost the combat and was run down. On the right the babylonians and tarantines peppered the slingers but they passed their morale. The horse archers fired inconclusively on the gallic light cavalry.

Turn two Nick brought a chariot to his left flank and the heavy cavalry also moved across the back of his line to support his hard pressed left. The rest of his line pushed forward as fast as possible with the now free javelinmen in the centre screening my bolt shooters (see here).

My turn, I shot away the slingers and the forced the light cavalry back allowing my guard infantry to push forward into the rough ground opposite the heavy cavalry and scythed chariot. My javelinmen charged his skirmishers on the right flank and beat them, but failed their morale and charged through into the warband behind.

Nick charged where he could on turn three with one warband charging home on the left flank phalanx; the heavy cavalry charged into the seleucid havy cavalry now in wedge who countercharged (see left); and the scythed chariot charged the guard who being drilled opened their ranks to let it harmlessly through. In the ensuing combat, the levy phalanx held up very well against the heavy throwing weaponed gallic warriors who only won by one. The Seleucid general was with 12 inches and so they passed the morale test.

Meanwhile the Gallic heavy cavalry, also led by a character diced awfully against the seleucid heavy cavalry. Despite the gauls being better weapon class, the Greeks had more figures and won the combat and broke the barbarians. But they outdistanced the pursuit. The scythed chariot which had gone through the guard then routed from seeing the cavalry battle! The seleucid skirmishers duly were destroyed by the warband they charged into on my left flank.

In my turn, the now uncommitted seleucid heavies pivoted and charge the left hand warband in the flank, but it passed its morale test for being charge to flank. In the combat the cavalry won without loss, but the Galatians simply fell back in good order leaving the cavalry unable to followup or risk recieving a charge from the other scythed chariot in the flank.

My remaining levy pike formation charged Nick's central skirmisher unit who ran, leaving the pike to crash into the warband behind - a good way to get levy to charge close order enemy! (See pictured left, note the warband pushed back by the seleucid heavy cavalry behind the phalanx)

In the combats that followed, my left flank pike formation, despite losing the momentum in the combat managed to beat the Gallic warriors but their morale held. Meanwhile the pike who hit the central warband managed to lose the first round, and despite the King being right there, their morale failed and they ran. But all my men nearby passed their morale thankfully.

And that was all we had time for - it was a very tight battle and it probably had another 3 turns to go before it was conclusive either way.

The levy phalanx showed as a large block they were very resilient against the warband and once they held the first found, they had every chance to beat the barbarian foot. Nick's light cavalry and slingers were always up against it against two BS4 light cavalry formations in my army, backed up by the fearsome babylonian archers! And what I wanted to do do actually happen. I pushed my way aorund Nick's left flank and was threatening to roll up his line. But his plan worked too with the warbands pushing through the centre and likely as not to defeat my two pikeblocks and bolters. The bolters were hopeless, only killing one skirmisher all game!

Still it was a fun game and I look forward to when we actually see the successor WAB lists finally hit the market after so long.

Norse steamroller the poor Welsh!

Thursday evening saw Nick and I return to a very mild (for early November) garage for a WAB 2.0 Shieldwall battle between my favourite army - the Hiberno-Norse, and Nick with a rather surprising (for him) Welsh army.

It was a good chance for us to see how the new rules influenced these armies and I was very keen to see how the new open order rules would help an already powerful Norse army. Ultimately it was an interesting, although not very competitive affair....

We diced for terrain and in the end pretty much all of it came down on Nick's side of the table. There were two rough patches in the flank sector of his right flank, another rought sector was just ahead of my deployment zone on my left of the central sector. Nick then had a low hill right in the centre of his side of the table and a steep hill in his left flank zone. He then took the Welsh option to deploy an additional piece of terrain to put a low hill also right in the centre of the table.
With this wall of hills and given that I knew Nick would have cavalry, forced me to deploy to my left aiming to cut through the rough as quickly as possible and get around Nick's right flank. From the picture left you can see that Nick's army was maxed out on allowable dogs of war units and on his left flank he had a unit of Breton heavy cavalry; a large unit of Viking pirates led by some slingers; then the Household welsh warband headed by the CinC and the army standard bearer; two more units of warband welsh - one headed by a priest and a warlord; the other with just a warlord. He had a unit of skirmishing bowmen, and finally holding his right flank some javelinmen complete with poisoned javelins!


Clearly Nick aimed to hold on the right and attack on the left; which was exactly what I planned to do too!


I deployed left to right: a unit of 13 Viking pirates with armour, shields, javelins and 2 side arms in skirmish. Behind them was the two heavy hitter Hirdmen blocks - one led by the Jarl and standard bearer, with 2 berserkers and 16 hirdmen; the other with one warlord, two more berserkers and 17 hirdmen. Both formidible units. Then in the edge of the rough I depoyed 12 slingers with the Bondi warblock behind - these were led by a Godi who basically made them immune to all tests, and a warlord to take on any challengers. The 28 bondi were equipped with thursting spears and shields. Next came 15 bondi bowmen deployed in open order, behind them came a small unit of 15 hirdmen without any characters or berserkers but with javelins. And finally holding the right of the line, another 12 slingers.

Nick got the jump on me first turn and swiftly moved his units left aiming to get aorund my right flanks as quickly as possible. In the shooting phase, his archers peppered the bondi archers who were regretting not being in skirmish! They just saved having to take a test for 25% casualties from shooting on the first turn!

On my first turn I rushed forward with the pirates and hirdmen on the left (see the picture right) and the slingers and Godi led bondi trudged through the rough patch. The bondi archers took advantage of the new open order two free formation changes and did an about face and moved backwards then wheeled to get a long range shot on the dreaded Breton heavy cavalry. The dice gods were kind to me and I wounded 3 Bretons despite moving and firing at long range - Nick then only saved one. That one shot pretty well meant the Bretons didn't play much part in the game as from then on Nick ensured they were hidden away behind his slingers as much as possible. There they were safe from harm, but not much of a threat. Meanwhile I decided I had to trust to the Viking toughness and armour, and pushed the small Hirdman unit straight up the table towards the Welsh archers.

Next turn the hirdmen were peppered by arrows and slings, but due to their toughness and armour lost only lost two men. In the next turn, their opened out their formation and unleashed their javelins and with the slingers aid, took out 50% of the archers. They passed their waivre test but decided it wasnt the best place to be facing a load of hairy vikings and so doubled away.

Meanwhile on my right, the bondi archers and lowly thrall slingers were doing a pretty good job of holding up Nick's attack. The Godi led bondi block was wheeling in the rough to continue the Norse line and my slingers were taking holes out of the Welsh warbands. The Jarl led hirdmen had got out of the rough and were racing up towards the welsh swinging their axes!

Then disaster struck the Vikings. The welsh poisoned javelinmen and remaining archers stood to try and damage the pirates who were fast chasing them down. There shooting was inconclusive, and the pirates charged them in a wild rush - too wild it seems. The javelinmen failed their Fury of the Norse fear test and were virtually annihilated by the pirates swinging two hand weapons apiece. But in the pursuit, the Vikings threw a 12 on two dice and overran not only the welsh skirmishers but then smashed into the right end welsh warband.... sure enough, they failed to make enough impact and were defeated in the combat. Despite their 8 leadership, their failed the morale test and then ran all of 3 inches in rout, getting cut down for their troubles! Meanwhile on my right flank, the welsh slingers finally got a good shot on the bondi archers whose morale failed and they too ran. Then right slinger unit was hit by a wave of javelins from the Vikings on Nick's side and they also ran!

But that was to be the last good news for the Welsh as the Viking Hirdmen came into combat.

In this picture you can see the critical stage of the battle take place. Nick's veteran warband right in the centre failed its warband control test and charged the viking slingers in the centre. They stood, but were obviously defeated in the combat allowing the welsh to pursue into my Jarl-led hirdmen. In the next round though, the two berserkers in that unit ripped through the poor welsh, killing an amazing 9 before combat proper happened. They then failed their morale despite having the army CinC in their rankes and that was it as they ran taking most of Nick's army with them.

We could have played on but with Nick's centre gone, along with his best unit and army standard and CinC, and my three hirdmen blocks and large bondi virtually untouched, there wasn't much point - plus it was 11.30 at night so we called that a game.

Overall, Nick did all he could to deal with the Norse but they are so powerful and having lost his skirmishers in the centre, he couldnt try and get the berserkers to charge prematurely, so, when they did charge, they ripped through his best warrior unit. Apart from the Normans, I dont see many shieldwall armies have much of a chance against the Vikings which is slightly unsatisfying to be honest - although I still like the Hiberno-Norse!

Hiberno-Norse to make an appearance

Looks like we are up for Thursday night gaming again but Tom is not coming - he's having his wisdom teeth out poor soul, so it's just Nick and me. We've decided to leave the Very British Civil War game I had planned until Tom is back and Nick and I are playing a 2000pt WAB game from the Shieldwall supplement.

I must say I am looking forward to it. I know that Nick will as usual maximise the crossbowmen in whatever army he chooses - and try to shoot me down before combat, but I can't wait to try out the Shieldwall supplement under the new WAB 2.0 rules.

I've picked a long term favourite of mine - the Hiberno-Norse - one I've played with a lot and always enjoyed using as much!

2000pts gives me a small, but powerful army so we'll see how it does against whatever Nick picks - probably Norman.

The core of the army is a big 28 man Bondi unit armed with thrusting spears and led by a Hersir and a Godi. The Godi basically makes this unit immune from all morale tests while he lives and so they should have some staying power. The Hersir is there to take on any challenges Nick might make on the Godi. This block should give me something to hold ground with an allow me to operate around with the real battle winners of the Vikings - the Hirdmen.

The real strength of the army is two small blocks of 16 and 17 Hirdmen. These are really tough killers (WS4 and toughness 4) and one block is led by the Jarl army general with his standard bearer, and the other another Hersir. Both blocks also have two berserkers in them....

Supporting the killing machines I've got two small units of Bondi bowmen - they will deploy in open order which might be a risk, but means they can charge home if necessary, and ignore skirmishers who rout which is a rule I always fall foul of with my skirmishers!

Then there are two units of thrall skirmishers, armed with slings who are there to shield the Hirdmen and bondi to allow them to get to grips with the enemy without suffering too many missile loses.

Then finally are my two wild card units. I have decided on 2x12man Viking pirate units but will deploy them as skirmishers. Under the old rules I would have had one larger block of these tough killers but then they could form up from skirmish to fight in the front line. That option isn't allowed in WAB 2.0 so they are either skirmisher or Open Order from the start of the game.

I'm going to try them as skirmishers and see if they are as effective. Even though formed bodies ignore skirmishers in their rear or flank - one unit has two hand weapons, the other throwing spears (to re-rolls misses) and with a WS4 and Toughness 4, they should still carve their way through even the toughest troops. The only challenge is that they fear formed bodies so need to take a morale test to charge them, but they are leadership 8 so hopefully should go in more than not! Famous last words.

Either way, these tough killers should destroy whatever skirmishers Nick has in his army and give my hirdmen a clear run in without losing too many men to missiles. We will see.