Tommy's Wargaming blog

The armies set up. All the terrain on table is rocky ground. Great for my Infantry. Getting ready to charge a bit too late in the game. The Chinese Chariots are getting beaten up but have taken some units down. Note the big slog between 2 Babylonian Heavy Infantry units and a Polearm unit. The Polearms should be dead by now (handbags at dawn). Into shooting range of the Skythian mercenaries. My shooting was generally rubbish throughout the game. Some casualties on the Babylonian side. The score will be 8-6 in favour of the Chinese after this round, 2 points coming from a very weak Babylonian Archer unit. A couple of dead Chinese units. Final Babylonian casualties. In the end the Polearm unit on the Chinese right broke a Cavalry unit. As mentioned before, the weak Archer died as did the Sparabara and a Chariot unit. The Chinese lost their army eventually, but it was extremely close. Not much left on table. Main lessons from the game: when you have a chance to potentially get out of a si...

Tough fight between Spears, Libyans and mixed units. The Skirmishers can now charge a flank.  Those Chariots on the Minoan side are nasty. Lots of casualties on the Chinese side.  The Minoans are suffering but have the upper hand. How that Chinese Chariot unit survived I have no idea. It was however responsible for killing a 6 of Archers because of the ability to follow through with unengaged bases. A few more casualties on both sides. How the unit hit in the flank by a full strength long spear unit survived to the next bound, I have no idea.  I believe the Chinese lost 15-6 in the end, having taken down a Long Spear unit, an Archer unit and 2 Sugs. This was a very bloody fight as well. Once Long Spears are down to 1 base in any of their files, they are dead against decent Mounted.

A small bit of rough terrain on table and good lineups. The Romans are on the left, the Exceptionals I believe facing close order Flexible Warband in rough terrain. Romans are pushing forward aggressively, the Gepids are reorganising. a very wide Superior Legion facing off 2 Cavalry units. Beaten up but alive Gepid Cavalry having beaten the entire Roman mounted left wing. Dunce cap required for me. I'll elaborate in the summary. Gepid casualties so far. Mass of Roman casualties.   The Romans eventually picked off one Gepid Tug. They however lost their army. I will say though that a few Gepid units were a bit worse for wear so I could have picked up more units had I survived. The dunce cap moment explained: I was too aggressive with my Cavalry. Yes mine were better than Ian's mostly, because of the Armenian ally. The mistake was advancing without proper flank protection. I should have come in at an angle rather than in a straight line. 15-2 to Ian was the final result.  

 Something a bit different from the MeG battle reports. A couple of optional rules were in place, such as no weather or time of day and the chance to remove or adjust the position of terrain. My list was Corps 1: Cv(O)c CinC, 60 Wb(F), 2 Cv(O)c Corps 2 +3: Wb(F) SG, 10 Bw(I), 10 Ps(I) Corps 4: Cv(O)c AG, 13 Bd(F), 2 Ps(I) All Libyan commands had 2 Army Baggage (I) and the Sea Peoples AG, had 2 Command Baggage (I). 96ME in total. I picked the army as I hadn't been in a real life competition for 20 months, plus it was a simple army with a simple plan because of all the self-propelled troops. Game 1, Early Libyan vs New Kingdom Egyptian. The Egyptians defended because of the Libyans' high aggression. Terrain on table included 2 enclosed fields and 2 rocky flats. I deployed second and was attacking in most places except with the Warband. The Sea Peoples ally in their first moves went into my right skirmishing sector. In the end, I was too cautious with my Warband and should have pu...

  Here is my description of a James IV Scottish list. Part of the reason I'm making this post is because I've been silent on this blog for too long, for which I apologise deeply. Another reason is that this army appeals to me greatly given the anti horse archer capabilities. Plus, it's an army whose composition will rarely, if ever, differ, in my opinion. Firstly, the generals are a Competent CinC, 2 Talented Subs and a Mediocre Sub. All professional. 13 cards for 13 units. Next, the camp is Average Unfortified. This was because I had points left over that I couldn't spend elsewhere. Next 10 blocks of Pike, front rank of 2 Average, Full Armour, Shield Cover, Combat Shy Pike and 6 Average Protected Combat shy Pike, all Formed Close. The schiltrons in the front make these units almost impossible to dent if your opponent can't get on your flank or behind you, except against Skilled Shooters. 2 4s of Cavalry, Formed Loose, Charge Only Crossbow, Short Spear. These are in...

 Game between 5 Hegemons and Later Sargonid Assyrians Hammy's opening hand. Better than mine but not by too much. Final casualties of the Chinese. Including an 8 base Di Devastating Charger unit which suffered 9 wounds in 3 shooting rounds from a 6 base Cimmerian Tug. 1 in 19683 chance of happening. Holes have started to appear in both armies. The Cavalry unit on my right had ripped apart 2 Chariot units with a flank charge. Ouch. However, at this point I've killed 2 Tugs and 1 SuG. My revolting and extremely rare first hand.  Initial deployment of the armies. On Monday the 30th of August, I played Hammy again. 5 Hegemons against Later Sargonid Assyrian. The game was very vicious and in truth seemed slightly closer than the score of 6-15 to the Assyrians suggested. At one point, I made a mistake of moving something after Hammy passed early, which allowed him to make crucial movements later on in the turn.  I was outscouted by 40%, and I had elected to invade. I made a sch...

 This is a really bad army, full stop. Yes, there are things you can do to improve it, yes you can make it resilient, but what you can't do is take away its main weakness. Firstly, a Talented CinC, a Competent ally, a Talented Sub and a Competent Sub I believe. 5 6s of Average, Experienced Bows, with Fleet of Foot who are TRIBAL Loose and unprotected.  3 8s of the same but this time they're skilled. 2 9s of Average, TRIBAL Loose Protected Melee Expert only foot. 1 8 of Superior Egyptian Short Spear Melee Expert, Drilled Loose Protected. 1 8 of the same but these are Average non Melee Experts. 1 6 of Poor Unskilled Drilled Loose Unprotected Bows. 2 9s of Poor Skilled Bow Combat Shy Skirmishers and 1 9 of the same but these are Experienced. The main weakness is that 10 of the 16 UGs are Tribal. Absolutely ridiculous to try and manoeuvre, and, as a result, even with the Egyptian ally, the army struggles to get decent matchups. Fleet of Foot means, to an extent, you don't have ...