Infinity Battle Report

I fought an Infinity game with my friend Harry this week at the Christchurch Crusaders club.

We played a 250pt game, Harry with his Haqqislam and me with Yu Jing.

HAQQISLAM
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 (Regs: 10/Irrs: 0):

GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (13)

NAFFATÛN Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife (12)
  
GHULAM Doctor Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (17)
 
2x GHULAM Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (13)

MUYIB Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and Smoke Ammo.) / Pistol, Knife (23 | 1)

DJANBAZAN Doctor Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (32)
  
DJANBAZAN HMG / Pistol, CCW (36 | 1.5)
 
JANISSARY Doctor AP Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (49)

RAGIK Hacker  Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (42 | 0.5)
  
250 Points | SWC: 3

ARMY CODE: [code]eNozMVQ1VbNQM6wxVAPCGlM1czBpACfNwOKGhmomEArMM1EzAlFGasZqhgDnkQ6L[/code] http://www.devilteam.com]Army Infinity v.3.0.

My list was  a bit different to last week, although there were some familiar faces.

YU JING
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

 GROUP 1 (Regs: 8/Irrs: 2):

CELESTIAL GUARD Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife (13)


ZHANSHI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife (11)

CELESTIAL GUARD MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife (27 | 1.5)


CELESTIAL GUARD Spitfire / Pistol, Knife (20 | 1)

ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife (29 | 1.5)


SHÀNG JÍ Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Shock CCW (42)


DÀOFĚI MULTI Rifle / Pistol, Shock CCW (60)

NINJA Combi Rifle / Pistol, EXP CCW (38)


2x SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW (5)



250 Points | SWC: 4

ARMY CODE: [code]eNozNFQ1VjNXM6wxVDMAksZqxmDSBEhaqBmCxA3AEoYQeSNjNSMQZQpWB6EA8sEOtQ==

I've since realised this list is not legal as you can only take 2 celestial guards, so the list should have a Zhanshi lieutenant instead.

It was quite a treat this week as Harry jointly owns the Warmill terrain company was game testing some prototypes for some new terrain, so we were using one of the club's urban boards instead of the trench one from last week. This is a shot of deployment with markers indicating where we set up

My ninja has Thermo-Optical Camo, so deploys completely hidden from my opponent at the start of the game - he doesn't even know I have a ninja, let alone where it is!! The Daofei in the bottom left conversely is deployed as a marker saying "camo" my opponent knows there is something there, but not how hard it is (it could only be an anti-personal mine, but is in fact a hard-as-nails heavy infantry!)

We were playing a game someone else introduced me to, so I might have messed up all the rules, but basically there is a civie + 2 bodyguards in the middle of the table who will receive a data download at the end of turn 2. Both sides have to try and get this data. If there is any combat within civie's LOF he will spook and run. If this happens before end of turn 2 he will not get the data (so everyone loses!). Once spooked he moves towards the side of the table. Info can be got by synching, interogating (short skill WIP), or short skill WIP to remove his memory cube after death. Whoever gets the Info has to make it off own board edge. 6 turn limit.

 

Turn 1

Cagey movement was the order of the day, the Yu Jing spent most of the orders on the impetuous troops to get them far forward. The Celestial spitfire made a silly move-move order into the large hab unit on the right of the picture, the second move order revealing him to a Djanzaban for a long-range ARO*. One shot, one kill.


(* - An "automatic reaction order" lets your troops react to orders given to enemy troops in their own turn, its a little like "overwatch" in old versions of 40K, but everyone has it all of the time)

The second Djanzaban was taken unconscious by the rampaging Aragoto spitfire

View from the Haqq side of the board

 Celestial Sniper provides cover

In turn 2 the Haqq forces again moved into prime positions to intercept the courier and to provide covering fire, the Janissary doctor healing the Djanbazan who had got spitfired in turn 1. The Yu Jing impetuous troops again dashed forwards. The monk on the Yu Jing left got shot as he attempted to throw a smoke grenade, but the right flank exploded into life, the Aragoto went on a suicide run gunning down both Djanzabans and taking a wound off the Janissary doc without taking any return hits. Crucially though both Djanzanbans were only unconscious not dead...* The monk on this flank ran up to support and the ninja revealed himself as a marker and ran up to support as well, eventually being discovered by the Janissary as he closed in.

(* - In Infinity most models have 1 wound, when you lose that wound you go unconscious,and can be healed by doctors or some special skills. If you lose another wound while unconscious you die)


In the following Haqq turn the Naffatun ran forward and flame everyone, killing the monk and aragoto and burning the Thermo-Optically Camouflaged ninja who passed his armour roll (but lost his camo abilities due to the flames), he then attempted to flame again, but the ninja succeeded in his dodge roll and dodge into close combat with the janissary!

Things then got even more complex! A ghulam popped up from the central building and shot into the combat between the ninja and the janissary, the ninja electing to dodge. The ghulam missed by miles, but the ninja made his dodge. We then weren't quite sure what was supposed to happen as a dodge in CC seems to take you OUT of CC in the rules. This is the way we applied it, so the ninja dodged back, promptly got shot in the face by the janissary who then healed both Djanzanbans with his doctor skill!!

The suicide mission had cost a monk, a ninja and an aragoto for no Haqq losses! However it had cost all 7 of the Haqq orders this turn to deal with the threat.

Turns 4 & 5 - the Haqq Ragik dropped down at the back of the board to threaten the Yu Jing firebase (A ragik is a type of airborne deployment troop), but was taken out in the Yu Jing turn when the lone Zhanshi ducked behind the shipping crate and shot him.

The Janissary, Djanzabans and Naffatun made their way towards the target who was rapidly approaching the board edge.

Meanwhile the Daofei moved rapidly from left to right across the middle, driving ghulams back into cover, but not causing any wounds. The celestial sniper tried to pick off the Djanzaban HMG but was taken out in ARO instead!

The Haqq forces dispensed with subtlety as the clock ran down, the naffatun ran forward, round the right-hand crate and flamed the target, killing both bodyguards, the twice healed Djanzaban ran forward into cover and was promtly shot in ARO (unconscious #3).

The Daofei again ran to the right, taking out both the Djanzaban HMG and then last wound from the Janissary in consecutive turns, both to fully dead. He ended in touching distance of the target, with the Shang Ji in support.

The Naffatun ran forward and tried to flame the target and the Daofei who elected to stand and shoot, resulting in all 3 going unconscious. The Djanzanban regenerated, but was promptly shot with a critical ARO from the Shang Ji (unconsciousness #4!) he then regenerated a second time and attempted to reach the unconscious target and was again wounded in ARO! (unconsciousness #5!!)

In the Yu Jing turn the Shang Ji flamed the unconscious Naffatun and Djanzaban to put an end to his regenerating antics. The Muyib attempted to take him out with repeated speculative grenades* and although some were on target no wounds were caused, it also allowed the Shang Ji to move into full cover and into base-to-base with the unconscious target.

(* - troops with grenades can launch them parabolically to drop down on troops they can't see)

At the end of the Haqq turn we realised that Yu Jing didn't have enough orders to get the target's memory cube off the board (& were in retreat due to their losses) and Haqq were unable to retrieve the data so we declared a "winning draw/minor victory" for Yu Jing.

It was a cracking game with loads of fun little talking points, the Djanzaban regeneration/doctoring was great, real relentless intent. I found it pretty funny when my sniper who had spent the first few turns passing up ARO's and shots to avoid spooking the target finally got a clear shot on the HMG in the open, missed both double-action shots (special ammo) in their excitement and got killed by the ARO! The prototype Warmill buildings played really nicely, good balance between cover and "permeability". Hopefully a version of them will be available to buy in the near future.

Thanks for reading!

No More Room in Hell - Battle report

One of the many things I've been busy with this past year is getting figures and terrain for a skirmish game called "No More Room in Hell". It's a light hearted 28mm zombie survivor game which draws heavily on popular zombie films like the Evil Dead and Day of the Dead etc.

It involves some really nice mechanics for example new zombies are spawned from a "dice grave" which has a starting level but every time a firearm (or other noisy weapon) is used the "to hit" dice are put into the dice grave. This has the effect of rewarding stealth early on, but equally when it all goes down there is a nice build of pressure as the zombies reach a critical mass where the more zombies you shoot down the more are likely to spawn next turn.

It is possible to pick a gang of survivors who can swoop into each mission like Black Ops and carry the day, but far more fun is had from assembling a bunch of misfits contemporary with the start of most survival horror films. Indeed there is one class of character called "sheeple" who's only purpose is to get eaten by zombies as they pathetically fumble with a box of shotgun shells trying to reload.

I finally got round to playing a game recently with Jon, where we played a simple rescue mission. We both took a crew each of survivors and the objective of the game was to get to a central building, ascend to the roof, surviving whatever horrors were lurking inside to rescue a scientist, and then escape off the table with him.

As it was the first game we played with an odd mix of terrain and figures. I had picked up some cheap toy cars and a helicopter that were about the right scale, and we used an Infinity building I made with a Anisty pipefarm, some paper shipping crates and some of Jon's 40k ruins. Overall it was a pretty decent set-up considering.

The figures were mainly Hasslefree adventurers, with some Infinity minis and one I sculpted.

I started with Zombie Hunter Kev and 3 sheeple soldiers in the SW corner where they were hoping to approach the building from the rear through the Imperial Park (Jon has some odd terrain - A Space Marine arboretum being his pride and joy!)

Chainsaw wilding Ash took his band from the NW and Jon's crew lead by William came in from the NE. Keen to try and get their hands on some supplies both crews explored the "survive locations" nearby. However this didn't go so well. William found an old man hiding in a shipping crate who then proceeded to follow him round for the rest of the game preaching the end of the world and reducing the crew's Guts score. Ash faired even worse, firstly opening a shipping crate full of rancid offal, the smell of which drew zombies from all around, permanently raising the zombie threat level for the rest of the game. He then found a wise cracking kid hiding in the pipefarm, who also tagged along. No cool guns for anyone!

Jon's leader Harby had already got his crew to the front of the target building, but elsewhere things were starting to heat up. Zombie hunter Kev had got trapped in a long melee with several zombies and had lost all of his support crew and was now very alone and deep in hostile territory.

He's behind you!

The dice grave had built to a very high level (>30) and things were looking very grim, but as William explored the abandoned police riot van a loud explosion was heard in the distance, drawing the zombie's attention - the dice grave was immediately re-set! Harby took advantage of the lull to lead his crew inside the building and begin working their way up to the roof.

The rest of the crews tried to form a perimeter to keep the zombies out and leave a path to the board edge for escape. As Harby worked his way up Zombie Hunter Kev also made it into the building and barricaded the back door as a group of 6 zombies tried to batter it down.

Jon's favourite character, an old lady called Madge with a hunting rifle was picking off zombies at will, but Ash's crew were sucked into a melee with a zombie horde and all his men were dragged to their deaths before the zombies could be killed.

As Harby secured the scientist the zombies finally broke down the back door and Kev was quickly overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. Ash quickly realised that only his chiselled chin and massive chainsaw could save the day so he charged into the building and began laying about him with his whirring prosthetic chainsaw limb. Outside the end had surely come for Madge as she and William were trapped in melee with three zombies, William killed two before he was dragged to his death, but against all the odds Madge punched the remaining zombie to death with her bare hands! There was more to this old lady that an antique hunting rifle and nerves of steel.

Ash cleared the ground floor as Harby came down the stairs but more zombies were already pouring in through the front. The two heros locked eyes and nodded, Harby escaped out the back door and Ash fired up his chainsaw and prepared to hold them as long as he could.

Harby makes it off the board with the scientist in tow

As they fought their way free of the handful of zombies baring their way Harby and the others heard the unmistakable sound of a chainsaw splutter and then die as it ran out of fuel...


Jon and I had loads of fun playing this game, it really is one that doesn't take itself too seriously, but the basic mechanics are intuitive and work well (and dare I say it realistically). There are some really nice touches in the mechanics, I've already mentioned the dice grave, but the way the hero characters get weaker as they get injured particularly in melee is good (basically Wounds=Attacks). Using D10's also helps to give more gradual increases in skills and abilities between survivors. This is not a game where the good guys always win, we got the impression that the standard horror film ending is about the best you can hope for - one or two plucky heros make it to the chopper and freedom, everyone else gets eaten, as happened here.

From end to end it was about 2hrs playing time and it was only the second game we had played (the first being a quick free-for-all practise right before) so it plays pretty quick. Will definitely be trying it out again and I'll try and get my University club interested as well.

Narrative Game

Apologies for the time since the last post, I've got distracted with various projects, some of which I'll probably get round to showing on here. I've built up a ~6000pt Vampire army made up of ebay purchases and lots of Mantic's fabulous undead range. I've also been sculpting some of my own figures for a zombie survivor game (more to come soon on this).

I did get together with a couple of my good gaming friends last month though and finally managed to persuade them to have a game of Warmaster Ancients with me. I pretty much used all the figures I have, didn't worry about points values. It was Imperial Rome against Carthage, and I'd guess it was about 3000pts vs 2000pts respectively.

I came up with a quick narrative scenario that the Romans were on a patrol from a main camp and starting cutting up rough in a local village (OK it was a Dark Ages village, but we won't worry about that). The Carthaginians with a sizeable quota of Gallic allies appear on the scene and ambush the patrol, and the main Roman army then turns up to save the day.

6x4 board with the village about 8" square set up ~24" from the Roman board edge and 30" in from the left hand board edge (so roughly central just in the Carthage half of the board). The village is surrounded by a stone wall and so all units behind this count as defended.

The Romans deploy first with 1 unit of legion, 1 unit of archers and 2 units of auxilliaries and 1 leader. The rest of their army deploy as normal near their own board edge.

The Carthage forces deploy as normal.

The objective of the game is to control the village by having 1 or more core units inside it and no enemy units.

It is quite a challenging scenario tactically, because the both main armies need to decide whether to try capitalise on successful commands to try and get forces into the village (either to support or attack), or to try and advance as normal with a solid battle-line. The Carthaginians also have a difficult decision of how early to commit their best units 

In this battle I took command of the Carthaginian forces and Jon and Jan took command of the (evil) Romans.

As the initial ambushers Carthage moved first, but only the Numidians on the left flank moved at all! The Gallic centre and the Spanish light cavalry on the right wing stayed put. Not the start they needed to try and sieze the village before the bulk of the Romans could arrive.

In response Rome got one big legion brigade moving and in the village the commander sent the archers out to get a range on the gauls and moved the auxiliaries up to the wall.

Roman Archers looking a little exposed.

The middle period of the battle saw a lot of manoeuvring but no deceive combats. The archers frustrated the gauls by inflicted confusion on them and the Carthage skirmish screen began to lose odd stands to the main Roman force's artillery and archers.

The Gauls, strangely reluctant to move off their hill and get stuck in.

With the main Roman army now forming a solid battle line to either flank of the village and with their cavalry wing threatening to sweep through the Carthage left flank it was looking decidedly dodgy for them, even though at this stage it was still 0vps each.

As were playing to a time limit the final turn was predictably silly! I charged with most things that could into the village, but despite taking some stands off the Romans all the fights were lost and the Gauls pulled back, the Romans deciding to hold their ground. The Spanish light cavalry on the right managed to sweep right around the Roman's flank and attack their skirmishers in a rare moment of success.

In their last turn, as we knew it was time to call it a day Jon and Jan declared charges with anything that could! The Romans in the village leapt over the wall and charged the demoralised Gauls, while their cavalry on the Carthage left smashed into the Numidians. Both main wings of their battle line also piled in. The results were predictably devastating. Most of the Gauls were wiped out and there were break-through charges aplenty. The only real bright spot for Carthage was the Spanish cavalry chewing through the skirmishers on the hill at the back.

As an impenetrable mist descended onto the battle field the picture was far from clear cut. A count back showed a narrow Roman victory on VP by 85. However no-one was left in control of the village due to the hot headed leader of the patrol!

This was a fun game to play and it was a shame we had to call time on it when we did. I've played a lot of tournament/campaign games where the player going last almost always wins due to being able to call charges where they can wipe out a unit, but leave themselves horribly exposed, knowing there can be no counter-charge as they know it is the last turn.

In this game it was fun to do and I'm glad we got stuck in and rolled some serious dice, but it always feels a tiny bit unsatisfying when a game is nicely balanced and you don't get to see how it would have played out normally. I'm keen to try out a similar scenario in the future though, its good to play something a bit different as most of the games of WMA I play are 1250pt tournament style ones.

Salute Preview - Battle report of Magnesia with Warmaster Ancients

It was my good fortune to take part in a huge game of Warmaster Ancients at the weekend, based on the Battle of Magnesia. This was a practice run for a demonstration game at Salute which will be run by The Purbeck Brotherhood of Ancients in a few weeks and I strongly recommend you check it out if you are at the show.

The real battle took place in 190BC between a force of Republican Romans under Publius Cornelius Scipio ("Scipio Africanus") and his brother arrayed against a larger force of Seleucid Successor under Antiochus III (the great) along with exiled Carthaginian general and all round Roman botherer Hannibal Barca. The Romans reportedly had ~35,000 men against some 65-70,000 Seleucids.

Historically the powerful Seleucid cavalry on the right chased off the Roman flank and then went off to loot the baggage train, meanwhile the Roman right broke the Seleucid left. In the centre it was a fairly even fight between the legions and the Seleucid pikes, until the pike phalanxes were outflanked and destroyed.

In the Warmaster Battle the host, Jim Brown and a few helpers set out the battlefield and deployed the troops in a reasonably historical set-up the night before. All told there was just shy of 4000pts per side on a ~12x4' table!

View from the Roman Right, with the River Phrygius in the background

I was on the Seleucid side commanding the right-hand side of the Phalanxes and a brigade of archers, which probably put me in the shoes of "Philip, master of the Elephants" according to wikipedia.

Any attempt to have a detailed account of the battle would be largely futile, as I rarely had any idea what was happening on the Seleucid left, or in the centre! Therefore I'm just going to post up some super-sized pictures I took during the battle. As always click on them to enlarge to full-size.

After a couple of movement turns the lines were getting close to clashing

Jim used a sensible rules change for the first turn, which was that each overall commander threw a D4 and the result was the number of brigades that couldn't move during the turn - all other brigades move up to full pace with no orders. With another D4 thrown to see how many brigades could double move. This got the lines closer much quicker without dice rolls or too many tactical decisions.

The Seleucid Left saw the first hostilities as cavalry clashed

The middle part of the battle was very hard to keep track of, essentially the two flanks of cavalry pretty much cancelled each other out, with neither able to break through and get into the flanks of the enemy infantry. In the centre the Seleucid pikes on the right-hand side and the gallic warband traded blows with the Romans with no real decisive blow. However on the Seleucid right and centre firstly the Legions and Triarii managed some flank charges and significantly disrupted the Phalanxes here, the counter-punch when it came though was devastating. Frontal charges against the Legion by the pikes ripped them apart and the tide firmly turned towards the Seleucids.

View from the Seleucid Right Flank. Decimation across the board, but there are a few more pike blocks still standing than Legions

There was outrageous luck on both sides, both good and bad. On the Seleucid right the dice totally abandoned the Romans at the crucial moment and although all the business was being conducted in the centre, the chance to even things up and swing down the Seleucid lines was lost.

Not sure about the Roman losses, but there were 36 stands of pikes in this part of the battlefield at the start of the game! I think there might 5 left!

Just some of the Glorious Dead. Seleucids in the front-right, Romans towards the rear (behind the pikes)

In the end the Romans were fairly comfortably broken (break point 23!!). Although they had lost quite a few more units than the Seleucids, the crucial factor in breaking the Romans was the loss of all the Triarii units (which count as 2 units towards the break point).

So the course of history was changed! Scipio Africanus was sent packing and the Seleucid Empire went onto dominate the Eastern Mediterranean....maybe.

Hope you enjoyed this massive battle report, and once again get along to Salute and check out the demo game with all fancy terrain and everything on April 16th.

Battle Report - Sarmatians vs Dacians

This the second of the two games I played at the Stalbridge Warmaster Ancients day last month. It was a Dark Ages battle between two sets of Eastern Barbarians (at least that's how the Romans and Byzantines would have probably seen them).

I had first pick of the Dark Ages armies and went for the Sarmatians as a totally different type of force to ones I had previously fought with, being made up almost exclusively of cavalry, with warband shock cavalry at the heart.

Sarmatians
General
Leader
2 Subordinates
6 Shock Cavalry
2 Light Cavalry
3 Skirmishing Cavalry
2 Levy Archers
4 Levy Infantry

Break point - 7

Dacians
General
Leader
2 Subordinates
10 Warriors
2 Falxmen
4 Archers
2 Mounted Skirmishers
3 Sarmation Cavalry

Break point - 10

All the maps in this report have been produced using the FREE program - Battle Chronicler.

Deployment

In order to get the game moving quickly we just set up our own forces simultaneously without worrying what the other player was up to.

Deployment

 I set up with all of the warband cavalry on my right flank, in two brigades of 3 units to take advantage of their warband rule*, screened by the light cavalry. The mounted skimishers deployed on the far left opposite the wood, and the levy troops made up a very squishy and unreliable centre.
Ben deployed all of the warriors in one long line, two units deep, with the dangerous falxmen in the centre. He had archers on both flanks and all of the cavalry held in reserve.

His broad plan I think was to advance en masse and try and overwhelm me with numbers, I was trying to engage quickly with the cavalry and pick off isolated brigades.

* - warband gives you +1 to command rolls when brigades are 3 or 4 units strong.

Turn 1 & 2

The Dacians took the first turn and by their second turn had advanced in fairly good order to nearly the centre point of the battlefield. The only troops left behind were two units of archers that Ben had already decided to abandon as a lost cause. They were in difficult terrain (so immune to cavalry charges) and I had no infantry that could either get there, or do much if they did, so this made sense.

Ben ponders his next move

 His archers on my right flank were close enough for some pot shots at my levy archers and hit twice with the 4 stands that could see. With no armour and only 2 hits per stand (almost all units in the game have at least 3 hits) they lost a stand and were pushed back, being confused into the bargain.

This really bought home to me just how bad these Levy troops were, and how in serious combat they would quickly be decimated. I resolved to keep them out of harm's way for the rest of the battle. In my second turn I got my mounted skirmishers moving with a double move to cover the flank and clumped all my non-confused Levy troops into one big block. Then disaster struck as I rolled a blunder (12 on 2D6) to move my light cavalry screen, forcing them to move away from the nearest enemy. I managed to minimise the damage by moving them out to the extreme right flank, rather than through and behind the shock cavalry.

Sarmatian Turn 2

Turn 3

The lines were now only about 40cm apart, which is a double move (two consecutive successfully issued orders) for both infantry and cavalry, so there was a chance for Ben to charge my shock cavalry, or Levy troops. Unfortunately he was unlucky with his orders and in the end elected to move the left-hand archers into the wood and move the brigade of falxmen and warriors round opposite the levy. His positioning here was clever as they were a distance from my cavalry and anything charging this block would have the archers to their flank.

The archers again took plot shots, missing the levy, but scoring 3 hits on the mounted skirmishers pushing them back substantially and knocking off a stand. The Sarmatian left began to look decidedly dodgy (or it might have been it was dodgy all along and it was contact with the enemy that was bringing the fact home to me!)

Dacian Turn 3

In my turn I was determined to get stuck in. I intended on charging two units of shock cavalry into the falxmen. The way the narrow frontage of the shock cavalry works on the charge meant I could get all 6 bases of cavalry fighting against the frontage of just one falxmen unit. Although they would hit me with 12 attacks, these would be split between the two units and hopefully I would lose only 1 stand at worse, in reply I would hit with 24 attacks, needing only 9 rolls of 4+ to wipe out the unit.

I rolled for my chieftain on the left-hand brigade -12! Another blunder and they stayed put.

All is not lost I thought - I'll use my general to command the right-hand brigade. I easily passed the first command roll with Ld8, but made a very bad mistake in the movement - I split the brigade of 3 into the 2 units I wanted to charge and the one being left behind. This meant the brigade was no longer big enough for the warband rule to apply (+1 to command rolls). It meant my general now needed to roll 7 or less, instead of 8 or less to charge. - yes you've guessed it; I rolled an 8 and the attack stalled. And I had no more commands and a mess of a battle line.

Sarmatian Turn 3

Oops.

 Turn 4

The Dacians wasted no time in capitalising on the mistakes of the previous turn, they reordered into a more solid central battleline, bringing up the flagging brigades. Ben then sucessfully charged one unit of shock cavalry over the hill on the right and into the flank of the dithering Sarmatian warband cavalry. In the shooting phase more hits and drive-backs were scored on the right and left flanks, but no confusion or lost stands resulted.

Dacian Turn 4

The combat was predictably bloody, over two rounds the Dacian cavalry managed to knock two stands off the cavalry unit they were fighting, pushing them back quite a way, before falling back out of the fight rather than stay with their flank exposed to the waiting Sarmatian battleline.

The Dacian cavalry maul the central Sarmatians

With time running out it was clear that the Sarmatian turn would be the last of the game, so I was determined to make it into combat this time. Firstly the 2 right-most shock cavalry units in the big brigade used initiative to charge the Dacian cavalry that had just pulled back. I then wanted to charge the falxmen brigade that escaped last turn but the two units that had taken a mauling from the Dacian cavalry (SH5 and SH6) were not upto the job on their own, but were blocking line-of-sight for the two units behind. I therefore used initiative to evade with the unit down to one stand and get it out of harm's way, I then used initiative to declare a charge on the light cavalry in the centre with SH5. If he stood and fought they would be wiped out, if they evaded, as they choose to, unit SH5 could fall back and would have broken up the formation of the cavalry brigade. The way was now clear for the remaining two units (SH1 & 2) to charge into the falxmen together. Finally I used initiative to charge the right-hand light cavalry into the mounted skirmishers on the extreme right.

Sarmatian Turn 4 - charges

Against the falxmen the shock cavalry duly wiped out the front unit and the unit behind over two rounds before withdrawing unscathed. On the right I got very lucky. I decided to fight the light cavalry first, hoping to wipe them out and get a break-through charge into the warriors on the hill. The mounted skirmishers were wiped out over two rounds, but Ben then pointed out very sportingly that actually with a 360o field of vision the closest charge target for the break-through charge was the already engaged shock cavalry. The lights hit them in the rear, and despite minor hits being inflicted, and the Sarmatian shock cavalry losing a stand, the Dacians lost the fight and were destroyed as they had no path of retreat with enemies to front and rear.

Turn 4 - follow up charges

With that the battle ended on a turn which had decisively swung things the way of the Sarmatians.

Final Positions

End Game

End of game positions

VP's
Dacians - 60pts
Sarmatians - 235pts

Break Point
Dacians - 3/10
Sarmatians - 0/7

As with my other Stalbridge battle report, there wasn't quite enough time to get to a decent conclusion of the game, although personally I feel this one was swinging firmly the way of the Sarmatians. Shock Cavalry unit SH5 is almost certainly doomed. However I'm not sure there are many other exposed juicy targets. Likely the Dacians would use their upcoming turn to reform a battle line, and possible move their brigades more toward the hill for a defended position. The complete lack of cavalry, skirmishers, or missile troops on the right flank though means it would be very tough to prevent the Sarmatians from harrying this flank and getting shock cavalry engaged here.

Another really enjoyable game, Ben is a great opponent but I didn't deserve to come out on top in honesty after the decision to split the warband brigade when trying to charge, and for not being aware of the possible rear break-through charge that was pointed out to me and was instrumental in finishing off the Dacian shock cavalry (+110 VPs).

Hopefully coming soon is a brief battle report of a huge practise game I took part in for a Salute demo game.

If you enjoyed the report, or you've got any other feedback, please leave a comment.

Battle Report - Alexandrian Greek vs Persians

This is a battle report from my first game at Stalbridge Warmaster Ancient's day.

I was paired up with a fairly new player to the game called Jerry, who was in command of a Late Achaemenid Persian army led by Darius in his chariot, while I had Alexander's Macedonians led by the great man himself (Alexander not me!)

Alexandrian Greek (1250pt - Break Point 7)
Alexander - General
Leader x 2
4 Medium Phalanx
4 Unreliable Hoplites
2 Archers
2 Peltasts
1 Skirmishers (left in box!!)
1 Thessalian heavy cav
1 Companions Heavy Cav
2 Skirmishing Cav.

Persians (1285pt - Break Point 10)
Darius in Chariot - General
Leader x 2
4 Persian Infantry
8 Unreliable Subjects
2 Archers
2 Skirmishers
2 Heavy Cav
4 Light Cav
1 Light Chariots

Deployment

Deployment

The battle maps have been prepared using the free Battle Chronicler program, I heartily recommend downloading a copy! Through-out the report I'll be referring to "left" and "right" as per this map (and my perspective in the original battle). For those people not familiar with Warmaster Ancients I've provided a glossary of language I consider to be a bit 'Warmaster specific', at the end of the post.

Deployment

The battlefield had a large hill with broken ground on the right flank and a smaller hill with a wood just to the left of the centre. I deployed the Greeks to move and take the centre ground, the Persians were deployed with their greater numbers across a wider frontage to try and overlap round the flanks.

As Gareth explained to us during set-up it was going to be a case of whether the superior Greek infantry could punch a hole in the Persian lines to be exploited by the Companion shock cavalry, before the Persian skirmishers and cavalry got round the flanks and disordered the Greeks.

The Persians had two solid brigades of subject infantry in the centre, with two small brigades of Persian infantry as reserves. Two big brigades of cavalry occupied either flank, with the heavy cavalry concentrated to the right flank Skirmishers and Archers covered the immediate flanks of the subject infantry.

I deployed the Greeks in two mirror image brigades of 2 phalanx, with peltast in front and archers to the flank. The unreliable Hoplite allies were on the right flank with Alexander to keep them in line and the cavalry formed a reserve. Giving me only 4 brigades to command initially (having forgot to deploy the unit of skirmishers!!)

Turn 1

I won the roll for first turn and ordered a general advance. Leader #1 got the right flank moving, but Leader #2 failed to move the second phalanx brigade in the centre, and thus the cavalry was trapped behind. Alexander got the Hoplites keeping pace, so my battle line was decidedly concave, but I was confident at this early stage there would be no problems.

 Jerry's turn started with a failed command on the right hand cavalry brigade, but all the other orders were passed and the Persians advanced solidly across the board, passing 7 other command checks.

Persian Turn 1

End of Turn 1

Turn 2

Luck was with me in turn 2 as I made most of my command rolls and recovered the shape of my battle line, first double moving the central phalanx brigade, before shuffling the left and right flanks a little and moving up the cavalry. Mindful of the threat posed by the light cavalry and chariots on the left I deployed the left hand brigade, moving the archers into line formation to guard the flank of the phalanx and moving the Peltast to the crest of the small hill to stall any charge by the Persian subject infantry. Alexander shifted to the centre and one of the leaders went out to the left flank.

Greek Turn 2

Persian Turn 2

In response Jerry was very unlucky with his command rolls, but nearly made up for it with his shooting. The left and right flank cavalry both advanced, but failed their 2nd and 3rd command checks respectively to leave them one move short of really causing problems for my flanks. His right-hand skirmishers moved up ready to shoot. In the centre however his general failed his command roll and the main infantry body stubbornly refused to move.

In the shooting phase the first genuine hostilities of the battle resulted in 2 hits on the front right Hoplite unit from the skirmishers, driving them back and confusing them! To make matters worse they had been pushed back so their flank was exposed to the hill which his cavalry was about to ride over, with no way of moving them next turn.

Turn 3

With the Hoplites immobilised on the right flank I somewhat lost my nerve this turn and mainly just shuffled around aimlessly in the centre. The exception was the non-confused Hoplite block who charged the skirmishers, who wisely evaded. This was the plan though as the Hoplites now had their flank resting on difficult ground protecting them from the flanking cavalry.

The Peltasts on the left pulled back to guard the phalanx flank and the archers shuffled along to accommodate them. All the phalanx unit shuffled forwards a touch.

In the shooting phase the left hand archers took a few pot shots at the chariots and succeeded in driving them back, although not substantially disrupting the brigade.

Greek Turn 3

Persian Turn 3

The Persian 3rd turn was very much where it all kicked off! The right flank cavalry brigade split to move the heavy cavalry into reserve and to move up the light cavalry, who then failed their 2nd command roll to charge! In the centre however Darius was calling the shots and first moved up the left hand subject brigade, before successfully double moving the right brigade into combat with the respective phalanx block.

The shooting phase was again useful with the right-hand Hoplites taking hits and again being pushed back and confused, this time by the light cavalry. The advanced block of Hoplites took two more hits and were threatened with a substantial drive back off the difficult terrain, so the rear unit decided to stand their ground, refusing to give way to the fleeing unit and forcing them into confusion.

The combat phase was quite messy. Because of the layout of the units Jerry had only been able to get 3 units from his brigade of 4 subject infantry into combat; one against the front of the Peltasts, one into the front unit of archers on the right and one unit in support. The Peltasts lost their combat and rather than risk being confused the Phalanx coldly stood their ground and refused to make way for them as they were pushed back, resulting in the Peltasts being destroyed. The archers made a decent effort of it, but were also wiped out. Devastatingly the loss of the archers meant the Persians could charge into the flanks of a phalanx unit, where the phalanx would be unable to effectively fight back. In the ensuing scrap a whole phalanx unit was lost and although the Persians had lost 1 unit of subject infantry and had two others down by a stand, the Greeks had lost a unit of Phalanx, Peltasts and Archers and had two stands of subject infantry in the flank of a second phalanx.

The Greek centre in trouble

End of Turn
VP: Greeks - 25; Persians - 150
Break: Greeks 3/7; Persians 1/10

Turn 4

As we were nearing our time limit for the game I threw caution to the wind in this turn. I firstly used initiative to charge the Thessilian heavy cavalry into the rear of the subject infantry menacing the phalanx, and the right hand unit of light cavalry into the same unit's flank. I then used initiative to charge my two left hand phalanx units into the heart of the Persian lines, my plan was to then double the Companion cavalry through the resulting gap into another part of their lines. Although the first command roll was a success they failed their second (needing 8 on 2D6). This forced Alexander to join the Thessalians instead as he was spoiling for a scrap.

Greek Turn 4

The Phalanx punched through the Persian lines, taking heavy losses themselves though trading one Phalanx unit for 2 subject infantry.

In the centre the effrontery of the subject infantry in the flank of phalanx was paid back, facing Alexander and chargers to their flanks and rear they were wiped out. The victorious Phalanx and light cavalry reformed while Alexander and the Thesselian cavalry rampaged through another 2 units of subject infantry to leave the Persian centre in disarray.

Alexander rampages through the Persian centre

Alexander leads the charge through the Persian Centre

End Game


Unfortunately at this point we had to stop with the game nicely balanced. Both sides I think felt they could have gone onto win.

End of Game

End of Game

Toting up the damage it was clear how close the battle was:
VP: Greeks 150; Persians 200
Break: Greeks 3/7; Persians 6/10

The Greeks had an extra turn, but both sides had a turn each of dictating charges, so it was probably reasonably balanced. Although the Persians had next turn it is hard to see where they could kill another 4 core Greek units in order to force them to break. The right hand Hoplites would probably be able to hold their own against the Light Cavalry, even if charged in the flank, certainly to the extent of avoiding being wiped out. There was a possible flank charge against the left Phalanx, which would have been fatal, and with some lucky command rolls the left flank light cavalry would have maybe been able to deal with the Peltasts and Archers.

However in the subsequent Greek turn the Companion cavalry would have had the two remaining subject infantry in their sights and Alexander and the heavy cavalry would likely have a charge against the Persian infantry in the centre, which would have taken the Persians to one unit short of their break point. So I think the Greeks probably had the upper hand positionally.

Let me know if you enjoyed this battle report, or any feedback you've got.

Warmaster Glossary
Brigade - 2-4 units in base contact that can be activated with a single command order
Command Roll/Test/Check/Order - 2D6 roll against commander's leadership, modified by distance, etc
Initiative - allows a unit to charge or evade from an enemy unit in 20cm with no command rolls
Evade - either in initiative or as a charge response (for skirmishers) unit can move away from an enemy unit
Drive Back -units taking hits from shooting are forced to retreat D6cm for every hit
Push Back - unit driven back into friendly units can "push" them back as well as they make way
Confusion - units driven back on a d6 roll of 6, or who cannot pass through friendly units are "confused" they cannot receive orders next turn.