March 2025 Report

Wait! What? A quarter of the year is over! I’ve still got projects to finish 🤣

Well the month opened nicely with a trip to Hammerhead from which I seem to have lost the photo’s of some of the games 😥 To be honest I was a bit underwhelmed, it was certainly busy and that is a good thing for the organisers but I felt the range and quality of the games was a bit sub par. There were some stand out games (the photo’s I’ve lost) but for me it was perhaps a case of more means less and given that the idea is participation I wasn’t feeling the “come and play” vibe that has existed at past shows. Obviously a very personal view and one not necessarily shared by others.

All that said I did manage to pick up painting commissions that hade been ongoing for a while so plenty of basing to do when I got home 😀

Our first game of the month was another in our “reconquista” project. For this one we had Almoravids led by Yusuf ibn Tashfin facing off to the Christian Spanish under King Alfonso VI who had the redoubtable Rodrigo Diaz commanding his cavalry.

The Christians gambled on a strong cavalry wing overwhelming their opponents and sweeping around the rear of the Moslem centre while their own spearmen and missile supports held the centre. A mixed infantry & cavalry contingent of Andalusians acted semi independently on the other wing.

The numerically stronger Moslems relied on their Black Guard to dominate the centre while the rest of the Berber contingent advanced on the right, spears adjacent to the Guard and cavalry out on the wing. Like the Christians they also had an Andalusian contingent, a mix of spears and skirmish cavalry out on the left.

The initial action featured the Berber camelry menacing the Andalusians but some well placed bow shots from the rear archers contained the smelly animals.

The first proper action was the Andalusian cavalry from the Christian side sending the Almoravid jinettes scampering off with a bloody nose and then mixing it up with the following Berber cavalry, managing to rout one unit and kill a leader before finally being routed themselves by a second Berber cavalry unit. This took the majority of the game to evolve and the lone Andalusian unit had a fine old time 😀

In the centre the Black Guard and their Berber supports got stuck in with the Christian spearmen and a prolonged slog saw the melees swing one way and then the other. One of the Guard was particularly successful, routing its opponent and cutting them down to the last man in the pursuit, but then found itself stranded and surrounded by skirmishers who potted away and wore it down. Generally though the centre infantry slog was inconclusive.

Out on the Christian right El Cid threw in his Caballeros presuming an easy victory over the Andalusian spearmen and a victory he did get but only after a bitter struggle which delayed the grand sweep originally planned for.

This was the key moment, El Cid led his cavalry into the flank of the remaining Black Guard and victory was assured.

Our next game was a first for the group, Samurai, 1590’s, curtesy of group member Gerard who has spent considerable time putting together this pet project. The rules were ‘Battles in the Age of War’ with some amendments for the style of fighting in this period – small numbers of actual Samurai, plenty of Ashigaru formed into a single unit. The armies were Tokugawa v Ishida.

Essentially it was solid lines moving forward to fire and then melee, the key tactical decision being when to withdraw your shooters and commit your fighters. As a game it had a very Marlburian look to it albeit with different tactical nuances.

As a first outing I thought it played well – probably influenced by the fact that as Tokugawa I crushed the Ishida right wing and was declared the victor 😉

This has definitely got legs and I look forward to our next game.

Next up was a return to the Dark Ages (Early Medieval) using our post Roman Britain collection which we reckoned hadn’t seen the light of day in 18 months. The opposing forces were Ambrosius Aurelianus with a small force (mostly hidden in this photo) facing off to invading Jutes under Aesc.

Ambrosius deployed his better quality Limitanei behind a hill on his left screened by skirmishers with orders to hold and his inferior Milites similarly deployed behind the right hill; a collection of other skirmishers waited in ambush in the central wood. His lone cavalry unit strike force he deployed well back under Artorius so he could survey the land before committing.

Aesc hampered by a stream he had to cross placed his seasoned Duguth on the left under Ebissa while he took the wild Geoguth on the right, the allied Britons were placed under Oslac but little was expected from them.

While the Jutes got their feet wet crossing the stream the Britons deployed themselves safely on the hills and sent the skirmishers forward.

Gambling that wet Jutes were not quite as effective as nice dry Jutes Artorius led his Equites into the leading Geguth unit. In truth this really was a gamble, the Jutes were pretty effective in the first round of combat and there was more of them, fortunately the Christian god smiled on Artorius and despite a glancing blow to his helmet the Jutes retreated and in the follow up the cavalry slew the heathens in their droves – or so the sagas say 😁

It wasn’t all about Artorius though as the Jutes were approaching the hills ready to do battle – notice how the skirmishers are nowhere to be seen 😂

The Jutes charged all along the line, they were fiercer but the Britons had the ground.

On the right-hand hill the Milites just couldn’t cut it and after a short struggle they headed for home.

On the left hill the Limitanei fared better and pushed their opponents off as they prepared to commit both units.

Ultimately the Britons yielded the ground, the Jutes were over the stream and onto the hills, there would always be another day.

Our next endeavour was another first and an historical refight. The first was using Volley and Bayonet for a 15mm Napoleonic scrap and the historical refight was the battle of Sacile in northern Italy 1809, the first of three fought by Eugene in that campaign.

What a confusing battle, three points of entry for the opposing sides, different times of arrival, difficult terrain; a wealth of tactical decisions to make though.

A brief description of the game would see two French divisions (Severoli & Seras) attack the town of Porcia through very uninviting terrain, ultimately taking the town and destroying Frimont’s division.

In the valley below the real action took place. Initially the French had the upper hand as the divisions of, Broussier, Grenier, Barbou & Sahuc, arrived bit by bit and force marched forward – I thought the rules recreated this really well. Early success however faded as the Austrian VIII & IX corps pushed more and more divisions into the valley outgunning the French and vastly outnumbering Sahuc’s cavalry who were duly destroyed.

The French initial attack was quite a success and confidence was high.

But the Austrian counter attack was successful

And then they really piled it on and the French had nothing left, Barbou’s division collapsed and both Broussier and Grenier were severely mauled, a definite Austrian victory.

Curiously, when we totalled the scaled losses, they were very close, Austrians 7000, French 6000.

I’ve never made any secret of my ambivalence to Napoleonic’s and the one big base equals a brigade concept is still a challenge reminding me of a board game BUT, unlike Command and Colours which at it’s core is a board game, this did give a real flavour of operating at a macro level and one which I would gladly play again.

We closed out the month as we started with a “reconquista” game, this time Christian Spanish against Muslim Andalusians, or Andalusian civil war 🤨

For this encounter the Muslim force deployed a long thin infantry line of alternately spear and bow units screened by skirmishers with two equal cavalry bodies on the wings. The Christians deployed with a strong central body of spearmen flanked by crossbows screened by skirmishers also with two equal bodies of cavalry on the wings.

Not surprisingly the initial clashes took place on the cavalry wings where the Andalusians had the better of it on both wings. The difference was the presence of skirmish cavalry on the Andalusian side who managed to weaken the Christians before their clash with their opposite numbers.

In the centre the Andalusians inflicted a steady flow of casualties on the advancing Christians.

Eventually the Christians stormed the hill and the tide looked like it was turning.

The Andalusian spearmen clung on desperately.

But the break up of the cavalry wings meant morale checks and that didn’t go so well especially as the camp was being looted. A clear Muslim victory.

And that was March. Best stop typing I’ve got the April game to organise 😁