Ranulf's retinue expands

Had some time yesterday evening and today following the Greek battle of the weekend to finish off my next Norman Lion Rampant unit. Light is really bad for some reason so photo not great. Here are 12 foot sarjeants. Sporting a mixture of swords and axes (the later swopped from other wargames factory dark age figures, there are a couple of head swops too) they are carrying their Battle Flag shields from York last weekend. Fairly happy with them but I might need to review the shields on the other units now.

I might take a shot later of all three units together. M.

Anapus River 415 BC

The Battle of Anapus River 415 BC took place on the Island of Sicily between the invading Athenians and the Syracusan forces. This is a new development in the dungeon as the growing Ancient/Greek collection has finally reached the point where a almost passable representation of real battles can be staged. So with the help of Steve's four units of hoplites playing as the local Syracusans the battle was set.

Initial deployment Athenians on the left

Athenians use initiative to push forward

It is worth outlining a couple of key points in the battle before running through what happened. The Athenians were generally regarded as a more professional army and therefore had better quality troops including mercenaries. The Syracusans were late for battle as they had expected to attack and the Athenians caught them on the hop, we represented this by two units being placed in the rear and with the limited manoeuvrability of the phalanx at this time it would be hard to get them into line in time. We also gave the Athenians first turn. The picture above shows the difference in depth of line as the Athenians were only 8 deep whilst the Syracusans were able to set up 16 deep. The sources say a key event in the battle occurred when a thunderstorm shook the morale of the Syracusans for fun we represented this by pulling tokens which meant that on one random turn the Syracusans would have to take all morale tests at minus one. As it turned out the storm came early in the battle so had little effect. Finally the river at this time (October) was easily crossable so we allowed it to be crossed at any point with only a DL test for each phalanx to check if they became disrupted. I have placed extra sand bars in the river to represent this

Skirmishers attempt to hold back the advance

As in the real battle the Athenians decided to push forward as quickly as possible under the strong leadership of their General Nicias. Their left flank is covered by skirmishers as their line advanced out of the cover provided by some low hills and cliffs. They had positioned themselves between the hills and the marshy area close to the sea (shown at the bottom of these pictures) to avoid any outflanking. The Syracusans pushed their skirmish line forward to delay the advance and give them time hopefully to deploy there late arriving units.

Athenians crossing the Anapus

 

This was only going to be at best a slowing tactic as the Athenian formed infantry pushed on. First contact was on the Athenian left flank where they had positioned some of their best Mercenary troops these can be seen in the distance clashing with Syracusan Citizen hoplites. Things began to hot up with each advancing phalanx picking a suitable target. (we played with Clash of Empires and one of the reasons I like the rule set is when infantry blocks get to grips they don't just crumble but push and shove before finally falling apart, this feels quite realistic ?) Pictures below and right show the two battle lines coming together in several places. As in the real battle it looked like the Athenian left would push the Syracusans out of the way but after an initial upset they rallied.



Athenians across the River

In the far distance the Geloan reserve cavalry can be seen attempting to force the flank but they are thrown back by Athenian archers positioned for just such an event. (the Athenians had no cavalry during this part of the invasion). Eventually the higher quality of the mercenary troops began to tell and the Syracusan right flank became seriously fragile. However, it certainly wasn't all going the Athenian way as Syracusan militia Hoplites can be seen pushing right through in the centre and across the Anapus itself. The whole battle began to break up into individual fights between opposing units.

 



Syracusan militia push through in the centre

The largest such battle can be seen here in the centre of the picture. This eventually broke up into two separate fights but only after Nicias had rushed to give the Athenians a boost from his leadership. The battle was pretty much balanced at this stage with the Syracusan reserves now getting into the action and the thin Athenian line starting to look very shaky !

In the balance ?

In this picture you can see the Athenian skirmishers running down from the hills to bolster the rear centre as the Syracusan militia break through. There were now really two  key fights one on each flank which would decide the day. If the Athenian mercenaries could hold on the left a second phalanx would have time to turn and come back into the fight and in the foreground the Argive and Mantinean troops(Athenian Allies) need to push through on the Athenian right flank. Despite heavy losses the mercenaries held, again only with the active support of Nicias himself to keep them steady.

The final picture shows pretty much the end of the battle. From the foreground backwards the Athenian Allies pushing the Syracusan left back. Some did rally after this but we judged the battle to be a marginal Athenian victory at this stage. In the middle ground the Syracusan militia who had pushed across the river are now being held by the rallied Athenians supported by their skirmishers who have attacked in the flank.



The Syracusans pull back

In the distance the remaining mercenaries hold their ground whilst the second mercenary phalanx turns back into the battle. (The troops in the far right corner are actually dead !)

A really great battle with two unequal armies providing a close fight surprisingly true to the real events. Well worth the effort and preparation. We are now looking forward to our next.

Ranulf de Gernon rides forth

Catching up from a busy weekend when I had my first run out of the Lion Rampant rules. They are certainly causing a buzz and nearly every magazine and blog is picking it up. Previous posts have shown my Norman retinue in development, they aren't finished but I supplemented Ranulf's retinue with other dark age figures. They were up against a Teutonic knight based retinue also in the stages of development.

We had both read the rules before hand but as everybody has indicated the rules are pretty quick to pick up. We started with the bloodbath scenario, all went well until the Teutonic Knights managed to charge in against my archers. Surely a wipe out ? But they stood their ground and against the odds took a wound off the knights. Now the rules require a roll to check if the retinue lord is wounded, against all reasonable odds a double one was rolled and in our very first combat in our very first game  we had lost a retinue lord. The rest of the battle went fine swinging from side to side with Ranulf randomly charging about to test the rules. In the end though his retinue was pretty much wiped out.

We then rolled up a couple of scenarios from the book, we had less success with these as Ranulf repeatedly failed order rolls, this kind of detracted from two more good Teutonic wins as Ranulf's retinue effectively failed to turn up to the battle. I was extremely unlucky with order rolling so I don't think this is a fair test. We'll definitely be playing some more in the future, the scenarios require a flexible retinue which I like.

Death of Eadwulf the Good

Our next instalment of Dux B campaign played out last Friday night and saw a dramatic shift in power in the west. Ivar the Coward having been pushed back into the sea came back in force. In our second straight battle scenario the Vikings rushed onto the field. Broadly speaking the quality of the troops on the Viking side is better as they have no lower quality levy troops, but the British here have the advantage of being able to form a defensive shield wall. Nothing for it but to form up and await the onslaught. This came in two directions through the trees and eventually straight up the hill. It was going to be tough to hold them back. The initial shock hit the levy who bravely held but where eventually overwhelmed and broke up or fled.


Vikings rush on through marshy ground

British form shield wall a wait

Eadwulf and Athelgard form up on the hill



Levy take the full force of Viking charge

The second and larger attack saw Ivar the Coward charge directly up the hill. Perhaps his reputation wasn't deserved, the pictures show the clash of shields as the forces met. This rapidly turned into a push of shields with shock developing on both sides and the dead mounting up each turn. You can see at one point Eadwulf's unit had 8 shock. Eventually Athelgard the champion was killed defending his Lord. But Eadwulf was able to pull Noble Godwald into the fight as well.


Push of shields on the hill

Shield wall against aggression in the balance

Eventually it looked as though the British were getting the upper hand, loses were great but they had pushed the Vikings back down the hill, the danger was they had been forced to break out of their defensive shield wall to pursue them.


Vikings pushed back ....but wait

The Vikings came back up the hill and with terrible losses the British started to break, Eadwulf made a hasty break for safety, but exhausted from the battle he just wasn't quick enough to get away and Ivar the Coward true to form chased him down an axe blow to back saw Eadwulf the Good hacked down. Although his two nobles eventually survived the battle it had been a grievous blow to the British and a new Lord would need to be found to unite the tribes and raise any siege the Vikings undertook. A very close battle which could have gone either way but suddenly slipped into a major win for the Vikings.



...........Eadwulf run down and butchered in the back !







28mm Saxon Village

After a busy weekend I don't seem to be able to keep up. So a couple of shorter blogs to keep upto date. Finished the Dark Age palisade at the weekend with grass and sandy gravel etc.. very pleased with the final output, I am not as fussy as I should be when making and painting things but it is the overall effect for me when I get things on the table. So I set the village out as I had intended and took a photo.

 

The terrain boards I have mean I can move the hill for the village around as necessary and of course can use the fence on the flat, or even right across the board. There is a thought  an embankment which the palisade can sit on.....a project for the future. ps I haven't made the gate yet.

28 mm Arab windfall

Previous post this evening showed the overall hoard (metal mountain) I collected from Varparnak today with the mystery unopened bag. Well for me they were well worth the wait 62 !!!!!! Metal figures for 10 quid. Outstanding and better than I had hoped for. The guys selling just wanted to get rid of them ...........

16 swordsman, 12 archers, 6 crossbows, 24 spearmen with a variety of shields and a command unit. Think they are black tree figures....I will be going to bed happy and dreaming of crescent and cross or even a Moorish Lion Rampant retinue ?

Vapnartak hoard

A sunny day in the north and a trip across the Pennines to Vapnartak in York. Excellent day, masses of traders, one or two good demonstration battles (thought there were less than the last time I came to York) and an excellent table top sale. I had the usual list of stuff to look out for, some of the hoard I brought home was on it .........but quite a bit not ! The picture shows the full hoard.

A huge selection. Lots of dark age figures and I picked up some excellent characters and dark age infantry. A big unit of greek hoplites, some 18th century civilians, an ox cart, Bretonnian archers for Lion Rampant. Shield transfers for my Normans. In the middle some 15 mm Peter Pig figures which I am going to use as bailed out tank markers for flames of war. But my best buy ( so good I am saving opening the bag !!!) is the bag on the right. A hole Warband ? of Arab infantry. My guess is 50 - 60 figures for Crescent and the Cross later in the year. I will post again later when I have walked the dogs and opened the bag.