The Battle for Miletopolis: Blood in the Sand

The breeze settled in from the south bringing more fine dust into the camp, King Fartous Bhesamia waved away the food his servant offered him. He was impatient to get on with the battle, firstly his libido was up even for a man of his age the prospect of marriage and all that came with it to Queen Iola was enough to make him hot under the linen armour he was wearing. Secondly his treasury Minister had made it clear the country could not afford to maintain a large army in the field for more than a couple of weeks, the harvest had not been good and the prices of imported grain were increasing by the day.

The army of Bithynia had been marching for two weeks now and although the going was good King Fartous needed a desisive battle. That very morning his son Prince Tutak had been sent on a scouting mission to the river crossing of the Rhyndacus close to the ancient city of Miletopolis. After a short but desisive skirmish Tutak had returned to camp, he had failed to secure the crossing which was now held by a small force of light troops under the command of General Kleitos. This all seemed like bad news to Fartous, more delays....however, his mood brightened when Tutak reported a large force of infantry where on the other side of the river. Ha thought Fartous no more delays he could cross with the bulk of his army further up stream. Finally he would be able to force a land battle which he was sure his army could win.

The route of adavance of the Bithynian army to Miletopolis 

The main bridge over the Rhyndacus, now held by Kleitos with a small force of Mysians infantry, in the distance the main Mysian army.

Ha thought the old King Pelopidas the old 'Fart' thought he could just walk in a take what he wanted did he ! He raised his spear and with a rousing shout his army slowly moved forward.

A 'period' view from behind the Mysian lines, looking east to the river. There are three objectives in the battle, the Bridge, the Olive Grove Hill and the statue of Achilles which marks the entrance to the town of Miletopolis.

The river which is deep and fast flowing is impassable other than by the bridge, so Pelopidas has sent Kleitos to guard the crossing, having failed in the previous battle It is his last chance to prove himself, he can be seen to the far left on the bridge.

The bulk of the Bithynian army, a mixed and exotic force including war elephants, cavalry, horse archers and camels

A view across the river to the main battlefield in the distance

King Fartous has immediately taken the initiative and pushed his forces forward, capturing the key objective of the Olive Grove Hill, the rest of his forces sweep around the sides, but with the river restricting movement it is not ideal for large cavalry manoeuvres 

The war elephants move forward deliberately, whilst a hail of arrows flys from the Bithynian lines

As is their tradition the Mysian army is predominantly infantry based, Pelopidas places his mercenary forces close to the river limiting their chances to run away, but with an army this size he is unable to get all his troops into line between the river and the town.

With Sparabara units captuirng the hill Pelopidas has no choice but to launch a frontal assault a huge infantry unit pushes up the hill, only to be attacked in the flank by mounted camel archers

The first clash on the slopes of Olive Grove Hill, in the distance troops have not yet met.

An eagle eye view of the struggle for the hill, King Fartous himself can be seen on the hill urging his troops to hold this first assault.

Eventually the elephants charge forward, crashing into a unit of infantry, they hold the initial charge but are severely battered.

In the foreground infantry are locked in combat

If the combatants survive the day they will tell stories to their children of the epic battle they had been part of...

Hold......hold......hold......

Huge numbers of Bithynian spearmen come upto the front and charge in under the watchful eye of Achilles 

The infantry unit attacking the hill alters its line of advance slightly and is able to beat at least one of the Sparabara units but they are them selves then thrown back down the hill

 Whilst one of the elephants tramples the infantry, the second is wounded

Forces closer to the river have now clashed, each unit and each man now locked in their own combat not really aware of the rest of the battle

After what seemed like hours, the tide of the battle swings back and forth, the initial assault on the hill has failed and although the defenders are weakened they are bringing up reserves, by the river things are evenly matched, across the river small units of skirmishes continue to exchange slings and javelins to control the bridge.

By the town it is anybodies guess what is happening, the elephants have been killed or fled, infantry is locked in combat while cavalry of all types circles around the edges, is Pelopidas running out of troops to take the objectives ?

A final assault on the Olive Grove Hill, by the Elite Mysian guard, King Fartous has remained in the hill throughout the battle guiding his forces

By the river the mercenaries are eventually getting the better of the combats and the last pike block is struggling to hold them back!

Throwing everything in at the end Pelopidas charges the royal cavalry into combat

Take the hill.....take the hill...Pelopidas urges the Guard forward against the remaining Sparabara unit

The tide has turned and the Mysian troops are now getting the better of the combats, as spaces open up across the battlefield they are able to turn onto the flanks of the larger Bithynian infantry units

The last stand at the river by the pikemen as they are charged by heavy cavalry and mercenary Thracians

The hill is ours ! The guard have made it onto the hill, in the distance Bithynian cavalry is riding in the wrong direction, dam it howls King Fartous with his army in tatters or worse he chooses to turn tail.......and fight another day.

  King Fartous leading his remaining cavalry from the field, Prince Tutak has thankfully survived and is able to join in the flight. In the distance Pelopidas stands atop the Olive Grove Hill, he will later erect a trophy to the battle on the hill which is renamed for posterity as The Hill of Pelopidas .....it will be some time before the Blood has been washed from the sand !

We had a lot of fun with this battle, it was pretty epic, the forces were pretty even to start with but solid infantry was the eventual winner for the Mysians.  For those with a technical interest and who have reached this far. We used Kings of War slightly amended, we had roughly 23 units each not including the general etc.. we played the initial skirmish as a separate battle to start with to see who got the advantage of the bridge.

Traffic Jam : So better off on a horse ?

A nice day off work yesterday.....visit to Carlisle castle, but also kept an eye out for gaming stuff. Found a small stall in the market selling diecast vehicles and other interesting stuff. In the box outside I found these and with a bit of haggling I got these for about £1.50 each 😀 Mix of ages some for early 1900 Cavendish games through to WW2

Also found the WW2 cavalry book which was a must buy from Oxfam.

Persian Sparabara

Lots of gaming recently so it has taken a while to get this unit finished. Actually they probably need a bit more work but with Persians the issue seems to be you can keep adding more and more detail. I'm going to class these as playable now but may come back to them at some stage to add a bit more detail.

They are Wargames factory figures.....not the best but a cheap option to build up numbers. I have a few more to make yet😀

Retreat to Tomarovka : Operation Rumyantsev

For our next Eastern Front campaign we have moved to August 1943 and Operation Rumyantsev. Much of the info I have has come from Robert Forczyk's excellent Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front Book. So a little bit of scene setting August 3 to 23rd 1943, Following the Russian victory at Kursk and therefore the failure of the German Zitadelle Offensive. The Russians have planned their own counter offensive to retake the strategically important city of Kharkov.

Underestimating the speed with which the Russian commander Vatutin would be able to refit and repair for a counterattack the Germans are caught somewhat off guard, with key forces moving or taken out of the front line. The Russian forces were predominantly formed of the 1st Tank Army and the 5th Guards Tank Army both of which had effectively been brought back up to full strength. On the 3rd August nearly 1000 tanks advanced south, initially to be met by the 19 Panzer Division, but later to be blocked by the 3rd Panzer Division, Totenkopf and Das Reich SS Panzer Divisions. This setting provides a perfect framework for a mini campaign of tank battles as the Russian forces breakthrough and then the Germans recover and try to re-establish a coherent front.

The whole offensive lasted 20 days and we could have identified anywhere upto a dozen separate scenarios and battles , this is too many so we have picked out 5 as a representative feel of the predominantly Tank based battles that took place, hopefully each one will give a slightly different feel.

Our first battle deals with the initial breakthrough of the 5th GTA. The germans attempting to fight a desparate retreat in the face of overwhelming Russian armour, have the 6th Panzer Division and Sturmgeschutz Abteilung 911. We played a retreat scenario from the Blitzkrieg rule book, the Germans attempting to hold and get off the table whilst the Russians are looking to steam roll their way across the battlefield.

Panzer IV's and a couple of Panzer III's dug in hoping to ambush the Russian advance

From the same position looking across the battlefield German Wespe Artillery from Abt 911 in the near distance

At the far , eastern side of the battlefield the Germans have taken up positions in fields, woods and the small industrial district

But suddenly from nowhere Russian armour is advancing across the battlefield. It should be noted at this stage that the German commander failed a number of key command rolls early on which put his forces on the back foot from the start. The 5th Guards Tank Army, as would befit an elite force has T34's, occasional KV'1s, all supported by mobile antitank killers in the form of SU76's, SU122's and the most formidable SU152's.

Caught napping and with command learship confusion the Russians immediately make the Germans pay, black smoke billowing up into the sky

Further east two Marder's from Abt 911 are also caught looking to escape from the woods, the Russian advance was so fast the German Propaganda photographers weren't  able to capture much footage from here onwards.....!

A better overview of the battlefield, the Russians are sweeping forward

Panzers and Panthers have drawn up a defensive line by the small farm to attempt to give other units time to escape but they continue to suffer from poor leadership and also start to take casualties themselves.

Having captured the field in the foreground the Russians now have open sights to the Wespes who attempt to escape but are blown to pieces as are the two Panzers which had looked to block the advance in the central woods.

Shot taken by passing Russian spotter plane !

In what seemed like a few minutes the Russians have devastated the german defensive position, they are now in danger of outflanking the Panzers at the farm, the Germans have reached break point and have no hope but to flee.

It actually took a reasonable time and was in a strange way a fun battle although it didnt always feel it as the German commander, this was without doubt the most devastating victory the Russians have had in any battles we have played, they effectively wiped out the german forces whose positions were completely over run. Who said war on the Eastern Front was fair ! The german defence was significantly hindered by very poor command rolling.

The Germans will regroup for our next battle, with an encounter battle between the 18th Russian Tank Corps against the 3rd Panzer Division south of Zolochev fought on the 7-8 th August. Encounter at Zolochev.... tbc 

The Rise of the Undead : KoW

Some more fantasy madness in the dungeon with a horde of undead against and even bigger horde of stoic men looking to defend their homes against the vampires, zombies, ghouls and skeletons.

Who knows where the artillery will hit, in fact if it will hit at all ?

The army of Men aligned through the village

At the far side of the village the General on a giant griffin, more cannons, wizards and pretty much everything in between 😀

Ghouls come crawling across the fields....give them a volley...but they are dead already!

On the right flank and initial charge by our knights has failed, the infantry have gone in, and although they hold eventually they too are attacked in the flank by fiendish blood hounds !

The guard armed with great swords march forward.....to their doom ?

An over view of the battlefield, despite our best efforts and some lucky shooting the vast horde of skeletons, zombies and dead stuff force their way across the battlefield. Our heroic cavalry is hindered by the ploughed field so turns away to protect the centre where they charge a regiment of skeleton cavalry, who eventually crumble to dust....

But it is all too late the forces of Men are being overpowered, as the end of the battle draws close the spearmen finally break, and both flanks begin to collapse.

Get one more shot off before we flee !

The Zombie 'legion' shambles across killing all in its path.

A fun battle, but when the count was added up a major victory to the undead, the remains of the men fled the field...any who survived screaming in terror as the undead ate any that remained on the field !😱

The Battle for Stanford : Operation Sealion

Has been a busy gaming week as I managed to squeeze a midweek game in. The Germans having captured New Inn Green have sent a small reconnaissance force north up the B2068 looking to discover the extent of any British counter attack. At the same time the Allies have sent a small reconnaissance force south to assess the progress of the german offensive. They meet in the small village of Stanford. Both forces have a clear objective to ascertain the whereabouts of the enemy and if possible capture the village.

It was a small battle introducing a new player to bolt action rules so we had small forces about seven units per side, no heavy armour and only a few photos. It kind of shows why I like these open ended campaigns as I can play almost any scale of game but still fit it into the wider context. Anyway on with the action.....

German Kradschutzen immediately race up to the village centre on turn one, not sure if it is covered by the rules but we gave them recon rule which seems eminently sensible. In the distance German infantry supported by an MG34 are moving through the fields.

A rapidly form militia unit from the village have decided to take refuge in the church with a view to defending their homes from the Hun, they come under fire from the road and start to waver in their resolve

A view from behind german lines, infantry pushing forward they have an SdKfz 222 in support but they are well ahead of the main force who are about 5 miles behind getting off the beaches.

Another unit of infantry moving towards the church, and allied Matilda 1 has just appeared moving slowly down the main road.

On the other side of the church, British infantry are working their way through the church yard, the Homeguard having found their courage made it into the church.

The two armoured cars face off across the orchard and back gardens, whilst more allied infantry attempt to outflank the German advance. I missed a few pictures here but brutal fighting has seen the church changes hands twice. First the Homeguard were chased out.........

but eventually the British infantry is able to push through the church and out flank the Germans on the left, at the same time the Matilda 1 has trundled down the main road.

 

The Germans recon force is now over exposed, the Kradschutzen abandoned their bikes and although the other infantry continue to return fire from the hedgerow, the slow advance of the Matilda and the CS9 mean the game is up, the Germans begin to pull back leaving the allies holding the village. Their job done they settle down for a cup of tea, not realising they are the only force holding the main advance route for the Germans driving north to Canterbury, they are in for a surprise the next morning !

A fun battle showing how flexible bolt action is 😀