Dear Diary - a rolling 4 months of comment
Basing the Carthaginian army for Trebbia
As a follow on to the last post (Romans) the Carthaginians have now also been temporarily mounted to match the order of battle in the Hail Caesar rulebook for Trebbia.
We are given three ‘divisions’, the third being Mago’s ambush party. We will go through each division as shown in the photo, which we are describing from the rear to the front for each column.
Column 1
Hannibal’s Division;
1 x Libyan heavy infantry
1 x Gallic medium warband
1 x Balearic slingers
1 x Spanish Caetrati light infantry
1 x skirmisher with javelins
1 x Numidian light cavalry
2 x Elephants.
Column 2
Hanno’s Division (Son of Bomilcar)
1 x Libyan heavy infantry
1 x Spanish Scutarii medium infantry
1 x skirmisher with javelin
1 x Liby-Phoenician medium cavalry
1 x Spanish medium cavalry
1 x Elephant
Column 3
Mago’s Division
1 x Libyan Heavy Infantry
1 x Liby-Phoenician medium cavalry
1 x Spanish Caetrati
Some of these units when they get painted and moved from 60mm to 80mm bases, will need some more figures added to them, but as it stands, the total number of figure pieces of the two armies combined are 830 Infantry, 43 Cavalry, 6 Elephants and crew and 6 commanders.
Of note - there are still a load of figures unused at this point in the Hannibal battle pack box, you certainly get a lot of stuff. They will be needed for other battles, but for now, I am limiting myself to the Trebbia order of battle and do not want to be distracted.
Of note - even with just these figures, there is a LOT to paint and so it becomes critical, rather than just a fancy to look for ways to do speed painting, there just needs to be some churn here. Some things like the elephants will always be spectacle pieces and will no doubt demand a bit more time spent on them.
Of note, even though I am following ‘Scotty’s’ inspirational video on basing, I have decided the Liby-Phoeician bases will have 3 ranks and not 4, as visually that is fine and I don’t feel that the units a ‘fully’ phalanx in the Greek / Macedonian sense of the formation.
I have not added the crew to the elephants yet, these will get painted separately and then glued in to the ‘unprimed’ innards of the howdah.
Each side needs an Army Commander base, which can be the next job.
What can happen now that the order of battle has been prepared is that some Trebbia games can start on the table. Primarily for enjoyment, but also to see whether this basing style works with the Hail Caesar rules before I go to permanent basing.
My back, which had improved slightly, continues to scream at me …. though, I have just tried to fix a fence …. Stupid, stupid, stupid! And so gaming is still some way off and I am consoled by admin wargame tasks.
Basing the Romans for Trebbia
I have cut enough Roman troops from their sprues to represent their order-of-battle as described in the Trebbia scenario from the Hail Caesar rulebook.
But, I have taken a non-Warlord Games approach to this and as recently discussed, have instead adopted the basing style that ‘Scotty’ described in his recent YouTube video - see link at the foot of this post.
So, a few things need to be said about this. Firstly I will be going with 80mm frontages, but here, I have initially mounted the units on 60mm bases. This is because while they are unpainted, I am using a temporary fixative and it will be easier to remove the troops for painting, from plastic bases than from my MDF bases and I only have 60mm bases in plastic (taken from the Perry 28mm boxes).
The Celt warband will need a couple of extra strips worth of troops, plus some singles, once they move to 80mm bases to ensure that the base is pleasingly filled.
The current basing will have a pretty big impact on reducing the needed table size. Most of the scenarios are designed for a 6x4, though some of the biggies, for example Zama, recommend a 10 foot table. Our reduced frontages, even when grown to 80mm, should significantly bring that down.
The only thing I still need to add to the Romans for the Trebbia battle is a Generals base. I have the figure, I just need to do it, my delay is in deciding what to use as a supporting figure on the base.
So what do we have?
Using the terminology from the Epic rule book, we divide the Roman force into three ‘divisions’.
Referring to the photo above, starting at the bottom and working up the column - On the left is the first division. This has 1 x Velites, 1 x Hastati, 1 x Principes and 1 x Triarii, plus a commander.
In the centre is the second division. This has 1 x Roman Cavalry, 1 x Velites, 1 x Hastati, 1 x Principes and 1 x Triarii, plus a commander.
On the right is the third division. This has 1 x Celt waband, 1 x Velites, 1 x Allied Latin Medium Cavalry, 1 x Allied Latin Hastati, 1 x Allied Latin Principes and 1 x Allied Latin Triarii, plus a Commander.
Even unpainted, these look good and the sense of mass is clearly present.
The Roman force perhaps gives a false impression that these armies are going to look predominantly like 1 base units, quite a bit of the Carthaginian force will be using two base per unit - like the warband presented here.
Next, I will base up the Carthaginian force. Once done, I fully intend to game with them, though at any one time one of the units will be on the painting sticks ……. of course any painting of the Trebbia project will be at the expense of the figures from the ACW project, that likewise going across the painting table.
If I waited for everything to be fully painted before gaming, it would just take forever!
LINK to Scotty’s basing video
10 - 12mm Rail set
With a grim bad back playing me up, all gaming is off at the moment, but sitting at the table doing a bit of crafting is do-able spread over a few days ….. so time to get some bits done that have been winking at me for ages.
Rail model N Gauge is a good match for 10mm wargames and isn’t a million miles from 12mm, so time to put my rail kit scenics together.
Firstly is the track. This is manufactured by Kato and makes for a good wargame item as track and raised bed are already built as one. I have just over 6’ of this in 8 pieces.
At first, I tried putting down an ink wash to pick out the timbers and textured embankments, but the plastic didn’t like it. So these have been acrylic primed, then coloured with a 50 / 50 thinned brown paint. Straight away I swiped the top of the rail with a cotton bud to clear off the wet paint and reveal the top of the metal rail.
Dabs of thinned PVA glue on the shoulders with Woodland Scenics ‘fine turf’ sprinkled on has just enough to get rid of the plastic look, while staying quite gentle to the eye and it will blend with the game mat.
The station building is a sort of resin / plaster from TimeCast. It has air bubble marks in it, which would normally detract and need filling, but here, I thought it gave a certain embattled look for its WWII settings,
The platform is a two part plastic kit from the Kestrel N Gauge range.
My first wagon has been added to the track. This is a self build Pico kit. I have filled it with stone chippings and painted them black, so that it looks to be carrying coal.
I have another longer wagon on the way to me via e-bay and between the two of them, this will be enough to ‘dress’ the rail line with visuals and line of sight obstacles.
I also have a rather nice pre-painted resin engine shed, not shown here, which from memory may be a Bachmann model.
Anyway, it will all be packed away for now, though I do have some scenarios specifically in mind which will use this station and track.
Bad back - be gone!
Snake Rail Fencing
I have only just noticed that the Gettysburg Epic Battle Box from Warlord Games, comes with some MDF snake fencing.
I generally feel the buildings that come with Epic packages are too large for my tastes. They are scaled to 15mm, which is ‘in scale’, with the Epic, but I prefer to drop a scale down for terrain, so I have been buying 10mm buildings or N Scale stuff for model railways (which is around 9mm).
However, the snake fencing to my eye looks fine, or rather 10mm snake fencing looks far too small, so this may as well get used.
This MDF set is jointed so that a fixed zig-zag of rail fencing is replicated, but it produces a very severe zig-zag, with each section at 90˚ to the next one, which to my eye makes the fencing look too wide for the battlefield, so I have significantly relaxed the angle that underpins the fence line.
No doubt in real life, my fence would be too unstable to support itself, however, for the wargames table and to line roads, it looks fine, especially as my own units are quite small at just 110mm frontages.
To build each terrain piece, I cut the rounded ends off some wooden tongue suppressors (like big lolly sticks) and used the suppressors to base the fencing. Each is roughly six inches long and there is enough MDF fencing to do eight such lengths. I will need more, but this is a good start.
I decided to heavily flock and tuft the bases, which won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it is hoped that the principle of any and all texture added to the table at this scale, visually enhances things.
So for now, my ACW terrain set is pretty much complete, certainly for the battles that will just involve 6 - 8 units per side.
Bagradas - a brilliant game completed.
The second phase of the game opens with the Carthaginian line hitting the Roman front.
On their left, the African Phalanx units carve into to the Roman line and a Roman quick loss is immediately looking like a foregone conclusion, as the Roman player, I am shocked at the effectiveness of the attack, though they were repeatedly rolling good dice scores ….. but, on the Carthaginian right, the Celt infantry take significant losses and a gap opens in the centre, which the Romans take full advantage of, to pour through and envelope the phalanx line.
It is a moment of crisis for both sides. The Romans teeter on their breaking point, can they push the Carthaginians over the edge before their own army falls apart?
The Carthaginians attack the Roman right with their cavalry, hoping to quickly bring the Romans to their knees, but their Phalanx units are starting to lose cohesion. The first is lost. These two hex counters as double break points, each adding 14 points to the Carthaginian break score.
A second Phalanx is marked with 6 hits, 7 will destroy it, taking the Carthaginians within 2 break points of losing the game, but the Romans just don’t have the time left to make this happen. They lose two more units, pushing them beyond their own break point (125).
It is all over, but so close.
If just looking at the map, it is hard to pick a winner, but the break points tell their own tale. The high losses that the Romans suffered on their initial engagement with the elephants, made a comeback difficult, but there was enough hope to make the struggle worthwhile.
The Triarii (final Roman line of defence) have restrictions as to when they can be released and as it happens, those conditions were met in the last turn, so who knows what might of happened if these fresh troops had had a couple of turns to try and turn the tide.
There were three key moments in the game. (1) The initial elephant charge caused carnage, though the ‘nellies’ suffered heavy losses (2) the Celts dissolved with surprising speed, leaving a large gap in the Carthaginian centre (3) the final tussle between the Phalanx units and the Roman Principes JUST tipped in favour of the Carthaginians ….. but on another day - who knows!
I must say, this was a brilliant game, the best that I have played in a while, it really drew me in. It went over the four hour mark for play and you definitely need a pair of tweezers to manage the loss markers that all of the units start to carry around in this tightly packed battlefield.
I’m not sure how this scenario would fare in our face to face games, but it made for an excellent solo experience. I now have the rules firmly under my belt and more importantly a grounding in how to use units effectively (or not!) and so I think I am ready for the bigger Trebbia game.
Bagradas - oooh the game is getting interesting!
Continuing the Bagradas story from yesterday.
Though with heavy casualties, the Romans have withstood the initial Carthaginian assault.
The elephants have broken off the attack and retired. The main line of Phalanx and Celts had to open up to allow the beasts to pass through.
The Romans used this lull to re-organise their army. The battered Hastati fell back and the fresh Principes moved up into the front line position. They refused their flanks as a defence against the likelihood of the Carthaginian cavalry pressing the flanks / rear. I very much like the way that this system is allowing proper tactics and army management.
In the Photograph, you can see that the Carthaginian main line has moved forward, ready to engage the Romans. In their rear are the remnants of the elephant corps (for want of a better expression!). The cavalry on the Carthaginian left are well ordered and positioned, ready to support the attack, but on their right, the cavalry and light infantry under Hasdrubal have become a little awkwardly placed - they need to sort themselves out!
The double hex long counters in the Carthaginian line are the North African Phalanx units, the single hex green units are the Celt warriors. The Phalanx blocks are hard hitters, getting a combat bonus for size and generally their Troop Quality factor equals or betters those of the Roman line - though they can be a little awkward to manoeuvre.
And so here we are, at what is essentially Phase II of the battle. The Romans are more than halfway to their breaking point, but the fresh Principes will not be an easy walkover for the Carthaginians - I am in the middle of this and the outcome is not certain, or at least the Roman side still feel like there is a fight to be had - good!
The Bagradas replay
After my play test last week, I have re-read the rule book and once again the scenario goes to the table in preparation for the bigger Trebbia battle to follow soon.
In my last game, I had clearly missed some of the finer nuances of the rules, but of significant difference was that in a system that activates by formation, I was finding it difficult, once the lines became mixed, to determine which of the Alae cohorts belonged to the Hastati group and which belonged to the Principes.
While scrolling through posts at Consimworld, I found a most helpful entry. The poster suggested that the Principes should set up on their flip side. The flip side carries a white bar, instantly signifying which units are Hastati and which are Principes.
In the simple version of Great Battles of History, the flip side of the counter is not used in the same way as the original full rules use them. Rather they use the flip side to show which units are not in command when their formation is activated.
This of course is an equally useful administrative function, so now I just use a game marker to show which units are out of command. The single effect of being out of command is that a unit cannot enter or leave an enemy Zone of Control.
All of this is transforming the second game into a more engaging and nuanced action. The battle is still running the same way, with Carthaginian cavalry attacking the Roman flanks, while the elephants attacked the Roman front, but there is a more of a tactical feel as to that what was happening down amongst the hexes, with more nuance, as cohesion breaks down and units started to fall out of command and opportunities for flanking positions open up.
Part of the problem for the Romans in this scenario is that I pull the Principes out towards the flanks to meet the cavalry threat, while leaving the Velites and Hastati to deal with the elephant assault.
Their bigger problem is that once the engagement with the elephants comes to a conclusion, the main Carthaginian line of North African Phalanx and Celts are fully fresh and ready to advance to contact, while the Roman army will be all over the place, carrying high casualties and with a loss of cohesion.
There is of course the scenario balancing option to allow the Romans to have their Alae cavalry, which were missing from the field - I am usually pretty loathe to step outside historical set-ups, I will do a bit of research and see why they were actually missing.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out - it is looking tough for the Romans at the moment.
The design notes suggest the game will last for around and hour and a half ….. I’m not quite sure where most games get their playing times from. I’m not a slow player (I don’t think!), but I am already an hour and a half in and I can see that playing time doubling.
I don’t really concede games if I think a side is losing. The game gets played to the bitter end to see everything played out in full and to properly give the victor their worked for and deserved victory, so perhaps that is adding time to my play.
Anyway, more to come on this action, though at the moment it feels a bit like a one way ticket.
Very inspiring work by a YouTuber
You MUST have a look at this bloke’s video. A very imaginative way to use the recent Punic Wars Epic figures from Warlord Games.
He has cut some of the bases and re-organised them for a much better organic look and this is certainly the way that I am now thinking about for my own armies, including a re-think on how I am presenting some of the other periods.
LINK
Some bloke called Meade
An ACW update.
My two planned very small ACW Epic armies of three small brigades each, need divisional commanders. The Confederates have Lee, based with a standard bearer and so it is now the turn of the Union.
From the box of 5 resin Union command figures, I have selected Meade. His standard bearer is from the cavalry sprue, but this time, I selected the figure that had a sabre in hand. It is a nicer sculpt than the one I used with Lee.
The cavalryman’s sabre was nipped off at the wrist and a short length of brass wire added instead, from which the flag now flutters! I used just a dab of Liquid Green Stuff to give an impression of a hand gripping the standard.
The box art shows Meade with a white beard, so that’s what he has. The two figures were painted up, using Prussian Blue for the jacket / coat and the same with just a tad of light blue added for the pants.
I always paint my ACW Union at least one shade lighter than seems historically correct, but I just think they look better and this is even more true in the smaller scale, where a little bit of ‘pop’ is always a help.
Both sides now have their three respective brigade commanders, their divisional commander and their artillery battery painted and based. The third Confederate infantry regiment is presently on painting sticks, so once done, they will have their first brigade painted.
This still leaves two more Confederate infantry brigades, plus three Union brigades to be painted up, but despite only being 1/6 of the way through painting the infantry, the amount of stuff already painted and looking good, encourages the brush to keep on going.
I still think the Epic takes a while to paint, but I have decided to just roll over and accept that. I have come around to thinking that I would rather play with just the raw plastic than suffer a bad paint job, just for the sake of saving an hour or two per unit.
As previously commented upon, the terrain set for the project is now complete, other than some snake fencing, which is bought, so it just needs to be assembled and painted - a job for tomorrow perhaps!
I hadn’t realised, but I have the two Osprey Men-at-Arms books for the Union / Confederate armies, which have some nice colour plates for uniforms. The shelf also revealed two Osprey Campaign books, Shenandoah (1864) and the Shenandoah Valley 1862. I shall read through both of these with a view to seeing whether my own rules are capturing enough of the ‘character’ of this war.
Plus ‘the valley’ always seems good sourcing for a campaign, so that is something else that might fall from all of this. I have just downloaded Henry Hyde’s wargames Campaign book for £1.99 on the Kindle, it normally retails at £40, so that is quite a find (thank you John) and it will no doubt some sort of campaign before the year is out.
The next issue of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine is due out in around 6 weeks and it is ACW themed (Sherman’s drive to the sea), so I hope by then to have two full brigades of infantry painted up and so will be looking forward to getting one of their smaller scenarios to the table.
All of this is coming together rather nicely, but those elephants in the Hannibal box are winking at me ….. desperate for paint :-)
Bagradas Plains - the outcome
See the below post for the opening detail for this game.
What a mess! or should I say, what a Roman mess!
As befitting of any fine Carthaginian general, the Carthaginian cavalry wings moved forward to engage the Roman cavalry ….. destroying them.
The allied cohorts in the Hastati line moved out to try and shore up the flanks. On the Roman left, this led to a protracted melee between cavalry and Roman foot, with the cavalry eventually falling back, rather than getting ensnared.
The Carthaginian plan was now to keep their cavalry out on the flanks as a threat, while the 100 elephants moved up to engage the Roman light troops.
It was here that we see the seeds of disaster sown!
I moved the Roman Hastati line up, so that they filled the gap between each Velite unit, so that the elephants were hitting a solid line ….. but, the way the system works is that by activating the Hastati, they alone can attack (i.e. they don’t get the Velite support) and so essentially each Hastati unit was attacking two elephant units - the Roman casualties were seriously high and something that they were never to recover from.
The Elephants took over 50% casualties …. but the Roman line was crushed. They reached their break point. Just as well really, as the Carthaginians still had a line of fresh African Phalanx and Celtic medium infantry ready to follow up.
So as a learning game, I managed to salvage the Roman flanks from marauding cavalry, but I need to learn of a way that will see the Roman line successfully defend against the Elephant charge without losing too many of their own troops in the process.
I also got a bit confused at times with the strict Roman command structure of which commanders had control of the Alae Cohorts. The Hastati and Princapes lines are easy to distinguish. I think I might have to make better use of the (tiny) sub numbering of each counter, so I know which command line they started the game in …… another read of the rules me-thinks!
Bagradas Plains 255 BC (1st Punic War)
Another SPQR (GMT) scenario goes onto the table in readiness for the bigger Trebbia scenario.
This scenario is recommended as a ‘beginners’ scenario ….. it will certainly need some skill on the part of the Roman player to pull a win from the situation.
The Romans have been fairly successful fighting the Carthaginians on land and the Roman Consul Regulus, is pretty keen to have one big engagement that will knock Carthage out of the war.
However, the Carthaginians have secured the service of Spartan’s Xanthipuss and he re-organises the Carthaginian army to a more acceptable level of training.
The set-up immediately invites concern for any Roman player …. they are desperately short of cavalry to protect the wings. Their Alae cavalry are elsewhere, so the remaining Roman cavalry is outnumbered 8:1.
In addition, the Roman line is initially facing 100 elephants and behind them is a wall of African infantry Phalanx. Historically, the Carthaginian swept the Roman cavalry away, exposing their flanks, while the elephants and phalanx shattered the Roman legions.
The scenario says this heavily favours the Carthaginian player and as a balance fix, they suggest allowing the Romans to have their Alae cavalry back - but I prefer historical situations, so will do without that.
They suggest that the scenario might take 2 hours to play ….. but, warn that it could ‘all be over in a matter of minutes if the Roman player is not careful’.
Well, I like a challenge!
There is a Triarii Doctrine rule that prevents early and easy use of the Triarii (last line of Roman defence), so I won’t be able to deploy them early to the flanks to prevent the ‘obvious’ impending disaster :-)
I will give a brief overview of how this battle flows over the next day or two.
After that …. It will be on to the Trebbia!
Card building
Metcalfe serve the model rail sector with a large variety of card construction kits for both N Gauge and HO/OO.
N Gauge is a useful terrain source for 10mm wargaming and so while in a model shop, I picked up the ‘PN186’ N scale Ramshackle Workshop construction kit for £12
The completed model has a foot print of 100mm x 64mm and the chimney puts it at 95mm high.
You get a good instruction booklet and I would put the build at around two and a half to three hours to make.
There are three essential elements, a thick board core, a light card full colour facia (or wrap) and some acetate to make the windows. The boards and facia are die cut. The final result is something which is very light, but strong.
Of a slight distraction is that the folds in the coloured card from the partial die cutting offer up a fine white line (i.e. the interior of the card below the printed face is exposed). For the most part this is not really too eye catching, but when you look for it, it is there.
My solution was to run a bit of thinned (with medium) grey Contrast paint along these seams with a very fine brush. The most noticeable white line is the one that runs along the top of the ridge tile, which I used a terracotta / brown mix of paint thinned down, to hide. The four corners of the brick chimney need the same colour.
Overall the effect for £12 is very good, but I can’t make my mind up about it, as I tend to go for resin buildings which give me a more rustic look, whereas the card is a little ‘sharp’ looking. I might dampen that down with some weathering powder.
Anyway, a nice little addition to a WWII built up area.
Epic ACW project terrain
I have just completed my small project terrain set for the Epic ACW.
All of the buildings are resin and from the excellent Battlescale company. They are primed, block painted, inked and drybrushed and matt varnished and have come out rather nicely.
The chapel is based with a tree from Woodland scenics as my representational piece for Dunker Church (Antietam).
Also from Battlescale are two resin defensive positions formed from logs on a stoney platform. They look a bit large in the camera, but that is just a lens thing Vs positioning compared to the buildings.
Finally from Battlescale, a small stone footbridge, this will be ideal for creek type crossings. All of the Battlescale stuff here is 10mm, but I like terrain to be one scale below the figures.
The Fences are MDF from Red Vectors (code 15 FNC-02). A single frame gives 10 x 5” fence lengths. These were base coated, flocked with fine flock and sand and then prettied up with some tufts. These are 15mm fences, they are too big for my 10mm stuff, but work fine with the Epic.
I have some snake fencing from Red Vectors that awaits building and flocking.
Some Punic War reading
I had a look in Waterstones (UK bookseller) today, for a primer on the 2nd Punic War. Nothing jumped out for me, but this title was on the Osprey Publishing stand - a quick browse and I bought it as a perfect compliment to my plans for board and figure gaming.
While I am specifically looking at Trebbia, Zama, as a major battle of the era is very interesting and the book discussion on things like weapons, tactics, organisation and the action reports, will translate to the other battles anyway.
I’m sure the book will give me a better appreciation and understanding of the things that matter and should be reflected in a wargame, as well as just being an enjoyable read.
The artwork will also be a help when I come to paint and organise the Epic troops.
If you click on the cover page to enlarge it, you will notice that two shields on the Carthaginian side have been struck by pilum, which have done their thing of then bending down and causing drag on the shield - nice artistic touch.
I popped into a Warhammer shop and picked up a couple of paints - more Black Templar Contrast Paint, which is such a versatile black and a pale blue layer paint for my ACW (Union) pants.
I also went into an art shop and picked up a POSCA pen to try it out. These are acrylic pens and can be used to draw on figures. I picked up a white, intending to use it on some shield designs. It will be interesting to see how they react with water based acrylic varnish.
