Battle of Cannae 216 BC - Command and Colors Ancients

 

Armies deployed, view from the Roman side

View from the Carthaginian side

Spanish and Gallic cavalry under Hasdrubal

Last Tuesday afternoon Rick came over to my place with his 6mm armies and we played a Command and Colors Ancients (CCA) game out in the shed. The scenario was the Battle of Cannae, we diced for sides and I got the Romans. The single base of figures on the five inch hexes looked a bit strange, but Rick didn't quite have enough figures to double the unit sizes which would have looked a lot better.

This was a very quick and one sided game with most of the action taking place on the two flanks. The Spanish and Gallic cavalry under Hasdrubal were particularly effective and really hammered the Roman Hastati. Rick's dice rolling was on fire and he wiped out entire units with four hits on at least three occasions. No surprises then that Carthaginians scored a massive victory with 7-2 victory points.

Numidian light cavalry

Action on the Roman left flank

Hasdrubal's cavalry hammer the Roman Hastati

Roman cavalry, the final unit destroyed

East Iranian Infantry

 

Here are some East Iranian infantry for my Early Persian army that I've finally finished painting. This unit is based on the illustration in Duncan Head's The Achaemenid Persian Army book. They are all Newline Designs figures. Painting the banding on the tunics and trousers of these was very time consuming and fiddly, to say the least, I'm glad I've finally finished! However it is all good practice as I'm working on some Immortals in campaign dress which will be even difficult. I find at best all I can do is an approximation of the tunic and trouser designs at this scale, it does seem worth it once you've finished but is a real exercise in patience and persistence while you're painting and hard on old eyes.

Early Carthaginians versus Syracusans Mortem et Gloriam Game

 

Armies deployed from the Carthaginian side

Opposite view from the Syracusan side

Carthaginian left flank

Carthaginian right flank

Syracusan left flank

Syracusan right flank

Armies advance

Syracusan laggards in the centre

Last Monday afternoon out in the shed I played a solo Pacto sized Mortem et Gloriam game with the Early Carthaginians taking on the Syracusans in Sicily. The armies deployed on a plain and advanced apart from some Syracusan laggards in the centre. The Syracusan cavalry and Gallic mercenaries charged on their right flank and routed the Carthaginian chariots. In the centre the Carthaginian infantry charged and after rounds of charge and melee combat a gap appeared in the Syracusan lines. At this stage the game appeared to evenly poised and the fighting continued with the wounding and death of a few commanders on both sides. However a rolling Kill a Base test saw the entire Syracusan centre collapse in dramatic fashion. Punic perfidy, or more accurately luck, had won the day!

Forces close

Manoeuvring for the charge

Syracusan cavalry and Gallic mercenaries charge

Carthaginian chariots rout

Opposite end of the table

Carthaginian infantry charge in the centre

A gap appears in the Syracusan lines

Syracusan centre collapses

Cappadocians

 

Here are some 15mm Ariathid Cappadocians that I've just finished painting, the start of another army for MeG. The figures are all by Xyston Miniatures. The back drop photo was taken near the town of Goreme in Cappadocia, on our trip to Turkey in 2011. It's an amazing looking landscape, there are dwellings carved in the rock everywhere there.

Norman Milites

 

Above are some Norman Milites that I've just finished painting. They are all Crusader Miniatures figures and include a Bishop Odo command figure in the centre of the unit. The shield transfers and lance pennants are by LBM.

Yesterday afternoon we had some visitors in the back yard, these yellow-tailed black cockatoos. They actually came back again this afternoon. You sometimes see large numbers of them hanging around pine trees, they go for the pine cones.

War of the Roses Billmen

 

Here are some War of the Roses Billmen that I've just finished painting. They all Front Rank figures and are from the retinue of Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland.

Never Mind the Billhooks Game Two

 

Yorkist force

Lancastrians advance

Side view of the table

Hand gunners shoot

Men-at-Arms as billmen

On Tuesday morning Craig came over and we played the last of our mid-week games before he goes back to work. This was a Never Mind the Billhooks game of 65 points with two commanders a side. Craig had a Yorkist force with two units of archers, one unit of men-at arms and one of billmen. I had a Lancastrian force with two units of veteran archers, two billmen (I used men-at-arms as I haven't finished painting my billmen yet) and a skirmisher unit of hand gunners. 

We advanced to within firing range, exchanged shooting, then a Yorkist billmen charged my archer and billmen block on the right flank. The melee continued into a second round until the Yorkist billmen broke with their commander. A Yorkist archer unit also broke after failing their morale crisis test. We continued playing and the Yorkist men-at-arms with their Commander-in-Chief charged again and in the subsequent duel the Lancastrian Commander-in-Chief was killed. Rereading the rules I think the game was already decided, as the Yorkists had already lost four army morale tokens and had none left, but it was all good fun. Look forward to the next game!

Yorkist billmen charge

Billmen slog it out

Archers exchange fire

Yorkist billmen and archers break

The duel