Command and Colors Napoleonics - Battle of Dohna 9 October 1813

View from the Russian lines

View from the French lines

Russians attack the village of Klein-Sedlitz

Russians take the village

French move up to counter attack

Forces advance towards the villages of Sirsen and Dohna

Last Wednesday night Rick, Simon, Phil and I met at the Vikings Club in Lanyon for a game of Command and Colors Napoleonics (CCN). The scenario was the Battle of Dohna 9 October 1813 in Bohemia with General Bennigsen leading the Russian forces against the French under Lobau. Rick and Simon commanded the French and Phil and I commanded the Russians. This proved to be a hard fought game with the villages of Klein-Sedlitz and Dohna changing sides multiple times. In the end thanks to Phil's incredible dice rolling the Russians prevailed to win 7 to 3 victory banners, while holding the villages of Klein-Sedlitz, Dohna and Ghamig.

Russians capture Dohna

French infantry form a square and bounce the Russian cavalry charge

French attack Klein-Sedlitz

Action around the village of Dohna

Russians drive the French back

Cossacks on the hill destroy a French line regiment

Late Roman Light Cavalry

Here are some Late Roman light cavalry from the new Gripping Beast plastic set. This is quite a nice addition as you can make up twelve Illyrian type light cavalry armed with javelins and shields or twelve horse archers. I decided to do a six figure squadron (turma) of each type. The javelin armed light cavalry above have the shield designs of the Equites Honoriani Taifali Iuniores in the Notitia Dignitatum and were under the command of the Comes Britanniae. This wasn't a great choice for light cavalry as they were famous for their heavy cavalry but a light cavalry squadron may be a possibility at some point in their history. The Taifali were originally a Germanic or Sarmatian tribe. The Late Roman re-enacting site Comitatus has an interesting history of them:

http://www.comitatus.net/cavalrytaifali.html


The horse archers below have the shield designs of the Equites Sagittarii Primi in the Notitia Dignitatum and were under the command of the Comes Africae. There are two options for horse archer shields in the box. Smaller ones without a boss and these larger ones with bosses, which I think look better and are easier to paint with the shield designs. The riders in this set all have saddles which wasn't the case with their Late Roman heavy cavalry set and the torsos are two part with separate heads which enable a greater variety of poses.

Overall I think this an excellent set and definitely worth getting if you are collecting a Late Roman army. The infantry set is my favourite of the three Gripping Beast Late Roman plastic boxes released to date.

Early Byzantine Horse Archers

Here are some early Byzantine Horse Archers and a Belisarius figure from Footsore Miniatures. One of the horse archer poses doesn't have a sword which is strange as it has a helmet and armour. Footsore have just released some infantry and Aventine Miniatures are releasing a Justinian Byzantine range as well, starting with the infantry. There are already two 28mm ranges for this period that I'm aware of - Old Glory and the former Newline figures now owned by SHQ, so gamers will be spoilt for choice once all these ranges are available.

Battle of Paraitacene 317 BC - Command and Colors Ancients

Eumenes' army on the left, Antigonus' on the right

Opposite end of the table

Light infantry get stuck in the centre

Antigonus' right flank

Antigonus' left flank

Last Wednesday night Rick, Simon, Phil and I met down at the Vikings Club for a game of Command and Colors Ancients (CCA). The scenario was the Battle of Paraitacene with Antigonus taking on Eumenes. Rick and Phil commanded Antigonus' forces while Simon and I commanded those of Eumenes. We played a CCA game of the Battle of Gabiene a few years ago at Little Wars which was a lot of fun, so it was good to play this battle which took place one year earlier in 317 BC, between the same armies.

Antigonus got off to a good start by despatching all of Eumenes' elephants. However a combination of poor cards and dice saw his attack falter and he was unable to capitalise on his cavalry advantage on his right flank. Eumenes responded by cleaning up Peithon's light cavalry and Antigonus's light infantry and pike in the centre. In the end it was a comprehensive victory for Eumenes with seven to three victory banners.

Eumenes' right flank

Eumenes' left flank

Fighting in the centre

Light infantry keep it up

Eumenes cleans up the the right flank and centre