Huns versus Foederate Romans Mortem et Gloriam Game

Above are some Late Roman commanders that I've just finished painting. The figures are by Footsore Miniatures with LBM shield transfers and saw action in a game last night down at the club in the photos below. Dean, Rick and I played a 7,000 point (Magna) game of Mortem et Gloriam (MeG) with Huns versus Western Foederate Romans. I commanded the Huns and Rick had the Late Romans. Dean very generously and patiently, guided us through the game, as it was Rick's first game and my second, and he also tweaked the army lists. Dean is the owner of Olympian Games and is the Australian agent for MeG and runs all the local competitions.

We stuffed around a bit sorting out commands but eventually got down to it and the Hun invaders were able to make some double moves early on. The Roman Equites block charged the Hun and Ostrogoth cavalry. In the centre the Frank and Burgundian infantry charged the Roman Legionaries and Auxilia and were met with a hail of darts. On the Huns left flank they charged the Roman Foederate cavalry, while the Roman horse archers attempted to charge the Alan horse archers. Back on the Hun right flank the Ostrogoth cavalry broke and their commander was killed, while Attila himself was wounded. At this point we ran out of time but the game could still have gone either way.

Thanks to Dean and Rick for a fun game. It was great to have Dean explain the rules and I certainly learnt a lot, enjoyed it and look forward to my next game!

View of the armies deployed from the Huns' left flank

View of the armies deployed from the Huns' right flank

Hun & Alan horse archers

Huns make some double moves

Roman Equites, Legionaries, Auxilia & Foederati

The armies close

Ostrogoth cavalry

Hun nobles & horse archers

Roman Equites block charge Hun & Ostrogoth cavalry

Cavalry align on the Hun's right flank

Charges in the centre and on the Huns' left flank

Roman horse archers fail to contact the Alans

Ostrogoth cavalry break

Warlord Seleucid Cataphracts

Warlord Seleucid Cataphracts

Here is a guest post from Garry on some Warlord Seleucid cataphracts, with a brief review below.

Warlord’s resin Seleucid Cataphracts are good sculpts with three different riders and horses. The command figures have an officer, trumpeter and standard bearer. I used a LBM transfer as a standard and gave the kontos armed troopers longer brass weapons. The resin paints well but is tricky to clean due to its softness. In terms of size and detail, they're slightly smaller than Aventine (see Aventine Agema photo below) but compare well with Polemarch and Relic Miniatures.

Warlord left, Aventine right

Early Achaemenid Persian Sparabara and Archers

1st Corps Miniatures

Wargames Factory

Here are some new photos of old figures, various units of Early Achaemenid Persian Sparabara and archers. I'm really looking forward to the release of the Wargames Atlantic and Victrix Persians and already have some of the brilliant Xyston 15mm Early Persian range to paint. So many choices! The Early Persians don't usually do that well under most rule sets, but I found it interesting that both first and second place in the European Mortem et Gloriam championship were Early Persian armies.

Old Glory and Vendel Miniatures

Old Glory, Vendel and Wargames Factory

Hitties versus New Kingdom Egyptians DBA Game

Hitties deployed

New Kingdom Egyptians deployed

Both sides advance

Last Wednesday night down at the Vikings Club in Lanyon, Rick and I met and played a DBA game of Hittites versus New Kingdom Egyptians. Rick had the Hittites and was the attacker, while I had the New Kingdom Egyptians and was the defender. This turned out to be pretty slow going as we bumbled our way through the game, it was Rick's first game of DBA 3.0 and my second, although we both had played DBA 2.2 years ago. Much of our game seem to involve indecisive combat and recoils with nothing much happening until two ranks of Hittite 3 Pk (they used to be Sp under 2.2) destroyed a Libyan warband. In the end we ran out of time. We were missing some basic DBA tactics, in 2.2 I seem to remember flank support was crucial, but this has changed. So further reading of the rules, and the QRS is obviously required.

Chariots in combat

Chariots recoil

Libyan warband is destroyed

Amorite Kingdoms - Ba'irum

From the Satrap Miniatures archives of December 2014, here are some Amorite Kingdoms troops from the time of King Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 BC). They are ba'irum  armed with axe and bow. To quote The Armies of the Ancient Near East 3,000 BC to 539 BC by Nigel Stillman and Nigel Tallis (p.21):

An interesting troop-type, which appears to have been considered essential to take on campaign (Shamsi-Adad once reprimanded Yasmakh-Adad for neglecting to mobilise them) were the ba'irum. The term is derived from the word 'to hunt' (like the Napoleonic 'chasseur' and 'jaeger'), and their principal weapon was an axe.

These figures are Cutting Edge Miniatures distributed by Warlord Games.

Sumerian Mortem et Gloriam Game

Side view of the table - troops of Ur on the left and Lagash on the right

Armies advance

Lagash skirmishers and onager chariots

Ur skirmishers and chariots with army commander on a straddle car

Ur right flank command with skirmishers and chariots

Lagash left flank command

Lagash centre with two commands

Last Wednesday afternoon out in the shed I played a solo Sumerian Mortem et Gloriam (MeG) game. I've had these rules for a while but this was my first game with them, a Pacto (small) sized game with my 28mm Sumerians using 80mm base widths, featuring identical army lists from the cities of Ur and Lagash. The rules use a combination of cards and dice and, are very much designed with 15mm points based competitions in mind, but can be played with any scale (most of my painted armies are 28mm). There is a pre battle system with cards for determining invader and defender, the terrain and out scouting. I was a bit confused by this but ended up with Lagash invading Ur on an open plain next to the Euphrates.

The actual mechanics of the game itself are quite different and innovative. Cards are allocated to  commanders depending on their level, anywhere from five cards for a legendary commander to two for a mediocre one. The cards enable actions and movement, while shooting and combat are resolved with five coloured dice ranging in strength from black, white, green, yellow and red. There are three symbols on the dice a Skull, a Crossed Sword and Arrow and a S = Special. A real strength of these rules for me is the army lists with 650 detailed lists, grouped geographically and historically, available as free downloads on the MeG site along with an excellent QRS, army builder and other materials. A new updated MeG Compendium will be released at Salute this year along with 15mm Quality Cast plastic armies of Late Romans, Huns, Goths and Sassanids by MeG and the Plastic Soldier Company.

In my game the chariots were quickly in to the action with a charge and countercharge on the Ur left flank. This proved quite brutal and fairly disastrous for the chariots of Lagash and they were wiped out immediately with two kills. This caused a kill a base (KaB) test (basically a morale test) for all units within three base widths. The commander was wounded and then routed and was removed. In the centre two commands closed, a base of Ur spearmen were killed and the ensuing KaB test distributed wounds and slowed down movement (S dice result).

On the Lagash left flank the chariots charged the opposing Ur skirmishers and chariots. The Ur skirmishers ran away but still managed to inflict two wounds on the Lagash chariots, slowing them down so they failed to contact. Back in the centre a Lagash base of spearmen was killed and the subsequent KaB test saw the whole command wiped out, the Lagash army was broken. This was very brutal and bloody but I actually prefer this in a game, when things are resolved quickly, instead of dragging on for ages. Anyway I really enjoyed my first game, although I'm sure I got a few things wrong, but with a few more games under my belt, I will have a better grasp of the rules.

Ur left flank declares a charge

Chariots of Lagash countercharge

Disaster for Lagash - Chariots of Ur score two kills!

A block charge of Ur Spearmen, Guardsmen and Archers

Lagash chariots on the left flank charge

Ur skirmishers run away scoring two hits to slow down the Lagash chariots' charge

Surviving Lagash skirmishers on the right flank cower behind the hill

One of the Lagash centre commands is destroyed, the army is broken

The Lagash army commander heads for the hills!